Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Dialectical Relations of Modernity and Tradition:

A Case Study on Modern Islamic Movement of Muhammadiyah (1912-2002)

By: Saefur Rochmat[1]

Table of Contents

Abstract: 3

A. Introduction. 4

B. Modern Structural transcendental Approach  6

C. Dialectic with Traditional Realities 8

D. Historically and Structurally transcendental Approach  11

E. Conclusion. 15

F. References 16

Notes 18

Abstract:

Although the Islamic revival movement has been struggling since 15th century, it has not resulted in significant changes in the Islamic world. It should be of great attention for Moslem intellectuals to engage in analytical studies on the history of Islam. By doing so they are able to step into and to direct some of the stages of Islamic revival, without losing the path in the course of it, and to predict its continuing course. In this article I would like to apply this analytical study of history to observe the dialectical thinking within the Muhammadiyah concerning its early opposition to Sufi sm and more recently to its acceptance of it. Data has been collected from historical resources as well as from Muhammadiyah followers’ works for validity.

Recently Indonesia is more exposed to materialism so that it requires a new balance in spirituality. This new sociological situation and condition propels the dialectical thinking in Muhammadiyah. At first it ignored spirituality and involve d itself intimately in modernity for long time, but now it pays more attention to spirituality ( Sufism ). Another factor perpetuat ing to the dialectical process is more related to the historical continuity of tradition in Moslem communities as a whole. By doing so recently, Muhammadiyah has been able to spread its missionaries into rural areas, not like before when its normative approach to the Koran was well suited only for Moslem s in the urban areas.

This dialectical approach could have occurred a long time ago if Muhammadiyah had become involved in comparative histor ical studies to other societ ies which had already been exposed intensely to materialism. This dialectical approach was used by Mohamed the Prophet PBUH in preaching the Islamic mission. Ibn Khaldun had explained in hisMuqaddimah that any thing that persists in this world is the changes itself.

Key words:revivalism, Muhammadiyah, history, spirituality, materialism.

A. Introduction

Religious thinking as an interpretation of Islam in worldly life by Moslem s has not answered modernity problems clearly. Indeed, it is very difficult to encounter the effects of Western civilization because some Moslem s are often impressed by the more glaring facets of modernization and they do not adopt the more positive ones. Really, it is difficult to achieve Islamic revivalism in the face of West ern supremacy. West ern supremacy was made very clear in 19th century when most Moslem countries were colonized. We will persist in our stand if we know how the West supersedes Islamic civilization. The West also took a long time to do this , namely from Renaissance in 16th century (Kuntowijoyo, 1999: 44) .

We can take a lesson from the early history of Islam, which was able to supersede Gre co-Roman civilization so that it replaced Islam as world civilization. At that time, the Moslem s were not afraid of studying new things from other civilization s because they felt sure about their belief s They did not underscore other civilization s so that they had a strong spirit for study. They believed that Islam would not become a great civilization if they did not take the positive aspects from other civilization s in the world. This positive view toward other civilization s can be traced to Mohamed PBUH[2] ’s saying that “I was appointed by the God to complete people’s appropriate behaviors”. It implies that other civilizations also have conducted some appropriate behaviors, so that they are civilized people. It is also relevant to cite Mohamed PBUH’s saying that Moslem s should pursue science and technology although it then existed in China.

Now the Moslem should be brave enough to adopt good values of modernity to reform Islamic civilization itself. This implies that Moslem s should catch up the advancement of West ern civilization by pursuing science and technology. By doing so, Moslem s also can participates innovate the modern civilization, which has not created universal human being and to the contrary ha s created World War s twice. If Moslem s are able to do both, Islam will be respected by other civilization because Islam can present itself as an alternative to modern decadency.

