IN SEARCH OF AN IDEAL ISLAMIC EDUCATION ( The Contribution of Pesantren )

Pesantren diakui banyak pengamat melahirkan sistem pendidikan yang menajamkan aspek affektiv dan psikhomotorik peserta didik dengan tidak meninggalkan aspek kognitif-nya. Sistem pendidikan nasional dinilai tidak banyak memberikan solusi bagi problem sosial di mayarakat Indonesia yang plural, tidak saja etnik, budaya, melainkan juga agama. Tulisan ini mengedepankan nilai-nilai masyarakat sipil, civic values, yang diantaranya adalah, kebebasan, tokransi, demokrasi dan isugender,yang sejatinya begitu lekat dalam system pendidikan pesantren. Terlepas dari kekurangan-kekurangan yang ada, pesantren tetap layak untuk dijadikan sebagai penyumbang dalam pengembangan sistem pendidikan nasional yang asli dan mengedepankan moralitas serta sarat dengan nilai-nilai luhur.


A. Introduction
Nicht nur Freiheit, sondem auch Gerechtdgkeit Nicht nur Gleichtigkeit sondern auch Pluralismus Nicht nur Bruderschaft sondern auch Schwesterschaft Nicht nur Zusammenbleiben sondern auch ¥rieden} (Not only freedom, but also justice, not only equality, but also plurality, not only brotherhood, but also sisterhood, not only co-existence, but also peace) The abovequotation of Hans Kiing^s global ethics is significant to think about an ideal type of education.Education, be it religious or secular one, that stresses the three important elements, namely cognitive, affective and psychomotoric^are ideally practiced by everyone who gets an appropriate education.In a multi cultural context of Indonesian society, education should be directed to give to live av^eness of the plurality in community.Cultural as well as religious aspects often cause social problems faced by Indonesian society in different region.In this respect, it is not surprising whenmanyscholars have agreed that the tension among elements of society in Indonesia is still high whenever every singje community does not have awareness of the importance of earlywarning system.
Such reality needs an alternative solution.The government policy on the na tional education system, which introduces some types of modification, is not suffi cient in fining the maximum goal of education.One indicator of the goal is the emergence of dvic values such as fireedom, tolerance, democratic, and pluralism.
The lack of such values is due to among others a limited portion of moral and religious aspects in the curriculum-It makes educated people are morally and religiously not sufficient.In this respect, the national system of education needs additional elements, which originated from the local character of the nation that supports the ideal model of national education.One of them is the pesantren sys tem of Islamic education.
Many Western and Indonesian scholars have conducted research on the pesantren from any different angles.The researchers are among others L.W.C. van denBerg xdio in thebe^nning of thenineteenth century smdied pesantren from the perspective of mystical dimension.'Karel Steenbrink*s woih was about themadrasah education and pesantren in the 20*^century'* and Alois Miiller's work was on the historical perspective of pesantren.^Meanwhile,indigenous scholars are amongoth ers Zamakhsyari Dhofier,^Dawam Raharjo,^and the latest Abdurrahman Mas'ud.®Despite the contribution these scholars make, their works have paid regrettably little attention to the moral and religious aspects that significantly support the civic values of the pesantren traditions.But, it does not necessarily mean that the previ ous researches made no valuable contribution to that matter.
The following article tries to focus on the elements of pesantren traditions that are still not sufficiently taken noticed of by scholars mentioned in the previous paragraph.Those elements are moral and educational which are characterized by the nature of brotherhood, neighbourhood, and other elements of civic values, such as freedom, tolerance, democracy and gender equality.It will answers a number of questions, i) what are the characteristic of pesantren education, ii) does pesantren contribute the ideal Islamic education, iti) how the civic values can be traced in the pesantren tradition.

B. Pesan/ren and hocal Wisdom
Pesantren is the oldest institution for Islamic education in Indonesia and has been existed a long time before the independence of this country from the Dutch occupation.Almost all pesantren developed as a result of community initiatives.
Thus, pesantren have a very strong basis in the community.Although they devel oped in line with theprocess of Islamization and use of Islamic symbols, pesantren are basically the cultural product of Indonesian origin.^Alongwith being Islamic educational institutions, which functions as centre of learning, pesantren have de veloped as socio-religious organizations, with direct influence over the establish ment of social behaviours in the surrounding community, and are involved in the process of social change in Indonesia.
