The Contested State of Sufism in Islamic Modernism: The Case of the Muhammadiyah Movement in Twentieth-Century Indonesia
In: Journal of Sufi StudiesSearch for other papers by Herman L. Beck in
Current site
Google Scholar
The Muhammadiyah in Indonesia is commonly known not to be very sympathetic towards mysticism in terms of its manifestations in mystical religious fraternities and pantheistic identity mysticism. Although its stance versus these religious phenomena seems to be very clear, many of its members are struggling to determine their attitude towards the issue. The continuing uncertainty about its legitimacy is evident from the questions Muhammadiyah members send to the Suara Muhammadiyah regarding this topic. In this article i focus on the Muhammadiyah’s ‘official’ vision through its first hundred years of existence. My thesis is that its rigidness in rejecting ‘mystical and spiritual’ manifestations is not only caused by its fear of unbelief and heresy, but also closely related to the political and social circumstances in which it is confronted with these ‘mystical and spiritual’ manifestations in the first place.
La Muhammadiyah en Indonésie est bien connue pour ne pas être sympathique vers le mysticisme, soit sous la forme de confréries religieuses-mystiques ou sous la forme de mysticisme panthéiste. Bien que son opposition à ces phénomènes religieux semble être très clair beaucoup de ses membres ont du mal à déterminer leur attitude à l’égard de la question. L’incertitude persistante quant à la légitimité de la mystique est évidente dans les questions des membres de la Muhammadiyah envoyées à la Suara Muhammadiyah concernant le sujet. Dans cet article je cible la vision « officielle » de la Muhammadiyah tout au long de ses cent premières années d’existence. Ma thèse est que sa rigidité en rejetant les traditions « mystiques et spirituelles » ne soit pas seulement causée par la crainte de l’incroyance et de l’hérésie mais qu’elle soit aussi étroitement liée à la situation politique et sociale dans laquelle elle confronte ces traditions.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
2
James L. Peacock, ‘The Creativity of Tradition in Indonesian Religion’, History of Religion 25.4 (1985): 341–51, 349.
-
4
Cf. Julia Day Howell, ‘Sufism and the Indonesian Islamic Revival’, The Journal of Asian Studies 60.3 (2001): 701–29, 705–6.
-
7
H. Ibnu Djarir, ‘Muhammadiyah dan Tasawuf’, in Tasawuf dan Krisis, ed. M. Amin Syukur (Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2001), 178–97, 189; and 1 Abad Muhammadiyah. Gagasan Pembaruan Sosial Keagamaan, ed. Syarifuddin Jurdi a.o. (Jakarta: Kompas, 2010), 17.
-
8
E.g., Abdul Munir Mulkhan, Nyufi Cara Baru. Kiai Ahmad Dahlan dan Petani Modernis (Jakarta: Serambi, 2003), 100 ff.; cf. Kraus, ‘Die indonesischen islamischen Bruderschaften’, 24.
-
10
Yusuf Abdullah Puar, Perjuangan dan Pengabdian Muhammadiyah (Jakarta: Pustaka Antara, 1989), 170.
-
13
Greg Fealy and Greg Barton, ‘Introduction’, in Nahdlatul Ulama, Traditional Islam and Modernity in Indonesia, ed. Greg Barton and Greg Fealy (Clayton: Monash Asia Institute, 1996), xix–xxvi, xix.
-
14
Greg Fealy, ‘Wahab Chasbullah, Traditionalism and the Political Development of the Nahdlatul Ulama’, in Nahdlatul Ulama, 1–41, 9, 12–14.
-
16
James L. Peacock, ‘Dahlan and Rasul: Indonesian Muslim Reformers’, in The Imagination of Reality: Essays in Southeast Asian Coherence Systems, ed. A.L. Becker and Aram A. Yengoyan (Norwood, n.j.: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1979), 245–68, 258.