In Indonesia there are two major Moslem groups, Muhammadiyah and Nahdhatul Ulama (NU), who try to reform Moslem community. Both adopt the modern nation state, however they differed themselves in which Muhammadiyah claims itself as modern Islam group and NU represents the traditional one. Muhammadiyah was established earlier in 1912 than NU in 1926, however larger Moslem associates with NU which was established to preserve the common feature of Indonesian Moslem. After the independence of Indonesia on August 17 th , 1945, both have a great influence over political life in Indonesia, even compare with political parties. Both also play major roles in reforming Islamic societies which often mark by tensions, however actually they are also making dialectical approach in reforming Islamic life within their own groups.

This article will address Islamic reformation in Indonesia, especially within Muhammadiyah , concerning the dialectical process between Islam and modernization. It follows the ways of modernization in Egypt introduced by Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905). This movement was

intended as a revival for all Islamic groups. In fact it was supported by Moslem s in the large cit ies It happened because the movement started from the base of normative Islam (rational aspect) and neglected the realities of various Islamic cultures. Most Moslems who lived in the country areas were influenced much by tradition, so they were reluctant to follow this radical innovation. It passes for quite long time and now it appears as a dialectical approach between these two groups. In this short article I would like to focus on theSufi [3] issue, which has become the major issue between these two groups.

B. Modern Structural transcendental Approach

Muhammadiyah was established on November 18th 1912 by KH Ahmad Dahlan. Muhammadiyah is a modern Islamic movement in the ways of the Islam modernists of 19th century such as Jamaluddin al-Afghani (1838-1897), Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), Rasyid Ridla (1856-1935). Modernists claimed that this movement was the continuation of the “salaf ”[4] movement from Ibn Taimiyah and his follower Qoyyim al-Jauziyah (1292-1350) and then continued by Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab (1703-1787) who tried to open the gate ofijtihad [5] (Kamal, 1994: 6-7).

However we should analysis further these statements ofsalaf andijtihad and confront them to historical facts. Muhammadiyah usedsalaf to justify its spirit to open the gate ofijtihad (religious reformation) and to offend those who were accused to be the supporters oftaqlid (following tradition) and the later then organized themselves into Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). However NU also claimed its rights ofsalaf because it followed the true Islam as interpreted Muhammad the Prophet’s followers of His era, the next generation, and the following generation. In 1924 the dispute oversalaf was settled in the conference of Al-Islam in Surabaya. Both agreed thatsalaf is only to those who live up to the third century of Hijrah, out of them do not belong tosalaf (Hadar, 1998: 52). It implied that Muhammad denied that it follows Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab’s movement in Saudi Arabia, although both have the same characteristics as stated above by Kamal, Muhammadiyah intellectualist.

Muhammadiyah and Abduh are also different in some respects. They have different orientation in reforming Islamic society. Muhammadiyah tended to follow Muhammad Abdul Wahab’s purification movement than of Abduh’s modernization. It meant that Muhammadiyah emphasized on the belief aspect of Islam, meanwhile Abduh called forijtihad inmuamalah (social aspect of Islam) such as in politic, education, and sciences and technology. As results, Muhammadiyah’s reformation faced the great opposition from the traditionalist group which then joined in NU in 1926 so that the movement was not able to progress smoothly, especially in the rural area (Haidar, 1998: 50).

Muhammadiyah tried to modernize Islamic thinking in Indonesia by adopting the structural approach of modern ideas originated from the West. This meant that Muhammadiyah want to implement the social principles of the Koran during the early history of Islam into the new social condition of modernization. Prof. Dr. Kuntowijoyo (2001: 9-29), a prominent Muhammadiyah thinker, confirms that Muhammadiyah had imitated the modern structure of state and society to implement Islamic social principles. In deed, it ha s been relatively success ful in fill ing in the modern structures of Indonesia in such areas as bureaucracy, education, and military.

Muhammadiyah also adopted the modern cultural ideas of growth and progress as a derivation of materialism. It tried to introduce materialism into Islamic society, which had been ignoring this worldly life and had fallen down into the inappropriate practices of Sufism. Another characteristic of this systematic approach to worldly life is a result of rationalization of religious interpretation. This is not only an intellectual movement but also

modern organization covering all aspects of living. Within Muhammadiyah there has developed many autonomous organizations to support worldly living, besides religious bod ies to develop religious interpretation s .

