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QUR’ANIC LITERACY IN A MULTICULTURAL MUSLIM SOCIETYThe Role of Qur’anic Literacy as a Communicative Competence among Javanese Muslims
2014
ASKURIPh.D Student at ICRS - Gadjah Mada University of Yogyakarta
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Introduction
Ahead of Presidential Election of 2014, the Indonesian public was preoccupied
with imagery and campaign tactics between the two Presidential Candidates: Prabowo
Subianto and Joko Widodo. One of the problems that was quite prominent during the
campaign was the issue of literacy: Joko Widodo was rumored to be unable to read the
Qur’an. This rumor turned out to be disquieting for Joko Widodo’s supporters. It was
feared that it would undermine his popularity. Therefore, a video of Joko Widodo
engaging in Muslim prayer was uploaded to YouTube. To further counteract the issue,
Vice President Candidates Jusuf Kalla proposed a Qur’anic Literacy Competition between
the two Presidential Candidates. This issue became a hot conversation topic in various
media, and continued as a trending topic in various social media all the way up to the
day of the Presidential Election itself. It was a very unique phenomenon: how could the
problem of Qur’anic literacy can be a campaign issue that could alarming the voters in
Indonesia? In the Indonesian context, the issue has a very strong historical roots in
religious traditions in this country.
Molly Bondan (1995) in her book "In Love with a Nation" revealed that when the
Japanese occupied Indonesia in 1942, the number of literate population was less than
7%, and in 1945, when Indonesia became independent, approximately 90% of the
people in this country were illiterate. Faced with this reality, Sukarno Government
launched a Literacy Program on March 14, 1948. The government thought that one of
the obstacles of the nation's progress was a low literacy rate. This situation was not
uncommon in many post-colonial countries.
In June 1948, the Ministry of Education and Culture intensified the literacy
movement. Many literacy courses were opened intensively in a number of residencies
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(political districts), such as Malang, Surabaya, Kediri, Madiun, Bojonegoro, Semarang,
Pati, Surakarta, Kedu, Yogyakarta, Banyumas, and others. The number of literacy courses
that were organized by the Government amounted to 18 663, with 17,822 teachers and
761,483 students. In addition, several courses were held independently, and these
totaled 881, with 515 teachers and 33,626 pupils.
However, at the same time as the “literacy program” was spreading, high levels
of Arabic script literacy was already in place, having been transmitted from generation
to generation among Muslims in Java since the 17th century. In the 1940s, and even
long before that, there were many Islamic schools (Pesantren) in Java, and they used the
same writing system, i.e. Arabic script, whether in Arabic or Javanese written in Arabic
script (Pegon). This writing system was inherited from generation to generation in
Pesantren. This script has become a collective memory and cultural identity for many in
the Muslim community, particularly in the north coast of Java. Before any school system
taught Latin script, writing pegon has been widely used as a written language in
Pesantren, Islamic books, Islamic media, inscriptions, and also correspondence.
Although the nationalist literacy program was something noble, the introduction
of Latin literacy, conducted since colonial period, actually carried a psychological burden
for the majority of the Muslims at that time. The introduction of Latin literacy at that
time indirectly divided society into two groups: literate and illiterate. By default, the
people who were educated in Pesantrens were considered as illiterate people, even
though they could read and write in Arabic alphabet. While the people who attended
Dutch schools were regarded as literate people, just because they could read and write
in Latin letters.
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The difference of abilities between Arabic literacy and Latin literacy, indirectly,
actually split multicultural segment of Muslim society in Indonesia, and helped
strengthen the thesis of Geertz (1960) about the trichotomy of religion in Java: Santri,
Abangan, and Priyayi. The literate people in the Arabic script could be categorized as
Santri, the literate people in Latin script could be categorized as Priyayi, dan the illiterate
people in Arabic and Latin script could be categorized as Abangan. Geertz's thesis
applied even long after Indonesia’s independence. Assumptions of contemporary politics
is even now considering the relevance of the dichotomy of Santri and Abangan, even
though many years have passed.
In the post-tragedy of human rights of 1965, known as the G30S/PKI, there has
been a dramatic change in the policy of literacy, with mandatory religious teachings at
schools and universities under the rule of the New Order. Previously, religious teachings
were only carried out voluntarily by the schools based on request from students or their
parents. With any obligation of religious teachings in schools, automatically Qur’anic
literacy for Muslim students become one of important part of religious teachings,
because it is one of the tools in Islamic learning and teaching.
