PESANTREN IN FOCUS

Nurturing Tolerance in Pesantren

2008-12-22T02:26:00.001+07:00

Lily Zakiyah Munir

Center for Pesantren and Democracy Studies (CePDeS)

Back five years ago in a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in the small city of Jombang, East Java, amidst a tranquil crack of dawn a congregation of male santris (students of pesantren) was performing their morning prayer in the mosque. While they were absorbed in the rituals, a Dutch Catholic priest who had spent the previous night at the pesantren was observing them from behind. Sitting cross-legged at the outer part of the mosque, he was attentively watching them perform the rituals and patiently waiting for a dialogue with some santris to be scheduled after the prayer. Later on that day, after a dialogue with santris, the priest had a warm, friendly conversation in the Arabic language with the kyai (leader of pesantren) on various religious and humanitarian issues. The Catholic priest, upon returning to his country, wrote that his stay at the pesantren and dialogues with the santris and kyai was one of the most beautiful moments in his life. He thanked the kyai and santris for their hospitality and warm welcome.

Three years later, the pesantren hosted a multi-religious delegation from a Norway-based inter-faith organization that came to Indonesia to see how religious pluralism is internalized and practiced here. The dialogue between the delegation and the santris was warm, open and sometimes filled with bursts of laughter. The santris enjoyed not only stories about far away life especially among its teenagers, but also the opportunity to practice their English. They had no prejudice at all to the delegation, moreover because one of them who happened to be the leader was a Norwegian Muslim lady with a headgear. The santris and the European guests exchanged views and perspectives on different topics especially relating to the lives of Muslims and Christians in Europe.

The above stories are just two ‘episodes’ in the activities of many pesantrens in Indonesia, including Jombang which is known as a city of thousand pesantrens. Countless Western and non-Muslim researchers and activists have visited and even lived in pesantren for different purposes. Some of them conducted anthropological studies using the popular method of participant observation; some others taught English, while others were interested in learning deeper about Islam. These direct encounters with ‘outsiders’ have been an invaluable experience for santris which has nurtured awareness and appreciation of differences and diversities. It is not surprising, therefore, that pesantrens in Indonesia have produced broad-minded and tolerant personalities and alumni such as Abdurrahman Wahid or Nurcholis Madjid, two out of quite a few Muslim intellectuals and scholars widely reputed for their integrity in religious pluralism.

When asked about religious justification on their openness to outsiders, including non-Muslims, some santris immediately referred to the Prophet Muhammad’s saying that whoever believes in God and in the hereafter, s/he has to respect her/his guest. This prophetic saying (hadith) is a strong religious basis for santris to be confident in respecting their non-Muslim guests. There is no limitation in this hadith as to whom the respect should be addressed in terms of religion, for example to Muslim guests only. The limitation applies in terms of time, which is three days. To a visitor of more than three days, the host is not obligated to give a special treatment.

Another santri refers to the teaching on brotherhood that is prevalent among members or followers of Nahdlatul Ulama or NU (Resurgence of Ulemas), the so-called largest Muslim organization in Indonesia. The teaching advocates three levels of brotherhood that need to be uplifted in pursuing peaceful coexistence of all humankind. First, is brotherhood among Muslims (ukhuwwah Islamiyah); second, is brotherhood among people of the same nation (ukhuwwah wathoniyah), and third, brotherhood among all human beings (ukhuwwah basyariyah) regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion and nationality.

The above illustration of tolerance and pluralism in pesantren might sound ‘awkward’ amongst the emerging stigmatization against pesantren in the aftermath of the JW Marriot bombing. The suicide bomber, Amsar, reportedly was an alumnus of a pesantren, the Al-Mukmin in Ngruki, which is led by the alleged cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir. This association of pesantren with a suicide bomber can obviously ruin the image of moderate and tolerant santris in thousands of pesantrens who have demonstrated these traits as their built-in characters as illustrated in the examples above. From outside, judged from the names or physical appearance, these two types of pesantren may look alike. But in terms of teachings and moral values nurtured they are completely contradictory, just like night and day. In a pesantren like Ngruki, a dialogue with ‘the other’ (people with different interpretations of Islam or those who are non Muslim) would not be possible. These people are regarded as ‘kafir’ or infidels and there is no point in dialoguing with them. Their blood is even considered ‘halal,’ meaning that it is allowable to shed their blood. So, one should never make any generalization when talking about pesantren. There are thousands of moderate pesantrens, but there are radical pesantrens, as few as five according to Sidney Jones, that appear like, to borrow the term used by Bassam Tibi in his book The Challenge of Fundamentalism, ‘a horse of another colour.’

One unique characteristic of moderate pesantrens which has enabled them to produce tolerant and pluralistic people is their balance in teaching Islamic legal aspects (Fikih) and the spirituality (Sufism). This approach can be traced back to derive from the nine saints (wali songo) who spread Islam on the island of Java peacefully. This spirituality dimension is what probably missing in radical pesantrens, who prefer to stand in a binary position: right/wrong, halal/haram, me/the other, heaven/hell, etc. As a result, they produce people with an exclusionary stance who see the world as black and white and who lack the beauty and inner meaning of the religion: peace, tolerance, respect, love and care for others, and other esoteric and humanitarian traits.

This type of Islam is not typical Indonesian. Islam in Indonesia has been known as tolerant, pluralistic and adaptable to local cultures. But the last three decades have witnessed the growing phenomenon of Islamic fundamentalism that tends to practice religious teachings in a rigid and exclusive way. Moderate pesantrens should be alert of this and enhance their teachings on pluralism to their santris.

From The Jakarta Post, 5 September 2003

Radical Salafi, Pesantren and Terrorism

2008-12-22T02:01:00.001+07:00

Jamal Ma’mur Asmani

The three mainstream of pesantren’s science , tauhid, fiqh dan tasawuf (unity of God, Islamic jurisprudence and mysticism), suggest the community to perform good deed, love, give in for the sake of others, make others happy, help and cooperate, and avoid conflict, confrontation, intrigue, and other destructive thing. At this point Islam would be accepted on the earth sympathically. Not by sword, bomb or gun which leave the impact of cruelty, harshness and barbaric. Wasn’t Rasulullah Saw has never use sword whenever there is other wiser way?

This article was firstly published in Indonesian at 1/9/2003

The terms of “radical salafi” is taken from Azyumardi Azra’s terms on observing phenomenon of Islamic authentication movement sprouting in Indonesia. “Radical salafi” is a group orienting in enforcing and implementing “pure Islam”, “authentic Islam” practiced by the Prophet Saw and his companions. They are called as “radical salafi” since they tend to take the radical approach to reach their objective rather than the peaceful and persuasive one. This group’s growth started from the immigration of a large number of Hadramaut people into Indonesia, mainly since the 19th century. They formed enclaves in various cities in Indonesia; Petamburan and Kwitang (Batavia), Pekalongan, Surakarta, Surabaya, Pontianak, Palembang, and so on. (Republika, 25/10/2002).

Recently, this term gained momentum. The state apparatus claim pesantren (Religious boarding school) as nests of terrorism subsequent to the JW Marriot incident. The term of “radical salafi” is appropriate to illustrate the phenomena of Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, Amrozi, Ali Imron, Hambali, and so on. Those names appear into the world due to their amazing activities, using violence to achieve their goal. Every means should be done in order to enforce Allah’s words on the earth. The opponent of “khilafah”, “Allah’s law”, and “syariat” are infidels and should be eliminated. They refer to Hadits (prophetic tradition) “Man ra-a minkum munkaran falyughayyirhu biyadihi wa-in lam yastathi’ fabilisanihi wa-in lam yastathi’ fabiqolbih, wazalika adl’aful iman”; anyone who sees (religious) disavowal, should change it by violence, otherwise by diplomatic way, otherwise by heart.

Based on this Hadits’ text, they perform a set of activity and cleansing movement of whatever the consider as “wrongdoing” (ma’ashi), “sin” (zunub), “disavowal” (munkar), “despicable” (fakhsya’), “hypocrisy” (nifaq), and any kind of “forbidden deed” (muharramat). Those terms are wide in meaning, including the whole life’s aspect, especially the public aspect. Currently, we view all around us various illicit sex, body exploitation, transparent commercials (all commercials show female sensitive organs), gambling, drug use. And coincidentally the restaurant, nightclubs and other amusement places serve this sort of thing fully and are publicly visited by tourists. Automatically, that sort of place is susceptible for threats, bombings, shootings, sweepings etc that are included in terrorism.

To this group, democracy is absurd, and it is a western device to simplify the expansion of global capitalism which eventually weakens the Muslim community’s position and bargaining power. Up to now, Muslims are identical to the marginal and oppressed being the target of Zionist-imperialism with a US locomotive. Hence, there is no other way except through violence and optimalizing all Islamic power to compete the opponent’s supremacy in accordance to the text of the Hadits.

Here, the genuine character of this group is analyzing turast (doctrine and tradition) of text literally and textually, and observe it as sacred, eternal, magic and final. This view triggers their extreme, radical, fanatic, uncompromising, exclusive and fundamentalist behavior. What is written in the text is the pure truth and it is an obligation to struggle for it until the end of life.

The matter is this: is it true that this sort of character becomes the mainstream of pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Indonesia? Are pesantren nets of terrorism as charged by the apparatus? Here is the urgency of identification and categorization of pesantren. Would all pesantren be claimed as a net of terrorism or is it only some of them?

As long as the establishment of this state, we recognize pesantren as the educative institution established by ulemas (muslim intellectuals) to educate, supervise and empower santri (student) and society in religious, social, cultural and cultural-political fields. The role of ulema in delivering this state into the gate of independence is undoubted, and it is noted in the golden ink of the nation’s struggle.

Factual-empirically, the majority of pesantren are gathered under one big organization; NU (Nahdlatul Ulama) and MD (Muhammadiyah). Therefore, in order to know what is the style and color of pesantren, we may observe them trough characteristic of the exponent of pesantren. For example, KH. MA. Sahal Mahfudz (representing the head of NU/ Ra’is Am Syuriyah NU) dan Prof. Dr. Ahmad Syafi’I Ma’arif (Head of PP Muhammadiah). Public has been familiar to their character and commitment toward the matters of community and nation. Of course, their deeds within the aspect of education, social, culture, economic and politic were actualized into the deep understanding toward doctrine and norms within the affluent scientific literature of each organization. NU has classical source, while Muhammadiyah has academic-contemporary notion about Alqur’an and Hadits. Recently, both organizations were in the same platform, to show Islam as rahmatan li-alamin (blessing upon the universe) by characteristic bellow; infitah (inclusive), tawasut (moderate), tasamuh (tolerant), i’tidal (straight), musawah (equality), and maslahah (welfare). Their objective is the creation of justice [adalah}, Law supremacy (tahqiqul hukmi), dan people’s welfare (al-mashalih al-ra’iyah) within the frame of good governance. All are born from their understanding toward text within Qur’an, Hadits and ulema’s sources in the field of theology, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and tasawwuf (mysticism) which are contextual, methodological, and historical. The result of NU congress at Cipasung 1992 and Muhammadiyah congress at 2001 (recognized as cultural ijtihad) indicate this.

Observing this factual reality, it is impossible for NU and Muhammadiyah’s pesantren to perform an extreme, radical, and fundamental action, since this kind of act would bury Islamic prophetic ideals as religion of blessing (rahmah), to be religion of torture (niqmah) and hell (naar). They want to show Islam which is humanist, persuasive, dynamic and progressive.

The three mainstream of pesantren’s science , tauhid, fiqh dan tasawuf (unity of God, Islamic jurisprudence and mysticism), suggest the community to perform good deed, love, give in for the sake of others, make others happy, help and cooperate, and avoid conflict, confrontation, intrigue, and other destructive thing. At this point Islam would be accepted on the earth sympathically. Not by sword, bomb or gun which leave the impact of cruelty, harshness and barbaric. Wasn’t Rasulullah Saw has never use sword whenever there is other wiser way?

Here we can conclude that the group born in pesantren which is well-known as “radical salafi” is the minority out of the mainstream pesantren. This group had a clear activity, movement and political target, and had international network with specific means and characters and it had a wide access financially as well. These characteristics could not be found in general pesantren of Indonesia. Therefore, it is unwise when people generalize and say that all pesantren can be claimed as the nest of terrorism.

(Translated by Lanny Octavia, edited by Jonathan Zilberg)

http://islamlib.com/en/article/radical-salafi-pesantren-and-terrorism/

Madrasa, Pesantren, and Studying Manuscripts

2008-12-22T01:56:00.001+07:00

Oman Fathurahman

I mostly feel lucky to be a researcher on manuscripts (if I may to say as it), who graduated from madrasa and pesantren. Both, especially what is called as salaf pesantren, facilitate those who study there to be familiar with the exceedingly rich tradition of classical Islamic literatures and various Islamic living traditions, and of course educate them a reading skill of Arabic texts.

As the Arabic Archipelago’s manuscripts have been found in a huge number (look at here for an insight), in particular those relate to religious issues, the competence of this language will be highly functional to reveal the worth of knowledge kept within those manuscripts. Even the competence will help a philolog to read manuscripts written in any local languages, such as Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Minangkabaunese, Acehnese, and others, for these languages typically use a modified Arabic script called Jawi or Pegon.

The composition of manuscripts stored in Ali Hasjmy’s collection in Banda Aceh could be a good example to show how large roughly the Arabic Indonesian manuscripts among the other categories of languages. As we discussed in our recently published catalogue, the 45 % of the manuscripts preserved here are in Arabic, 45 % of them are in Malay, and the rest (10 %) are in Acehnese. This is presumably a kind of composition of Indonesian religious manuscripts stretched in other regions in Indonesia.

Moreover, the experiences of learning classical Islamic literatures in madrasa and pesantren frequently make me easier to identify a non-complete manuscript in terms of classification, even title and authorship, something be usually tricky for those who are not familiar with the tradition and discourse of classical Islamic literatures.

In the case of Arabic grammatical (nahw and sarf) manuscripts, for instance, I repeatedly find some pages of spilled out anonym manuscripts, both in poem and prose form. Fortunately, I used to study, or even memorize, some kinds of those works, such as al-Ajurumiyya, Sarf al-Kaylani, Nazm al-Maqsud, and Alfiyya Ibn Malik. The later is a famous Arabic grammatical treatise composed in thousand-line poem by Jamal al-Din Ibn Malik (d.1274).

Another example, once a friend of mine, who was cataloguing manuscripts, found a fragmented only one page Arabic text, which, according to him, was too hard to identify. Then I tried to look at the page, and immediately recognized it as a prayer commonly recited by some Muslims in a night of Nisfu-Sha’ban, a Muslim festival, celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month, Sha’ban, of the Islamic lunar calendar. Muslims believe that on this night, God decides who will be born, who will die and how much provision is set aside for each person in the coming year. The knowledge of this kind of Islamic living traditions is so familiar, especially for those who used to be in madrasa or pesantren.

What I suppose to say with the illustrations above? I am thinking about how to encourage those who have experienced in studying classical Islamic literatures, especially in madrasa and pesantren, and of course are interested to involve in this ‘world’, to dedicate their knowledge to do research on old manuscripts.

Currently, there are only few persons, who have these qualifications, interested to engage in this field, even though we actually have great and potential resources in madrasas, pesantrens, and in Islamic higher education institutions, such as Islamic State Universities (UIN, IAIN, and STAIN) excessively found in Indonesia. I have mentioned about this phenomena here.

I am indebted to my kyais, ustadhs, and colleagues in Pesantren Cipasung Singaparna, Pesantren Miftahul Huda, and Pesantren Haurkuning Salopa, all are in Tasikmalaya, West Java, who have transferred their valuable knowledge during my ‘adventures’ there in 1984 until 1988...Jazakumullah khair al-jaza.

The writer is researcher at the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) UIN Jakarta, and Chairperson of the Indonesian Association for Nusantara Manuscripts (Manassa).

http://naskahkuno.blogspot.com/2007/04/madrasa-pesantren-and-studying.html

A Brief Mapping of Islamic Education in Indonesia

2008-12-22T00:13:00.000+07:00

Jamhari and Jajat Burhanudin
PPIM UIN Jakarta

The recent development of Indonesian Islam indicates that Islamic educational institutions survive amidst changes within Muslim communities. Pesantren, the oldest Islamic educational institution, is evidence of this. Pesantren, madrasah, and Islamic schools continue to grow and parental interest in sending their children to Islamic education institution is even stronger today than in the past.

Data from the Department of Religious Affairs shows a steady increase in the number of pesantren and students enrolled in them. In 1977, there were 4,195 pesantren with 677,384 students. This number skyrocketed in 1981 with pesantren numbering 5,661 with a total of 938,397 students. In 1985, this number increased to 6,239 pesantren with 1,084,801 students. In 1997, the Department reported 9,388 pesantren a total of 1,770,768 students. And finally, 2003-04, the number of pesantren reached 14,647. A similar trend is also evident with madrasah.

Madrasah, managed by the Department of Religious Affairs, also experienced rapid quality and quantity development. Development trends are also evident in Islamic schools. For example, Al-Azhar School in Jakarta, Insan Cendikia and Madania in West Java, and Mutahhari in Bandung have grown significantly in urban regions of the country. Similar developments are also found in Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar.

These data raise some important questions concerning the development and survival of Islamic educational institutions, as well as their changing roles amid transitions taking place in the Muslim community. Islamic educational institutions face complex challenges. They not only strive to educate Muslims in religious knowledge, but are also expected to participate in creating a new socio-cultural and political system of Indonesia. Based on the characteristics of Islamic educational institutions, there are at least four types of Islamic educational institutions: (1) NU-based Islamic boarding schools, (2) modern Islamic boarding schools whose orientation are Islamic reformism, (3) independent pesantrens, and (4) Islamic schools.

NU-based Pesantren
Strong waves of Islamic education reform, which occurred along with Islamic reformism, touched pesantren. While maintaining the traditional aspects of the education system, a number of pesantren in Java have, at the same time, begun to adopt the madrasah system. The experience of Pesantren Tebuireng Jombang East Java is important to note. Founded by a charismatic and outstanding ulama of the 20th century, Kyai Hasyim Asy’ari (1871–1947), Pesantren Tebuireng set the model for pesantren and ulama, especially in Java. Almost all of the important pesantren in Java have been founded by disciples of Kyai Hasim Asy’ari, therefore following the Tebuireng model. Together with the NU, which he founded in 1926, Kyai Hasyim had a central and strategic position in the legacies of ulama in Java. As such, he is known as the Hadratus Syaikh (Big Master) for ulama in Java.

Attempts to reform the educational system of pesantren began during the 1930s. The NU-based pesantren adopted the madrasah system by opening a six-grade system consisting of a preparatory grade for one year followed by a madrasah grade for six additional years. Furthermore the pesantren also included non-Islamic sciences in its curriculum such as Dutch language, history, geography, and math. This process continued as the pesantren was managed by his son Kyai Abdul Wahid Hasyim (1914– 53), whose concerns were to bring the legacies of pesantren into modernity. During the 1950s, he made madrasah system the main model of education in Tebuireng.

Tebuireng was not the only pesantren to make changes to its system. Pesantren Krapyak of Yogyakarta also became part of the reformist movement in the early 20th century. Kyai Ali Maksum (1915–89), the founder and the pesantren leader of Krapyak was recognized as a figure with a “modernist spirit.” Like Kyai Wahid Hasyim of Tebuireng, he also combined the madrasah into pesantren systems. In addition, Pesantren Tambak Beras and Pesantren Rejoso, both in Jombang, also adopted reformist agenda by implementing the madrasah system by introducing non-Islamic knowledge into their curriculum.

It can be concluded that, along with socio-religious changes following modernization and Islamic reformism, the transformation of Islamic education became a part of general discourse within Indonesian Islam at the beginning of the 20th century. The pesantren ulama, strictly holding the traditional legacies of Islam, gradually transformed the educational sytem by adopting the modern system of madrasahs. In addition, the main orientation of pesantren also changed form a focus on producing ulama. Instead, like other modern Muslim groups, the learning system of Pesantren Tebuireng is directed toward a larger agenda, “to educate students to be able to develop themselves to be ‘intellectual ulama’ (ulama mastering secular knowledge) and ‘ulama intellectual’ (scholars mastering secular as well as religious knowledge.”

This type of pesantren, culturally based on the NU tradition, has been growing steadily and can be found in almost every city in Java. In West Sumatra, this type of pesantren is affiliated with Perti (Persatuan Tarbiyah Islamiyah), a kaum tua-affiliated organization like the NU in Java. In Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, the position of NU is assumed by the local Nahdhatul Watan (NW). Like NU and Perti, NW has become the cultural bases for traditional Islamic education institutions in Lombok as well as religious bases in the region. Similarly, As’adiyah in South Sulawesi has also played an important role like that of NU in Java, NW in NTB, and Perti in West Sumatra.

Modern Pesantren
In the history of Islamic education in Indonesia, this type of pesantren is said to be the first institution to create the principles for reforming Islamic education within the pesantren system. Pesantren Darussalam Gontor Ponorogo, founded on September 20, 1926 by three brothers (KH. Ahmad Sahal, KH. Zainuddin Fannani, and KH. Imam Zarkasyi) was the first modern pesantren designed to provide education able to respond to challenges faced by the Muslim community amidst changes in the socio-cultural life in Indonesia in the modern-day period.

Pesantren Gontor was founded during a period of important development for Indonesian Muslims. Forced by modernization by the Dutch colonial government (also known as “ethical politics”) and affected by changes in international networks centering Islamic reformism in Cairo, Egypt, Islamic education in Indonesia underwent fundamental changes. These changes were evident in the emergence of new Islamic educational institutions, especially those established by the first modern Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, that adopted a modern system aimed at reforming the traditional educational system. As such, Islamic educational institutions became important parts of the Islamic reformism movement since the early 20th century.

In addition to introducing a new system and learning method—grade system, textbook, and non-religious subjects in the curriculum—pesantren also functioned as the medium to disseminate the ideas of Islamic reformism. It became the basis of creating new Muslims familiar with the spirit of modernism and progress, which had become a dominant discourse in Indonesia. Here the socio and religious dimension of madrasah can be clearly identified. Different from the type of pesantren that only provided classical religious learning and a kyai-centric system, madrasah provided a new religious perspective to respond to modernity. Unlike pesantren which functioned as the fabric of the ulama, madrasah were designed to create the so-called “learning Muslims.”

It is by this design that the foundation of Pesantren Gontor can be explained. It aimed to create new Muslims who could master either religious or secular knowledge as well as various life skills needed by the changing community. Since its inception, Gontor identified itself as a modern educational institution in contrast to a traditional pesantren which had been plagued with stagnancy and ineffective educational management. Imam Zarkasyi, one of Gontor’s founding fathers, saw that modern pesantren should apply freedom of thought, effective and efficient management, and adopt modern idea of progress (kemajuan) as well as modern devices. Like most Muslim reformers, he emphasized the need for madhab flexibility, which without would sometimes lead to stagnancy.

One aspect of this modernization can be seen in the system of Kulliyat al-Muallimin al-Islamiyah (KMI), a secondary grade system consisting of a six-year duration (equivalent to secondary and high schools). This KMI system is a combination of madrasah and pesantren systems. This combination is a result of Zarkasyi’s experiences in Pesantren Manbaul Ulum Solo, Sumatera Thawalib Padang Panjang, and Normal Islam School (also called KMI) and as founder and director of Kweekschool Muhammadiyah in Padang Sidempuan. In the classroom, students study and learn just like students of madrasah and other public schools do. However, outside of the classroom, students engage in various activities such as organization training, life skills, arts, sports, and scouting.

This concept of modern pesantren became the blueprint as a number of his students spread across the country established similar pesantren, usually called “the Alumni’s Pesantren” (meaning Gontor Alumni), named after the second generation who influenced the pesantren model in the next wave of development. From 1970–80, a number of Gontor alumni founded pesantren within their home regions. For example, Pesantren Daar El-Qalam Gintung Balaraja in Banten, Pesantren Al-Amin Prenduan Sumenep in Madura, and Pesantren Pabelan in Central Java, among many others.

Independent Pesantren
A new trend has recently emerged in Indonesia in the context of the development of pesantren and, to some extent, madrasah. This new trend is the presence of pesantren and madrasah that are independent in the sense that they have no affiliation with any Muslim mass organization. Instead, they are based largely on Salafi ideological beliefs.

It is difficult to know precisely when this new trend emerged. Even so, it is believed that the presence of independent pesantren and schools are closely related to the rise of Salafism in Indonesia in the 1980s. During this period, the advent and influence of Salafism can be identified with the emergence of so-called usroh groups. From a religious doctrine perspective, these groups follow the earlier Salafi figures such as Ahmad ibn Hambal and Ibn Taymiyah whose ideas were absorbed and developed by later figures such as Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb through Ikhwan al-Muslimin in Egypt and Abu al-A’la al-Mawdudi through Jema’at Islami in the India sub-continent. The doctrines of Salafism as developed by these figures have become the main reference for these groups.

To give an example, Pesantren Hidayatullah is based on contextualization of Salafi religious beliefs. This fact (to be demonstrated in the following section of statistical analysis) can be seen in the teachings developed by Ustadz Abdullah Said who created the idea of Muslim community (jemaah Islamiyah) (community who implements Islamic values in a comprehensive manner). Jemaah, in the context of the Islamic movement is frequently paralleled with hizb (party) and harakah (movement), although the concept of jemaah is used more widely than the other two. It is very frequently understood as a Muslim community more superior than others and as one claiming that the only solution they have is the correct one.

Another important characteristic of this group is the model of literal interpretation toward religious texts. As a result, they have a distinct physical appearance. For instance, males wear ghamis (an Arab garment for men) and have long beards, while females wear jilbab and veil, covering all parts of their bodies except for the eyes and hands. According to Islamic teaching, females are not allowed to show their bodies except to their husbands.

In Indonesia these groups have interestingly emerged in prominent public universities such Universitas Indonesia (UI), Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), and Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). However, in Islamic universities such as State Islamic Institutes/Universities (UIN/IAIN), they are hardly found. After the fall of Suharto, groups calling themselves Lembaga Dakwah Kampus (LDK) began to emerge in predominantly Muslim universities. Their movement has become an important social and religious movement in Indonesia. At the political level, these groups gave support for the Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (Welfare Justice Party, PKS), one of the leading Muslim-based parties in Indonesia.

Islamic Schools
In essence, the system and organization of Islamic schools is similar to public schools (although most of them necessitate being a Muslim as a requirement from students) with an emphasis on Islamic moral conduct. As such, these schools can be categorized as “public school plus.” This means that religious courses on Islamic history, Islamic jurisprudence, or Islamic theology are not the main subjects of the curriculum like that of pesantren and of most madrasah. Instead, there is an emphasis on how religion can inspire good moral conduct in the daily lives of the students.

Islamic schools were created to cater to the Muslim middle class in urban areas. These schools are equipped with good facilities such as air-conditioned classrooms, libraries, labs, and computer facilities. As a modern institution, these schools are administered by professionals in management as well as curriculum development. Teachers, staff, and managers are recruited in a competitive and professional manner by considering their skills and competency levels.

Yayasan Pesantren Islam (YPI) Al-Azhar, founded on April 7, 1952, is one of the best examples of Islamic schools. As of 2004, Al-Azhar has managed as many as 78 schools from kindergarten to high school, spread over several provinces including Jakarta, Banten, West Java, and East Java. In 2002, YPI founded a university named Universitas Al-Azhar Indonesia (UAI).

In addition to Al-Azhar, other independent schools oriented toward science and technology include SMU Insan Cendikia in Banten and Gorontalo in Sulawesi. These schools were founded in 1996 by a number of scientists mostly affiliated with the Commission for Research, Development and Application of Technology (BPPT) under the Ministry of Research and Technology through the Science and Technology Equity Program (STEP) for schools within pesantren.

During its development, Islamic schools have grown not only in Jakarta but also in other large cities throughout Indonesia. For example, in West Sumatra there exists Kompleks Perguruan Serambi Mekkah in Padang Panjang which is supported by members of PKS party. This “PKS’s model of Islamic schools develop its own characteristic by giving more emphasis on Science and Technology. In terms of religious orientation, it seems that PKS’s model of Islamic schools follows “moderate salafism.” Although PKS is closer to Salafism, it differs with radical salafism like FPI (Islamic Defense Front).

http://suparto.blogspot.com/2008/05/brief-mapping-of-islamic-education-in.html

Nicholas Saputra and Dian Sastro to star in 'pesantren' movie

2008-12-21T23:55:00.002+07:00

Nicholas Saputra and Dian Sastro Wardoyo got together again in a movie portraying the life of three young men at an Islamic boarding school (pesantren). The movie entitled "3 wishes, 3 loves" would reportedly be launched on 18 Desember ahead.

