NU, as the largest Islamic organisation in Indonesia, dominated the politics of Islam until 1984. As a political party, from 1952 to 1973, the direction of its politics was clear. The same held true when NU merged with other Islamic organisations to form the Masjumi or with other Islamic political parties to form the United Development Party, PPP (both Islamic political parties). All the institutions under NU, including its members and sympathisers, followed its politics of Islam. There was a harmonious relationship among the kiai in Jombang at that time. Not only did they feel themselves to be representatives of the same organisation, NU, but they also moved in the same direction, pursuing Islamic politics.

This situation created a political ethos which not only strengthened the unity of the umma (the transnational Islamic community), but also raised the significance of the political struggle that must be carried out by a Muslim. It is this ethos that has enlivened Jombang society, though it has lately been marked by different ideological orientations. Since the legitimacy given by the kiai in regard to politics contributes significantly to building the orientation of the umma, the various current political affiliations of the kiai tend to create divisions within the umma. I will discuss this later in Chapter VI. 

The first break that disturbed the harmonious situation in Jombang Muslim society happened when Kiai Musta‘in, the former head of both the Pesantren Darul Ulum and the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah defected quietly to the government party, Golkar, preceding the 1977 general election. This defection not only marked a disaffection with, and a disturbance of the existing social structure, but also created the beginning of a split between kiai in Jombang, which was followed by hidden conflict between their followers. The conflict occurred between the NU's kiai, who maintained affiliation with the only Islamic party, PPP, and Kiai Musta‘in and his close kiai colleagues. It gave rise to a situation where mutual abuse occurred between kiai with each group accusing the other of being kafir (infidel)^[1]. The Muslim society of Jombang, who had been united by a single Islamic political ethos, was split. Only the most obedient followers of the tarekat led by Kiai Musta‘in himself and the santri in his pesantren followed him. For these obedient followers, the kiai's defection did not raise any problem. They believed that Kiai Musta‘in's teaching remained correct. They also emphasised an absolute obedience to the guru (master, the murshid) provided that he was not shirk (claiming partnership with God; or attributing God's qualities to someone other than Him). The word ‘obedient’ here needs to be emphasised, since it has significant implications in understanding the subsequent conflict.

The situation was unfavourable for the other tarekat members since Kiai Musta‘in's joining Golkar marked the breakdown of their bai‘a (religious following) of him. Some hesitant members did not even attend monthly istighatha conducted by Kiai Musta‘in himself. They felt it better to gather at the weekly istighatha carried out by the khalifa who still persisted in their allegiance for the Islamic political party. Some kiai in Jombang tried to establish another leadership of the existing Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah, since they no longer regarded the leadership of Kiai Musta‘in as legitimate. They promoted Kiai Adlan Ali as the new leader. His leadership in the new tarekat was legitimised when he was authorised (through a bai‘a and ijaza irshad) by Kiai Muslih of Mranggen (Semarang). Kiai Adlan's leadership was formally legitimised by NU when he was also chosen as a leader of the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyah at its conference in Semarang in 1979.

There are two important points in regard to the formation of the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyah by NU. Firstly, this event indicated a loss of legitimacy for Kiai Musta‘in both as the leader of a large tarekat organisation, the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh which he had managed since 1975 and the leader of the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah. NU no longer formally acknowledged the tarekat organisation headed by Kiai Musta‘in as its tarekat although the kiai continued to lead his tarekat after he joined Golkar. Secondly, the very term An-Nahdliyyah (lit. means affiliated with NU) emphasised that this new organisation was NU's tarekat. There have hence arisen two Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah and two large tarekat organisations, the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh and the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyah managing various tarekat aliran. The Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah led by Kiai Musta‘in was affiliated with the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh, while the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa   Naqsyabandiyah headed by Kiai Adlan was affiliated with the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyah. Both Kiai Musta‘in and Adlan were also the leaders of Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh and the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyah respectively. Kiai Musta‘in tarekat was centred in Rejoso, while Kiai Adlan's tarekat was centred in Cukir.

The strong reaction of the kiai in Jombang against Kiai Musta‘in was based on the fact that, at that time, NU was directing Islamic politics, which it articulated through PPP. Their reaction was followed by a sharp decrease in popular loyalty towards Kiai Musta‘in. This was expressed by the withdrawal of children from Kiai Musta‘in's pesantren, and the hesitancy of parents throughout East Java to send their children to his pesantren. Moreover, a significant number of the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah members withdrew from istighatha conducted by the khalifa of Kiai Musta‘in, and some followers joined Kiai Adlan's tarekat. Although it is not easy to ascertain all the underlying reasons for such an exodus, the perceived loss of legitimacy of Kiai Musta‘in in the eyes of his followers at the grassroot level can be attributed largely to his joining Golkar.

