Expressing Muslim Diversity in Indonesia

East-West CenterJuly, 2012

Anna M. Gade (amgade@wisc.edu)

Part One: Sources

Diversity of perspectives from authoritative materials and approaches shared globally

Ronit Ricci, Islam TranslatedIslamic “cosmopolis”

For outstanding website with images, material, and curriculum on Islam in Southeast Asia, see link to Asia Society, “Islam in Southeast Asia”

Dimensions of Qur’anic Message: Universal and Specific

Frames:• Frame of the (historical) experience of the

Prophet Muhammad and his community• Frame of the experience of all “Muslims” who

follow the prophet (temporally and religiously)• Frame of all humanity and other created beings

for all timeFor law (application and scope), historicity of

revelation is a key consideration

Ex. “Multifaceted” Dimensions:How was Qur’an revealed?

Following the Qur’an itself, Muslims readers say:1. It was “sent down” in the holy month of

Ramadan (e.g., 97 Al-Qadr [next slides], 44 Al-Dukhan 1-4; 2 Al-Baqarah 185)

2. It was “sent down” “in stages” to the Prophet Muhammad (e.g., 17 Al-Isra 106; 25 Al-Furqan 32)

3. It also exists on a “preserved tablet” (85 Al-Buruj 21-22)

“Major Theme” of Qur’anThe Qur’an’s MAJOR THEME: tawhid

Unity of DivinityThis is the Message brought by Prophets

Surah 112 Al-Ikhlas (Sells, one of 3 versions P. 136)“Say he is God, oneGod foreverNot begetting, unbegotten, and having as an equal

none”

Qur’anic Divinity

God is omnipotent and omniscient (for example, “Verse of the Throne,” 2 Al-Baqarah 255)

God is transcendent (and, some ask, also immanent, such as closer than one’s veins or heart; or, “everywhere you turn, there is the face of God”?)

Divinity is ineffable: “Verse of Light,” 24 Al-Nur 35

“Readings”

“Readings” (qira’at) here is a technical termAuthoritative variant readings (vocalizations) are all based on the SAME textThe “readings” have nothing to do with pitch variation, which is ALWAYS IMPROVISED

Recommended Further Reading

• Esack, The Qur’an: A User’s Guide• Gade, The Qur’an: An Introduction• George, Picturing Islam• Graham, Beyond the Written Word• Mattson, The Story of the Qur’an• Rahman, Major Themes of the Qur’an• Sells, Approaching the Qur’an: The Early

Revelations

Part Two

Sufism and Traditions of Piety in the Malay Speaking World

Modes of casting and encountering “otherness”religiously and historically

Examples (readings and handout):Hamzah Fansuri (poet, 16th century)Sunan Ampel (wali songo, “Nine Saints”)

Sufism or “tasawwuf”Experiential knowledge; esoteric pietyAspects of asceticism, gnosticism, devotionalismControversial, but also mainstream for much of

Islamic historyTerm for some structures of Sufism, “Tariqa” 1.Method of self-cultivation (a “spiritual path”)2.Teaching of an authoritative guide (a “way”)3.Lineages and networks (an “order”)

Roots of Sufism• Qur’an, such as the Prophet’s ascent (17:1) and

vision (53:1); verses on God’s immanence (50:16, closer than jugular vein; 2:115, everywhere is the face of God; 33:41 remembering God; 7:172, “Day of Alast”)

• Hadith and model of the Prophet, such as reports collected on austerity of the Prophet’s experience; Hadith Qudsi (“divine sayings”)

• Early pietists; for example, Hasan Basri (d. 720); tradition of asceticism known as zuhd

Ideals on the way of Self-Cultivation

• Tawakkul, “trust in God”Related stages along the beginning of the Path

• Kashf, discovery; ma’rifa, knowing• Goal: fana’ (extinction) and baqa’ (residing)

Problem of experience and expressionJunaid (d. 910) and “Sober Sufism” of the “Baghdad circle”Al-Bistami (d. 848 or 875) and Al-Hallaj (d. 922): ecstatic utterances

Systematizations

• Baghdad School (Al-Junaid)“Unity is the separation of that which is Eternal from that which is created in time.”