-
18
Hamka, Ajahku, 77; and Kraus, ‘Die indonesischen islamischen Bruderschaften’, 27. For rabita, see also Imron Abu Amar, Di sekitar masalah Thariqat (Naqsyabandiyah) (Kudus: Menara Kudus, 1980), 56–71; and Martin van Bruinessen, Tarekat Naqsyabandiyah di Indonesia. Survei Historis, Geografis, dan Sosiologis (Bandung: Mizan, 1992), 82–5.
-
20
Noer, Modernist Muslim Movement, 31–3; Akhria Nazwar, Ahmad Khatib. Ilmuwan Islam di Permulaan Abad Ini (Jakarta: Pustaka Panjimas, 1983); and Ensiklopedi Islam, ed. Harun Nasution, A. Mukti Ali et al., 3 vols. (Jakarta: Departemen Agama R.I., 1987), 1:73–6.
-
22
Mohammad Damami, Tasawuf Positif dalam Pemikiran HAMKA (Yogyakarta: Fajar Pustaka Baru, 2000), 117–9, 134–7.
-
25
Julia Day Howell, ‘Indonesia’s Salafist Sufis’, Modern Asian Studies 44.5 (2010): 1029–51, 1031–3.
-
26
Bernard Johan Boland, The Struggle of Islam in Modern Indonesia (The Hague: De Nederlandsche Boek- en Steendrukkerij v/h H.C. Smits, 1971), 34–5.
-
30
Thus rendered by Julia Howell, ‘Kebatinan and the Kejawen Traditions’, in Religion and Ritual, ed. James J. Fox (Singapore: Archipelago Press, 1998), 62–3.
-
31
Semuel Agustinus Patty, ‘ “Aliran Kepercayaan”: A Socio-Religious Movement in Indonesia’ (PhD. diss., Washington State University, 1986), 2. For the ‘new religions’, see, e.g., J.W.M. Bakker, ‘Nieuwe godsdiensten in Indonesië’, Indisch Missietijdschrift 41 (1958): 46–53. It is worth mentioning that this J.W.M. Bakker sj is identical with Rahmat Subagya, the author of Kepercayaan, kebatinan, kerohanian, kejiwaan dan agama (Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 1973, rpt. 1989). See Huub J.W.M. Boelaars, Indonesianisasi. Het omvormingsproces van de katholieke kerk in Indonesië tot de Indonesische katholieke kerk (Kampen: Kok, 1991), 368.
-
32
Johanes Indrakusuma, L’homme parfait selon l’école du Pangestu. Étude de la spiritualité javanaise et de sa rencontre avec le Christianisme (Paris: Beauchesne, 1973), 32. See also Koentjaraningrat, Javanese Culture (Singapore, etc.: Oxford University Press, 1985), 398: ‘The name kebatinan refers to the fact that in all these movements their members search for the truth of the inner self, or batin, of human being’.
-
33
See Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Global and Local in Indonesian Islam’, in Southeast Asian Studies 37.2 (1999): 49–63.
-
36
See, e.g., Niels Mulder, Mysticism and Everyday Life in Contemporary Java: Cultural Persistence and Change (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1978), 5.
-
37
Manning Nash, ‘Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia and Indonesia’, in Fundamentalisms Observed, ed. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991), 691–739, 721. For the Darul Islam movements, see C. van Dijk, Rebellion under the Banner of Islam: The Darul Islam in Indonesia (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981); and Holk H. Dengel, Darul-Islam. Kartosuwirjos Kampf um einen islamischen Staat Indonesien (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1986).
-
38
Harun Hadiwijono, Man in the Present Javanese Mysticism (Baarn: Bosch & Keuning, 1967), 3; Olaf H. Schumann, ‘Indonesischer Mystizismus und Islam’, Zeitschrift für Mission 2.2 (1976): 64–87, 83; Abdul Malik Hasan, ‘Aliran kebatinan (Kajian singkat dari sudut pemikiran gnostik)’, in Kebatinan dan dakwah kepada orang Jawa, ed. Abdul Munir Malkhan (this is his name on the title page; later the author’s name is spelt Abdul Munir Mulkhan) (Yogyakarta: Persatuan, 1984 [only to be used in Muhammadiyah circles!]), 7–27, 9 ff.; and Geels, Subud, 21.
