20+ years DIAN/Interfidei: various definitions of interreligious ...

In 1991 the Institute DIAN/Interfidei for Dialogue between believing people was opened with Th. Sumartana as its first director. After his death in October 2002 Elga Sarapung became the director. In 2011 there was a great celebration of 20 years Interfidei, with many visitors, may papers too. Only in December 2019 the book was published and Josien Folbert brought it to Utrecht for me.

It has the title of "Learning from differences, 20 years DIAN Interfidei" (not: Fighting those who are or think different!") The eleven great founders are put on its cover: Sumartana, Djohan Effendi, Eka Darmaputera, Abdurrahman Wahid, Ibu Gedong Bagoes Oka, Romo Mangunwijaya, Ruedi Hoffman, Ustad Arifin Assegaf, Zulkifly Lubis, Jaspert Slob, Haksu Thjie Tjai Ing (for Confucianism).
As an institution Interfidei had a clear goal: promote harmony, understanding and cooperation for the sake of democracy and social justice. It never sought to found a new institutional body, something like a national council of/for religions. Instead it gave training, possibilities for meeting between people who promoted the ideals, wanted to talk about strategies. It never had great demonstrations, but many publications, a good network. Notwithstanding the difficult market of books, the speeches of 2011 are now published. I had written myself some reflections on the heritage of Sumartana, especially his dissertation. I summarized it in the rather strong exclusivism of Hendrik Kraemer versus the openness of Kartini, the ideal for Sumartana (pp 11-15).

October 2019 Karel and Paule Steenbrink at DIAN, meeting with Elga Sarapung, also here with some of the ancestors of DIAN
I will not go into all 44 authors here. Only two remarks: 1) Sultan HB X had a speech in 1992 at the official opening of the institute. He again and again stated that religion is important in the country of Indonesia and must be followed, up to the obligation to obey the rules of shari'a  for Muslims (an echo of the Piagam Jakarta!). DIAN is there to guarantee/promote peace and harmony between the existing religions. (333-337). His wife Ibu Hemas was more open. She defended (in 2008: pp. 338-343) its function as the political ideal and spiritual inspiration for religions. Majority or minority should not be an issue and people of traditional religions and customs are right in their complaint that they cannot include their tradition as a religion on identity cards (something that has finally found support in a decision of the Constitution Court, in 2016).
2) Zulkifly Lubis (1944-2011; here pp. 29-38), initially opposed DIAN, because he wanted to fight poverty and religions should just learn to cooperate als for this goal. Religions in Indonesia too often seek political power. Jaringan Islam Liberal also was an aspect of this power game and it lost so its role and function. The whole debate about marriage law was a power game, while the law should have been used only for the defence of women rights....
Nearly on all pages of this book there is some suspicion of (too much)  religion rather than giving it a great role in the country. Only HB X maybe was an exception, but his contribution is the only one from the Soeharto period!

Merle Calvin Ricklefs, 1943-2019

On the first day of 2020 we received the sad message from one of his many Indonesian students and co-researchers, Chaidar Bamualim at UIN Jakarta, that Merle Calvin Ricklefs had passed away on 29 December 2019. Only earlier this year his last plan to write a biography on the first Mangkunegara ruler, could be realised with the publication of Soul Catcher: Java's Fiery Prince Mangkunegara I, 1726-95. The 18th century was his major field of studies, but his broad interest went to the whole history of Indonesia between 1200- nowadays.

