I was amazed when I read the news about MA Gymnastiar Putra, a student at the Amanatul Ummah Islamic Boarding School from Pacet, Mojokerto, East Java, being accepted at 11 prestigious universities abroad (duniasantri.co, 3rd July 2022). However, my amazement was not his passing the tests at 11 campuses in several countries but his choice of the discipline he would pursue.
Of the 11 universities that accepted it, Gymnastiar Putra finally chose the Colorado School of Mines, United States of America. In the land of Uncle Sam, Gymnastiar Putra will study and pursue mining science. That way, in the future, he will be able to contribute to Indonesia’s progress in the mining sector.
Perhaps, many of Gymnastiar’s friends from the Pesantrens chose Mecca, Medina, Egypt, or other Middle Eastern countries, to study interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, faraid Science, mysticism, and others that are claimed to be “religious sciences” or become hafiz of the Quran and memorize the hadith.
Gymnastiar’s choice caused amazement amid the hardening of the dichotomous separation of knowledge; on the other side, there is religious knowledge; on the opposite side, there is non-religious Science or General Science. And, misguided, the dichotomy is simplified: religious knowledge comes from and is for believers; general knowledge is sourced for disbelievers. Religious knowledge to pursue the afterlife. General Science to catch up with the world. And the “derivatives” of this dichotomy are increasingly hardened at the grassroots level. Studying religion is a guarantee of going to heaven. Those who study general knowledge wallahualam…
This misunderstanding has also penetrated our education system, which is so dichotomous. There are religious and educational institutions, and there are public educational institutions. And not only in the education system, but this misunderstanding has also deeply penetrated our Muslim society’s subconscious. as a result, Our children, from an early age, are forced to row between two rocks, attending religious and general education. Or attend religious education institutions (including Islamic boarding schools) which are “attached” to the general sciences —but the two remain dichotomously separated.
For instance, I belong to the generation born from this subconscious situation of parents. From an early age, I was taught that to get good in the hereafter, which means heaven, I had to study religion. Therefore, there is no choice but to enter a madrasa or pesantren.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But imagine if a whole generation of Muslims just huddled under one roof for “religious knowledge”. Imagine if all generations of Muslims were only commentators, hadith experts, fiqh experts, faraid experts, tasawuf experts, and hafiz Quran. Imagine if all generations of Muslims were only Kiai, Ustaz or Koran teachers, preachers or preachers, or employees of the ministry of religion.
Also, imagine if a whole generation of Muslims did not become doctors, accountants, financiers, mathematicians and information technology specialists, chemists, engineering engineers, and mining experts, for example. Not even an artist or comedian. In short, imagine if all generations of Muslims did not become experts except experts in religious knowledge. If this last sentence were to happen, and it seems almost like that, then we would fail to carry out God’s mandate as caliph (not to be confused with khilafahism) on Earth (khalifatullah fil ardh).
Today that is the reality faced by the Modern Muslim community. The fields of life born from the scientific disciplines that we call non-religious are far from our control. The Muslim world is lagging, for example, in the areas of economy and welfare, Information technology, Science and genetics, and so on, because they do not master Science. How can we carry out God’s mandate as khalifatullah fil ardh if we do not master the knowledge?
There have been many pieces of research and studies that trace the causes of the decline of Muslims. One of them is about the dichotomy between religion and general Science. In the golden age of the Muslim world, until around the 15th century, there was no dichotomy of Science into religious and non-religious Science. All generations of Muslims study all disciplines with the same obligation. Thus, leading Muslim scholars were born who mastered various disciplines.
However, when (Western) Europe began to reach a period of enlightenment after “borrowing” knowledge from the Muslim world, and at the same time, the Muslim world experienced a setback due to internal conflicts, a new chapter of the dichotomy of Science began, until the terms religious science and non-religious Science emerged. In fact, what is often referred to as “infidel science”, the knowledge brought by Western civilization, is a science that originates from the Muslim world.
Logical fallacy and misguided interpreting of Science (religion) are what have been carried over to this day. From an early age, we were “cocked” that those who are guaranteed to enter heaven are those who are hafiz of the Quran or those who master religious knowledge. The mining expert? Wallahualam. That is the goal of Gymnastiar Putra.
Logical fallacy like this has unwittingly pushed us to be unfair in religion. For example, we place people who pursue religious knowledge as “nobler” than those who pursue general knowledge. As a result, not many generations of Muslims are motivated to pursue and master disciplines other than religious knowledge, whose development is getting faster. So, when our mineral wealth was almost exhausted by other people, Gymnastiar Putra just wanted to learn his knowledge. Maybe it’s a bit late, but at least that intention should be an impetus to change the mindset that studying general Science is as noble as studying religion.