Table of Contents
Chapter Two has traced the process by which the pesantren Daarut Tauhid initially grew. We have seen that the foundation of the pesantren Daarut Tauhid was not the result of a solo effort by either its leader, Aa Gym, or his followers, but the fruit of their relatively equal contributions. Both were equally important driving forces in the foundation of the pesantren, although they would not explicitly claim this because, to them, it was nothing but the implementation of the will of Allah.
In this chapter, I will examine certain aspects of the relations between the leader and his followers. I shall in the first place examine the leader in terms of his personal qualities and popularity. The miraculous power of Aa Gym, as an important part of social recognition, is also raised here. I will then examine the followers in terms of their number, diversity, identity, and reasons for devotion before I attempt to construct the interrelationships between the leader and his followers; cognitive-rational, affective-emotional, and entrepreneurial.
Aa Gym, as the leader of the pesantren Daarut Tauhid, is both a kyai and a manager. On the one hand, he is the kyai of the pesantren in relation to its religious activities and, on the other hand, he is the manager of it in relation to its thirteen entrepreneurial activities. His role as both a kyai and manager is not only made possible but also plausible by his personal qualities. It is these qualities which I will now examine.
While Geertz oversimplifies the term kyai as roughly comparable to the Middle Eastern ulama (1960:134), I tend to follow Dhofier (1980:68), who describes it as “a title for Muslim scholars in Java who generally lead pesantren institutions.”[1] Inherent attributes of a kyai are Islamic scholarship and pesantren leadership. Other related attributes supposedly possessed by a kyai include ahli ibadah (totally devout), and muballigh (Islamic preacher). They may also act as a kind of consultant on religious matters. These ideal attributes of the kyai will serve as important elements in discussing the personal qualities and popularity of Aa Gym.
Aa Gym became a kyai without following the stages through which Javanese kyai usually progress. In describing the usual progression, Dhofier (1980:72-73) writes:
To become a kyai, a novice…is usually a close relative of a kyai. After completing his studies at various pesantren, the older kyai train him to establish his own pesantren. Sometimes, the older kyai leads and finances the new project… [Then] the old kyai will find him a spouse…from the place where the young kyai [is] to develop [his] new pesantren.
As was made clear in the previous chapter, Aa Gym is not a relative of any kyai but is instead from an army-family.[2] He did not attend any pesantren in the usual way, which would involve living in and studying there for years, but simply visited a number of kyai for a few hours. He was not a wanderer who sought Islamic knowledge from a number of pesantren over a period of several years, as is usually the case with the kyai of nearly all pesantren (Bailey 1986:197; Dhofier 1982:24; Pranowo 1991b:41-42; Zulkifli 1994:63,87). Nor did any established kyai “intervene” in the matters of Daarut Tauhid’s finances or Aa Gym’s spouse. The question is, then, why he has become and has been called by the people a kyai?
Aa Gym is considered to be an ulama, a prerequisite for being a kyai. Since ulama means “learned Muslim scholar”, one might well wonder how one can become an ulama without ever receiving adequate Islamic-oriented education, such as would be acquired in a pesantren.
Although without adequate pesantren experience, Aa Gym has his own ways of acquiring Islamic knowledge. First, he exercises the tradition of shilaturrahmi (described in the previous chapter) as a means of improving his Islamic-knowledge. Second, he reads large numbers of Islamic reference materials. His living room is filled with a huge number of Islamic books and reference materials. After telling me that even his bedroom walls are covered with various books (Islamic and general), Aa Gym said:
I will always make the effort to seek wider knowledge. But notwithstanding this, there is “other knowledge” which is unconsciously [divinely?] transmitted to support my dakwah (proselytization) activities. I actually am reluctant to tell anyone about this kind of knowledge transmission to which I have access. All I can say is what has been the fact that the knowledge I gain is usually much more than the time I can spend to read. This is in no way a rational matter and should actually be off the record. I can not explain to you any further. It was my wife, in fact, who told me this phenomenon because she knows well how much time I spend in reading and other ways of seeking knowledge.
