True Islam Research Articles

Salafi Sufism?

The aim of this article is to analyse a local expression of the transnational Ahbash Sufi movement in light of recent scholarship on the relationship between Salafism and Sufism as well as Islamic neo-traditionalism. Some researchers have reacted against a dichotomous relationship between fundamentalism and Sufism, instead suggesting a continuum and a mutual interdependence. We aim to contribute to a developed understanding of the process whereby some Sufi actors go on the attack against their Islamic foes by publicly and loudly claiming to represent ‘true Islam’ as found in the ‘fundamentals’ of Islam – but with a different understanding of what those fundamentals are. We analyse a series of interviews with a local representative of the transnational Ahbash Sufi movement in Malmö, Sweden; the Ahbash movement has its central leadership in Lebanon. Through discussing the representative’s understanding of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bidʿa, in particular concerning the celebration of the prophet Muhammad’s birthday (mawlid al-nabi), we note a combined emphasis on authoritative textual sources – including the Qurʾan and hadith literature – and the allegedly unbroken traditional knowledge transmission which secures a correct understanding of Islam. This shows an ambiguous space of Islamic thought and practice, an arguably Salafi-affected neo-traditionalist defense of Sufism, which transgresses commonly employed dichotomies between Salafism and Sufism.

Identity and Ideology through the Frames of Al Qaeda and Islamic State

ABSTRACT This study employs frame theory tools to describe the identity and ideology of Al Qaeda (AQ) and the Islamic State (IS). The aim is to identify elements that make the two groups’ mobilization effective. The article utilizes the concept of identity fields, to explore how the two groups divide in-group and out-group identities in protagonists, antagonists, and audiences and the concept of core framing tasks to examine how their ideology materializes in diagnoses, prognoses, and calls to arms. The results indicate that AQ frames its identity as the protector of Muslims from the evil West and IS as the sole legitimate religious authority guiding Muslims to true Islam. AQ and IS prioritize and contextualize their ideological frames differently, despite both adhering to the same ideology, namely Salafism-Jihadism. AQ mobilization tends to rely more on political frames whereas IS framing is almost exclusively religious. Both groups, however, appropriate political and religious frames already extant in the minds of Muslim audiences in order to mobilize potential adherents.

The strategy of Imam Musa Kazem in establishing Islamic sciences

The era of Imamate, especially the time of Imamate of Sadeghin and Imam Musa Kazem, was of special importance due to the symmetry with the period of intellectual protests and the emergence of various currents in Islamic sciences. This era was sensitive in terms of the emergence and growth of various currents of hadith, jurisprudence, theology and interpretation, and in terms of the conflict of opinions and ideas, a large area emerged in the Islamic world. There were groups that each tried to consolidate their views and ideas. This shows the active educational atmosphere that the program of the Infallible Imams demanded in order to present the truth of Islamic sciences. On the other hand, the establishment of Islamic sciences was a way to counter the heresy and deviation that occurred during the caliphate before Imam Ali to the point that a tradition was established as the tradition of Sheikhs against the tradition of the Prophet (PBUH) Islamic sciences are sciences that the subject and issues of those sciences are the principles or sub-principles of Islam or things on the basis of which the principles and sub-principles of Islam are proved. Ie the Qur'an and Sunnah; Such as the science of recitation, the science of interpretation, the science of hadith, the science of theology and the science of jurisprudence. These sciences are the basic needs of the Islamic society for excellence. The sciences that can be the cause of life and growth of the Islamic society and show the dimensions of the personality of a Muslim. The most important branches of these sciences can be presented in the fields of Quran, Hadith and Jurisprudence. The foundation of Islamic sciences, due to its role in preserving and presenting true Islam, has been defined since the time of the Messenger of God (PBUH) in her educational life. Infallible Imams as the successors of the Messenger of God (PBUH) made the teaching of these sciences a priority of their education and Imam Kazem, like the Imams before and after him, took care to establish and teach these sciences. Research on this subject can show the prominent position of Imam Khomeini in introducing and reviving the original Islam, despite all the pressures imposed by the government on her. The present study is based on the method of historical analysis, in order to answer the what and why of the strategy of Imam Musa Kazem in establishing Islamic sciences. After his noble father, Imam Kazem became the president of Sadeghin University. In order to revive and present the true Islam, as well as to respond to and confront the intellectual protests, as well as the emergence of various currents in Islamic sciences and innovations and deviations that have occurred in Islam, the foundation of Islamic sciences in its educational priority. The sciences on the basis of which the principles and sub-principles of Islam are proved. In order to present these sciences, even in a situation full of pressure and suffocation imposed by the government, it was necessary to adopt effective strategies. According to the circumstances in which she was, the Imam arranged the teaching of these sciences through both face-to-face meetings and correspondence. Correspondence that could meet the needs of students' education even when they were imprisoned, and the recording of numerous correspondences in this regard, shows the strategic nature of this educational method. On the other hand, Imam Khomeini, like his fathers, chose the training of specialized students in various branches of Islamic sciences as another strategy in this field. A strategy that, while maintaining the educational chain in Islamic sciences, created the transmission of these sciences to the next generations of Shiites through narration and compilation of works, and thus played an important role in establishing Islamic sciences. In fact, the Shiite Imams believed in the fact that mere mobilization of the people and a temporary victory over the enemy and even taking over the government is not enough, and the Islamic reform program will not be realized unless the government is supported by informed and committed bases. It was on this basis that in order to preserve the school and the survival of the right thinking of the Ahl al-Bayt, they took another way, and that was to open the door of knowledge and knowledge to the enthusiasts and to teach the disciples. In fact, his method along with providing general and public education to the people, was the method of individualization and private education, and it was by such people that the jurisprudence and hadith of the Ahl al-Bayt gradually spread to different places.