-
40
Toha Hamim, ‘Moenawar Chalil: The Career and Thought of an Indonesian Muslim Reformist’, Studia Islamika. Indonesian Journal for Islamic Studies 4.2 (1997), 1–54, 14, 42. It deserves special mention that Moenawar Chalil was at the same time a member of Persatuan Islam and head of its Majelis Ulama. Persatuan Islam is a modernist movement which is considered to be more rigorous than the Muhammadiyah in many respects (Hamim, ‘Moenawar Chalil’, 8). However, it is very difficult to determine when Moenawar Chalil is speaking as a member of the Muhammadiyah or as a member of Persatuan Islam. For Persatuan Islam, see Howard M. Federspiel, Persatuan Islam: Islamic Reform in Twentieth Century Indonesia (Ithaca, n.y.: Cornell University Press, 1970); and Howard M. Federspiel, Islam and Ideology in the Emerging Indonesian State: The Persatuan Islam (persis), 1923 to 1957 (Leiden etc.: Brill, 2001). For ingratitude as kufr, see, e.g., Toshihiko Izutsu, Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’ân (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1966), 120–55.
-
43
A.R. Sutan Mansur, Jihad (Jakarta: Panji Masyarakat, 1982), 41.
-
47
Subagyo, Kepercayaan, 120. N.B. Rahmat Subagyo is the nom de plume of J.W.M. Bakker sj, see n. 31 above. In John M. Echols and Hassan Shadily, Kamus Indonesia-Inggris. An Indonesian-English Dictionary (third ed., Jakarta: Gramedia 1992 [first ed. 1961]), 300, klenik is translated as ‘secret mystical or magical practices of a questionable nature’.
-
50
Bakker, ‘Nieuwe godsdiensten’, 52–3; Subagyo, Kepercayaan, 116; and Mulder, Mysticism, 4. Bakker, ‘Nieuwe godsdiensten’, 53, also mentions a fourth element, namely, unity of doctrine.
-
51
Subagyo, Kepercayaan, 116. According to Bakker, ‘Nieuwe godsdiensten’, 52, Muhammad Dimyati held the following, very negative opinion regarding kebatinan, which he calls ‘new religions’: ‘These new religions are produced by people of unsound mind who do not actually understand the nature of Islam. Therefore, they themselves carelessly design “the true nature of Islam”. Their doctrine found a ready reception with their disciples, who are nothing more than stupid fools without any understanding of Islam. These new religions are no religions and that is why they cannot be tolerated. They cause chaos and anarchy, and ruin our society. The same holds true for Hinduism and its propaganda. If tolerated, it will damage the interest of freedom and democracy because of its revitalization of pre-Muslim paganism by which our development will slide back for several thousands of years’ (my translation).
-
59
Suffridus de Jong, Een Javaanse levenshouding (Wageningen: Veenman, 1973), 12–14.
-
64
Mulder, Mysticism, 7; and Patty, ‘ “Aliran Kepercayaan” ’, 10.
-
67
Mulder, Mysticism, 8; and Patty, ‘ “Aliran Kepercayaan” ’, 162.
-
75
See, e.g., Mitsuo Nakamura, The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: A Study of the Muhammadiyah Movement in a Central Javanese Town (Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1983), 82 ff.; I.N. Soebagijo, ‘Dari Saridi ke Rasjidi’, in 70 Tahun Prof. Dr. H.M. Rasjidi, ed. Endang Basri Ananda (Jakarta: Harian Umum Pelita, 1985), 3–85; and Azyumardi Azra, ‘Guarding the Faith of the Ummah: The Religio-Intellectual Journey of Mohammed Rasjidi’, Studia Islamika. Indonesian Journal for Islamic Studies 1.2 (1994): 87–119.