This phenomenon reminds us of the notion of ilmu ladunni (bestowed knowledge) that has its origins in Sufistic tradition and often colours the pesantren tradition. Of the former tradition, Trimingham (1971:304) notes that al-‘ilm al-ladunni (Sundanese, ilmu laduni) is knowledge that comes from Allah directly into the hearts of saints.[3] Of the latter, Dhofier (1980:94-5) records it as Islamic knowledge mastered without study which, instead, comes directly from Allah as the fruit of ilham (personal inspiration). Indeed, it has been said that Aa Gym gains knowledge partly in the form of ilham, believed to be from Allah.
This leads to the speculation about the best way and time to gain ilmu laduni. His followers believe that Aa Gym has a special status which has led to tremendous increases in his Islamic knowledge without the usual ways of acquisition. They are also obsessed in achieving this kind of Allah-bestowed knowledge since they believe that all Muslims have the chance to gain it provided they are close enough to Allah. The following do’a (prayer) is thus commonly said at Daarut Tauhid:
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Allaahumma zidnii |
O my Lord, increase in me |
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ilman ladduuniyya |
ilmu laduni |
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wa fahman waasi’a |
and comprehensive understanding. |
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Ya kaasyifa al-musykilah |
O Allah, who is able to unveil any abtruse subject, |
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iksyif’an wujuuhi |
show [knowledge] behind the surface |
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hadzihi al-ma’aani |
of these concrete things |
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hattaa athla’a |
so that I can know [what is behind the scene].[a] |
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[a] All santri can say this particular do’a by heart. |
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The most probable moment for Aa Gym to receive the divine ilham is during his reflective meditation periods. Since the i’tikaf experience in 1987, such reflection has become one of his routine activities. It is done mainly at night following the performance of shalat tahajjud (optional night prayer). It is also said that Aa Gym is usually supplied with ilham each time he needs instruction in order to advise others. People around him believe that he is being guided by Allah, via ilham, each time he delivers a public pengajian. That is why, a follower told me, Aa Gym never makes any preparations before the pengajian.
According to Aa Gym, acquiring ilmu ladunni is very simple. The key to it is the readiness of human beings to make themselves worthy of gaining it, by having the right condition of heart and mind. For this, he provides us with an analogy:
Let me show you an analogy of a glass to portray this kind of knowledge acquisition. A glass, anytime it catches light, will look bright inside and will illuminate its surroundings, providing the glass is bening (clear) and clean and the water in it is bening as well. So, whenever we try to be pure—I say try because I do not claim that I am pure already—we will have good feelings. Everything we see, hear, read, and feel will become useful sources of knowledge. So, all the time we undergo an extraordinary acceleration of knowledge.
Thus, ilmu ladunni can be bestowed by Allah on those Muslims with purity of heart and mind, a quality that makes one close enough to Allah in such a way that Allah is pleased to bestow on him/her certain knowledge beyond the conventional ways of learning. This is not, however, to say that ilmu laduni requires no way of knowledge acquisition. A santri said that such self-purification to get close to Allah involves a good deal of endeavour.[5]
Through these three ways of acquiring knowledge: visiting leading kyai; reading various sources; and acquiring ilmu ladunni, Aa Gym has appeared to his followers as an ulama. However, I should note Aa Gym’s definition of ulama, which is slightly different from the common one. In common usage, ulama are those Muslim scholars who command advanced knowledge in Islamic matters. To Aa Gym, mastering a wide range of advanced Islamic knowledge is not the main point of being an ulama:
Nowadays, the word ulama is commonly understood to refer only to those Muslim scholars of religious matters (faqih), whereas in the past it included those Muslim mathematicians, medical experts, economists, and other experts on general matters. Muslim people today tend to trivialise these latter scholars by not regarding them as ulama. To me, they are also ulama as long as their field of study can facilitate their Allah-fearing and consequent closeness to Him (QS. 35:28). One whose profession is only tukang sablon (silk-screening service), for example, may look like an ulama in the eyes of Allah as long as his professional work makes him close to Him; while his hands are busy working, his heart and tongue are busy doing dzikir remembering Allah and, in the meantime, he is thoroughly convinced that Allah is watching his every movement. He thus always tries to do his best in order to satisfy both Allah and his customers. If, say, the customer is thereby induced to follow his religious style of life, this tukang sablon has surely performed the function of ulama; that is, to be a medium of others’ keselamatan (salvation) here in the world and the hereafter.[6]
Thus, to Aa Gym, the main point of ulama is not knowledge per se but how much it facilitates fear and closeness to Allah and how much it is exercised as a means of spreading the blessings of Allah. The kind of the knowledge possessed, whether religious or not, and its depth are not the question. The emphasis is on its impact on an individual’s relationship with Allah.
