SOPHIA

DOI 10.1007/s11841-014-0434-0

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial

and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia
Carool Kersten

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract Taking a critical view of the dominance of postcolonial studies by South

Asian and Latin American scholars and intellectuals, this article presents a newly
emerging discourse among young Indonesian Muslim intellectuals, known as
Islamic Post-Traditionalism. The specific question addressed in the present investigation is to establish to what extent this strand of Muslim thought can be considered a
contribution to the engagement with postcoloniality and an application of deconstructionist discourse critique developed by postmodern philosophers within the context of
rethinking religion, and Islam in particular, in Indonesia. Identifying a vivid interest
among Indonesian Muslim intellectuals in the work of pioneering and controversial
contemporary Arab-Islamic thinkers such as Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Muhammad
Abid al-Jabiri, and Mohammed Arkoun, this article will interrogate the influences
exercised by these Arabophone and Francophone Muslim intellectuals on the formation of Indonesia's Islamic Post-Traditionalism and how this is reflected in this
discourse. An illustration will be provided by a prcis of the writings of a key
exponent of the Islamic Post-Traditionalist discourse and an examination of a number
of other contributors.
Keywords Contemporary Muslim thought . Indonesia . Islam . Islamic
Post-Traditionalism . Postcoloniality . Postmodernity . Religion in Indonesia

Observers of global and intellectual history, as well as critical and self-reflecting

contributors to postcolonial theory from India and Latin America, including Richard
King, Sugata Bose, and Walter Mignolo have drawn attention to the irony that
postcolonial theory and the adjacent field of subaltern studies remain bound up with
the impact of the European Enlightenment upon the colonial transformation of subjectivity through their reliance on poststructuralists like Foucault and Derrida whose ideas

C. Kersten (*)
Department of Theology and Religious Studies, KINGS College London, School of Arts and
Humanities, Virginia Woolf Building, 22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6NR, UK
e-mail: carool.kersten@kcl.ac.uk
URL: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/trs/people/staff/academic/kersten/index.aspx

C. Kersten

are overwhelmingly derivative of European intellectual history (King 2009: 42). In a

similar vein, Stuart Hall has tried to disentangle the concomitant conflation of postcolonial thinking with postmodernism (Hall 1996: 242260). Another aspect is the
paradoxical parochialism of postcolonial studies, which has been less noted and
therefore has received not the attention it deserves: namely, the dominance of the field
by South Asianists and intellectuals from that region and from Latin America (King 2009:
41). Many of them remain not only based in Western academic metropoles; one could even
say that, for their own purposes, they have managed to colonize a field of critical inquiry
that seeks to challenge and do away with hegemonic discourses.
By way of a circumventive interrogation of this state of affairs, this article directs its
focus towards another region from what has been called the two thirds worlds:
Southeast Asia. (King 2009: 41). It poses the question whether one can discern an
alternative postcolonial discourse in this neighboring region. To explore this possibility,
I will concentrate on Indonesiaand in particular on an emerging new strand of Muslim
intellectualism locally known as Islamic Post-Traditionalism (Post-Traditionalisme
Islam in Indonesian, or Postra for short). This phenomenon is interesting for at least
two reasons. First of all, exponents of Islamic Post-Traditionalism in Indonesia draw on
an eclectic mix of ideas. Like their South Asian and Latin American counterparts, and
also by their own admission, Indonesias Islamic Post-Traditionalists are heavily indebted to structuralist and poststructuralist thinking, deconstructionism, and other postmodern theories developed by European philosophers. The initial introduction to these
strands of Western thought reached Indonesian Muslim intellectuals via a detour: The
writings of often controversial contemporary intellectuals from the Arabic-speaking
parts of the Muslim world. Algerian, Egyptian, and Moroccan scholars of Islam
and philosophers, such as Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (19432010), Mohammed
Arkoun (19282010), Hasan Hanafi (b. 1935), Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri (1936
2010), and others, pioneered the use of Francophone postmodernism in their
double critiques of both Islamic and Western thought and civilization. At the dawn
of the new millennium, an emerging generation of Indonesian Muslim intellectuals
began drawing on these so-called Arab-Islamic turathiyun, or heritage thinkers,
for intellectual inspiration in challenging their own intellectual predecessors whom they
accused of not being courageous and critical enough in pointing out the shortcomings of
what the American-Pakistani Islamicist Fazlur Rahman (19191988) called classical
Islamic reformism and modernism.
This brings me to the second reason for examining and discussing Indonesian
Islamic Post-Traditionalism: The context of internal contestation. Whereas the proponents of this new Islamic discourse have criticized the previous generation of the
Muslim intelligentsia (including their own intellectual mentors), in turn, they have
been challenged by reactionary Islamist activists who object to what they regard as the
advocacy of religious pluralism, too liberal interpretations of Islamic doctrines, and
acceptance of a secular political order. Islamists and other detractors of the secular
nationalism that has dominated Indonesias political system since independence have
qualified the nationalist of Indonesian unity and territorial integrity as a continuation of
the colonial project of the Dutch East Indies and thus a form of neo-colonialism.
Moreover, many Indonesians outside of Java perceive the dominance of that populous
island within the vast archipelago that composes the postcolonial Republic of Indonesia
as hegemonic (Woodward 2011: 264 n. 1).

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

The Post-Traditionalist rejection ofto continue using Fazlur Rahmans taxonomy

of contemporary Islamic intellectualismtheir neo-modernist predecessors, as well as
their defiance of their neo-revivalist opponents, invokes James Cliffords observation
that the post- is always shadowed by neo-(Clifford 1997: 277). Yet, there remains
the awkwardness of the Islamic Post-Traditionalist intellectuals own reliance on
thinkers from the Arab world for the theoretical framing of their critiques and articulation of an alternative discourse. Aside from the earlier noted problematics surrounding the linking of postcolonial theory to postmodernism, the connection between
Indonesian Islamic Post-Traditionalism and Arab-Islamic heritage thinking also conjures up a specter of the continuation of Middle Eastern intellectual hegemony within
the Muslim world. While mindful of these tensions, I propose that Islamic PostTraditionalism may offer a way out of these conundrums, because it also resonates
with Walter Mignolos critical cosmopolitanism and Ashis Nandys critical traditionalism (King 2009: 43; Mignolo 2000; Nandy 2006), thus bringing a Southeast Asian
component into postcolonial theorizing.
The remainder of this essay is intended as an illustration of the circulation of ideas
through parts of the two thirds worlds and of how, in this age of glocalization,
Indonesian Islamic Post-Traditionalism forms a prolegomena or propadeutics for a
creative synthesis of local histories and global designs, along the lines sketched by
Mignolo.1 As a final caveat, I should add that the Islamic Post-Traditionalist project was
greatly helped by the earlier influence of the Egyptian philosopher Hasan Hanafi, and
the sociologists Anouar Abdel Malek (19242012) and Syed Hussein Alatas (1928
2007). Their writings need not further detain us here, because Hanafis herculean lifes
work dedicated to the formulation of a new and authentic Islamic philosophical method
and its connection to his political manifesto for a Leftist Islam I have discussed
elsewhere, explaining the link to the so-called endogenous intellectual creativity
developed by Alatas and Hanafis fellow Egyptian Abdel Malek (Kersten 2011a:
128132). These influences constitute a substratum for the fertile soil provided by
ideas of other Arab thinkers in which Islamic Post-Traditionalism could root its own
agenda for postcolonial theorizing in Indonesia.