Aisyiyah Organizational Communication in Realizing the True Islamic Society

Aisyiyah is a Muhammadiyah women’s organization and has a mission to fight for a true Islamic society. This study aims to determine how organizational communication is carried out by the Aisyiyah Ngampilan Branch Manager (PCA) to create a true Islamic society in Ngampilan Village, Yogyakarta. The method used in this study is the mix-method to measure the effectiveness of organizational communication carried out. The results of the quantitative data test with Standard Deviation 1.96 show that downward communication is 2.213, up is 2.321, horizontal is 2.7801, and interline is 2.8011, which has a positive and significant effect on Organizational Communication in realizing true Muslims. PCA Ngampilan realizes true Islam through various social, educational, and religious activities, Business Charities, giving compensation. In addition, PCA Ngampilan prioritizes the persuasive communication of Hablumminannas, which prioritizes good relations and helping others, so that the Aisyiyah Organization is more readily accepted in the community.

Journey of Indonesia Foreign Policy and Recommendations in Responding Global Terrorism and Radicalism

Terrorism is a significant issue in national and global security. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, USA, the fight against terrorism has continued to this day. Resistance to terrorists has also changed the stereotype of Muslims, which affects Indonesia's reputation as the largest Muslim country in the world. The Bali I bombing attacks in 2002 by Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) terrorism group reconstructed its identity as Islam Moderate and Indonesia's foreign policy. The method used is the literature study method. Literature study is all efforts made by researchers to collect various information relevant to the topic or problem that will be studied. Through the identity, Indonesia can convince the western countries that Indonesia is worth reflecting true Islam and space to involve in the international political stage. As a pioneer of the Non-Aligned Movement and track record in the region, Indonesia trusted to be a role model for the Islamic world, especially the Middle East, that Islam and democracy are compatible. Through this, Indonesia seed as a strategic country to build international cooperation against radicalism and terrorism, which still becomes a global challenge presently.

Mawlana Mawdudi’s Concept of Political Islam

Syed Abul A'la Mawdudi was a Muslim scholar, ideological thinker, philosopher, jurist and journalist. He worked for the revival of Islam and disseminated his understanding of ‘true Islam’. This paper is categorized into two sections. The first section of this paper aims to explore the concept of Mawlana Mawdudi regarding political Islam and his role as a 20th century Islamic revivalist. The second section deals with critique of Mawlana Wahiduddin Khan on Mawlana Mawdudi’s powerful Islamic ideology. Mawlana Mawdudi viewed Islam as the religion that is all-encompassing and Islamic state as universal that should not be limited to a particular geographical region and Muslims should strive for the establishment of Islamic state through Islamic revolution. In Mawlana Khan’s ‘The Political Interpretation of Islam’, he considered Mawlana Mawdudi’s distinctly political interpretation as problematic.

