The True Face of Islam: Essays on Islam and Modernity in Indonesia
llectual life is rich and vibrant, it is little known elsewhere, primarily because most Indonesian scholars write in the Indonesian language and not in English.
Among the most well-known Indonesian writers on Islam is Nurcholish Madjid, rector of the Paramadina University, Jakarta. This collection of essays is the first major English translation of Madjid’s writings. The essays cover a diverse range of issues but are shaped by a common concern for an understanding of Islam that takes into account the myriad challenges that Indonesia is today faced with. They reflect Madjid’s quest for developing a contextually relevant interpretation of Islam that, departing from traditional notions in some significant respects, can help in the process of building a pluralist and more democratic society based on social justice.
Madjid’s search for a contextual Indonesian Islamic theology draws upon his understanding of what he calls the underlying ‘spirit’ of Islam. Like other Muslim liberals, he makes a distinction between the ‘spirit’ and the ‘letter’ of religious tradition, insisting that the former must be given primacy over the latter. This opens up the possibility of novel ways of dealing with a host of issues of contemporary concern-from popular culture, women’s rights and religious pluralism to the nature of the polity-that might depart from earlier models that are rooted in the corpus of traditional juridical opinions or fiqh. Madjid sees these new perspectives as emanating from a process of ijtihad, which he defines as ‘a method of rational and realistic interpretation of Islam’ based on the principle of ‘public interest’ (p. 60). If equality and social justice are cardinal pillars of Islam, then, he says, developing new ways of imagining Islamic law through ijtihad are required in order to realise core Islamic values in today’s context, although this does not mean that tradition must be wholly jettisoned. Based on this interpretation of ijtihad, Madjid argues that
Among the most well-known Indonesian writers on Islam is Nurcholish Madjid, rector of the Paramadina University, Jakarta. This collection of essays is the first major English translation of Madjid’s writings. The essays cover a diverse range of issues but are shaped by a common concern for an understanding of Islam that takes into account the myriad challenges that Indonesia is today faced with. They reflect Madjid’s quest for developing a contextually relevant interpretation of Islam that, departing from traditional notions in some significant respects, can help in the process of building a pluralist and more democratic society based on social justice.
Madjid’s search for a contextual Indonesian Islamic theology draws upon his understanding of what he calls the underlying ‘spirit’ of Islam. Like other Muslim liberals, he makes a distinction between the ‘spirit’ and the ‘letter’ of religious tradition, insisting that the former must be given primacy over the latter. This opens up the possibility of novel ways of dealing with a host of issues of contemporary concern-from popular culture, women’s rights and religious pluralism to the nature of the polity-that might depart from earlier models that are rooted in the corpus of traditional juridical opinions or fiqh. Madjid sees these new perspectives as emanating from a process of ijtihad, which he defines as ‘a method of rational and realistic interpretation of Islam’ based on the principle of ‘public interest’ (p. 60). If equality and social justice are cardinal pillars of Islam, then, he says, developing new ways of imagining Islamic law through ijtihad are required in order to realise core Islamic values in today’s context, although this does not mean that tradition must be wholly jettisoned. Based on this interpretation of ijtihad, Madjid argues that