Introducing Islamic Post-Traditionalism

The new Islamic discourse which began emerging in Indonesia at the turn of the century
and which has come to be known as Islamic Post-Traditionalism was formulated by
young and upcoming Muslim academics and activists known as the Anak Muda NU, or
young cadres of the countrys largest traditionalist Islamic organization, the Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU). They belong to what can be regarded as Indonesias third postcolonial
generation of Islamic intellectuals (born in the late 1960s or 1970s) who pushed the use
of the ideas taken from Mohammed Arkoun, Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri, and Nasr
Hamid Abu Zayd further than had their predecessors (Kersten 2009: 974).
At first face, these three recently deceased Arab thinkers seem an odd choice for
Indonesian Muslim intellectuals concerned with reformulating indigenous Islamic
1

The term was introduced by Roland Robertson in the eponymous chapter in which he discusses the interplay
of worldwide historical processes and trends with local cultural specificities (Robertson 1995).

C. Kersten

discourses. Not only are the ideas of Al-Jabiri and Arkoun heavily influenced by
French postmodern philosophical and sociological thinking, but their scholarly interests
also focused on the Maghrib (Northwest Africa) and the Mediterranean, while in the
case of al-Jabiri one could even argue for an Arab-Nationalist dimension. A specialist
in Quranic studies, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayds propositions for a radical rereading of
Islams core scripture are suffused with concepts derived from poststructuralist linguistics and the relatively new field of semiotics developed in the Western and Eastern
European academe. So what can help explain the attraction of these North-African
writers for Muslim intellectuals on the Southeastern periphery of the Muslim world?
What is the relevance of their Arab-Islamic thinking for Islamic Post-Traditionalism in
Indonesia? In order to come up with some answers, this influx of ideas from one part of
the Islamic world into the intellectual milieu of another will be considered through the
lens of travelling theory and the circulation of ideas; concepts that have been
fruitfully employed in literary criticism, international relations, and Indian Ocean
Studies by intellectuals and scholars such as Edward Said (1984), Peter Mandaville
(2001), and Sugata Bose and Kris Manjapra (2010).
Aside from addressing the significance of Arkoun, al-Jabiri, and Abu Zayd for the
formulation of this post-traditionalist Islamic discourse at a critical juncture in recent
Indonesian history (19992001), I will also pay attention to the slightly earlier interest
in this trio on the part of an intellectual from the preceding generation associated with
the modernist Muhammadiyah movement. It offers food for thought to ponder the
question whether the influence of these three particular individuals evinces an intellectual meeting of the minds between the two main ideological camps in Indonesias
Muslim community. Does it mirror the cautious political rapprochement of the late
1990s, initiated by the ex-leader of the traditionalist Islamic Nahdlatul Ulama and later
president, Abdurrahman Wahid (19402009), and the former chairman of the modernist Muhammadiyah organization and one time Speaker of Indonesias Peoples
Consultative Assembly (MPR), Amien Rais?
Finally, I should note that I will discuss the ideas of Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri more
extensively than the work of Mohammed Arkoun or Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. Aside
from the fact that I have addressed the ideas of the latter two in greater detail elsewhere
(Kersten 2010, 2011b), it seems to me thatin comparison to Arkoun and Abu Zayd
al-Jabiri features much more prominently in the writings and opinions which these
Islamic Post-Traditionalists have been developing in the course of the last decade.
Political-Historical Context
There are three defining moments in the recent history of Indonesia which have shaped
the conditions for the reception of Abu Zayd, al-Jabiri, and Arkoun. They are the
constituent elements in the formation of what in Indonesia is alternately referred to as
cultural, civil, and cosmopolitan Islam.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the military-dominated New Order Regime of
General Suharto, while retaining a ban on Islamic political parties, opened up a space
for a non-politicized Islam which left room for a Muslim intelligentsia to play a role in
the new governments political strategygeared towards economic development rather
than the ideological posturing of the Sukarno era. The key intellectuals navigating this
new course were Nurcholish Madjid (19392005), the leader of the Muslim Students

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

Association HMI from 1967 to 1971, and his mentors: the Religious Affairs Minister at
the time, Mukti Ali (19232004), and the Rector of the State Islamic University in
Jakarta, Harun Nasution (19191998). In order to prepare future generations of Muslim
intellectuals and technocrats for a role in the countrys economic development, Mukti
Ali and Nasutionboth educated at Canadas McGill Universityinitiated a complete
overhaul of the curriculum of the Islamic higher education system, introducing critical
reflection on the Islamic religious and civilizational heritage by making an explicit
distinction between normative Islam and its contingent historical development. It
introduced teaching on philosophical schools and even on what mainstream Muslim
orthodoxy regarded as heretical sects, while also adding the writings by Western
scholars of Islam to students reading lists.
The new policy received support from the traditionalist NU, inspiring a parallel
reform of the pesantren or traditional Islamic education system under the direction of
its future leader Abdurrahman Wahid. Meanwhile, Nurcholish Madjid, an exponent of
the first generation of postcolonial or post-independence Muslim intellectuals, had
proposed a radical renewal of Islamic thinking launched in 1970 under the provocative
slogan: Islam Yes! Islamic Party No! He argued that an Islamic worldview was
neither incompatible with secular politics nor with rational epistemologies. Upon his
return from postgraduate studies with Fazlur Rahman in Chicago, Madjid formulated
his earlier renewal thinking into what in the literature is referred to as Islamic neomodernism. This new configuration of Islamic education and more adventurous
intellectual pursuits laid the basis for the emergence of an educated and increasingly
well-heeled and social-upwardly mobile urban Muslim middle class.
The second moment, the introduction of the so-called re-actualization agenda,
builds on this foundation. It was implemented between 1983 and 1993 under the then
Religious Affairs Minister Munawir Sjadzali (19252004), a US-educated intellectual
and former diplomat. His campaign was greatly helped by the financial windfall in the
wake of the oil boom of the 1970s and 1980s. The domestic Islamic higher education
system was expanded into a network of a dozen campuses and increasing numbers of
promising young scholars were sent overseas for postgraduate studies in North America,
Western Europe, Australia, as well as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Turkey. These
returnees constitute the second generation of Indonesias postcolonial intelligentsia
(born in the 1950s). During this time frame, the phenomenon of Penghijauan or
Greening (the symbolic color of Islam) of Indonesian society reaches the upper
echelons of the political eliteepitomized by the pilgrimage of President Muhammad
Suharto in 1991. These are also the years of a further opening-up (keterbukaan) of the
Islamic intellectual debate and the establishment of the Ikatan Cendekiawan Muslim
Indonesia (ICMI) or Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals in 1990.
Finally, there is the fall of the New Order Regime in 1998 and the initially chaotic
aftermath of the Post-Suharto Reformasi Era, when a new generation of Muslim
intellectuals, locally referred to as the Anak Muda NU or young cadres of the traditionalist NU, begins to respond to the ideas and politics of their predecessors.
The unprecedented openness of the Reformasi Era and ensuing plurality of voices in
the public sphere also led to an increased antagonism and eventually polarization
between the various Muslim camps. Proponents of a wide diversity of Islamist agendas
also re-entered the debate and the political arena, challenging and rejecting the progressive Muslim discourses which are accommodative of secularism, liberalism, and

