NU as Indonesia's Islamic Strength

Tomorrow, 27–31 August 2026, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) will hold its 35th Congress at Bahrul Ulum Islamic Boarding School in Tambak Beras, Jombang. As the congress begins, the kiai appear keen to strengthen the path laid down by the founders: reinforcing NU’s identity as a moral and cultural force.

As a jam’iyah organisation, NU is now more than a century old. Few organisations have been able to survive and grow so large. NU has grown so substantially, to borrow Gus Dur’s phrase, because it is sustained by the kiai and the pesantren community as a subculture.

What form does NU take as a subcultural force? NU possesses an Ash’ari epistemological foundation that is continually contextualised, able to answer the challenges of the age, and that tradition continues to be followed by its members.

As a subcultural force, NU serves as a cultural space where Islamic values, Indonesianness, tolerance, and local wisdom develop organically. This practice is what has made NU so formidable to this day.

The social capital that gives life to NU must continue to be nurtured. Therefore, NU must not be tempted by the clamour of politics. Nor should the succession of NU leadership be conducted like a political leadership succession marked by pragmatic, transactional character.

NU is the face of Indonesian Islam, a point of reference for the world today, because NU can present a moderate face of Islam while also nurturing democratic values and even helping to give birth to the nation-state called Indonesia.

NU’s leaders are exemplars rooted in morality. Their social practice is always based on the strength of transcendence. NU was founded with deep spiritual discipline and devotion.

When to establish the organisation, how to design the NU logo—even for such small matters, the founders had to perform spiritual discipline and sincere inner practice to obtain Allah’s pleasure, let alone for major matters.

In choosing leaders, the kiai prefer to ‘hide themselves’, feeling unworthy, even though their spiritual station already exceeds the requirements for leading NU. The kiai fear being cursed by the founders, especially if they make mistakes while leading NU. This is the source of exemplary conduct that congress participants must continue to keep alive.

As members of the community, we hope the NU Congress will not spend its energy on contests for leadership positions. There are many major problems at the grassroots level of NU, such as poverty, unemployment, the agricultural and environmental crisis, and even at the global level, the Gulf war with its domestic economic impact, and the decline of democracy.

NU indeed comes from the pesantren world, generally located in villages. But expectations of NU go beyond its position as a village community, beyond its position as a subcultural force.

NU’s Islamic intellectual tradition, combined with hundreds of thousands of NU graduates who have studied all over the world, is an important strength for addressing these problems.

NU is no longer merely a subcultural force; today NU is a diasporic force with a role in answering the problems of civilisation. NU must learn that the glory of Islam during the Abbasid dynasty from the 8th to 13th centuries CE did not lie in its political power. Indeed, Islam’s decline came from the many political disputes.

In the Abbasid era, Islam developed as a source of scientific civilisation in various fields such as philosophy, mathematics, economics, medicine, astronomy, and others. Many thinkers and scientists were born in this period, including Al-Khawarizmi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Al-Haitham, and Ibn Rushd.

NU will grow larger and elevate Islamic civilisation if it remains steadfast on the path of serving the ummah, contributing greatly to solving the problems of the community and of civilisation. Therefore, the outcomes of Bahtsul Masail, as a scholarly deliberation forum for NU ulama and intellectuals, must be given greater prominence, demonstrating NU’s scholarly and Islamic capacity to answer the challenges of the age.

These intellectual outputs will keep NU relevant yesterday, today, and into the future. NU will continue to be needed as a force offering solutions. As a member of the NU community who was born, raised, and grew up within NU, I hope NU remains steadfast on the path of moral, spiritual, and social exemplarity.

Happy Congress.

May Allah SWT always bless NU.

Said Abdullah, Chair of the East Java PDI Perjuangan Regional Leadership Council