Dialectical Relations of Modernity and Tradition

A. Introduction

Religious thinking as an interpretation of Islam in worldly life by Moslem s has not answered modernity problems clearly. Indeed, it is very difficult to encounter the effects of Western civilization because some Moslem s are often impressed by the more glaring facets of modernization and they do not adopt the more positive ones. Really, it is difficult to achieve Islamic revivalism in the face of West ern supremacy. West ern supremacy was made very clear in 19th century when most Moslem countries were colonized. We will persist in our stand if we know how the West supersedes Islamic civilization. The West also took a long time to do this , namely from Renaissance in 16th century (Kuntowijoyo, 1999: 44) .

We can take a lesson from the early history of Islam, which was able to supersede Gre co-Roman civilization so that it replaced Islam as world civilization. At that time, the Moslem s were not afraid of studying new things from other civilization s because they felt sure about their belief s They did not underscore other civilization s so that they had a strong spirit for study. They believed that Islam would not become a great civilization if they did not take the positive aspects from other civilization s in the world. This positive view toward other civilization s can be traced to Mohamed PBUH[^2] ’s saying that “I was appointed by the God to complete people’s appropriate behaviors”. It implies that other civilizations also have conducted some appropriate behaviors, so that they are civilized people. It is also relevant to cite Mohamed PBUH’s saying that Moslem s should pursue science and technology although it then existed in China.

Now the Moslem should be brave enough to adopt good values of modernity to reform Islamic civilization itself. This implies that Moslem s should catch up the advancement of West ern civilization by pursuing science and technology. By doing so, Moslem s also can participates innovate the modern civilization, which has not created universal human being and to the contrary ha s created World War s twice. If Moslem s are able to do both, Islam will be respected by other civilization because Islam can present itself as an alternative to modern decadency.

In Indonesia there are two major Moslem groups, Muhammadiyah and Nahdhatul Ulama (NU), who try to reform Moslem community. Both adopt the modern nation state, however they differed themselves in which Muhammadiyah claims itself as modern Islam group and NU represents the traditional one. Muhammadiyah was established earlier in 1912 than NU in 1926, however larger Moslem associates with NU which was established to preserve the common feature of Indonesian Moslem. After the independence of Indonesia on August 17 th , 1945, both have a great influence over political life in Indonesia, even compare with political parties. Both also play major roles in reforming Islamic societies which often mark by tensions, however actually they are also making dialectical approach in reforming Islamic life within their own groups.

This article will address Islamic reformation in Indonesia, especially within Muhammadiyah , concerning the dialectical process between Islam and modernization. It follows the ways of modernization in Egypt introduced by Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905). This movement was

intended as a revival for all Islamic groups. In fact it was supported by Moslem s in the large cit ies It happened because the movement started from the base of normative Islam (rational aspect) and neglected the realities of various Islamic cultures. Most Moslems who lived in the country areas were influenced much by tradition, so they were reluctant to follow this radical innovation. It passes for quite long time and now it appears as a dialectical approach between these two groups. In this short article I would like to focus on theSufi [^3] issue, which has become the major issue between these two groups.