C. Kersten

pluralism as un-Islamic (Wahid 2001: 78, n. 2). In 2005, this resulted in the issuance
of fatwas by both a state-recognized body, the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), and
self-proclaimed spokespersons of Indonesias Muslim community, the Forum Ulama
Umat Islam. Indicative of the further polarization within the Muslim camp in the wake
of these fatwas is the emergence of a highly charged polemics in which the interlocutors use insidious pathological terminology such as Virus Liberalisme and the
acronym Sipilis to refer to secularism, pluralism, and liberalism.
Discursive Channels and Vehicles of Dissemination
An intellectual manifestation of this Greening of Indonesian society is the proliferation of NGOs, think tanks, university and higher education institutes, and other forums,
and their associated (academic) journals and other publications. For post-traditionalist
Islamic discourse, one such journal is of particular significance: Tashwirul Afkar:
Jurnal Refleksi Pemikiran Keagamaan & Kebudayaan, the organ of LAKPESDAM,
an NGO associated with the NU dealing with human resources development (Riyadi
2007: 6266). Issue 10 of this journal, published in 2001, can be considered as the
manifesto of Islamic Post-Traditionalism (Rumadi 2008: 169). In addition, there has
developed a burgeoning secondary scholarly literature by academics, as well as
translations of non-Indonesian Muslim intellectuals, and a self-reflective literature by
some participants in the formulation of Islamic Post-Traditionalism in Indonesia.

Islamic Post-Traditionalism and the Circulation of Ideas: Al-Jabiris

Epistemological Discourse Critique
The first text in which the term Islamic Post-Traditionalism was used is Ahmad Basos
introduction to a translation of selected writings by the Moroccan philosopher Muhammad
Abid al-Jabiri, which appeared under the title Post-Traditionalisme Islam, even though the
latter never used that expression. This publication appeared at a critical juncture in recent
Indonesian historynamely, the countrys transition between 1999 and 2001 from the
New Order regime into the Reformasi Era. It is also an indication of the emerging interest
in al-Jabiri among third-generation postcolonial intellectuals, as it followed shortly after
Luthfi Assyaukanies inclusion of al-Jabiri as a reformistic thinker of a different stripe in
a new typology of contemporary Arab discourse, and Syafiq Hasyims review of alJabiris Critique of Arab Reason trilogy (Assyaukanie 1998; Hasyim 1998). Moreover,
during the same period, a young writer born in Makassar on Sulawesi but educated on
Java, Ahmad Baso, had splashed onto Indonesias intellectual scene with a provocative
challenge of the indigenization of the concept of civil society by Muslim intellectuals in
anin his eyesfutile attempt towards the restoration of Islamic authenticity (Baso
1999a). In the years that followed, he developed into the most prolific exponent of
Islamic Post-Traditionalism and a very vocal and critical interlocutor in debates among
Muslim intellectuals in Indonesia (Baso 2005, 2006). Basos introductory essay constitutes the watershed in Indonesian interest in this leading Moroccan philosopher. Published
under the title Translators Introduction: Postmodernism as Islam critique: the
Methodological contribution of Muhammad Abid al-Jabiris Critique of Reason, it also
reflects how the new Islamic discourse of the same name depends on al-Jabiris

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

philosophy. Basos introduction holds important clues for understanding why the
explorations of French poststructuralism by a Moroccan avant garde philosopher with
a preoccupation for the cultural-intellectual heritage of the Maghrib are of interest to an
upcoming generation of Muslim intellectuals and leaders in Indonesia.
Baso begins by acknowledging his debt to Said Aqil Siradj, a leading NU scholar
and, since 2004, the organizations chairman, who made Baso aware of al-Jabiris
existence in 1995, when Siradj grounded his challenge of the leadership elite of the
traditionalist NU and its Ahlussunnah wal-Jamaah (Aswaja) doctrine in the historical
and philosophical ideas of al-Jabiri (Baso 2000: x).
Al-Jabiris Intellectual Outlook
Al-Jabiris reputation as a pioneering thinker with an oeuvre of 17 books at the time of
Basos writing make him part of an intellectual vanguard thataside from Arkoun,
Hanafi, Abu Zaydalso includes Arab scholars and thinkers such as Bassam Tibi,
Aziz al-Azmeh, Muhammad Imarah, Hichem Djait, Abdullah Laroui, and Fatima
Mernissi. Unlike Indonesia, at the turn of the century, the Muslim intellectual milieu
in Morocco to which al-Jabiri belonged was already quite familiar with the structuralist,
poststructuralist, and postmodernist writings of Lvi-Strauss, Foucault, and Deleuze
(Baso 2000: xvi). Together with Arkoun, al-Jabiri would be one of the first to explore
the use of their methodologies in the study of Islam. In his case, it culminated in the
writing of a trilogy presented as a Critique of Arab Reason.2
It was his encounter with Yves Lacostes comparative study of Karl Marx and the
fourteenth-century North-African statesman and historiographer Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406)
that made the young Moroccan philosopher aware of an indigenous Islamic socialdeterminist and historical-materialist doctrine which predated Marx by several centuries
(Jabiri 2009d). Al-Jabiri decided to write his PhD on Ibn Khaldun, presenting the
latters theory of the rise and fall of civilizations expounded in the Muqaddimathe
introductory volume to his planned world historyas a structural and systemic approach, and an alternative to the Ash'ari worldview with its admiration of Ghazalis
Sufism (Baso 2000: xix-xx). It provided a foundation for his later engagement in
structuralist rereadings of the Islamic tradition. He also used his newly developed
awareness of the Muslim worlds intellectual prowess to challenge the Orientalist
tradition in the study of Islam, even criticizing sympathetic Islamicists such as
Massignon and Corbin for their own egocentric interests in al-Hallaj (d. 922) and
Suhrawardi (d. 1191). It foreshadowed the realization he shared with Arkoun that
classical Orientalists subscribed to the same glorification of the Islamic past as
Muslim writers of the past; an uncritical reading which also continues to affect laterday Muslims, whether they are traditionalist, salafi, or leftist (Baso 2000: xviii). Instead,
al-Jabiri insisted that the Islamic heritage or turath must be understood in a comprehensive fashion, not just as truth, facts, words, concepts, language, and thought, but also
myth, legends, ways of behavior, and methods of thinking (Baso 2000: xxiii).3
2

Called Naqd al-Aql al-Arabi in Arabic. It consists of The Formation of Arab Reason (Takwin al-Aql
al-Arabi) first published in 1984; The Structure of Arab Reason (Bunya al-Aql al-Arabi) from 1986; and
Arab Political Reason (Al-Aql al-Siyasi al-Arabi) released in 1990 (Jabiri 2009a, 2009b, 2009c).
3
Cf. also Jabiri 2009b: 1153.