In the movie produced by the Investasi Film Indonesia (IFI) and the Triximages, Nicholas (Huda) along with his two friends, namely Rian (Yoga Pratama) and Syahid (Yoga Bagus) stay in a pesantren in a little town in Central Java.

The film director, Nurman Hakim said that the "3 Wishes, 3 Loves" was a life portay of the three young men living in a pesantren and colored with friendship, services, and humanity.

"This movie is also a proof that Islam is a peaceful religion that is opposed to any violence and conveys the importance of maintaing religious harmony and mutual understanding," Nurman told reporters here recently.

"I have ever been in a pesantren in Demak. I personally feel having such obligation to deal with the view describing pesantren as the place for radical people and want to show that actually in pesantren there have been values of humanity and peace as well," Nurman said.

Since it passed the Official Selection of the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea, the "3 Wishes, 3 Loves" should be another pride for Indonesia especially for the film which script took more than three years working on.

The script itself has won Script Development Grant from Global Film Initiative in San Francisco America, Goteborg International Film Festival Fund Sweden, and Fond Sud Cinema France. In fact, on May 2008, ‘3 Wishes, 3 Loves’ was invited to play at Cannes Film Festival for Cinema du Sud where the film was observed by international film distributors, producers, and directors.

Islamic boarding schools yield national leaders

2008-12-05T20:27:00.001+07:00

BANDUNG (JP): There is a saddening but prevailing stereotype of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) and the santri, their students.

Male students are depicted wearing a sarong and kopiah (rimless cap) and carrying a stack of books. His female equivalent (santriwati) is shown as a villager who has missed out on the wave of modernism. Of course, it is mistaken to assume that the simplicity of the boarding schools' educational systems should be correlated with backwardness. Many of the boarding schools today are managed and developed under modern education systems, complete with state-of the-art facilities.

Granted, the boarding schools focus on an approach of simplicity. It revolves around the school accommodating the students and their teachers, with a mosque as the center both for prayer and education, students as the subjects geared for science and building togetherness, and the kyai, the leaders of the school and the teachers.

The boarding schools are not the only Islamic education institutions in Indonesia, but their dissemination and in-depth study of Islamic teaching has been able to penetrate remote corners of the country.

Sociologist Zamakhsyari Dhofier stated in his book Tradisi Pesantren, Studi Tentang Pandangan Hidup Kyai (Tradition of Pesantren, a Study on the Kyai's Way of Life) that Islam was still strongly linked with the thoughts of fikih (Islamic law), hadits (Prophet Muhammad's deeds and sayings), tafsir (interpretation of the Koran), tauhid (Islamic theology) and tassawuf (doctrines of sufi), ranging from the 7th century to the 13th century.

It is here that Islamic boarding schools have an advantage. It does not mean that the development of traditional Islam is stagnant and shackled in the form of thoughts and aspirations created by the ulemas of that time. The achievement of traditional Islam in assembling great strength is not because its followers are more in number than those of modern Islam. It isdue to the force of solidarity and integrity of its followers.

Traditional Islam cannot be separated from Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which was established in 1926. From the biggest and most influential Muslim organization in the country, a number of national leaders have emerged, notable among them President Abdurrahman Wahid.

It is interesting to observe how educational institutes like the Islamic boarding schools, through their simplicity, are capable of yielding leadersof quality.

According to K.H. Imang Mansur Burhan, mustasyar (adviser) to the West Java NU regional board which manages the Babussalam Islamic boarding school at Cijaura, South Bandung, the key to the success of its education lies with the simple life of the students, school administrators and the conditions on the campus. The interaction of life is conducive to the spirit of self-reliance and perseverance of the residents.

""It is difficult to find this pattern of simple and resigned life at other education institutes,"" he told The Jakarta Post.

The teaching method at most Islamic boarding schools usually involves intensive study of the kitab kuning (the classic textbook used in NU-affiliated boarding schools) also usually applies the sorogan, a system in which a teacher privately teaches a student.

""This pattern is actually identical with the Active Method of Study that is much lauded by the formal education institutions. Through this system, a student's self-reliance will be enhanced indirectly. On the other hand the close relationship of the students and the school's leaders will also be maintained,"" said Imang Mansur Burhan.

The schools also apply a system with class promotions, a standard curriculum and the awarding of diplomas. A unique feature of Islamic boarding schools is that diplomas or class promotions are often presented orally. ""Abdullah, you have successfully finished the study of this book. Now you must study another book as its continuation,"" could be the among the teacher's directions.

Most of the teachers only teach the standard kitab kuning, but many also elaborate on the material by writing their own books. There is even a famous teacher in Central Java who is fond of extracting parts of the kitab kuning into verse or a beautiful poem.

The modern Islamic boarding school integrates the teaching of religious subjects with general subjects, usually combining the two methods. Foreign languages like Arabic and English are used. Extracurricular lessons are sophisticated thanks to the use of computers, the Internet and high technology equipment.

Obedience

A student must absolutely obey the teacher in charge of his education. But the obedience is subject to democratic values because the student is not obliged to follow orders if they are contrary to Islamic teaching. The teacher's position in the student's life is of such importance that the candidate student must consider the matter thoroughly before deciding which teacher to choose.

This absolute obedience is shown in the students' total submission to his future life. The President, before deciding on the continuation of his presidential candidacy, waited for the decision of the khos ulemas who are considered free from worldly influences. They are known as the poros langit (celestial axis), an expression to indicate that their decision was awaited from God and also referring to the Langitan Tuban Islamic boarding school led by K.H. Abdullah Faqih, a kyai much respected by Abdurrahman.

Another example of the devotional duty is Lukman MSc, a teacher at a prominent university in East Java who resided in an Islamic boarding school while studying at the university. When he felt it was time to get married, Lukman went to his kyai and requested his teacher find him a wife. With total submission Lukman would accept whoever was chosen by his kyai.

He saw his wife's face for the first time after the marriage ceremony.

""I had no idea who would be my wife. But, praise God, my kyai's choice was good. After many years of married life, everything goes smoothly and in harmony without major quarrel.""

The wife also came from an Islamic boarding school; although she has no formal diploma like a grade school certificate, she is equal to her task in accompanying her husband, who has a higher education.

""I must say she is superior in more than one way because she can recite the 30 chapters of the Koran,"" said Lukman.

The problem of the lack of accreditation for the education at the Islamic boarding schools is deplored by Kyai Imang Mansur Burhan.

""Why do the Islamic boarding schools that clearly contribute to the education of the community have no formal recognition by the state? A graduate of the schools should be recognized and accepted to work in a government agency like a graduate of a formal school,"" he said.

Imang Mansur Burhan hoped that now that a santri governed the country there would be a change in the acknowledgment of the value of the schools' education.

""Let's hope that in the 30th NU Congress this matter will be put on the agenda. At least, the pesantren education should have an umbrella of a certain ministry so that problems like the lack of funds will be somewhat alleviated.""

He also hoped that problems of funding for the schools would receive more attention, particularly with the country's leader showing the benefits its education can bring.

""It is not inferior to education in military academies, at universities or institutions for the study of high technology,"" he said.

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 11/14/1999 7:02 AM | Life

Kitab Kuning: Books in Arabic Script Used in the Pesantren Milieu(Comments on a New Collection in the KITLV Library)[1]

2008-11-28T18:02:00.003+07:00

Martin van Bruinessen

A research project on the Indonesian ulama gave me the opportunity to visit pesantren in various parts of the Archipelago and put together a sizeable collection of books used in and around the pesantren, the so-called kitab kuning. Taken together, this collection offers a clear overview of the texts used in Indonesian pesantren and madrasah, a century after L.W.C. van den Berg’s pioneering study of the Javanese (and Madurese) pesantren curriculum (1886). Van den Berg compiled, on the basis of interviews with kyais, a list of the major textbooks studied in the pesantren of his day. He mentioned fifty titles and gave on each some general information and short summaries of the more important ones. Most of these books are still being reprinted and used in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, but many other works have come into use beside them. The present collection contains around nine hundred different titles, most of which are used as textbooks. I shall first make some general observations on these books and on the composition of the collection. In the second part of this article I shall discuss a list of ‘most popular kitab’ that I compiled from other sources. All of the books listed there are, however, part of the collection.[2]

Criteria and representativeness
In order to judge how representative this collection is, a few words on my method of collecting are necessary. I visited the major publishers and toko kitab (bookshops specializing in this type of religious literature) in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Purwokerto, Semarang, Surabaya, Banda Aceh, Medan, Pontianak, Banjarmasin, Amuntai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown (Penang), Kota Bharu and Patani (Southern Thailand), and bought there all available Islamic books in Arabic script printed in Southeast Asia. The last two criteria may at first sight seem rather arbitrary, but I found them to be sociologically significant besides being the most convenient ones. It is true, most toko kitab also sell limited numbers of Arabic books printed in Egypt and Lebanon (an agent representing the Lebanese publishing house Dar al-Fikr has special shops for these books in Jakarta and Surabaya), but the price differential between such books and Southeast Asian editions guarantees that they are bought by a relatively small minority only. They include works of reference for the advanced scholar and works by modern authors that have not yet been accepted by the mainstream of Indonesian Islam. Any book for which there is a sizeable demand will sooner or later be (re)printed by one of the regional publishers.[3]

Similarly, the script in which a book is printed carries symbolic meaning and differentiates rather neatly between two different types of reading public. Indonesian Muslims use even different words for books in romanized script (‘buku’) and those in Arabic script, irrespective of the language (‘kitab’). Up to the 1960’s a well-defined line divided the Muslim community in ‘traditionalists’ and ‘modernists’ (with as their major socio-religious organizations the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah, respectively). The former used to study religion exclusively through kitab kuning (called kuning, ‘yellow,’ after the tinted paper of books brought from the Middle East in the early twentieth century), while the latter read only buku putih, ‘white’ books in romanized Indonesian. The authors of the latter usually rejected most of the scholastic tradition in favour of a return to, and in some cases new interpretation of, the original sources, the Qur’an and the hadith. This may have contributed to the negative attitude towards buku putih that long existed in the pesantren milieu. In a few old-fashioned pesantren such books are not allowed until this day. Traditionalist ulama writing books or brochures, whether in Arabic or in one of the vernacular languages, always used Arabic script, and many continue to do so. Nowadays, however, the dividing line between ‘modernists’ and ‘traditionalists’ is not so sharp and clear anymore, and many of the old antagonisms have worn off. The ‘modernists’ have generally become less radical in their rejection of tradition — significantly, there are now several Muhammadiyah pesantren offering a combination of the traditional curriculum (kitab kuning) and that of the modern school. Not only have most ‘traditionalist’ kyai, on the other hand, become more catholic in their reading, many of them write now in Indonesian as well as in Arabic, Malay or Javanese. The Arabic script, though still the most unambiguous symbol of a traditionalist orientation, is no longer a sine qua non for it. I have therefore not applied the criterion of script too rigidly, and have included in the present collection a number of works in (romanized) Indonesian, that logically belong to the kitab tradition: annotated translations of, or commentaries on, classical texts by ‘traditionalist’ ulama.

The criterion of Arabic script has excluded one category of texts otherwise quite similar to those collected. Ulama in South Sulawesi (the most prolific of whom are Yunus Maratan and Abdul Rahman Ambo Dalle) have written religious texts in Buginese for use in madrasah and schools, employing not, as earlier generations of scholars did, the Arabic but the Buginese alphabet. A good number of these works are already in the KITLV library, and several bibliographies exist (Departemen Agama 1981/1982, 1983/1984).

The collection could, for a number of reasons, not be complete. Most publishers have very limited storage facilities, and only a fraction of the books published by them are actually available at their sales departments. When a kitab is (re)printed, almost the entire edition is immediately sent off to toko kitab throughout the country. It is only through visiting many such shops and patiently combing the shelves that one can collect at least most of the important works from major publishers. Virtually all works mentioned in published sources or heard about have been collected, some even in several editions, in various translations or with different glosses. But some of the less important works were simply out of print and sold out in all shops visited.

Furthermore, there are numerous minor local publishers bringing out works of secondary importance, often by local ulama. There are not a few of such works in the collection, but it is likely that many others were overlooked. In spite of these limitations, however, the collection represents a fair cross-section of the study materials used in Indonesian (and Malaysian) pesantren and madrasah, as well as of the intellectual output of Indonesian ulama.

Statistics
Out of some nine hundred different works, almost five hundred, or just over half, were written or translated by Southeast Asian ulama. Many of these Indonesian ulama wrote in Arabic: almost 100 titles, or around 10%, are Arabic works by Southeast Asians (or Arabs resident in the region). Those in Indonesian languages were, of course, all written by Southeast Asians (including some of Arab descent). If we count translations as separate works, the approximate numbers of kitab in the various languages are as follows :

Language Approximate number of kitab Percentage of total number
Arabic 500 55 % Malay 200 22 % Javanese 120 13 % Sundanese 35 4 % Madurese 25 2.5 % Acehnese 5 0.5 % Indonesian 20 2 %

These works can be roughly classified according to subject matter. The largest categories are:

jurisprudence (fiqh) 20 % doctrine (`aqida, usul al-din) 17 % traditional Arabic grammar (nahw, sarf, balagha) 12 % hadith collections 8 % mysticism (tasawwuf, tariqa) 7 % morality (akhlaq) 6 % collections of prayers and invocations, Islamic magic (du`a, wird, mujarrabat) 5 % texts in praise of the prophets and saints (qisas al-anbiya’, mawlid, manaqib, etc.) 6 %

A few important changes have taken place in the composition of the pesantren curriculum, and these are only partly reflected in the table above. A century ago, the Qur’an and the traditions were rarely studied directly but mainly in the ‘processed’ form of scholastic works on jurisprudence and doctrine. According to van den Berg, only one tafsir, the Jalalayn, was studied in the pesantren, and no hadith collections at all. In this respect, a significant change has taken place during the past century. There are no less than ten different Qur’anic commentaries (in Arabic, Malay, Javanese and Indonesian) in the collection beside straightforward translations (also called tafsir) into Javanese and Sundanese. The number of compilations of hadith is even more striking. There is almost no pesantren now where hadith is not taught as a separate subject. The major emphasis in instruction remains, however, on fiqh, the Islamic science par excellence. There have been no remarkable changes in the fiqh texts studied, but the discipline of usul al-fiqh (the foundations or bases of fiqh) has been added to the curriculum of many pesantren, allowing a more flexible and dynamic view of fiqh.These and other categories of kitab kuning will be discussed in greater detail in the second part of this article, where the most popular of each are listed. But here are first some observations on kitab publishing and major authors.

The publishing of kitab kuning in the Archipelago
Printed books are a relative novelty in the pesantren. In van den Berg’s time, many of the kitab in the pesantren were still in manuscript, and were copied by the santri in longhand. But it was precisely in this period that printed books from the Middle East began entering Indonesia in significant numbers, one of the side effects of the increased participation in the haj (due in turn to the arrival of the steamship). There had, by then, been a century of bookprinting in the Middle East already, but of particular relevance for Indonesians was the establishment of a government press in Mecca in 1884, which printed not only books in Arabic but also in Malay. The latter part of its activities was placed under the supervision of the learned Ahmad b. Muhammad Zayn al-Patani, who is also the author of several treatises himself.[4] (the present collection contains seven of them in recent reprints). His selection of books was rather biased in favour of those by compatriots, and it is partly due to him that many works of Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani and Muhammad b. Isma`il Da’ud al-Patani are still widely available, in reprints of his original editions. In these and other reprints, the imprint of the original publisher has been replaced, but many of the works published by Ahmad b. M. Zayn may still be recognized by the verses that he wrote as introductions and placed on the title pages.[5]This was not the very first Malay press, although the first one of importance. Zayn al-Din al-Sumbawi, another Jawi scholar resident in Mecca, had a short treatise lithographed as early as 1876 (Snouck Hurgronje 1889: 385) and several of Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani’s works were printed in Bombay before the 1880s too. Bombay was also the major source of printed (lithographed) Qur’ans entering Indonesia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[6] Publishers in Istanbul and Cairo soon followed the Meccan press in establishing Malay sections. It was especially Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi of Cairo who, in the course of time, was to publish many a Malay kitab. Two studies by Mohd. Nor bin Ngah (1980, 1983) discuss a more or less representative sample of these Malay kitab and of the worldview that is reflected in them.

These publishing activities in the Middle East, as well as the example of British and Dutch lithograph presses, stimulated Islamic publishing efforts in the Archipelago too. The first presses there that printed in vernacular languages were operated by government and missionary organisations.[7] They were soon followed by the first enterprising Muslim publishers. One of the pioneers was Sayyid Usman of Batavia, that prolific ‘Arab ally of the Dutch Indies government,’ many of whose simple works are still in use, primarily among the Betawi and Sundanese. He had a first version of his Al-qawanin al-shar`iyya lithographed in 1881; by 1886, at least four other booklets of his hand were mentioned and many more were to follow.[8]
Even Sayyid Usman was not the first Islamic publisher in the Indies; that title probably belongs to Kemas Haji Muhammad Azhari of Palembang, who in 1854 made his first lithograph prints of the Qur’an, calligraphed by himself. He had bought a press in Singapore a few years earlier, on the return journey from the hajj, and taught himself to operate it. His Qur’ans — to which he had written a 14-page Malay introduction on pronunciation and style of reading — found ready buyers.[9] In Singapore too, there must have been lithograph presses occasionally printing in Malay by that time, but very little is known about them as yet. In the 1880s and 1890s, several presses published Malay newspapers and occasionally books, but it remains unclear whether these included more than one or two small religious tracts.[10]

In 1894, the junior ruler of Riau, Muhammad Yusuf, established a printing press, the Matba`at al-Ahmadiyya, on the island of Penyengat in 1894, which in the following years printed several religious treatises by the contemporary Naqshbandi shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Zawawi, the spiritual preceptor of Muhammad Yusuf and his relatives.[11]

These promising beginnings found little follow-up. Many books and journals were published in the Archipelago in the first half of the 20th century, but very few of them were kitab (in the wide sense defined above) and almost none were texts of the classical kind. West Sumatra was probably the only region where a significant number of kitab (written by local `ulama) were printed during the first decades of the century. Some of these were simple textbooks, in Malay and Arabic, for the then new madrasah, meant to replace the rather difficult classical works on Arabic grammar, doctrine and fiqh. Several of these books are still widely used.[12] Others were polemical writings, weapons in the religious debates between kaum muda and kaum tua then raging in West Sumatra.[13]

Here as elsewhere, most of the modernists, who were by far the more prolific writers and publishers, soon adopted the romanized script, which brought them closer to the secular nationalists but reinforced their social separation from the kaum tua. They did write religious textbooks, but in style and contents these differed rather much from traditional kitab.It was only after Indonesia’s independence that kitab began to be printed on any serious scale there. As the present major publishers remember, before the Second World War there were only booksellers, no actual publishers of kitab in the Archipelago (the largest being Sulayman Mar`i in Singapore, `Abdullah bin `Afif in Cirebon, and Salim bin Sa`d Nabhan in Surabaya, all three of them Arabs).[14] They ordered virtually all books - including works in Malay - from Egypt, where book production was then considerably cheaper than in Indonesia. There was one exception, but it had only local significance: the (Malay-owned) Patani Press as well as Nahdi (Arab) in southern Thailand began printing Malay kitab in the late 1930s, for use in the pondok of Patani and the contiguous Malay states.

In the first half of the century, Indonesian demand was still low, and the only commercially interesting kitab was the Qur’an itself. Both Mar`i and bin `Afif made their first attempts to have it printed locally in the 1930s; they were later followed by Al-Ma`arif of Bandung, established late in 1948 by Muhammad bin `Umar Bahartha, a former employee of `Abdullah bin `Afif. By mid-century, Mar`i had several kitab kuning printed as well; one of the more conspicuous was `Abd al-Ra’uf al-Fansuri (al-Singkili)’s Malay adaptation of the tafsir Jalalayn, published in 1951. In the course of the 1950s, Al-Ma`arif followed suit with cheap prints of oft-used kitab, and so did `Abdullah bin `Afif and various relatives of Salim Nabhan. (Larger and therefore more expensive works, such as the four-volume I`anat al-talibin by Sayyid Bakri b. M. Shatta’, the latest great compendium of Shafi`i fiqh, were only published from the 1970s on, reflecting a growing affluence in santri circles). In the course of the 1960s Toha Putra of Semarang also ventured onto the kitab market. Still later, the publishing house Menara of Kudus joined the competition: the first non-Arab publisher of this type of literature in Indonesia. Both Toha Putra and Menara have published numerous classical texts together with Javanese or Indonesian translations, as well as original works by Javanese `ulama. In 1978, a former associate of Al-Ma`arif established the house Al-Haramayn in Singapore, which in a few years put out a wide range of classical Arabic texts, many Malay and even a few Sundanese works. Singapore was apparently no longer an advantageous location to serve the Southeast Asian kitab market from, for Al-Haramayn closed shop after a few years (although its books could still be found all over the Archipelago in 1987), and the owner established a new house in Surabaya, called Bungkul Indah.[15] In number of titles, al-Haramayn and its successor Bungkul Indah are the largest publishers of kitab; in sheer volume of sales, however, they lag far behind Al-Ma`arif. Another new publisher with a wide range of (exclusively Arabic) titles is Dar Ihya’ al-Kutub al-`Arabiyya in Surabaya.[16]

There are no signs yet of strong centralization in the publishing of kitab kuning. Surabaya boasts the largest number of publishers; the most conspicuous, beside those already mentioned, are the houses of Sa`d bin Nasir bin Nabhan and Ahmad bin Sa`d Nabhan (ten other members of the same family also publish kitab). On Java’s north coast we find further publishers (besides those mentioned) in Semarang (Al-Munawwara), Pekalongan (Raja Murah), Cirebon (Misriyya, the old establishment of `Abdallah bin `Afif) and Jakarta (Al-Shafi`iyya and Al-Tahiriyya, belonging to the large Betawi pesantrens of these names, and putting out textbooks used there besides simple books by authors beloved to the Betawi community). `Arafat in Bogor mainly produces works on Arabic grammar (over twenty titles); Toko Kairo in the small West Javanese town of Tasikmalaya publishes both Arabic classics and simple Sundanese kitab.

In Sumatra there are at present, surprisingly, no important publishers of kitab. The public there is served by publishers in Java, Singapore and Malaysia. Publishing in Singapore has, as said, declined; in Malaysia too, publishing of kitab is on the wane (in contrast to the publishing of modern books, in which the country’s output is above that of its ten times more populous southern neighbour). Georgetown (on the island of Penang) still has three active publishers, of which Dar al-Ma`arif and Nahdi are the most productive. In Kota Bharu (Kelantan), the Pustaka Aman Press is very active, but it publishes mostly modern Malay books, not classics.[17] There are also several publishers in Patani (Southern Thailand), the eldest of which, Patani Press, began publishing the works of Patani `ulama in the late 1930s.[18] At present their books do not receive a wider distribution than Patani and the contiguous Malay states. One of the other publishers here, Nahdi, has moved most of its activities to Penang, where the political climate is more favourable to Islamic publishing, and whence the books receive a wider distribution. Besides these, there are a large number of small local publishers putting out religious tracts, brochures and books for strictly local markets.

A high proportion of the books printed by these Southeast Asian publishers are photomechanical reprints of works first published in Mecca or Cairo around the turn of the century. Many even still carry the imprint of the original publisher on the title page. In other cases, this imprint has been replaced by that of the new publisher. Borrowing continues freely meanwhile. Thus it can happen that a book originally published by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi of Cairo appears with the name of the most recent publisher, Bungkul Indah, on the jacket while the title page still bears the imprint of the previous publisher, Al-Ma`arif. Some cheap reprints of more recent Egyptian or Lebanese books are only distinguishable from the original by the quality of the paper and the binding: a nightmare for the bibliographer. Thus Bungkul Indah has recently brought out a series of modern works with the imprint of Beyrut publisher Dar al-Thaqafa still on the cover and title page.

The common format of kitab kuning
Most of the classical Arabic kitab studied in the pesantren are commentaries (sharh, Ind/Jav: syarah), or glosses (hashiya, hasyiyah) upon commentaries on older original texts (matn, matan). The printed editions of these classical works usually have the text that is commented or glossed upon printed in the margin, so that both may be studied together. This has perhaps been the reason of occasional confusions between related texts. The name Taqrib, for instance, is used both for this short and simple fiqh text itself and for the Fath al-qarib, a more substantial commentary on it (van den Berg, in fact, believed these two works to be identical). If one asks for the Mahalli, a popular advanced fiqh work, one is given the voluminous super-commentary on it by Qalyubi and `Umayra, that has Mahalli’s Kanz al-raghibin in a modest position in the margin, etc.

Many of the basic texts are manzum, i.e. written in rhymed verse (nazm, nadham), to facilitate memorization.[19] Perhaps the longest manzum text is the Alfiyya, a text on Arabic grammar so called because it consists of thousand (alf) bayt. Many generations of santri have, patiently chanting, committed this entire work to memory, along with a whole range of other texts. Commentaries of such manzum works commonly incorporate the original verse in the (prose) commentary rather than placing it separately in the margin.

A small fraction of the (Javanese, Madurese and Sundanese) translations simply consists of word-by-word, interlineary translations - written obliquely in a finer hand under each word of the bold Arabic text, and therefore graphically dubbed jenggotan, ‘bearded.’[20] In most cases, however, there is in addition a freer translation and/or commentary, usually printed on the lower half of the page. Malay translations sometimes follow another pattern: the Arabic text is broken up into small semantic units, each of which is then followed by a rather literal Malay translation between brackets. But more often the Malay translation and/or commentary is printed separately, without the Arabic.

The most common format of the classical kitab for pesantren use is just below quarto size (26 cm), and not bound. The quires (koras) lie loose in the jacket, so that the santri may take out any single page that he happens to be studying. This is another physical characteristic that seems to have largely symbolic value: it makes the kitab look more classical. Kitab by modern authors, translators or commentators are never in this format. Many users of classical kitab are strongly attached to it, and the publishers oblige. Some even print kitab on orange-tinted (‘kuning’) paper (produced especially for them by Indonesian factories) because this too is more ‘classical’ in the users’ minds.

Popular authors of kitab
As might be expected, there have been no great shifts in the popularity of classical authors during the past century. Virtually all kitab mentioned by van den Berg are still available in Indonesia, in recent reprints. But there has been a noticeable increase in relatively recent commentaries on these works. A few authors stand out, in that numerous works by them are widely available and have been generally accepted into the pesantren curriculum. The most influential of them flourished in Mecca in the late 19th century.

Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan, the Shafi`i mufti of Mecca during Snouck Hurgronje’s stay there, is represented by seven works in this collection, and his younger contemporary Sayyid Bakri b. Muhammad Shatta’ al-Dimyati by four, that are very widely used.[21]

The most ubiquitous presence, however, is that of the Indonesian author Muhammad b. `Umar Nawawi al-Jawi al-Bantani (Nawawi Banten), who has twenty-two titles in the collection, all of them in Arabic.[22] Eleven of them occur in the list of most frequently used kitab below — he has more titles among these top hundred than any other author. Nawawi wrote on virtually every aspect of Islamic learning. Most of his works are comments on well-known texts, explaining them in simple terms. He is perhaps best regarded as a popularizer of, rather than a contributor to, learned discourse.

Another commentator comparable to Nawawi Banten in scope and popularity is the earlier Egyptian author Ibrahim al-Bajuri (or Bayjuri, d. 1277/1861), several of whose works were already widely used in van den Berg’s time. The collection contains six of works of his hand, on fiqh, doctrine and logic.[23]

Besides Nawawi, several other southeast Asian authors have acquired lasting places in the pesantren or madrasah curriculum. An earlier, very prolific author is the said Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani (d. ca. 1845), who also wrote on a wide range of subjects, always in Malay.[24] Fourteen of his works were found in recent reprints. They are widely used in Patani, Malaysia and parts of Sumatra. The major works of his contemporaries Muhammad Arshad al-Banjari and `Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani (who wrote in Malay too) are also regularly reprinted. Another author of still popular Malay works is the said Sayyid Usman (`Uthman b. `Abdallah b. `Aqil b. Yahya al-`Alawi).

An important Javanese author of the late 19th century is Saleh Darat (Salih b. `Umar al-Samarani, d. 1321/1903). He wrote commentaries (in Javanese) on several important works of fiqh, doctrine and tasawwuf.[25]

K.H. Mahfudz of Termas (Mahfuz b. `Abdallah al-Tarmasi), who lived and taught in Mecca around the turn of the century (he died in 1919), wrote a few highly regarded works (in Arabic) on fiqh and the science of hadith.[26]

Another highly respected `alim is the late K.H. Ihsan b. Muhammad Dahlan of Jampes, Kediri, who wrote (in Arabic) a much admired commentary on Ghazali’s Minhaj al-`abidin, titled Siraj al-talibin. The names of all these authors (except Kyai Mahfudz) occur in the list of most popular kitab below.