Here Merle is dressed in what we call at home the 'Merle jacket' with the many practical pockets for the frequent traveller
I met him first at  SOAS in London in early 1979 with a group of nine Indonesian IAIN teaching staff, on their trip from Leiden to London and Oxford. He was already considered as the brilliant successor to the specialist in Javanese studies,  Theodor Pigeaud, and the writer on Indonesian history H.J. de Graaf. From Pigeaud he continued the study of Kraton documents (but in Javanese he perhaps admired Romo Zoetmulder even more and translated the dissertation on Suluk poetry). He liked the story-teller and specialist on Dutch archives De Graaf. He did not use the social science approach of many modern historians, but concentrated in his Javanese studies often on concrete personalities and cases, only then turning to more general theories related more to concepts (the mystical synthesis; origin of the abangan terminology) then on figures.
In contrast to the Dutch use to write Capita Selecta, he wrote the classical work on Indonesian history, from the 13th century on. It became a condense, comprehensive but very readible  book, first published in 1981, updated in 1993, 4th edition in 2008 (with the year 'from 1200' in the title).
 The arrival of Islam around 1200 marked for him the beginning of 'Modern Indonesia' and he saw much of this period as an ongoing, although sometimes somewhat problematic development of Islam.
Merle could handle Dutch archives from the VOC period, Javanese court writings, but was also familiar with the daily political and social developments in contemporary Indonesia. We have lost probably the most diverse, encyclopedic and sympathetic scholar in this field of studies, where still so many areas deserve closer research.
The family was hit severely by the death of a daughter, probably caused by a medical mistake., some years ago. He cherished a dream of living in his house in the mountains and countryside, but a few years ago it was a narrow escape from the flames during the yearly burnings. We wish them that they find some solace in the admiration from many of his colleagues worldwide. Terima kasih Merle!

No Hura-hura: New Year celebration Islamic style

Last Christmas I have not noticed a further debate about Muslims and Christmas greetings. In 2018 there was some upheaval about big shops asking their personnel to wear hats like Santa Claus. But there are other topics to be discussed. Perhaps in line with Muslim protests against the rising popularity of Valentine's Day and Halloween, there was a criticism of celebration of New Year, a global festivity. Najamuddin Ramli, General Secretary of MUI, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the National Muslim Clerics Council, gave a suggestion that the noisy celebration should be calmer and Muslims should prepare for the New Year with pious recitations and prayers, lessons and speeches, muhasabah (introspection), with a special salat istighora (prayer for some specific needs), Islamic art performances, a sale of basic needs, blood donation, joint cleansing of the neighbourhoods and more such things..
 The accompanying picture in Tempo had firework as palm trees!
The words of MUI the secretary were like a pious sermong with Arabi terminology, not found in the great dictionaries. Is this the same man as Dr. H. Nadjamuddin Ramly, director at the Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Diplomacy? The one who organised the Anugerah Budaya  last October?
I looked also for the proper wording of what I knew as hura-hara: both hura-hura, as well as hara-hara have as meaning a combination of loud expressions of incertainty and joy. Below the quote from Tempo:
"Hura-hura akan mendatangkan lebih banyak kemudharatan dibandingkan kemanfaatan," ujar Wakil Sekretaris Jenderal MUI Najamudin Ramli di kantornya, di Jakarta, Selasa, 31 Desember 2019.
MUI mendorong agar umat Islam menyambut datangnya tahun baru 2020 dengan dzikir atau pengajian, ceramah, muhasabah, istighosah, pentas seni budaya Islam, bazar kebutuhan pokok, donor darah, gotong rotong membersihkan lingkungan, dan lain sebagainya.

Old Javanese texts republished by Muslim courts in the 18th century: Bernard Arps

On the second day of the farewell seminar celebrating the coming of retirement age of Willem van der Molen at KITLV/Leiden University, Ben Arps gave a fascinating talk on Islam at the court of Surakarta in the 1780s. Several classical works of the older Javanese period (Ramayana, Bharatayudha, Arjunawiwaha, Bima's search for knowledge with Dewa Ruci) were re-written in an Islamic atmosphere. Arps calls this a renaissance of Old Javanese culture, but in a positive Islamic style. There must have been some kind of double loyalty: both to Javanese culture and its heritage and to the Islamic background, confession and faith of the authors at the courts. This reminded me of the pious Catholic priest who taught me Latin and Greek in the gymnasium, the secondary school of my youth. He gave us texts from many classical authors. We, his students of the age of 15-16, once asked him to give us a text of the Greek New Testament. He look surprised and said: 'The New Testament is in simple, but bad Greek, you better learn good Greek first!' I told this several times to my students at the IAIN, the Islamic State University in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. They were surprised: as if someone would say that the Qur'an is in bad Arabic and that you should learn the Kitab al-Aghani first before the Qur'an!  But for Western Catholics Homer, Plato and Xenophon represent a high culture, at the same level as the Jewish-Christian one.