Abdul Munir Mulkan (2000, v-xiv), a vice-secretary of Muhammadiyah, mentions that two kinds of expenses should be paid for following the modern approaches. The first is elitism, in which religious interpretation only fit s well for the Moslem middle-upper class es by excluding the interest s of the Moslem majority who live in the rural areas. Second is the tendency of diverting from a social-religious movement into a formally religious interpretation. Both consequences are a result of the modernist misusing of materialism and of rationalism as an ideology instead of a methodological framework.

Moreover, Kuntowijoyo argues that Muhammadiyah lacks a cultural movement so that it is not able to attract the majority of Moslem s He traces that this cultural senseless ness is rooted in the sociological structure of Muhammadiyah’s followers at the time of its establishment. They come from urban society with the main attention to fulfill ing the material needs of modernity. That is why they are pragmatic by fulfilling the temporal demands of modern society while ignoring ultimate human desires. They think that life is a matter of material needs, which can be fulfilled by technical and organizational means alone .

C. Dialectic with Traditional Realities

KH Ahmad Dahlan (1912-1923) had accomplished momentous jump in raising man power qualities by establishing an organization of socio-religious activities, not an Islamic political party. He tried to choose organization as a means of spreading Islamic views because the impediment of political parties, as this tended to divide the people and the Dutch government tended to encounter its development. His decision to adopt modern ways of living was due to not having studied a lot about religion. That is why he did not produce numerous religious books because he emphasized practical efforts to fulfill the worldly life. Prof. Dr. M. Amin Abdullah (1995: 27) argues that:

…this choice was not based on the in-depth studies on classical Islamic literatures and he did not got inspiration in the conceptual framework of theology which already well-developed in the classical intellectual literatures.

KH Ahmad Dahlan tried to criticize S ufi establishment with social activities, by transforming Sufi with social ethics.Zikir orwirid , kinds of rememberance of the God, which was common amongst students in the traditional religious schools was replaced with serious thinking such as how to help the poor, to cure the ill, and giving religious advice. All activities promulgated into a grand concept of “amar ma’ruf nahi munkar” (to encourage to the proper behaviors and protect from improper behaviors) (Abdullah, 1996: 156).

Ahmad Dahlan’s criticism to the malpractices of Sufism were very essential of Muhammadiyah, based on the theology of monotheism. However he was very tolerant to the existing tradition in society because he wanted to conduct wise religious teaching. It was fact that some years after his death, that Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the countering organization of traditionalism, was established in 31 January 1926 (Ricklefs, 1994: 269-270). Furthermore critics to Sufisms’ malpractices, were not monopolized by modernist group of Muhammadiyah. KH Hasyim Asy’ari, one of the founders and the leader of NU, also criticized Sufi’s malpractices which had paralyzed Moslem society. However, he did not want to discard Sufism and tried to reform it from within.

Incidentally, Muhammadiyah’s efforts to reform Islamic life, especially with the regard to the Sufi’s malpractices, have contributed also to the disruption of some of the Moslem’s spiritual aspects from its depth and its originality. That is why people acknowledge more Muhammadiyah the anti-TBC (Tahayul, Bid’ah, Churafat) movements than the socio-religious reformation (Mulkhan, 2000: ix). It is due to Muhammadiyah’s reformation based solely on the normative values of the Koran and Hadits and its failure to accommodate the socio-cultural realities of the Moslem societies as its missionary target. This stigma lasted for a long time until there occurred the constructive dialogue with its counterpart, the NU.