KONSEP JIHAD DALAM AL-QUR’AN; APLIKASI PENAFSIRAN KONTEKSTUAL ABDULLAH SAEED

Abstract
 This paper describes about the meaning of concept Jihad by using the theory of Abdullah Saeed. There are four things be discussed in the theory, namely: Language Analysis, Historical Context, Parallel Texts or intertext connection, and Value Hierarchy. These four things are processing of application the contextualization theory of Abdullah Saeed. And the result of this discussed the concept of Jihad that expressed in Al-Qur’an is very broad. Not only about fighting on the battlefield to uphold the religion of God, but also embraces the struggle to uphold Amal Ma’ruf Nahi Munkar, jihad against lust, jihat stating the truth of Islam, Jihad to wipe tyranny and oppression, jihad against the enemies of Islam and etc.

Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Caliphal Counter-Narrative

The article has a history of religions approach, and analyzes the “counter-narrative” of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is a global political Islamist group which aims to establish a universal caliphate. It is a “vocal radical” radical group, rejecting the use of violence. The group is against democracy, secularization and liberal values, and promotes a return to “true Islam”, which obliges Muslims to establish a caliphate, ruled by divine will. The analysis of the ideology will contextualize it within Islamic theology and other current interpretative Islamic currents that dominate, with the aim of explaining why they are banned in several countries.

Urgensi Penguatan Keterampilan Berpikir Kritis pada Mata Pelajaran Qur’an Hadist

This research is in the form of a literature review on the urgency of strengthening critical thinking skills in the subject of the Qur'an hadith. Critical thinking is very necessary for someone, because in responding to and facing global challenges today, critical thinking skills are needed in order to solve the problems at hand. As for the benefits of a Muslim thinking critically of the Al-Qur'an and Hadith, namely: (1) a Muslim can capture the food and wisdom behind Allah SWT's creation, (2) increase confidence in the truth of Islam, (3) be able to answer all accusations which is not true of Islam from the haters of Islam, (4) increasing ghiroh in carrying out and avoiding Allah SWT's orders, (5) preventing someone from getting lost in interpreting the verses of Allah SWT, and (6) increasing gratitude for all the gifts of Allah SWT.

KEBEBASAN BERAGAMA DAN BERBICARA DALAM BINGKAI KAJIAN TAFSIR NUSANTARA

Freedom of belief is one of the human rights that is often discussed in the international community, including freedom of religion. It has been stated in the Quran very clearly that everyone has the freedom to embrace a religion they believe in, beside it has also been explained by Allah that Islam is the most blessed religion. However, there are still forces in choosing a religion in various ways. One of the gifts that Allah has given to humans is freedom of religion based on his own beliefs and freedom of speech. This research focused on how the interpretation of the Archipelago Mufassir about freedom of religion and speech in the al-Qur'an. This study used a qualitative literature approach (Library Research). This type used the thematic analysis method. The primary data source was Tafsir Nusantara, the secondary data was the writer tried to collect data related to the discussion. The results of this study indicated that freedom of religion and speech according to Nusantara Mufassir’s (as Hamka, Quraisy Shihab dan Hasbi Ash-Shidieqy) interpretations towards QS. al-Baqarrah verse 256 that Allah has ordered his people not to force someone to adhere Islam but invite people to think about the truth of Islam. Furthermore, QS. al-Isra' verse 36 implies freedom of speech, it is explained that someone is allowed to speak the truth and not spread lies; a prohibition against talking about something uncertain and to determine something based on personal prejudice and allegation. This verse also prevents from such disadvantages, as accusation, wrong prejudice, lies and false witnesses.

