QUR’ANIC LITERACY IN A MULTICULTURAL MUSLIM SOCIETYThe Role of Qur’anic Literacy as a Communicative Competence among Javanese Muslims

2014

ASKURIPh.D Student at ICRS - Gadjah Mada University of Yogyakarta

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Introduction

Ahead of Presidential Election of 2014, the Indonesian public was preoccupied

with imagery and campaign tactics between the two Presidential Candidates: Prabowo

Subianto and Joko Widodo. One of the problems that was quite prominent during the

campaign was the issue of literacy: Joko Widodo was rumored to be unable to read the

Qur’an. This rumor turned out to be disquieting for Joko Widodo’s supporters. It was

feared that it would undermine his popularity. Therefore, a video of Joko Widodo

engaging in Muslim prayer was uploaded to YouTube. To further counteract the issue,

Vice President Candidates Jusuf Kalla proposed a Qur’anic Literacy Competition between

the two Presidential Candidates. This issue became a hot conversation topic in various

media, and continued as a trending topic in various social media all the way up to the

day of the Presidential Election itself. It was a very unique phenomenon: how could the

problem of Qur’anic literacy can be a campaign issue that could alarming the voters in

Indonesia? In the Indonesian context, the issue has a very strong historical roots in

religious traditions in this country.

Molly Bondan (1995) in her book "In Love with a Nation" revealed that when the

Japanese occupied Indonesia in 1942, the number of literate population was less than

7%, and in 1945, when Indonesia became independent, approximately 90% of the

people in this country were illiterate. Faced with this reality, Sukarno Government

launched a Literacy Program on March 14, 1948. The government thought that one of

the obstacles of the nation's progress was a low literacy rate. This situation was not

uncommon in many post-colonial countries.

In June 1948, the Ministry of Education and Culture intensified the literacy

movement. Many literacy courses were opened intensively in a number of residencies

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(political districts), such as Malang, Surabaya, Kediri, Madiun, Bojonegoro, Semarang,

Pati, Surakarta, Kedu, Yogyakarta, Banyumas, and others. The number of literacy courses

that were organized by the Government amounted to 18 663, with 17,822 teachers and

761,483 students. In addition, several courses were held independently, and these

totaled 881, with 515 teachers and 33,626 pupils.

However, at the same time as the “literacy program” was spreading, high levels

of Arabic script literacy was already in place, having been transmitted from generation

to generation among Muslims in Java since the 17th century. In the 1940s, and even

long before that, there were many Islamic schools (Pesantren) in Java, and they used the

same writing system, i.e. Arabic script, whether in Arabic or Javanese written in Arabic

script (Pegon). This writing system was inherited from generation to generation in

Pesantren. This script has become a collective memory and cultural identity for many in

the Muslim community, particularly in the north coast of Java. Before any school system

taught Latin script, writing pegon has been widely used as a written language in

Pesantren, Islamic books, Islamic media, inscriptions, and also correspondence.

Although the nationalist literacy program was something noble, the introduction

of Latin literacy, conducted since colonial period, actually carried a psychological burden

for the majority of the Muslims at that time. The introduction of Latin literacy at that

time indirectly divided society into two groups: literate and illiterate. By default, the

people who were educated in Pesantrens were considered as illiterate people, even

though they could read and write in Arabic alphabet. While the people who attended

Dutch schools were regarded as literate people, just because they could read and write

in Latin letters.

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The difference of abilities between Arabic literacy and Latin literacy, indirectly,

actually split multicultural segment of Muslim society in Indonesia, and helped

strengthen the thesis of Geertz (1960) about the trichotomy of religion in Java: Santri,

Abangan, and Priyayi. The literate people in the Arabic script could be categorized as

Santri, the literate people in Latin script could be categorized as Priyayi, dan the illiterate

people in Arabic and Latin script could be categorized as Abangan. Geertz's thesis

applied even long after Indonesia’s independence. Assumptions of contemporary politics

is even now considering the relevance of the dichotomy of Santri and Abangan, even

though many years have passed.

In the post-tragedy of human rights of 1965, known as the G30S/PKI, there has

been a dramatic change in the policy of literacy, with mandatory religious teachings at

schools and universities under the rule of the New Order. Previously, religious teachings

were only carried out voluntarily by the schools based on request from students or their

parents. With any obligation of religious teachings in schools, automatically Qur’anic

literacy for Muslim students become one of important part of religious teachings,

because it is one of the tools in Islamic learning and teaching.