-
78
Ibid., 40–3.
-
81
Ibid., 79–80.
-
83
Ibid., 38. It is interesting to note that there was also a discussion among Western scholars of Indonesian mysticism and its stagnating or stimulating influence. E.g., Allan M. Sievers, The Mystical World of Indonesia: Culture and Economic Development in Conflict (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1974), 295, 302: ‘Neomysticism . . . contributes to Indonesia’s state of unhealth, and it is also a major barrier to modernization. . . . [N]o rational solution to the nation’s problem is really possible in a mystical context. . . . [A]s long as mysticism plays a role in policy making and in administration, in planning and organizing, in human relations and in politics, we are indeed confronted with what Lubis calls a black morass. . . . [C]entral to everything is the problem of mysticism. If modernity is to be the goal, there must be a transformation of values, which means the abandonment of mysticism. . . . In some sense, mysticism is all that the tani has left. . . . [A]nd it is a primary barrier to his modernization’. Contra, e.g., Peacock, ‘Creativity of tradition’, 351: ‘In general, however, the deepest and most enduring forces of change and renewal in Indonesian life seem to have come less from the reforms urged by purism than from the frustratingly enigmatic and only seemingly stagnant symbols, practices, and worldview of a mystical syncretism’.
-
86
Ibid., 142, 144.
-
87
See, e.g., Abdul Malik Hasan, ‘Aliran kebatinan (Kajian singkat dari sudut pemikiran gnostik)’, in Kebatinan dan dakwah kepada orang Jawa, ed. Abdul Munir Malkhan (this is his name on the title page; later the author became known as Abdul Munir Mulkhan) (Yogyakarta: Percetakan Persatuan, 1984, rpt. 1987 [only to be used in Muhammadiyah’s own circle!]), 7–27; and Abdul Malik Hasan, ‘Konsepsi Ketuhanan dalam ajaran Pangestu’, in Kebatinan dan dakwah, 29–84, 33, 79, 84.
-
91
Subagyo, Kepercayaan, 125–6. Jainuri translates takhayul as the ‘belief in the disembodied spirit(s) of (a) dead person(s)’, which could not but be averse to any Muslim. Achmad Jainuri, ‘The Muhammadiyah Movement in Twentieth-Century Indonesia: A Socio-Religious Study’ (ma thesis, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, 1992), 72.
-
93
Herman L. Beck, ‘Christmas as Identity Marker: Three Islamic Examples’, in Christian Feast and Festival. The Dynamics of Western Liturgy and Culture, ed. P. Post et al. (Leuven etc.: Peeters, 2001), 97–110, 105 ff.
-
96
Ibid., 9.
-
98
Ali, Muhammadijah Movement, 51. Cf. also A. Mukti Ali, Interpretasi Amalan Muhammadiyah (Jakarta: Harapan Melati, 1985), 20–1; and A. Mukti Ali, ‘Modern Islamic Thought in Indonesia’, Mizan 2.1 (1985), 11–29, 22.
-
99
For A. Mukti Ali, see Ali Munhanif, ‘Islam and the Struggle for Religious Pluralism in Indonesia: A Political Reading of the Religious Thought of Mukti Ali’, Studia Islamika. Indonesian Journal for Islamic Studies 3.1 (1996): 79–126. For A. Mukti Ali’s membership of the Muhammadiyah: Munhanif, ‘Islam’, 117–8. It is striking, however, that A. Mukti Ali has not been included in the Ensiklopedi Muhammadiyah. For Mukti Ali’s involvement in government policy, see Beck, ‘A Pillar of Social Harmony’.
-
100
A. Mukti Ali, Faktor-faktor penjiaran Islam (Jogjakarta: Jajasan Nida, 1971), 21; and Ali, ‘Interpretasi’, 20–1.
-
105
Patty, ‘ “Aliran Kepercayaan” ’, 92, 164. The full name of the Direktorat Bina Hayat is: Direktorat Pembinaan Penghayat Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan Yang Maha Esa, the ‘Directorate for the supervision of the followers of the belief in the Oneness of God’.