C. Kersten

Baso explains how al-Jabiri developed an approach that looks at tradition in a

historicized and objectified way whereby reader and text are separated (fasl) in order
to subject the tradition to a critical examination; an approach that also remains aware of
the continuity in traditionmeaning that reader and text are reconnected (wasl) in
order to make the text relevant again to contemporaneous circumstances (Baso 2000:
xxii-xxiv).4 For this, al-Jabiri uses structuralist theory, because it distances the reader
from the text. It presents discourse in terms of elements in a field of relations without
attributing meaning to individual words. It means letting go of a priori assumptions and
moving beyond the authoritative dominance of the tradition which shackles our
autonomy (Baso 2000: xxiii).
The structuralist approach is complemented by a historical analysis and an ideology
critique, which enable us to see that the validity of knowledge, or truth, is historically
contingent and that texts also have a social-political function (Baso 2000: xxiv). In alJabiris view, a return to the tradition is not a matter of picking and choosing. It consists
in the appropriation of a tradition in order to interpret it rationally and holistically
beginning with its theological, linguistic, and juristic aspects all the way to the
philosophical and mystical ones. Speaking as a philosopher, al-Jabiri considers the
Islamic tradition at its most developed when suffused with the Spirit of Averroismthe
ideas of the philosopher Ibn Rushd (11261198) known in the West as Averroes (Baso
2000: xxv-xxvi).
Al-Jabiris Critique of Arab Reason Project in Indonesia
Ahmad Basos assessment of al-Jabiris overarching historiographical and philosophical framework points up a number of contrasts with Arkouns Critique of Islamic
Reason project: First of all, Arkoun extended his Critique of Islamic Reason to the
non-Arabic traditions of Muslim intellectual activity, whereas al-Jabiri restricted his
critique to the thought traditions which use Arabic and which are located within the
cultural and geographical sphere of Arab societies in North Africa and the Middle East.
Secondly, al-Jabiris critique is an epistemological critique geared towards the thought
mechanisms and patterns of thinking which have dominated Arab culture. In contrast to
the notions that dominate Arkouns conceptual apparatus such as orthodoxy, revelation,
myth, the imaginaire, and symbols, al-Jabiris preoccupation was with issues and
themes from the Arabic linguistic domain: the dichotomy between meaning and text;
the fundamental and derivative branches of knowledge (asl and far ), allegory and truth
(majz and haqqa), and the strictures of the Arabic language capacities as a domain of
thinking which define the limits of its worldview and determine the modes of thought
of those using the language (Baso 2000: xxix-xxx).
In order to elucidate these parameters, in his book The Formation of Arab Reason,
Muhammad al-Jabiri introduces the notions of constituted reason (raison constitue;
aql mukawwan) and episteme. These were taken from contemporary French thinking
which had already undergone radical change in its way of thinking about reason.
Starting with the anthropologist Claude Lvi-Strauss, and also thanks to contributions
by Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Michel
Foucault, reason is no longer understood in Cartesian terms as a coherent, conscious,
4

An explanation of this process in English can be found in Jabiri (1999).

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

and transcendent process. Under the influence of psychoanalysis and structural linguistics, it is considered to be governed by unconscious and collective understanding. As
such, it is a product of a specific culture. It is with this intellectual baggage that al-Jabiri
comes to an understanding of Arab Reason not just as a system of thinking (an
episteme), but also as determined by historicity and the unconscious. The latter must
be understood not so much in the Freudian or Jungian sense, but along the lines of Jean
Piagets cognitive unconsciousness (Baso 2000: xxx-xxxi).
Also in contrast to Arkoun, who determined epistemes on the basis of the criterion of
time (classical, medieval, etc.), al-Jabiri calibrates them according to Shurt as-Sihha
(syarat-syarat keabsahan) or preconditions of validity, in terms of rigorous systematic or structured thinking; a procedure along the lines of Kants Critique of Pure
Reason or the structural anthropology of Lvi-Strauss which also investigated the
conditions that make human rational activity possible (Baso 2000: xxxiii).
Baso considers al-Jabiris take on epistemes or systems of knowledge within a given
culture as very sophisticated. He uses not only concepts from Western culture, psychology, and psychoanalysis, which might sound unfamiliar to Indonesian ears, but
also provides better-known details from classical Islam to illustrate and support these
concepts. In the context of explaining the relationship between culture and the kind of
reason associated with that culture, al-Jabiri sees that relation in terms of the unconscious. Culture is that which remains when everything else is forgotten. With this
statement, he latches on to Freud, who maintained that what is forgotten has not
disappeared, but lives on in the unconscious. With the help of Piagets cognitive
unconscious, in his understanding of Arab Reason as a system and unconsciousness,
al-Jabiri makes the case that what remains, or the residue, are the conditions of
validity governing the data, the unconsciousness, and the framework of thought of the
Islamic community or Umma (Baso 2000: xxxiv). Al-Jabiris focus is not on the
political and ideological conflictssay between Sunni and Shiabut the epistemological conflicts within the Arab cultural milieu (Baso 2000: xxxv).
Al-Jabiri begins his historical excursion with the asr tadwin (corresponding to
the eighth century CE or second century of the Islamic calendar) during which the
histories of both pre-Islamic Arabia (the period known as in Arabic as Jahiliyya, or
Era of Ignorance), and early Islam were reconstructed (Jabiri 2009b: 56ff). It is also
the period for the collection and recording in writing of the rich storehouse of
transmitted knowledge, which was gradually structured into disciplines such as
tafsir (Quran commentary and interpretation), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence),
linguistics, and discursive theology, as part of what al-Jabiri calls the reconstruction
of Arab culture. Baso notes that al-Jabiri described himself as an epistemological
researcher or an intellectual historian like Foucault, working on the archeology of
the study of epistemes and the history of ideas, taking account of both what is said
as what is not said (that is to say, what has been omitted from historical records)
(Baso 2000: xxxvii-xxxvii). I submit that this forms another contrast with Arkoun,
who presents himself as a chercheur-penseur working along the lines of Derrida
and engaging with the archive (Kersten 2011a: 215216, 220222). This issue of
the said and un-said, or the thought and unthought in the case of Arkoun, reveals the
ways in which knowledge is validatedwhereby the authority factor has both
epistemological and ideological consequences. This brings Baso to the three
epistemes which Jabiri submits to a discourse analysis in his Critique of Arab

