The making of Islamic studies

The making of Islamic studies

By Azyumardi Azra

JAKARTA: As far as Islamic studies in Indonesia are concerned,
there are two main traditions: one that originates from Middle
Eastern universities and the tradition of Islamic studies
developed at Western universities.

Each of the two traditions influence the direction and
approach employed at the State Academy of Islamic Studies (IAIN).

Several studies have shown intense interaction between the
ulema (Muslim scholars) of Indonesia and their counterparts in
the Middle East, especially in Mecca, Medina and later in Cairo.
What has been developed in Indonesian Islamic studies cannot be
separated from the tradition of Islamic learning in the Middle
East.

Much later, with the return of IAIN graduates from their
studies in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia, the
development of Islamic studies here advanced to an important
stage.

This writer's study of the intellectual networks of
Indonesian-Malay ulema showed that the development of Islam both
at the socio-cultural and intellectual levels cannot be separated
from the religio-intellectual traditions developed in Mecca and
Medina.

The implication of this finding is that Islam in Indonesia has
in many ways developed in the same way as it developed in its
land of origin. But it does not mean that Islam in Indonesia
simply duplicated Islam in the Middle East.

In the process of transmission from the Holy Land and later
from Cairo, Islam in Indonesia developed a distinctive kind of
intellectual tradition.

The researcher Zamakhsyari Dhofier studied in 1985 the
networks among Javanese kyai (Islamic scholars) in the early 19th
century which were built up in two ways: intellectual chains of
Islamic knowledge and learning, and endogamous marriages among
their families and relatives.

The first seemed to be inspired by hadith (the sayings and
traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) transmission by using isnad
-- chains of transmitters -- which were used to prove the
legitimacy and validity of the teaching, learning and sufism one
received. Meanwhile, the latter network was mostly aimed at
preserving the pesantren tradition.

The Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) in Java represented a
distinct Islamic learning tradition in Indonesia. A simple
example of this was the fact that the pesantren used Arab-Jawi
(Javanese or Malay language written in Arabic characters) as well
as Arabic as an important language for religious studies.

Pesantren education had been designed to preserve traditional
Islamic learning including the use of kitab kuning (literally
"yellow books") produced by ulema in the past.

Furthermore, the rituals practiced in pesantren were often
categorized as "traditional Islam." Therefore it was not
surprising that pesantren were preserved by traditional Islam as
now represented by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

However, as the century turned and as the influence of modern
education, introduced by the Dutch, also affected the pesantren,
the intellectual tradition of Islam in Java changed
significantly.

Not only did the pesantren begin to lose some of their
specifically intellectual language, but they also lost there
distinctive characteristics. These changes, however, helped them
adjust to social transformation -- the new tradition of pesantren
in the last two decades at least has been characterized and
influenced by contemporary social conditions, which in turn have
shaped the tradition of Islamic studies as a whole.

To have a better grasp of recent trends in Islamic studies in
Indonesia, it is important to discuss briefly the history of
IAIN. This is because IAIN has played a major role in advancing
Islamic studies. It therefore could be regarded as the barometer
of the development of Islamic studies.

Currently IAIN is somewhat the end-product of Indonesian
Muslims' efforts to establish a modern religious higher education
institute. It was officially granted state institute status in
the late 1950s through the process of liquidation of two major
higher Islamic institutes, namely PTAIN in Yogyakarta and ADIA in
Jakarta.

PTAIN originated in the School of Religious Studies of the
Indonesian Islamic University (UII), the oldest private
university in Indonesia, while ADIA was designed as an academy to
provide training for civil servants of the Ministry of Religious
Affairs.

The establishment of IAIN cannot be separated from the
struggle of Indonesian Muslims to advance and spread the faith in
Indonesia.

Among Muslims, there have always been differences in the
practice and understanding of Islam, and conflicts have occurred
over trivial differences such as the declaration of intention
(niyat) before prayer.

Since its establishment, IAIN has carried out two fundamental
tasks, namely advancing the quality of the Indonesian Islamic
intellectual tradition, and improving Muslims' understanding of
the religion.