Over thelast three decades pesantren have experienced rapid development in  Those pesantren can be roughly categorized into three models, classical, semi-classical and modem.This categorization is not based on a historical aspect, but merely on the method of learning.The first is mosdy recognized by the classical curriculum without a formal school or education system acknowledged by the government, meanwhile the second is a half combination, and the third is adopting modem y}f2.ys of religious learning including the use of foreign language such as Engjish and Arabic in the daily life of the students.The three types of pesantren are contributing different out put of students.The first type is directed mostly to purely rel^ous knowledge and teaching.The knowledge is not received by student as a pure knowledge, but as the guidance and source for religjous life.In other words, religious knowledge is being taken for granted by most studente in this type of pesantren.The output is to some extent positive.The positive one can be seen in the attitude of students in worship, social interac tion with their teachers and society.Student-teacher relation in the pesantren tradi tion is unique compared to that of in student-teacher relation in secular schools.Students in pesantren feel that obedience to the teacher's command in a good thing is an obligatory.This makes easier for teachers in control student's morality and religiosity.At the same time, the control mechanism in the pesantren tradition is more effective than that of normal and secular schools.*'To adore a teacher in Islamic learning tradition in pesantren is part of getting the al-ustadi^in the puisuit of the master's guidance.Ali ibn Abi Talib's poems that had been very popular in the pesantren community legitimise this part of the requirement of seeking knowledge: "The pursuit of knowledge is not carried on without six things which I shall indicate to you through words that are clear, inge nious acumen, fervent desire, patience, sufficient sustenance, the guidance of a teacher, and length of time".*^Inthis respect, the irgddis not limited to during the lifetime of the teachers, but also continues after their death.They consider that useful knowledge is eternal.This is also supported by the utterance of the Prophet, "whenever person dies, his deeds are over, except for three things: perpetual char ity, useful knowledge or a good child who makes supplications for his (decease<5 Departemen Agama ( 2002 Meanwhile, the second type of pesantren, which is a half combination be tween old model and newmodel, contributes both the morality and rationality.What is meant by old modelis the curriculum, which concentrates on the classical books, which are called kitah kuning, without any modification.The new model is a set of curriculum, which adopts literature on Islamic studies that are contemporarily.In relation to the output of this type of pesantren, morality is here meant the same milieu found in the first category of pesantren with additional positive values.Ra tionality is one medium in understanding and interpreting religious texts with criti cism.In this sense, religious knowledge is received and perceived by them with the help of humanities and social sciences.This is because the contemporary literatures are being read in the second type of pesantren.The pesantren that belong to this group have no allergy in introducing a curriculum and sources of literature that are not merely classical but also modern one.
The third type is an exemplification of an ideal model of Islamic education due to its openness to renewal, tajdid^and its capability to adjust with modernity.
Religious teaching, which takes religiosity and moraUty as a priority in the practice, is combined with the rationality and is developed inline with the progress of human knowledge.Perhaps this third type of pesantren is the most adaptable and adjust able to the development of Erkenntnistheorie in the sense of understanding religion within the framework of humanity.In other words, this type of pesantren is able to open themselves up to new concepts, ideas and systems by creating a compromise between the traditional and modern curriculum.It is needed to do so, otherwise the lack of resources and expertise due to the separation between traditional and mod ern one has become an obstacle for pesantren in providing anintegrated and sound education for the community.''* Pesantren is also the source for community leaders, both local and national.
Research shows that Indonesians still consider religion to be something important Someone has to bear in mind that these three types of pesantren still have more or less the same character.Among them is the local wisdom that perpetuates local cultures.The long history of perpetuating local culture in the context of Islamization the Archipelago can be traced in the role of saint preacher, Walisongo, who at the same time also the architect of religious and pesantren institution.''*The persuasive way of disseminating Islam has been practiced by the nine saints (Walisongo) especially with regard to the Hindiiism and Buddhism as religious culmre that existed in Javanese society before the coming of Islam.The model of Islam that had been preached and disseminated by them was andis a cultural Islam, which tolerates local cultures.
One of the examples is the prohibition of slaughtering cow in Kudus Central Java initiated bySunan Kudus, and still practiced until now.The reason for doing so is because cow was believed by Hinduism especially who lived in Kudus region at that time as a sacred animal Before the coming of Islam, Kudus was one of the Hindu centre.In the meantime cow is permissible to be consumed according to Islamic teaching.The preservation of prohibiting cow slaughtering perhaps difficult to be found in other Muslim communities outside Kudus, because they do not have the same background and experience as Sunan Kudus and his descendants had.In the context of Kudus, KyaiAsnawi (1861-1959), though he studied for a long time in Middle East, he did not lose his Javanese identity.
An example indicates Asnawi's preservation of the local culture is his refuta tion to the Dutch colonial government when its representative.Van der Plas, in 1927 offered him ^penghulu, a religious position, in Kudus regency.During the colo nial penghulu is a prestigious position for ulama'^Mo held proper Islamic knowl edge.The prestige is not only because of the salaries, but also of the authority in the Muslim community.''The reason for refuting that request is due to Asnawi's consideration that had he accepted it, the mission of da'ivah would be compro mised.The duty of enjoining the good and prohibiting the bad in accordance to Islamic teaching and local culture would benolonger genuine, had he been apart of religiosity.'^Theplurality of opinion in theftqh literature that is supported also by the philosophy of thinking in the Islamic legal theory, ushiil al-ftqhy makes the pesantrentradition adjustable with the localcommunity and tradition.^®Even though there is a different status between high tradition, i.e. the religious texts, and low tradition, i.e. local wisdom, in praxis, there is no contradiction; on the contrary both of them are complementary.