The dialogue was hindered for long time because Muhammadiyah disregarded NU as tolerating “impure Islamic practices of TBC” so that it viewed the NU as having diverted from Islamic monotheism. Islam is in nature is not theology-minded religion comparable to Christianity, however

theology has been perceived deeply by some Moslems ever since the early history of Islam, so that this hinders constructive dialogues amongst Islamic groups. Some Moslems make use of theology to judge the people either as Moslem or non-Moslem. Here more precisely it is used to judge other Moslem groups either true-Moslem (kaffah ) or not. Most Moslem groups in Indonesia fall into the Sunni sect, however sub-divisions (furu ) amongst them often make it difficult to develop an open dialogue because they are often related improperly to the sub-division into theological judgment. Consequently each group assumes itself as practicing true Islam and views others as not-truly practicing Islam.

It lasted for long time and then some of Muhammadiyah’s followers become aware of their stagnant religious thinking. One of them, M. Thoyibi (2000: 160-163), evaluates correctly that this is due to overconfidence, religious orthodoxy, and contact avoidance with development outside. Recently all impediments have resulted in another stigma that its claim as a modern Islamic group often contradicts with its conservative views as to modernization. It is not surprising given its reference only to the Koran and Hadist, while ignoring the Islamic history and Moslem societies sociologically. As further consequence, its membership is limited to urban areas and the majority of Moslems are still associated with NU.

There are two currents propelling Muhammadiyah into more intense dialogue with NU. First, some of the followers are aware of the above stagnancies. Second, some of them are persisting in their previous tradition associated to NU. Furthermore Muhammadiyah try to make use of tradition to increase its followers in rural areas. It should not relieve its normative standard and follow the common Moslem, but instead should develop a dialectical approach to reform Islamic societies by considering sociologically Moslem societies. It should cooperate with other Moslem groups to reform Islamic societies and develop constructive dialogues with them to understand more thoroughly the conditions of Moslem societies.

This does not mean that they should fuse into one group because each group has its own social basis. It is not surprising that all the groups differ in their attention as well as their capabilities to reforming their Islamic societies. About the necessity of pluralistic groups to fulfill the human being multi-faced demands, Nasr (1994: 147) argues convincingly that:

Since every religion addresses a collectivity with varying psychological and spiritual temperaments, it must possess within itself the possibility of different interpretations. By bearing within itself, providentially, several modes of interpretation of the same truth it is able to integrate a multiplicity into unity and to create a religious civilisation.

Recently some Muhammadiyah followers such as Munir Mulkhan (2000), Thoyibi (2000), and Kuntowijoyo (1991) are consolidating themselves to address some stagnant features within Muhammadiyah. This started during its 42ndmuktamar [6] , held between 15-19 of December 1990, in Yogyakarta when they agreed to reform the organization and its leadership system. Then in the 43rdmuktamar in Aceh in 1995 they were able to reform the theological foundation s to accommodating both Islamic tradition and local tradition. This decision changed the most important

organization body of the Committee of Religious Matters (Majelis Tarjih ) into the Committee of Religious Matters and the Development of Islamic Thinking (Mulkhan, 2002: 31-32). As a result, Muhammadiyah tried to develop systematically an inclusive theology which respects other group ’s theologies. Subsequently it formulate d a thematic interpretation categorizing all religionsahl al-kitab (people of knowledge, such as Jew s and Christian s ).

D. Historically and Structurally transcendental Approach

Muhammadiyah developed this approach after it encountered the realities within pluralistic societies, and even within Moslem society itself. By doing so Muhammadiyah tried to transform a normative-subjective standard of transcendental concepts into empirically historic concepts. Accounting for historical and sociological realities, it is re consider ing its missionary targets and its position within global network as whole. Here the missionary target is not expansive to other religions, but within the Moslem community itself. Indeed it is very important to consider historical and sociological realities in order to understand the culture by which it has been able to reach an epistemological structure of knowledge with its norm and values of the society.

