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a congregated invocation group like   walhamdulillah wa la ilaha illa Allah   and is both a form of social control   legacies. The religious purification
 the ones mentioned above. In 2004,   wallahu akbar (Glory be to Allah, all   as well as a place where those who   movement through Wahhabism that
 when he stated his intention to run   praise be to Allah, there is no god but   perform mystical vocations can bring   emerged in the Arabian Peninsula
 for the presidency for the first direct   Allah, and He is the Almighty), as well   about a peaceful mind and have many   was oriented to political power and
 presidential election in Indonesia, he   as other good utterances. These fine   other positive benefits. Sufism offers a   managed to give birth to a new country
 founded an invocation group with a   utterances are recited uncountable times   wide range of forms of and methods for   called Saudi Arabia, but this kind of
 1
 number of clerics among his supporters   as a way to subjugate the soul and the   spiritual enlightenment amidst urban life   movement in other Islamic regions runs
 and it was named the Majelis Dhikr SBY   innermost heart only to the meanings of   that is overloaded with a large variety of   in accordance with local conditions and
 “Nurussalam” (Nurussalam Invocation   these utterances, as well as by intimate   psychic pathology.  understanding expanded by Western
 Assembly of SBY).  conversations with God (munajat),   rationalist traditions.
 exposing the soul to Allah, the One and   Conclusion
 The above mentioned invocation   Almighty, the Possessor of Power over   Indonesia is obviously different from
 groups are just some examples. Many   everything, including the power to cure   From the above we may conclude   Saudi Arabia. The reform movement
 other invocation groups are located in   diseases, etc. The participants believe   that the modernization of Islam rests   in Egypt was also different from that of
 Jakarta or in other major cities. Some   that the practice of these invocation   on two pillars, namely puritanism and   in Saudi Arabia. If in Saudi Arabia the
 can be mentioned here such as the   rituals is a means of bringing about a   rationalism. Reformists think that the   purification process was accompanied by
 Majelis Dzikir “Nurul Musthofa” and   peaceful mind, controlling the self from   cause of the stagnation of Muslims’moral   the rejection of rational Western culture
 various other invocation assemblies   disobedience, refraining from falling into   and spiritual life during medieval times   and the old innovative Islamic intellectual
 under the guidance of descendants of   the falsehood and the “illusion” of worldly   was their deviation from the norms set by   heritage, in Egypt, Muhammad Abduh
 the Prophet (habib) in Jakarta, like the   splendor, which always tempt the people   the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The solution   accepted various views of modern
 “Majelis Rasulullah” (the Assembly of the   in urban societies.  was to return to the purity of Islam by   Western civilization and he rejuvenated
 Messenger of Allah) led by the late Habib   way of returning to the Qur’an and the   the old intellectual heritage of Islamic
 Mundzir al-Musawa that had more than   Religious training and practices with   Sunnah. They rejected everything that   civilization. In Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi
 10,000 members.  particular emphases on this kind of   was not guided by the two main sources   movement was known as fundamentalist
 spirituality seem to have become   and regarded it as heretical; while   while in Egypt and Indonesia, supporters
 The most fundamental activity of the   increasingly popular among urban   anything that accords with these main   of pro-Western reform movements were
 invocation assemblies is spiritual   communities, at least over the last   sources is called sunnah. In accordance   called modernists. In Indonesia, reform
 training by means of invocations and the   fifteen years. Observers of religious life   with a sound hadith, innovation is   took the form of religious purification
 remembrance of Allah as the Creator   commonly call this phenomenon “urban   misguided, and the perverted are to be   while Western civilization was selectively
 (al-Khaliq), the Omnipotent, the One,   Sufism”. It is a form of spiritual discourse   put in hell. They were very rigid with their   accepted. In the field of Indonesia
 and all the other attributes of Allah by   among several classes of followers but   slogan back to the Qur’an and Sunnah,   education, modernization was conducted
 way of reciting a good utterance (kalimah   dominated by the upper middle class   so they considered innovations not only   by imitating the European schools
 tayyiba) such as la ilaha illa Allah   as it costs quite a lot of money. Sufism   as distorted, and therefore hostile, but   system, such as HIS met de Kor’an,
 meaning “no god but Allah”, Subhanallah   in urban society has its own functions   also ignored old innovative intellectual   and by modernizing pesantrens by



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