Muhammadiyah South Sulawesi Syawalan Event: Minister Calls for Three Keys to Unity Amid Differences

Thousands of Muhammadiyah residents from across South Sulawesi filled the courtyard of the Muhammadiyah South Sulawesi Da’wah Centre for the 1447 Hijriah Syawalan event on Saturday (28/3). This post-Lebaran gathering of fellowship served as the main platform for the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education and General Secretary of the Muhammadiyah Central Leadership, Abdul Mu’ti, to deliver a strategic message on managing the diversity of the ummah. Attending the forum were leaders of the organisation and regional heads, including Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Central Board Irwan Akib, South Sulawesi Governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman, Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Regional Leadership in South Sulawesi Ambo Asse, as well as several regents and mayors from South Sulawesi. The event was also joined by leaders of ‘Aisyiyah, autonomous organisations, heads of Muhammadiyah social services, and rectors of Muhammadiyah universities. In front of the audience that filled the event location, Abdul Mu’ti emphasised that differences are an inevitable sunnah of Allah. He invited the community not to make disparities in views a source of conflict, but rather an arena for competing in goodness. “Muhammadiyah has its manhaj, NU has its manhaj, Al Khairat and other organisations have their manhaj, and that cannot be avoided. If Allah willed it, you would be made into a uniform ummah. But Allah wants to test you with what has been given. Therefore, the way out is fastabiqul khairat, compete with one another to be the best,” said Mu’ti. The former Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Central Youth Leadership also reminded the ummah not to get trapped in unproductive debates about claims to singular truth. “No need to insist on who is most right, no need to insist on who enters paradise,” he stressed. Mu’ti elaborated on three main keys to maintaining the ummah’s integrity amid heterogeneity. First, avoiding elitist attitudes by emulating the character of Prophet Muhammad SAW. Second, cleansing the mind of bad prejudices and not busying oneself with finding others’ faults. Third, enlivening substantive silaturahim. “We can unite if we do not place ourselves higher than others. We build clean and clear minds. Because if we always harbour suspicion towards others, it will lead to envy, jealousy, and spite,” he explained. On the same occasion, South Sulawesi Governor Andi Sudirman Sulaiman symbolically handed over a grant worth Rp800 million to the Muhammadiyah Regional Leadership in South Sulawesi, as a form of local government support for the organisation’s activities in the province. The committee chairman and Rector of Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Abd Rakhim Nanda, emphasised that this year’s Syawalan is not merely a routine annual agenda. “The presence of fathers and mothers will certainly give very meaningful value. I use this opportunity to express my utmost gratitude to all attendees for our togetherness in this fellowship forum,” he said. Mu’ti added that activities like Syawalan represent the vernacularisation of Islamic values that grow within Indonesian society. “Fellowship forums like this are a tradition. I call it a tradition because it did not exist in the time of the Prophet. However, that tradition does not contradict Islam. Vernacularisation is the process of how Islamic values are accepted by diverse societies. The expression can be the same, the expression can be different, but the core values remain Islamic,” he concluded.