ISLAM IN INDONESIA PRIOR TO THE ADVANCE OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT
B. The Attitude toward "Pure" Islamic Religious Belief and Practice
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been. In an attempt to maintain its supremacy. especiaUy onder ils greatest king, Sultan Agong (reigned 1613-1646), Mataram sougbt to subjugate the coastal regions and then the entirety of Java under its hegemony. Benda suggests that this attempt to establish begemony resulted in the expulsion of the modem, dynamic and aggressive Muslim settlements from the trading centers of Nortbem Java. It also reduced mercantile activities, and subsequently tumed Mataram itself into an isolated, inland, agrarian state.
With resPeCt to religion, these changes forced Javanese Islam ·'to operate in a narrower space within the frame-work of traditional religious beliefs." Although the process of Islamization among the peasantry was greatly accelerated, the Islam of Java remained stagnant and (ess pure than elsewhere in Indonesia.17
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manifested a different way of life unfamiliar to the interior Iavanese, their Islam was likewise considered an allen religion.Il Drewes more explicitly describes how the Iavanese indignantly regarded the purer Islam, with sPeCifie reference to SeraI Darmo- gandul,a note<! tleatise on Javanese culture:The whole of the book breathes rejection of Islam as heing a religion foreign to Java and Javanese; moreover, a religion wbiehhad come to power as a result of the utterly reprehensible conduct of the walis, the venerated saints of ancient Javanese Islam who conspired against Majapai~ and by the ignominious action taken by Raden Patah, the first king ofDe~against bis fatber, the last Brawi- jaya of Majapait.19
However, the second balf of the seventeenth century brougbt many changes in terms of social and political life as the political supremacy of Mataram remarkably weakened. These changes resulted in a form of cultural poveny which, in tum, led to Mataram' s inability to resist the steady advance of Islam among the lower sociallevels in
• the rural areas. At the lime, Islam was spreading by means of the slowly emerging institutionalized learning of Islam in the pesantrens. The walis, or Muslim saints, responsible for preaching Islam tbrough these pesantrens, bowever, must have included many mystical elements intheir teaching. This method of ÎDStnlction possibly facilitated their contact with the Javanese people who were more accustomed to mystical concepts and ideas. Although the walis did not follow only one homogenous way of prosely- tization, the inclusion of mystical clements intheir Islamie preaching resulted inevitably in developing syncretistic doctrines of Islam. 8uch syncretistie doctrines were compiled in the sululc literature, which survives untilthe presentlime; namely, tbrough the works
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17Harry1. Benda,TheC'~se~nlandth~RisingSIIII.p. 13.SecaIso.RobertR.lay,R~ligio,.andPolities, pp.9-11.
II1Coenljaraningrat.Jav~se C1Utu,~.pp.329-320•
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of court poets of M~ such as the encyclopedic SeraI Centini and the mystical moralisticSeraI Cabolek.20
Through these literary works, the court poets of Mataram, sucb as Yasadipura 1 (1729-1803) who served at the Surakarta court of Mataram onder Pakubuwono
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andIV, were iDStnmlental in developing a new strategy for preserving Javanese culture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. TheSeraI Cabolek of Yasadipura, for instance, according to Soebardi, indicates that its author, aware of the decline of Javanese court tradition due to the crippling of Mataram and to the growing influence of Islam, attempted to preserve the essence of Javanese cultural values and nonns.11 Yasadipura acknowledges the spread of Islam as an inevitable fact which the Javanese had to accepte However, he suggests that Islam and its s1Jarl'aIJ sbould serve as a fonnal guide and
19G.WJ. Drewes,1be Struggle Between JavanismandIslam as Dlustratcd by theSentDermagandul."
BijdragentOIde Tal-.Land·en VollcenJaurde,vol. 122 (1966), p.310.
