Elin Yunita Kristanti Updated 04 Aug 2023
Liputan6.com, Jakarta –
Ahmad Najib Burhani was one of the Indonesian representatives who won the podium at the jalsa salana event or the annual meeting of the Ahmadiyah community in England, July 28-30 2023.He is not an Ahmadi, but is affiliated with Muhammadiyah . In his presentation in front of thousands of participants, Najib described his introduction to Ahmadiyya 17 years ago, while pursuing post-graduate education in England. The closeness continued after going to school in California, United States.
In 2011, a tragedy occurred in Indonesia in which three Ahmadis in Cikeusik were brutally killed,” said Deputy Chairperson of the PP Muhammadiyah Strategic Studies and Partnership Institute (LKKS), Sunday 30 July 2023.”Surprisingly, instead of offering condolences, most of the media in Indonesia and many people blamed the victims and stated that they deserved to be discriminated against, expelled from the village, and even killed.”
This inhuman incident made him decide to study Ahmadiyya closely. Not to provide a defense, but to correct misunderstandings and prejudice against the community.
Accompanied by the title “When Muslims are not Muslims: The Ahmadiyya Community and the Discourse on Heresy in Indonesia” was completed in 2013. His work was rewarded with the Charles Wendell Memorial Award.Najib’s findings, among them related to accusations of deviance and non-Islam which were addressed to the Ahmadiyya community, from the perspective of an academic. What’s that?
The following is Liputan6.com’s interview with Ahmad Najib Burhani, research professor at the National Research and Innovation Agency ( BRN ):
Interview with Ahmad Najib
You have known and studied Ahmadiyya for 17 years. What findings did you get, particularly regarding the accusations of deviance leveled at the community?
Ahmadiyah, one of them, is accused of following a different holy book from other Muslims, namely Tadhkirah not the Koran. Ahmadiyah denied this accusation. In fact, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is very active in the field of translating the Koran and can be seen as a pioneer in translating it into various languages.
Especially in the first half of the 20th Century, the Ahmadiyya translation of the Koran was held in high esteem and served as an important source of knowledge about Islam and its principles for many Indonesian Muslims who could not access the holy book originally in Arabic.
In my opinion, more than 90 percent of the Ahmadiyya and Sunni groups are the same in terms of teachings and practices. From prayers and other worship.
Let’s see together here, do they have different creeds? Not really. Did they make their pilgrimage to England or Qadian? That is not true.
But the delivery that has always been controversial is a matter of prophethood. The explanations and language conveyed are always not met. Including the matter of bai’at and the position of caliph in Ahmadiyya.
In my opinion, the easiest thing is to look at it like the position of the murshid in a Sunni tarekat.We can see that Ahmadiyah is a tarekat movement, with the caliph as the murshid and also the teachings that are carried out are more spiritual in nature, more about strengthening faith to gain salvation and not thinking too much about worldly issues. This is the easiest to understand.
Still related to prophethood, the Sunni group sees it as a fixed price. They also do not accept the concept of Imamat in Shia. Because Ahmadiyah believes in prophets after Muhammad, they are then considered infidels, for example.
I met non-Ahmadiyya Pakistanis. From his point of view, he claims that Ahmadiyya was created by the British when they colonized the country, what do you think?
The accusation is baseless. Like Ahmadiyah, there are also those who call Sikhs and Bahais made in England. The main thing that is not liked is associated with the colonizers and so on. Perhaps this assumption arose because the British government returned the land belonging to the Mirza Ghulam Ahmad family, or politically Ahmadiyah was considered to be a tool of division. These accusations are weakly based and irrelevant to see a movement.
From what I understand, Ahmadiyah was originally a movement that was religious reform in nature, how to win the competition with Christian minions.
With regards to the Ahmadiyya preaching strategy which is considered to be similar to Christianity, I don’t think this necessarily proves the accusation that they are ‘half Muslim, half Christian’. Muhammadiyah, for example, adopts from the existing system within Christianity, with schools, with charity and so on. That doesn’t mean that it’s artificial, Dutch or otherwise.
In your opinion, what makes people want to join Ahmadiyah?
People join Ahmadiyyat not solely because of its distinctive strategy of spreading their faith, but more often because of three other factors. First, a close and strong bond between Ahmadiyah members, such as helping each other in economic development. Second, the spiritual and mystical beliefs of the Ahmadiyah, such as their messianic belief and belief in God’s involvement in helping Ahmadiyah in worldly affairs. Third, the ethics and morality of Ahmadiyya followers, as reflected in the conscious and enthusiastic behavior of their preachers, especially when they are insulted by their opponents.
What makes some people see Ahmadiyah as a threat and a target for persecution?
The notion that Ahmadiyah is a threat, in my opinion, is a bit absurd. Borrowing the term theological threat, the group is considered to corrupt religion, disturb faith and security. Considered boils, cancer or ‘stab in the back’. Everything is abstract, what are the parameters? However, that is what people sometimes use to accuse Ahmadiyah of being a threat. There is another threat that is considered more concrete, in terms of numbers. There is a concern that if the Ahmadiyya are large in number, other groups will then be expelled.
Looking at the threat from a number side, it’s also strange. For example, why is Lia Eden, whose members are 24 people, also considered a threat. Doesn’t make sense right? In Indonesia, fatwas related to Ahmadiyah have been around for a long time, in 1929, 1985, even though the language is different. The fatwa issued in 2005 seemed to trigger people to move and the government to take action, while previously it was only theological. That was the factor why there was an escalation of discrimination from before.
There are also various religious movements that may be aggressive towards groups that are considered deviant, while the government does not protect Ahmadiyah.
What is your input for the Ahmadiyya community so that ordinary people know better and don’t think they are not an exclusive group?
Ahmadiyya is currently trying to blend in with society, open up, make friends, and carry out humanitarian activities. They have taken steps that were not taken before. However, from other Islamic groups it seems to have been closed.
Ahmadiyah has tried to make an approach, but has not been able to find one. There is no bridge to meet. The most important thing right now is no more closing and destroying the Ahmadiyya mosque, that’s the least that can be done. Even if you can’t work together, at least don’t damage and destroy each other, let alone kill each other.Sometimes there are strange requests asking Ahmadiyah to leave Islam and form their own religion. The reason is, they will get protection as their own religion. Who guarantees? Maybe like Pakistan, when they are considered non-Muslim, they practice religion that is similar to Islam and are then persecuted and discriminated against.
Everything claims to be ‘the true Islam’, for me that’s okay, it’s part of the belief. I hope that in the future there will be collaborations that are not controversial, in the context of science or science, for example. Maybe it can be a bridge.
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Categories: Ahmadis, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Asia, Indonesia, Jalsa, Jalsa Salana, UK