Under the New Order, many scholars believe that under the leadership of

President Suharto Indonesia is dominated by Abangans, because the background of

President Soeharto himself was a follower of Kejawen (Stange 1980), as well as

repression of political Islam was so strong (Feillard 1995). Until the 1980s, the

assumption was still going on until a new perspective by scholars recognized an "Islamic

resurgence in Indonesia" (Hefner 2000; Hefner, 2010; Liddle 1996).

Many scholars provide an analysis that the Islamic resurgence was caused by the

dissemination of religious education in schools and universities (Hefner 2000), which

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coincided with the spread of literacy (Jones and Manning 1992), higher education

(Hefner 1997; Hull and Jones 1992) and the rise of a booming market for cheap Islamic

books and newspapers (Atiyeh 1995). At the same time, the state took measures to

restrict religious expression by only recognizing five official religions, so the less

orthodox Islamic groups (such as Abangan) were required to present themselves as

supporters of normative Islam (Stange 1986).

In this paper I question whether it is true that the less orthodox Islamic group

(Abangan) took a position that was diametrically against the normative Islamic groups

(Santri) as Geertz analyzed that in the 1950s they openly promote themselves as an

alternative to Islam (Geertz 1973; Hefner 1987)? Also, I ask whether it is true that

religious education, higher education, and media literacy could suddenly push the

revival of Islam in this country? I'm trying to build a different analysis from the great

scholars with an analysis based on linguistic ethnography that emphasizes

communicative competence in multicultural communication (Hymes 1972). This theory

emphasizes that communication between the various parties can work if each has the

same competence.

In the context of multiculturalism among Muslim society in Indonesia, the

fundamental communicative competence is Qur’anic literacy. I judge that there is a leap

of logic of the scholars in analyzing the rise of Islam in this country. By using the theory

of communicative competence, I judge that the great scholars fail to take account of

Qur’anic literacy as a fundamental basis in Islamic learning. Therefore, this paper

attempts to answer a fundamental question about the role of Qur’anic literacy in

multicultural Muslim society in Indonesia.

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Qur’anic Literacy

Qur’anic literacy should be understood in rather broad terms: the ability to read,

write, understand, and even interpret the verses of the Qur’an. However, the definition

of Qur’anic literacy, as is the subject of this paper, is based on an understanding of

reading the Qur’an that is being introduced through religious education. As described by

Scribner and Cole (1988: 246), Qur’anic literacy is learned initially ‘by rote-memorization

since the students can neither decode the written passages nor understand the sounds

they produce. But students who persevere, learn to read [that is, sing out] the text and

to write passages – still with no understanding of the language’. As Rassool (1995) said

that a student of Qur’anic literacy himself in his early years, he recall that whilst he did

not know the language (classical Arabic) he, nevertheless, did learn sound–symbol

correspondence, he did learn to decode and he also learned about the rules and

conventions of classical Arabic script. Technically, then, he did learn to read as described

by experimental psychologists. But he learned really only to ‘bark’ at print. The reading

purpose (prayer) did not require comprehension, as textual interpretation is traditionally

performed by the Ulama (learned scholars). This bears out Cole and Scribner’s (1981)

view that specific uses of literacy have specific implications, and that particular practices

promote particular skills.

In the classical Islamic tradition, Qur’anic literacy learning could not be done

carelessly, because the Qur’an is God's revelation given to the Prophet Muhammad

through the intercession of the Angel Gabriel. Therefore, the Prophet Muhammad was

the only man who had the authority to convey knowledge of the Qur’an. Prophet

Muhammad taught the science of the Qur’an to his companions, then passed his

teaching to the second generation (tabi'in), subsequently forwarded again to the third

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generation (tabi 'al-tabi'in), constantly so until the current generation. That is, Qur’anic

literacy learning must have a clear chain (sanad) and can be accounted for validity.

Therefore, teachers who teach Qur’anic literacy must have ijazah (recognition or

licensing) of previous scholars (ulama), and if traced its chain, it should lead to the

Prophet Muhammad. This tradition has implications on the classical method of Qur’anic

literacy: listening, reading, and memorizing verses of the Qur’an, and pronouncing

firmly, as the way of the Prophet Muhammad dealing with the Angel Gabriel when he

received the revelation.