The importance of grasping culture had proved, in the Islamic missionary organization ofwalisanga , a monumental success in Islamizing Indonesia in the early 16th century, considering Islam had entered Indonesia in 674 AD. It took a very long time for missionaries to understand the Indonesian culture and to coordinate suitable Islamic programs. The great people converting to Moslem happened just after the missionaries were able to innovating local culture and surpassed it. Two factors that improved the chance of success are simultaneously the events of the collapse of the Hind kingdom of Majapahit and the emergence of threat en ing power of the West. The collapse of Majapahit enabled them to establish an Islamic state in the center of political power in Indonesia and to grasp all of Indonesia. Indeed some Islamic states which acknowledged the supreme power of Majapahit had already existed in the periphery as early as the twelfth century such as Pasai and Samudra Pasai Meanwhile the emerging threat en ing from the West encouraged the people to identify with Islam to encounter the West.

Some Moslems preserved fanatically the products of Walisanga’s innovation of traditions so that it hindered them from doing Islamic mission to persist in reforming the Moslem societies. Missionaries should be able in innovate the culture in the face of modernization so that Moslems are able to respond positively to these trends of modernization and globalization. As I mentioned above, culture is very important because it can be used as means of internalizing modern Islamic ideas into societies, as well as of reflecting religious awareness upon them.

Up to now Muhammadiyah ’s followers’ attitudes toward tradition is still far from monolithic because they have not able to formulate their anti-TBC movement objectively and empirically in various socio-cultural contexts (Kuntowijoyo, 1991: 269). In the view of Kuntowijoyo (1995: 86-87), the Muhammadiyah’s classical view of anti-TBC is based on rational thinking (deductive reasoning) and should be supplemented with inductive reasoning based on empiric and historic facts. I agree with his idea to reform the classical view of anti-TBC. Accordingly Fazlur Rahman, the conceptualist of neo-modern Islam, believes that it is not taboo for reinterpreting theology as it is a result of thinking efforts. Moreover the formulation of theology often took shape with political interests in a matter of worldly life, besides its limitation by given a time and space.

After observing the dialectical approach within Muhammadiyah I would like to make note of Sufi st matters amongst its followers. As I mention above that Muhammadiyah considered Sufi beliefs to be malpractices related to theology, so it is necessary to shed light on it here. Recently they try to study and accept Sufi sm as an opposite attitude into Muhammadiyah mainstream. It is of course coincidental with their inclusive approach to further propel their modern Islamic ideas. However it may be that there are some important events which draw Muhammadiyah into this path of Sufi sm Then I like to analyze the dialectical approach to Sufi sm in order to better understand religious phenomenon within a different time and space. By doing so I will address some related questions as to why they just recently adopted Sufi sm Is it because of different situation s and condition s between the lapsing time? Does recent Sufi sm differ from the old Sufi sm ? What are the similarities the old Sufi sm and recent Sufi sm ?

Here I would like to analyze Muhammadiyah’s scholars’ work on Sufism at these different times in order to understand their growing knowledge about Sufism. At first Muhammadiyah was opposed to Sufi malpractices. More precisely, it did not develop Sufism, but recently it accepts Sufi. These contradictory features are sometimes very difficult to be understood by common people, but for those who know about history is not surprising because it can be put into order within the dialectical approach of thesis-antithesis-synthesis.   Ibn Khaldun, a well-know Moslem historian, has proposed the law of history that the only still persisting thing in the world is continuing change itself. The recent acceptance of Sufism, of course, is related to the changes of historical context, or to put into simple terms, the changes of situation and condition between the time of Muhammadiyah’s onset in 1912 until recent time.

Now, materialism has deeply influenced Indonesian society so that Muhammadiyah’s followers feel great needs of a spiritual aspect which only can be fulfilled by Sufism. These trends have been a common feature amongst Moslem scholars in the West for long time before. This is the case of Hamid Algar and Maryamm Jameelah, who bring up in the materialistic society in the West. They grew bored with the materialistic life and converted to Islam in the path of Sufism. Furthermore they criticize Moslem modernists such as Jamaluddin al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh and accused them of selling the religion to secularism. They are more blatantly categorizing modernists as pragmatists (Madjid (ed.), 1984: 77). Here I do not mean that we should be opposed to modern Islamic ideas, but we should take into account the spiritual aspect of our tradition.