Some pesantren teachers use a combinatory approach in transforming reli gious knowledge to their students.An example can also be found in the personality of Asnawi.In his works entitled Mu'taqad Seket, he emphasizes the importance of attitude to be carried out byMuslim.According to Mu'taqad Seket, Muslim should i) perform worship in earnestness, ii) accomplish the ivujuhat^required tasks, iii) stay away from the mahrumat^forbidden, and give entire credence to Sunnism as laid out by Abu Ash'ari or Maturidi in theology.^' The model of development within its tradition also strengthens the nature of pesantren's education.It is a model, which is presumably influenced by theJavanese tradition.A quotation from Babad DjakaTingkirz^n be used as an indicator of such ^Van Bruinessen enumerates the percent ofreligious materials that is taught in the pesantren, namely 20% jurisprudence, 17% theology, 12% Arabic grammar, 8% hadits, 7% mysticism, 6% ethics, 5% collection ofprayerand 6% songand praise to the Prophet Muhammad.See, Lukens-Bull (1997) is adaptable to suchvalues.The previous paragraph mentioned also that many schol ars have conducted research on pesantren.Some of them made anthropological studies using the popular method of participant observation; some odiers taught foreign language, especially English, while others were interested in learning deeper aboutIslam.These direct encounters wth "outeider" have been aninvaluable expe rience for santris Qjesantren's students), vhidi has nurtured^av^eness and appre ciation of differences and diversities-It is not surprising therefore, that pesantren in Indonesia have produced broad minded and tolerant alumnLÂ nother unique character of pesantrens, which has enabled them to produce tolerant and pluralistic people, is their balance in teaching Islamic legal aspects and the spirituaUty {sujism).This approach can be traced back to derive from the nine saints (Walisongo) who spread Islam on the island of Java peacefully.The spiritual dimension is what probably missing in some pesantrens that are "radical" who prefer to standin a binary position: right/wrong, halal/haram, me/the other et cetera.As a result, they produce people with an exclusionary stance who see the ^BabadDjakaTingkirYin., 19-20, inNancy K.Florida (1995), WritinglbePast,IoscribmgtheFutrtre, Duke University Press,p.320.Seealso Mas'ud(2004), op.at., p. 58-59.

" Scholars and community leaders such as Abdurrahman Wahid, Nurcholis Madjid, Muslim
Abdurrahman are examples of pesantren alumni world as black and white and who lack the beauty and inner meaning of the reli gion: peace tolerance, respect, love and care for others, and other esoteric and hu manitarian traits.
As an example of such feature can be seen in most pesantren in the south of central Java,^'* without considering that other pesantren located outside this region is not good enough for the example.This institution preserves the local tradition which supports the teaching of high culture, i.e.. Islamic teaching.One can easily find the combination between Islamic rituals and teaching and traditional music such gendhing Bauyttmasan as a musical religious song practiced by the Muslim in villages before praying together, shaldt al-jamd ah.
In the region of Banyumas, Central Java, for instance, in the pesantren of Ahmad Thohari,^one can find the existing musical art called gendhing Banjnmasan that is preserved by the pesantren community.The praise to the Prophet Muhammad inthe form of shalawatan is also composed in the Javanese language with some nice modification that shows the mutual relationship between Islamic teaching in pesantren and local culture.Moreover, in the region in south Java whose tradition are among others exemplified in the song, such as Dhandhang Gula, Sinom, typical Javanese songs.Islamic teachings are written and sung in that form.One of the examples is about the way to understand the Qur'an as the basis source of Islam.The Qur'an has wonderful teachings, yet, not all human being can appropri ately understand its message, and only with the help of belief someone can compre hend it.It is forbidden to interpret the message without knowledge, it will mislead the understanding.When you have a sufficient knowledge, go on to understand the message also with the help of sufficient teachers..) Pesantren has been practicingdemocratic elements in its method of learning.The sources of Islamic studies in the pesantren, especially in the domain of Islamic legaltheory, entail element of freedom of choices, using one opinion and neglecting others without any psychological hindrance.The Jiqh books used in the pesantren teach how to preserve one opinion, moreover the opinions that are product of legal reasoning ijtihad.In the framework ofIslamicl^al theory a pattern is taken noticed of, namelythe result oflegalreasoning ijtibddj cannot be detracted by another product of legal reasoning, al-ijtihdd Idjunqadu bil-ijtibadP On the odier hand, in the domain ofJiqhliterature there are four popular schoolof thoughts, mads^hah, in the pesantren.By choosing one madt^ab It does not nec^sarily mean eliminattng others.Legal opinions writtenin books such as al-Majmti Sjarbal-Mitbajjab^Fatb al-Wabhdb, I dnat al-ThdUbin which are Syafi ian oriented perpetuate the tolerance on different opin ions.The phrase wa-qiky "and it is said" is numerous in those boola which indicate the tolerant nature of different opinions among scholars in different school of thoughts.