A more recent, and highly prolific Javanese author is Bisri Mustofa of Rembang (Bishri Mustafa al-Rambani), represented in the collection by over twenty works, including a three-volume tafsir (a translation of rather than commentary on the Qur’an).

Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa of Bangilan, Ahmad Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan and Asrori Ahmad of Wonosari translated numerous classical texts into Javanese; the first moreover wrote a voluminous Javanese tafsir.

Other productive Javanese authors include Kyai Muslikh of Mranggen (Muslih b. `Abd al-Rahman al-Maraqi, d. 1986), who wrote several treatises on his tariqa, the Qadiriyya wa Naqshbandiyya, and related matters, and Ahmad `Abd al-Hamid al-Qandali of Kendal, who wrote various treatises on doctrine and religious obligations as well as texts of practical use (methods of da`wa, NU affairs).

In the 19th century, pesantren in Madura and West Java did not use their own regional languages but Javanese as a medium: when Arabic texts were translated it was into Javanese. This too has changed, there are now kitab kuning in Madurese and Sundanese as well. `Abd al-Majid Tamim of Pamekasan translated over ten books into Madurese, covering almost all branches of learning.

There is a wider range of Sundanese kitab, and more of them are original works rather than simply translations. Three authors stand out in the collection: Ahmad Sanusi of Sukabumi (founder of the organization Al Ittihadiyatul Islamiyah, which which merged into the Persatuan Ummat Islam in 1952) wrote a translation/tafsir of the Qur’an; Rd. Ma’mun Nawawi b. Rd. Anwar various edifying booklets, and the great `alim and poet `Abdallah b. Nuh of Bogor works of sufi piety, based on Ghazali. Besides their books, there are numerous simple booklets in Sundanese, for use in the lower grades of the pesantren, published by the bookstore Toko Cairo in Tasikmalaya.

Of the Minangkabau authors, whose polemics in the beginning of this century have drawn some attention (Schrieke 1921), almost no works are still in print. Even the once influential Ahmad Khatib seems hardly to be read anymore; only two of his works were found in print and these are not generally available. Two other Minangkabau, however, who were associated with Sumatera Thawalib, have reached the top hundred, and are well represented in the collection: Mahmud Yunus and Abdul Hamid Hakim. Both have written numerous textbooks, in Malay and Arabic, for use in the madrasah, and several of these are very widely used, also in pesantren.[27]

A top 100 of pesantren literature
The present collection represents to date the most complete overview of literature used in and around the pesantren and madrasah. But it cannot, of course, by itself tell us which works are the ones most frequently used, at which levels, and where. The curriculum of the madrasah, especially those owned or subsidized by the state, is more or less standardized, and is not so strongly oriented towards the classics as that of the pesantren. The collection contains a fair number of modern books written for the Egyptian madrasah, that are also used in the similar Indonesian institutions, besides books especially written by Indonesian authors, in simple Arabic.

The pesantren differ from the madrasah, among other things, in the lack of uniformity in curriculum.[28] Many kyais specialize in one particular branch of learning, or even in one particular text,[29] and many santris move for this reason from one pesantren to another in order to study a certain range of texts thoroughly. No single pesantren offers a ‘representative’ curriculum all by itself. We have to take a number of pesantrens together in order to establish with which works the average santri is confronted in the course of his studies.

I have the strong impression (based on what I found in stock in toko kitab in the various regions) that the ‘average’ curriculum in Sumatra, Kalimantan and on the mainland still differs to some extent from that in Java. Kitab originally written in Malay, by such ulama as M. Arshad al-Banjari, Da’ud bin `Abdallah al-Patani and `Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani long had, and to some extent still have, precedence over the classical Arabic works and their 19th century Arabic commentaries that constitute the bulk of the Javanese curriculum. The establishment all over Sumatra and Kalimantan, from the 1920’s on, of pondok pesantren on the Javanese model and madrasah of the West Sumatran type has resulted, however, in the gradual displacement of these Malay kitab in favour of standard Arabic works.

Van den Berg’s study (1886), although dated, is still the most detailed survey of kitab commonly used in Javanese pesantren. The catalogues of Arabic, Malay and Javanese manuscripts in the Jakarta and Leiden libraries also give an elaborate impression of what was in use in the 19th century, although it remains doubtful how representative these collections are for the pesantren milieu. The Serat Centini, probably compiled in the early 19th century, refers to a large number of kitab; there is a close correspondence with van den Berg’s list (see Soebardi 1971). For an earlier period, Drewes (1972, appendix) has compiled an interesting list of works in use in 18th century Palembang.

There are a few more recent surveys claiming a degree of generality, but these are still far from satisfactory.[30] We learn more, in fact, from an anecdotal autobiography such as that of K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri (who was NU’s minister of religion under Guided Democracy), with its glimpses of the texts he read (or had read to him) in the pesantren, the way these were studied and the impact they had on him.[31]

There exist now a good number of monographs on individual pesantrens, most of which contain shorter or longer lists of the texts studied there.[32] These lists, compiled by different researchers, vary in length and quality, and none of them is complete; well-known works are undoubtedly over-represented in them at the expense of less popular texts equally studied. Taken together, however, they give a reasonable indication of which are at present the most frequently used kitab. I have added to these a small number of similar lists compiled by Indonesian researchers in the course of a recent research project on the Indonesian `ulama,[33] and thus compiled aggregate data on 42 pesantren, of which 18 are in East Java, 12 in Central and 9 in West Java, and 3 in South Kalimantan. I add some data on Sumatra, although these are not really comparable because they do not refer to individual but to four idealized, ‘average’ pesantren. They consist of two aggregate lists of kitab used in pesantren and by traditional `ulama in Riau and Palembang, respectively; the curriculum of an ‘average’ PERTI madrasah in West Sumatra; and the curriculum of one conservative surau in Pariaman, West Sumatra.[34]

The number of Kalimantan pesantren on which data has been gathered is unfortunately too low to lay claims to being representative. These data confirm the general impression of the Banjarese pesantren as old-fashioned.[35] The Sumatra and Kalimantan columns in the tables give an indication, but not more than that, of minor but systematic differences in curriculum with Javanese pesantren; the differences between the Sundanese and Javanese parts of Java are, because of better data, brought out more clearly.

I have lumped together texts (matan) and untitled commentaries on them; only commentaries generally known by a different title were listed separately. Even so, the total number of texts mentioned is well over 350; the tables below list only those that occur most frequently, grouped according to subject. Within each table, genealogically related works (i.e. those based on a common original text) are placed together; otherwise the titles are roughly in order of popularity, not in the order in which they are studied. The latter is vaguely indicated by notes in the final column on the level of education at which the books are usually studied. Ibtida’i, tsanawi and `ali (‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘high’) are really the names of the three levels of madrasah education (of three years each), and not always adequate to describe traditional pesantren. Khawass (‘the special ones’) indicates a more advanced level.The tables give the titles of kitab in their commonly used short form, transliterated in Indonesian style; in the text the full names are given, in a transliteration closer to English usage.

The instrumental sciences (Table I)
The instrumental sciences, ilmu alat, are in the first place the various branches of traditional Arabic grammar: nahw (syntax), sarf (inflection), balagha (rhetoric), etc. There is a bewildering array of different texts on these subjects. We can, in this case, compare our entire collection and the list of most popular titles not only with van den Berg’s list but also with a list of the manuscripts of such grammatical texts in the Leiden and Jakarta libraries compiled by Drewes (1971). Although Drewes has more titles than van den Berg, the latter’s list corresponds in fact more closely with ours.[36] This is another indication that the manuscript collections are certainly not representative of what was actually used, and that one should be careful in drawing conclusions on the bases of these collections alone.

In the traditional system, the student usually began with the basics of sarf, which meant that he had to commit the first tables of verbal and nominal inflection to memory. The simplest work of this category is the Bina (Al-bina’ wa’l-asas, by a certain Mulla al-Danqari); having mastered this, the student would turn to the Izzi (Al-tasrif li’l-`izzi, by `Izzaddin Ibrahim al-Zanjani, see GAL I, 283; S I, 497) or to the Maqshud (Al-maqsud fi’l-sarf, an anonymous work often attributed to Abu Hanifa). Having arrived at this stage, the student would turn to the first works on nahw before going on to more difficult sarf works (if he ever got so far). One of the simplest, and most widely popular works of this kind was the Awamil (Al-`awamil al-mi’a, by `Abd al-Qahir b. `Abd al-Rahman al-Jurjani, d. 471 AH), a list of the situations determining the case endings of nouns and the vowel following the final consonant of verbs. After this, the student was likely to proceed to the Jurumiyah (Al-muqaddima al-ajurrumiyya, by Abu `Abdallah Muhammad b. Da’ud al-Sanhaji b. Ajurrum, d. 723 AH).

This introductory curriculum was accepted in regions wide apart; the same texts were studied, in this order, in traditional madrasa in Kurdistan (apart from the last named work, which is not known there), in 19th century Javanese pesantren and West Sumatran surau.[37] The same works are still in use, but a certain shift has taken place. The Bina and the Izzi are most certainly under-reported in the curriculum lists in favour of more advanced works, but they seem to have retained their place better in West Java and Sumatra than in Java proper. A recent (but also traditional) introductory work quite popular in Javanese pesantren is Amtsilatut Tashrifiyah (Al-amthilat al-tasrifiyya li ‘l-madaris al-salafiyya, consisting of inflection tables), by the Javanese author Muhammad Ma`sum b. `Ali of Jombang. Other introductory texts are also widely available.[38]

In the next stage, instead of, or together with, the Maqshud, one studies the sharh written by the Egyptian Muhammad `Ullaysh (d. 1881), Hall al-ma`qud min nazm al-maqsud (see GAL S II, 738). This is commonly followed by an extensive commentary on the Izzi, the Kailani (named after its author, `Ali b. Hisham al-Kaylani, about whom no further details are known to me), which is now the most frequently used work on sarf.

A common order in which nahw texts are studied is, after the Jurumiyah, the Imrithi (a manzum version of the Jurumiyah) and next the more elaborate commentary Mutammimah or directly the Alfiyah, usually together with a commentary. The Imrithi (Al-durra al-bahiyya, by Sharaf b. Yahya al-Ansari al-`Imriti), the Mutammimah (of Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ru`ayni al-Hattab), and the Alfiyah (of Ibn Malik) with its best known commentary Ibnu Aqil (so called after the author, `Abdallah b. `Abd al-Rahman al-`Aqil) have long been in common use and are described by van den Berg and Drewes, together with various commentaries that are still available but apparently less popular. Not mentioned by them, but frequently encountered, is the Asymawi, a commentary on the Jurumiyah by a certain `Abdallah b. `Ashmawi (no further details known), while a popular late 19th century commentary on the Alfiyah is that by the Shafi`i mufti of Mecca, Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan, commonly called Dahlan Alfiyah.

Qatr al-Nada’ [wa ball al-sada’], by Ibn Hisham[39] (d.761/ 1360), which was very popular in the 19th century, is also still widely used. The same author’s Qawa`id al-i`rab is mainly used in a versified (manzum) Javanese translation (by Yusuf bin Abdul Qadir Barnawi); there exists also a Madurese translation.

To some extent, these classical works are giving way to more modern teaching methods. In 1921, the Dutch consul in Jeddah, E. Gobée, observed that in government schools in the Hijaz the Alfiyah was no longer part of the language curriculum but had been replaced by the modern Qawa`id al-lugha al-`arabiyya, a series of textbooks by the Egyptian author Hafni Bak Nasif et al. (Gobée 1921). In the 1930s, these books were in use in the more modern madrasah of Sumatera Thawalib in West Sumatra, along with other modern Egyptian textbooks and books by local `ulama who had studied in Egypt (see Yunus 1979: 77). These textbooks are now widely used in madrasah and the state schools for religion teachers (PGA); growing numbers of pesantren are following suit, which is reflected in Table I.

The other modern grammar textbook appearing here is Nahwu Wadlih (Al-nahw al-wadih fi qawa`id al-lughat al-`arabiyya), written by two Arab authors, `Ali Jarim and Mustafa Amin (widely available in photomechanical reprints of Lebanese and Egyptian editions). This too already was used in West Sumatra in the 1930s, along with Al-balagha al-wadiha by the same authors.

This brings us to the final major branch of Arabic grammar, rhetoric (balagha, with its subdivisions of bayan, ma`ani, and badi`). Two classical kitab dominate this part of the curriculum:Jauharul Maknun (Al-jawhar al-maknun / Al-jawahir al-maknuna fi al-ma`ani wa al-bayan wa al-badi`), written by `Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari (b. 920/1514, see GAL S II, 706). The same title often refers to a sharh on this work by Ahmad al-Damanhuri (1101-1177/1689-1763, see GAL II, 371) and further glosses by Makhluf al-Minyawi, widely available in Indonesia (also called Makhluf). The Jawhar was translated into Javanese by K.H. Bisri Mustofa of Rembang.

Uqudul Juman (Al-murshidi `ala `uqud al-juman fi `ilm al-ma`ani wa al-bayan), finally, is a manzum text on rhetoric by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, based on Siraj al-Din al-Sakkaki’s `Ilm al-ma`ani wa al-bayan (GAL I, 294-6). The only other balagha text widely available, with various commentaries, is Abu al-Qasim al-Samarqandi’s Al-risala al-samarqandiyya, which, however, does not score high on our list.

The total number of texts in our collection, of course, far exceeds that of those mentioned here. It should perhaps be mentioned that three of the texts listed by van den Berg were not found in print: ‘Innola’ (an untitled commentary on the Awamil), Ibn al-Hajib’s Kafiya, and Burhan al-Din Abu Fath Nasir al-Din’s Al-misbah.

A different auxiliary ‘science’ (although not commonly subsumed under the label of ilmu alat but rather under that of the Qur’anic sciences) is that of tajwid, the proper articulation and intonation of Qur’anic Arabic. It is among the very first subjects to be studied (as the titles of the listed texts, meaning ‘Gift for children’ and ‘Guidance for little boys’, emphasize). The Tuhfat al-atfal by Sulayman Jumzuri and the anonymous Hidayat al-sibyan both are short elementary texts on this subject. They are both available in several collections of short texts, usually together.

The third auxiliary science is mantiq, Aristotelian logic (which will prove its usefulness when the student proceeds to fiqh, jurisprudence). The most widely used textbook is Sullamul Munauraq (Al-sullam al-munawraq[40] fi `ilm al-mantiq), written by al-Akhdari (the author of Al-jawhar al-maknun, see GAL S II, pp.705-6). Ahmad al-Damanhuri (who also annotated Akhdari’s Jawhar) wrote a commentary on it, that is also well-known in Indonesia: Idah al-mubham min ma`ani al-sullam. In the margin of the printed edition we find another sharh on the Sullam, by al-Akhdari himself. The latter sharh is also available together with the glosses written by Ibrahim al-Bajuri. Two other, untitled, commentaries often encountered are those by Hasan Darwish al-Quwaysini (c. 1210/1795) and by the Azhar scholar Ahmad b. `Abd al-Fattah al-Mullawi (d. 1181/1767), with glosses by M. b. `Ali al-Sabban. There is also a manzum Javanese translation by Bisri Mustofa.

Widely available, too, is another fundamental manual of logic, Isaghuji, by Athir al-Din Mufaddal al-Abhari (d. 663/1264; see GAL I, 464-5; S I, 839-41). Despite its title, this work is not a translation of Porphyry’s Isagoge, as had often been assumed (see Arminjon 1907: 215-7 and the summary by Calverley 1933).

Jurisprudence (fiqh) and its principles (Table II)
Fiqh is still considered as the Islamic science par excellence. It has the most concrete implications for everyday behaviour, for it tells us what things are forbidden and which actions recommended. Works on fiqh form the real substance of the pesantren education, and this is reflected in the composition of the top 100 list.

The fiqh work mentioned by van den Berg as the most important work of reference, the Tuhfa (Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfat al-muhtaj) does not occur in this list, and an Indonesian edition of this text does not even exist. Nevertheless, leading (traditional) `ulama agree that this is the ultimate work of reference to which they have recourse in difficult cases. For everyday use, however, more easily accessible works are preferred, such as the Fath al-wahhab (said to be more systematic in its approach than most other works) and the I`anat al-talibin, which, being the most recent of the great traditional fiqh works, is often found the most adequate to contemporary concerns. For educational purposes, the introductory Sullam al-tawfiq, the Taqrib / Fath al-qarib and the Fath al-mu`in are preferred.

Under modernist influence, fiqh works of a different genre are coming into use in the pesantren as well. There are several pesantren now where Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid is taught beside or instead of the Shafi`i classics (recently also printed in Indonesia, which indicates a growing interest). The multi-volume Fiqh al-sunna by the modern Egyptian author Sayyid Sabiq is rapidly gaining a wider acceptance too (so far, only an Indonesian translation is locally printed, suggesting that the work appeals primarily to a modernist audience). These works have, however, not yet reached the list of most popular works, all of which are squarely within the Shafi`i tradition.

The relations between the major works of traditional Shafi`i fiqh can be represented in the form of genealogical trees. Three ‘families’ of kitab stand out, descending from respectively Rafi`i’s Muharrar, Abu Shuja’ al-Isfahani’s Taqrib (or Mukhtasar) and Malibari’s Qurrat al-`ayn. In the accompanying graphs showing these family trees, bold print indicates the works of which Indonesian printings exist (and have been collected).

The first of these families is the one with greatest prestige. Indonesian `ulama confirm Snouck Hurgronje’s observation (1899: 142) that Ibn Hajar al-Haytami’s and Shams al-Din al-Ramli’s commentaries on Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi’s Minhaj [al-talibin] are considered as the most authoritative, and that in cases of differences between these authorities, the Indonesians prefer Ibn Hajar.[41] Important fatwas frequently refer to these works for their authority, especially the Tuhfa. In everyday practice, however, the Tuhfa is not all that often consulted, and it is very hard even to find a copy in the shops. The senior kyai no doubt own copies of it, but they too have more frequently recourse to other books. The only printed version I have ever seen is in the margin of the ten-volume commentary by `Abd al-Hamid Shirwani (who taught in Mecca in the mid-nineteenth century). An abridged Javanese translation must have been around in the early 19th century but has apparently fallen into disuse with the improved availability of other texts.[42] Ramli’s Nihayat al-muhtaj is also occasionally encountered, in an eight-volume edition with the glosses by `Ali Shabramalisi and Ahmad al-Maghribi al-Rashidi in the margin. Some younger `ulama, especially such as have studied in Egypt, claim to use the Mughni’l-muhtaj, by Khatib Sharbini, as well besides Ramli and Ibn Hajar.

The only works of this family that are universally available are Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli’s commentary (commonly known as ‘the’ Mahalli) in an edition with extensive glosses by Qalyubi and `Umayra, and the Fath al-wahhab, a commentary by Zakariya’ Ansari on his own Manhaj al-tullab, which is a summary of the Minhaj. An early Malay translation of the Fath al-wahhab, titled Mir’at al-tullab, was made by `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel (edited in part in Meursinge 1844), but it is no longer used or even known.

Muharrar(Rafi`i, d. 623/1226)

Minhaj al-talibin(Nawawi, d. 676/1277-8)

Kanz al-raghibin(Mahalli, d. 864/1460) Manhaj al-tullab(Ansari, d. 926/1520) Tuhfat al-muhtaj(Ibn Hajar, d. 973/1565-6)

Mughni’l-muhtaj(Sharbini, d. 977/1569-70)

Nihayat al-muhtaj(Ramli, d. 1004/1595-6

[sharh](Qalyubi & `Umayra) Fath al-wahhab(Ansari) [hashiya](Shirwani) [hashiya](Shabramalisi, d. 1087/1676) [hashiya](Maghribi)

[hashiya](Bujayrimi, d. 1221/1806) [hashiya](Jamal, d. 1204/1789-90)

The second family derives from the highly popular fiqh works Taqrib (Al-ghaya wa’l-taqrib, also known as Mukhtasar, by Abu Shuja` al-Isfahani) and its commentary Fath al-qarib (by Ibn Qasim al-Ghazzi). There is hardly a pesantren where not at least one of these texts is studied. Both have been translated into various Indonesian languages. Other works of the same family are also widely used in Indonesia. The Kifayat al-akhyar, by Taqi al-Din Dimashqi (GAL I, 392), which was not yet mentioned by van den Berg’s informants, now ranks second only to the Fath al-qarib among the commentaries. A more difficult text is Khatib Sharbini’s Iqna’, which is printed together with the commentary Taqrir by a certain `Awwad, on whom I have found no further information. Bajuri’s glosses, much used a century ago (see Snouck Hurgronje 1899), appear to have lost their attraction nowadays.

Taqrib = Mukhtasar(Abu Shuja`, d. 593/1197) Sundanese trl
numerous Indonesian trl.

Iqna’(Sharbini, d. 977/1569-70) Kifayat al-akhyar(Dimashqi, d. 829/1426) Fath al-qarib(Ibn Qasim, d. 918/1512) Madurese trl.Indonesian trl.Javanese trl. Taqrir(`Awwad) Tuhfat al-habib(Bujayrimi, c.1100/1688) [hashiya](Bajuri, d. 1277/1860-1)

The central text of the third family is Fath al-mu`in, which has long been popular in Indonesia (as well as in Kurdistan).[43] It was written by the sixteenth-century South Indian scholar Zayn al-Din al-Malibari, a student of Ibn Hajar. This work is a commentary on, or a reworking of, an earlier text by the same author, Qurrat al-`ayn; neither is directly based upon Ibn Hajar’s Tuhfa. The Qurra itself never became popular in Indonesia, but in the 19th century, Nawawi Banten wrote another commentary on it, titled Nihayat al-zayn, that is widely used. Two of Nawawi’s younger contemporaries in Mecca wrote extensive glosses on the Fath al-mu`in. Sayyid Bakri b. Muhammad Shatta’ al-Dimyati’s I`anat al-talibin is a four-volume work, that incorporates the author’s notes on many subjects, as well as a number of fatwa by the contemporary Shafi`i mufti Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan. In the author’s lifetime it already became the most frequently consulted work of Shafi`i fiqh (cf. Snouck Hurgronje 1887: 346), and it has maintained its position as a major work of reference. Tarshih al-mustafidin is a more modest and less well-known work (2 vols), whose first Indonesian reprint has only recently appeared. The author, `Alwi al-Saqqaf, was a younger contemporary and colleague of Sayyid Bakri in Mecca (GAL S II, 743; `Abd al-Jabbar 1385: 156).

Qurrat al-`ayn(Malibari, c. 975/1567)

Fath al-mu`in(Malibari, c. 975/1567) Indonesian trl.Javanese trl.

Nihayat al-zayn(Nawawi Banten) I`anat al-talibin(Sayyid Bakri, d.1893) Tarshih al-mustafidin(`Alwi al-Saqqaf, d.1916)

Van den Berg mentions a fourth family of fiqh works, which used to be quite popular but is now represented in our present top 100 by only one text, Minhaj al-qawim. It derives from the 9th/15th century elementary work known in Java as Bapadal, i.e. `Abdallah b. `Abd al-Karim Ba-Fadl’s Al-muqaddima al-hadramiyya (GAL S II, 555). None less than Ibn Hajar al-Haytami wrote a commentary, Minhaj al-qawim, on which the late 18th century Shafi`i mufti of Madina, Sulayman al-Kurdi, wrote extensive glosses, Al-hawashi’l-madaniyya. Ibn Hajar’s Minhaj is used all over Java; the Hawashi, long hard to find, were very recently reprinted in Surabaya. These fiqh works differ from the first three families in that they only deal with fiqh al-`ubudiyya, the prescriptions concerning worship (i.e., ritual cleanliness, prayer, zakat, the fast and the hajj), and not with mu`amalat (economic transactions), family and inheritance law, penal law, etc., which make up some 60% of the other texts.

Two other commentaries on Ba-Fadl’s Muqaddima, which are not listed in GAL, deserve mention. The first of these sharh was written (in Arabic) by the great East Javanese `alim Mahfudz bin Abdullah of Termas (d. 1338/1919-20; see `Abbas 1975: 460). This work is highly praised but it is not available in print now. Another commentary on Ba-Fadl’s text is, however: Bushra’l-karim [bi-sharh masa’il al-ta`lim `ala muqaddimat al-hadramiyya], by a certain Sa`id b. M. Ba`shin (no further information known).

Al-muqaddima al-hadramiyya(`Abdallah Ba-Fadl, 10th/16th century)

Minhaj al-qawim(Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, d.973/1565-6) sharh `ala Ba-fadl(Mahfuz al-Tarmasi, d.1338/1919-20) Bushra’l-karim(Sa`id b. M. Ba`shin)
Al-hawashi-l-madaniyya(Sulayman al-Kurdi, d.1194/1780)

Two of the remaining works that are high on the list are the short introductory texts Sullam al-tawfiq (by `Abdallah b. Husayn b. Tahir Ba`alawi, d. 1272/1855), and the Safina[t al-naja’], by Salim b. `Abdallah b. Samir, a Hadrami `alim resident in Batavia in the mid-19th century. Two much-used commentaries on the Sullam are Mirqat su`ud al-tasdiq by Nawawi Banten and Is`ad al-rafiq by his contemporary and colleague in Mecca, M. Sa`id Ba-Basil. Nawawi Banten also wrote an Arabic commentary on the last-named very popular text, called Kashifat al-saja’, which is available in several editions. The Kashifa has also been translated into Javanese. Besides this, there are several other adaptations and commentaries by Indonesian `ulama.[44]
I shall only give only a few short explanatory notes on the remaining titles in the list, in the order of frequency in which they occur.

The Tahrir (Tahrir tanqih li’l-lubab fi fiqh al-imam al-Shafi`i) is a work by Zakariya’ al-Ansari, based on al-Mahamili’s (d. 415/1024) Lubab al-fiqh. Ansari himself wrote a commentary on his Tahrir, titled Tuhfat al-tullab; the two are usually printed together. Further glosses on this Tuhfa were written by `Abdallah al-Sharqawi (d. 1127/1812, see GAL II, 479-80): Hashiya `ala sharh al-tahrir. This text too (colloquially known as Syarqawi ala Tahrir) is widely available in Indonesia.

The Riyadlul Badiah is one of the texts introduced to Indonesian Muslims by Nawawi Banten that are little known elsewhere. As its title, Al-riyad al-badi`a fi usul al-din wa ba`d furu` al-shari`a, indicates, it deals with selected points of doctrine and religious obligations. The author is a certain Muhammad Hasballah, perhaps an older contemporary of Nawawi; the work has only been printed in the margin of the sharh that Nawawi wrote, Al-thamar al-yani`a (cf. GAL II, 501; S II, 813).

Sullam al-munajat is another work by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on the guide for worship Safinat al-salah by `Abdallah b. `Umar al-Hadrami.

Uqudul Lujain (`Uqud al-lujjayn fi huquq al-zawjayn) is another work by Nawawi Banten, on the rights and especially duties of the married woman. Two Javanese translations and commentaries are in circulation: Hidayat al-`arisin by Abu Muhammad Hasanuddin of Pekalongan, and Su`ud al-kawnayn by Sibt al-`Uthmani Ahdari al-Janqalani al-Qudusi.

The Sittin (in full: Al-masa’il al-sittin), by Abu al-`Abbas Ahmad al-Misri (d. 818/1415), a short text of the perukunan type (i.e. dealing with basic doctrine and the five pillars), was very popular in 19th-century Java; it receives mention in the Serat Centini (Soebardi 1971, p. 336). By now it has gradually fallen in disuse, and many santri do not even recognize its name. Muhadzab (Al-muhadhdhab) is a work of Shafi`i fiqh by Ibrahim b. `Ali al-Shirazi al-Firuzabadi (d. 476/1083; see GAL I, 387-8; S I, 669).

Bughyat al-mustarshidin is a collection of fatwa by 19th/20th century `ulama, compiled by the mufti of Hadramawt, `Abd al-Rahman b. M. b. Husayn Ba`alawi.