Literal Segregation

In 1960, Clifford Geertz (1960) described the religious conditions in Java as

segregated into three groups: Santri, Abangan, Priyayi. The Santri were described as a

pious social group according to the teachings of Islam (prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj, and

others), and usually had a background as merchants who made a living from the market.

While the Abangan was described as a Muslim social group, but one that did not

perform ritual according to the teachings of Islam. Their religious orientation is

Javanese, running various ceremonies (slametan, tingkeban, mitoni, etc.), a complex of

beliefs toward the spirits (memedi, lelembut, tuyul, demit, etc.), as well as a whole series

of magical practices and medications. They generally live in rural areas as farmers and

engaged in manual labor. Meanwhile the third group, the Priyayi, was described as an

aristocratic group who had a style of Hindu-Buddhist religious, working in Dutch coloial

government, and live in urban areas close to the center of government.

However, not far from the area where Geertz completed his remarkable

research work a construction that was somewhat different was going on at the same

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time. In the border region of Tuban and Lamongan (north coast of Java), approximately

80 kilometers north of Mojokuto (the name that was used by Geertz to disguise the

town of Pare Kediri where he did research in the 1950s), religious segregation in the

region was mapped into NU, Abangan, and Muhammadiyah (Syam 2005). In contrast to

Geertz, the three categories of social segregation was not separated territorially. In

coastal villages, these three social groups coexist dynamically in the same political,

social, and religious space. Culturally, there is a cultural closeness between NU and

Abangan (Syam 2005: 231). The cultural closeness was characterized for example by the

similarity of local traditions maintained. This is certainly a very different relationship

between Abangans with Muhammadiyah, where Muhammadiyah tends to desire to

eliminate local cultures that are considered incompatible with the teachings of Islam (in

terms of the Muhammadiyah called TBC: tahayyul, bid’ah [herecy], and churafat

[superstition]).

In the midst of the cultural closeness between NU and Abangans, Syam actually

failed to construct a clear distinction between them. If they both maintain local

traditions which both perform the same traditional practices, such as slametan, the

distinction between them is not too obvious. Moreover, the local tradition that originally

is an Abangan tradition, like slametan, can be reproduced in such a way that it

resembles Islamic tradition due to the linguistic changes in the prayers recited: from

Javanese into Arabic.

In some rural areas in Lamongan, especially the southern part, I find the

distinction between NU and Abangan segregation quite clear, from the context of Arabic

or Qur’anic literacy. More clearly, the NU can read Arabic (especially reading the

Qur’an), while the Abangans cannot read Arabic or the Qur’an. This distinction can be

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seen from some of the social and cultural practices that prevailing in some rural areas in

Lamongan. First, the practice of slametan tradition itself shows a clear segregation

between the literate and the illiterate to read Arabic. In a slametan event in someone's

home who organized the event, those who can read the Qur’an are usually seated inside

the room. They are commonly referred to as Santri. While those who cannot read the

Qur’an automatically sit outdoors. They usually come later when the students were

already seated in the room. The procession of slametan event will not start if the Santri

do not come yet, because only they are the only ones who can recite prayers in Arabic

(which usually is tahlil and surah Yasin).

Secondly, in the practice of marriages, the Santri families usually consider

Qur’anic literacy skills of the suitor, especially male suitor. There is a sort of joke among

Santri families, if a young man cannot read "alif bengkong" (it is about the long

pronounciation of letters in the Qur’an that supposedly symbolized by the letter of alif,

but symbolized by the letter of ya’), then he is not worthy to marry. The term "alif

bengkong" also became a kind of subtle allusion to the Abangan youth who want to

marry girls from Santri families. The matchmaking practices give a clear boundary

between the Santri families who Qur’anic literate and the Abangan families who

Qur’anic illiterate. Both of them have difficulties building new family relationships

through marriage. Third, the Arabic literacy events in the village clearly differentiate

between Santri religious groups and Abangan; for example in tadarrus (Qur’anic

recitation) in Ramadan month, Manaqib reading, Barzanji reading, and others.

Abangans who cannot read Arabic, automatically do not participate in such Arabic

literacy events.

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Thus, Arabic literacy can be a differentiator that distinguishes between Santri

and Abangan in the rural Lamongan region in the era before the 1960s. However, the

segregation between the two became salient when religious education became

compulsory at public schools following the implementation of the TAP MPRS No.

XXVII/MPRS/1966, a law designed to erode communism after the crisis in 1965.