Under the New Order, many scholars believe that under the leadership of
President Suharto Indonesia is dominated by Abangans, because the background of
President Soeharto himself was a follower of Kejawen (Stange 1980), as well as
repression of political Islam was so strong (Feillard 1995). Until the 1980s, the
assumption was still going on until a new perspective by scholars recognized an "Islamic
resurgence in Indonesia" (Hefner 2000; Hefner, 2010; Liddle 1996).
Many scholars provide an analysis that the Islamic resurgence was caused by the
dissemination of religious education in schools and universities (Hefner 2000), which
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coincided with the spread of literacy (Jones and Manning 1992), higher education
(Hefner 1997; Hull and Jones 1992) and the rise of a booming market for cheap Islamic
books and newspapers (Atiyeh 1995). At the same time, the state took measures to
restrict religious expression by only recognizing five official religions, so the less
orthodox Islamic groups (such as Abangan) were required to present themselves as
supporters of normative Islam (Stange 1986).
In this paper I question whether it is true that the less orthodox Islamic group
(Abangan) took a position that was diametrically against the normative Islamic groups
(Santri) as Geertz analyzed that in the 1950s they openly promote themselves as an
alternative to Islam (Geertz 1973; Hefner 1987)? Also, I ask whether it is true that
religious education, higher education, and media literacy could suddenly push the
revival of Islam in this country? I'm trying to build a different analysis from the great
scholars with an analysis based on linguistic ethnography that emphasizes
communicative competence in multicultural communication (Hymes 1972). This theory
emphasizes that communication between the various parties can work if each has the
same competence.
In the context of multiculturalism among Muslim society in Indonesia, the
fundamental communicative competence is Qur’anic literacy. I judge that there is a leap
of logic of the scholars in analyzing the rise of Islam in this country. By using the theory
of communicative competence, I judge that the great scholars fail to take account of
Qur’anic literacy as a fundamental basis in Islamic learning. Therefore, this paper
attempts to answer a fundamental question about the role of Qur’anic literacy in
multicultural Muslim society in Indonesia.
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Qur’anic Literacy
Qur’anic literacy should be understood in rather broad terms: the ability to read,
write, understand, and even interpret the verses of the Qur’an. However, the definition
of Qur’anic literacy, as is the subject of this paper, is based on an understanding of
reading the Qur’an that is being introduced through religious education. As described by
Scribner and Cole (1988: 246), Qur’anic literacy is learned initially ‘by rote-memorization
since the students can neither decode the written passages nor understand the sounds
they produce. But students who persevere, learn to read [that is, sing out] the text and
to write passages – still with no understanding of the language’. As Rassool (1995) said
that a student of Qur’anic literacy himself in his early years, he recall that whilst he did
not know the language (classical Arabic) he, nevertheless, did learn sound–symbol
correspondence, he did learn to decode and he also learned about the rules and
conventions of classical Arabic script. Technically, then, he did learn to read as described
by experimental psychologists. But he learned really only to ‘bark’ at print. The reading
purpose (prayer) did not require comprehension, as textual interpretation is traditionally
performed by the Ulama (learned scholars). This bears out Cole and Scribner’s (1981)
view that specific uses of literacy have specific implications, and that particular practices
promote particular skills.
In the classical Islamic tradition, Qur’anic literacy learning could not be done
carelessly, because the Qur’an is God's revelation given to the Prophet Muhammad
through the intercession of the Angel Gabriel. Therefore, the Prophet Muhammad was
the only man who had the authority to convey knowledge of the Qur’an. Prophet
Muhammad taught the science of the Qur’an to his companions, then passed his
teaching to the second generation (tabi'in), subsequently forwarded again to the third
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generation (tabi 'al-tabi'in), constantly so until the current generation. That is, Qur’anic
literacy learning must have a clear chain (sanad) and can be accounted for validity.
Therefore, teachers who teach Qur’anic literacy must have ijazah (recognition or
licensing) of previous scholars (ulama), and if traced its chain, it should lead to the
Prophet Muhammad. This tradition has implications on the classical method of Qur’anic
literacy: listening, reading, and memorizing verses of the Qur’an, and pronouncing
firmly, as the way of the Prophet Muhammad dealing with the Angel Gabriel when he
received the revelation.