The following two are recent texts in simple Arabic, specially written (by Indonesian authors) for madrasah: Al-mabadi al-fiqhiyya `ala madhhab al-imam al-Shafi`i (4 tiny volumes) was written by `Umar `Abd al-Jabbar; Al-fiqh al-wadih by the well-known Minangkabau scholar Mahmud Yunus.
I add one important Malay text in spite of its low rating in the present frequency list with its heavy Javanese bias: the Sabil al-muhtadin. This is Muhammad Arshad al-Banjari’s major opus and the most important Malay work of fiqh (although dealing with fiqh `ubudiyya only). It was written, the author says, because the earlier Malay fiqh handbook Sirat al-mustaqim by al-Raniri (printed in the margin) contained too many regionalisms and was therefore hard to use. Chief sources of the Sabil are Malibari’s Fath al-mu`in and Zakariya’ Ansari’s Manhaj al-tullab. Al-Banjari’s work is rarely found in Java but still quite popular in the Malay-speaking zone, and several recent editions (including an Egyptian one) are available.

usul al-fiqh
Van den Berg mentions no works at all on the principles of fiqh. This may be due to oversight, for van Ronkel’s catalogue of the Jakarta library (1913) mentions several copies of commentaries on the Waraqat and the Jam` al-jawami` (see below), which suggests that these works must have been relatively well-known, at least around the turn of the century. They were, however, probably not part of the ordinary pesantren curriculum. K.H. Mahfudz of Termas (d. 1919) was probably the first Indonesian scholar who was an expert on the subject and taught it to his advanced students in Mecca. In Indonesia itself, usul fiqh first received serious attention from the kaum muda, who often had recourse to it in their struggle against alleged bid`a. In the 1920s, the reformist journal Al-ittifaq wa al-iftiraq wrote much about usul fiqh, quoting from Suyuti’s Al-ashbah wa al-naza’ir, Shafi`i’s Risala and especially Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid, which compares the different schools of jurisprudence.[45]

At present, usul fiqh is an obligatory subject in almost all pesantren for santri at the middle and higher levels. The range of works used is not very wide, however. The collection contains fourteen different titles, many of which are related to one another (as commentaries or glosses). Only eight of these are sufficiently popular to warrant inclusion in the list.

Jam` al-Jawami`, by Taj al-din `Abd al-Wahhab al-Subki, is one of the major texts on the foundations of Muslim law. The current printed edition contains besides this text also the sharh by Jalaladdin al-Mahalli, glosses thereon by Bannani and further glosses (taqrir) by `Abd al-Rahman Sharbini. Zakariya’ Ansari summarized the Jam` in his Lubb al-usul, also used in Indonesia.

Al-waraqat fi usul al-fiqh by the imam al-haramayn `Abd al-Malik al-Juwayni (d. 478/1085, see GAL I, 388-9) is one of the other major works on the subject. Various commentaries on this work are generally available in Indonesia (the collection contains five different ones, one of which is by the Minangkabau reformist Ahmad Khatib: Al-nafahat `ala sharh al-waraqat). The Lata’if al-isharat, by `Abd al-Hamid b. M. `Ali al-Qudsi (from Kudus in Central Java, d. 1334/1916, see al-`Attas 1979, vol. II, pp. 619-26) is a further commentary on one of these, Sharafaddin Yahya al-`Imriti’s Tashil al-turuqat.[46]

Al-ashbah wa al-naza’ir fi al-furu` is a compendium by the prolific Jalaladdin Suyuti (see GAL II, 152).

Al-luma` [fi usul al-fiqh] was written by Ibrahim b. `Ali al-Shirazi al-Firuzabadi, the author of the Muhadhdhab (see GAL S I, 670).

Al-bayan is the last in a series of three simple textbooks on usul al-fiqh (titled Mabadi Awwaliyya, Al-sullam and Al-bayan) for use in madrasah, written by the Minangkabau author Abdul Hamid Hakim.

Ibn Rushd’s Bidayat al-mujtahid, which compares the rulings of the four ‘orthodox’ and various other madhhab, was again first used by the Minangkabau kaum muda. It is actually taught in very few pesantren, but many of the more learned kyai use it as a work of reference.

Doctrine (tawhid, `aqida, usul al-din) (Table III)
Compared to the number and sophistication of fiqh works studied in the pesantren, doctrine is given a much less prominent place in the curriculum. Whereas earlier generations of Indonesian Muslims showed great interest in cosmology, eschatology and metaphysical speculation - witness the writings of Raniri, `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel and `Abd al-Samad of Palembang - these subjects are now largely kept out of the pesantren curriculum. Perhaps this is because of the old adagium that to great an interest in matters of doctrine can only lead to unbelief?

Be that as it may, the works on `aqida in Table III are, without exception, straightforward expositions of Ash`ari doctrine on the attributes (sifat) of God and the prophets. The most popular group of texts is that based on Sanusi’s two famous works on doctrine. (It is remarkable that Nasafi’s work and Taftazani’s commentary, equally if not more influential elsewhere, seem to be unknown in Indonesia was among the first works to be translated into Malay. A sixteenth-century manuscript with interlineary Malay translation is still extant (Al-Attas 1988). The basic text of this group is Umm al-barahin (also called Al-durra) by Abu `Abdallah M. b. Yusuf al-Sanusi (d. 895/1490, see GAL II, 250, S II, 352-3). The text commonly called ‘the’ Sanusi[yah] is a somewhat more substantial commentary written by Sanusi himself. In the most frequently encountered edition it is printed in the margin of the highly popular hashiya by Ibrahim al-Bajuri, which is, by extension, also known as Sanusi[yah]. Other frequently used commentaries are the hashiya on the Sanusi by Muhammad al-Dasuqi (d.1230/1815, see GAL II, 353), and a more substantial text by `Abdallah al-Sharqawi (d. 1127/1812, see GAL II, 479-80), which is itself a hashiya on an 11th century commentary by a Muhammad b. Mansur al-Hudhudi (in Indonesian editions, it is printed together with Hudhudi’s text). All these texts are commonly known by the names of their authors.

Another work partially based on the Sanusi is the Kifayat al-`awamm, by M.b.M. al-Faddali (d. 1236/1821, see GAL II, 489), which is highly popular in Indonesia.[47] Our collection contains also a version of this work with an interlinear Madurese translation (by H.M. Nur Munir b.H. Isma`il). Faddali’s pupil Ibrahim Bajuri (d. 1277/1861) wrote a commentary on it, Tahqiq al-maqam `ala kifayat al-`awamm (printed together with the Kifaya in the Indonesian editions), and this was glossed upon by Nawawi Banten in his widely read Tijan al-durari.

`Aqidat al-`awamm is a simple, versified text for the very young, memorized long before the santri even begins to understand Arabic. Its author, Ahmad al-Marzuqi al-Maliki al-Makki, flourished around 1864. Brockelmann (GAL S II, 990) mentions a Malay version by Hamza b. M. al-Qadahi (i.e., of Kedah); our collection contains translations in Javanese (by Bisri Mustofa of Rembang) and Madurese (by Abdul Majid Tamim of Pamekasan). Nawawi Banten, who must have known the author, wrote a well-known commentary on it, titled Nurudh Dhulam (Nur al-zalam).

Jawharat al-tawhid, the concise versified text by Ibrahim al-Laqani (d. 1041/1631), is still highly popular. Santris commit the entire matan to memory and study various commentaries on it. One of these is Ibrahim al-Bajuri’s Tuhfat al-murid. An anonymous Malay scholar and two Javanese `ulama, Saleh Darat of Semarang and Ahmad Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan, wrote extensive commentaries in their regional languages, that are commonly known by the same title of Jauharatut Tauhid. Saleh Darat’s Javanese commentary, especially, is interesting in that it reflects contemporary Javanese views and concerns.

Fath al-majid is yet another text by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on the Durr al-farid fi `ilm al-tawhid (printed in the margin) by a certain Ahmad al-Nahrawi, on whom I have found no further information.

The remaining three titles are modern works, that were first adopted by the Egyptian-influenced madrasah and from there are gradually penetrating the pesantren world. Jawahir al-kalamiyya [fi idah al-`aqida al-islamiyya] was written by the Syrian Tahir b. Salih al-Jaza’iri, who died in Damascus in 1919.

Husunul Hamidiyah (Al-husun al-hamidiyya li al-muhafaza `ala al-`aqa’id al-islamiyya) is a work by the moderate modernist and rationalist Husayn [b. M. al-Jasr] Efendi al-Tarabulusi (d. 1909) on sifat, prophecy, miracles of the prophets, the angels and life after death. The author was renowned as the editor of a journal, in which he attempted to reconcile Islam with modern science and philosophy (GAL S II, 776; see also the remarks in Hourani 1962: 222-3). This book was first used in Indonesia in the 1930s, in Sumatera Thawalib madrasah (Yunus 1979: 77).

Aqidatul Islamiyah, finally, is a modern question-and-answer catechism for pupils of the lowest grades of madrasah, by Basri b. H. Marghubi (no further details known).
The subject of tawhid gradually shades into what is usually classified as tasawwuf in Indonesia. Ghazali’s Ihya, which is by far the most popular tasawwuf text here, could with equal (or perhaps greater) right be listed among the works on doctrine.

There is yet another, quite popular, category of books that should be mentioned here, although they are rarely part of the official pesantren curriculum. This is the works on traditional (and often quite fantastic) cosmology and eschatology.[48] A typical (and widely popular) example is Daqa’iq al-akhbar fi dhikr al-janna wa al-nar, by `Abd al-Rahim al-Qadi (see GAL S I, 346), which is available in Arabic as well as in Malay, Sundanese and Madurese translations; another is Al-durar al-hisan, attributed to Suyuti. Indonesian authors have contributed a number of simpler texts similarly designed to inspire in the reader a wholesome fear of the hereafter. These works are not used as textbooks, but they constitute popular reading in the santri environment.

Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir) (Table IV)
Van den Berg lists only one tafsir as part of the regular curriculum, the ubiquitous Jalalayn. Baydawi’s tafsir was also known by name, but it was highly exceptional to find a kyai explaining this text (van den Berg 1886: 555). A few minor additions may be made: In the Malay-speaking part of the Archipelago the Tarjuman al-mustafid, a Malay translation by `Abd al-Ra’uf of Singkel of the Jalalayn, with some interposed material from other tafsir, must have been rather well known (it is still available in various editions).[49] Nawawi Banten, moreover, had already written his Al-tafsir al-munir li ma`alim al-tanzil, but this, like his other works, had perhaps not yet come into use because of the general conservatism of the pesantren curriculum.

Van den Berg’s impression is probably generally correct: in the late 19th century, tafsir was not yet considered a very important part of the curriculum. Under the impact of modernism, with its slogan of return to the Qur’an and the hadith, the interpretation of the Qur’an obviously assumed a more central importance. Many traditionalist `ulama simply felt forced to follow suit and began taking tafsir more seriously. Our list shows, however, that the range of tafsir studied in the pesantren is still very narrow. Two classics, Tabari and Ibn Kathir, have been added to the list, along with Nawawi’s Tafsir al-munir. The two modern tafsir, the Tafsir al-manar by Muhammad `Abduh and Rashid Rida and Ahmad Mustafa al-Maraghi’s Tafsir al-Maraghi, occur in our list only because of two modernist-oriented pesantren in West Java; they are not yet widely accepted in the pesantren milieu.[50] (It is not a coincidence that there are no Indonesian editions of the Arabic texts of these two works, although the latter has very recently appeared in translation.) The last tafsir on the list is a 10-vol. Translation of the Qur’an in Indonesian, prepared under the auspices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by a committee of Indonesian scholars.[51]

Five other tafsir in our collection, by Indonesian and Malaysian authors, deserve mention here although they have not gained wide popularity. Ahmad Sanusi b. Abdurrahim of Sukabumi wrote a tafsir (a rather straightforward translation) of the Qur’an in Sundanese, Rawdat al-`irfan fi ma`rifat al-Qur’an, and Bisri Mustofa of Rembang a three-volume (2250-page) Javanese tafsir, Al-ibriz li ma`rifat tafsir al-Qur’an al-`aziz. The latter, too, is more a translation than an exegesis proper; since translations of the Qur’an necessarily involve a certain amount of interpretation they are usually called tafsir too. The amount of commentary is greater in another Javanese tafsir, Al-iklil fi ma`ani al-tanzil by Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa (30 volumes, 4800 pp.) and in the three-volume (950-page) tafsir in Malay, Tafsir nur al-ihsan, by Muhammad Sa`id b. `Umar Qadi al-Qadahi (of Kedah, Malaysia). The most recent is an Indonesian commentary in six volumes, Adz Dzikraa: terjemah & tafsir Alqur’an, by Bachtiar Surin.

The interest in tafsir is markedly increasing. Several other tafsir have very recently been printed in Indonesia in Arabic; others again (modernist ones, as one might expect, such as Sayyid Qutb’s Fi zilal al-Qur’an and Maraghi) in Indonesian translation. Imports nevertheless go on increasing; in several toko kitab in Surabaya and Bandung I found no less than twenty different tafsir in stock, imported from Egypt and Lebanon.Of the works on the principles of tafsir, only two classics are listed, both by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti: Itmam al-diraya li qurra` al-nuqaya and Al-itqan fi `ulum al-Qur’an. The collection contains various simple introductions to this subject.

Hadith (Table V)
Even more than tafsir, the hadith are a relatively new subject matter in the pesantren. Van den Berg does not even mention hadith at all. The santri did encounter many hadith in the course of his studies - no work of fiqh is thinkable without hadith supporting its argument - but these were, as it were, already processed, selected and quoted according to the needs of the author. Collections of hadith as such - either the six canonical collections or popular compilations like the Masabih al-sunna, which was very popular in India - seem hardly to have been used in the Archipelago of a century ago.[52]

An exception should perhaps be made for the small collections of the ‘Forty Hadith’ type, of which Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi’s Arba`in is one of the models. Various Indonesian ulama have, from the 19th century, compiled or translated such collections of forty, and Djohan Effendi has shown how the contents of these collections changed according to the needs of the times.[53] The present wider interest in hadith - now an obligatory subject in most pesantren - is probably again due to the impact of modernism.[54]

The two great collections of ‘authentic’ (sahih) hadith by Bukhari and Muslim are now standard reference works in many pesantren. The teaching curriculum often includes selections from these works, usually with a commentary. Two popular selections from Bukhari are Al-tajrid al-sarih by Shihabaddin Ahmad al-Sharji al-Zabidi (d. 893/1488) and Jawahir al-Bukhari by Mustafa M. `Imara (GAL S I, 264). The most popular and ubiquitous hadith collections are, however, the Bulugh al-maram and the Riyad al-salihin.

Bulugh al-maram [min adillat al-ahkam], a collection compiled by Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani (d. 852/1449, see GAL II, 67-70), has been translated into Javanese (by A. Subki Masyhadi of Pekalongan) and Indonesian (by Bisri Mustofa of Rembang), and partially also into Malay. Subul al-salam, by Muhammad b. Isma`il al-Kahlani (d. 1182/1769) is a commentary on the Bulugh.

Riyad al-salihin [min kalam sayyid al-mursalin] is a larger collection of hadith, mainly dealing with devotional matters, collected by Yahya b. Sharafaddin al-Nawawi, the compiler of the most famous ‘Forty’. Two different Javanese translations (by Asrori Ahmad and Ahmad Subki Masyhadi), as well as Malay and Indonesian translations exist. This may well be the most popular collection of hadith worldwide.

Nawawi’s Arba`in are used in many pesantren for the less advanced santri, and they are also popular as non-curricular religious literature, in Arabic as well as in Indonesian translation. A rather well-known commentary on these Forty is Al-majalis al-saniyya, by Ahmad b. Hijazi al-Fashani.

Durrat al-nasihin [fi’l-wa`z wa’l-irshad] was compiled by `Uthman b. Hasan al-Khubuwi (d.1224/1804, see GAL II, 489).

Tanqih al-qawl [al-hathith fi sharh lubab al-hadith] is another work by Nawawi Banten, a commentary on Suyuti’s collection Lubab al-hadith (which is printed in the margin of Nawawi’s work).

Mukhtar al-ahadith is a selection compiled by the modern Egyptian author, Ahmad al-Hashimi Bak.

The Ushfuriyah, finally (named after its author, Muhammad b. Abu Bakr al-`Usfuri), is another popular ‘Forty hadith’ collection, with edifying stories added to each hadith.[55]

Critical study of the hadith is as yet almost unknown in Indonesia, certainly in the pesantren environment. Understandably, the Indonesian modernists have shown a greater interest in the (traditional) science of distinguishing false from authentic, ‘weak’ from ‘strong’ traditions (`ilm dirayat al-hadith) than the traditionalists. The two titles occurring in our list (with a few derivatives of the first one) are in fact the only ones to be found in toko kitab.

Minhat al-mughith is a modern text by an Azhar scholar, Hafiz Hasan Mas`udi, and was apparently written for use in Egyptian state-supervised madrasa.

The name Baiquniyah, as usual, refers both to an original work (matan), an untitled short versified text by Taha b. Muhammad al-Fattuh al-Bayquni (d. after 1080/1669, see GAL II, 307), and to various commentaries on it. Most popular among the latter is that by `Atiya al-Ajhuri (d. 1190/1776, see GAL II, 328); this is the work one usually gets when asking for ‘the’ Baiquniyah. Another much encountered commentary is the Taqrirat al-saniyya, by Hasan Muhammad al-Mashshat, who taught in Mecca’s Masjid al-haram in the nineteen thirties and forties, and had many Indonesian students.

Morality and mysticism (Table VI)
The borderline between the subjects of akhlaq and tasawwuf as taught in the pesantren is extremely fuzzy. The same work may be studied under the heading of tasawwuf in one pesantren, and under that of akhlaq in another. The subject of akhlaq also shades into tarbiya, ‘[the imparting of] good manners’; it has connotations of proper, respectful behaviour and unostentatious piety. As the titles in Table VI show, the works on mysticism studied in the pesantren all belong to the orthodox school that also stresses these attitudes. We find here no works of wahdat al-wujud Sufism or other less domesticated brands of mysticism and metaphysics. This may at first sight seem surprising, given the strong mystical strain in traditional Indonesian Islam, and the penchant for metaphysical speculation especially among Javanese. On the other hand, it was not only speculative cosmogonic and mystical theories that appealed to earlier generations of Indonesian ulama, but also rules of proper conduct and hierarchy. Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar, one of the 17th century propounders of wahdat al-wujud, not only describes various dhikr techniques and obliquely refers to mystical doctrines but also, and with greater insistence, stresses unquestioning and unconditional obedience to the teacher as the single most important step on the mystical path.[56] He thus foreshadowed the ‘good manners’ strain of present Indonesian mysticism.

Wahdat al-wujud texts and other ‘heterodox’ works may not be taught in many pesantren anymore, that does not mean that they are not read at all. In several places I found `Abd al-Karim al-Jili’s Al-insan al-kamil (still part of the curriculum of several West Javanese pesantren half a century ago), in Surabaya even Al-futuhat al-makkiyya. These rather difficult Arabic works are at best read by a small elite, but the case is different with some Malay works, such as M. Nafis al-Banjari’s Al-durr al-nafis, which expounds a popular version of wahdat al-wujud and is found in great numbers in the bookshops of South Kalimantan, Aceh and Malaysia.[57]

Similarly, Ghazali may have replaced the more adventurous mystics, but `Abd al-Samad Palimbani seems to have smuggled some of the rejected doctrines into his Malay adaptations of Ghazali’s major works (see below). These Malay works are read in West Java as well as on the outer islands. In contradiction to common assumptions about the religious attitudes of Javanese and non-Javanese Indonesians, it is the Javanese pesantren that is the locus of orthodoxy, while other, speculative mystical doctrines still persist in the outer regions.

The collection contains almost hundred different titles on akhlaq and tasawwuf, but the basic texts that are widely used are relatively few:

Ta`lim al-muta`allim [li tariq al-ta`allum], by Burhan al-Islam al-Zarnuji is a famous (some would say: notorious) work on the proper obedient attitude of the student towards his teacher. For many kyai, this work is one of the very pillars of pesantren education; at a recent discussion of kitab organized by the NU, one of the participants suggested that this is the sort of book that should really be banned because of the passive and uncritical attitudes it inculcates. The reactions give reasons to believe that this work will long remain part of the curriculum. Also available with Javanese and with Madurese translation.

Wasaya [al-aba’ li’l-ibna’], by the Egyptian author Muhammad Shakir (shaykh `ulama al-Iskandariyya, according to the frontispiece), and with a Javanese translation by Bisri Mustofa, is a short text explaining how nice boys wash themselves well, take care of sick relatives, repair their own bicycle tyres, etc.)

Al-akhlaq li’l-banat and Al-akhlaq l’l-banin, in three thin volumes each, are moral lessons for girls and boys, meant to be read at (state) madrasah, written by a `Umar b. Ahmad Barja. I have rather arbitrarily placed the following three texts also into this category, although they are sometimes labeled as works of fiqh `ubudiyya (i.e., concerning the obligations of worship) or (the first) as a hadith collection.

Irshad al-`ubbad [ila sabil al-rashad] is a work by Zayn al-Din b. `Abd al-`Aziz al-Malibari (the grandfather of the author of Fath al-mu`in). Various printed editions of the Arabic text exist, and there is a recent Javanese translation by Misbah b. Zayn al-Mustafa.

Nasa’ih al-`ubbad is yet another work by Nawawi Banten, a sharh of Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani’s Al-nabahat `ala isti`dad. It focuses on the rules for personal conduct, and is often used as an introductory work, for the younger santri, on akhlaq.

Al-adhkar [al-muntakhab min kalam sayyid al-abrar] by Abu Zakariya’ Yahya al-Nawawi contains prescriptions for worship and pious conduct. A Javanese, and recently also an Indonesian translation are available.

The section on tasawwuf is strongly dominated by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and his Ihya, Bidayat al-hidaya and Minhaj al-`abidin. There are various pesantren that specialize in the teaching of the Ihya; all three works mentioned have been translated, at least in part, into several Indonesian languages.

`Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani, who flourished in the mid-18th century, wrote well-known Malay adaptations of the first two, entitled Sayr al-salikin and Hidayat al-salikin, respectively. Without any noticeable awareness of conflict, `Abd al-Samad admitted into these works, especially the Sayr, elements of wahdat al-wujud doctrine from other sources, that seem quite alien to Ghazali’s Sunni mysticism.[58] These works remain popular especially in Sumatra and West Java.

Nawawi Banten wrote an (Arabic) commentary on the Bidaya, entitled Maraqi’l-`ubudiyya, which, judging from the numerous editions existing, is more popular than is suggested by its low score in our list.The Siraj al-talibin is a two-volume Arabic commentary on the Minhaj, by Ihsan b. Muhammad Dahlan of Jampes, Kediri (d. 1952). This work has a high reputation in East Java, despite its low score on the list.

Beside these books, the Sundanese translations of important parts of Ghazali’s works by the great scholar `Abdullah bin Nuh of Bogor (d. 1987) deserve mention.

The Hikam is the well-known collection of Sufi aphorisms by Ibn `Ata’illah al-Iskandari. Numerous translations and commentaries exist in Indonesia: the Hikam Melayu (anonymous), the Syarah Hikam (by M. Ibrahim al-Nafidhi al-Rindi) and the Taj al-`arus by `Usman al-Pontiani in Malay; a Javanese Hikam by Saleh Darat of Semarang, and various modern Indonesian versions, among which the four-volume commentary by the Achehnese K.H. Muhibbuddin Waly deserves mention.

Hidayat al-adhkiya’ [ila tariq al-awliya’], a didactic versified text on practical mysticism by Zayn al-Din al-Malibari, written in 914/1508-9, has long been popular in Java; it is mentioned in the Serat Centini, for instance. Many commentaries are in use in Indonesia. One of the better known is Kifayat al-atqiya’ wa minhaj al-asfiya’ by Sayyid Bakri b. M. Shatta’ al-Dimyati. The prolific Nawawi Banten also wrote a commentary, Salalim al-fudala’, which is printed in the margin of Sayyid Bakri’s Kifaya. There are also Javanese translations and commentaries by Saleh Darat (Minhaj al-atqiya’) and by `Abd al-Jalil Hamid al-Qandali (Tuhfat al-asfiya’), as well as an interlineary Madurese translation (by `Abd al-Majid Tamim of Pamekasan).

The final two works are both by the pious Hadrami author and mystic `Abdallah b. `Alwi al-Haddad, well known in Indonesia as the composer of the ratib Haddad and other pious formulas (d. 1132/1720, see GAL II, 408; S II, 566). He wrote around ten books, mostly on Sufi piety, several of which have come to enjoy popularity in the Archipelago. His Al-risala al-mu`awana [wa’l-muzahara wa’l-muwazara] has for some time been one of the standard texts on proper behaviour and devotional attitude used in Javanese pesantren. It has been translated into Javanese (by Asrori Ahmad) and Malay (by Idris al-Khayat al-Patani), and more recently into Indonesian (by Muhammad al-Baqir, under the title Thariqah menuju kebahagiaan). His other popular work, Al-nasa’ih al-diniyya [wa’l-wasaya’ al-imaniyya], contains further pious admonitions. It has been translated into Malay by one of his descendants, `Alwi b. M. b. Tahir al-Haddad, under the title of Al-silat al-islamiyya.

There is a marked revival of interest in `Abdallah al-Haddad, both in Egypt and, more recently, in Indonesia.[59] Al-risalat al-mu`awana was printed in Egypt in 1930 (and presumably became known in Indonesia in the following decades), while other works were published in the 1970s due to the efforts of the former chief mufti of Egypt, Hasanayn M. Makhluf. In Indonesia, al-Haddad and his works are actively propagated by his fellow Hadrami sayyid, notably the learned Muhammad al-Baqir, who translated several of his works into Indonesian. These books sold surprisingly well, and saw several reprints within the first years after appearance.[60] Recent translations of several works by Ghazali also were a commercial success. Quietist, orthodox Sufism apparently has a wide appeal beyond the pesantren milieu as well — which seems to be a response to the political decline of Indonesian Islam over the past decades.

History of Islam / Texts in praise of the Prophet (Table VII)
The history of Islam is a new subject, not often taught in pesantren, and the range of kitab available is still very limited. Most santri derive their knowledge and awareness of the history of Islam largely from devotional works on the prophet and saints. Of the titles in Table VII, only Nur al-yaqin is a textbook proper; this and the abbreviated Khulasat nur al-yaqin are almost the only serious works of sira (biography of the Prophet) used in the pesantren. The author of the original work is the modern Egyptian Muhammad Hadari Bak; the Khulasa was prepared by `Umar `Abd al-Jabbar, the Meccan author of many madrasah textbooks. These books were at first typical madrasah literature, but are now also studied in quite a few pesantren as well. Two other historical works by the same Muhammad Hadari Bak have been printed in Indonesia and are gaining in popularity: Itmam al-wafa’ fi sirat al-khulafa’, a history of Muhammad’s successors, and Ta’rikh al-tashri` al-islami, a substantial history of the development of Islamic law.

The other two texts listed are well-known devotional works having the Prophet’s birth and ascension to heaven as their topics. The Barzanji, Ja`far al-Barzinji’s Mawlid, is in Indonesia perhaps the most beloved text after the Qur’an itself; the Dardir is Ahmad al-Dardir’s commentary on Najm al-Din al-Ghayti’s version of the Mi`raj. Besides their ritual uses (see the next section), these texts also serve in a number of pesantren as teaching materials. The range of such devotional texts on the Prophet found in the bookshops is much wider than the two listed here: the collection contains over twenty-five of them.[61]The primary use of these books is not educational but devotional and ritual: they are read privately as an act of piety or, more typically, recited communally or at least in public at various ritual occasions. There are other kitab too that serve such non-educational purposes; to conclude our survey, a few words need to be said about the various types and uses of such extra-curricular kitab.

Extra-curricular kitab: devotion, ritual, magic
Not all kitab in the collection belong to the official pesantren curriculum. A considerable number (well over 10%) serve other purposes, which may be roughly lumped together as devotional, ritual and magical: collections of prayers and other pious formulas (wird, pl. awrad) to be recited at particular occasions, guides to the spiritual exercises of various mystical orders, texts in praise of the Prophet or one of the saints to be recited at particular occasions, books for divination, magical handbooks. Such books are extremely popular and are sold in larger numbers than most others.

In many Javanese villages the weekly communal recital of the Burda, the Diba`i or the Barzanji, poems in praise of the Prophet, constitutes one of the major social occasions. The Barzanji and other similar texts are also read at certain life cycle rituals, in fulfillment of vows or to ward off danger. The various manaqib (hagiographies) of `Abd al-Qadir Jilani are used for similar ritual and sometimes exorcistic purposes.[62]

This is not to say that these texts are not used as pious reading matter too; but even when read privately, the emphasis is often upon the merit accumulated or spiritual and material benefits to be gained through this private act rather than on the information contents of the texts. For these purposes, a full understanding of the texts is of course not essential; they are usually recited in Arabic only.[63] Several of the texts have, however, long been available in translations beside the Arabic originals. Busiri’s Burda received a Malay translation as early as the 16th century (Drewes 1955). Javanese, Malay and Sundanese translations of manaqib of `Abd al-Qadir were in use at least from the 19th century on (Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938), along with similar Malay texts on the Prophet and on such saints as [M. b. `Abd al-Karim] Samman.[64] These are all still available, and in addition there are many new translations and commentaries by Indonesian `ulama on the better known Mawlid and Manaqib.[65]

Another important category consists of the books of ‘Islamic magic’. According to close observers, the number of people seeking supernatural support to overcome spiritual, psychological or material problems has increased rather than decreased over the past two decades. The number of dukun seems to have grown, and so has that of kyai and others offering Islamic variants of magical healing and supernatural assistance. Whereas one part of the Muslim community strongly opposes such ‘superstitions’, the mystical-magical remains to perhaps the majority an integral part of the Islamic heritage.