Muhammadiyah Identity and Muslim Public Good: Muslim Practices in Java

The study in the current article intends to explore the conception of the presence of the Islamic religious movement known as Muhammadiyah, which still remains to this day in relation to the life of the Muslim community, including its socio-religious, cultural, economic, and political aspects. Accordingly, a proper understanding of Muhammadiyah is not only achieved through a religious approach, but also by examining social-historical conditions, which is by demonstrating the extent that its presence in conducting religious activities correlates with the true concept of Islam (Muslim Public Good). The current study aims to observe the models and strategies utilized by Muhammadiyah’s champions in repositioning and reflecting on religious movements, which have been framed at both conceptual and practical level. Subsequently, the framing strategies were used as a social capital to carry out their religious activities. For issues that are practical in nature, the study in this article is a description and elaboration about the aspirations, perceptions, intentions, ideas, goals, and thoughts pertaining to a social system inspired by the spirit of religiosity in Indonesia, in general, and Islam in Java, in particular, within the Muhammadiyah tradition as a Muslim public good (the true Islam).

FOR FEAR OF ISLAMIC LOOKS: A REFLECTION OF DISPLACED “SELVES” WITHIN ISLAM

Abstract The study discusses a triggering issue of those Indonesian Muslims who frequently feel uneasy to socialize with other Muslims with Arabic looks to neutralize Islamic brotherhood in the Indonesian context of unity in diversity. A survey was made available online for over three months to get public responses concerning the issue. Sixty-two responses were collected for further analysis. Findings of the study revealed that most of the respondents expressed fear of Arabic looks because of terrorism-related activities resulting in deep personal hate. Fears were also felt due to the image that such a group of Muslims has deteriorated the local cultures of Indonesian origins. Still, others expressed fears of those distinctive individual Muslims because of a frequent political demonstration staged by those types of Muslims against engineered issues caused by discrepancies in political views to terminate the President. The authors offer recommendations for those with such Islam phobia to learn more about the truth of Islam from distinguished clerics from recognized Muslim organizations or to read Islamic literature to create peace of mind amid the wrong mindset about Islam, and finally to put aside egocentrism in the spirit of unity in diversity, only to fight against radicalism.

\u201cThey have no taste in Morocco.\u201d Home furnishing, belonging, and notions of religious (im)perfection among white Dutch and Flemish converts in Morocco

This article focuses on furnishing practices in the domestic space of the homes of white Flemish and Dutch Muslim female converts to Islam who made hijra (Islamic migration) to Morocco. Fed up with European Islamophobia and longing for a place that supports and strengthens their faith, they decided to emigrate to a Muslim country. However, remarkably, once settled in Morocco, many experience discontent with regard to a perceived “lack of true Islam” in the country. To gain insight into the positions and experiences of these women, I look at how they create a sense of belonging through furnishing practices in the domestic space of their new homes. I am interested in how various senses of belonging are expressed and come together in relation to their construction of religious belonging and place, and are renegotiated through domestic decoration practices. Building on literature on home, transnational migration, conversion, and material religion, I demonstrate that mechanisms of distinction and notions of religious (im)perfection intersect in the organization of the domestic space. Based on ethnographic accounts, I argue that my interlocutors bring a “culturalized” West-European Islam to Morocco, with tastes and sensibilities that jostle uneasily against local Moroccan religious practices but also allows them to repair some of the privileges they lost upon their conversion in their homeland. Lastly, this article shows that it is through the engagement with mundane material forms, but also with absence and empty spaces, that Islam becomes present in their domestic spaces, enhancing the cultivation of their ethical selves.

Diverse Muslim Narratives: Rethinking Islam 101

The practice of teaching Islam in the American context has a particular intellectual pedigree. At this point, the critique of the Study of Religion as emerging out of a normative Christian framework is well-established in the field. Edward Said’s argument for the ways in which Islam is constructed to meet American political interests, rather than an engagement with Muslims and their religion, is nearly forty years old. These power dynamics mean that students, through popular discourse, understand Wahhabi Islam as Sunni Islam, which they consider the “true Islam” against which other Islams are judged. I propose a model of looking at how Muslims define their religion through contestation and relation which allows students to understand the dynamic nature of their traditions. What I outline as an approach gives a greater sense of covering the breadth of material represented by a global religious community, with over a millennium of history.