Literal Segregation
In 1960, Clifford Geertz (1960) described the religious conditions in Java as
segregated into three groups: Santri, Abangan, Priyayi. The Santri were described as a
pious social group according to the teachings of Islam (prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj, and
others), and usually had a background as merchants who made a living from the market.
While the Abangan was described as a Muslim social group, but one that did not
perform ritual according to the teachings of Islam. Their religious orientation is
Javanese, running various ceremonies (slametan, tingkeban, mitoni, etc.), a complex of
beliefs toward the spirits (memedi, lelembut, tuyul, demit, etc.), as well as a whole series
of magical practices and medications. They generally live in rural areas as farmers and
engaged in manual labor. Meanwhile the third group, the Priyayi, was described as an
aristocratic group who had a style of Hindu-Buddhist religious, working in Dutch coloial
government, and live in urban areas close to the center of government.
However, not far from the area where Geertz completed his remarkable
research work a construction that was somewhat different was going on at the same
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time. In the border region of Tuban and Lamongan (north coast of Java), approximately
80 kilometers north of Mojokuto (the name that was used by Geertz to disguise the
town of Pare Kediri where he did research in the 1950s), religious segregation in the
region was mapped into NU, Abangan, and Muhammadiyah (Syam 2005). In contrast to
Geertz, the three categories of social segregation was not separated territorially. In
coastal villages, these three social groups coexist dynamically in the same political,
social, and religious space. Culturally, there is a cultural closeness between NU and
Abangan (Syam 2005: 231). The cultural closeness was characterized for example by the
similarity of local traditions maintained. This is certainly a very different relationship
between Abangans with Muhammadiyah, where Muhammadiyah tends to desire to
eliminate local cultures that are considered incompatible with the teachings of Islam (in
terms of the Muhammadiyah called TBC: tahayyul, bid’ah [herecy], and churafat
[superstition]).
In the midst of the cultural closeness between NU and Abangans, Syam actually
failed to construct a clear distinction between them. If they both maintain local
traditions which both perform the same traditional practices, such as slametan, the
distinction between them is not too obvious. Moreover, the local tradition that originally
is an Abangan tradition, like slametan, can be reproduced in such a way that it
resembles Islamic tradition due to the linguistic changes in the prayers recited: from
Javanese into Arabic.
In some rural areas in Lamongan, especially the southern part, I find the
distinction between NU and Abangan segregation quite clear, from the context of Arabic
or Qur’anic literacy. More clearly, the NU can read Arabic (especially reading the
Qur’an), while the Abangans cannot read Arabic or the Qur’an. This distinction can be
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seen from some of the social and cultural practices that prevailing in some rural areas in
Lamongan. First, the practice of slametan tradition itself shows a clear segregation
between the literate and the illiterate to read Arabic. In a slametan event in someone's
home who organized the event, those who can read the Qur’an are usually seated inside
the room. They are commonly referred to as Santri. While those who cannot read the
Qur’an automatically sit outdoors. They usually come later when the students were
already seated in the room. The procession of slametan event will not start if the Santri
do not come yet, because only they are the only ones who can recite prayers in Arabic
(which usually is tahlil and surah Yasin).
Secondly, in the practice of marriages, the Santri families usually consider
Qur’anic literacy skills of the suitor, especially male suitor. There is a sort of joke among
Santri families, if a young man cannot read "alif bengkong" (it is about the long
pronounciation of letters in the Qur’an that supposedly symbolized by the letter of alif,
but symbolized by the letter of ya’), then he is not worthy to marry. The term "alif
bengkong" also became a kind of subtle allusion to the Abangan youth who want to
marry girls from Santri families. The matchmaking practices give a clear boundary
between the Santri families who Qur’anic literate and the Abangan families who
Qur’anic illiterate. Both of them have difficulties building new family relationships
through marriage. Third, the Arabic literacy events in the village clearly differentiate
between Santri religious groups and Abangan; for example in tadarrus (Qur’anic
recitation) in Ramadan month, Manaqib reading, Barzanji reading, and others.
Abangans who cannot read Arabic, automatically do not participate in such Arabic
literacy events.
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Thus, Arabic literacy can be a differentiator that distinguishes between Santri
and Abangan in the rural Lamongan region in the era before the 1960s. However, the
segregation between the two became salient when religious education became
compulsory at public schools following the implementation of the TAP MPRS No.
XXVII/MPRS/1966, a law designed to erode communism after the crisis in 1965.