C. Kersten

Reason trilogy. The historical analysis of the era of recording is now complemented
with an investigation of the internal structures of bayani, irfani, and burhani reason
(Baso 2000: xxxviii).5
Baso goes on to explain how Al-Jabiri argues that bayani reason has held center
stage since the tadwin period, when the Bedouin dialect was posited as the pure
unadulterated version of Arabic and the basis of further codification, lexicographical
standardization, and, thus, the predominance of emulation and analogy in discursive
protocol and practice: Texts are invested with epistemological authority. Like Arkoun
and Abu Zayd, al-Jabiri too recognizes the Shafi'i School of law as exemplary of this
kind of Arab reason, shaping both the interpretation of scripture and the method of
reasoning by analogy. It was the Ash'ari School which applied the same approach to the
field of kalam, effectively extending the influence of bayani thinking beyond its
anticipated reach, into the Hanbali and even Mu tazilite theological thinking (Baso
2000: xli-xlii). Baso notes that although al-Jabiri is first and foremost an epistemologist,
ideology critique is also brought into the equation in order to examine and criticize the
worldview shaped by the bayani approach to reason (Baso 2000: xliii).
According to Baso, al-Jabiri insists that bayani reason is more at odds with its irfani
counterpart than with burhani reason. This is due to the fact that the Quran recognized,
and even encouraged, the use of human reason (Baso 2000: xliii). Irfan, by contrastat
least in Basos interpretation of al-Jabiris accountfinds its origins in the sciences of
the ancients of Persian hermeticism and Hellenist Neo-Platonism. It denies a role for
the human intellect and must therefore be considered as irrational. Translated into
Islamic terms, this has led to the denial of prophethood and a transcendent creator-God,
the obscurantism of batiniya. Locating its pedigree in Manicheism, according to Baso,
al-Jabiri lumps Shi'ism (in particular its Isma ili variant), the Ikhwan al-Safa or
Brethren of Purity, and even Ibn Sina (Avicenna) all together in the irfani camp
(Baso 2000: xliv-xlvi).
To move Arab-Islamic thinking forward, the Critique of Arab Reason project pins
all its hopes on burhani reason. Baso notes that although al-Jabiri may ideologically
subscribe to the bayani worldview because it is ultimately grounded in the Quran, he
remains critical of its epistemology, because it is contaminated with aspects of the
Arab thinking that do not pass his muster of rationality, because of its atomism and
chaotic theory of causality (Baso 2000: xlv-xlv). In opting for demonstrative reason, alJabiri chooses to ignore the legacy of the Eastern part of the Muslim world, rejecting alFarabi and Ibn Sina for their irfani tendencies and Ghazali for his instrumentalization of
Aristotelian logic. Instead, al-Jabiri draws on Maghribi thinkers of the caliber of Ibn
Hazm, Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd, al-Shatibi, and Ibn Khaldun for what he calls
his tass al al-burhn project (Baso 2000: xlvi). Baso stresses that al-Jabiris own
integrated epistemology rests on a systemic understanding of the Hellenic heritage.
Although Europe is now the custodian of this legacy, its origins are found in the
medieval Andalusian world, which then also included the Maghrib, namely in the
5
In this contecxt, bayani stands for discursive theology grounded in Islamic scriptures (Quran and Traditions
of the Prophet) and exemplified by the writing of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111); irfani refers to the mystical,
intuitivist and illuminationist traditions of the Persian world; while burhani represents demonstrative reason
which reached its heyday in the work of Ibn Rushd and his interpretation of Aristotelian or Peripatetic
philosophy. Al-Jabiri elaborates this in great detail in The Structure of Arab Reason (Jabiri, Muhammad Abid
al- 2009b).

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

critiques of Ibn Hazm and al-Shatibi, and the rationalism of Ibn Rushd. These then
form the basis of al-Jabiris panacea for the bayani tendency to ground authority in texts
and for irfani irrationalism (Baso 2000: xlix). A proper use of Aristotelianism is guided
by the spirit of Averroism, embracing the methods of both induction and deduction,
accepting the concepts of universalism and historicity, and, with regard to law as the
queen of Islamic sciences, the privileging of the more fundamental concept of maqasid
al-shari a (objectives of Islamic law) rather than usul al-fiqh (foundations or principles
of jurisprudence).6
Baso closes his introduction with a perceptive and critical assessment of the
nationalistic tendencies of al-Jabiris rationalism (Baso 2000: li). As a Moroccan,
his preference of the Maghribian intellectual heritage lays him open to the charge of
chauvinism (Baso 2001: 26). Although Baso has reservations against al-Jabiris dismissal of the Eastern spiritual legacy (which remains very influential in the traditional
Islamic milieu from which Baso originates himself), he considers al-Jabiris experimentation with criticizing Islam, using his familiarity and sophisticated understanding
of French poststructuralism and postmodernism, as very valuable for Indonesian
Muslim intellectuals.7

Tashwirul Afkar: An Indonesian Manifesto for Islamic Post-Traditionalism

The application of al-Jabiris discourse critique becomes clear from Ahmad Basos
article entitled From Islamic Neo-Modernism to Islamic Post-traditionalism, his
contribution to Tashwirul Afkar, issue 10 from in 2001, which is entitled PostTraditionalisme Islam: Ideologi dan Metolodologi. As noted earlier, it can be considered as a kind of manifesto of this new strand of critical Islamic thinking. Read together
with the introduction to his al-Jabiri translation, it also offers an exercise in the kind of
inter-textuality that is a hallmark of poststructuralist and postmodernist discourse
critique.
Baso challenges both Charles Kurzmans tracing of liberal Islam to the Indian
Islamic thinker Shah Waliullah Dilhawi (d. 1762) and Greg Bartons conflation of
Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid into the single category of Islamic neomodernism. Attributing this reading of liberal Islam to Fazlur Rahman, Baso takes issue
with Nurcholish Madjids favorable interpretation of Ibn Taymiyyas challenges of both
Ghazali and Ibn Rushd, which was written under Fazlur Rahmans direction, as an
example of a closed reading succumbing to the hegemony of the text. 8 Returning to
Kurzman, he questions how Ali Abd al-Raziq, Mohammed Mahmoud Taha, and
Arkoun can be put in the same category as Yusuf Qaradhawi, Rashid Ghannoushi,
6

This last point has been taken up by Yudian Wahyudi, a professor in the Faculty of Syariah at UIN Sunan
Kalijaga in Yogyakarta, former visiting scholar at Harvard and Tufts University, and now a senior official in
the Indonesian ministry of religious affairs. Admittedly, his hermeneutics of fiqh and study of maqsid alshar a draw predominantly on Hanafis rereading of usl al-fiqh as a philosophical methodology, but his
approach is also grounded in the comparative study of Hasan Hanafi, Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri, and
Nurcholish Madjid which he wrote for his PhD at McGill (Wahyudi 2003, 2007a, b).
7
Baso 2000: liii.
8
Baso 2001: 2930. Cf. Nurcholish Madjid (1984) Ibn Taymiyya on Kalm and Falsafa (A Problem of
Reason and Revelation in Islam). Unpublished PhD Thesis. Chicago: University of Chicago. For closed
reading, cf. also Arkouns concept of Official Closed Corpus (Arkoun 2002: 57).