Nevertheless, in some specific cases such as the Indonesian presidential elections in

2014, the issue of Qur’anic literacy reappeared as a result of negative campaign for

presidential candidate Joko Widodo who was rumored to be unable to read the Qur’an.

Although it has not been proven whether the people in Lamongan noticed this issue, the

issue obviously became a significant conversation among grassroots Muslim populations

in Indonesia.

Qur’anic Literacy: A First Rung to Learn Islam

One of the dicta in the TAP MPRS No XXVII/MPRS/1966 is as follows: Changing

the dictum of TAP MPRS No. II/MPRS/1960 Bab II Pasal 2 ayat (3), by striking out the

word, "..... with the understanding that students are not eligible to participate, if the

parents/adult students objected ....." so that the sentence reads as follows: "set of

religious education into subjects in schools ranging from elementary school to public

universities". On the basis of the TAP MPRS, religious teachers are sent to all corners of

the country to teach religious education. In the context of Lamongan in the mid-1960s,

although there are many alumni of Pesantren, almost all of them do not have a formal

teaching certificate and not interested in becoming school teachers. Therefore, teachers

of religious education in Lamongan were taken from Islamic Teachers College (PGA)

graduates who were already certified.

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Enforcement of religious education in all schools become an entry point for

Arabic literacy, especially Qur’anic literacy. Unlike the children of Santri who also get the

Qur’anic literacy in their families, the children from Abangan families never had much

exposure to Qur’anic literacy. Therefore, the contact with Qur’anic literacy resulted in a

major impression for Abangan children. Most of them developed a passion for learning

to read the Qur’an. The teaching of Qur’anic literacy was promoted with a hadith of the

Prophet Muhammad that those who read the Qur’an will be rewarded as much as 10

times of virtue for each letter. With packaging like this, children who were first learning

to read the Qur’an became very excited.

For Abangans in Lamongan, the teachings of Islam actually is not something

alien, because while they are officially part of the Muslim community, they do not

strictly obey the teachings of Islam (the local term is "Islam KTP" or “census Muslims.”).

When the formal education in schools has not accommodated religious education, some

rural kyais ‘religious teachers’ have pioneered the implementation of religious education

in madrasahs, known by the term of "National Arabic Schools". This is in contrast with

Hefner (2000), who argued that religious education in Abangan villages in East Java at

the time was conducted recklessly by paying the Javanese Abangan to teach Islam. In

addition, the Abangans also witnessed religious practice performed by their Santri

neighbors every day, and even engage in ritual traditions that have converted to Islam.

However, they are not motivated to learn to be a "real Muslims" because the path to it

is a "long road".

One of the longest roads is Qur’anic literacy. Literacy in the Qur’an is difficult but

this is a key tool for the understanding of Islam. In the 1950s, Qur’anic literacy was still a

long way off for most Indonesians, because to learn it, one must come to the kyais and

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learn it from them until one received an ijazah (according to the classical Islamic

tradition) as a Qur’anic literate. Kyai were almost the only source of authoriy for the

teaching of Qur’anic literacy, because at that time the learning methodology for

Qur’anic literacy was still undeveloped. Although at that time the Islamic books in

Indonesian language had begun to be used, they were not sufficiently widespread and

focused on the learning of normative Islam.

Abangans actually have a "shortcut" in reading the Qur’an through

transliteration in the Latin alphabet, especially transliteration of surah Yasin and Juz

'Amma. However, the shortcut did not have a big influence on Abangans who wished to

learn Islam more deeply. The shortcut only served as a cultural shortcut for those

following the local traditions that were still preserved in Arabic and Qur’anic verses

preserved as readings and prayers.

Different conditions were experienced by the younger generation who were

required to learn Islamic education in schools since the end of 1960s. Islamic education

mandatory in public schools brought with it the learning of Qur’anic literacy. It became a

shortcut that went a long way toward learning Qur’anic literacy. Students no longer

need to come to the kyais to learn the Qur’an. In some Santri cities in East Java in the

early 1970s, students began to use al-Barqy method that was developed by Muhadjir

Sulthon, a lecturer of IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. There were many religious teachers

in Lamongan who had been the pupil of this lecturer, and applied the methods of al-

Barqy in the learning of Qur’anic literacy in schools. This method was quite effective to

cut the time interval in Qur’anic literacy learning, in comparison those that were

previously using the turutan method that took many more years to learn Qur’anic

literacy.