20 Both Serat Centini and SeraI Cabale" have recently been examined byIODleIndoDeSian scholars. For SeraI Cabole/c,sec S. Soebardi.TheBooleofCllbolelc: A Critical Edition with Introduction. Translationand Notes. A Contriblltion10 the SIIIdy of the JavQMse Mynical Tradition (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1975). For SeraI Centini, sec H.M. Rasyidi, DocWfum!S polir Se",ir a l"hinoire de l'Islam a Java (Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Exttemc-Orient, (977). James L. Peacock bas an interesting interpretation of the Javancsc inclinationlaaccept Islam wilh its Sufistic "11avor."The Slifi teachers, hesays, camelaIndonesia around thefounecnth century. accOmpanyinl the Muslim traders. As theSufis came wima missionary purpose.
thcylIUlfUIICdto spreadthe words of Islam inareasthey established theirnewsettlements.Their ceac:hinp quickly anracted many ncw convens because Sufism was a religion of theheart andthe imagination. On the other band. the Sufis did not offcr the ossified, dry, and tonuously complex lepl syscems ofthe mcdieval Muslim scholastics. '"Secking cmotional and philosophical mcaning, the Sufis claboralCd speculative theosophies iIIuminatingthe iDDer life ofthe divine creatorand the bond betwcen creatorand the creation. 1bcy taught chants that Icd la trance, and the slqes of mortification of the Oesh lhat culmjnated in ecstaticand sensual union with the divine spiriL" More interestinlly, itwubecausetheSufis were willing tofusetheir own teachinp wimthe native ttaditiODS thatmade theiDdigenous people more teœptivelalbeir teaebinp.SecPeacock,IndoneSÜl:An AnthropologicalPerspective.p.24.
11 S. Soebardi, The Boole ofCobole~ pp. S2-S3. Describinl the general content of the SeraI Cabolele Soebardi explainsthal the bookis a document portraying the tension inIavancse religious life resultiDg
&am contact wilh Islam. The tension primarilytook plaœbctwecn the •uJ6IIÙISthe dcfeDdersofthe sIJ.n'MI or ls1amic law ad thase who rejected legalistic folms of religion lIId IR more iDcliDcd to Javmcsc mystic:ism.. For Yasadipura. the author of the work, the sIJ.rira is only • formai guide for Javmcsc exterior reUgious üfe. But for the spiritual lifcheproposcd tbat the Iavmesc sbould n:tricve thcirguidiDl priDciples fiom the indîgeDOUSIavmesctnldï.tiODS,suchIS theone offcrcdiDthestory of Dcw.Ruci,which is theCCIltralthcmc oftheSentCMIoJek.
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function as merely a wadah or "container' of the lavanese inner spiritual life. The essential values of lavanese culture would continue to constitute the ;si, or "substance"
and keme!. In another work ofKoentjaraningra~tbis issue is discussed more clearly, in the following manner:
In the Serat Cabolek be [Le., Yasadipura] proposes the acceptance of Islam, on condition, bowever, that the lavanese consider the religion of Allah and the shari'ah, or Muslim law, only as a formai guide, or as a wadhah (container) for lavanese culture, wbile letting their iODer spiritual life adbere to the essential values and ideals of lavanese culture, namely the search for the spiritual purification, as weIl as the attainment of the Divine Unity, or the ultimate experience of theunityof Man and God.22
Mataram's cultural POlicy was al the end directed toward gaining a barmonious balance between the ancient Javanese Hindu-Buddhist tradition and Islam, which resulted in a form of syncretistic Islam akin toJavanese mysticism.23
Mark Woodward bas discussed the wadah-isi distinction in a very detailed manner. He discusses tbis distinction in terms of the relationsbip between Sufism and normative piety, wbicb, in Javanese terms, signifies the distinction between the inner (batin, Arabie: bi/in) and the outer (lahir, Arabic: ~ibiJ; realities. With reference to the elaboration of the subject by Goldziher and other scholars, Woodward funher explains tbat for Sufis, tbis distinction is alsomaintainedby theQur'in.The outer meaning of the Qur'ÏD is concemed with the regulation of behavior, wbile its inner meaning is eoncemed
22Koentjaraningrat. "Javanese Terms for 000 and Supematural Seings and the Idea of Power," inAhmad Ibrahim elal(eds.),Readings onlsltuninSo"theastAria,p.288. Unlike in the previous spellinl,lhe word wadah iswriuen as wadhah inthisquotation, wbieh is meanl 10emphasize the ..darItd." 1bere are sorne other Javanese words pronounced withthe "clark"d's, suchast/Qlang(puppeteer), wadMk(reservoir),and dawuh(speech).Inthese words, the "d's" can he written with"dh,"lO hedistinguisbcdfromthe"lipt"d in other Javanese words, such as wadora (female). dlJlan (road), and dwuuag (comprehension). This distinction ofoolight" and "dark" d·s seems to he specifie in Javaœse,silICe, like in Englisb wonls. ail (initial)d-s are pronounced inthe ..cIark"d's.