Santris commonly make a strict distinction between tibb (‘medicine’) and hikma (‘occult sciences’), although to most modernists both are magic and unacceptable. Hikma contains explicitly pre-Islamic elements, such as magical squares (wafaq), whereas the amulets of tibb only employ Qur’anic texts. Defenders of tibb proudly argue against modernists that it was one of Ibn Taymiyya’s chief disciples, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who wrote a major work of this discipline, Al-tibb al-nabawi. And even hikma is not so far from the orthodox mainstream as modernists would have it: the great Ghazali wrote a book on magical squares, Al-awfaq, that is still widely used in Indonesia, and the prolific Jalal al-Din Suyuti wrote Al-rahma fi’l-tibb wa’l-hikma. The most influential works of hikma, however, are those by the 12th/13th century North African Shaykh Ahmad b. `Ali al-Buni: Shams al-ma`arif al-kubra and Manba` usul al-hikma. These and similar works (available in local editions) are widely used in Javanese pesantren, although they are not part of the formal curriculum and are rarely taught by the kyai himself. They take a central place in peer learning, however. Older santris experiment together in the various magical techniques set out in these books.

Popular booklets based on these works of hikma, called mujarrabat (‘traditional wisdom’, lit. ‘what has proven effective’), are available in growing numbers and in various languages. They offer prayers, magical formulas and amulets for a long and heterogeneous list of different purposes: health, love, career, protection from evil spirits and traffic accidents. Related popular works list the specific beneficial effects of reciting certain Qur’anic verses and prayers. There is no clear line dividing mujarrabat booklets from the primbon, collections of ‘useful knowledge’, which may consist of the same sort of magical formulas, beside lists of auspicious days and hours, rules of thumb for divination (from dreams, the day on which a woman’s period begins, etc.), lists of supererogatory prayers, etc. Books of these types, catering for a simple and uneducated public, are printed in enormous numbers. Some are in romanized Indonesian now, but the majority are in Malay, Javanese or Sundanese with Arabic characters and seem to target, therefore, the periphery of the pesantren world, the people who have some knowledge of the Arabic script. These simple texts may be of greater influence in shaping popular religious attitudes than the more serious works studied in the pesantren.

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Appendix: The top 100 kitab kuning

Table I. Arabic grammar, tajwid, logic
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level sarf Kailani/Syarah Kailani 2 1 7 0 4 14 `ali Maqshud/Syarah Maqshud 0 1 2 3 5 11 Amtsilatut Tashrifiyah 0 0 0 3 4 7 tsanawi Bina’ 1 0 4 1 0 6 ibtida’i nahw Jurumiyah/Syarah Jurumiyah 3 1 8 9 16 37 tsanawi Imriti/Syarah Imriti 0 0 3 6 12 21 tsanawi Mutammimah 0 1 5 0 7 13 tsanawi Asymawi 0 0 1 0 2 3 Alfiyah 0 0 8 11 11 30 `ali Ibnu Aqil 1 0 0 3 10 14 `ali Dahlan Alfiyah 0 0 1 0 3 4 `ali Qathrun Nada 3 1 0 0 0 4 tsanawi Awamil 1 0 1 1 1 4 ibtida’i/tsanawi Qawaidul I`rab 0 0 0 1 2 3 tsanawi Nahwu Wadlih 0 0 0 2 3 5 tsanawi Qawaidul Lughat 0 0 0 2 2 4 balagha Jauharul Maknun 2 0 4 5 7 18 `ali Uqudul Juman 0 0 3 0 4 7 `ali tajwid Tuhfatul Athfal 0 0 1 1 4 6 tsanawi Hidayatus Shibyan 0 0 0 1 4 5 tsanawi mantiq Sullamul Munauraq 1 0 3 1 5 10 `ali Idlahul Mubham 2 0 1 1 3 7 `ali

Table II. Fiqh and usul al-fiqh
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level fiqh Fathul Muin 2 1 7 6 16 32 `ali Ianatut Thalibin 2 2 0 0 0 4 `ali Taqrib 2 0 6 5 7 20 tsanawi Fathul Qarib 2 1 4 7 9 23 `ali Kifayatul Akhyar 1 0 6 4 7 18 tsanawi/`ali Baijuri 1 0 1 0 1 3 Iqna’ 0 1 1 0 5 7 Minhajuth Thalibin 2 0 2 0 1 5 `ali Manhajuth Thullab 0 0 0 0 1 1 Fathul Wahhab 0 1 5 4 10 20 `ali Mahalli 4 1 1 2 1 9 `ali Minhajul Qawim 0 0 2 2 3 7 Safinah 1 0 6 7 7 21 tsanawi Kasyifatus Saja 0 0 1 0 3 4 Sullamut Taufiq/Syarah Sullam 0 1 5 2 13 21 tsanawi Tahrir 0 1 2 1 5 9 `ali Riyadlul Badiah 0 0 2 1 3 6 Sullamul Munajat 0 0 2 1 2 5 Uqudul Lujain 0 0 1 1 2 4 tsanawi Sittin/Syarah Sittin 0 1 2 0 0 3 Muhadzab 0 0 0 1 2 3 Bughyatul Mustarsyidin 0 0 1 0 2 3 Mabadi Fiqhiyah 0 0 1 2 5 8 tsanawi Fiqih Wadlih 0 0 0 1 3 4 tsanawi Sabilal Muhtadin 0 1 0 0 0 1 usul al-fiqh Waraqat/Syarhul Waraqat 2 1 6 1 2 12 `ali/khawass Lathaiful Isyarat 1 0 3 0 6 10 Jam`ul Jawami` 1 0 2 1 3 7 khawass Luma` 1 0 2 1 3 7 `ali/khawass Asybah wan Nadhair 0 0 1 0 4 5 khawass Bayan 0 0 1 0 2 3 tsanawi/`ali Bidayatul Mujtahid 0 0 2 0 0 1 khawass

Table III. Doctrine (usul al-din, tawhid)
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level tawhid Ummul Barahin 2 0 2 0 1 5 `ali Sanusi 2 0 3 3 3 11 tsanawi Dasuqi 0 1 1 0 5 7 `ali/khawass Syarqawi 1 1 0 0 1 3 Kifayatul Awam 4 1 2 2 8 17 tsanawi/`ali Tijanud Durari 1 0 5 2 3 11 tsanawi Aqidatul Awam 0 0 0 4 9 13 ibtida’i/tsanawi Nurudh Dhulam 0 1 1 0 1 3 tsanawi Jauharut Tauhid 1 0 3 2 1 7 tsanawi Tuhfatul Murid 0 1 0 0 2 3 tsanawi Fathul Majid 2 1 1 2 2 8 khawass Jawahirul Kalamiyah 0 0 1 3 5 9 tsanawi Husnul Hamidiyah 0 0 1 5 2 8 tsanawi Aqidatul Islamiyah 1 0 0 1 2 4 tsanawi

Table IV. Qur’anic exegesis
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level tafsir Jalalain 4 1 9 9 16 39 `ali Tafsirul Munir 0 1 3 2 5 11 `ali Tafsir Ibn Katsir 1 0 3 0 3 7 `ali Tafsir Baidlawi 1 0 1 2 0 4 `ali Jamiul Bayan (Tabari) 0 0 2 0 0 3 khawass Maraghi 0 0 2 1 0 3 `ali/khawass Tafsirul Manar 0 0 2 0 1 3 khawass Tafsir Dep. Agama 0 0 0 1 1 2 tsanawi `ilm tafsir Itqan 0 0 2 0 1 3 `ali Itmamud Dirayah 0 0 0 0 2 2

Table V. Hadith and the science of hadith
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level hadith Bulughul Maram 1 0 6 5 12 24 tsanawi Subulus Salam 1 1 0 0 1 3 Riyadlus Shalihin 1 0 7 6 9 23 `ali/khawass Shahih Bukhari 2 1 6 7 5 21 khawass Tajridush Sharih 0 0 1 1 4 6 `ali Jawahir Bukhari 1 0 0 1 2 6 Shahih Muslim/Syarah Muslim 1 0 7 2 7 17 khawass Arbain Nawawi 3 0 5 1 6 15 tsanawi Majalisus Saniyah 1 0 0 0 2 3 Durratun Nashihin 1 1 2 3 4 11 `ali Tanqihul Qaul 0 1 2 1 1 5 Mukhtarul Ahadits 1 0 2 0 2 5 tsanawi Ushfuriyah 0 1 0 0 2 3 `ilm dirayat al-hadith Baiquniyah/Syarah 2 0 2 1 2 7 tsanawi Minhatul Mughits 0 0 2 1 0 3 `ali

Table VI. Piety and appropriate behaviour (akhlaq, tarbiya) and Sufism (tasawwuf)
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level akhlaq Talimul Mutaallim 0 1 5 4 9 19 tsanawi Wasaya 0 0 1 6 2 9 ibtida’i/tsanawi Akhlaq lil Banat 0 0 1 1 2 4 tsanawi Akhlaq lil Banin 0 0 1 1 1 3 tsanawi Irsyadul Ibad 0 1 1 0 5 7 Nashaihul Ibad 0 0 2 0 4 6 `ali tasawwuf Ihya Ulumiddin 1 2 4 5 12 24 `ali Sairus Salikin 1 1 1 0 0 3 Bidayatul Hidayah 0 0 2 2 8 12 tsanawi Maraqil Ubudiyah 0 1 0 0 1 2 Hidayatus Salikin 1 0 1 0 0 2 Minhajul Abidin 0 3 3 1 3 10 Sirajut Thalibin 0 2 1 0 0 3 Hikam/Syarah Hikam 2 0 1 0 6 9 tsanawi/`ali Hidayatul Adzkiya 0 0 0 1 4 5 `ali Kifayatul Atqiya 0 1 0 0 1 2 Risalatul Muawanah 0 1 1 0 4 6 `ali Nashaihud Diniyah 0 0 1 0 3 4 Adzkar 0 1 1 0 1 3

Table VII. Life histories of the Prophet (sira) and works in praise of the Prophet
region: Sumatra KalSel JaBar JaTeng JaTim total number of pesantren 4 3 9 12 18 46 level tarikh Nurul Yaqin/Khulashah 2 1 2 3 2 19 tsanawi Barzanji 0 1 1 1 0 3 Dardir 0 1 1 0 1 3

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Notes:
[1]Earlier versions of this article were read and commented upon by Abdurrahman Wahid, G.W.J. Drewes, J. Noorduyn and Karel Steenbrink, and numerous others helped me with bits of information. They are not, of course, to be blamed for any mistakes or shortcomings.
[2]These books are kept together as a separate collection in the KITLV library in Leiden. Handlists of these book listed by author’s name, short title or popular appellation (as apart from the full title), subject matter and language have been prepared to give the user easy access and insight into the composition of this collection.
[3]The said agent of Dar al-Fikr has recently (early 1988) started reprinting a few titles in Indonesia as well, under the name of Dar al-Fikr Indonesia.
[4] See Snouck Hurgronje 1889: 386-7, where also a list of the first titles printed is given.
[5]Most of these verses are in Malay, but a few in Arabic, maintaining the pedestrian style of the Malay syair. An example is his verse to introduce the anonymous Malay translation of Ibn `Ata’illah’s Hikam:
Kitab inilah yang patut mengajinya * dan upamanya mas sudah diujinyadan upama pula makanan diidang * dan yang lain itu tudung sajinyadan upama pula buah buahan * isinya dan minyak dalam bijinyakerana iyalah yang menyampai kepada Tuhan * lagi besar pahalanya dan gajinyadan yang dapat ilmunya dan meamalkan * orang itulah sinar dan pujiansyurga itulah kediaman yang kekal * ilmu ini pintunya dan bajinyadan yang jahil dengandia api neraka * selar sangat tikamnya gergajinyaya rabbi kurniakan patuh engkau * bagi tiap tiap hamba mengajinya.
[6]Photomechanical reprints of this Bombay Qur’an are still published in large numbers (by Al-Ma`arif). Clearly legible with its large letters, its format still one of the most popular in the Indonesian book market.
[7]Mission and government-sponsored printing in Malay (of non-Islamic materials) had begun on a moderate scale, in Singapore as well as the Dutch Indies, before mid-century. In Singapore the Arabic script was used, in the Indies initially mostly the Latin alphabet. See Roff 1988: 44 and Hoffmann 1979, esp. pp. 76-89.
[8]On Sayyid Usman, see Snouck Hurgronje 1887b and 1894. Twelve of his numerous works (including the one reviewed in the latter article) are still available in recent reprints published in Jakarta and Surabaya.
[9]Von Dewall 1857. The author had from hearsay that there existed a second native press in Surabaya, but I have not yet seen this confirmed.
[10]See Roff 1980: 44-5; Hamidy 1983; Proudfoot 1986.
[11]Hamidy 1983, p. 69; Abdullah 1985, p. 3. On Zawawi, see Snouck Hurgronje 1889, p. 253.
[12]Yunus 1979, pp. 66-7 gives titles of textbooks written in the 1920s and 1930s by authors associated with Sumatera Thawalib. Several of those by Mahmud Yunus himself and Abdul Hamid Hakim are still used in madrasah all over Indonesia. A four-volume fiqh work in Arabic by the latter author, Al-mu`in al-mubin, was also translated in Malay and is still being used in Malaysia and southern Thailand.
[13]In this connection Schrieke 1921 mentions some ten books that were locally printed (at Dutch presses) in Padang, Fort De Cock (Bukittinggi) and Padang Panjang, and several journals. Other participants in the polemics published in Mecca and Cairo. During the 1920s and 1930s, more than 10 different Muslim publishers operated in various towns of West Sumatra (Sanusi Latief of Padang, personal communication).
[14]These paragraphs are based on interviews with the doyen of kitab publishing, Muhammad bin `Umar Bahartha (who founded in 1948 and still directs Al-Ma`arif of Bandung, the largest house), Usman bin Salim Nabhan of Surabaya, and several younger publishers.
[15]In the first half of the twentieth century, the Netherlands Indies government levied import duties on paper but not on printed books, which gave Singapore publisher Sulayman Mar`i an edge over his competitors established in the Indies. Indonesia now produces high-quality paper itself, and labour costs and overhead are very high in Singapore. Not only Al-Haramayn, but also the old house of Sulayman Mar`i was closed down in the early 1980s.
[16]Not to be confused with the Egyptian publisher of the same name, with which there are no formal relations.
[17]In Kelantan, the script commonly used is the Arabic not the Latin; it is therefore less easy to distinguish kitab from other books there.
[18]Detailed information on kitab published in Patani in Matheson and Hooker 1988.
[19]In some traditional pesantren in East Java, the santri "study" such manzum works by rhythmically reciting them together, to the accompaniment of tambourines and clapping hands - which has developed into a typically Muslim art form.
[20]This is in imitation of what the santri’s handwritten textbooks used to look like: having copied the Arabic text, they would listen to the kyai’s explanations and scribble their translations between the lines.
[21]On Dahlan see Snouck Hurgronje 1887, al-`Attas 1979, II, pp. 700-12; on Sayyid Bakri and his major work I`anat al-talibin, Snouck Hurgronje 1889, pp. 253, 259-60.
[22]On Nawawi Banten, see Snouck Hurgronje 1889, pp. 362-7; Chaidar 1978. Sarkis (1928) lists 38 printed works by Nawawi. On his major work, Al-tafsir al-munir, see Johns 1984 and 1988.
[23]A brief biographical sketch of Bajuri, who was shaykh al-islam of Cairo, in Snouck Hurgronje’s Verspreide Geschriften, vol. II, p. 417; an extensive discussion of his widely used work on fiqh in Snouck Hurgronje 1899.
[24]His biographer Abdullah (1987, pp. 45-6) mentions 38 works, several of which seem however to be lost.
[25]See Danuwijoto 1977. Most of Saleh’s major works (Danuwijoto lists 12) are out of print and could not be collected.
[26]K.H. Mahfudz has, among present-day kyai, the reputation of having been one of the most learned Javanese `ulama ever. He was the highly respected teacher of several of NU’s founding `ulama (including Hasyim Asy’ari). Little has been written about his life; there are short notices in `Abbas 1975: 460 and `Abd al-Jabbar 1385: 321-2.
[27]On Mahmud Yunus, who was the first Indonesian graduate of Egypt’s Dar al-`ulum and a passionate educationalist, see Abdullah 1971: 141-2, 151-4, 213-4, and Yunus 1979, passim.
[28]For the differences between these institutions of Islamic education, see Steenbrink 1974; remarks on the curriculum of both in Yunus 1979, passim.
[29]See Zarkasyi 1985 for a few examples.
[30]E.g. Departemen Agama 1977; Prasodjo et al. 1978: 51-68; Yunus 1979, passim; Zarkasyi 1985.
[31]Zuhri 1974, esp. pp. 30-43, and Zuhri 1987: 30-32, 95-105, 120-130.
[32]On West Javanese pesantren: notably Prasodjo et al.1978: 51-68; Amidjaja et al. 1985: 41-43; on Central and East Javanese pesantrens, there is a series of monographs prepared by the Research and Development Desk of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, prepared during the years 1980-1983.
[33] “Sikap dan pandangan hidup ulama Indonesia”, a LIPI-IPSK research project carried out in 1986-88. The present author took part in this project as a consultant for research methods.
[34]Riau and Palembang data are based on interviews with various local `ulama, those on Pariaman on interviews and observation in loco, all in the context of the said research project. Data on the PERTI curriculum are taken from Yunus 1979: 100.
[35]There are as yet few pondok pesantren in Kalimantan; they are a recent development, following the East Javanese example. The level of teaching is still relatively low. Before these pesantren existed, one studied privately with a teacher, using mainly Malay kitab (especially M. Arshad al-Banjari’s works).
[36]Almost all works mentioned by van den Berg are still in use and are among the more popular texts. Drewes, on the other hand, lists many titles that are not used now, and the books that are most frequently used now do not stand out among his list. In library collections, the relatively rare generally tends to be over-, the common under-represented (the rare appears, after all, much more worth collecting). Neither van den Berg nor Drewes mentions the Kailani and the Maqshud with their commentaries, the Amtsilah, and Bina, by Asymawi; Drewes mentions Dahlan’s work as a commentary on the Jurumiyah rather than the Alfiyah. Neither author mentions any work on balagha; it is unclear whether there are no manuscript works on the subject in the libraries or that Drewes does not consider this as part of grammar.
[37]I owe information on the curriculum of traditional Kurdish madrasa to my friends M.E. Bozarslan and M. Tayfun, both from northern Kurdistan, and Fadil Ahmad Karim from southern Kurdistan. Snouck Hurgronje (1883) describes a West Sumatran manuscript textbook containing, in order, a list of grammatical expressions, inflection tables, an untitled text that seems to be (part of) the Izzi, the Awamil and a commentary on the Jurumiyah (by Shaykh Khalid b. `Abdallah al-Azhari. The last work is still popular all over Sumatra, under the name of Syekh Khalid or Azhari, or by its proper title, Tamrin al-tullab.
[38]In several editions, the Bina and Izzi are printed together with other introductory works on sarf: Al-maqsud and Al-shafiya (by Jamal al-Din b. al-Hajib, d. 646/1249, see GAL I, 303-6), and two anonymous texts, Al-marah and Amthila mukhtalifa. All these texts are quite short: the entire collection is no more than 72 pages long.
[39]Van den Berg and Drewes give Ibn Hisham’s full name as [Abu] `Abdallah [Muhammad] b. Yusuf b. Hisham, but the title page of Indonesian editions of his work call him Jamal al-Din b. Hisham al-Ansari. Commentaries on this work available in Indonesia are Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Fakihi’s Mujid al-nida’ and Ahmad al-Sija’i’s hashiya upon the latter, with further glosses by Shams al-Din al-Anbabi.
[40]Not murawniq as Brockelmann (S II, 705) has it.
[41]Thus Shaykh Yasin bin `Isa al-Padani, mudir of the Indonesian madrasa Darul Ulum in Mecca (who was considered as the doyen of Indonesia’s traditional `ulama because of this position) in interview, 6-3-1988; similarly K.H. Sahal Mahfudz, Abdurrahman Wahid and other leading `ulama. These preferences are not the same among all Shafi`i Muslims; among the Kurds, for instance, Sharbini’s Mughni’l-muhtaj is the ultimate work of reference, besides the Minhaj itself.
[42]A very much abridged translation of the Tuhfa, in Javanese characters, was edited by S. Keijzer in 1853 and reprinted by Roorda (1874).
[43]According to knowledgeable Kurdish informants, Fath al-mu`in is the most popular textbook, and the extensive commentary on it, I`anat al-talibin, the most often used work of reference in the Kurdish madrasa.
[44]I found one Madurese and two different Javanese interlinear translations of the Safina, and two versified versions. Ahmad b. Siddiq of Lasem, Pasuruan (East Java) wrote the nazm version Tanwir al-hija’, of which a Madurese translation exists, and which received a further commentary by Muhammad `Ali b. Husayn al-Makki al-Maliki entitled Anarat al-duja’. Kyai Sahal Mahfudz of Kajen (Central Java) wrote a commentary Fayd al-haja’ on the other nazm version, Nayl al-raja’.
[45] As attested by Schrieke 1921: 298-300. The interest in usul fiqh was also fed by the emerging conviction that the gate of ijtihad was not necessarily closed and that taqlid is unworthy of the intellectually adult person.
[46]Brockelmann incorrectly compounds the latter two authors into one (GAL S I, 672 no.9).
[47]Translated into English in MacDonald 1903: 315-351.
[48]For a discussion of the contents of some texts of this kind, see Nor bin Ngah 1983: 13-18.
[49]Peter Riddell (1984) has shown that the Tarjuman (or at least those sections of it that he has studied) is not, as was taken for granted by both orientalists and many Muslims (including the Tarjuman’s publishers), an adaptation of Baydawi’s tafsir but largely a straightforward translation of that by the two Jalal, with interpolations taken from Baydawi and from Khazin.
[50]On these two tafsir see Jansen 1980. `Abduh’s tafsir, later completed by Rida, was an original work of modernist exegesis. Jansen call’s Maraghi’s work ‘an elaborate, complete, mainly philological Koran commentary […] a lucid but not original work’ (1980: 77).
[51]Critical comments on this work, especially because of the poverty of sources consulted, in Johns 1984: 158.
[52]It is perhaps significant that in Snouck Hurgronje’s Adviezen there is only one reference to hadith, which moreover does not concern Indonesia but Arabia.
[53]Djohan Effendi, "Tilikan singkat terhadap berbagai kumpulan hadits Nabi Muhammad", paper presented at the seminar "Pandangan dan Sikap Hidup Ulama Indonesia", LIPI, Jakarta, 24-25 February 1988.
[54]Cf. similar observations in Steenbrink 1974, p. 166.
[55]The journalist Syu’bah Asa published an Indonesian translation of this collection, intending it to show other Indonesians something of pesantren culture.
[56]Almost all Sufi anecdotes and sayings of great shaykhs that he quotes come down to the same moral of complete surrender to the teacher. Some of Yusuf’s works are summarized in Tudjimah CS 1987.
[57]Short summary of the contents in Abdullah 1980, 107-121; analysis in Mansur 1982.
[58]For a good survey, see Quzwain 1985, esp. 37-51.
[59]See, for instance, Panji Masyarakat no.556 (1-11-1987), pp. 50-51 and no. 562 (1-1-1988), pp. 71-2. A biographical notice on al-Haddad, by his editor Hasanayn M. Makhluf, in the preface of his Al-da`wa al-tamma (in the collection).
[60]Published by Mizan in Bandung (directed by al-Baqir’s son, Haidar Bagir), which also publishes the Iranian thinkers Shari`ati and Mutahhari and in general targets on a public of young, well educated and committed Muslims. A few minor texts by al-Haddad were brought out in Indonesian translation by other publishers.
[61]These include mawlid by Barzinji, `Azb, Diba`i, Jamal al-Din al-Jawzi, `Ali b. M. al-Habshi and Sayyid Usman, the Qasidat al-burda by Busiri, Isra’-mi`raj narrations by Najm al-Din Ghayti and by Da’ud b. `Abdallah al-Patani, and various commentaries and translations of these works (four different Javanese translations of the Barzanji alone).
[62]There exist also manaqib of Baha’ al-Din Naqshband, Muhammad [b. `Abd al-Karim] Samman and Ahmad al-Tijani, but their use is largely (though not entirely) restricted to the mystical orders associated with these shaykhs, whereas `Abd al-Qadir is almost universally venerated. Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938 is still the most important study of `Abd al-Qadir’s manaqib; the Hikayat Seh (based on Yafi`i’s Khulasat al-mafakhir) to which they devote most attention, is now, however, far surpassed in popularity by Barzinji’s Lujjayn al-dani and `Abd al-Qadir al-Arbili’s Tafrih al-khatir and commentaries on these two texts.
[63]See however Drewes & Poerbatjaraka 1938: 31-3, on the recitation of the Hikayat Seh in regional languages.
[64] Such popular tales on the life of the Prophet include well-known stories as Hikayat nur Muhammad, Nabi bercukur, Nabi wafat; the Hikayat Samman narrates miracles of Shaykh Samman.
[65]The collection contains no less than four different Javanese translations of the Barzanji. For a list of 20th century commentaries on and translations of the Barzanji and of a manaqib by the same author (not all represented in the collection) see van Bruinessen 1987: 48-9.

http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/kitab_kuning.htm

Javanese Santri Islam

2008-11-20T19:10:00.000+07:00

Gary Dean, June 1999

The Western aversion and distrust towards Islam runs deep, in contrast to how 'friendlier' religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism are often considered.[1] Even Westerners better informed about Islam have their concerns, so it is probably not simply a case of a 'misunderstood' religion. Many see Islam as an inherently undemocratic religion, placing restrictions on, for example, women's rights or freedom of religion.[2] To assert that understanding leads to tolerance is not necessarily true. Islam confronts many of the foundations of Western liberal-democratic culture, and by its very nature does not lend itself to be co-opted into the pluralistic, 'tolerant' frameworks of liberal Western societies.

Islam in Java is extremely diverse in the manner of its expression, and highly variable in terms of depth of commitment to the religion. The oft-quoted figure that 90% of the Javanese population embraces Islam is extremely misleading, and in fact, wrong. It is perhaps true that 90% of the Javanese population hold an identity card (KTP) stating that Islam is their religion. However given the lack of religious freedom in Indonesia,[3] the life-threatening danger of not professing a government-approved religion, and pressure from within the Ministry of Religion and Islamists to inflate the number of Muslims in Indonesia for political reasons, this 90% figure should be summarily dismissed as an untruth.

Muslims in Java are usually divided vertically according to their level of identification with Islam; ie, Geertz's abangan/santri dichotomy, with the santri much more closely identifying themselves as Muslim. In addition to this, there is also a horizontal traditionalist/modernist dimension within Javanese Islam.

So what constitutes a santri Muslim in Java? And how are they differentiated from other Javanese who call themselves Muslim? Originally a santri was simply a student or follower within an Islamic school called a pesantren (literally, "place of the santri") headed by a kyai master. The word 'santri' referred to persons who removed themselves from the secular world in order to concentrate on devotional activities and mystical matters, and pesantren were the focus of such devotion.[4] It was only later that the word santri was used to describe that particular class within Javanese society that identified strongly with Islam, distinct from the more nominal Islam of the abangan and priyayi. And indeed, the word 'santri' used to describe a class probably had a lot more to do with the influence of Geertz himself on how Javanese think about themselves. In fact, in common conversation, the word muslimin[5] is far more likely to be used to distinguish 'santri' Javanese from other groups within society.

Further complicating this matter is that not all santri are alike; within this group itself there exists a wide variety of belief and interpretation of what constitutes 'Islam'. To some extent this reflects the variety of belief held by Muslims the world over, and is generally characterised by a division between 'traditionalist' and 'modernist' outlooks. It can also be depicted as a division between an Islam that has been absorbed to become an integral part of a local culture, and a 'puritan' Islam that sees such cultural adaptation as being contrary to the original aesthetic.