C. Kersten

and Muhammad Said al-Ashmawy.9 Baso contrasts this interpretation of liberal Islam
with the give-and-take process informing the dialectics between modernity, social
transformation, and local tradition explored by Abdallah Laroui, Samir Amin,
Muhammad Imarah, and Tariq Bishri as discussed in Leonard Binders Islamic
Liberalism. Their engagement with Marxism, Western liberalism, and postmodernism
are more congenial to the ideas of Arkoun and Abdurrahman Wahid (Baso 2001: 26).
Baso uses this as the set-up for presenting Islamic Post-Traditionalism as an
alternative discourse grounded in the epistemology of al-Jabiri, which surpasses both
liberal Islam and Islamic neo-modernism in terms of intellectual rigor. By bringing in
al-Jabiri, Baso claims to continue the pioneering efforts of Abdurrahman Wahid in
introducing Hasan Hanafi and Fatima Mernissi to Indonesia as exponents of critical
Muslim thinking about political action, such as nationalism, indigenization, secularization, and feminism (Baso 2001: 32). Introducing al-Jabiri, alongside Arkoun and
Abu Zayd, heralds the start of the epistemological phase of Islamic Post-Traditionalism.
It looks for a new synthesis of the Islamic tradition with the Western tradition and local
culture by means of a critical dialogue. It is an intellectual construct driven by a local
dynamics and not only involving intellectuals in the strict sense of the word, but also
NGO activists originating and operating in the same hybrid cultural environment
(Baso 1999b). The rest of Basos critique need no longer detain us here, other than to
mention that in the remainder of his essay, he continues to place Nurcholish Madjid and
Abdurrahman Wahid in conversation with al-Jabiri.
Other entries in this issue of Tashwirul Afkar also point to al-Jabiris role in
formulating the discourse of Islamic Post-Traditionalism. Executive editor Khamami
Zada calls al-Jabiris ideas on the study of tradition fantastic and very consistent in
challenging the rationalism and empiricism of Islamic modernists for its disregard of
turath (Zada 2001: 2). Zuhairi Misrawi, a graduate of Al-Azhar University, balances the
influence of al-Jabiri with discussions of other Arab Muslim intellectuals, including
Arkoun and Abu Zaydagain highlighting the trios methodological contributions to the
study of Islam in contrast to the ideological dimensions of Islamic Post-Traditionalism
found in the work of Hasan Hanafi, Tayyib Tizini, and Husayn Muruwwa. He adds the
caveat that this may result in a tension between the revolutionary and deconstructive
approaches of the two camps, which could lead to a polarization and fragmentation
that is not conducive to the further development of Islamic Post-Traditionalism
(Misrawi 2001: 61). Misrawi appreciates the integration of the linguistic and
socio-cultural aspects with the structural questions that mark the epistemologies of
al-Jabiri and Arkouns critiques of reason, and Abu Zayds concept of text. (Misrawi
2001: 59). He singles out al-Jabiri for his careful holistic reading of the tradition
before trying to reconstruct it for the future (Misrawi 2001: 50). On the philosophical plane, Misrawi echoes Baso in recording al-Jabiris advocacy of restoring the
spirit of Averroism, and presenting Ibn Rushd as the gateway to Europe and a way
out of the Islam vs. the West dichotomy which is hindering a productive synthesis
between the two intellectual legacies (Misrawi 2001: 54, 50. Cf. Baso 2000: xlvi.).
Finally, it is worth mentioning that he sees a difference in al-Jabiris academic
philosophy and Arkouns interest in subjecting the Quran to a text-analytical
examination, consisting of: (1) a social-anthropological reading; (2) a linguistic9

Baso 2001: 278. Cf. Kurzman 1998.

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

semiotic, hermeneutical, and literary study in the same vein as Abu Zayd; and (3) a
counter theology along the lines of al-Tawhidi, Ibn al- Arabi, and al-Ma'arri,
challenging the dogmatic exclusivism and orthodox interpretations of Tabari and
al-Razi (Misrawi 2001: 601).
From 2005 onwards, we encounter the first self-reflective writings on Islamic posttraditionalism. By this, I mean the secondary literature written by those who belong to
the Anak Muda NU, and who took or are still taking part in the formulation of
Indonesias post-traditionalist Islamic discourse (Riyadi 2005, 2007; Rumadi 2001,
2005, 2008 and Baso 2006.). In one of the key contributions to this secondary
literature, Rumadi employs the term Islam mazhab kritis and relies heavily on Basos
introduction to his translation of al-Jabiris articles when presenting Islamic PostTraditionalism as first and foremost a rigorously critical new epistemology (Rumadi
2005: 4; cf. also Yoesqi, Moh. Isom 2005). Although still very much a work in
progress, the writings of scholar-thinkers such as Abu Zayd, Arkoun, and al-Jabiri
provide guidance for a move in the direction of a new Islamic philosophy of knowledge. In spite of differences in topical focus and elaboration, this trio shares an
epistemological concern for liberating Islamic thinking from the shackles of tradition
and text which have stunted it for so long (Rumadi 2005: 46). Aside from the
methodological problematics addressed by al-Jabiri and Arkouns epistemologies, the
resulting inter- or multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Islam also begs the
question how to balance its historical-linguistic, theological-philosophical, and
sociological-anthropological aspects (Rumadi 2005: 256). Tentative answers are offered by Rumadi and another scholar, Ali Riyadi, who refer to the work of M. Amin
Abdullah (Rumadi 2005: 26, Riyadi 2005: 194). It should therefore not be construed
that critical epistemological thinking inspired by the writings of Muhanmmad al-Jabiri
is solely restricted to traditionalist NU circles.