• Z3Koeoljaraningrat.Javanese Culture,p. 323.
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witb the "mystical path and the quest for knowledge of Allah.-- For the Javanese, who perceive tbat every single being consists ofwadahand isi, tbis sufistic concept of inner and outer realities seems to accord adequately with their perception of the wadah-isi distinction. For them, Woodward states, "the universe, the state, the physical body, and normative pietyareaIlwadah," whereas '·Allab, the Sultan, the soul, faith, and mysticism are isi.,,24 The wadah functions as the container, which preserves and circumscribes the
;si,asotherwise the latter wouldhe subject to rotting. For the Javanese, theisi holds more significance than thewadah, because it bolds the key to mystical union. However, neither part of this distinction can be undermined, since the wadah,asa normative concept in the fonn of the slJaii'ab, is required for the development of mystical knowledge. More interestingly, for the Javanese, it is within the Sultan's capacity to fulfill the mystical isi.
He and bis court, like the saints, are not required to confonn to the behavioral nonns of the slJad'ab. On the contrary, it is the populace-as the wadah-who are principally responsible for fulfilling the Islamic law or the slJaii'lÛ4 while abstaining from mystical practices. The Sultan' s obligation to perform normative piety musthe fulfilled too, but it bas also been entrusted to his official, called the pengulu, or chief Muslim cleric in bis court.2S
Based on the above presentation, it seems clear that Islam was only superficially adopted by the Javanese, and badonly a limited impact on the shaping of the Javanese worldview. However, it would heunfairto place too much empbasis on the superficiality of Javanese Islam. According to Ricldefs' examination, Islam had indeed made an
:lA Mark R. Woodward. Isillm ÙI JtIWI: Nortrllllive Piery llIId Mysticism ÙI the S"lIIlIIIJte of Yogyakarra (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1989),pp.72•
25Ibid., p. 73.
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enormous change in the Javanese social life in the form of their acceptance of circum- cision and of the Muslim burlal practices instead of Hindu-Buddhist rituals, such as cremation.26 Nevertheless, although Islam was in no way thorougbly established-in terms of its practices or institutions-it had founded its characteristic basis in the land of Java. As in the other pans of Indonesia, up to the fourteenth century Javanese Islam- ization 6~as the beginning, not the end, of a major process of change. Seven centuries later this process is still continuing.",21 Cut off from its sources of onhodoxy for much of this time, as previously noted, it would be most improbable to hope for the rapidgrowth of the seeds implanted in the area. Islam grew only in a graduai way, and to a certain degreewas seen as stagnant or remaining in one spot. But ilwas by no means to lose ils chance to develop and progress in thefuture.
Even when the DutcbEastIndies Company came to Southeast Asiaalthe tum of the seventeenth century and tried to subjugate the greater pan of the archipelago, Islam did not cease to flourish among ever greater numbers of people. The coming of the Duteb East Indies Company 100 to an encounter with a heavily Islamic-inspired resistance, led eitber by Indonesian rulers newly convened to Islam or by the'ulllD1i~ the independent tcachers of Islaminthe rural areas. As the Duteb managed to consolidate tbeir expanding power over the archipelago, Muslims were faced with the loss of tbeir political independence and their economic resources. The Muslim principalities, prior to the seventeenth century, were the rulers of the coastal fegions responsible for trading spices and for transporting them from the Moluccasinthe eastem tip of Indonesia to Malacca It
26M.C. Ricklefs.AHistoryofMotüm IndonuÜJ.p. 13.