Islam in Java eventually developed into two Islamic traditions that are apparent today; a Javanese Islam with its syncretic characteristics, and a 'puritan', modernist Islam. The first is an Islam within which is infused with a complex mix of animist-Hindu-Buddhist beliefs and concepts, and which is inclined to mysticism. The second is relatively freer of these syncretic accretions, and is much closer to the dogma of the defining Arabian orthodoxy.[6]

Islam did not arrive in Java in its pure, Arabian form.[7] One of the main reasons that Islam was able to take root in Java was due to the particular kind of Islam, Sufism, that emphasised with local traditions and customs, and was itself quite compatible with the pre-existing and highly developed Javanese mystical outlook. Islam was thus introduced with relatively little upheaval into the existing cultural, social and political structures.[8] In addition, amongst the Hindu-Buddhist nobility, Sufi Islam offered a credible mysticism as an alternative or additional source of mystical power and political legitimation[9]; Islam could be integrated into the wider Javanese search for magical powers.[10]

Because of its mystical outlook, Sufi Islam was more easily incorporated into the traditional Javanese worldview. Towards the end of the 19th century the whole of Java could be considered 'Islamised',[11] however the intensity of this process was uneven across the island. Santri culture was much more concentrated in the trading cities of the north coast, and in cities more generally rather than the countryside.[12] Santri life-styles only really influenced those neighbouring rural settlements where pesantren had been established.[13]

With the development of the modernist movement within Islam, starting with the Wahabie movement in Egypt, and with the increasing number of Javanese Muslims undertaking the Hajj to Makkah after the opening of the Suez Canal,[14] came an increasing awareness that Javanese Islam had absorbed many elements which could be considered in opposition to the 'pure' Islam of Arabia. Santri's began to more consciously differentiate themselves from those holding traditional Javanese outlooks, considering them as irreconcilable with the teachings or the aesthetic expressed in the Koran, and thus increasingly polarising the santri from the abangan. Over the past two decades in particular Javanese society has undergone a process of Islamisation, moving generally towards a deeper understanding and commitment to Islam in the modernist santri style.[15] This has led to further polarisation of the abangan from the santri in contemporary Java.[16]

However, the santri should not be considered as an homogenous group, as they are themselves polarised along traditionalist/modernist lines. It is usually difficult to immediately differentiate 'mystically inclined' traditionalist santri from modernist 'orthodox'[17] santri. Both may well observe the five pillars of Islam, and just as importantly, strongly identify themselves as Muslim.

So what is it that differentiates the Javanese santri from the rest of the population? Essentially, differences can be reduced to identity. Santri consciously identify themselves as Muslims, and attempt as far as possible to live in accordance to their own understanding of Islam, whether this be the traditional syncretic Islam, the purist Islam of the modernist, or mixtures of both.

In terms of belief, the typical santri would adhere to the basic tenants of Islam as laid down within Koran, and the Sunnah, which comprises the Syrah (Mohammed's life story) and the Hadith (Mohammed's saying and customs). The Koran is considered to be the literal word of God, and thus cannot be doubted in any way. The Hadith, however, can be the subject of debate and difference of opinion, and it very often is. Consisting of literally hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of separate sayings and customs, and written or conveyed by numerous authors, the Hadith is a hotbed of contradiction, dispute, xenophobia and occasionally, downright weirdness.[18]

In terms of their day-to-day behaviour, the santri closely adhere to the formal requirements of the religion, the most obvious of which is solat, the ritual prayer undertaken at specific times five times a day. More than anything else, it is the conscientious performance of solat that separates the santri from the abangan. According to Islamic law solat is wajib 'ain (absolutely compulsory), gaining merit for performance, and punishment for its non-performance.[19] Santri frequently live in areas surrounding mosques called kauman. Quite apart from a providing a sense of community, living close to a mosque means that the calls to prayer are clearly heard to ensure that every solat is performed.

Also wajib 'ain is fasting during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. During this month every able Muslim must abstain from food, drink, sex, immoral acts, and negative thinking from dawn to sunset. In contrast to solat, many abangan also follow the fast during this month, though perhaps not as seriously as their santri cousins. Koentzereningerat (1985) claims that Agami Jawi (abangan) Muslims who do not perform solat or give zakat seldom neglect to fast during the entire month of Ramadan, because it is in accordance with the indigenous idea of tirakat, of deliberately seeking out hardship and discomfort for religious reasons.[20]

The contemporary Javanese santri can aspire to performing the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, at least once in their lifetime, usually when they are older. The Indonesian government though the Ministry of Religion provides highly organised packages to the Holy Land for reasonable cost.[21] As a consequence, the high status associated with someone who had undertaken the Hajj in days past has now diminished considerably. The honorific title 'Haji' is now very rarely used when addressing or referring to someone verbally, though the abbreviated title ("H.") will often be used in written forms.

Externally, differences in dress are nearly always apparent in the contemporary santri. Muslimah in particular stand apart from non-santri by the wearing of a jilbab (full headdress covering the head, ears, and neck, leaving only the face visible). Older muslimah, or for the more 'liberal' female santri, a less severe kerudung is often substituted, covering only the head leaving much of the hair, neck and ears still visible. Headdress is worn whenever the muslimah is outside the house, or whenever she is in the presence of any males apart from her husband, sons, father and brothers. (Some muslimah are less strict about this within their own home.) Muslimah will frequently absent themselves whenever male guests come to visit, partly due to the reserve that the muslimah is expected to show, but often also because they do not want to go to the trouble of wearing their head-dress in order to meet the guest.

Islam defines an awrah,[22] or areas of the body considered 'private', for both sexes. The muslimah must cover all her body, except for her face and hands.[23] Long, loose-fitting dresses or slacks are usually worn, though in Java many muslimah also commonly wear jeans along with a long, loose-fitting shirt. Basically, the female form must be so covered as to obscure the shape of the breasts,[24] hips and buttocks, so as not to arouse the passions or attention of males. This concept of the awrah is also extended to female behaviour, with the muslimah expected to guard ('cover') her voice and her physical movements, and to avoid drawing undue attention to herself.

The Javanese santri male also wears certain types of clothing, however these are not prescribed by Islam, traditional or otherwise, nor are they worn all the time. The male awrah is much less restrictive, between the waist and the thighs, but it is generally considered more polite to completely cover the body, arms and legs. The gamis is a type of loose-fitting, long-sleeved, round-collared shirt worn by santri men, often for formal religious occasions or for Friday Prayers where it is accompanied with a chequered sarung. The peci, though not traditionally associated with Javanese Islam, must nowadays be considered part of male santri dress, although abangan Muslims also frequently wear it.[25]

Santri will frequently pepper their speech with expressions of an Arabic flavour, even (perhaps especially) when communicating with non-Muslims or abangan. Bismillahirrohmannirrahim ('In the name of God the All Merciful') is an expression used before the commencement of any task, however large or small. This phrase precedes every surah within the Koran. The use of this phrase is, however, not limited to santri Muslims; abangan Muslims also frequently use it. Tasks such as starting a motorbike, driving a nail into a wall, sex, speeches, and the slaughtering of meat animals, will all be preceded with Bismillah as a remembrance that everything, every action and every word, should be done for God in the name of God.

Assalamwallaikum, along with its reply, Wallaikumsalam, is used when meeting, greeting and farewelling people, and is also frequently used as a formal opening greeting for speeches.[26] Strangely, use of this expression by public officials has declined dramatically since the fall of General (Ret.) HM Soeharto in May of 1998.

Santri consider any expression of certainty about the future to be slightly arrogant, and very often use the term Insyaallah ("God willing") to prefix any statement of positive intent or prediction, or agreement to do something. This expression is also sometimes used as a polite way of saying 'no', or for expressing ambiguity in answer to a question pertaining to something to be done in the future. Insyaallah also expresses what some see as a rather negative fatalism, allowing Muslims to avoid personal responsibility.[27]

Contemporary santri Islam, in fact modernist Islam in general, is very much an 'outward' religion. The inner dimensions are generally not stressed, and when they are spoken of it is in terms of a very separate 'compartment' of Islam. The modernist aesthetic has had a big impact upon the more mystically-inclined traditionalist Islam, especially over the past two decades. Ritual, outward social behaviour, language and religious identity overshadow the inner dimensions. Sufism and the tarekat, although acknowledged, are now viewed with either suspicion or awe. For the vast majority of santri Muslims the only link to mystical dimensions and practices is at funeral ceremonies, where dhikir mediation is performed.

Santri Islam in general emphasises ritual, whilst mysticism, in whatever its form, stresses inner, spiritual, or the vertical axis of religion. Santri are thus often perceived as emphasising the material, literal, or the horizontal axis. The mystic aspires to direct experience with God rather than mere belief or mechanical ritual. Sufi texts make a distinction between lahir (outer aspects) and batin (inner aspects), and that the outer meaning of the Koran concerns the regulation of outward behaviour (lahir), whilst its inner meaning (batin) concerns the mystical path and the quest for knowledge about Allah.[28]

Mysticism and magic have always formed a basis of culture for all Javanese, irrespective of their professed outlook. Santri Muslims will often make reference to indigenous beliefs, even whilst at the same time invoking the superiority of Islamic belief. Many avowedly modernist Muslims sometimes ascribe matters to Islam that in fact have their basis within traditional beliefs. At the unconscious level many Javanese beliefs linger in the minds of the santri; Nyi Rorol Kidul, the Goddess of the Southern Sea, can still strike fear into their hearts, as can the power of Kejawen mystics. Many santri see no contradiction in consulting a dukun to cure their ailments, or in believing that guna-guna ("black magic") is often used in matters concerning love relationships, or that manusia harimau, people who transform themselves into tigers, inhabit some villages. Indigenous beliefs may tend to fill some of the spiritual vacuum left behind by modernist Islam.

Javanese santri Islam is not monochromic; there is great variability in the way that it is expressed, and in the depth of commitment and knowledge of its adherants. However indigenous mystical beliefs persist in the subconscious of all Javanese, and many traditional practices and ceremonies are still performed,[29] albeit only in a formal manner. Javanese society has become increasingly 'santrified' over the past few decades, and the modernist expression of the religion has greatly influenced, outwardly at least, the more mystically-inclined traditionalist Islam. Despite this apparent modernity, however, Indonesian Islam needs to be considered on its own terms, and not just as a branch of Middle Eastern Islam.

Notes
[1] Keith Eames et al (1998), Social and Religious Trends in Asia Pacific Security,
http://www.acdss.gov.au/acdss/confrnce/1998/98social.htm
[2] Eames et al (1998)
[3] Of course, there is 'freedom of religion' in Indonesia, unfortunately there is no freedom from religion.
[4] Robert J. Kyle (1995), Honors thesis 'Rethinking Javanese Mysticism: A Case Study of Subud Mysticism', Dept of Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University, Canberra, 1995, http://artalpha.anu.edu.au/kylero/RJK_hp/chap1.htm
[5] Or muslimah when referring to females.
[6] Kyle (1995)
[7] Franz Magnis-Suseno (1997), Javanese Ethics and World-view: the Javanese Idea of the Good Life, PT Gramedia, Jakarta: 35
[8] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 35
[9] Kyle (1995)
[10] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 35
[11] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 37
[12] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 38
[13] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 38
[14] Magnis-Suseno (1997): 39
[15] MC Ricklefs (1993), A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300, McMillan, London: 308
[16] Some authors take a quite different view of this, claiming (like Ricklefs: 308) that the divisions between the aliran are now less clear, and that such terms as santri and abangan are now anachronisms. I don't go along with this view; the recent elections should, I think, be proof enough that the aliran are alive and well in Javanese society.
[17] I use the word 'orthodox' here to indicate the Arabian rather than the traditionalist Javanese orthodoxy.
[18] A few modernist Muslim authors, in all seriousness, go as far to say that the Hadith should be completely abandoned. See Kassim Ahmad (1986), Hadith: A Re-Evaluation, Monotheist Productions International, Tucson
[19] Mohammed Rifa'I (1976), Risalah Tuntunan Shalat Lengkap, CV Toha Putra, Semarang: 9
[20] Koentzereningerat (1985), 'Javanese Religion' in Javanese Culture, OUP Singapore, ch 5: 370
[21] This last year the cost for an ordinary pilgrim was less than Rp20.000.000, covering air fares, accommodation, food, and guidance. Pilgrims usually stay in the Holy Land for a total of three months.
[22] Or aurat in Bahasa Indonesia.
[23] This too, is subject to wide interpretation. As a side note, in supposedly austere Malaysia the arms of Muslim (ie, Malay) women are nearly always left exposed, due almost certainly to a problem of language. In Malay, 'hand' and 'arm' are often not differentiated, being referred to singularly as 'tangan'. This also extends through to Malaysian English, where the word 'arm' is rarely used, and the word 'hand' used to mean either the hand or the arm or both.
[24] For most Javanese women this does not present a great challenge.
[25] I think it would be difficult nowadays to find a non-Muslim wearing a peci, and indeed I personally know of some Javanese Christians who would not be caught dead in one, so strong is the Islamic identification. Strangely, I have known several santris who strongly deny the peci's solely Islamic association, insisting that anyone can wear one regardless of their religion.
[26] Muslim boutiques in Java sell "Assalamwallaikum" doorbells. Even Islam has its kitsch.
[27] John Bousfield (1983), "Islamic Philosophy in Southeast Asia", in MB Hoober ed, Islam in Southeast Asia, Brill, Leiden: 99
[28] Kyle (1995)
[29] One such example is the tingkeban ritual marking the passing of six months of pregnancy that is celebrated by many santri women

Reference: http://okusi.net/garydean/works/santri.html

The Pesantren at Surialaya

2008-11-20T18:38:00.001+07:00

Karen Petersen

At four a.m., as the chilly mist cloaks the isolated and fertile valley surrounding Mount Sawal in west central Java, the call to prayer sounds from a lone minaret. From its top, outlined in brilliant neon in the black night blazes the word "Allah" in Arabic script. Here in the small village of Surialaya, nestled among the rice paddies and bamboo groves, is an Indonesian Islamic school known as a pesantern. Over the past hundred years, the pesantren system has played a key role in the Islamization of many Javanese communities.

The Surialaya pesantren is located just off a small country road, its entrance framed by an arching ironwork sign. The natural surroundings are rustic and peaceful; it is an ideal place for study and contemplation. At the center of a group of brick houses is a large mosque surmounted by a 25-meter-high (82-foot) minaret, built in 1970 at a cost of 2.5 million rupiahs - then equivalent to $7350, a large sum in Indonesia. There is also a spacious hall where the kyahi, or leader, receives his guests each day; nearby are basic dormitories and dining rooms for both girls and boys. The style of the place encourages a simple, frugal way of living.

The pesantren of Surialaya is one of the few religious schools in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country - that draws many of its followers from different social strata, occupations and regions. Its members are an important social force, in that they have developed there a spirit of cooperation aimed at improving the spiritual lot of the less fortunate. One 23-year-old student, Muhammad Norman Zaidi, is attending the school in order to learn Arabic. But he is no ordinary student: He is the son of the governor of Sarawak, and intends to pursue a career in politics. "I like politics - it's exciting," he says. "Whenever you do something, large or small, good or bad, it's noticed. To be a politician is not only to be an administrator but to involve yourself with the people." Zaidi is particularly impressed by the school's ruling principle of ijtihad, an Arabic word translated as a positive struggle to become better, without fatalism.

The Islamic pesantren system ranges from small local kindergartens to boarding schools at the junior and senior high school and academy levels. Supplementary Islamic instruction is given in the evening to students from local elementary schools. Pesantrens are funded privately, with occasional assistance from the Indonesian government, and tuition varies according to the student's ability to pay. One could conceivably spend 20 years of one's life at a pesantren - from age four (kindergarten) to graduation at age 24 from the academy. The curriculum is largely Islamic, although the school is also required by the state to teach secular courses.

The Indonesian word pesantren, or per-sanlri-en, means "the place where the wise men are," santri being a derivative of the Sanskrit word shastri, "a man learned in the scriptures." The Javanese pesantrens, in Hindu-Buddhist times, were monasteries, the centers of spiritual life and guidance in the villages. Islam took root on a large scale in the 15th and 16th centuries, brought by Muslim traders from the Arabian Peninsula. Buddhism and its predecessor on the island, Hinduism, were gradually displaced. In the 17th century, as Muslim influences of different kinds increased, the monasteries underwent a gradual transition to become what we would now call village counseling centers. Cross-pollinated by the disciplines of the monk and the mystic, this function remained basically intact for two centuries. A man could go to the kyahi, the cultural and political leader, for religious instruction or for personal help.

In the latter part of the 19th century, in the last century of Indonesia's 350 years of Dutch colonial rule, the economies of the villages began to change. Java was no longer the remote eastern boundary of Islam, thanks to the steamship and the Suez Canal. The pilgrimage to Makkah now took less than a month and was possible for more people. As the pilgrims returned, a purer, less mystical Islam came to Java, and with it the desire for more rigorous religious education. The wealthier village members began to turn the centers into schools for their children - boarding schools that provided Islamic education while still maintaining their role as the spiritual nuclei of the villages. At the turn of this century, the first modern pesantrens emerged from this complex balance among family duties and education, community and school.

Shaykh Abdullah Mubarak,, better known as Abah Sepuh, "the old kyahi," founded one of the. most significant of these pesantrens in Surialaya in 1905, with a starting enrollment of ten students. Today, under the charismatic Abah Anom, Mubarak's son/the school boasts an average yearly enrollment of 1200,; with students and faculty coming from Bandung, Jakarta, Palembang and as far away as Malaysia. The Surialaya pesantren also has branches on other Indonesian islands, and centers throughout Southeast Asia.

Now in his early 70's, Abah Anom is an expert in Islamic law and theology; he speaks fluent Arabic in addition to his national language, Bahasa Indonesia, and one of Indonesia's 300 regional tongues, Sundanese. He has organized a training course for preachers who, once their training is complete, become his deputies in various districts of Indonesia. Abah Anom's teaching emphasizes observance of the law (shari'ah) as revealed in the Qur'an and amplified by the sayings and the practices of the Prophet Muhammad. Although his deputies are not linked by formal ties, they, and the various regions where they preach, are held together by respect for his learning and authority as well as by their common devotions and their shared enthusiasm.

Today's Indonesian society is rapidly changing. Though four out of five Indonesians still make their living on the land, poverty and riches, traditional ways and modern technology rub shoulders in teeming cities like Jakarta. Java, with 100 million inhabitants, is twice as densely populated as Japan; Indonesia's 13,667 islands altogether have a population of more than 188 million, of whom 92 percent are Muslim. These circumstances place ever-renewed demands on religion to remain relevant human needs as these needs change with the times. The harmony that prevails in the Surialaya pesantren today is largely due to Abah Anom's skill at looking beyond apparent conflicts to the lasting relevance of the Islamic revelation, which has permitted, even encouraged, good relations with both civil and military authorities. During the Dutch colonial period and during Japanese occupation of Indonesia in World War II, many pesantrens were hotbeds of rural protest or political resistance - indeed, during the Surialaya pesantren's first 30 years, until the departure of the Dutch, it was constantly regarded as suspect by the government of the day, and at one time was ordered to close down. Even since Indonesia won its independence in 1949, both local and national government officials have followed all pesantrens closely, aware of their political potential.

One of the pesantren teachers, a young man named Basyar, is heading toward the graveyard where the tomb of the school's founder, Abah Sepuh, is located. Basyar, himself a product of the pesantren system, is dressed traditionally in dark trousers and an elaborate batik kemeja shirt; on his head sits a snug-fitting, woven black hat called a pichi. As he climbs down the winding stone stairway, Basyar suddenly stops and turns toward the courtyard below with an expansive gesture. He seems filled with the power and promise of all youth. "Islam is my life," he says quietly. "I have never even considered another way. I believe that Islam is the right religion for Indonesia today."

Free-lance writer and photographer Karen Petersen is based in New York; her work has appeared in German Geo and National Geographic.

This article appeared on pages 8-15 of the November/December 1990 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.

Revitalizing pesantren's role in era of globalized education

2008-11-20T18:16:00.002+07:00

M. Yunus, Contributor, Yogyakarta

Reproduksi Ulama di Era Global: Resistensi Tradisional Islam (Reproducing ulema in he global era; Traditional resistance of Islam)
Dr. H. Muhtarom H.M.
Pustaka Pelajar, Yogyakarta, July 2005
xvi + 318 pp

Post-modernism has marked an era of the reawakening of capitalist identity. From a global economic viewpoint, post-modernists are characterized as ""seeking instant results in whatever you have"". The vitality of post-modernists will be more apparent as we take a look at the domain of neo-liberalists, with their typical tendency toward instrumental and capitalist thought.

Meanwhile, neo-liberalists' core principle is ""liberalizing trade and finance, ending inflation, and leaving prices to the market"".

Post-modernists and neo-liberalists are not only engaged in the economy, and their influence has had increasing hegemony over politics, law, culture and education. Particularly in the last field, the paradigm, system and operational mechanism inculcated by post-modernists and neo-liberalists seem so fixed, instead of developing the traditional system so far maintained by Islamic boarding schools (pesantren), so that many circles in contemporary society consider it unworthy.

These two groups of thinkers no longer care whether or not the paradigm and system applied to education remain capable of creating cadres and future generations with good morals, but rather, their concern is whether or not the paradigm and system can follow current developments.

To most members of contemporary or post-modernist society, the pattern and system of education developed by pesantren are considered too old-fashioned, conservative and uncooperative as regards the present era and environment.

Reproduksi Ulama di Era Global; Resistensi Tradisional Islam (Reproducing ulema in he global era; Traditional resistance of Islam) appears to respond to the misinformation of contemporary society.

Its author, Dr. H. Muhtarom H.M., elaborates systematically on those factors that have led to the birth of contemporary thought about the instant, yet instrumental, system and paradigm of education. Then he deals thoroughly with the urgent role of pesantren-style education in facing today's global era, in which ulema -- often called the heirs of prophets -- as leaders of such traditional schools, provide the backbone in creating future generations that are not only well versed in religious science and management, but are also capable of warding off the snares of globalization.

In general, the globalized and instant system of education in Indonesia started when the government joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) meeting on April 15, 1994, in Marrakesh, Morocco, which established the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Jan. 1, 1995, as initiated by a number of capitalist countries through global corporate sponsorship. This globalization of education was programmed along with other areas like information and communication, economy, law, politics, culture and religion.

In view of the adverse implication that will arise from the capitalist version of globalized education, intellectuals and religious figures have been verifying the significance of this system. In this process, the position of ulema and traditional pesantren concerned with Islamic sciences automatically become very important.

Pesantren should be acknowledged as part of the various forums of scientific transformation that are not to be ignored, though today, we inevitably have to accept the demands of instrumental nature in all sectors, including educational development.

Even in medicine, for instance, the study of classical books dealing with fiqih, or religious law, is relevant to of biology, which is a prerequisite to gain entry into the medical sciences.

The urgency of pesantren-style education is also reflected in the form of communication constructed on an egalitarian basis. In socio-anthropological terms, coexistence without regard to social classes, ethnic groups, races and nationalities is a doctrine strongly fostered in pesantren communities. This is unlike the society projected by neo-liberalists, in which men are dragged into the vicious circle of social stratification based on capital.

A number of pesantren thinkers have further explored the doctrine of ""being together in joy and sorrow"".

Apart from Reproduksi Ulama di Era Global, Fiqih Sosial (Religious law for social relations) by Sahal Mahfudh is another work that analyzes the social system and paradigm more oriented toward religion, for which pesantren communities have strived.

Another side to the pesantren educational system and related communities worthy of praise is their flexible attitude toward diverse thinking, by not only limiting themselves to Eastern ideas, but also adopting Western concepts. This flexibility makes them unique and open, so it is a mistake to assume pesantren are isolated enclaves that do not -- or are prohibited from -- address the changes of the times.

Conversely, these communities better realize contemporary changes, which enabled them to make a distinction between one period and another.

This typical feature has prompted domestic and foreign intellectuals to study and research the role of ulema as well as pesantren in Indonesia, such as Nurcholish Madjid, former president KH Abdurrahman Wahid, Dawam Raharjo, Zamakhzyari Dhofier, Martin Van Bruinessen and Greg Barton.

Reproduksi Ulama di Era Global will therefore expand the bibliography of references that can be used to appraise pesantren affairs and the role of ulema in the era of globalization.

Adopted from: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2005/12/11/revitalizing-pesantren039s-role-era-globalized-education.html

Indonesian pesantren leaders visit US schools

2008-09-20T09:59:00.001+07:00

A number of leaders of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) in Indonesia will reportedly stay in the United States for two weeks. They are scheduled to visit some 11 schools in the country.

Their visit is part of the East-West Center program and is designed to boost mutual understanding between the US and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

The program "Partnership for Schools Leading Change" (P4S) has sent some 45 teachers from some 31 pesantren throughout the country to visit schools across the US.

Some 23 schools in the US participating in the program were Berkeley, California; Hilo, Hawaii; Eugene, Oregon; Hamilton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Attleboro, Massachusetts; Bloomfield, Connecticut; Scarsdale, New York; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Tampa, Florida.

The program is a U.S. professional exchange open to administrators and teacher-leaders of pesantren, or boarding schools, administered under the auspices of the Government of Indonesia's Department of Religious Affairs, that focus on teaching Islamic values and on providing basic education to secondary schoolchildren in Indonesia. Interested individuals are encouraged to apply in teams of 2-4 per school. In all, 45 Indonesian participants from up to 15 schools will be selected for the program.

The goal of P4S is to strengthen U.S.-Indonesian ties by promoting mutual understanding, joint learning, and cross-cultural dialogue between Indonesians and Americans at the grassroots level.

As such, the program aims to build professional, institutional, and personal relationships between Indonesian and U.S. school administrators and teacher-leaders as they work together to meet the shared challenges of educating today's youth for fulfilled life and responsible citizenship in the fast changing, interdependent world of the 21st century.

Indonesian participants will travel to the United States from October 14 through November 6, 2008. In the United States, they will spend five days at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, attending seminar sessions and working with a smaller group of educators from U.S. schools that will be hosting the Indonesians.

Then, accompanied by their American host teachers, Indonesians will travel in small groups to 15 host school sites in different parts of the United States. They will spend 14 days on their host school visit during which time they will live with American host families.

They will return to the East-West Center for three days of debriefing and follow-up project planning. Indonesian participants will be required to attend a two and a half day orientation session in Jakarta prior to their U.S. travel.

Funding support for the P4S program is provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

‘Traditionalist’ and ‘Islamist’ pesantren in contemporary Indonesia

2008-09-19T04:11:00.011+07:00

Martin van Bruinessen, ISIM, Netherlands

Paper presented at the ISIM workshop on 'The Madrasa in Asia', 23-24 May 2004

If the Indonesian pesantren have drawn some suspicious attention in the past few years — not so much from the Indonesian authorities as from those of the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and the US, as well as from international journalists — this is mostly due to the fact that some highly visible terrorism suspects have a relation with one particular pesantren in Central Java, the PP Al-Mukmin in Ngruki near Solo.[1] Ustad Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, who was one of the founders of this pesantren in the early 1960s and who returned there in 1999 after fourteen years spent in Malaysian exile, has been accused of being the spiritual leader of an underground movement known as Jama’ah Islamiyah, that is believed to be active all over Muslim Southeast Asia and to have carried out a large number of terrorist actions in Indonesia. Several of the perpetrators of the Bali bombing of 12 October 2002, which killed some two hundred people, were associated with a small pesantren in East Java that was established by Ngruki graduates.

Nothing could be more misleading than to extrapolate from ‘Ngruki’ to other Indonesian pesantren. PP Al-Mukmin and the handful of secondary pesantren that it has spawned do not teach terrorism, but both its curriculum and the general culture of this pesantren make it stand out from the mass of pesantren in Java and, for that matter, Indonesia and Southeast Asia as a whole. Before explaining what makes Al-Mukmin so different, it is necessary to give a summary overview of the range of pesantren presently existing.

The traditional pesantren: history

The beginnings of Indonesia’s pesantren tradition may not go back as far as has often been claimed. Certain scholars have claimed that the pesantren represents a continuation of similar schools with resident students in the pre-Islamic period. Islam began to spread among the indigenous population of Java in the fifteenth century, and seventeenth-century Dutch East India Company records mention a ‘priest school’ near Surabaya. However, the oldest pesantren still in existence, that of Tegalsari in East Java, was established in the late eighteenth century. An early nineteenth-century survey of indigenous education indicates that the pesantren then was not a widespread phenomenon and that religious education of a basic level took place informally in the mosque or in the private house of a man more learned than his surroundings. Most of the prestigious old pesantren do not date further back than the late nineteenth century, and many not even that far.[2] Rather than imitating Hindu and Buddhist precursors, the nineteenth and early twentieth-century pesantrens appeared modeled on institutions with which their founders had become familiar during studies in Mecca or Cairo: the riwâq al-Jâwa at the Azhar, the halqa in the Masjid al-Haram, and especially Mecca’s modernized madrasas, the Indian-owned Sawlatiyya (est. 1874) and much later the Indonesian Dar al-`Ulum (1934). The methods of teaching followed those of Mecca and Cairo, and educational reforms in these centres (classrooms, graded classes, shifts in curriculum) gradually spread to Indonesian pesantrens. The curriculum was very similar to that in other Shafi`i regions: Shafi`i fiqh and ‘devotional’ hadith collections dominated, but in the course of the twentieth century the sahih collections of Bukhari and Muslim, Qur’anic commentaries and works on usul al-fiqh gradually became more prominent.[3] The traditional pesantrens are also closely associated with various devotional practices, such as the visiting of graves, and with Islamic healing practices.