Nevertheless, in some specific cases such as the Indonesian presidential elections in
2014, the issue of Qur’anic literacy reappeared as a result of negative campaign for
presidential candidate Joko Widodo who was rumored to be unable to read the Qur’an.
Although it has not been proven whether the people in Lamongan noticed this issue, the
issue obviously became a significant conversation among grassroots Muslim populations
in Indonesia.
Qur’anic Literacy: A First Rung to Learn Islam
One of the dicta in the TAP MPRS No XXVII/MPRS/1966 is as follows: Changing
the dictum of TAP MPRS No. II/MPRS/1960 Bab II Pasal 2 ayat (3), by striking out the
word, "..... with the understanding that students are not eligible to participate, if the
parents/adult students objected ....." so that the sentence reads as follows: "set of
religious education into subjects in schools ranging from elementary school to public
universities". On the basis of the TAP MPRS, religious teachers are sent to all corners of
the country to teach religious education. In the context of Lamongan in the mid-1960s,
although there are many alumni of Pesantren, almost all of them do not have a formal
teaching certificate and not interested in becoming school teachers. Therefore, teachers
of religious education in Lamongan were taken from Islamic Teachers College (PGA)
graduates who were already certified.
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Enforcement of religious education in all schools become an entry point for
Arabic literacy, especially Qur’anic literacy. Unlike the children of Santri who also get the
Qur’anic literacy in their families, the children from Abangan families never had much
exposure to Qur’anic literacy. Therefore, the contact with Qur’anic literacy resulted in a
major impression for Abangan children. Most of them developed a passion for learning
to read the Qur’an. The teaching of Qur’anic literacy was promoted with a hadith of the
Prophet Muhammad that those who read the Qur’an will be rewarded as much as 10
times of virtue for each letter. With packaging like this, children who were first learning
to read the Qur’an became very excited.
For Abangans in Lamongan, the teachings of Islam actually is not something
alien, because while they are officially part of the Muslim community, they do not
strictly obey the teachings of Islam (the local term is "Islam KTP" or “census Muslims.”).
When the formal education in schools has not accommodated religious education, some
rural kyais ‘religious teachers’ have pioneered the implementation of religious education
in madrasahs, known by the term of "National Arabic Schools". This is in contrast with
Hefner (2000), who argued that religious education in Abangan villages in East Java at
the time was conducted recklessly by paying the Javanese Abangan to teach Islam. In
addition, the Abangans also witnessed religious practice performed by their Santri
neighbors every day, and even engage in ritual traditions that have converted to Islam.
However, they are not motivated to learn to be a "real Muslims" because the path to it
is a "long road".
One of the longest roads is Qur’anic literacy. Literacy in the Qur’an is difficult but
this is a key tool for the understanding of Islam. In the 1950s, Qur’anic literacy was still a
long way off for most Indonesians, because to learn it, one must come to the kyais and
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learn it from them until one received an ijazah (according to the classical Islamic
tradition) as a Qur’anic literate. Kyai were almost the only source of authoriy for the
teaching of Qur’anic literacy, because at that time the learning methodology for
Qur’anic literacy was still undeveloped. Although at that time the Islamic books in
Indonesian language had begun to be used, they were not sufficiently widespread and
focused on the learning of normative Islam.
Abangans actually have a "shortcut" in reading the Qur’an through
transliteration in the Latin alphabet, especially transliteration of surah Yasin and Juz
'Amma. However, the shortcut did not have a big influence on Abangans who wished to
learn Islam more deeply. The shortcut only served as a cultural shortcut for those
following the local traditions that were still preserved in Arabic and Qur’anic verses
preserved as readings and prayers.
Different conditions were experienced by the younger generation who were
required to learn Islamic education in schools since the end of 1960s. Islamic education
mandatory in public schools brought with it the learning of Qur’anic literacy. It became a
shortcut that went a long way toward learning Qur’anic literacy. Students no longer
need to come to the kyais to learn the Qur’an. In some Santri cities in East Java in the
early 1970s, students began to use al-Barqy method that was developed by Muhadjir
Sulthon, a lecturer of IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. There were many religious teachers
in Lamongan who had been the pupil of this lecturer, and applied the methods of al-
Barqy in the learning of Qur’anic literacy in schools. This method was quite effective to
cut the time interval in Qur’anic literacy learning, in comparison those that were
previously using the turutan method that took many more years to learn Qur’anic
literacy.