The Epistemology of M. Amin Abdullah: A Convergence of Modernist

and Traditionalist Islamic Thinking?
M. Amin Abdullah (b. 1953) is a key representative of the second generation of
Indonesias postcolonial or post-independence Muslim intellectuals and a leading
intellectual associated with the modernist Islamic mass organization Muhammadiyah,
who has used the work of al-Jabiri to develop a new philosophy of education for
Indonesias Islamic higher education system. During the 1980s, he trained as a philosopher at Ankaras Middle East Technical University (M.E.T.U.), writing a PhD on the
ethics of Kant and al-Ghazali under the direction of the Turkish philosopher Alparslan
Aikgen (Abdullah 1992). The latter had studied with Fazlur Rahman at the
University of Chicago, earning a doctorate on the basis of a dissertation on Mulla
Sadra and Heidegger, which was published in Malaysia during a stint at the
International Islamic University Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur (Aikgen 1993). After
completing his studies, Abdullah returned to his alma mater in Indonesia, the UIN
Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta, eventually rising to the rank of professor and serving as
its rector from 20002010.
From the mid-1990s onwards, Abdullah shows a sustained interest in the further
development of Islamic higher education and the redefinition of the study of Islam as an

C. Kersten

academic subject (Abdullah 2009, 2010, 2011). It is in these writings that we find again
the influences of Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri, Mohammed Arkoun, Nasr Hamid Abu
Zayd, and Hasan Hanafi (Abdullah 1998: 7). However, Abdullahs point of entry is
very different. In contrast to Baso, he starts with an appreciative discussion of Fazlur
Rahman, Charles Adams, and Richard Martins critiques, as well as the more radical
view of Mohammed Arkoun of the state of affairs in Islamic studies. Their case for
introducing a social sciences approach to the study of Islam first leads Abdullah via a
detour into the work of philosophers of science such as Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and
Imre Lakatos. The main lesson he takes from them is that even the assumed objectivity
of the natural sciences is situated and influenced by the ethos of the researchers involved.
Abdullah suggests that Lakatos distinction between the hard core and protective belt
of research programs can be usefully applied to the study of Islam in order to separate
what Fazlur Rahman calls normative Islam from historical Islam.
From my point of view, using the language of Imre Lakatos, Rahmans normative
Islam is similar to or parallel with the hard core of science, while his historical
Islam is similar to or parallel with the domain of the protective belt, namely the
precise domain of what may be called sciences, i.e. knowledge which may be
directly tested, reexamined, scrutinized, questioned, reformulated and reconstructed
(Abdullah 1998: 12).
Echoing Arkoun and al-Jabiri, the traditional religious sciences have sacralized this
protective belt, thus blurring and confusing the historical and normative aspects of a
religion (Abdullah 1998: 11). Once this is acknowledged, it becomes possible to
develop a new multi- or inter-disciplinary research program drawing on the expertise
of linguists, semioticians, social scientists, psychologists, and legal scholars (Abdullah
1998: 14). The recognition of this need for interaction and intercommunication with
theories and methodologies also drove home the realization that this new situation
requires a new philosophy (Abdullah 1998: 15). Although at this point, Abdullah
harks back to Fazlur Rahmans suggestion to test Islamic religious sciences against
Aristotelian philosophy, this assertion resonates also with al-Jabiris alternative epistemology. In later writings which appeared in his Islamic Studies in Higher Education:
An Integrative and Inter-connective Approach, al-Jabiri features much more explicitly.
In fact, in modelling a new integrated and inter-disciplinary curriculum for the study of
Islam as a civilization grounded in texts, manifesting both historical-factual-empirical
and ethical-philosophical aspects, Abdullah has subjected these three domains to a
reading in accordance with al-Jabiris distinction between the bayani, irfani, and
burhani modes of thinking (Abdullah 2010: 215).

Conclusion
The transposition of epistemological discourse critiques developed by scholars and
philosophers such as Abu Zayd, al-Jabiri, and Arkounwhich reflect an intimate
familiarity with both the Islamic philosophical heritage, French poststructuralism, and
other strands of postmodern thinkingfrom the Muslim Worlds Far West to the
eastern periphery of the Lands below the Winds is an illustrative example of the

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

circulation of ideas between different regions of the Dar al-Islam. The appropriation of
al-Jabiris Maghribian Spirit of Averroism, and the application of its demonstrative or
burhani method of reasoning to the very different cultural contexts of a former province
of the irfani and bayani realms is not only an example of glocalization, but also reflects
the workings of Edward Saids travelling theory. The same is true of Arkouns debt to
the Annales School for his concentration on the Maghribian Space as an integral part
of the Mediterranean, and Abu Zayds use of Eastern European semioticians such as
Lotman and Greimas.
These are all instances of the adoption and adaptation of concepts from varying
intellectual provenances and their integration into an anti-hegemonic discourse with
postcolonial pretences along the lines of Ashish Nandy and Walter Mignolos critical
traditionalism and cosmopolitanism, or the endogenous intellectual creativity advocated by Anouar Abdel Malek, Syed Hussein Alatas, and Hasan Hanafi. Their ideas
alongside those of Abu Zayd, Arkoun, and al-Jabiriare being absorbed into the new
intellectual mix called Islamic post-Traditionalism, concocted by a younger generation
of Muslim scholars and activists for the purpose of interrogating and exposing the
persistence of hegemonic discourses in the contemporary Muslim intellectualism
formulated by their predecessors. Whether it also has the potential of formulating a
constructive alternative Islamic discourse that measures up against other strands of
postcolonial theorizing, only the future can tell.

References
Abdullah, M. A. (1992). The Idea of Universality of Ethical Norms in Kant and al-Ghazali. Ankara: Trkiye
Diyanet Vakfi.
Abdullah, M. A. (1998). Preliminary remarks on the philosophy of Islamic religious science. Al-Jamiah:
Journal of Islamic Studies, 61, 126.
Abdullah, M. A. (2009). Falsafah Kalam di Era Postmodernisme. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Abdullah, M. A. (2010). Islamic Studies di Perguruan Tinggi: Pendekatan Integatif-Interkonektif. Yogyakarta:
Pustaka Pelajar.
Abdullah, M. A. (2011). Studi Agama: Normativas atau Historisitas? Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Aikgen, A. (1993). Being and Existence in Sadr and Heidegger. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of
Islamic Thought and Civilization.
Arkoun, Mohammed (2002). The Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought. London: Saqi Books
Assyaukanie, L. (1998). Tipologi dan Wacana Pemikiran Arab Komtemporer. Paramadina, 1(1), 5895.
Baso, A. (1999a). Civil Society versus Masyarakat Madani: Arkeologi Pemikiran Civil Society Dalam Islam
Indonesia. Bandung: Pustaka Hidaya.
Baso, Ahmad (1999b). Dari Kritik Wacana Agama Menuju Rationalisme. In Hairus Salim HS and Muhammad
Ridwan (Eds.), Kultur Hibrida: Anak Muda NU di Jalur Kultural (1944). Yogyakarta: LKiS.
Baso, A. (2000). Pengantar Penerjemah: Posmodernisme sebagai Kritik Islam: Kontribusi Metodologis Kritik
Nalar Muhammad Abed al-Jabiri. In A. Baso (Ed.), Post-Traditionalisme Islam by Muhammad Abid alJabiri (ix-liv). LKiS: Yogyakarta.
Baso, A. (2001). Neo-Modernisme Islam Versus Post-Traditionalisme Islam. Tashwirul Afkar, 10, 2446.
Baso, A. (2005). Islam Pascakolonial: Perselingkuhan Agama, Kolonialisme dan Liberalisme. Bandung: Mizan.
Baso, A. (2006). NU Studies: Pergolakan Pemikiran Antara Fundamentalisme Islam & Fundamentalisme
Neo-Liberal. Jakarta: Erlangga.
Binder, L. (1988). Islamic Liberalism: A Critique of Development Ideologies. Chicago: Chicago University
Press.
Bose, S., & Manjapra, K. (Eds.). (2010). Cosmopolitan Thought Zones: South Asia and the Global Circulation
of Ideas. London and New York: Palgrave.