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This short road to Qur’anic literacy apparently triggered the interest of Abangan

children in learning about Islam. In turn, the spirit of Islamic learning opened a new

chapter of Islamic revival. In contrast to Geertz (1960), who mentioned that the kyais

are "cultural brokers" who control the resources of Islam and became decisive in Islamic

revival, in fact it was the spirit of children who explored Islam and who experienced a

religious education that caused the Islamic revival and thus require a reversal of this

Geertzian analysis.

The growth of considerable interest in the study of Islam among the younger

generation does raise curiosity among scholars. Hefner (2000) argues that the great

interest in learning about Islam has been a blessing in disguise, resulting from the

application of religious education at all levels of schooling. While between 1965 and the

early 1990s, the percentage of young children with basic literacy soared from about 40%

to 90% (Jones and Manning 1992: 399), the increase in the percentage of people who

completed high school went from approximately 4% in 1970 to more than 30% in the

1990s (Hull and Jones 1994: 162). Objectification of Islamic knowledge occured together

with the expansion of higher education and the rise of a broad market for cheap Islamic

books and newspapers (Atiyeh 1995).

Indeed, a variety of factors that are disclosed by the scholars cannot be ignored

in analyzing the rise of Islam in this country. However, if religious education was given

only a share of 2 hours a week, some doubted if it could generate a strong ethos of

Islamic learning among Abangan children. Also, media literacy and higher education

does not necessarily increase the degree of religiosity, as indicated by Robert Wuthnow

(1988), who showed that literacy and education in the West could encourage the

secularism in society.

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I have tried to introduce an ethnographic approach to Qur’anic literacy among

the Lamongan children. The process of Qur’anic literacy then bring them face to face

with the sacred texts of the Qur’an, something they have never experienced before. For

Abangan children, Qur’anic literacy learning was more dramatic, because they never got

it in the family. This is in contrast with the children of Santri who were taught to read

the sacred texts of the Qur’an at home or in the mosque.

The text is never neutral. It always brings in it an ideology (Lehtonen 2000;

Fairclough 1989). Ideology is always present in every text, whether in the realm of oral,

written, audio, visual or a combination of them (Fowler, 1996). Likewise, the sacred text

of the Qur’an, it contains the teachings of Islam. Therefore, the Abangan children who

eventually had direct contact with the sacred texts of the Qur’an experienced a

character and spirit that was different from the previous generation: their parents. They

become open to learning Islam more deeply.

Following Fowler, various linguistic features, such as: (1) lexical processes, (2)

transitiveness; (3) syntactic devices; (4) modalities; (5) acts of speech; (6) implicative; (7)

shifts said; (8) greetings, names, and personal references; and (9) phonology, can be the

basis for structuring the ideational features of society (Fowler 1986). In this context,

although the Qur’anic literacy concerned the basic literacy aspects, namely recognizing

letters, vowel, and read the text of the Qur’an, it could also open the way for further

deepening perspectives on Islam. They do not stop at learning the basic Qur’anic

literacy, but they also intensified Islamic learning in a broader context.

Some research on a small scale has at least showed a positive correlation

between Qur’anic literacy with the motivation to learn Islam. Yumira (2004) outlines

that Qur’anic literacy has a effect for spiritual fulfillment. Bashiroh (2007) also wrote

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that the Qur’anic literacy affect the peace of the soul. Aslamah (2008) also added that

Qur’anic literacy has had an effect on learning discipline. Meanwhile Luqman (2006)

illustrates that Qur’anic literacy has an effect on mental health. Some of the examples

above may have had an impact on the Abangan children as they engaged in Qur’anic

literacy learning, which then triggered the spirit of Islamic learning even further.

Some individuals (coming from Abangans and who developed Qur’anic literacy

toward the end of 1960s) have confirmed to me the impression that they have

developed a passion to learn Islam more deeply when they are able to read the Qur’an

from the original text, instead of the Latin transliteration or translation. For example,

Sukiman, a son of a peasant family in an Abangan village, Desa Kacangan, Lamongan

explained that Qur’anic literacy which he learned 47 years ago was the beginning of

knowledge about the real Islam. He acknowledged that his family was “Islam KTP”, and

his parents never did prayers or fasting for Ramadan. They diligently did nyadran, i.e.