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This short road to Qur’anic literacy apparently triggered the interest of Abangan
children in learning about Islam. In turn, the spirit of Islamic learning opened a new
chapter of Islamic revival. In contrast to Geertz (1960), who mentioned that the kyais
are "cultural brokers" who control the resources of Islam and became decisive in Islamic
revival, in fact it was the spirit of children who explored Islam and who experienced a
religious education that caused the Islamic revival and thus require a reversal of this
Geertzian analysis.
The growth of considerable interest in the study of Islam among the younger
generation does raise curiosity among scholars. Hefner (2000) argues that the great
interest in learning about Islam has been a blessing in disguise, resulting from the
application of religious education at all levels of schooling. While between 1965 and the
early 1990s, the percentage of young children with basic literacy soared from about 40%
to 90% (Jones and Manning 1992: 399), the increase in the percentage of people who
completed high school went from approximately 4% in 1970 to more than 30% in the
1990s (Hull and Jones 1994: 162). Objectification of Islamic knowledge occured together
with the expansion of higher education and the rise of a broad market for cheap Islamic
books and newspapers (Atiyeh 1995).
Indeed, a variety of factors that are disclosed by the scholars cannot be ignored
in analyzing the rise of Islam in this country. However, if religious education was given
only a share of 2 hours a week, some doubted if it could generate a strong ethos of
Islamic learning among Abangan children. Also, media literacy and higher education
does not necessarily increase the degree of religiosity, as indicated by Robert Wuthnow
(1988), who showed that literacy and education in the West could encourage the
secularism in society.
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I have tried to introduce an ethnographic approach to Qur’anic literacy among
the Lamongan children. The process of Qur’anic literacy then bring them face to face
with the sacred texts of the Qur’an, something they have never experienced before. For
Abangan children, Qur’anic literacy learning was more dramatic, because they never got
it in the family. This is in contrast with the children of Santri who were taught to read
the sacred texts of the Qur’an at home or in the mosque.
The text is never neutral. It always brings in it an ideology (Lehtonen 2000;
Fairclough 1989). Ideology is always present in every text, whether in the realm of oral,
written, audio, visual or a combination of them (Fowler, 1996). Likewise, the sacred text
of the Qur’an, it contains the teachings of Islam. Therefore, the Abangan children who
eventually had direct contact with the sacred texts of the Qur’an experienced a
character and spirit that was different from the previous generation: their parents. They
become open to learning Islam more deeply.
Following Fowler, various linguistic features, such as: (1) lexical processes, (2)
transitiveness; (3) syntactic devices; (4) modalities; (5) acts of speech; (6) implicative; (7)
shifts said; (8) greetings, names, and personal references; and (9) phonology, can be the
basis for structuring the ideational features of society (Fowler 1986). In this context,
although the Qur’anic literacy concerned the basic literacy aspects, namely recognizing
letters, vowel, and read the text of the Qur’an, it could also open the way for further
deepening perspectives on Islam. They do not stop at learning the basic Qur’anic
literacy, but they also intensified Islamic learning in a broader context.
Some research on a small scale has at least showed a positive correlation
between Qur’anic literacy with the motivation to learn Islam. Yumira (2004) outlines
that Qur’anic literacy has a effect for spiritual fulfillment. Bashiroh (2007) also wrote
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that the Qur’anic literacy affect the peace of the soul. Aslamah (2008) also added that
Qur’anic literacy has had an effect on learning discipline. Meanwhile Luqman (2006)
illustrates that Qur’anic literacy has an effect on mental health. Some of the examples
above may have had an impact on the Abangan children as they engaged in Qur’anic
literacy learning, which then triggered the spirit of Islamic learning even further.
Some individuals (coming from Abangans and who developed Qur’anic literacy
toward the end of 1960s) have confirmed to me the impression that they have
developed a passion to learn Islam more deeply when they are able to read the Qur’an
from the original text, instead of the Latin transliteration or translation. For example,
Sukiman, a son of a peasant family in an Abangan village, Desa Kacangan, Lamongan
explained that Qur’anic literacy which he learned 47 years ago was the beginning of
knowledge about the real Islam. He acknowledged that his family was “Islam KTP”, and
his parents never did prayers or fasting for Ramadan. They diligently did nyadran, i.e.
