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entire corpus of Islamic epistemology. of Soekarno in Indonesia. Raziq’s major without thinking, but rather reflected the founding of the Sarekat Islam,
Thus, ijtihad is the building block of contribution is that he showed modern upon within the structure of reality and followed by the establishment of the
modern Islamic reform. Muslims the way to find a theological local culture. If orthodoxy is concerned Muhammadiyah, al-Irsyad, and Persis.

Among the themes of reform and change basis for secularism. with the enactment of Islamic law As in West Sumatra, reformism in Java
in the modern Islamic discourse, political Raziq did not recognize the concept of in behavior and social order, reform was undertaken by compelling Muslims
change occupies an important position. secularism but in his argumentation he requires the establishment of Islamic to submit to the ban on imitations,
This is because the issue is directly referred to the Qur’an and the Sunnah ethics and theology as the ideological heresies and superstitions. Therefore,
related to the lives of the Muslims and and thought they explicitly agreed with and moral foundations of the modern the main challenges of reform were
touches upon the main doctrine of the the separation of religion and the state. world (Abdullah, 1986: 16). When what the Muhammadiyah called TBC,
unification of religion and the state, Many intellectuals after Raziq discussed reform began, orthodoxy split into two i.e. imitation (taqlid), heresy (bid’ah)
and the religious supremacy over the the concept of secularism and then orientations in which those who wanted and superstition (churafat). Muslims
state. Many Muslims believe that the approved it. To cite just some examples ijtihad were ready to face the modern who were familiar with imitation were
separation of state and religion is alien we may mention Mohammed Arkoun world, where as the orthodox continued encouraged to break away from that
to Islam. Since Kemal Ataturk abolished (Algeria), Asghar Ali Engineer (India), to hold on to the old traditions. The latter bad habit and to start with a new one,
the Caliphate and transformed Turkey Abdul Karim Soroush (Iran) who saw is often dubbed traditionalist. namely free thinking and understanding
into a secular state, secularization has secularism and equality as the basis The changes that occurred in Indonesia religion independently without attaching
become a controversial issue. If Rashid for the implementation of democracy. resemble the developments that took themselves to any particular school.
Rida assumed that the Caliphate was These Islamic reformers’ positive attitude place in the other parts of the Islamic In West Sumatra, modernist Islamic
necessary, Ali Abd al-Raziq (1888- towards secularism and other modern world. The main characteristic of reform schools emerged similar to those in
1966) considered that it was just one concepts such as democracy, pluralism, in Indonesia was that it was a religious Java, in addition to public schools
out of a number of alternative systems civil rights, and freedom signifies the purification movement which started in with Islamic identities. Because of the
of government. According to him, the 18 century when three young men Muhammadiyah’s similar method of
th
Muhammad was not sent by God as a height of their acceptance of changes. It from West Sumatra returned from the implementing modernism, West Sumatra
political leader but as an apostle and is important to note here that the Muslim hajj. They brought with them the puritan has been one of the Muhammadiyah’s
reformists’ acceptance of secularism was
that politics is not the objective of the ideology of the Wahhabi along with its strongest strongholds outside Java.
prophetic mission. What concerns Islam not followed up by a negative attitude motto for a return to the Qur’an and After the Sarekat Islam had rapidly grown
is not the format of the state, whether toward religion or, for instance, that the Sunnah. They began by cleansing into a mass movement at the national
it is a republic, kingdom, or caliphate, “religion becomes irrelevant”. Islamic practices from heresies and level, communism began to emerge.
but whether and how a government is Islamic Reform and Challenges superstitions. Although they were Within the Sarekat Islam, where people
able to implement the universal values severely challenged by the society, from all Islamic orientations gathered,
in Islam such as justice and welfare. Reform is a renewed attitude towards the influence of Wahhabi puritanism communism was also present and could
Raziq’s ideas do not only affect Ataturk’s religion, where religious texts are no penetrated deep into Minangkabau grow along with the other members. It
secularization of Turkey, but also of that longer just being read as they are society. In Java, reformism began with was not surprising that there even were

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