• 17Ibid.
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is from tbis imponaDt trade center of Southeast Asia that Indian, Arab, or Persian mercbants, in addition to those of local etbnicities, were active players of the inter- nationaltrade,transporting much of valuable eastem mercbandise to the MiddleEast.and then to EuroPe.28The Indonesian resist8Dce againstthe Duteh was fueled by the spirit of Islam. This spirit grew even stronger because from the eighteen century onwards it received a fresb impetus from increasing contact with the centers of Islamic onhodoxy in the Near East. "Every year," writes Benda. ~'thousandsof Indonesian Muslims embarked on the Mecca pilgrimage, some of them remaining there for long periods of study and retuming bome as bearers of orthodox teachings wbich were gradually displacing the mysticism and syncretism fonnerly prevalentinIndonesian Islam.,,29
c. The Dutch Authorities and the Spread of Islam
The Dutcb were deeply concemed with the spread of Islam in the archiPelago, especially since they considered it the major cause of a series of social upheavals.
Beginning with the Java war led by the Prince Diponegoro in 1825, the Dutch were aImost continuously tbreatened by serious uprisiogs, some of which even grew ioto full- scale military operations. Traditionally,theDutch attitudes toward Indonesian Islam were
21 For a comprehensive examination of the Southeast Asian tradeduring the early colonial period. sec Anthony Rei~Southeast Asiain the Age ofCo~rce.Reid aIsodedieatesa specialdiscussion ofhow religious life experienced a great changecausedbythis so-caIIed"theage of commerce" (vol. ~pp. 132- 201). Among the others, Reid swes: '1be age of commerce, in shon. witnessed great changes in the religious Iife of Mainland, as of Island, Southeast Asia. Underlying much local variation, commercial- izalion and inc:reased mobility providcd conditions that encouraged a "'raIionalization" of religion in a Weberian sense, sttengtheningtheappeaIof universai moralcodesreinfon:ed bysc:ripblleanda system of etaDal rewards andpunishments. Centralizing statesaIIied witb this tRnd by enforangone ofthe inter- national orthodoxies." Secibid., vol.~ pp.200-201. Ilisalso important10DOle tbat the SoutbeastAsian tradingcities werepluralistic meeting-points ofpeoplesfromailovermaritimeAsia.Ibid., p. 66.
19HarryJ.Benda,'"ChristianSnouck HurgronjeaDdtheFoUDdalioD of Duk:h IsIamic PolicyinlDdonesia,"
inAhmadIbrabimalal.(cds.),Retldings01lls1JlminSolUhelUt Aria, p. 61.
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a œfiection of a contradictory combination of exaggerated fears and hopes, based on their misconceptions and their inadequate knowledge, or even to their total ignorance, of Islam. Islam was thought of as a strictly organized religion with a hierarchical clcrgy owing aUegiance to the Turkish Caliph, like that of Catholicism to the Roman Churcb.
Based on tbis misconception, they believed the Turkisb Calipb exercised great power over Indonesian rulers and their subjects. uEverywhere in the Duteh East Indies," says Gottfried Simon, uthe sultan of Turkey is regarded as the lord of all the faithfu1, the Caliph, the representative of the Prophet. He therefore incarnates the Pan-Moslem hope of union ofallMoslems.,,30Indue course, they believed that it wouldbepossible for the Indonesians to appeal to Muslim rulers abroad, which would be a great danger to the Dutch. Their fcar of Islamic insurgency prompted them to establish alliances with the Javanese princes and aristocracy, and with sultans, rajahs and local chiefs of other islands. The latter, for political reasons of their own, were known to beeither lukewarm Muslims or outright enemies of zealot Muslim leaders.JI
Il is understandable that such a policy would have special repercussions on delaying the spread of Islam in Indonesia. By supporting the mie ofalIat chiefs, Dutch authority strove to limit Islamic influence. Througb these adat chiefs too, the Duteh- Protestant missions made headway in successfully gaining new converts while resisting the furtherance of Islam. In cenain areas, mainly in the interior parts of bigger islands, they could exert their influence onthepeasant populace wbi1e maintainingthearistocratic order of society. Intenns of quantity, they described tbeir achievement in converting the
3000ufriedSimo~TheProgressandAssen oflsltuninSlIIfUJtI'G(London:Marsball Brotbcrs. 19(2). p. 27.
