Islamic Renewal Thought and Efforts Before the Modern Period

Renewal in Indonesian is often referred to as "Modernization or modernism". Renewal itself means adjusting and changing schools, thoughts, movements of understanding, customs, old institutions and so on with the new atmosphere brought about by advances in modern science and technology.

Islamic reforms are efforts to adapt Islamic religious understanding to new developments that have resulted from advances in modern science and technology. In Arabic, the Islamic reform movement is called "Tajdid", literally tajdid means renewal and the perpetrator is called Mujaddid.

The advancement of modern science and technology entered the Islamic world, especially after the opening of the nineteenth century, which in Islamic history is seen as the beginning of the modern period.

The contact with the western world then brought new ideas to the Islamic world such as rationalism, nationalism, democracy, and so on.

All this created new problems, and the leaders of Islamic leaders began to think about ways to solve these new problems.

As things in the west, in the Islamic world there are also thoughts and movements to adapt Islamic religious ideas to new developments that have been brought about by advances in modern science and technology. In this way the leaders of modern Islam hope to be able to release Muslims from an atmosphere of decline to be brought to progress.

Broadly speaking, Islamic history can be divided into three major periods, namely the classical period, the medieval period and the modern period. The thoughts and efforts of Islamic reform before the modern period occurred in the middle period, while the thoughts and efforts of reform were as follows:

Ottoman Empire

In the seventeenth century this Ottoman empire began to experience defeats in wars with European countries. The large army sent to take control of Vienna was defeated in 1683.

Such defeats prompted the kings and rulers of the Ottomans to investigate the cause of their defeat and the secret of the superiority of the opponent. They began to pay attention to the progress of Europe, especially the progress in France as the leading country at that time.

Europe began to have significance for the Ottoman leaders. European oaringans, who had been viewed as "infidels" and despised, began to be appreciated. Ambassadors began to be sent to Europe to study the atmosphere of progress there.

As a result in 1717 a French officer named De Rochefort came to Istanbul, with the suggestion of formation and an offer to teach and train Ottoman soldiers in modern military science.

In the non-military field, ideas and reform efforts were generated by Ibrahim Mutafarrika (1670-1754), his first attempt resulted in the opening of a printing press in Istanbul in 1727. Fatwa, which he requested from Sheikh Al-Islam of the Ottoman empire, allowed the printing of books. apart from the Koran, hadith, jurisprudence, the science of kalam and interpretation, he has printed books on medicine, astronomy, science, history, earth science, natural sciences, and political science as well as military issues and technical advances.

However, these efforts did not bring the desired results because of several reasons, namely the reform effort itself was challenged by two influential groups in society.

The first Yeniseri (new troops), this yeniseri was formed in the fourteenth century from non-Muslim children, starting from the seventeenth century Yaniseri controlled the political atmosphere in the Ottoman empire. Sultans they didn't like were overthrown and killed.

Another challenge came from the ulama because the new ideas that were imported from Europe were contrary to traditional ideas that existed among Muslims.

The idea of ​​democracy for example, which requires the election of representatives in parliament by the people and the election of a head of state is not in accordance with the tradition of governing the Islamic kingdom. In other fields, printing, for example, would make Muslim groups lose their sustenance and Western education would give rise to new intelligences who would become rivals of the ulama.

India

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Mughal empire in India entered a period of decline. From the British side, efforts have also begun to expand to acquire areas of power in India.

In battles, mainly at Plassey in 1757 and Buxar seven years later, the British won victories. The territory of the Mughals was getting smaller and smaller.

Among the reasons that led to the weakness of Muslims, Shah Waliyullah, according to his thinkers, was that the change in the governmental system in Islam from a caliphate system to a royal system. The first system is Democratic, while the second system is autocratic. In history, Islamic kings generally have absolute power.

The divisions that occurred among Muslims, in his opinion, were another cause for the weakness of Muslims. The divisions that are meant are the divisions that have resulted in the schools and schools that are contained in Islam, namely Shia is seen as having left Islam and the entry of non-Islamic customs and teachings into the beliefs of Muslims, in India many Muslims influenced by Hindhu teachings.

In the framework of the thought of pure teachings and customs that have entered into Islam, Shah Waliyullah distinguishes between universal Islam and Islam which has local characteristics.

Universal Islam contains basic concrete teachings and local Islam has a style which is determined by the conditions of the place concerned. Apart from that, another reform that was carried out was translating the Al Quran into a language that was easily understood by ordinary people because at that time many people read the Al Quran but did not understand its contents.

Arabia

In Arabia, there was also one school, namely the Wahhabi tradition, which had an influence on reform thinking in the 19th century. Its formation was Muhammad Abd Al - Wahhab (1703 - 1787) who came from Nejd in Arabia. Muhammad Abd Al-Wahhab's ideas to improve the position of Muslims arose not as a reaction to the political atmosphere as found in the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire, but as a reaction to the monotheism that existed among Muslims at that time. The purity of their tauhid ideology has been damaged by the teachings of the tarekat which since the thirteenth century have indeed been widespread in the Islamic world.

In every Islamic country he visited Muhammad Abd Al - Wahhab saw the graves of the tarekat sheikhs scattered about. From the graves of the sheikhs who were buried they were used to solve the problems of their daily lives, some asked to be given children, to be given a mate, some asked to be cured of disease, and some asked to be given wealth. The deceased shaykhs and saints are viewed as having power to solve all problems faced by humans. According to Muhammad Abd Al - Wahhab's understanding, this similar belief has constituted shirk / polytheism

The efforts made by Wahhabiah included:

The Wahhabiah tried to erase and destroy the graves that were used to seek intercession.

In 1802, the Karbla Karaen attack was that there was the grave of Al - Husain, which was the mecca for the Shia group.

Then attack Medina by destroying the graves and decorations in the prophet's grave

From Medina gave up Mecca by destroying the kiswah covering the Kabbah.

Source: Harun Nasution. Renewal in Islam: History of Thought and Movement, Jakarta: Bulan Bintang, 1991

Share this post