The Relationship Between Islam and Adatin Indonesia a Comparison Between

Java and Minangkabau

Soehardi

1. Introduction

Islam has spread throughou1: Indonesia.s ince the thirteenth century, initially in

Aceh and then gradually to the rest ofIndonesia When Islam fisrt came to In­donesia. is still debatab le. There are sev­eral pieces of concrete evidence. First,"three gravestones discovered In thePase districk of north Sumatra, dated inthe first half of 15c. another at Gresik ineast Java of 1419. rt has been deter­mined that these originated at Cambay inGujarat" (Hooker, 1983 : 3). Anothergravestone dated 1297 fro m Pase is notknown to be of Cambay origin but ron­st rued to d erive from India. SeveralGravestones from Java dated 1102 and1391 a re also known but their derivationcannot be identified. Secondly, there isevktence from earty travellers accounts :"the Great Moroocan traveller. Ibn Bat­tuta v isited Paee In 1345 and descr ibesIts people as Muslim. Marco Polo was inthe area in 1292 and describes Perlak asMuslim but that 'Samara' remained hea­then" (Hooker, 1983 : 4). Hooker stillhesitates whe ther 'Samara' Is Samudraor Pase or not, and at the moment thereis consensus that 'Samara' is Samudra.The th ird body of evtfeoce are the Iokalhistories which link with the intrtxluetionof Islam, I.e -.. the Hikay8t Raja-rajaPa sa ; an d Sej arah Me/ayu 1612"(Hooker, Ibid).

However, the above evoence Is stilllimited. It only gives names of place, thereligion and dates, and "the account of

travellers to the region are not whollyreliable, etther with respect to their g~raphy or to Information on the depth andspread of response to Islam- (Hooker,Ibid). Nevertheless. the information of thetraveller's accounts and the surviving epi­graphy are Intelligble, because the trav­ellers just reported whatever they sawand heard, and the epig raphy only men­tioned the most Important messages.

Undoubtedly, the evid ence still pro­v ides some evidence that Islam hadspread at the t ime in th e region. Conse­quen1ly, it might have effected th e par­tic ular cultural form in which the religionspread. From the available data. one canhypothesize the immedIate origins of 19­lam in Indonesia Three hypoth esis havebeen put forward. These are, firstly, fromthe Arabs of Hadramaut., secondly fromsouth India and finally from Bengal.Eventhough, there Is no conclusion yetfrom the interpretat ion of the evidenceconceming the origins, however, the sec­ond hypothesis seems to be the mostacceptable because :

This tlypothesls rests on the demonstra­tion of three points. FIrst. a signIDcart Mus>­lh1 presenre in MUlh ncia. This is mown10hare oaured at the coned m-.e.Secon<lthe existense of tracing In ks between southtrda and ScKA~EG Asia. This has alsobeen demontraled. Third, the ex istence 01apromine nt Muslim elemert i1 this trade, andttus a ~s1im elernet1l in the SolA~East

Asian popUation. (Hooker,l983 : 5).

Other hypothesis about the early 19­lemjzaton of Indo nes ia was advanced byA.H. Johns (Austailan Philolog ist). There

IIl1lntlni./fU 11"/1997

are two AsIan routes Inwhich Islam camealong and was spread by shull mission­aries. The first route was overland routeby caravan through central Asia; and thesecond route, v ia the Indian Ocean.

l'he culture Cilm munlc.ation bet'Neen thefountain heads of Islam and the kKIone sianporf-Iown via overseas roule had . .. ..brooct1I the idea of greal: mystics of lsIamfnI to North Sumatra and the Malay Pe r*l­aJIa. and 9lA:l~10 Java from thefo urteenth 10 s ix te e n t h centur ie s(Koe ntjaraningral. 1985 : 47 - 48 ).

The latter hypothesis is s imilar to thesecond hypothesis of the Immediate ori­gins of Islam in Indone sia If It is so,mystics of Islam in Indonesia might havebeen Influenced with tasawuf dogma ftwoukt seem that the route by which Islamwas introduced into Indonesia affected itscult ural form. It seems that the religion,since Its inception, has never separatedfro m Arab culture as a whole. "Islam law,the shari,a. govems man's retatons withhis fellow as w ell as his relat ionship withGod" (Hooker. 197U : 911.

In the diftusbn context, It means thatIocaJ culture woukt fac e a new doctrine.

The result 's a tension between IocaJcu lture or, more exactly, Indigenousmodes of conceptualtzing the world andthinking about the eternal verities, andthe literary Infonnation defining the bel iefIn God and th e practice of His com­mands. (Hooker, 1983 : 2).

Consequently, the acceptance of 19­lam e tenets in Indonesian arc hipelagovaries from place to place, and "in Itspurely religious aspect Islam demon-­strated an ability to come to some accom­modation with other systems of belief,especlalty animism In its various forme'(Hooker, 1978 : 91).ln Java for example,there Iswide variation in the acceptace ofIslam ic ideas, from conservative MuslimSantri at one extreme to traditional mY9­tics and ani mist at th e other. In Minangk­abau Islam coe xists with the ada t and InAceh Islam coexists w ith animism etc.

On the other hand, throughout Indo­nesia, jocal and past Indianderlved inst..tutone still provide modes of behaviouras customs or adat . Adat Is part of localculture, that can be defined as "lega lsystems, that is as rormerjve systemswhich qulde human behaviour" (Hooker,1983 : 33). And it Is "no more than cus­tomarythan customary pract ice, and mayincorporate Muslim pract ice as mush asoppos e It" (Ellen, 1983 : 64). In manycases both can be com bined in certaininstitutions. In Javanese myst ical eyncre­t ism tor example.

Hitherto, nominally approximately90% of the total population of Indonesiaare Musl im. Presumably, the featu re ofthe relat ionship between Islam and adatin Java and west Sumatra. seems to bedifferent. Here I shall compare the ethrtcJavanese and the Mlnangkabau. Theethnic Javanese represent the majoritypopulation In Indonesia. Most ronsiderthemselves Muslims. but only a few con­duct the Islam ic sharfa. On the otherhand, the Minangkabau people are con­sidEred To Be Pious Muslim.

2. The Development Of Islam In JavaAnd Mlnangkabau

Although there Is no exact evidenceyet about when Islam spread In Java, andthe ronversion of Javanese to Islam., atthe mome nt we generally assume 1hefollowing:

Islam came to JIIVA from Malac:ca. . f1I!'Mtemerging Stale on Ihe west coast of tneMalay peninsula. When. In tr-. COUI'3e of theIourteefth century. the ~r of~as acommercial empire de~ corVaI ofthe -*n1 pan <Jf the IradP ,..the ~ne" a d. ' go .. IaIoan .....by u. stare. .. port __~ videdt¥ ".,." merth;vU trom~. So..ChnAil and Penis (Koa,..inU'• • 1hS :.. ~

In the end at the 1lheerah cerm.uy 19­lam began ID """,ad among the Java­nese merchants i"l Gresk Oemai<: andT<ban. The """'ad at Islam ., Java be-