From the same period of the later 1780s, but in this case from Yogyakarta, Arps also gave a strange theory about Aji Saka. Here Aji Saka was described as number five of the companions of the prophet Muhammad. After Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, he was sent on a long journey to India, Sri Lanka and finally to Java, where he brought the right religion. So: Islamization of Java directly by order of the Prophet Muhammad! As once also was stated by Buya Hamka, that Islam came from Arabia during the lifetime of the Prophet and the Sahabat. This only was possible for Aji Saka with the help of the great prophet of the seas and oceans, Nabi Khidr.

Willem van der Molen was not too active in these quite fantastic speculations and interpretations. I suggested that in the present quest for an interpretation of local Indonesian Islam as Islam Nusantara, the revival of Javanese texts could be very interesting. Therefore it would also be becessary not only to look to the great kakawin but also to the texts of Suluk which were once also studied at the Yogyakarta IAIn under Pak Simuh. But Van der Molen  remained quite realistic and sober about the possibility to develop a centre of Javanese studies in Europe of even Leiden, but mentioned his own website with his latest project, the diary of a Chinese-Javanese citizen of Yogyakarta in the middle of the 19th century, who followed the 'Javanese love of writing texts of great length' and composed some 700 pages about his family, his work in selling opium, lending money, talking to Dutch, some Chinese and most of all Javanese people. Look at http://willemvandermolen.nl/blog.


Just a last picture. Anbiya, or stories of the prophets, are very popular in Java: Amin Soedoro used to say that Javanese know no boundary to their fantasy and as to the prophets they have contributed an umlimited number of miracles. Images are also no exception. See below!

A farewell to Javanese studies? Willem van der Molen and more?

More than 95 million people speak Javanese as a child, at home, with friends and family, but very little receive further education in the complicated language of the largest ethnic group of Indonesia. The enormous success of Indonesian as official language since 1945 has brought a drastic decline in the use of Javanese. Therefore there is a threat that Javanese will die as a cultivated language! This was one of the themes at the farewell conference at KITLV, Leiden, 12 and 13 December this year, at the occasion of the official retirement of Willem van der Molen (postponed one year because last year he was involved in a programme of studies on Panji stories at the Hebrew University of Tel Aviv).
Tony Day opened the series with the beginning of Javanese classical writings: why was translation, prakrit, or vernacularisation so important (because so much of what has been rescued from Old Javanese writings is translation or adaptation of Sanskrit texts). He was (among various otther scholars) followed by Gregory Quinn, who commented about the end: Ronggowarsito as 'the seal, not of the prophets but of Javanese literature'! He mentioned four reasons for the decline of Javanese in general: 1) Loss of the aristocratic authority (the courts of Yogya and Solo no longer have active pujangga kraton); 2) there is a loss of ability to read Javanese script. As an example he gave the emphasis in primary schools on the mystical meaning of the letters, without training to use it as an effective alfabet; 3) loss of official status: in state documents, in the bureaucracy; 4) decline of ability to speak and write high Javanese.

 

But Quinn also had some good news. He met several groups who were writing stories and poetry , published magazines, series of books, partly as hybrid publishing (initially paid by the authors themselves, only after success the authors earned some money). There are websites. There is even a Wikipedia in Javanese with more than 57.000 articles: https://jv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tepas.

The peaceful heart of Yunan Yusuf

Two years ago I received a book by Yunan Yusuf, of the Jakarta UIN, Islamic State University. It was his commentary on Qur'an Juz 24. Last October he donated me his next volume: on Juz 23. Only know I have started reading this new volume.
First, I was surprised to see how easily he writes. While in Australia he could write a volume of 600 pages in three months! It is all very pleasant reading. Not too much technicalities and very informative about the text of the Qur'an according to his vision of its meaning.
I saw now more clearly, that he considers the Qur'an as not (only) the collection of the 114 surahs but first of all for his commentary the collection of 30 juz. He even created a new name for this section. Not only the first Arab words wa ma lîy, but a more meaningful and poetic label: Qalbun salim, The words occur twice in the Qur'an, first in this juz, in sura 37:84 about Abraham who turned to God 'with a peaceful heart'.  Only once it is mentioned again in the Qur'an, in 26:89 when it is said that people who stand for God at the last judgment with a 'peaceful heart' (Qalbun salim) will be allowed to stay in paradise.
It was quite surprising for me to see even a distinct and new title for a somewhat fortuitous section of the Qur'an: it is a help to read the text in the thirty days of Ramadan. The basic division of the Qur'an is a sura, a distinct literary entity and the basis for good interpretation.