A comparative analysis of three Sunni Muslim organizations on ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ Islam in Egypt, Morocco and Indonesia

ABSTRACT The distinction between ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ Islam has played a key role in tackling contemporary militant religious extremism. This article examines three prominent Sunni Muslim institutions that uphold this distinction and present themselves as the peaceful and moderate voices of ‘true Islam’, namely al-Azhar al-Sharīf of Egypt, Nahdlatul Ulama of Indonesia and al-Rabita al-Muhammadiyya lil-‘Ulama’ of Morocco. The article provides a critical, comparative analysis of their religious discourses and theological strategies in developing an ‘exceptional’ and ‘moderate’ Sunni response to jihadist militancy, particularly after the emergence of the so-called ‘Islamic State’ in Syria and Iraq (IS). It demonstrates that each institution has developed its own brand of moderateness with different motivations, argumentations, content and religious justifications. As such, this article challenges the moderate-versus-radical dichotomy by revealing that there are multiple discourses on moderation, instead of it being one single and coherent moderate bloc.

Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam by Rachel Harris

Reviewed by: Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam by Rachel Harris Eric Schluesselschluessel@gwu.edu Rachel Harris. Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam. Framing the Global Series. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2020. 249 pp. $85.00 (cloth), $35.00 (cloth). The field of contemporary Uyghur studies was once preoccupied with nationalism and ethnic conflict as studied through the written word and short-term "guerrilla ethnography" in secular, urban, and male-gendered milieus. Rachel Harris's pathbreaking new book marks the successful inversion of that paradigm through an intimate study of sounded practices of Islam rooted in many years of fieldwork among rural Uyghur women. "Sounded" here refers to those ephemeral and embodied ways of making and experiencing sound, including but certainly not limited to music. The book's theoretical and methodological interventions thus illuminate vital yet neglected aspects of the human experience and have broad consequences for scholarship on Uyghur life. Anyone moving through a city or village in China will notice how all kinds of noise and music seem to contest for space and attention. In Xinjiang, that awareness is heightened by the interplay of varieties of sound, rhythm, music, and speech coded as either "Chinese" or "Uyghur"—or "secular/national" or "Islamic"—and many shades in between. Harris characterizes this politics of sound as "soundscape," the ongoing renegotiation of the boundaries of community through a complex field of sounding and listening that in turn shapes the rules of interaction (20). The soundscape of Uyghur Islam is a "'discursive tradition'…through which local actors attempt to define what constitutes true Islam and a good Muslim within relationships of power" (24), but also a "palimpsest" textured by erasure and reinscription (216). This seemingly abstract concept is intimately related to acts of repetition and to the (Uyghur, female) body as a "prime locus for imposing new regimes of knowledge and being" (213, 215). Attending to "sounded expressive practices" decenters the emphasis on physical appearance and dress that is common in the highly polarized political and media discourse surrounding Xinjiang (15). One of Soundscapes' most compelling features is its historicization of sounded practices as ways of negotiating community and space in response to shifting sociopolitical relationships that are otherwise difficult to perceive. Harris begins at the most intimate level, through a thick description of women's Sufi rituals. She convincingly analyzes these rituals' production of powerful feelings of community through rhythm, movement, and voice. While Soundscapes ranges far and wide across borders, and while the book presents a gradually broader scope, rhythm and the body remain at its core. How, Harris asks, do embodied practices of negotiating community encounter new sociopolitical and textual circumstances? Harris then demonstrates the importance of transregional connections by showing how women's Sufi groups have encountered different versions of a core Sufi text, which itself has circulated between written and spoken forms. She shows how those intimate sounds changed in interaction with transnational Islamic networks, as woman Qur'an reciters adopted recitation styles that index traditions across the theological spectrum. Soundscapes reminds us not to reduce Islam to doctrine: reciters refigure and reinterpret sounds, which gain new meanings in practice. Harris then turns to the stranger paths of circulation and analyzes the affective impact of social media and of audiovisual media of unknown origin. We see how a decontextualized sign such as a recorded recitation or a shocking video travels like a rumor, shaping discourses as it is shaped by them. [End Page E-30] Soundscapes then considers the contestation between the sounded and embodied practices of Uyghur Islam and those of the Chinese Communist Party. These aspects of piety, Harris argues, are also a technology of the state, as Ban Wang has characterized them: practices of embodiment, intended to create and enforce group feeling, that possess a specific lineage in Maoism (208).1 That lineage becomes clear through oral histories from rural Uyghur women that are presented throughout the text, including in a pair of lengthier "interludes." China scholars will recognize parallels with the study conducted by Gail Hershatter and Gao Xiaoxian (高小贤) of women's lives in rural Shaanxi,2 both in the approach to fieldwork and in the book's presentation of autobiographical narratives. Indeed, Harris's...