Some Muhammadiyah scholars have written books about Sufism. The first amongst them is Prof. Dr. Hamka who has written a book titledTasauf Modern (Modern Sufi) and has been published several times. The book resulted from a collection of articles written forPedoman Masyarakat magazine (recentlyPanji Masyarakat magazine) so that it did not have an integrated structure about Sufism as a kind of creative thinking effort related to emotional aspects of human beings in their personal communication with God. Hamka gave his modern interpretation of Sufism by emphasizing the

role of morals amongst the people so that it will be compatible to the modern era characterized by materialism.

Anther distinguished scholar is Prof. Dr. Simuh who has already written numerous books such asMistik Islam Kejawen Raden Ngabehi Ranggawarsita, Suatu Studi Terhadap Serat Wirid Hidayat Jati (1988);Sufisme Jawa: Transformasi Tasawuf Islam ke Mistik Jawa (1999 cet-4); andTasawuf dan Perkembangannya dalam Islam (1997cet-2). He considers that Sufism is very important to encounter negative effects of a materialistic modern civilization. He offers Sufism to be the basis of morals. Here he refers to a Sufism which is different from the complicated mystical practices such as in Javanese mystic andtareqat [7] . He accepts Sufism in conjunction with Ibn Khaldun, that Islamic Sufism is to teach the student become‘abid (devoted Moslem),zahid (not greedy), andlaku (take a distant with improperly world desires) (Simuh, 1999: 31) Of course, it is also supplement to law enforcement.

All the above mentioned concepts are very important and they are sufficient for general purposes, however they are not complete for those who want to obtain spiritual feeling. One p opular method to obtain spiritual feeling is to join withtareqat , although one can also try by oneself By joining together with others, some people are led by the authoritative master try to obtain spiritual feeling. They should follow the given fixed-instructions which divide onetareqat from others.Tareqat differs from intellectual efforts so it is possible for everyone because it makes uses of emotion/feeling to transmit the religious feeling.Tareqat or spiritual feeling enables all people to have the same feeling as human beings. Being the case that all people will feel sad if their member family is died , his feeling is very important as a basis of morality.

This practical Sufi sm is not enough for those who are in charge to develop intellectual efforts. We also should remember one other thing in adopting practical Sufi sm in order to encounter the dark history of Sufi malpractices causing the stagna tion within Moslem communities. The important thing we should remember in doing something is to make it balance with other elements. For instance, we should make the emotional aspect of Sufi sm in balance with the intellectual aspect of ratio. Emotional feeling is very important in order to obtain spiritual feeling. It enables us to strengthen rational considerations and to contemplate intellectual efforts. Sometimes it is also difficult to have a strong religious belief just by rational efforts alone , as you may see that rational thinking is limited by the strong bond s of time, space, and history.

All religions have a general feature of focusing on personal relationship s with the Absolute or Ultimate Reality, in which man ac knowledge s the supremacy of the Absolute so that he try to adjust to the Absolute’s laws. As I mention above that there are two paths to communicate with the God, and those are intellectually and emotionally. Furthermore Islam views communication with the God a s the foundation of Islamic philosophy relating to concept of Oneness (tawhid ). It means that man should surrender solely to God’s Will and should not surrender or depend on others’ power (Rajaee, 1983: 36-38). From the above explanation we can infer that

emotional communication either by oneself or via Sufi sm is very important to obtain spiritual feeling, however Islam also orders us to make intellectual efforts in order to have a better life in this world, with the main intention of establish ing God’s Laws in the world.