Javanese traditional ceremony or visiting the ancestral tombs, burn incense, and

strongly believe in neptu and pasaran, namely a Javanese belief that uses calendar logic

and certain days to determine one's fate. Meanwhile Mardi Wiyata, a descendant of a

Javanese aristocrat family (teacher’s family), recognized that Qur’anic literacy in the late

of 1960s became a kind of stepping stone to change his way of thinking. He just moved

to SMP when Islamic Education became compulsory in school. As a child of a teacher’s

family, he has been trained to read (in Latin script) since childhood, so many books from

his father he had read in childhood. One of the books was about the history of the

prophets. However, he was not so interested in studying Islam in more depth. Only later

when he could read the Qur’an at the junior level, he felt encouraged to learn more

about the teachings of Islam, to the point that he decided to enter the College of

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Religious Education (PGA) to become a teacher of Islamic religion, something he did not

imagine as a family of Abangan which almost never implemented the teachings of Islam,

except to celebrate Idul Fitri.

Both Sukiman and Mardi Wiyata mention that they've had the confidence to

learn about Islam deeply when they were able to read the Qur’an. Their confidence to

learn Islam grew when they already had the Qur’anic literacy competence, because they

feel liberated from the fear of mistakes in reading the Qur’an that could result in sin. In

addition, after having Qur’anic literacy competence, they were eager to learn Islam

deeper and wider because of the motivation of their religious teachers in school who

cites a hadith from the Prophet Muhammad about the existence of merit or reward for

each reading of the Qur’an (one letter will be rewarded 10 goodness).

Although Islamic books in Indonesian and Javanese were initially easily obtained,

they did not have the confidence to learn about Islam through Islamic books, let alone

studied with kyai or ustadz. This of course contradicts what is argued by Atiyeh (1995)

and other scholars that the objectification of Islamic knowledge occurred together with

the expansion of higher education and the rise of a broad market for cheap Islamic

books and newspapers. I believed they were premature in their assessment, and ignored

altogether the Qur’anic literacy skills as a starting point of objectification of Islamic

knowledge which in turn encouraged the growth of Muslim piety and the rise of Islam in

this country. Without Qur’anic literacy skills, young children do not have the confidence

to learn Islam further. There is a kind of ladder in Islamic learning, and the first ladder is

Qur’anic literacy.

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Qur’anic Literacy as a Touch Point among

Muslims

Eickelman and Piscatori (1996: 5) brilliantly looked at the important

characteristics of political Muslims throughout the world today that indicate a seizure

interpretation of religious symbols. The feature of the most prominent debate is the

objectification of religious knowledge and at the same time the pluralization of religious

authority (page 38). This is in contrast to the centuries when Islamic knowledge

monopolized by a small number of scholars (ulama), today the knowledge and practice

of Islam became the object of interest for a number of people that increased over time.

The social structure that has long guided the society became weak and at the same time

the ulama lost their monopoly on religious authority (Hefner 2000). As a result,

throughout the Muslim world, the populist preachers (Antoun 1989, Gafney 1994), the

neo-traditional Sufi teachers (Launay, 1992, Mardin, 1989, Villalon 1995) and "new

Muslim intellectuals" who get a secular education (Meeker, 1991, Roy 1993) compete

with the scholars who get state support for defining Islam (Hefner 2000). In some

countries, the fragmentation of authority has led to social pluralism and to the coercive

power of democracy (Hefner 1997, Villalon 1995). Along with it it has led to increases in

neo-fundamentalism as opposed to pluralism, women emancipation, and Islamic civil

society (Fuller, 1996, Roy 1993).

However, who is the new force in Indonesian Islam who dares to compete with

the traditional ulamas to contest the authority to define Islam? What capital do they

have so to dare to compete with the kyais who control the resources of Islamic

knowledge? In my opinion, the main capital of the new entrants to compete with the

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traditional ulamas to define Islam is their reading of the Qur’an, either literally or

hermeneutically. Without this capital, they would not have the courage to participate in

defining Islam. Modern science is only a complement to define Islam in the modern era.

Without an adequate understanding of the Qur’an, they will remain a "fringe" in the

mainstream Islamic thought, even in the modern era. They would be laughable if they

tried to define Islam without understanding the Qur’an from the original source.