Javanese traditional ceremony or visiting the ancestral tombs, burn incense, and
strongly believe in neptu and pasaran, namely a Javanese belief that uses calendar logic
and certain days to determine one's fate. Meanwhile Mardi Wiyata, a descendant of a
Javanese aristocrat family (teacher’s family), recognized that Qur’anic literacy in the late
of 1960s became a kind of stepping stone to change his way of thinking. He just moved
to SMP when Islamic Education became compulsory in school. As a child of a teacher’s
family, he has been trained to read (in Latin script) since childhood, so many books from
his father he had read in childhood. One of the books was about the history of the
prophets. However, he was not so interested in studying Islam in more depth. Only later
when he could read the Qur’an at the junior level, he felt encouraged to learn more
about the teachings of Islam, to the point that he decided to enter the College of
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Religious Education (PGA) to become a teacher of Islamic religion, something he did not
imagine as a family of Abangan which almost never implemented the teachings of Islam,
except to celebrate Idul Fitri.
Both Sukiman and Mardi Wiyata mention that they've had the confidence to
learn about Islam deeply when they were able to read the Qur’an. Their confidence to
learn Islam grew when they already had the Qur’anic literacy competence, because they
feel liberated from the fear of mistakes in reading the Qur’an that could result in sin. In
addition, after having Qur’anic literacy competence, they were eager to learn Islam
deeper and wider because of the motivation of their religious teachers in school who
cites a hadith from the Prophet Muhammad about the existence of merit or reward for
each reading of the Qur’an (one letter will be rewarded 10 goodness).
Although Islamic books in Indonesian and Javanese were initially easily obtained,
they did not have the confidence to learn about Islam through Islamic books, let alone
studied with kyai or ustadz. This of course contradicts what is argued by Atiyeh (1995)
and other scholars that the objectification of Islamic knowledge occurred together with
the expansion of higher education and the rise of a broad market for cheap Islamic
books and newspapers. I believed they were premature in their assessment, and ignored
altogether the Qur’anic literacy skills as a starting point of objectification of Islamic
knowledge which in turn encouraged the growth of Muslim piety and the rise of Islam in
this country. Without Qur’anic literacy skills, young children do not have the confidence
to learn Islam further. There is a kind of ladder in Islamic learning, and the first ladder is
Qur’anic literacy.
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Qur’anic Literacy as a Touch Point among
Muslims
Eickelman and Piscatori (1996: 5) brilliantly looked at the important
characteristics of political Muslims throughout the world today that indicate a seizure
interpretation of religious symbols. The feature of the most prominent debate is the
objectification of religious knowledge and at the same time the pluralization of religious
authority (page 38). This is in contrast to the centuries when Islamic knowledge
monopolized by a small number of scholars (ulama), today the knowledge and practice
of Islam became the object of interest for a number of people that increased over time.
The social structure that has long guided the society became weak and at the same time
the ulama lost their monopoly on religious authority (Hefner 2000). As a result,
throughout the Muslim world, the populist preachers (Antoun 1989, Gafney 1994), the
neo-traditional Sufi teachers (Launay, 1992, Mardin, 1989, Villalon 1995) and "new
Muslim intellectuals" who get a secular education (Meeker, 1991, Roy 1993) compete
with the scholars who get state support for defining Islam (Hefner 2000). In some
countries, the fragmentation of authority has led to social pluralism and to the coercive
power of democracy (Hefner 1997, Villalon 1995). Along with it it has led to increases in
neo-fundamentalism as opposed to pluralism, women emancipation, and Islamic civil
society (Fuller, 1996, Roy 1993).
However, who is the new force in Indonesian Islam who dares to compete with
the traditional ulamas to contest the authority to define Islam? What capital do they
have so to dare to compete with the kyais who control the resources of Islamic
knowledge? In my opinion, the main capital of the new entrants to compete with the
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traditional ulamas to define Islam is their reading of the Qur’an, either literally or
hermeneutically. Without this capital, they would not have the courage to participate in
defining Islam. Modern science is only a complement to define Islam in the modern era.
Without an adequate understanding of the Qur’an, they will remain a "fringe" in the
mainstream Islamic thought, even in the modern era. They would be laughable if they
tried to define Islam without understanding the Qur’an from the original source.