-
106
Moeslim Abdurrahman, ‘Zur heutigen sozialen Bedeutung der islamischen Bruderschaften in Java: Einige Feldforschungsnotizen’, in Islamische mystische Bruderschaften, 75–90, 84.
-
110
B.M. Schuurman, Mystik und Glaube in Zusammenhang mit der Mission auf Java (Haag: Nijhoff, 1933), 120.
-
111
Mitsuo Nakamura, ‘Unsur Sufi dalam Muhammadiyah? Catatan dari Kancah’, Prisma 9.8 (1980): 92–99, 96–8.
-
112
I am using the seventh edition of 1994: Musthafa Kamal, Chusnan Yusuf, A. Rosyad Sholeh, Muhammadiyah sebagai Gerakan Islam (Yogyakarta: Persatuan, 1994).
-
114
Ibid., 31–2. Cf. also, e.g., Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Traditions for the Future: The Reconstruction of Traditionalist Discourse within nu’, in Nahdlatul Ulama, 162–89, 170; and Zulkifli, Sufism in Java: The Role of the Pesantren in the Maintenance of Sufism in Java (Leiden and Jakarta: inis, 2002), 52, 75.
-
116
Zaim Uchrowi and Ahmadie Thaha, ‘Menyeru Pemikiran Rasional Mu’tazilah’, in Refleksi Pembaharuan Pemikrian Islam. 70 tahun Harun Nasution (Jakarta: Lembaga Studi Agama dan Filsafat, 1989), 3–62, 42; and Luthfi Assyaukanie, ‘Muslim Discourse of Liberal Democracy in Indonesia’, in Muslim Politics and Democratisation in Indonesia, Monash Asia Institute Annual Indonesian Lecture Series, no. 28 (Clayton, Vic.: Monash Asia Institute, 2008), 1–31, 4. Cf., also, Mirjam Künkler, ‘How Pluralist Democracy Became the Consensual Discourse among Secular and Nonsecular Muslims in Indonesia’, in Democracy and Islam in Indonesia, ed. By Mirjam Künkler and Alfred Stepan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 54–72, 57–8.
-
118
Cf., e.g., Oman Fathurahman, ‘Urban Sufism: The Change and Continuity of the Tasawwuf Teaching’, in Islamic Thought and Movements in Contemporary Indonesia, ed. Rizal Sukma and Clara Joewono (Jakarta: Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 2007), 237–56. On 242, Fathurahman also mentions Jalaluddin Rahmat who founded Tazkiya Sejati, and Haidar Bagir who coordinated ‘IIMan—a centre for positive development of tasawwuf’.
-
120
Juhaya S. Praja, ‘Dimensi spiritual dalam Muhammadiyah: Rekonstruksi pemikiran kalam dan tasawuf’, in Pengembangan Pemikiran Keislaman Muhammadiyah: Purifikasi dan Dinamisasi, ed. Muhammad Azhar and Hamim Ilyas (Yogyakarta: lppi-umy, 2000), 123–41, 141.
-
125
A. Fatichuddin et al., Pergumulan Tokoh Muhammadiyah Menuju Sufi. Catatan Pemikiran Abdurrahim Nur (Surabaya: Hikmah Press, 2003); cf. Ricklefs, Islamisation and Its Opponents, 186–7.
-
126
Julia Day Howell, ‘Modernity and Islamic Spirituality in Indonesia’s New Sufi Networks’, in Sufism and the ‘Modern’ in Islam, ed. Martin van Bruinessen and Julia Day Howell (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007), 217–40, 219.