In other words, IAIN has to undertake the academic role of
improving Muslims' intellectual capacity, and the social role of
propagating the faith. These two roles do not always go hand in
hand. This helps explain why in the first decades of its
inception, Islamic studies in IAIN were dominated by the
normative approach stemming from its doctrinal aspect.

This approach to Islamic studies emphasized the legal-formal
aspects of Islam, focusing on the shariah (Islamic law) and
aqidah (Islamic faith). The resulting trend was that Islamic
studies were preoccupied with practices and rituals, meaning that
the studies were designed to enable students and scholars to
better practice Islam.

Furthermore, Islamic studies in IAIN in its early decades
tended to focus on particular schools of thought (madzhab). As a
result, Islamic studies at IAIN failed to become involved in
wider scientific discourses. The ideal model for Islamic studies
in IAIN was the tradition of universities in the Middle East,
particularly the Cairo-based Azhar University that put more
emphasis on the normative-idealistic approach than anything else.

However, the social development and changes that have occurred
since the early 1970s have propelled changes in IAIN. The
national development program that tended to make modernization
the national goal has led Muslim intellectuals such as Nurcholish
Madjid, Harun Nasution and Moekti Ali to reorientate the
direction of Islamic studies in Indonesia.

This endeavor was facilitated further when Harun Nasution
became the rector of IAIN in Jakarta and Moekti Ali was appointed
minister of religious affairs.

One of the changes brought about by the presence of the two
scholars was a new trend of studying Islam that was not limited
to only one Islamic school of thought. The approach encouraged
students to learn Islam from its academic aspects without
obligating them to follow a certain school.

Students then became more open and tolerant toward differences
in understanding religion. This in turn propelled the mushrooming
of new thoughts -- hence the rise of the non-madzhabi approach to
Islamic studies in Indonesia.

Another change has been the shift from the normative approach
to the historical, sociological and empirical approach. The
former approach in studying Islam had led Muslims to see Islam in
an ideal context which tended to neglect socio-historical
realities.

Because of this idealistic view, Muslims are often trapped
into "spiritual satisfaction" which in turn distances Muslims
from the empirical situation. On the other hand, historical and
sociological approaches provide a wide range of analyses of Islam
and its interaction with realities.

Indonesian scholars who had studied Islam in Western
universities initiated the emergence of the historical and
sociological approaches in Islamic studies in Indonesia. A new
orientation in Islamic studies was brought home by IAIN graduates
studying in the West.

Some Indonesian Muslims then criticized the new orientation,
arguing that it represented "an orientalist approach" that could
in the end harm Islam and Muslims.

These controversies have colored the academic tradition of
Islamic studies in IAIN. Although the new orientation leans more
toward Western universities, it does not by any means reduce the
wave of students going to Middle Eastern universities.

IAIN becomes therefore the meeting place for the two
orientations in Islamic studies. One of the results has been the
emergence of various centers of studies that attempt to study and
research Islam and contemporary ideas such as civil society,
democracy, gender and human rights. This is in addition to the
continued influence of Middle Eastern studies in IAIN.

Hopefully, the meeting of the textual study of Islam and the
contextual approach will in the future produce a distinct
tradition of Islamic studies.

***

The future direction of Islamic studies in Indonesia will be
influenced by various aspects, the first being the greater
employment of the socio-historical approach.

Next, Islamic studies in Indonesia will consider the local
context. Thirdly, they will also employ a comparative perspective
on local Islam to identify differences and similarities.

This means that studying Islam in a certain locality, such as
in Indonesia, should also consider the study of Islam in other
localities. Undoubtedly this comparative approach will continue
to gain momentum.

This will become a new tradition in Islamic studies. Its
development could and would be a "perfect" combination of the two
great traditions of Islamic studies developed in the Middle East
and in the West.

The writer is rector of IAIN "Syarif Hidayatullah" in Jakarta.
This article contains excerpts from his paper delivered at the
recent International Conference on Islam in Indonesia,
Intellectualization and Social Transformation.