31HarryJ. Benda,"ChristianSnouck Hurgronje...•"p.62.
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native people withthe help of theadat chiefs as "fisbing with the net proved tohemore efficient tban fisbing with the hook." However, the use of '~ net" in gaining new converts did not give the missions remarkable success in transfonning the indigenous spiritual and social life. This was only significandy acquired tbrough the means of educational institutions. Tbese educational institutions, in the form of missionary schoals, became forceful instruments in training the younger generations to he their agents in undermining ancient traditions,32 and introducing Western values of economic and tecbnologjcal civilizatioD.
Western education promoted by the Dutcb govemment was ultimately intended to he the surest means of reducing and defeating the influence of Islam in Indonesia.
Reducing the influence of Islam, as suggested by Hurgronje, would mean freeing Indone..
sians from the narrow conrmes of the Islamic system, and bring them into association with European culture. Inapplying this policy, Hurgronje focused bis attention upon the Javanese aristocracy. This class of Javanese people appeared to he the most prepared to accept Westem influences due to their bigber cultural level, their familiarity with Western values, and their intensive contact with European rulers, as weU as their aloofness from Islam. Richard C. Martin and others have clearly illustrated this feature as foUows:
Until the very end of the colonial period, the Dutch educational system was ovenly anti-Islamic. Students in Duteh language scbools were discouraged,ifnot actuaUy prohibited, from acquiring more than a minimum understanding of Islam.
They were taught that the "authentict' Indonesian culture was tbat of the pre- Islamic past, and tbat traditional Islamic leaming was, as the great Duteh
32W.F.Wcrtbcim.lndolll!sitmSocietyÛITrruuitioII: A SIIIdyÏlISocialClumge(TbcHape:W.vanHoeve, 1964),p.205.
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Orientalist Snouck Hurgronje so blundy put il, "medieval rubbisb wbicb Islam bas been dragging along in its wake for too long..,33
Raving been deeply intluenced by European civilization and aloof from Islamic tenets, the Javanese nobility functioned as cultural brokers, so to speak, bridging the gulf between the rulers and the ruled. In their association, as usually claimed, they were no longer dividedby religious allegiance, and they would come to sbare a common culture and political aUegiance.34
Indeed, ail of tbese efforts are indicative of the Dutch' s aims to eliminate the influence of Islam by rapidly Cbristianizing the majority of the Indonesian PeOple. How- ever, it might be another erroneous assumption held by the Duteb tbat the syncretistic tendency of Indonesian Islam manifested by the rural peasants would render easier conversion to Christianity in Indonesia than in other Muslim lands.35 Tbere were still many factors bindering the influence of Christianity among the ÏDdigenous People. One of tbese factors was that Christianity had adapted itself to the predominating social structure, and tbus had to support the race stratification subsisting incommunity life. On the other band, it was evident that many ofthe indigenous people held to the idea that being Christian might result in attaining equality witb Europeans in tenns of social standing. Althougb "[m]any a EuroPe8ll with bis strong race prejudice does not like the native to have the same religion as the EuroPean,,,)6 the former presumed Cbristianity to
D Richard C. ManinandMarit WoodwardwithDwi S.Abnaja.lkft!lfÛn ofRt!asoll in lsltun: Mu'tazj/ïsm from Mt!dinal School ID ModemSymbol(Oxford: Oneworld. 1997).p. 140.Thequotation from Snouck Hurponjeisbasedon bisMt!kIca in lM Lant!rPanOflM Nint!It!Dllh Ct!lIIIIry(!.eiden:EJ. Brill. 1931),p.
79.
lotHarryJ.Benda."ChristianSnouck Hurgronje...p.65.
l!Ibid.. p. 62.
36Oottfried Simon.The Progrt!ss and Arrt!st ofls~p. 30.