-
131
See Endang Mintarja, Arifin Ilham. Tarikat, Zikir, dan Muhammadiyah (Bandung: Hikmah, 2004), 110–3. Abdul Munir Mulkhan dedicated a lot of attention to the study of mysticism, Sufism and tarekats. Several books are already mentioned and are sometimes published under different titles, e.g. Nyufi Cara Baru is identical to Islam Sejati Kiai Ahmad Dahlan dan Petani Muhammadiyah (Jakarta: pt Serambi Ilmu Semesta, 2003). With regard to this subject his Islam Murni dalam Masyarakat Petani (Yogyakarta: Yayasan Bentang Budaya, 2000) is also worth mentioning.
-
132
See, e.g., Kuntowijoyo, ‘Kemandirian Gerakan Muhammadiyah’, in Pergumulan Pemikiran dalam Muhammadiyah, ed. Syukrianto ar and Abdul Munir Mulkhan (Yogyakarta: Sipress, 1990), 67–72, 71; idem, Paradigma Islam. Interpretasi untuk Aksi, ed. A.E. Priyono (Bandung: Mizan, 1991), 266; and idem, Muslim Tanpa Masjid. Esai-Esai Agama, Budaya, dan Politik dalam Bingkai Strukturalisme Transendental (Bandung: Mizan, 2001), passim.
-
133
Mintarja, Arifin Ilham, 39–41; Howell, ‘Modulations of Active Piety’, 54–6; cf. also idem, ‘Indonesia’s Salafist Sufis’, 1042–6; and, especially, Arif Zamhari, Rituals of Islamic Spirituality: A Study of Majlis Dhikr Groups in East Java (Canberra: anu Press, 2010), 15.
-
134
Mintarja, Arifin Ilham, 50, 80, 109–14; cf. also, Howell, ‘Modulations of Active Piety’, 56–60.
-
135
Julia D. Howell, ‘Muslims, the New Age and Marginal Religions in Indonesia: Changing Meanings of Religious Pluralism’, in Social Compass 52.4 (2005): 473–93, 481, 483.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1103 | 209 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 306 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 123 | 9 | 0 |
The Contested State of Sufism in Islamic Modernism: The Case of the Muhammadiyah Movement in Twentieth-Century Indonesia
In: Journal of Sufi StudiesSearch for other papers by Herman L. Beck in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The Muhammadiyah in Indonesia is commonly known not to be very sympathetic towards mysticism in terms of its manifestations in mystical religious fraternities and pantheistic identity mysticism. Although its stance versus these religious phenomena seems to be very clear, many of its members are struggling to determine their attitude towards the issue. The continuing uncertainty about its legitimacy is evident from the questions Muhammadiyah members send to the Suara Muhammadiyah regarding this topic. In this article i focus on the Muhammadiyah’s ‘official’ vision through its first hundred years of existence. My thesis is that its rigidness in rejecting ‘mystical and spiritual’ manifestations is not only caused by its fear of unbelief and heresy, but also closely related to the political and social circumstances in which it is confronted with these ‘mystical and spiritual’ manifestations in the first place.
La Muhammadiyah en Indonésie est bien connue pour ne pas être sympathique vers le mysticisme, soit sous la forme de confréries religieuses-mystiques ou sous la forme de mysticisme panthéiste. Bien que son opposition à ces phénomènes religieux semble être très clair beaucoup de ses membres ont du mal à déterminer leur attitude à l’égard de la question. L’incertitude persistante quant à la légitimité de la mystique est évidente dans les questions des membres de la Muhammadiyah envoyées à la Suara Muhammadiyah concernant le sujet. Dans cet article je cible la vision « officielle » de la Muhammadiyah tout au long de ses cent premières années d’existence. Ma thèse est que sa rigidité en rejetant les traditions « mystiques et spirituelles » ne soit pas seulement causée par la crainte de l’incroyance et de l’hérésie mais qu’elle soit aussi étroitement liée à la situation politique et sociale dans laquelle elle confronte ces traditions.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1103 | 209 | 4 |
| Full Text Views | 306 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 123 | 9 | 0 |
