Controversy of Bilingual Islamic Prayer

Muhammad Yusman Roy, an Indonesian Muslim cleric who led ‘shalat (Islamic prayer) in both Arabic and Indonesian, apparently crossed the border of Islamic religion, for he has been regarded as blasphemous ever since. The police detained him for “spoiling organized religion”, which indicates that the state still monopolizes the truth (on religious affairs, ed.) in this country. Previously, many people, such as Ulil Abshar Abdalla who wrote about revitalizing religious understanding, regarded as deviating from Islamic doctrine, or misguiding the Muslim community, and should therefore be banned from Islam by issuing particular fatwas. 

These cases are a consequence of logo-centrism within Islamic thought. Difference of opinion is not seen as a blessing, but as a deviation from the Islamic doctrine. Therefore, indictments of heresy are often imposed on persons who oppose mainstream thoughts. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) edict that condemns Roy for deviating from the track of Islamic law (sharia), serves as a perfect example. Is MUI’s edict genuine?

Islam as a Mosaic

The birth of Islam as a religion is correlated with its cultural context. In fact, Islam is flexible and recognizes the dimension of locality in almost all of its teachings. Islam acknowledged the social and cultural context of Arab society in the seventh century. Briefly, Islam appreciated the local culture and the intertwining process between (sacred) texts and reality. Therefore, the local influence is well embedded within the Islamic religious construction. Khalil Abdul Karim, an Egyptian scholar, quoted Caliph Omar al-Farooq on this issue: “Arab is the raw material of Islam”. It implicates that Arab culture is the primary source in Islam’s formation. Here, Omar wanted to explain that Muslims have to separate and distinguish between the universality and particularity in Islam, since the formation of Islam is heavily interrelated with the context of Arabic culture then. Islamic particularity is an Arabic cultural product that must be separated from the universal dimension of Islam. 

Khalil Abdul Karim describes how the Arabic culture was adopted by Islam and eventually became Islamic doctrine. In his book, Al-Judzur al-Tarikhiyyah li al-Syari’at al-Islamiyyah, he analyzes several Islamic teachings, which, to him, are the legacy of pre-Islamic Arab society.

According to Khalil, Muslims’ sacralization of the month Ramadhan is in fact a tradition adopted from Arab culture. Another pre-Islamic leftover that can be found in Islamic religion nowadays includes the glorification of the Holy months (Dzulqaidah, Dzulhijjah, Muharram, and Rajab). Those were traditionally months of armistice for the Arabs, since that is when they performed Hajj and Umra (pilgrimage to Mecca). Another example is the obligation of wearing a headscarf. Essentially, this rule was applied as a social security precaution for women (Sa’id al-Asymawi, Haqiqat al-Hijab wa Hujiyyat al-Hadits). This correlation between Arabic culture and Islam itself makes it difficult to separate the particular from the universal. What about shalat or Islamic prayer?

Khalil did not mention that shalat (Islamic prayer) is also a part of the Arabic pre-Islamic heritage. However, there is an interesting comment from Bambang Noersena (2002) who argued that almost 90% of the Islamic praying rituals are an extension and continuation of previous Semitic religions, particularly of Syrian Christianity that preserved the ritual since the apostleship (in the beginning). One example of similarity between Islam and (Syrian) Christianity is the five times prayer, which is identical with seven times prayer (al-sab’ush shalawat) of the church (Christian Church before dissension at 451 AD). Furthermore, Bambang quoted Arthur Jeffery who argued that the word ‘shalat’ derived from the Aramaic (siryaniiyah) word ‘tselota’. The word ‘tselota’ has been used by the Aramaic language churches (Syrian Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church etc) while the word ‘shalat’ is used by Muslims as well as all other Middle Eastern churches. In practice, Muslims just modified shalat from the available practice: standing, bending deep from the waist, bowing from kneeling position so that forehead touches floor etc are Muslims’ “creative imitations” from the Jewish ritual, which was preserved by the ancient churches and Muslims. It is clear that ritual in Islam correlated with the Arabic ritual and activity in that time.

Bilingual Islamic Prayer

The dispute on language in shalat has a historical precedent; therefore, it is weird to detain Roy for performing prayer in Arabic and Indonesian language. Once, there was a sharp debate between two experts in Islamic law, Imam Abu Hanifa (a Persian) and Imam Shafii (an Arab and Quraysh). Imam Shafii argued that reading surah al-Fatihah in Arabic during prayer is obligatory and shalat is not valid without it. While Abu Hanifa allowed reading surah al-Fatihah in Persian or other languages, Imam Abu Hanifa did not care whether mushally (the one who prays) speaks Arabic or not.

This discussion on language was not limited to prayer, but also included Friday sermon. Shafii viewed that Friday sermon in language other than Arabic is not valid, while Abu Hanifah believed the opposite.

The prayer performed by Roy has an Islamic reference, so why is it regarded as heresy? Moreover, Imam Abu Hanifa, who was an expert in Islamic law, had allowed the Islamic prayer (reading al-Fatihah) in a non-Arabic language.

In this specific case, the rage of Muslims is due to the Arabism ingrained in the minds of many Indonesian Muslims today. They regard all Arabic practices as Islamic, despite of the fact that Arab culture is not always identical with Islam. In this case, the project of Muhammed Abed al-Jabiry concerning Critic of Arabic Reasoning (Naqd al-‘aqli al-‘Arabiy) is relevant. Namely, we have to distinguish the universal and particular element of Islam.

Shalat is a stipulation (qath’iy) from God, but the method of performing this ritual and the prayers to recite are a construction of the fuqaha (experts in Islamic canon law). That is why there are differences of opinion in this matter. 

I assume that if Prophet Muhammad would have been an Indonesian, the prayer performed by Roy would not annoy the Indonesian Muslims, since the prophet would pray in the language that belonged to his community.
Detention of Roy is a state intervention on a religious matter. Religion and religious rituals are a private matter; hence, Roy’s detention is a violation of the freedom of religion.