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.