Religious Leader, Tafsir, and Salafism in Indonesia: The Role of Religious Leader in the Study of Tafsir in Pesantren Salafi in Java

Abstract

This paper discusses on the roles of the religious leaders in the study of tafsir in three pesantren in Java. The location of research is in Pesantren Ihya’us Sunnah in Yogyakarta. It addresses several questions, namely: (1) What are the roles of religious leader in pesantren and society? (2) Why do they differently select tafsir or in other words what are their concerns in study of tafsir in the pesantrens? (3) How do they develop and contribute to tafsir? This study applies socio-religious concept on religious leadership and uses tafsir theory. This study uses qualitative data for analysis of materials collected from observations, interviews, and library research. Tafsir works studied in Indonesian Pesantrens are almost different from one to another. In the pengajian tafsir, Pesantren Ihya’us Sunnah uses ‘umdat al-Tafsir ‘an Tafsir ibn Kathir, On the description of the material, ustadz reads word by word of the Qur’anic verses and discusses them later. The study of the tafsir in the pesantren is still limited to the study of a text, reading and translating the text itself. It is found that In salafi pesantren, Interpretation of the teacher shows his literal, textual and puritan concerns. Through the selection of tafsir and kitab kuning used in the pesantrens, religious leaders keep maintaining traditional and puritan aspects of Islam in Indonesia.