Seen from the perspective of the kiai in Jombang, the cause of the conflict can easily be understood. As the Jombang kiai had become the guardians of Islamic politics, the line that demarcated Muslim politics from others was clear during the 1970s. The Islamic leaders in Indonesia, especially in NU, had made encouraging noises that sounded very religious, to support the Islamic political parties. In the 1977 general election, the Javanese kiai suggested that it was religiously obligatory for a Muslim to vote for the Islamic political party. Such a notion actually had been prevalent during the 1955 and the 1971 general election when Muslims in Indonesia could join one of four Islamic political parties. This notion spread widely, reaching the ears of even very young Muslims^[2]. The defection of Kiai Musta‘in had great consequences for the political unity of the umma, since his defection to Golkar was imitated by some of his followers, especially those who were tarekat members.

In the 1971 general election, Golkar was the main rival of NU, as it attempted to gain more popular support from Muslim population. The same held true in the 1977 general election, when NU merged with other Islamic political parties to form PPP. It is thus clear that Kiai Musta‘in had broken the tradition of ‘not supporting the government party’. The Javanese kiai promulgated religious justification about the inappropriateness of his steps. The aspirations of Muslim society in Indonesia had been articulated through the Islamic political party, PPP. What made Kiai Musta‘in's steps wrong in the eyes of his critics was a fatwa (religious advice) from a senior NU kiai, who happened to come from Jombang, suggesting that it was a religious obligation to vote for PPP. The fatwa was applied nationally, so that Kiai Musta‘in was severely condemned and expelled from NU^[3]. The defection of Kiai Musta‘in had made some followers doubtful of the necessity to vote for the Islamic political party as suggested by the fatwa, or to follow the murshid or guru who by now joined the government party.

In short, the defection of Kiai Musta‘in was clearly against the political efforts being articulated through PPP. The kiai in Jombang and East Java generally felt morally obliged to support PPP and its efforts. From this perspective it is understandable that the defection of Kiai Musta‘in became a source of humiliation for his fellow kiai. So, although most of Kiai Musta‘in's followers did not fully know why they should leave him, his political actions gave them enough reason for their exodus. It was commonly believed that the kiai should support the Islamic political party, because almost all kiai in Indonesia supported the Islamic party of PPP at the time.

However, it is important to note that Kiai Musta‘in's reasons for joining the government party seem to have been based on his interpretation of Islam or on his view of what is called the ‘Islamic struggle’. The defection of Kiai Musta‘in occured because he saw another way to achieve the political ends in regard to the ‘Islamic struggle’. His wife^[4] told me that he judged as a failure the strategy laid down by the Indonesian ‘ulama in general. He did not wish to further divide Islamic society into a variety of groupings based on ideological orientation^[5].

The political interest of Muslim society at that time was represented by the established perspective of the kiai, so that those Muslims who were less devout, like the abangan, or those who happened to be outside the preferred organisation, like those who were in PDI, were not represented by the kiai’s political efforts. That was why to bekerja di ladang yang tidak dikerjakan kiai lain (to work in a field not worked by other kiai) became an important reason for Kiai Musta‘in’ defection. A loyal follower of his told me that PPP could be regarded as representing the larger part of the political interest of Indonesian Muslim society, but it was not the only one. Not only were some Muslims affiliated with parties other than PPP, but it is also recognised that it is human to have different interests and perspectives, which can include affiliation with a variety of political organisations. In her opinion, this human trait is actually indicated in the Qur'an, which suggests that Muslims are actually grouped into various clusters, each of which is happy with the way it is. In addition, Kiai Musta‘in also tried to give a rationale for his political actions, and also to legitimise it through the use of metaphor. He told his followers that he saw in his sleep that he was playing with a kite with a world globe circled by nine stars (the NU's symbol). He also saw a big banyan tree shadowing his pesantren in Jombang^[6]. 

In spite of the fact that few other kiai in other regions of Indonesia had already joined the government party by that time, Kiai Musta‘in's joining Golkar was of considerable national importance since it led not only to the fragmentation of the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah, but also to a political split among the kiai in NU. The importance of such an event lay in the fact that Kiai Musta‘in was the paramount leader of the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah, the head of the Pesantren Darul Ulum and one of the NU leaders in Jombang. His joining Golkar impacted on the unity of the ‘Islamic struggle’ pursued by the Muslim society in Indonesia through PPP because of his huge number of followers, both in his tarekat and in his pesantren.