Influential reformist currents of the early twentieth century (notably Muhammadiyah, established in 1912, and Persatuan Islam or Persis, 1923) strongly opposed those devotional and ‘magical’ practices as well as the flexibility of fiqh, which they believed should be replaced by recourse to the Qur’an and Sunna. Religious puritanism in Indonesia received a boost when in 1924 Mecca was conquered by the Saudis, who soon began forbidding traditional devotional practices. Together with the abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal in the same year, this convinced many pesantren ulama that their form of Islam was under threat, and they established an association to defend it, Nahdlatul Ulama.[4] This was later to become the largest association of Indonesia and perhaps of the entire Muslim world, claiming tens of millions of members. In a recent nation-wide survey, 42% of the respondents indicated that they felt more or less represented by the NU, 12% by Muhammadiyah.[5] The way the questions were framed suggests that those identifying with the NU meant not so much the organization itself as the religious attitudes it is associated with, including an openness to local tradition (and even syncretism), flexibility and tolerance, as opposed to the more principled and puritan, if not fundamentalist, attitudes associated with Muhammadiyah. In the organization NU itself, the pesantren remains the major institutional prop, and the ulama of major pesantrens remain the chief authorities.

Muhammadiyah’s distinguishing mark was the modern school, modeled on Christian missionary schools. Muhammadiyah people spoke of returning to the Qur’an and Sunna but most could only read them in translation — and their actual religious reading consisted of contemporary reformist writers. An effort to bridge the gap between Muhammadiyah religious attitude and traditional pesantren education resulted in the ‘modern pesantren’ at Gontor (established in 1926), which became the example on which later a range of other reformist-oriented schools modeled themselves.[6] The founders of Gontor were not only inspired by reforms in al-Azhar and by the Anglo-Muslim college of Aligarh but also by Rabindranath Tagore’s philosophy of education and his Santiniketan experiment. The didactic methods were those of the modern school, and students were obliged to communicate in either Arabic or English, in order to train them in active mastery of these languages. The religious teaching material continued to include the classical texts of Shafi`i fiqh, however. Gontor took its place between NU and Muhammadiyah; some of its graduates became teachers in NU pesantrens, others in Muhammadiyah schools. Several went on to establish their own pesantren on the Gontor model, or to reform an existing one with their Gontor experience guiding them.

One other pesantren that was to have significant influence on later radical thought was that established by Persis in Bangil. Persis was by far the most puritan of Indonesia’s reform movements and it developed a religious attitude close to that of Saudi Salafism, although not under any notable direct influence from Arabia. Unlike Muhammadiyah, it had little interest in welfare work and it concentrated on efforts to ‘correct’ religious belief and practice. The pesantren it established in Bangil in East Java was long the only one in Indonesia that was deliberately non-madhhab and focused very strongly on the study of hadith.[7]

Integration in the national education system

After Indonesia’s independence, and especially since the transition to the ‘New Order’, when economic growth took on, pesantren education became more streamlined. There are still pesantren where students are tutored in the traditional way, reading out a text individually in front of the teacher, who occasionally makes a few corrections and gives some explanation, but most have also or exclusively classroom teaching now, with a fixed curriculum. And most offer teaching in general subjects besides classical Islamic texts. Many in fact teach a government-approved curriculum consisting of 70 percent general subjects and 30 percent religious subjects and are similar to government-run religious schools known as madrasah; they even can give the same diplomas. The difference between a pesantren and a state madrasah is that the pesantren is a boarding school (although some of the students may live near enough to go home after classes), and that most pesantren now teach primarily at secondary level. (A madrasah ibtida’iyah is like a primary school; madrasah tsanawiyah and `aliyah correspond with lower and higher secondary. Some pesantren offer higher levels that may be called mu`allimin, i.e. ‘teacher training’, or ma`had `ali, a name that suggests university level.) Moreover, in most pesantrens it is also possible to follow exclusively purely religious lessons.

A madrasah diploma does not give access to a proper university, but in independent Indonesia there was one Institute for Higher Islamic Studies that was open to madrasah graduates, and after 1965 the number of such institutes, then called State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) rapidly increased, and there is now one in each provincial capital.

Through the madrasah curriculum and the IAINs, most pesantrens have become integrated in the national educational system and brought under government control. For a significant part of the population this has been a channel for social mobility. Pesantren education was cheaper than education in secular schools, whether private or state, and for some families a learning career in religious school was culturally more acceptable than one in a non-religious environment. Some successful IAIN graduates have been able to switch to a general university for postgraduate studies (mostly in the humanities or social sciences) and made a further career outside the religious sphere; many more found clerical or other jobs in the vast bureaucracy of the Department of Religious Affairs (which oversees all religious education, administers marriages, runs religious courts, organizes the pilgrimage, and administers the collection and distribution of zakat).

Involvement in community development and new discourses

Some pesantren deliberately refused to adopt the standard madrasah curriculum, for a number of different reasons. Some preferred to offer a solid religious curriculum, reading more and more difficult texts that was possible in the standard curriculum — or different religious texts altogether (non-madhhab or Salafi texts). Others did not wish their graduates to become civil servants and teach them more practical knowledge. In the 1970s and 1980s, several pesantrens experimented with teaching agricultural or technical skills besides religious subjects. The pesantren of Pabelan near Yogyakarta, belonging to the Gontor ‘family’, became famous for training its students in skills that could be useful when they returned to their village, and refused to give them diplomas in order to prevent them from becoming just civil servants (although this is what some of its best known alumni actually became); another in Bogor was geared to teach agriculture besides religion.[8] V.S. Naipaul, who visited Pabelan in 1980, caustically asked what use it was to teach village boys to become village boys,[9] but visitors like Ivan Illich were much more upbeat about this ‘alternative’ type of education. Many Indonesian social activists believed that it was precisely this that was needed to bring genuine development to the country and not just economic growth that failed to empower the poor.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, co-operation developed between development-oriented NGO activists and Pabelan and a few other pesantrens whose leading teachers had some social commitment and believed in development from below. The inspiration came again from Indian self-reliance movements, the experiments of Paulo Freire and writings of people like Ivan Illich. In New Order Indonesia, no parties or associations were allowed to organize down to the village level. Pesantrens were virtually the only non-state institutions actually functioning at the grassroots level, and therefore appealed to activists believing in bottom-up development besides or instead of the government’s top-down policies. Students of the Bandung Institute of Technology, prevented from direct political involvement due to new legislation following a wave of student protest in 1978, joined in activities to bring appropriate technology to the rural poor through the pesantren. Western aid agencies — first the German Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, later various other agencies — supported these efforts.[10] In 1984, a major NU congress decided that ‘social activities’, meaning relief and development work, would be one of the organization’s top priorities, and it established several affiliated NGOs that were to engage in these activities.[11] The following two decades saw a dramatic increase in NGO activity in and around the pesantren, which at least provided a considerable number of pesantren graduates with employment — although it is hard to assess the other positive impact of these activities.

The integration of the pesantren in the national education system had another interesting consequence: the emergence of a dynamic and rapidly growing circle of young Muslim intellectuals of pesantren background, who while studying at IAINs were exposed to a range of other intellectual influences, that included social science, philosophy, theology of liberation and Marxism. Partly overlapping with the environment of NGO activists, this diffuse group of young people, sometimes dubbed the ‘progressive traditionalists’, were one of the most surprising and interesting phenomena of the late 1980s and 1990s.[12]

Islam against the New Order

The developments sketched so far took place in the most visible part of the religious spectrum, among groups and prominent individuals who were acceptable to, and themselves accepted in principle (though critically) the policies of the New Order government. There were other circles that had a more conflicting relationship with the regime and resented its policies of social and religious engineering. Two broad groups stand out. One consisted of the most outspoken leaders of the former Masyumi party, reformist Muslim in religious orientation, liberal democrats in political style. The party had clashed with Sukarno over the president’s authoritarian style and its leaders had taken part in an American-supported regional rebellion in the late 1950s. Suharto never allowed the party to resurface and mistrusted its most prominent leaders, the best known of whom was Mohammad Natsir. Natsir and friends established an association for da`wa, the Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (DDII), intending to change society and the state through changing its individuals, turning them into better Muslims. The other group, much less visible yet, consisted of an underground network of Islamic activists who strove to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state. The network consisted of the remnants of the Darul Islam movement, which had from 1949 until 1962 been in control of parts of West Java, South Sulawesi and Acheh and as the ‘Islamic State and Army of Indonesia’ (NII/TII) challenged the Republican government.[13] At the grassroots level, there had always been close relationships between the Masyumi following and that of Darul Islam, but the leadership of both had always been antagonistic: Masyumi considered the Republic as legitimate and Natsir once served as a prime minister; the Darul Islam resented Masyumi’s supporting military operations to destroy it.

The Darul Islam was a home-grown movement and never had international contacts worth mentioning. Masyumi had been more internationally oriented, and the DDII developed especially close contacts with the Arabian Peninsula. It was initially especially the ideas of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (many of whose activists had taken refuge in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states) that inspired them, and the DDII published several seminal texts in translation and was instrumental in introducing Brotherhood-style mobilizing on university campuses.[14] Later, from the late 1980s onward, the Dewan came increasingly under Salafi (‘Wahhabi’) influence.

The pesantren at Gontor was the one that was ideologically closest to the DDII; like the Dewan itself, it developed increasingly close relations with the World Muslim League (Rabitat al-`Alam al-Islami), which may have contributed to a more ‘puritan’ attitude than in other pesantrens. It appears however that the DDII leadership was disappointed with Gontor because it produced alumni who adopted much more liberal religious views and politically accommodating attitudes than what the DDII had hoped for — Nurcholish Madjid, who in 1970 called for secularization and opposed the idea of Islamic parties, being the most prominent example.[15] The Dewan took the initiative to establish a few pesantren that were more closely in line with what it deemed appropriate Islamic education, one of them, the pesantren Ulil Albab in Bogor, primarily serving students at that city’s agricultural university, another targeting a less sophisticated public in the Central Javanese city of Solo. The latter pesantren, Al-Mukmin, became better known by the name of the village on the edge of Solo to which it moved after some time, Ngruki.

Ngruki

Al-Mukmin was established in 1972 by the chairman of the Central Java branch of the DDII, Abdullah Sungkar. Among the co-founders was the presently well-known Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, then a young Gontor graduate. Al-Mukmin aimed to combine the best aspects of two models, Gontor for the teaching of Arabic, and the pesantren of Persis in Bangil for the teaching of shari`a.[16] Sungkar, Ba’asyir and their colleagues were strongly influenced by Muslim Brotherhood thought, and this was reflected to some extent in their teaching of Islamic history and doctrine. [17] By the end of the decade, Sungkar and Ba’asyir joined the underground Darul Islam and became increasingly active in mobilizing radicals outside the pesantren. Using the organizational model of the Egyptian Brotherhood, they set up an underground structure of cells (usrah), members of which were recruited among the most committed of radical mosque activists but also among ordinary neighbourhood toughs.[18] This underground organization was also loosely referred to as ‘Jama`ah Islamiyah’, an name that was later to gain a certain notoriety. Sungkar and Ba’asyir openly opposed certain New Order policies that they considered as un- or anti-Islamic; they spent some years in detention and decided to flee to Malaysia in 1985 when another arrest threatened. It was around this time that Sungkar first sent a handful of followers to Pakistan in order to take part in the Afghan jihad and gain guerrilla experience.[19] Ba’asyir lived a frugal life as an itinerant teacher during the fifteen years he spent in Malaysia, and in the 1990s established a modest pesantren, Luqmanul Hakiem, in Johor.

Sungkar and Ba’asyir were both a source of pride and an embarrassment to Ngruki. Their radical reputation was not good for the school’s relation with local authorities and it inhibited the acquisition of students from outside the milieu that understood and supported the politics of these two teachers. But some of the teachers who stayed behind continued sharing their ideas, and contact with them was maintained over the years, through visits of students and graduates. The ICG reports emphasize the centrality of Ngruki in the Jama`ah Islamiyah network, but many of the JI activists involved in violent acts are not Ngruki alumni. There are indications that some activists were first recruited while studying in Ngruki, but it is not entirely clear what this recruitment meant.[20]

Compared to many other pesantrens, Al-Mukmin is poor and its teachers lead a precarious life, earning a little money on the side as preachers. Most of the students are from families that cannot afford high fees; the pesantren appears to have few prosperous supporters. Because of its radical reputation, few would like to be seen financially supporting it. The pesantren carefully maintains the network of alumni, because it is though this network that new students are recruited. A few alumni have established, or joined, modest pesantrens themselves. One of these, Al-Islam in Lamongan, East Java, gained a sudden notoriety because three of the Bali bombers were brothers of its founder. However, this founder was not himself a Ngruki graduate; one of the brothers, Mukhlas or Ali Gufron, was a Ngruki graduate but, more importantly, he was also an Afghanistan veteran. The three brothers had spent time together as migrant workers in Malaysia and had visited the pesantren Luqmanul Hakiem, where Mukhlas was also a teacher.

The Hidayatullah ‘network’

The 2003 ICG report implicates a number of other pesantrens in the Jama`ah Islamiyah, notably the ‘Hidayatullah network’. Suspected JI activists spent brief periods in pesantrens of this network.[21] The pesantren Hidayatullah of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan is no doubt an interesting and remarkably successful institution. It was officially established in 1976 and has meanwhile almost 150 branches all over the Archipelago. This network is closely connected to the Bugis diaspora — the Bugis are a seafaring ethnic group originating from South Sulawesi — and appears to have a link with what remains of the Bugis Darul Islam network. However, since its founding this pesantren network has made efforts to maintain good relations with the government. The first pesantren was officially opened by the then Minister of Religious Affairs, A. Mukti Ali. Eight years later, the pesantren received a prestigious government prize, the Kalpataru prize for environmental conservation, presented by President Suharto himself. Later, president Habibie and Megawati’s vice-president Hamzah Haz also made official visits to this pesantren. It frequently receives foreign visitors. Daughter pesantrens have been established wherever there is a Bugis diaspora community, from Acheh to Papua.

The pesantren gained a wide renown for a magazine it has published since 1988, Suara Hidayatullah, and which at its peak achieved a circulation of 52,000 copies. The magazine reads like a broadsheet of the Islamist International; it is militant, gives information on all the jihads being fought in the world, is fiercely anti-Jewish and anti-Christian, and has interviews with and sympathetic articles on all radical Islamic groups of the country.

Pesantren Al-Zaytun

The most posh pesantren of the country is Al-Zaytun in Indramayu, which in the past few years has drawn a lot of attention and has been accused of heterodox practices. Like Hidayatullah, it appears to have close connections to the underground Darul Islam movement, in this case that of West Java and, again like Hidayatullah, it has excellent relations with certain powerful people. Although it has come under attack for alleged heterodoxies and for being financed through dubious activities, it appears to enjoy such strong protection that it is immune from all criticism.[22] The pesantren is so wealthy that there has been some speculation as to the source of its wealth: was it the coffers of the Darul Islam movement, or money from the Suharto family? The evidence in the public domain suggests that both may be true, at least to some extent.

[1] This pesantren was presented as the central hub in an Indonesian Al-Qa`ida network in a report by the International Crisis Group, "Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia: the case of the 'Ngruki network' in Indonesia". Jakarta/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2002.

[2] Claude Guillot, "Le role historique des perdikan ou "villages francs": le cas de Tegalsari", Archipel 30, 1985, 137-162; J.A. van der Chys, "Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van het inlandsch onderwijs", Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 14, 1864, 212-323. The historical evidence is surveyed in: Martin van Bruinessen, "Pesantren and kitab kuning: Continuity and change in a tradition of religious learning", in: W. Marschall (ed.), Texts from the islands: Oral and written traditions of Indonesia and the Malay world [Ethnologica Bernensia 4], Berne: The University of Berne Institute of Ethnology, 1994, pp. 121-146.

[3] On the books studied in the pesantren, and the shifts in the curriculum see: Martin van Bruinessen, "Kitab kuning: books in Arabic script used in the pesantren milieu", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 146, 1990, 226-269. There is a striking similarity to the curriculum in Kurdish madrasas, as described in: Zeynelabidin Zinar, "Medrese education in Kurdistan", Les annales de l'autre Islam 5, 1998, 39-58.

[4] Martin van Bruinessen, "Muslims of the Dutch East Indies and the caliphate question", Studia Islamika (Jakarta) vol.2 no.3, 1995, 115-140.

[5] Saiful Mujani and R. William Liddle, "Indonesia's approaching elections: politics, Islam, and public opinion", Journal of Democracy 15/1, 2004, 109-123.

[6] Lance Castles, "Notes on the Islamic school at Gontor", Indonesia 1, 1966, 30-45; Ali Saifullah HA, "Daarussalaam, pondok modern Gontor", in: M. D. Rahardjo (ed.), Pesantren dan pembaharuan, Jakarta: LP3ES, 1974, pp. 134-154; Mahrus As`ad, "Ma`had al-Juntûr bayna'l-tajdîd wa'l-taqlîd", Studia Islamika vol.3, no.4, 1996, 165-193.

[7] On Persis and its pesantren, see: Howard M. Federspiel, Islam and ideology in the emerging Indonesian state: the Persatuan Islam (PERSIS), 1923 to 1957, Leiden: Brill, 2001. Cf. my review in International Journal of Middle East Studies 35 (2003), 171-173.

[8] M. Saleh Widodo, "Pesantren Darul Fallah: eksperimen pesantren pertanian", in: M. D. Rahardjo (ed.), Pesantren dan pembaharuan, Jakarta: LP3ES, 1974, pp. 121-133; M. Habib Chirzin, "Impak dan pengaruh kegiatan pondok Pabelan sebagai lembaga pendidikan dan pengembangan masyarakat desa", in: (ed.), Pesantren: Profil kyai, pesantren dan madrasah [=Warta-PDIA No.2], Jakarta: Balai Penelitian dan Pengembangan Departemen Agama R.I., 1981, pp. 69-78.

[9] V.S. Naipaul, Among the believers, an Islamic journey, New York: Knopf, 1981.

[10] M. Dawam Rahardjo (ed.), Pergulatan dunia pesantren: membangun dari bawah, Jakarta: P3M, 1985; Manfred Ziemek, Pesantren dalam perubahan sosial, Jakarta: P3M, 1986.

[11] Martin van Bruinessen, NU: tradisi, relasi-relasi kuasa, pencarian wacana baru, Yogyakarta: LKiS, 1994.

[12] Djohan Effendi, "Progressive traditionalists: the emergence of a new discourse in Indonesia's Nahdlatul Ulama during the Abdurrahman Wahid era", Ph.D. thesis, Deakin University, Department of Religious Studies, 2000; Laode Ida, Kaum progresif dan sekularisme baru NU, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2004.

[13] C. van Dijk, Rebellion under the banner of Islam: the Darul Islam in Indonesia, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981; Holk H. Dengel, Darul-Islam. Kartosuwirjos Kampf um einen islamischen Staat in Indonesien, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1986.

[14] Asna Husin, "Philosophical and sociological aspects of da`wah. A study of the Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia", Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1998; Lukman Hakiem and Tamsil Linrung, Menunaikan panggilan risalah: dokumentasi perjalanan 30 tahun Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia, Jakarta: Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia, 1997; Martin van Bruinessen, "Genealogies of Islamic radicalism in Indonesia", South East Asia Research 10 no.2, 2002, 117-154.

[15] See the comments to this effect in: Kamal Hassan, Muslim intellectual response to New Order modernization in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa, 1980.

[16] The history of this pesantren is sketched in: Farha Abdul Kadir Assegaff, "Peran perempuan Islam (penelitian di Pondok Pesantren Al Mukmin, Sukoharjo, Jawa Tengah)", Tesis S-2, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Program Studi Sosiologi, Jurusan Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial, 1995; Zuly Qodir, Ada apa dengan pesantren Ngruki?, Bantul: Pondok Edukasi, 2003; ES. Soepriyadi, Ngruki & jaringan terorisme: melacak jejak Abu Bakar Ba'asyir dan jaringannya dari Ngruki sampai bom Bali, Jakarta: P.T. Al-Mawardi Prima, 2003.

[17] A list of books taught in Ngruki in the mid-1990s mentions Sa`id Hawwa’s Jundullah as one of the textbooks for doctrine (Qodir, Ada apa…, p. 52), and a former student recounts that the distinguishing of al-walâ’ wa-l-barâ’ was at the core of the curriculum (Soepriyadi, Ngruki, p. 24-5).

[18] The best published study of this Usrah network is: Abdul Syukur, Gerakan Usroh di Indonesia: peristiwa Lampung 1989, Yogyakarta: Ombak, 2003. A good early overview, based on court documents of trials against arrested Usrah members, is: Tapol, Indonesia: Muslims on trial, London: Tapol/Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, 1987. There is much useful information in a thesis by a Ngruki graduate: Muh. Nursalim, "Faksi Abdullah Sungkar dalam gerakan NII era Orde Baru (studi terhadap pemikiran dan harakah politik Abdullah Sungkar)", Tesis Magister, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Program Pascasarjana, 2001. See also Bruinessen, “Genealogies” and International Crisis Group, “Al Qaeda”.

[19] Nursalim, “Faksi Abdullah Sungkar”; a detailed overview of Sungkar followers who went to Pakistan during the 1980s in: International Crisis Group, "Jemaah Islamiyah in South East Asia: damaged but still dangerous", Jakarta: International Crisis Group, 2003.

[20] One of my informants is a former student in Al-Mukmin, who was recruited into the NII by an older peer — not by a teacher! — in 1993, when Sungkar and Ba’asyir were living in Malaysia. Another frequent visitor of the pesantren told me that promising students would be singled out for special treatment. They would be woken up in the middle of the night and told to perform the nightly prayers, after which they would be given special instruction, presumably of a religious nature but secret.

[21] International Crisis Group, “Jemaah Islamiyah”, p. 26-27, uncritically repeated in various other reports.

[22] The Islamist activist Umar Abduh has published three books denouncing this pesantren: Umar Abduh, Membongkar gerakan sesat NII di balik pesantren mewah Al Zaytun, Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian & Pengkajian Islam, 2001; Umar Abduh, Pesantren Al-Zaytun sesat? Investigasi mega proyek dalam Gerakan NII, Jakarta: Darul Falah, 2001; Umar Abduh, Al Zaytun Gate. Investigasi mengungkap misteri. Dajjal Indonesia membangun negara impian Iblis, Jakarta: Lembaga Pusat Data & Informasi (LPDI) bekerjasama dengan SIKAT & AL BAYYINAH, 2002. A former(?) Darul Islam activist, Al Chaidar, claims that much of the money for the pesantren was collected by the Ninth Regional Command of the NII, which carried out robberies and other unorthodox fundraising activities. He also accused the movement of heterodox beliefs and practices: Al Chaidar, Sepak terjang KW. IX Abu Toto Syech A.S. Panji Gumilang menyelewengkan NKA-NII pasca S.M. Kartooewirjo, Jakarta: Madani Press, 2000. The Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) carried out an independent investigation, that found some of the accusations founded: Majelis Ulama Indonesia Team Peneliti Ma'had Al-Zaytun, "Laporan lengkap hasil penelitian Ma'had al-Zaytun Haurgeulis Indramayu", Jakarta: Majelis Ulama Indonesia, 2002.

http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/pesantren_in_Indonesia.htm

Right Islam vs. Wrong Islam

2008-09-18T00:17:00.002+07:00

KH Abdurrahman Wahid

News organizations report that Osama bin Laden has obtained a religious edict from a misguided Saudi cleric, justifying the use of nuclear weapons against America and the infliction of mass casualties. It requires great emotional strength to confront the potential ramifications of this fact. Yet can anyone doubt that those who joyfully incinerate the occupants of office buildings, commuter trains, hotels and nightclubs would leap at the chance to magnify their damage a thousandfold?

Imagine the impact of a single nuclear bomb detonated in New York, London, Paris, Sydney or L.A.! What about two or three? The entire edifice of modern civilization is built on economic and technological foundations that terrorists hope to collapse with nuclear attacks like so many fishing huts in the wake of a tsunami.

Just two small, well-placed bombs devastated Bali's tourist economy in 2002 and sent much of its population back to the rice fields and out to sea, to fill their empty bellies. What would be the effect of a global economic crisis in the wake of attacks far more devastating than those of Bali or 9/11?

It is time for people of good will from every faith and nation to recognize that a terrible danger threatens humanity. We cannot afford to continue "business as usual" in the face of this existential threat. Rather, we must set aside our international and partisan bickering, and join to confront the danger that lies before us.

****

An extreme and perverse ideology in the minds of fanatics is what directly threatens us (specifically, Wahhabi/Salafi ideology--a minority fundamentalist religious cult fueled by petrodollars). Yet underlying, enabling and exacerbating this threat of religious extremism is a global crisis of misunderstanding.

All too many Muslims fail to grasp Islam, which teaches one to be lenient towards others and to understand their value systems, knowing that these are tolerated by Islam as a religion. The essence of Islam is encapsulated in the words of the Quran, "For you, your religion; for me, my religion." That is the essence of tolerance. Religious fanatics--either purposely or out of ignorance--pervert Islam into a dogma of intolerance, hatred and bloodshed. They justify their brutality with slogans such as "Islam is above everything else." They seek to intimidate and subdue anyone who does not share their extremist views, regardless of nationality or religion. While a few are quick to shed blood themselves, countless millions of others sympathize with their violent actions, or join in the complicity of silence.

This crisis of misunderstanding--of Islam by Muslims themselves--is compounded by the failure of governments, people of other faiths, and the majority of well-intentioned Muslims to resist, isolate and discredit this dangerous ideology. The crisis thus afflicts Muslims and non-Muslims alike, with tragic consequences. Failure to understand the true nature of Islam permits the continued radicalization of Muslims world-wide, while blinding the rest of humanity to a solution which hides in plain sight.

The most effective way to overcome Islamist extremism is to explain what Islam truly is to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Without that explanation, people will tend to accept the unrefuted extremist view--further radicalizing Muslims, and turning the rest of the world against Islam itself.

Accomplishing this task will be neither quick nor easy. In recent decades, Wahhabi/Salafi ideology has made substantial inroads throughout the Muslim world. Islamic fundamentalism has become a well-financed, multifaceted global movement that operates like a juggernaut in much of the developing world, and even among immigrant Muslim communities in the West. To neutralize the virulent ideology that underlies fundamentalist terrorism and threatens the very foundations of modern civilization, we must identify its advocates, understand their goals and strategies, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and effectively counter their every move. What we are talking about is nothing less than a global struggle for the soul of Islam.

****

The Sunni (as opposed to Shiite) fundamentalists' goals generally include: claiming to restore the perfection of the early Islam practiced by Muhammad and his companions, who are known in Arabic as al-Salaf al-Salih, "the Righteous Ancestors"; establishing a utopian society based on these Salafi principles, by imposing their interpretation of Islamic law on all members of society; annihilating local variants of Islam in the name of authenticity and purity; transforming Islam from a personal faith into an authoritarian political system; establishing a pan-Islamic caliphate governed according to the strict tenets of Salafi Islam, and often conceived as stretching from Morocco to Indonesia and the Philippines; and, ultimately, bringing the entire world under the sway of their extremist ideology.

Fundamentalist strategy is often simple as well as brilliant. Extremists are quick to drape themselves in the mantle of Islam and declare their opponents kafir, or infidels, and thus smooth the way for slaughtering nonfundamentalist Muslims. Their theology rests upon a simplistic, literal and highly selective reading of the Quran and Sunnah (prophetic traditions), through which they seek to entrap the world-wide Muslim community in the confines of their narrow ideological grasp. Expansionist by nature, most fundamentalist groups constantly probe for weakness and an opportunity to strike, at any time or place, to further their authoritarian goals.