It is not exaggerative when someone says that the tolerance is a part of the pesantren's culture.At the same time, when it is confronted to Indonesian context which is pluraland multi ethnic, the pesantrentradition with its educational system will ready to come forth.It is alsoimportant to be noticed that different religion is also perceived by the pesantren community as a given, sunnatnlldb.Therefore, the -various and differentreligious praxis is respected by pesantren because every single community has his right to do so.The pesantren also believes that only with the respect and tolerance the diversity of community can be reached.
Tolerance is a startingpoint of openness and dialogue.In this sense, dialogue means opencommunication between groups, be they arethe same or different The dialogue is directed not to make the difference become handicap for together, on the contrary, it is directed to exchange experiences among those who have differ ences.Dialogue can be executed when there is a similar status, similar right and duty, between those who have differences, and last but not least wthout claiming that one is superior and the other is inferior.When someone believes that his own conviction is true he should at the same time realizes that it cannot be the "whole" truth, the "absolute," un-Iimited truth.He should learn more about reality and the ultimate meaningof life from the other.Relating to openness of the pesantren, this institution will play a significant role in creating milieu of dialogue among different communities and even among different religions.
Dialogue in general, and especially inter-religious dialogue, then, is the way forward to an increasingly complete, but never fully complete, grasp of reality, of the ultimate meaning of life and how to live accordingly.Thus, inter-religious dia logue must be -and in fact is becoming -the new religious heart at the core of the emerging pluralistic view.The core spirit of dialogue is fundamentally demo cratic, egalitarian, person-in-community and context oriented.For dialogue can oc cur only among free, reflective persons.If there is no freedom there will be no dialogue.Further, dialogue can take place only among equals.Also, dialogue hap pens only in community and in the environment of the wider common context.
Another aspect of civic values is about gender issue, namely discourse on equal right between man and women.It isundeniable thatpesantren ismostiy tagged by women activist as an institution that has no gender sensitivity.In other words, pesantren is often comprehended as being gender bias especially in using andinter preting religious texts.This image is to some extent true when its entry point is the usage of some books which are discriminatory.The relation of husband and wife, for instance, is explained in some Islamic literature in such a way that creates an image that husband is hegemonic.On the other hand, when looking at the holistic literature used by pesantren such image is not fully true.This is due to the fact that many opinions given by scholars on particular school of thought thatlegitimise the equal right between man and women.
An example can be found in the case of women who take responsibility for leader of prayer, imam.Although the majority of scholars prohibited this task, there are still opinion given by al-Muzanni and Abu Tsaur (d.240/854) which allow that kind of imam.This opinion is also strengthened by al-Tabari when the prayer is not a daily prayer but only a prayer during the night of ramadhan with an additional condition, namely, there isno man who can takes the responsibility of being imam.Â nother case is the possibility ofwomen of being a judge.Although the majority of scholars injiqh prohibited it, there is still an opinion given by Abu Hanifah (d.150) which states that women could be elected as judge not only for the positive law, but also for penal orcriminal law without any restriction.This opinion is also supported not interpret that a specific religion placeswomen in the second position under the superiority of man.The fact is on the contrary, namely that every religion puts the equality between both.In the case of Islam, the understanding of some verses of the Qur'an is sometimes understood as a legitimacy of the man superiority.This model of understanding has been criticized by numerous Indonesian Muslim think ers and has been advocated to the proportional understanding which respects the equality of man and women's rights.

D. Concluding V^marks
Discussing pesantren tradition and its educational system reaches a holistic view on its concept as an "ideal" Islamic education.This ideal education tries to make appropriate function of its three elements, namely, cognitive, affective and psychomotoric.Secular concept of education is to some extent unconsciously ne glects one elements by focusing on others.At the same time pesantren as a subcul ture entails local values that strengthen the so-called civic \^ues.The civic values which are among others freedom and tolerance, democracyand gender equality are an ideal goal of an educational system that should be executed by the government policy.In a multi cultural context of Indonesian society, education should be di rected to give to live awareness of the plurality in community.Hence, pesantren tradition plays an important rule in contributing the positive tradition to the search of an ideal type of Islamic education in the framework of establishing the Indone sian system of education.