Above: the new volume by Prof. Yunan Yusuf and below (right) Yunan donating the book to me, last October in Ciputat.
Yunan himself also realised that the true division of the Qur'an is not according to juz but to sura, because the commentary starts not with verse 22 of sura 36 (where the juz begins), but with the  story from verse 13 of the sura YASIN itself. After the beginning verses (of course the praise of the Qur'an because of the mysetirous letters), from verse 13 on there is a story about a town or even city of unbelievers, where two messengers were sent, still followed by a third person. In traditional commentaries it is the city of the pagan Seleucid kingdom of Antiocheia. Sadok and his offspring were the high priest of Israel, from the time of David and Salomon until the Makkabee period. Therefore perhaps the two messengers to the town of Antiocheia were given the names of Sadiq, Saduq and Shalom.
Als in the Christian period Antioch was an important town: the first Christians got their name of 'Christian' here.
I am curious to see whether Yunan also explains why sura 36, Ya Sin, is so often recited in favour of the dead. Muhammadiyah people like he is himself, will not do this, but still it is a common ritual!

Another book about Fethullah Gülen, with some Indonesian contacts

In my study room I have one special Gülen shelf: about 50 books by and about Fethullah Gülen. Much about Turkey, but also about the global impact of the Hizmet movement. In 2015 I was together with Gürkan Celik the editor of the book on Gülen-Inspired Hizmet in Europe. The Western Journey of a Turkish Muslim Movement. It was interesting to work on it. I never saw a review, nor was there a mention about sold copies (published by Peter Lang in Bruxelles). Anyway, it was done amidst nice contacts with remarkable and sincere members of Hizmet.
A 'post- June 2016 coup' book was recently published by the New Delhi Professor Anwar Ahmad. He was teaching in Delhi the history of Islam in West Asia, came to Turkey fort a short Gülen-visit in 2008 (Fatih University, Newspaper Zaman, high schools, Kimse Yok Mu, the charity, and the Journalists and Writers Organization). He was in 2011 for some time teaching at Fatih University in Istanbul. Between September 2013 and June 2016 he was teaching in Gaziantep (Southeast Turkey, close to the Syrian border) and left in time before the coup.

 Anwar Alam is more reflective than informative. Only in few respects he gives new information, but he is fascinating in his comparison of Gülen with the Ihkwan, the Jamaat-i-Islami of Pakistan, the Tablighi  Jamaat of India (however nothing about NU of Muhammadiyah of Indonesia).
He once attended a meeting of sponsors, fundraising, himmet, where US$ 32.000 was collected for a secondary school in Indonesia (enough for one year) and promises given for 1000 scholarships for Indonesians to stay one year in Turkey (p. 154).
The book apparently was started before 2016, when there were already problems but no straight persecution of the movement. His analysis of the hatred by Erdogan and AKP versus Gülen and Hizmet is described in pp. 227-8: "Thus, historically speaking, the political tradition in Middle Eastern countries including Turkey has been hostile to autonomous religious groups, as the state in the Midle East - whether secular or Islamist - suspects the political allegiance of various Islamic groups. The Middle Eastern states - whether secular, secular, or Islamist - to a large extent rely on Islam as the most important source of legitimacy of their rule, which makes to wish them not only to control and monopolize all 'Islamic spaces' but also leaves them deeply suspicious of autonomous visible Islamic political and social organizations or groups, as the latter are perceived as potential or social forces to challenge the legitimacy of the regimes. ...  The Ikhwan al Muslimin in Egypt has been the object of state repression in various degrees throughout the modern political history of Egypt since the Nasserite regime on the charge of being a 'parallel state' or 'state within the state'. "
This week the new minister of religion of Indonesia Fachrul Razi announced that the permit (as an organization) for Front Pembela Islam will be renewed: of you cannot ban or crush them, join or embrace them! That was also the practice of the Catholic Church if new religious orders or dubious places of pilgrimage could not be forbidden, because they were too popular. They should be formally included in the big system or crushed down. The latter has happened with Gülen in Turkey.
On the whole it is a book full with long and complicated sentences, not so easy to read. Here and there still some new facts, but interesting analysis as well.