My analysis can be rooted from many villages in Lamongan, especially in the
south part. The majority of the villages dominated by Jam'iyah NU. With the traditional
religious orthodoxy, they do religious practice a la NU. When Muhammadiyah broke
through several villages in Lamongan in the 1950s, many villagers had not reacted to the
Muhammadiyah, because most of the initiator of Muhammadiyah in the villages was
precisely the people who were influential in NU that were turning into Muhammadiyah.
They are the children of rural kyais, has a background of Pesantren, mastering in Arabic
literacy, even some that still has a structural position in NU. However, when
Muhammadiyah began to attract the sympathy of Abangan and new Priyayi: teachers,
civil servants, and others who did not have a Pesantren background, it was hardly a
laughing stock of society. They derail the term "Muhammadiyah" with "Mukamandulah"
to mock people who recently became a member of Muhammadiyah, which they entered
Muhammadiyah just to cover up their incompetence in Qur’anic literacy. If people who
are new to the Muhammadiyah can read the Qur’an, the people assume that they do
not have an ijazah from the competent teacher or ulama, a learning mechanism that
refers to the tradition of Islamic Sufism adopted by most members of NU.
Until the 1970s, people who are new to the Muhammadiyah have not been fully
accepted as pious Muslims. Recitations that were conducted by Muhammadiyah (who
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were not graduates from Pesantren) were often derided as a result of the pronunciation
of the Qur’anic verses that are not fluent. Only in the 1980s, when the younger
generation of Muhammadiyah filled the positions in the structure of Muhammadiyah,
Muhammadiyah feel like they are getting an injection of fresh blood. The young
generation has fully mastered in Qur’anic literacy through religious education in schools,
and even many who were graduates from modern Pesantren (such as Gontor,
Mu'allimin, Ngruki, and As-Salam Surakarta). They eloquently express the verses of the
Qur’an, so their preachings were no longer scorned because of their incompetence in
Qur’anic literacy. They could be accepted in the wider Muslim community, although
they have a different understanding of Islam (NU and Muhammadiyah).
The emergence of a new generation of Muhammadiyah who fully mastered in
Qur’anic literacy opened the door of community acceptance to Muhammadiyah as a
Muslim organization, not as a splinter. Lectures of Muhammadiyah preachers who
mastered Qur’anic literacy, despite having different religious ideas, were considered
eloquent. New ideas for institutional development from Muhammadiyah also began to
be accepted, such as schools, hospitals, and orphanages. In fact, some people of NU in
Lamongan donated land to build mosques, schools, hospitals, and orphanages for
Muhammadiyah projects.
The up to date ideas of Muhammadiyah that has started to be accepted widely
is the program “Ayat-Ayat Semesta”. This program, initiated by Dr. Agus Purwanto (ITS
lecturer in the field of Quantum Physics, also a member of Majelis Tarjih of
Muhammadiyah), is a study of the Qur’an which contains a science dimension. Schools
and Pesantren of NU actively invite the initiator to provide a lecture about the Qur’an
and science. In fact, a Pesantren in Jombang that is owned by Gus Dur’s family (currently
18
headed by his brother, Sholahuddin Wahid) integrates this program into the school
curriculum in the Pesantren.
The idea of integration of Islam and science actually is not really a new thing.
ICMI has initiated this idea since the 1990s. However, why only now has NU become
interested in integrating them into their school and Pesantren? For them, ICMI is
represented as a form of Islamic political maneuvering in the second half of the reign of
President Suharto (Hefner 2000), ICMI figures at the local level (based in Surabaya) but
not in Qur’anic literacy. NU looked at the idea of integration among the Qur’an and
science as absurd without understanding the Qur’an from its original source. This is
different to the program “Ayat-Ayat Semesta”. One thing that makes this program is
widely accepted among NU is the initiator, Dr. Agus Purwanto. He is a secular university
graduate in Japan, mastered Arabic, and is competent in reciting and interpreting the
Qur’an. Among NU, he often called Gus Pur, a typical label among NU supporters to
describe children of kyais (interview with Kyai Abdul Ghafur, October 9, 2014).
Thus Qur’anic literacy became an important component in the lives of
Indonesian Muslims. It played a major role in building a network of understanding of
Islam among a wide range of Islamic schools and understanding of Islam, so that it
became the most central point of contact in the multicultural Muslim society in
Indonesia. It became a kind of communicative competence among Muslims to engage in
interaction, competition, dialogue, and mutual adoption of one another. It makes the
Muslim community in Indonesia became more passionate, eager to learn Islam wider
and deeper, and became one of the important factors in the rise of Islam in Indonesia.