Armstrong (2002) categorizing Islam together with Judiasm and Christianity into the West ern religion s which have the general feature of a personal religion because they give great role s to man to manage and order the world for the sake of human beings. As mentioned in the Koran (al-Baqarah: 30) man is ordered by God to become the leader in the world for establishing peace, welfare, and justice. It is not only a monopoly of Islam, but for all people. That is why the task of establishing civilization in this world the responsibility of all people, so that we should be able to cooperate with each other in order for all human beings to be able to live properly N ot like now, where there are still some starving people in other parts of the world. It is not because we are un able to produce enough food, but that we are still not able to manage the world properly.

In Indonesia, we should be able to establish cooperation amongst all religions. This is a formidable job because officially we have six religions and one traditional belief, with various sub-divisions. All should be able to formulate a coherent relationship within religious, cultural, and political aspects. Moslem s can take the example of the life of Muhammad the Prophet who was able to create pluralistic societies based on the Madinah Charter. Recently our political discourse of the Madinah Societies should be filled with real efforts to establish the open society. For this purpose, it may be useful to introduce Fritjof Schuon’s concept of religion of the heart (Schuon, 1994: vii and 91) to reform our already challenging concept ofTrilogi Kerukunan (Threefold Tolerations) introduced in 1978 by ex-Minister of Religions H. Alamsyah Ratu Prawiranegara. By doing so, we can enlarge from a co-existence principle into a truly understanding principle of all religions. For that purpose, we already have the institute of DIAN (Dialog Antar Iman ) for encouraging dialogue amongst the religion s , however we can try to introduce the concept of ‘passing over’ in order to develop a spiritual feeling (Hidayat and Ahmad Gaus AF, 1998: xiv)

E. Conclusion

Muhammadiyah has made great efforts both to modernize Indonesia and to reform the interpretation of Islam in Indonesia. In the first part, it has been relatively successful in establishing modern infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, and banks, to mention a few. In the second part, it is still not able to attract rural Moslem communities who compose majority of Indonesian Moslems. The cause of this failure can be traced back to the sociological background of its followers in the urban area of Jogjakarta, which did not accommodate the religious thinking of the rural areas.

Muhammadiyah’s slogan of anti-TBC (Takhayul, Bid’ah, Churafat) was to confront to religious life in the rural area s and culminated in Sufi sm Its modern religious interpretation focused on using ratio nality to manage the worldly, and it did not accept the emotional relationship with God. Its strong opposition to TBC changed as it needs spiritual feeling recently because of the presence of such immense materialism. It took a long time from 1912 to the 1990-s to see this dialectical thinking from opposing Sufi sm into accepting Sufi sm to such extend This process can be shortened if there existed a mutual dialogue with other groups, or had there been comparative history studies with already advanced societies in the West.

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30- Thoyibi, M. (2000).How Gus Dur Open My Eyes . Dalam Harry Bhaskara Understanding Gus Dur. Jakarta: The Jakarta Post.

Notes

[1] He is graduate student of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University and also lecturer at History Department of Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

[2] PBUH stands for Peace Be Upon Him, that is to honor Mohamed the Prophet. However in the following texts it does not put in again.

[3] Sufi is Islamic teachings which focus on emotional aspect of Islam. Sufi becomes feature of Islam in Indonesia because it has similar characters to former religions of Hind and Buda. Sufi has become major issue between both Islamic groups. At first Muhammadiyah refused sufi and then she accepted some dimensions of Sufi.

[4] It means Muhammadiyah assume that they follow the straight true of Islam by referring directly to Islamic sources of Koran and Haditst.

[5] Ijtihad is a religious interpretation of Islam in conjunction to the advancement of the worldly life. Ijtihad should be conducted by capable Moslem thinker and it is difficult to classify them, especially when Islamic civilization reduced its influences. That is why the gate of ijtihad was closed in Sunni countries in where salaf movement took a place. The gate of ijtihad is never closed in Shiite sect such as in Iran.

[6] Muktamar is conference held regularly each five years.

[7] Tareqat is a kind of practical Sufi to divide with philosophical Sufi. Actually Islam has developed some tareqat groups which consists of both practical and philosophical aspects of Sufi.