During the Palembang Sultanate, the Sammaniyah order was the official religion of the Palembang palace. Sammaniyah tariqa scholars were also made officials and advisers to the sultan. This article aims to discuss the power relations of the Palembang Sammaniyah ulama in terms of continuity and change in the regime of power. From the 19th to the 20th centuries, the Sammaniyah tariqa lived and developed under five regimes of power, namely the Sultanate of Palembang Darussalam, the Dutch colonists, the Japanese invaders, (...) the Old Order and New Order. Palembang Sammaniyah tarekat scholars who are considered conservative (kaum tuo) have to deal with modern scholars (kaum mudo) because of the khilafiyah problem. As a result, there was a great shift by the Sammaniyah ulama in maintaining and developing the Sammaniyah order in Palembang. Firstly, the shift occurred in the role and function of the ulama of the tarekat, changing from religious leaders who teach Islamic religious knowledge to multifunctional scholars in dealing with modernism by utilising public space. Secondly, the charismatic nature of the Sammaniyah tarekat ulama formed the authority of the ulama so that the ulama could play a role in sociopolitical affairs in each power regime. Thirdly, contemporary tarekat scholars and Sammaniyah tarekat scholars who are considered conservative scholars could compete with mudo people who were considered religious reformers. Besides, the ongoing Islamisation challenged the Sammaniyah tariqa scholars in maintaining and developing the Sammaniyah tariqa.Contribution: This research will contribute to determining the relationship between power and the existence of scholars. The question that the article tries to explore is how the identity and existence of the ulama could survive every change of power in Palembang. This article will discuss the changes in power that have occurred in each period that caused a change in mindset and a shift in the identity of the ulama. This study discusses the power relations of the Palembang Sammaniyah ulama in changing regimes of power and finds the fact that power can affect the order. (shrink)

This article highlights the role of Majelis Ulama Indonesia in making anti-pluralism discourse and practice which are evident in its fatwa on belief . It begins with the explanation of MUI which in the first three decades of its establishment was a fatwa body that supported pluralism, but since the downfall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, has changed its position from supporter to detractor of pluralism. This article argues that the institutionalization of anti- pluralism discourse through the MUI (...) fatwa creates complexity especially because Indonesia contains the idea of pluralism in its constitution. The situation becomes more complex when the state and also Muslim organizations strengthen the position of MUI in monopolizing fatwa-making on ‘aqīda issues. The monopolization of fatwa on Islamic belief issues creates such a negative impact for religious freedom in Indonesia due to its fundamental characteristics that allow only a single judgment for the Muslim communities in understanding and interpreting their Islamic belief. Finally this article concludes the importance of Indonesia for protecting pluralism for maintaining the diversity of cultures and religions in this country. (shrink)

Nawawī of Banten and Haji Hasan Mustapa are two important figures of Malay-Indonesian Muslim scholars who have been widely studied. However, personal proximity of these two ‘ulamā’ seems to escape from scholarly discussion. Seen from the light of scholarly commenting tradition, this study on the other hand attempts to show their personal proximity between the senior teacher and young student when they lived in Mecca in the late nineteenth century. The sharh tradition of these two ‘ulamā’ particularly through appear in (...) Nawawī’s al-’Iqd al-Thamīn that aims to comment on Mustapa’s work, Al-Fath al-Mubīn, and Mustapa’s al-Lum’a al-Nūrāniyya, a response to Nawawī’s al-Shadra al-Jummāniyya. These two Arabic books were published in Cairo, Egypt. This article further argues that the sharh tradition situates authority and reputation as the epicenter of scholarly discussion between the two ‘ulamā’ who were influential among the Jawah community. It also argues that these two Sundanese scholars contributed significantly in the transmission of Islamic learning in the early twentieth century Middle East. Their works show a scholarly reputation which delivers insights on exceptionality of Islamic and Malay archipelagic issues and serve as a global contribution of Malay-Indonesian ‘ulamā’ to the triumph of Islamic learning traditions. (shrink)

: This article analyses the roles of ‘ulamā’ in propagating the messageof Islam in the Malay world. Islam managed to reach many corners of the Malayworld in the 17th century. Evidence has indicated that ‘ulamā’ were amongthose who had participated actively in propagating the messages of Islam tothe local people. Classical Malay texts served as the best available records tounderstand the roles of these ‘ulamā’ at that time. Hence, analysis are made onselected classical Malay texts in order to understand the (...) actual roles played bythe ‘ulamā’ in the Malay world at that time in transforming the understandingof the local Malay people from the beliefs in Hindu-Buddhist and animism toIslam. Three significant roles of the ‘ulamā’ at that time have been identifiednamely propagating knowledge to the local people, religious advisors to therulers as well as engaging with the non-Muslims. (shrink)

Muhammadiyah and NU are two well-known socio-religious organizations in the world over the years. In spite of the fact that both organizations are characterized as religious social movement, each of them has their individual creativity, which is called al-thaqafat in their motions. This study aims to identify the organization of Muhammadiyah-NU as a religious heritage,which affects other religious organizations both in Indonesia and other countries. This research employed a qualitative approach by using historical method to obtain the actual reality. For (...) data collection, literature reviews,documentation and interviews were also conducted to gather empiric facts.The researchers interviewed public figures of the organizations. Al-thaqafat becomes part of elements rather than cultivated culture, which is understood as habitual patterns of human creativity, including a religious organization. Both organizations are the result of an al-thaqafat religious creativity created by each founder and can be pursued into the world monumental heritage. Without denying, the existence of al-thaqafat creativity will continue to enlighten the world civilization. Therefore, Muhammadiyah and NU have been doing and keeping continuing al-thaqafat creativity enlightenment through their charitable organizations and institutions. The result is profoundly proven so that they have been in an existence more than a century. (shrink)

Nahdhatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah are two moderate Islamic organizations in Indonesia which operate in the area of preaching amar ma’ruf nahi munkar, and enlightenment tajdid, sourced from the Al-Quran and Sunnah. Besides being known as a religious organization, NU and Muhammadiyah are also known as organizations that play an active role in the humanitarian field. The study is based on the premise that religious discourse as a resolution can come in various forms and strategies, even by involving actors from (...) across disciplines and countries. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the role of NU and Muhammadiyah organizations in reducing conflict and realizing peace in the Middle East. This research used a qualitative descriptive case study method with NU and Muhammadiyah as research subjects. Miles and Huberman model was used for data analysis which required data collection, data presentation, data condensation, and drawing conclusions. In this study, it was found that in helping to create world peace, NU and Muhammadiyah had done a number of things. In the international arena, NU played a major role in global peace efforts. This role can be seen when NU actively initiated, organized, and led various meetings and conferences and interfaith dialogues. NU also formed the International Conference of Islamic Scholars or the Ulama Conference. and World Muslim Scholars. The role of Muhammadiyah, too, included resolving conflicts in Central Africa, Palestine, and the Rohingya Muslim Conflict. In resolving the Middle East conflict, Muhammadiyah was actively involved in sending aid, for example in the Palestinian conflict, Muhammadiyah formed Muhammadiyah AID. (shrink)

The rise of religious conservatism following the 1998 reformasi has altered the face of Indonesian Islam, which has historically been regarded as peaceful and inclusive, which is why the Indonesian government has advocated for moderate Islam on a regional, national and even a global scale. Using West Java as a case study, this article presents the 2019 'English for Ulama' initiative, which intends to train ulama in West Java about the concept of moderate Islam before sending them to the United (...) Kingdom to promote moderate Islamic discourse in a global setting. This study demonstrates that the EFU programme is a strategic project that not only benefits West Javanese ulama regionally, where they may develop networks with other Muslims on a worldwide scale, but also benefits from the national development of moderate Islamic discourse. On a global scale, this programme is one of the best examples of moderate Islamic discourse diplomacy as the nature of Indonesian Islam. Furthermore, supporting moderate Islam on a worldwide scale is likely to influence Western society's view of Islamophobia. CONTRIBUTION: Although the EFU programme is a local government initiative, it has contributed to the promotion of moderate Islam at the world level and is framed as global diplomacy. (shrink)

: While Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī is known to posterity primarily as a historian and commentator on the Qurʾan, his most creative work may have been in the law, and Ibn al-Nadim places his main entry on al-Ṭabarī in Book VI of the Fihrist, on law. Unfortunately, most of his legal works have been lost. Building on and revising George Makdisi’s analysis of the relationship between the ṭabaqāt genre and the theoretical justification of the legal madhhabs, this study (...) argues that one of these lost books, Marātib al-ʿulamāʾ “Degrees of the Scholars,” was devoted to the generations of jurists and intended to provide a theoretical basis for the authority of the Jarīrī madhhab, one among a number of pieces of evidence that suggest al-Ṭabarī was consciously designing and creating his own legal madhhab, in contrast to earlier jurists, such as Abū Ḥanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī, whose legal madhhabs were created by subsequent generations of students. (shrink)

Within Muslim communities, the ‘ulama are considered the most crucial corporate social agency that drives the ideological and spiritual energy to the members of the society who find religious teachings necessary for their individual and social, if not always political, lives. However, when the ‘ulama of Bangladesh gathered under the umbrella platform of Hefazat-e-Islam in 2010, agitated by the numerous upheavals of the government’s policies, scholars and members of the civil society often dubbed them as regressive, reactionary, and insensitive to (...) modern changes. While anthropologists have challenged this dichotomy, this article aims to understand the HI ‘ulama’s views on modern changes and how the ‘ulama safeguard the traditional integrity in legal, educational, and gender aspects within the domain of the Bangladeshi state mechanism. Based on anthropological notions of tradition and piety, this article argues that the ‘ulama’s position on education, woman, and legal questions is neither monolithic nor static; rather there is always discussion, debate, and dynamism within the ‘ulama itself. (shrink)

On the eminence of knowledge according to the teachings of various Muslim sufis and scholars.

One of the main ideas of the article is the foresight that the organization of the ulama, which distinguishes itself from its counterparts in other cultures with its unique free and open-to-change structure, played a major role in the success of the Ottoman Empire. Carrying out educational activities in madrasahs, the higher educational institutions of the state, the ulama (the organization of ‘ilmiyyah) was at a level that could lead the society with its scientific accumulation, efforts to make sense of (...) life, and universal perspectives. This article discusses whether the rapid decline of the ulama in the 18th and 19th centuries has been manipulated or not. Another issue that the article pays attention to is the intellectuals who were opposed to the ulama under the influence of Western culture after the declaration of the 1839 Tanzimat Edict. These intellectuals started to replace the ulama in the Ottoman Empire in a short time and became a kind of representatives of the Western culture. A new dilemma was that these new reformists aimed to become Westernized while preserving Islamic values in the Islamic world. The aim of the article is to examine this paradox in its historical background and to reveal what kind of effect and perception it creates on the society. "Historical research method" was used in the research. Through this method, the period that constitutes the subject of the study has been critically examined and attempted to be analyzed correctly. (shrink)

Women in Islam; Islamic religious educations.

Language and languages; linguistics; Arabic language; sufism.