My analysis can be rooted from many villages in Lamongan, especially in the

south part. The majority of the villages dominated by Jam'iyah NU. With the traditional

religious orthodoxy, they do religious practice a la NU. When Muhammadiyah broke

through several villages in Lamongan in the 1950s, many villagers had not reacted to the

Muhammadiyah, because most of the initiator of Muhammadiyah in the villages was

precisely the people who were influential in NU that were turning into Muhammadiyah.

They are the children of rural kyais, has a background of Pesantren, mastering in Arabic

literacy, even some that still has a structural position in NU. However, when

Muhammadiyah began to attract the sympathy of Abangan and new Priyayi: teachers,

civil servants, and others who did not have a Pesantren background, it was hardly a

laughing stock of society. They derail the term "Muhammadiyah" with "Mukamandulah"

to mock people who recently became a member of Muhammadiyah, which they entered

Muhammadiyah just to cover up their incompetence in Qur’anic literacy. If people who

are new to the Muhammadiyah can read the Qur’an, the people assume that they do

not have an ijazah from the competent teacher or ulama, a learning mechanism that

refers to the tradition of Islamic Sufism adopted by most members of NU.

Until the 1970s, people who are new to the Muhammadiyah have not been fully

accepted as pious Muslims. Recitations that were conducted by Muhammadiyah (who

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were not graduates from Pesantren) were often derided as a result of the pronunciation

of the Qur’anic verses that are not fluent. Only in the 1980s, when the younger

generation of Muhammadiyah filled the positions in the structure of Muhammadiyah,

Muhammadiyah feel like they are getting an injection of fresh blood. The young

generation has fully mastered in Qur’anic literacy through religious education in schools,

and even many who were graduates from modern Pesantren (such as Gontor,

Mu'allimin, Ngruki, and As-Salam Surakarta). They eloquently express the verses of the

Qur’an, so their preachings were no longer scorned because of their incompetence in

Qur’anic literacy. They could be accepted in the wider Muslim community, although

they have a different understanding of Islam (NU and Muhammadiyah).

The emergence of a new generation of Muhammadiyah who fully mastered in

Qur’anic literacy opened the door of community acceptance to Muhammadiyah as a

Muslim organization, not as a splinter. Lectures of Muhammadiyah preachers who

mastered Qur’anic literacy, despite having different religious ideas, were considered

eloquent. New ideas for institutional development from Muhammadiyah also began to

be accepted, such as schools, hospitals, and orphanages. In fact, some people of NU in

Lamongan donated land to build mosques, schools, hospitals, and orphanages for

Muhammadiyah projects.

The up to date ideas of Muhammadiyah that has started to be accepted widely

is the program “Ayat-Ayat Semesta”. This program, initiated by Dr. Agus Purwanto (ITS

lecturer in the field of Quantum Physics, also a member of Majelis Tarjih of

Muhammadiyah), is a study of the Qur’an which contains a science dimension. Schools

and Pesantren of NU actively invite the initiator to provide a lecture about the Qur’an

and science. In fact, a Pesantren in Jombang that is owned by Gus Dur’s family (currently

18

headed by his brother, Sholahuddin Wahid) integrates this program into the school

curriculum in the Pesantren.

The idea of integration of Islam and science actually is not really a new thing.

ICMI has initiated this idea since the 1990s. However, why only now has NU become

interested in integrating them into their school and Pesantren? For them, ICMI is

represented as a form of Islamic political maneuvering in the second half of the reign of

President Suharto (Hefner 2000), ICMI figures at the local level (based in Surabaya) but

not in Qur’anic literacy. NU looked at the idea of integration among the Qur’an and

science as absurd without understanding the Qur’an from its original source. This is

different to the program “Ayat-Ayat Semesta”. One thing that makes this program is

widely accepted among NU is the initiator, Dr. Agus Purwanto. He is a secular university

graduate in Japan, mastered Arabic, and is competent in reciting and interpreting the

Qur’an. Among NU, he often called Gus Pur, a typical label among NU supporters to

describe children of kyais (interview with Kyai Abdul Ghafur, October 9, 2014).

Thus Qur’anic literacy became an important component in the lives of

Indonesian Muslims. It played a major role in building a network of understanding of

Islam among a wide range of Islamic schools and understanding of Islam, so that it

became the most central point of contact in the multicultural Muslim society in

Indonesia. It became a kind of communicative competence among Muslims to engage in

interaction, competition, dialogue, and mutual adoption of one another. It makes the

Muslim community in Indonesia became more passionate, eager to learn Islam wider

and deeper, and became one of the important factors in the rise of Islam in Indonesia.