C. Kersten
Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge (MA) Harvard
University: Press.
Hall, Stuart (1996). When was The Post-Colonial? Thinking at the Limit.In Iain Chambers and Lidia Curti
(Eds.), The Postcolonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons (pp.24260). London and New
York: Routledge
Hasyim, S. (1998). Islam berangkat dari Nalar Arab (Resensi Buku Takwinul Aqlil Arabi, Bunyatul Aqlil
Arabi dan Takwinul Aqlis Siyasi Karya Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri). Tashwirul Afkar, 2, 8694.
Jabiri, M. A. al-. (1999). Arab-Islamic Philosophy: A Contemporary Critique. Austin: University of Texas
Press.
Jabiri, Muhammad Abid al-. (2009a). Takwin al-Aql al-Arabiyya. Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda alArabiyya [1984]
Jabiri, Muhammad Abid al-. (2009b). Bunya al-Aql al-Arabiyya. Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda alArabiyya [1986]
Jabiri, Muhammad Abid al-. (2009c). Al-Aql al-Siyasi al-Arabiyya . Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda alArabiyya [1990]
Jabiri, Muhammad Abid al-. (2009d). Fikr Ibn Khaldun: Al-Asabiyya wa'l-Dawla. Ma'alim Nazariyya
Khalduniyya fi al-Tarikh al-Islami. Beirut: Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-Arabiyya [1992]
Kersten, Carool (2009). Indonesias New Muslim Intellectuals. Religion Compass 3(6), doi: 0.1080/
00263206.2010.492997
Kersten, C. (2010). Against the grain: Islam in an inhospitable world. In K. Keber & L. Vidmar (Eds.),
Historini Seminar 8 (pp. 151168). Ljubljana: Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kersten, C. (2011a). Cosmopolitans and Heretics: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam. London
and New York: Hurst & Company and Columbia University Press.
Kersten, Carool (2011b). From Braudel to Derrida: Mohammed Arkouns Rethinking of Islam and Religion.
Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 4(1) 10.1163/187398611X553733.
King, Richard (2009). Philosophy of Religion as Border Control: Globalization and the Decolonization of the
Love for Wisdom (philosophia). In Purushottama Bilimoria and Andrew Irvine (Eds.), Postcolonial
Philosophy of Religion. (pp. 3554). N.p.: Springer.
Kurzman, Charles (Ed.) (1998). Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook. Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, Oxford.
Madjid, Nurcholish (1984). Ibn Taymiyya on Kalm and Falsafa (A Problem of Reason and Revelation in
Islam). Unpublished PhD Thesis. Chicago: University of Chicago
Mandaville, P. (2001). Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma. London: Routledge.
Mignolo, W. (2000). Local Histories, Global Designs. Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledge and Border
Thinking. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Misrawi, Z. (2001). Dari Tradisionalisme Menuju Post-Traditionalisme Islam Geliat Pemikiran Baru Islam
Arab. Tashwirul Afkar, 10, 4761.
Nandy, A. (2006). The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press. 1984.
Riyadi, A. A. (2005). Gerakan Pembaharuan Islam Kaum Muda Nahdlatul Ulama. Hermneia Jurnal Kajian
Islam Interdisipliner, 4(1), 178196.
Riyadi, A. A. (2007). Dekonstruksi Tradisi: Kaum Muda NU Merobek Tradisi. Yogyakarta: Ar-Ruzz
Media.
Robertson, R. (1995). Glocalization: time-space and homogeneity, heterogeneity. In M. Featherstone, S. Lash,
& R. Robertson (Eds.), Global Modernities (pp. 2544). London: Sage.
Rumadi. (2001). Kritik Nalar: Arah Baru Studi Islam. Jurnal Tashwirul Afkar, 10, 6277.
Rumadi. (2005). Kritik Wacana Agama Sebagai Gerakan Pemikiran Islam Kontemporer. In M. Adnan, S. M.
Aksan, & M. Adib Abdushomad (Eds.), Pemikiran Islam Kontemporer di Indonesia. Yogyakarta: Pustaka
Pelajar.
Rumadi. (2008). Post-Traditionalisme Islam: Wacana Intelektualisme dalam Komunitas NU. Cirebon:
Fahmina Institute.
Said, E. (1984). The Text, the World, and the Critic. London: Faber & Faber.
Wahid, M. (2001). Post-Traditionalisme Islam: Gairah Baru Pemikiran Islam di Indonesia. Jurnal Tashwirul
Afkar, 10, 723.
Wahyudi, Yudian (2003). The Slogan Back to the Qurn and Sunna: A Comparative Study of the
Responses of Hasan Hanafi, Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri and Nurcholish Madjid. Ph.D. Dissertation.
Montreal: McGill University.
Wahyudi, Y. (2007a). Ushul Fikih Versus Hermeneutika: Membaca Islam Dari Kanada dan Amerika.
Yogyakarta: Pesantren Nawesea Press.

Islamic Post-Traditionalism: Postcolonial and Postmodern Religious Discourse in Indonesia

Wahyudi, Y. (2007b). Maqashid Syariah Dalam Pergumulun Politik: Berfilsafat Hukum Islam dari Harvard
ke Sunan Kalijaga. Yogyakarta: Pesantren Nawesea Press.
Woodward, M. (2011). Java, Indonesia and Islam. Dordrecht: Springer.
Yoesqi, Moh. Isom (2005). Islam Mazhab Kritis Talaah atas Pemikiran Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd dan
Muhammad Abed al-Jabiri. In Adnan Mahmud, Sahjad M. Aksan, M. Adib Abdusomad (Eds.),
Pemikiran Islam Kontemporer di Indonesia. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Palajar dan STAIN Ternate.
Zada, K. (2001). Mencari Wajah Post-Traditionalisme Islam. Tashwirul Afkar, 10, 25.