The armed ghazis (Islamic warriors) raiding from New York to Jakarta, Istanbul, Baghdad, London and Madrid are only the tip of the iceberg, forerunners of a vast and growing population that shares their radical views and ultimate objectives. The formidable strengths of this worldwide fundamentalist movement include:

1) An aggressive program with clear ideological and political goals; 2) immense funding from oil-rich Wahhabi sponsors; 3) the ability to distribute funds in impoverished areas to buy loyalty and power; 4) a claim to and aura of religious authenticity and Arab prestige; 5) an appeal to Islamic identity, pride and history; 6) an ability to blend into the much larger traditionalist masses and blur the distinction between moderate Islam and their brand of religious extremism; 7) full-time commitment by its agents/leadership; 8) networks of Islamic schools that propagate extremism; 9) the absence of organized opposition in the Islamic world; 10) a global network of fundamentalist imams who guide their flocks to extremism; 11) a well-oiled "machine" established to translate, publish and distribute Wahhabi/Salafi propaganda and disseminate its ideology throughout the world; 12) scholarships for locals to study in Saudi Arabia and return with degrees and indoctrination, to serve as future leaders; 13) the ability to cross national and cultural borders in the name of religion; 14) Internet communication; and 15) the reluctance of many national governments to supervise or control this entire process.

We must employ effective strategies to counter each of these fundamentalist strengths. This can be accomplished only by bringing the combined weight of the vast majority of peace-loving Muslims, and the non-Muslim world, to bear in a coordinated global campaign whose goal is to resolve the crisis of misunderstanding that threatens to engulf our entire world.

****

An effective counterstrategy must be based upon a realistic assessment of our own strengths and weaknesses in the face of religious extremism and terror. Disunity, of course, has proved fatal to countless human societies faced with a similar existential threat. A lack of seriousness in confronting the imminent danger is likewise often fatal. Those who seek to promote a peaceful and tolerant understanding of Islam must overcome the paralyzing effects of inertia, and harness a number of actual or potential strengths, which can play a key role in neutralizing fundamentalist ideology. These strengths not only are assets in the struggle with religious extremism, but in their mirror form they point to the weakness at the heart of fundamentalist ideology. They are:

1) Human dignity, which demands freedom of conscience and rejects the forced imposition of religious views; 2) the ability to mobilize immense resources to bring to bear on this problem, once it is identified and a global commitment is made to solve it; 3) the ability to leverage resources by supporting individuals and organizations that truly embrace a peaceful and tolerant Islam; 4) nearly 1,400 years of Islamic traditions and spirituality, which are inimical to fundamentalist ideology; 5) appeals to local and national--as well as Islamic--culture/traditions/pride; 6) the power of the feminine spirit, and the fact that half of humanity consists of women, who have an inherent stake in the outcome of this struggle; 7) traditional and Sufi leadership and masses, who are not yet radicalized (strong numeric advantage: 85% to 90% of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims); 8) the ability to harness networks of Islamic schools to propagate a peaceful and tolerant Islam; 9) the natural tendency of like-minded people to work together when alerted to a common danger; 10) the ability to form a global network of like-minded individuals, organizations and opinion leaders to promote moderate and progressive ideas throughout the Muslim world; 11) the existence of a counterideology, in the form of traditional, Sufi and modern Islamic teachings, and the ability to translate such works into key languages; 12) the benefits of modernity, for all its flaws, and the widespread appeal of popular culture; 13) the ability to cross national and cultural borders in the name of religion; 14) Internet communications, to disseminate progressive views--linking and inspiring like-minded individuals and organizations throughout the world; 15) the nation-state; and 16) the universal human desire for freedom, justice and a better life for oneself and loved ones.

Though potentially decisive, most of these advantages remain latent or diffuse, and require mobilization to be effective in confronting fundamentalist ideology. In addition, no effort to defeat religious extremism can succeed without ultimately cutting off the flow of petrodollars used to finance that extremism, from Leeds to Jakarta.

****

Only by recognizing the problem, putting an end to the bickering within and between nation-states, and adopting a coherent long-term plan (executed with international leadership and commitment) can we begin to apply the brakes to the rampant spread of extremist ideas and hope to resolve the world's crisis of misunderstanding before the global economy and modern civilization itself begin to crumble in the face of truly devastating attacks.

Muslims themselves can and must propagate an understanding of the "right" Islam, and thereby discredit extremist ideology. Yet to accomplish this task requires the understanding and support of like-minded individuals, organizations and governments throughout the world. Our goal must be to illuminate the hearts and minds of humanity, and offer a compelling alternate vision of Islam, one that banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the darkness from which it emerged.

The writer is former president of Indonesia, leader of Ciganjur Islamic boarding school (pesantren) Jakarta.

(The Wall Street Journal, 30/12/2005)

Pesantren Ciganjur leader calls on people to emphasize moral values

2008-09-17T19:12:00.009+07:00

The leader of Ciganjur Islamic boarding school (pesantren) KH Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) called on people to consider the importance of moral values in dealing with any emerging social issues.

Gus Dur made the remarks as addressing a religious gathering to study Ar Risalah written by prominent figure in madzhab (Islamic school of thought) Imam Syafi'ie at Pesantren Ciganjur, Jln. Warung Sila, Jakarta recently.

Gus Dur said that Islamic community in Indonesia could be divided into two groups namely santri and non santri circles.

He then gave an example that there were many food stalls open during the holy month of Ramadhan at noon while at the same time many people were fasting.

Gus Dur said those non-santri eating at the food stalls should also be helped for regarding that they are our fellow Muslims.

In this respect, Muslims especially santri circles must emphasize the importance of moral excellencies and Islamic values, Gus Dur said.

He also said that the NU prominent figure Hadratus Sheikh KH Hasyim Asy'ari had all of the time called for the need of Islamic values in dealing with any problems.

"We need to build Muslims' quality in the country by using approaches wisely and gently in order to avoid such pressures having negative implications in the future," he said.

My Pesantren: Darur Ridwan

2008-09-17T18:49:00.001+07:00

By Mayra Walsh
University of Melbourne
Originally published in the April/June 2003 edition of Inside Indonesia
See Mayra's full field-work report

Life in an East Javanese Islamic boarding school

It's still dark, 4.15am, when my close friend Eet, a class 6 student wakes me. I hear sleepy voices and splashing water coming from outside my bedroom window as the small community here at Darur Ridwan slowly comes to life. The microphone in the mosque is tested, a few coughs, and the morning call to prayer begins. In a few minutes everyone will be gathered in the small mosque behind the main house. Eet, a small but very confident and focused young woman who was assigned as my helper when I first arrived, urges me to get up or I'll be late . Again.

My pesantren, Darur Ridwan, is situated in a small village in the eastern most part of East Java, Banyuwangi. Most of the students, like Eet, come from neighbouring villages, although some have come from as far away as Bali, Surabaya and Sulawesi. They are the daughters of farmers, businessmen, teachers, office workers and house wives who work hard to pay considerably more than the fees at the local school so that their children receive a strong moral and religiously orientated education.

Gathering together to pray at dawn is a refreshing way to start the day here. The atmosphere is clear and cool as I join in the morning prayer with the 60 or so students and several women from neighbouring houses. I wear the all-white prayer clothes, wash my hands, face and feet before entering the mosque, recite the appropriate prayers in Arabic (which I have not fully memorised yet), and take part in the now familiar salat routine.stand, bow, stand, kneel, and so on.

Beyond the stereotypes

So what is a non-Muslim, Australian university student doing living at an Islamic boarding school in East Java? I am here as part of the Australian student exchange program, Acicis, doing a field study project. I am here because I want to learn about Islam, and what better way to learn than to totally immerse myself in the subject?

Since the unearthing of the Jemaah Islamiah network in the aftermath of the Bali bomb, international media have depicted Indonesian Islamic boarding schools as 'hot beds' for Islamic extremists. Some people may think I am throwing myself in at the deep end by immersing myself in a community accused of fostering extremism. But I feel that these depictions have made my experiences at Darur Ridwan so much more meaningful, relevant and important. I have had the opportunity to see first hand the reaction of the community here at Darur Ridwan to the Bali bomb blast of 12 October and the ensuing investigation and arrests. I consider myself very privileged to have enjoyed such a unique experience that has been quite different to the image of the unfriendly, anti-Western pesantren portrayed in international media.

As news and footage of the horrific event in Bali came through, I sat on the floor, eyes glued to the small television screen in the main house for hours watching the live reports and becoming increasingly distressed as the number of confirmed victims grew. But I was not alone. Also sitting on the floor with me and in chairs behind me was Pak Kiai, members of his family, several senior students and several teachers. They comforted me and joined with me as we expressed our utter disbelief and extreme grief at seeing so many innocent lives lost and so many more injured.

I talked about the huge and devastating impact the bomb would have on Indonesia and in particular the Balinese community, and also the consequences for relations between Australia and Indonesia. They weren't particularly interested in discussing the political or economic impacts. They talked about the families of the victims and in particular the fact that so many were from Australia. 'There is nothing in the Al Qur'an that supports the murder of innocent people like those tourists in Kuta. These crazy terrorists are distorting true Islamic teaching to suit their own political agenda. Islam is a peaceful religion.'

Modern curriculum

It didn't take me long to feel at home here at Darur Ridwan when I first arrived. Any prior feelings of uncertainty and apprehension were immediately banished as I was warmly welcomed into the community, and in particular, into Pak Kiai Aslam's family.

Pak Kiai Aslam is a friendly, relaxed, family man who enjoys spending time with his young grandchildren and who willingly takes time out to answer my many questions. I appreciate his openness, generosity, enthusiasm, clear explanations and the freedom he has allowed me to wander around the pesantren and join in the everyday activities of the students.

Also an authoritative teacher and strict adherer to religious rules, Pak Kiai Aslam demands a high level of respect and discipline from his students. As the founder and leader of Darur Ridwan, he plays a pivotal role in all aspects of life at the pesantren. A previously active member in local politics (including serving as a member of local parliament representing Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP) for over 10 years) and the large Indonesian Muslim organisation, Nahdlutul Ulama (NU), Pak Kiai Aslam established this modern girls pesantren with his wife in 1989.

An important aspect of pesantren Darur Ridwan is its modernity. The word modern here is used in reference to the school curriculum. In comparison to 'traditional' pesantrens where the curriculum is restricted to religious instruction, Darur Ridwan combines its religiously-oriented classes with general academic subjects such as chemistry, mathematics, psychology and English.

Basic facilities

However the term 'modern' is limited to a description of the curriculum. Facilities at Darur Ridwan are very basic, and although simplicity in everyday life is encouraged, Pak Kiai Aslam and the students are very aware of the impact this has on the quality of life and education at the pesantren.

The living area allocated to the students consists of just three bedrooms which are shared between the 60 girls. One bedroom is shared by 40 of the junior students, and the other two have 10 senior students each. Each student sleeps on a thin mattress on the floor and has a small cupboard for their belongings. During the day the mattresses are stacked in the corner so the space can be used for other activities. There is not enough washing and bathroom facilities and no place for students who get sick. The classrooms are bare except for tables, chairs and a few home made posters; and the library consists of one bookshelf filled mainly with copies of old text books.

This very simple existence however does not dampen the students' enthusiasm for their studies, or my enthusiasm for what I have found to be a community of young people who are dedicated to strengthening their understanding about their religion and working together to create a peaceful and pleasant environment around them. The restricted facilities and strict rules here means that there is not much variety in everyday life for the students who rarely leave the grounds of the pesantren.

The students' daily activities at Darur Ridwan are dictated by the compulsory five daily prayers, beginning with the first prayer (subuh) at 4.30am. School starts at 7.00am (6 days a week) and classes take place in the class rooms until 12 noon. These classes are a mixture of religious instruction which includes a strong focus on Arabic (the language of the Al Qur'an) and general academic subjects. There are also other classes that take place twice a day in the mosque after prayer sessions. These classes are attended by all of the students and are led by Pak Kiai Aslam. At this time students learn to recite the Al Qur'an correctly and Pak Kiai Aslam offers his interpretations and explanations of stories and passages from different holy texts. Due to the intimacy of the environment at the pesantren classes are run in a very relaxed style, though discipline is never an issue.

As in most parts of Indonesia things slow down in the afternoon after 12 noon prayer (dhuhur) as the 4.00am start begins to take its toll and people nod off for an afternoon rest. However after taking a break students are kept busy through the afternoon and evening with extra classes, study, and extra-curricular activities such as scouts, sport, sewing, cooking, the running of the canteen and general maintenance duties. 'Lights out' is at 10.00pm (11.00pm during exam time).

I am very thankful for the hospitality and generosity I have received over the three months since I have been coming to and from Darur Ridwan. I have learnt more than I could have hoped for and have found a new family among my muslim friends here. As the newest member of the community I proudly wear my Darur Ridwan t-shirt and call this my pesantren.

Adopted from: http://www.acicis.murdoch.edu.au/hi/pesantren.html

BIN: Pesantren vulnerable to be infiltrated by radical ideas

2008-09-17T17:03:00.002+07:00

Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) have remained vulnerable to be infiltrated by radical ideas being able to damage the image of Islam and even lead to radical actions like terrorism.

The National Intelligence Agency chief Syamsir Siregar made the remarks after giving a speech at the ninth inauguration meeting of the Ma'had Ali (High Institute), Pesantren Al Hikmah 2, Brebes, Central Java recently.

To counter the ideas that tend to increasingly be intensive, it is necessary to first of all prepare such preventive efforts either from the pesantren circles or related authorities.

Siregar was of view that in dealing with the radical actions there should be firm measures including through more persuasive approaches.

"It is not the first I come to pesantren to give a speech. It is important to deal with in safeguarding pesantren from the infiltration that is through a speech on the importance of raising nationalism," Siregar said.

He said through the nationalism, ulema (religious leaders), social figures and pesantren circles were expected to be able to give contribution in keeping realizing the unity among the people and fighting against any efforts of politizing religions.

Who’s Afraid of Pesantrens?

2008-09-17T16:59:00.001+07:00

Montri U-domphong

PASURUAN, Indonesia – Having the largest Muslim population in the world, it is no surprise that Indonesia is a major centre of religious education for members of the faith in Southeast Asia.

Muslim boys from nearby countries are often sent to Islamic boarding schools – known as pondok pesantren – scattered across this sprawling archipelago. Numbering well into the tens of thousands, the pesantrens provide religious knowledge and wisdom, but are more than just classrooms for dry theoretical instruction. There, young Muslim men and women from all strata of society also learn how to lead lives according to the basic tenets of Islam.

In the last few years, however, Indonesia’s Islamic schools have been forced to fight allegations that they are breeding grounds for fanatics who go out and unleash violence in the name of religion. Indeed, many of their foreign students who return home hoping to use what they learned to better their communities have instead found themselves being suspected of being sympathetic to Islamists. Young Muslim Thais who have gone to school in Indonesia, for example, have been looked upon as possible sympathisers of the separatists in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south.

It’s a situation that is puzzling to many of those who run pondok pesantrens in Indonesia, even as some of them concede that there may be some schools that teach narrower interpretations of Islam. Pesantren administrators, however, point out that such schools are hardly the norm.

K.H. Masykuri Abdurrahman, secretary at Indonesia’s oldest and best-known Islamic school, Pondok Pesantren Sidogiri Salaf, also says, “When it comes to politics, whether domestic or international, Sidogiri takes a neutral stance. We’ve never interfered with politics. Nor have we looked to incite division and have not the slightest intent to play a political role.”

“We do not support anybody who is intent on creating social division whether through mere verbal expression of their thoughts or through action,” he adds. “Sidogiri has never taken part in any protests of any kind and its students do not have any right to go out and partake in any civil action.”

“If we want to express our opinion,” he also says, “we will do it through a letter, a press release or through our school’s newsletter. We will never take part in any action.”

For sure, too, Indonesia’s Islamic schools are not all the same. Categorised according to curriculum, pesantrens are generally either ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’. A pondok pesantren offering Islamic religious studies alone or with a few non-religious subjects is known as a Salaf or traditional while one that also has “mainstream” education subjects is described as Modern.
According to Perhimpunan Pengembangan Pesantren Dan Masyarakat (Association for Pesantren and Social Development), one-fifth of Indonesia’s religious schools are Salaf, an equal proportion are Modern, and 55 percent are a mix of both. Five percent of pondok pesantrens do not fall in any of the first three categories, it says.

Some observers say, however, that there is so much similarity between the two main types that at times it is difficult to tell which school is Salaf and which is Modern. One way of distinguishing one from the other, though, is by looking at how the students are dressed: those in Modern pesantrens wear slacks while those in Salaf must wear sarongs during and even after school hours.

Whatever category it falls under, a pesantren does not put age limits for admission. All pesantren students also spend an average of six years living and studying how to be a true Muslim.

A Salaf steeped in history

Of course there is no mistaking what kind of Islamic school Sidogiri Salaf happens to be. Even without its very descriptive name, the school, located some 700 km east of the capital city of Jakarta, has been adhering to a strict Islamic curriculum since its establishment two centuries ago. It is one of Indonesia’s most revered Islamic theological centres, and many Islamic schools throughout the country follow the courses and methodologies it has developed.

Founded in 1475 while the Dutch had yet to get a real foothold in Indonesia, Sidogiri Salaf is proud of having joined the struggle for the country’s independence centuries later. This led to the development of a system aiming to equip students with knowledge and skills enabling them to help the country break free from the shackles of colonisation and move on the path of progress. Its long history alone makes it well qualified to educate young people about Indonesia's past and the future direction the country should take, says Abdurrahman. By most indications, this does not include Islamist extremism.

Given its history, Sidogiri Salaf has enjoyed the freedom to design its syllabus. “Our teaching doesn’t have any external parties trying to come in and take control and set down their own rules and regulations for us,” says Abdurrahman.

The school believes it is supporting the state by training young people to lead the true Islamic life with a sound knowledge of the faith and a progressive worldview. In its campus that is surrounded by picturesque rice fields in Sidogiri Kraton, in Pasuruan, east Java, its teachers instill the belief that Indonesia and its people are sacrosanct and plays an important role in the overall scheme of Islam, says the school secretary.

Yet even as it gives attention to Islamic teachings, in particular reading and understanding the Koran, and learning its verses by heart, Sidogiri Salaf is up to date when it comes to teaching aids. Students connect with the rest of the Islamic world through the Internet, widening their religious knowledge beyond what they learn in the school.

“We pay particular attention to Arabic language studies so students can build a high level of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and writing,” says Abdurrahman. “At the very least, they will be able to read the many Islamic resources from around the world that are written in Arabic.”

Great importance is given to reading. “Our slogan is ‘smart people are reading people – not one day shall go by without reading’,” he says. “Moreover, we believe that we, as a school have no place in opposing or resisting the changing and developing world outside. We must continuously change with it.”

A source of student teachers

Pondok Pesantran Sidogiri Salaf has more than 4,000 pupils. Those at the higher levels must become Islamic teachers at other religious schools for one year. Fortunately, Sidogiri Salaf’s highly rated pupils are eagerly sought as student teachers by other pondok pesantrans, which actually pay for their services – to Sidogiri Salaf. The student teachers get living allowances.

Sidogiri Salaf sends out more than 600 student teachers every year and the income from their teaching services is an important contribution towards its operational costs. But even with such a large number of students going out to teach, the school cannot meet the growing demand for high quality religious instructors.

Sidigori Salaf earns most of its income, however, from an internal cooperative based on the model used by nearly all pondok pesantrens in the country. The cooperative distributes food, school equipment, and basic living supplies. The cooperative system generates an internal transaction of over $175.2 million every year. The school itself has never had any reason to seek government support.

The annual tuition fee ranges from 240,000 rupiah ($ 24) to 300,000 rupiah ($30), depending on the student’s learning level. This does not cover food and school uniforms. Pupils eat in the school canteen, cook their own meals in kitchens provided by the school, or buy food from the local community. All meals must be eaten within the school premises.

As the country’s oldest religious school, Sidogiri Salaf has graduated hundreds of classes. It has no intention of becoming a Modern school and does not think it will ever start a secular vocational education programme.

“We have no goal to produce a ‘workforce’,” says Abdurrahman. “There are no vocational studies to enable our students to enter the normal workforce. We stress on the importance of religion, understanding Islamic teachings and the correct way of seeing the world and our community. Being a perfect person means being one whose heart is there for our brothers and sisters in the community.”

The school’s graduates can pursue higher religious studies according to aptitude. “If we understand that knowledge is like a building’s foundation,” argues Abdurrahman, “having this deep a level of religious knowledge means that we will always have a very strong foundation as well as the right attitude when it comes to solving problems that exist outside our walls.”

A ‘new’ Modern

Far away in the opposite direction from Sidogiri is an example of an Islamic school that combines religious with modern secular instruction: Pondok Pesantren Al Hamadiyah, located in western Java on JI Raya Depok, Sawangan.

The school, set up by K.H. Almad Sjaichu, a former member of Indonesia’s Parliament, opened on 17 January1988. Several government officials attended the inaugural ceremony, enhancing the school’s credibility in the eyes of parents. Starting with just 70 pupils, the school now has 1,500 students, 700 of them boarders.

After teaching the regular pondok pesantren syllabus for many years, Al Hamadiyah started pre-school and primary classes in 2002. High school students must live in school dormitories, but pre- and primary students go home after classes.

According to school director K.H. Zainuddin Ma’shum, Al Hamadiyah was intentionally established as a Modern school to enable students to pursue non-religious careers besides deepening their knowledge of Islam. It argues that students of the traditional Salaf school system cannot compete in the job market with graduates of institutions offering mainstream along with religious education.

“Having taken a good look at today’s society,” says Ma’shum, “we decided to establish this modern model of pesantren so that students could keep up with all the new knowledge and changes in the world.”

Although graduates of the system based solely on religious instruction would be considered elite Islamic teachers, their employment options are ultimately limited to being an ustadz (religious teacher) or an imam, he points out. Or they may open their own school, but the chances of that actually happening are relatively slim.

Al Hamadiyah’s stance makes the school quite different from a traditional pondok pesantren and those that adapt their curricula only slightly in order to be called Modern, says Ma’shum. But he says equipping its students with wider knowledge, skills, and worldview would enable them to take up many types of employment. This also means they can take their religious knowledge back into mainstream society to help build a stronger community, he says.

Al Hamadiyah’s curriculum was designed with government support. The Ministry of Education helped with mainstream courses and the Ministry of Religious Affairs with religious subjects. But like many pondok pesantrens, the school does not rely on government funding and uses a cooperative system.

Studying at Al Hamadiyah is relatively inexpensive with tuition, boarding, and food charges for the entire term being about 400,000 rupiah (around $40). Poor parents are exempted from tuition fees. Teachers are paid on a par with the private sector – about one million rupiah ($100) per month, aside from get free accommodation.

Admission seekers, however, must pass English and Arabic language examinations or take supplementary language lessons in case of failure in these tests. This is because besides reading, rote-learning, and understanding the teachings of the Koran, students have to study English and Arabic up to a high level of proficiency.

The school says while knowledge of English enables them to communicate internationally, fluency in Arabic gives students access to external self-learning resources, widening their intellectual perspective. Al Hamadiyah also has science and computer labs.

The traditional touch

Yet like other pesantrens, its students have to follow rigid routines. They wake up at four a.m., pray, read the Koran and have breakfast two hours later. Classes run from seven a.m. to four p.m. with a one-hour break for lunch and prayers. An hour of asar prayer after classes is followed by physical education, including team games like football. Evening prayers start at six p.m. and are followed by dinner ending one hour later. There is an hour of post-dinner study of the Koran and an additional hour of rote learning of English and Arabic words. Students go to sleep by 10.00 p.m.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there are extra-curricular activities including music and sports like football, badminton and the Indonesian/Malay martial art of pencak silat. Every Friday, students rehearse prayers. Religious debating competitions are held in both English and Arabic.

Boarding students can visit their homes one day every month. On Sundays, students are allowed to go to the local shopping mall or places outside the school for an hour.

Although called “modern”, the school hands out strict punishment for breaking the rigid rules and regulations. This includes whipping, shaving the head, and even suspension or expulsion. Many erring students get punished every week.

Still, the fact that it has established itself as a school suited to present-day conditions has increased the popularity of Al Hamadiyah, leading to many more branches being opened in both Java and Sumatra, says the school director.

“We need to expand not just because we want to create more opportunities for students to get a regular education, but also because we see the need in society for the pondok system of education,” he adds.

“The pondok has a burden that is extremely important to Islam as a whole – to teach correct religious practice in its purest form,” says Ma’shum.

Knowledge of Islamic law, he says, enables the faith to thrive and move forward the way it was supposed to be practised from the very beginning. And truly, there is nothing “extremist” about that.

Montri u-Domphong is a reporter from iTV, a private television station in Bangkok.

Adopted from: http://www.seapabkk.org/newdesign/fellowshipsdetail.php?No=597

A Peaceful Jihad: Negotiating Identity and Modernity in Muslim Java (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)

2008-09-17T16:45:00.002+07:00

Product Description
Based on extensive ethnographic research, this book examines how the Islamic community in Java, Indonesia, is actively negotiating both modernity and tradition in the contexts of nation-building, globalization, and a supposed clash of civilizations. The pesantren community, so-called because it is centered around an educational institution called the pesantren, uses education as a central arena for dealing with globalization and the construction and maintenance of an Indonesian Islamic identity. However, the community's efforts to wrestle with these issues extend beyond education into the public sphere in general and specifically in the area of leadership and politics. The case material is used to understand Muslim strategies and responses to civilizational contact and conflict. Scholars, educated readers, and advanced undergraduates interested in Islam, religious education, the construction of religious identity in the context of national politics, and globalization will find this work useful.

Book Description
Based on extensive ethnographic research, this book examines how the Islamic community in Java, Indonesia, is actively negotiating both modernity and tradition in the contexts of nation-building, globalization, and a supposed clash of civilizations. The pesantren community, so-called because it is centered around an educational institution called the pesantren, uses education as a central arena for dealing with globalization and the construction and maintenance of an Indonesian Islamic identity. However, the community's efforts to wrestle with these issues extend beyond education into the public sphere in general and specifically in the area of leadership and politics. The case material is used to understand Muslim strategies and responses to civilizational contact and conflict. Scholars, educated readers, and advanced undergraduates interested in Islam, religious education, the construction of religious identity in the context of national politics, and globalization will find this work useful.

Reviews
Is Peaceful Jihad possible?
Ronald Lukens-Bull's book Peaceful Jihad is one of the most recent ethnographic attempts to understand Indonesian Islam. The major topic addressed in this ethnography is how the process of modernity has been innovatively and selectively modified by Muslims in Indonesia (especially east Javanese)to reconstruct their own unique forms of Islam. In this work, Lukens-Bull recognizes the early pioneering understandings of Indonesian Islam by Geertz as too limited in representing Islam as a thin lacquer spread over the Hindu-Buddhist cultural fundamentals. Geertz had viewed Indonesian Islam as a struggle between the Santri, an urban, modernist strain of Islam, versus the rural traditionalist or popular syncretic abangan believers. Lukens-Bull building on the research of more contemporary anthropologists such as John Bowen, Robert Hefner, Suzanne Brenner, Mark Woodward has shown that these early Geertzian categories were too crude. Lukens-Bull has added to this anthropological research by focusing on the dynamics of the Islamic schools in east Java known as pesantren. He did in-depth research in the 1990s on how the Islamic teachers and leaders within the pesantren were incorporating the political and symbolic-cultural matrix into the curriculum. Lukens-Bull describes how various symbols of Sufism, modernity, and secular elements were drawn into the debates about what ought to be incorporated into the curriculum within the pesantren. He also adds an interesting postmodern reflexive insight into this process by illuminating how a particular Sufi leader used him as a Westerner as an example to the students of how to purify and dissolve incorrect "Christian" teachings from his consciousness.
Lukens-Bull goes beyond the reformist/modernity-traditionalist dynamic within Islam to demonstrate how these young students were weaving their understandings of secularism, political economy issues, and so-called "clashes of Asian-Islamic civilization with the West to construct and drive new forms of non-secularized and spiritualized forms of modernity. He draws on Robert Bellah and Anthony Giddens as sociologists as well as anthropologists such as Arjun Appadurai to discuss these new forms of modernity.
In the final chapter, Lukens-Bull defines the contours of this "Peaceful Jihad" as represented within the voices of these young students in contrast to the terrorist movements of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) or Laskar Jihad. He suggests that the culturally deep seated Sufi tradition as maintained within the pesantren communities of east Java provides a basis for constructing an Islamic identity that is distinctive from these radical militant forms of Islam.
Lukens-Bull ends his discussion of Indonesian Islam with perspicuous questions that have relevance when thinking about the Western political and cultural strategies in respect to Muslims. These questions involve whether we in the West can accept forms of pluralism, civil society, democracy, and human rights that have emerged in regions such as Indonesia as equivalent to our own understandings of these processes and institutions. Or must we project and impose our own Western forms of these processes and institutions in areas with much different histories and cultural developments.
This book ought to be read by anyone interested in understanding Islam beyond sweeping generalities based on the reading of religious texts or the testimony of so-called terrorism experts, or superficial media accounts. In-depth ethnographic understandings of Islam like Lukens-Bull's study help provide a richer and more detailed comprehensive understanding than most superficial media coverage of the Muslim world.

Raymond Scupin
Anthropology and International Studies
Lindenwood University
Rscupin@lindenwood.edu