Note on Approach

INTRODUCTION A Background of the Inquiry

E. Note on Approach

Wilfred CantweU Smith, in bis famous work 11Je MelllliDg IIDd End ofReUgion:

A New Approllcb to tlle ReUgious Traditions ofMlID1dDd(l963), insists that the study of religion is highly complex and varied, and thus cannot be reduced to a conceptual abstractioninthe mind of the researcher. SmithaIso empbasizes that, asinother aspects of human life, religion isalsoinconstant flux, in the sense that it is subject to historical progress, or is evolving and a1ways in process.²⁶ ln line with tbis argumentation, one

• May agrec with Fazlur Rahman's insistence that Islam bas changed over Ume and will continue to change at an even more rapid pace. The transformation of "little" traditions in relation to "greater" ones can be characterized as the "orthodoxification" of the tradition, and, on the other band, the modemization of the great tradition.²⁷

Yet, since this study deals ultimately with theology, it is necessary to reconsider how theology functions wben approaching the study of religion. Theology, as defined by Yves Congar, is a discourse through which believers develop and express the content of their faith as they have confessed it. To this end, theologians use the rcsources of the culture and focœ on the questions occupying minds al a given time. The theologians'

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16Sec W. CantweUSmilb.The MeflllingtIIfIlEndofReligion: A New ApprotlClatolM Religioru Tradùiou ofMankind (New York: MaaniU~ (963).pp. 2-3; Clive Erric:ker. MPbenomenolopcal Approacbes." in PeterConnoUy(ed.).Approachestolhe StrldyofReügiora(LondonandNewYork: CasseU. 1999).p.90•

riSecFazlurRahman. ..Approaches toIslaminReligious Studïes: A Review Essay."inRicbard C.Manin (ed.).ApproachutoIslmrcÛIReügioru SIIUIîa(Tucson:TbeUniversity ofArizonaPras.1985).p. 202.

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starting point is the witness given to God's revelation of the divine plan and mystery in the Holy Scripture, tradition, and the current life of the faithful. Thus theologians strive to lay out, explain and communicate the rich and complex contents found in this witness.28 ln the case of Islam, this idea means that Muslims have to he able to give correct responses in their actions and thoughts to the

iyit

or "signs" provided by the Qur'in and other evidences of Gad's wiU. Muslims, tberefore, have to draw the right conclusion from these

iyit

based on valid reasoning, not ooly for the sake of worldly happiness and social order but also for that of etemal bUss,29 the results of which are apparent in the fonnulation of their theological thought.

Inaddition to the above considerations respecting theology, the present study of the development of Islamic theological discourse in Indonesia wiU foUow two main

• approaches, namely, the historical and the ideational. The historical approach is chietly instrumental in discussing the development of Indonesian Islam prior to the advance of the reform movement. Through this approach, too, 1 try ta trace more clearly the role played by special factors or events that have directed the tlow of theological thought into particular forDIS as recorded in the works of scholars. This, in tum, also aUows me to present some of the issues that engendered the founding of the Islamic reform movementinearly twentieth century Indonesia.

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21SecYves Conpl'.~Tbcology." TMEncyclopeditJofI&ligiota.vol. 14.p.460.

29JlaluesWaardenburg."IsJamicSlUdïesand tbeHistoryof Religions."inJ.Waardenburg(cd.).Scholady APPTOtlCMS10R~ligion. IIII~n~ligiollSP~1'C~ptiolUtUUllslam(NewYork: PeterLang. 1995).p.444.

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In applying an ideational approach,³⁰1 propose to select some relevant works of lndonesian Muslim scholars on Islamic theology and analyze them. In choosing these works, however, 1win confine myself to those written by the modemists, whose concem with the purity of belief and practice dominates their ideas. Of course, it is by no means true that purity of belief and practice is the interest ooly of the modemists, since the traditionalists a1so claim always to bave maintained pure belief and practice. Even so, such a claim is not always clearly expressedintheir writings. Since ouraimin lbis study is chiefly to examine how modemist Muslim thinkers have attempted to sustain Islamic orthodoxy inthe Indonesian context, it is therefore necessary to investigate some of the other theories on how to apply Islamic doctrine more consistently, given the current cultural and political realities of lndonesia.

30Ideation means."thecapacityof mind 10 form or entcnain ideas."andlhus il deals wim"the proœssof entertaining and relating ideas." ItktllioNll. therefore, signifies "consisting of. or referring ID ideas or thougbt of obje<:1S Dot immediaICly present 10 the seosc." Sec Webster's Third New IIItemtltiolUl1 DictiollllryoftheEnglish Ûl1IglIIIge. Urrabridged(1981);RJmdom HOIISe UlIIlbridgedDiclÎOlflIry (1993).

As an approacb. idetJlÎOlIIIl iscmployed by ViClOrE. Makari inbis JbII

T.,my.

~Etlùcs: TM Socû:Jl FtJCtor(ChiCOtCalifomia: Scbolars~ 1983).Totbisextcnt, sucbanapproachsccms10 hecommonly uscdbysc:holarsin eumining panicularideasof certainfigures.It caohesecn. forinstance.in the worb ofCbarles C.Adams(1968)and~akkiR. lCcddie(1972), on MulJlIDJD'CI •Abdub ..d Sayyid ll111ilal-DIo IIl-Afpiol,respc:c:tively.

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CbapterOne

ISLAM IN INDONESIA PRIOR TO THE ADVANCE