Conclusion
19
Communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language
user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as
social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately. The term was
coined by Dell Hymes in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam
Chomsky's (1965) distinction between competence and performance. To address
Chomsky's abstract notion of competence, Hymes undertook ethnographic exploration
of communicative competence that included "communicative form and function in
integral relation to each other". The approach pioneered by Hymes which is now known
as the ethnography of communication.
In the context of Qur’anic literacy that is fully Arabic which is foreign to
Indonesian Muslims, they are not fully using the Arabic language as a linguistic
communicative competence. They only take a few parts of the Arabic linguistic
competence to demonstrate Islamic piety, especially phonological aspects (related to
fluency [fasih]) used in Qur’anic literacy. The phonological aspect is emphasized in
Qur’anic literacy learning. The classical method of Qur’anic literacy teaching strongly
emphasize the importance of Qur’anic phonology through learning tajwid and makhraj
al-huruf, because of imprecision in the pronunciation of Qur’anic phonological aspect
would change the meaning of the Qur’an. Therefore, the classical method in Qur’anic
literacy learning requires a long time to get an ijazah from a mursyid or teacher.
However, the new methods that are shorter in Qur’anic literacy learning kept retaining
phonological aspects of the Qur’anic reading.
In Islamic doctrine, Qur’anic learning is the most fundamental basis in a wider
and deeper Islamic learning. Therefore, the language of the Qur'an is Arabic, Qur'anic
literacy learning starts from the introduction of Arabic letters, punctuation (vowel), the
20
long-short readings, and all aspects of phonological that contained therein. Of course, as
Fowler (1996) and Fairclough (1989), each text is never neutral. There is an ideological
influence of the language that being studied. In basic learning of Qur'anic literacy, it is
emphasized utter precision in Arabic phonology (mujawwad). Each mistake (though only
slightly) in Arabic phonological pronunciations can change the meaning of the Qur'an,
and in the doctrine of Islam, changing the meaning of the Qur'an can lead to sin. Based
on it, the Abangan children who already have basic Qur'anic literacy competence have
the confidence to learn about Islam, because they feel liberated from the burden of guilt
from reading the Qur'an.
Of course, it is clearly different from Geertzian segregation setting in Java
(Geertz 1960) which construct religion in Java into controversial 3 categories: Santri,
Abangan, and Priyayi. These three social categories do not stand diametrically, but
exactly overlap each other. In fact, with the Qur’anic literacy which is organized
massively since the late 1960s, the segregation actually melted in the late 1980s when
young people from the Abangans already have Qur’anic literacy competence, and
become a new generation of Muslims who encourage objectification of Islam (Eickelman
and Piscatori 1996).
In multicultural Muslim society, the Qur’anic literacy competence is also a
fundamental basis for every Muslim to speak of Islam as a religion. Bases on it, the
communication between Muslim groups can be considered equivalent when each group
has a Qur’anic literacy competence. If a Muslim group does not have Qur’anic literacy
competence, then they are only considered as fringe, marginal, alternative, not having
orthodoxy, and are not taken into account in mainstream communication between
various stakeholders to Islam. At least, the Abangans in rural Lamongan in the 1950s are
21
being subjected to as "Islam KTP", and thus, they are not recognized as an Islamic entity
that could be the subject of Islam in Indonesia. For the Santris, they are only the objects
of Islam. As Hymes (1966), the Abangans do not have a communicative competence to
talk about Islam. Only after their children, or the younger generation has a Qur’anic
literacy competence, they are recognized as part of Islamic society that is undergoing a
revival.
In this context, I underlined that objectification of Islam which became one of
the characteristics of Islamic resurgence did not occur suddenly based on social
indicators in general. Not as Hefner (2000) which analyzes the rise of Islam in Indonesia
is caused by the dissemination of religious education in schools and universities (Hefner
2000), which coincided with the spread of literacy (Jones and Manning 1992), higher
education (Hefner 1997; Hull and Jones 1992) and the rise of a booming market for
cheap Islamic books and newspapers (Atiyeh 1995), I affirm the existence of an Islamic
objectification process which is ignored by scholars in analizing the dynamics of Islam in
Indonesia, i.e. Qur’anic literacy. In fact, the Qur’anic literacy seemed to be some kind of
requirement for every Muslim to talk about Islam in a multicultural Muslim society in
Indonesia.
22
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