• Sufi manualsAl-Kalabadhi (d. 990 or 995), Al-Sarraj (d. 988), Al-Hujwiri (11th cent., South Asia), Al-Qushairi (d. 1075), Al-Ansari, et al.

Micro- and Macrocosm: The “Perfect Man”

• “Perfect Man” : Al-Insan Al-Kamil5 essences; unity of essence/visionAl-Jili (d. ca. 1410)Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240)

• Southeast Asian / Malay expressions of monist doctrine, Gift Addressed to the Spirit of the Prophet

• EXAMPLE. POEMS OF HAMZAH FANSURI

Poems of Hafiz and Hamzah Fansuri

• Hafiz (Hafez-e Shiraz, 1315-1390), Green Sea of Heaven (trans. Gray), Ghazal 38:“It’s ‘id, there is the rose at last…”

• Hamzah Fansuri (Malay, 16th century), The Poems of Hamzah Fansuri (trans. Drewes and Brakel), no. 32 (see link):“How strange that the whale…”Location in maritime Asia; pedagogy; controversy

Early Institutional Formation

• Sufi “brotherhoods” and futuwwaByzantine Christianity

• Master-students relationship;initiation and guidance

• Silsilah: “chain” of spiritual lineage• Sufi masters: shaykh, pir

Seen and unseen power

Sufism and InstitutionalizationRole of saints and local politics: see work by Vincent

Cornell, Carl Ernst, Bruce Lawrence, Richard Eaton, etc. However, “Sufism” popularized in Europe as apolitical, anti-

hierarchical (much like Romanticism)

Southeast Asia: Piety and the imagination of institutionalizing Islam

EXAMPLE. SUNAN AMPEL’s HAGIOGRAPHY (see link)Transnational connection; Pedagogy; Institutional

formation; relations with local rulers; cultural controversy; “miracles” and barakah; mysticism

Part Three

Part Three: Casting Diversity in Muslim Indonesia

Islam and ideas of difference in the era of nation-states

Examples:Popular Islamic Sound RecordingsBiography of the Prophet Muhammad in 20th

Century Indonesia (reading)

Rise of Pesantren• Latter half of 19th century, growth in number of

pesantren and Muslim scholars, ‘ulama

• Era of harsh colonial policy, a possible reaction

• These institutions seen as separate from local Muslim elite

• Azra:between 1850 and 1900, pesantren in Java increased from 2,000 to 15,000 schools

New Communities• At turn of 20th century, new social influences and

structures

• Voluntary associationsSarekat Islam (SI), 1915Muhammadiyya, 1912Nahdatul Ulama (NU), 1926

• Educational Institutions (especially Muhammadiyya)

• Effect of Japanese occupation (Masyumi)

Indonesia Merdeka,Nation-Building

• SoekarnoProclamation of independence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JyKAFVBEIE

• June, 1945: “Jakarta Charter” (Piagem Jakarta), preamble to Constitution

• Pancasila and pluralism• Ministry of Religious Affairs (est. 1946)• 1965, attempted coup and its aftermath

Suharto and the “New Order”

Islamic “Renewalism”

• Middle Class movements• “Cultural” approach instead of party politics

after 1965• Muslim intellectuals (e.g., Nurcholish Madjid)

• NU, “traditionalism” and progressive reform• “Li’ta’arifu” (Qur. 49:13) and the pluralistic

imagination

Reformasi

• May, 1998: end of Suharto regime and beginning of era of “reformasi”

…

Piety and Popular Expression in Indonesia

Tradition and Transformation to convey social messages

Role of “Sufism” (?) and longstanding practices of piety (especially veneration of the Prophet)

Handouts: Opick and Emha Ainun Naguib(Watch Youtube clips)

EXAMPLE. “Biography of the Prophet in Modern Indonesia” (see link to article)

Tradition and Imagination of Pluralism through the exemplary model of the Prophet Muhammad