Islamic orthodoxy-based character education: creating moderate Muslim in a modern pesantren in Indonesia

Abstract

Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) has been contributing to building a moderate character for Muslims in Indonesia towards globalization. However, amid the peaceful Islam disseminated in the country, nowadays, a radical Muslim movement challenges this character. This study aims to describe the construction of turats (traditional Muslim virtues), which has been taught in pesantren as an orthodox teaching legacy to create young Muslims with a moderate attitude through character education. It will also highlight how and why character education with Islamic orthodoxy content is necessary to be inculcated in pesantren to produce a moderate Muslim. Qualitative research was employed in this study, with a case study approach. The results demonstrated that moderate character building based on the modernization of turats is derived from the renowned dogma of the ushul fiqh (traditional Islamic Jurisprudence) and al muhafadhatu ‘aha al-qadim as-sholih wal akhdu bi al-jadid al-ashlah (maintaining good tradition and employing the new-better one). Within 24-hour pesantren learning activities, this jargon is disseminated to the students through the concept of Islamic guidance. In this concept, moderate character values infused in the student’s activities are rooted to the Quran (Muslim holy book) and Hadits (Prophet’s wisdom) as the religious foundation, the founding fathers’ vision (historical foundation), the pesantren mission (institutional foundation), and the contextual experience (empirical foundation) as well as the dynamic challenges of the globalization. The entire character education process paves a pivotal way to the moderate Muslim generation creation. Pesantren ikut berjasa dalam membangun karakter Muslim Indonesia yang moderat guna menghadapi globalisasi. Namun demikian, sekarang, ditengah penyemaian Islam yang damai di negara ini, gerakan Muslim radikal melawan karakter moderat ini. Kajian ini bermaksud untuk menjelaskan bangunan turats (nilai luhur Muslim tradisional), yang diajarkan di pesantren sebagai warisan ajaran ortodoks, untuk mencetak pemuda Muslim yang bersikap moderat melalui pendidikan karakter. Kajian ini juga menjelaskan tentang bagaimana dan kenapa Pendidikan karakter dengan menggunakan muatan ajaran Islam ortodoks itu penting untuk disampaikan di pesantren guna melahirkan Muslim yang moderat. Riset kualitatif digunakan dalam kajian ini, dengan menggunakan pendekatan studi kasus. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa pembangunan karakter moderat berdasarkan modernisasi turats diturunkan dari dogma ushul fiqh yang terkenal; al muhafadhatu ‘aha al-qadim as-sholih wal akhdu bi al-jadid al-ashlah. Selama 24 jam, jargon ini diajarkan kepada para santri melalui konsep bimbingan Islam. Melalui konsep ini, nilai-nilai karakter moderate yang diajarkan kepada para murid dilandaskan pada Quran dan Hadits sebagai pondasi agama, visi pendiri pondok (pondasi sejarah), misi pondok (pondasi institusi), dan pengalaman kontekstual (pondasi empiris) serta tantangan yang dinamis dari globalisasi. Seluruh proses Pendidikan karakter memiliki andil yang penting dalam menciptakan generasi muda Muslim yang moderate.