One might well assume that Aa Gym’s definition of the meaning of ulama seems to be intended to fit with his personal conditions. The elimination of the central importance of high Islamic knowledge and the inclusion of general, non-religious knowledge in defining ulama clearly fits Aa Gym’s own situation. However correct this assumption may be, Aa Gym’s definition of ulama has its justification in the Qur’an, as referred to by Aa Gym in the above quote.
Besides his “ulamaship,” the second factor that facilitates Aa Gym’s “kyaiship” is the fact that he is a convincing preacher. Apart from his regular public pengajian at Daarut Tauhid, he is extremely busy in fulfilling invitations to preach in many parts of Bandung and beyond. Almost no day passes without such engagements. Often he has to preach at three to four different places on a day, ranging from mosques to schools, offices, and universities. In other words, he preaches as often at schools, universities, and other places as at mosques. The underlying reason for Aa Gym’s popularity as a preacher is clear from the followers’ reasons for joining, below. The point to make here is that being a good preacher, who is a source of wisdom and advice on religious matters, is another essential attribute to Aa Gym being a respected kyai.
[1] However, when I mention kyai I will not restrict myself only to ‘traditionalist ulama’ as Dhofier did, because not all kyai belong to a traditionalist tradition, as, for example, is the case with Aa Gym himself.
[2] Horikoshi records that a number of the great kyai in Cipari, West Java, were the descendants of Kyai Zainal Abidin (1976:186-191). Bailey notes six kyai in Nangoh, West Java, were the offspring of Kyai Munasan (1986:170-171). And Dhofier found thirty great kyai throughout Java were the offspring of Kyai Sihah (1982:63-65).
[3] William Chittick, in his Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination: The Sufi Path of Knowledge (1989), offers a long description on this kind of Allah-given knowledge as an important part of the Sufi tradition.
[5] Dhofier (1980:95n) emphasises the role of parents in producing children with the ability of acquiring ilmu laduni. For this, a Sundanese kyai, Dhofier writes, told him eight practices and rituals the parents are to perform: “(a) during pregnancy, the parents must always be in harmony with each other…they are not allowed to quarrel,…; (b) immediately after birth adhan and iqomah…rituals must be offered; (c) honey must be the first food given to the baby, and before the honey is given, the feeder must pronounce Bismillah al-rahman al-rahim… 786 times; (d) the mother must not suckle the baby while she is angry; (e) as soon as the child reaches three years of age he must be taught tawhid; (f) when he is five years old, he must be taught to read the Qur’an and must learn the obligatory rituals; (g) when he reaches adulthood, he must practise qanaah (asceticism) such as fasting; and (h) the parents and the child should always prihatin (practice of an austere life).”
When I asked Aa Gym’s parents whether they did these practices, they answered that they were ignorant of that kind of “recipe” for having a child with ilmu laduni. Aa Gym’s mother just told me that indeed she used to practise qanaah and prihatin before marriage. What she did after marriage and during her pregnancy with Aa Gym was simply to practise Islam as properly as she could and to pray to Allah to have shaleh (pious) children.
[6] Qolbun Salim No. 088, Thn. III, 1995, p. 2.