One can thus see the importance of Kiai Musta‘in's defection on the existing socio-political grouping within the tarekat world and the NU society in general in Jombang and East Java. The formal^[7]discursive interpretation of Islamic politics, which was represented by the NU's affiliation with the Islamic political party, PPP, was disturbed by the emergence of another interpretation pioneered by Kiai Musta‘in. The decision of Kiai Musta‘in to join Golkar was the starting point of the acknowledgement of the existence of another interpretation of Islamic politics. This is not to say that his defection was the first of its kind to occur, since similar actions had been taken by few other kiai. However, the significance of Kiai Musta‘in's action was that it was supported by many of his followers. The defection of other kiai had not been. Kiai Musta‘in was supported by his followers because he was a great kiai. He was the murshid of the largest tarekat in terms of number of followers in East Java. The others who had defected in a similar way were typically local kiai.

The significance of Kiai Musta‘in defection thus lay in his introduction of a new interpretation concerning Islamic politics. He inculcated a new understanding, suggesting that Islamic politics need not be restricted to the politics of PPP, the only Islamic political party, but could be any politics which allowed Islamic ideals to be pursued. Kiai Musta‘in was delegitimising the existing social order in regard to politics. He tried to rebuild this order through a wider perspective, seeing an Islamic political party as only one means among several in the ‘struggle for the umma’.

Another significant consequence of his defection was that tarekat followers and NU society in general, either in Jombang or East Java and other regions, became divided. This was of course a negative result of Kiai Musta‘in's action. In the tarekat, those who followed the NU kiai joined the Tarekat Qadiriyah Wa Naqsyabandiyah led by Kiai Adlan and his Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh An-Nahdliyyah, while those who followed Kiai Musta‘in remained in his tarekat which was affiliated with the Jam‘iyah Ahli Thoriqoh Al-Mu‘tabaroh. It should be emphasised that political affiliation did not have clear-cut relations with tarekat membership in the case of Kiai Musta‘in's followers. Some followers who were affiliated with and supported PPP continued to support this party without altering their loyalty to Kiai Musta‘in and their membership in his tarekat.

This interpretation of Kiai Musta‘in's motives indicates that what he did was beyond politics. He was more concerned with the ‘struggle for Islam’ in a wider sense. He was a kiai and a murshid who was concerned more with the religiosity of Indonesians than with the power structure in which they lived. This contrasts with the majority of Indonesian kiai who tried to focus their struggles through politics on changing the power structure. This situation shows that the obsession about the power of Islam, as it had been conceptualised by some Indonesian ‘ulama in the past, still affected the NU's kiai in Jombang. Kiai Musta‘in, on the other hand, sought to give more attention to inculcating or giving an understanding of Islam and its values to those Muslims who were marginal in terms of Islamic knowledge. He tried, for example, to combine the tarekat, the pesantren and the university which he managed. He introduced tarekat practice not only into pesantren life (since not all pesantren were affiliated with the tarekat organisation or practised its wird and rituals) but also into university life. He introduced his tarekat teaching to his santri in the pesantren and his students at the Universitas Darul Ulum. Kiai Musta‘in hoped that he created modern-but-religious intellectuals (all those^[8] who graduated from his university must stay for two weeks in his pesantren to get to know the pesantren life. If they did not, they could not get their university certificate). He said that he wanted to create pesantren graduates yang berotak Jerman tapi berhati Masjidil Haram (lit. with German brains but with hearts attached to the Mosque Al-Haram in Mecca). He desired to establish a modern system of Islamic education that could produce brilliant intellectuals who remained emotionally steeped in Islam. Thus, following the principle of “working the land which was not worked by other kiai” Kiai Musta‘in was encouraged to join the government party. In other words, he wanted to widen his field of da‘wa ^[9]. By being in Golkar, in his view, he could do more for Islam. Not only was the government party the largest organisation in terms of number of members and supporters but it was the party of the ruling elites. By joining that party, Kiai Musta‘in intended to introduce Islam to the ruling elites^[10]. This helps explain what Kiai Musta‘in hoped to gain by risking his position in Islamic society.

However, it should be acknowledged that Kiai Musta‘in's defection resulted in his being used by the government for its own political ends. The government received an increase in support from the wider society as a result of his defection^[11] and its politics were legitimised. In addition, his defection contributed to the weakening of Islamic politics as pursued by the Indonesian ‘ulama in general. Kiai Musta‘in was often asked by Golkar to become involved in political campaigns, a situation which created a dilemma for him. But Kiai Musta‘in never deviated from his purpose to ‘work the land not worked by other kiai’. It is said that in his first campaign for Golkar in the 1977 general election in Surabaya, he stood for just two minutes on the stage. His main speech consisted of just asking the audiences to say ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is the Great) together.

Many santri in his pesantren and members of his family initially could not believe what they heard in relation to Kiai Musta‘in's defection. They were surprised by the way he had breached the existing social order in regard to politics. Rif‘ah, a female santri who was very close to Kiai Musta‘in's family wondered how a kiai in the forefront of the Islamic struggle through the Islamic party could defect to another party, a political action that might weaken the politics of Islam. Kiai Musta‘in's wife, who was an important supporter of PPP, was equally surprised^[12].