Violence Against Children and Its Relevance to Giving Punishment in Educating Children

Giving punishment as an educational tool used by teachers needs to pay attention to the requirements of a good sentence so that the pedagogical quality can be accounted for. The purpose of punishment in this context is to make children realize their mistakes and not repeat their wrong actions.Islam does not see the application of punishment except as wrong one means if the situation forces them to organize the child and return it to the path of true Islam. Islam does not use punishment except after the use of other means and after society is minimal from crime. The methods adopted by Islam in punishing children are: (a) treating children gently, (b) paying attention to the deviant character of children when applying punishment, (c) looking for solutions gradually, departing from a light way and switching to different ways. weight. This is how Islam requires these punishments and encourages educators to use them. We only need to choose what feels right and can benefit children.

Evaluation of the Shiite-Sunni Rapprochement in Terms of Postmodernism

Bu makale son dönem Şii-Sünni ilişkilerini ele almakta ve bu ilişkilerin postmodern olup olmadığını sorgulamaktadır. Yirminci yüzyılın ikinci yarısından itibaren postmodern bir anlayış ve düşünüş tarzının dünya çapında yayıldığı ileri sürülmüştür. İslam toplumlarını da etkileyen bu paradigmanın temel özelliklerinden biri çoklu hakikat inancını geçerli görmesidir. Şia ve Ehl-i Sünnet İslam coğrafyasının iki ana kolunu temsil etmektedir. Her bir mezhep yüzyıllar boyunca İslam hakikatini kendisinin temsil ettiğini savunmuş diğerinin ise yanlış yolda olduğunu ileri sürmüştür. Ama yine de her iki mezhep tarih boyunca ilişki içinde olmuşlardır. Mezhepleri yakınlaştırma (takrib) çalışmaları da bu ilişkilerden biridir. Bu çalışma, “postmodern paradigma az veya çok her alana sirayet ettiyse Şii-Sünni ilişkilerine de sirayet etmiş olmalıdır” varsayımından hareket etmektedir. Araştırmanın vardığı sonuç, takrib çalışmalarının çoğullaşma eğiliminde olduğu ve postmodern bir yakınlaşma biçiminin varlığının konuşulabileceği yönündedir.

Constructing Authenticity in Discourse(s)

Abstract Claiming and representing “True” Islam has been a major preoccupation among the Muslim groups in Kerala in recent times. In a way, this has augmented the Muslim public sphere in which active debates happen, and also breaks with the general understanding of Islam as monolithic in its ideology and practice. This paper attempts to bring precisely this dynamics of Muslim public sphere in Malabar where prominent groups like the Sunni, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen debate constantly over the representation and following of what is called “True Islam.” The claim towards a true Islam is done by each of the groups by claiming authenticity over what they preach and practice. This paper highlights these debates in the context of the academic debates over “True” and “Authenticated” Islam.

Penerapan Metode Dakwah: Bercermin pada Kasus Cigugur

The implementation of any method of dakwah has to consider its relevance with public needs. Hence, a good implementation of a method of dakwah would be based on a preceding identification of the basic problems among the target community (mad’u). The dynamics of the processes of dakwah in Cigugur show that irrelevant approaches (radical ways to protect and save Islam from any foreign influences that would otherwise contaminate true Islam) tangibly resulted in undesired effects. This has led to an alternate method of dakwah (dialogical method), currently underway in Cigugur, seen to be able to save the existence and unity of Muslim community.