Conclusion

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Communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language

user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as

social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately. The term was

coined by Dell Hymes in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam

Chomsky's (1965) distinction between competence and performance. To address

Chomsky's abstract notion of competence, Hymes undertook ethnographic exploration

of communicative competence that included "communicative form and function in

integral relation to each other". The approach pioneered by Hymes which is now known

as the ethnography of communication.

In the context of Qur’anic literacy that is fully Arabic which is foreign to

Indonesian Muslims, they are not fully using the Arabic language as a linguistic

communicative competence. They only take a few parts of the Arabic linguistic

competence to demonstrate Islamic piety, especially phonological aspects (related to

fluency [fasih]) used in Qur’anic literacy. The phonological aspect is emphasized in

Qur’anic literacy learning. The classical method of Qur’anic literacy teaching strongly

emphasize the importance of Qur’anic phonology through learning tajwid and makhraj

al-huruf, because of imprecision in the pronunciation of Qur’anic phonological aspect

would change the meaning of the Qur’an. Therefore, the classical method in Qur’anic

literacy learning requires a long time to get an ijazah from a mursyid or teacher.

However, the new methods that are shorter in Qur’anic literacy learning kept retaining

phonological aspects of the Qur’anic reading.

In Islamic doctrine, Qur’anic learning is the most fundamental basis in a wider

and deeper Islamic learning. Therefore, the language of the Qur'an is Arabic, Qur'anic

literacy learning starts from the introduction of Arabic letters, punctuation (vowel), the

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long-short readings, and all aspects of phonological that contained therein. Of course, as

Fowler (1996) and Fairclough (1989), each text is never neutral. There is an ideological

influence of the language that being studied. In basic learning of Qur'anic literacy, it is

emphasized utter precision in Arabic phonology (mujawwad). Each mistake (though only

slightly) in Arabic phonological pronunciations can change the meaning of the Qur'an,

and in the doctrine of Islam, changing the meaning of the Qur'an can lead to sin. Based

on it, the Abangan children who already have basic Qur'anic literacy competence have

the confidence to learn about Islam, because they feel liberated from the burden of guilt

from reading the Qur'an.

Of course, it is clearly different from Geertzian segregation setting in Java

(Geertz 1960) which construct religion in Java into controversial 3 categories: Santri,

Abangan, and Priyayi. These three social categories do not stand diametrically, but

exactly overlap each other. In fact, with the Qur’anic literacy which is organized

massively since the late 1960s, the segregation actually melted in the late 1980s when

young people from the Abangans already have Qur’anic literacy competence, and

become a new generation of Muslims who encourage objectification of Islam (Eickelman

and Piscatori 1996).

In multicultural Muslim society, the Qur’anic literacy competence is also a

fundamental basis for every Muslim to speak of Islam as a religion. Bases on it, the

communication between Muslim groups can be considered equivalent when each group

has a Qur’anic literacy competence. If a Muslim group does not have Qur’anic literacy

competence, then they are only considered as fringe, marginal, alternative, not having

orthodoxy, and are not taken into account in mainstream communication between

various stakeholders to Islam. At least, the Abangans in rural Lamongan in the 1950s are

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being subjected to as "Islam KTP", and thus, they are not recognized as an Islamic entity

that could be the subject of Islam in Indonesia. For the Santris, they are only the objects

of Islam. As Hymes (1966), the Abangans do not have a communicative competence to

talk about Islam. Only after their children, or the younger generation has a Qur’anic

literacy competence, they are recognized as part of Islamic society that is undergoing a

revival.

In this context, I underlined that objectification of Islam which became one of

the characteristics of Islamic resurgence did not occur suddenly based on social

indicators in general. Not as Hefner (2000) which analyzes the rise of Islam in Indonesia

is caused by the dissemination of religious education in schools and universities (Hefner

2000), which coincided with the spread of literacy (Jones and Manning 1992), higher

education (Hefner 1997; Hull and Jones 1992) and the rise of a booming market for

cheap Islamic books and newspapers (Atiyeh 1995), I affirm the existence of an Islamic

objectification process which is ignored by scholars in analizing the dynamics of Islam in

Indonesia, i.e. Qur’anic literacy. In fact, the Qur’anic literacy seemed to be some kind of

requirement for every Muslim to talk about Islam in a multicultural Muslim society in

Indonesia.

22

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