So I find that amongst millions of Arabs in Indonesia, some Indonesian Arabs speak Arabic and some can even hardly understand the language. And it turned out I found a very interesting fact, most Indonesian Arabs who speak Arabic are those from the non-
Alaween group. The
Alaween groups are those who are believed to be the descendant of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, mostly they are called the
shed or
sayyid or
sherif. And they don't really speak Arabic. While most of the non-
Alaween do speak Arabic in complement with their local language. Why so?
It has historical background.
Yemen, esspecially hadramawt, the place where most Indonesian Arabs were originated from, are known for its caste-like system, and this is esspecially true amongst people in villages, which divides people to some hierarchial groups:
1. The
Sheds and
Sherrif, being on top of the caste, are people who believed as the prophet descendant
2. The Non Shed Arabs, being the second class
3. The Non-Arabs, being the lowest in the caste system
Though the system had only little or no impact to economy, politic and socio-culture in Indonesia, the system was valued significantly in mating and marriage. And since amongst the Arabs, marriage was one of the very fundamental aspect in life, this system was viewed somewhat important. In the belief, people must marry only within their own class and crossing over was so unfavoured. It was esspecially true in places where people are mostly homogenous (places outside Jakarta for sample). In 1910, it became a very big problem amongst the Indonesian Arabs community and created tension and turmoil between the Alaween and the non-Alaween.
It was started in a happening when a chinese male converted to Islam and married to a woman from Alaween group. It delivered anxiety and discomfort amongst Arabs community in
Jamiat Kheyr (the first modern Indonesian Arab organization). Sheikh Ahmed Sukarti Al Anshari, a Islamic teacher from Mecca who was one of Islamic teachers in the organization, exhaled out a
fatwa or a legal law pronouncement in Islam, that such marriage was legal since Islam didn't regard people based on ethnicity, tribes, race or nationality. Ahmed Sukarti exclaimed that the only term required for marriage in Islam was the faith and the good moral. The caste system applied that day was not comming from Islam and it wasn't islamic. Ahmed stated that such law in marriage was hadramawt culture and Islam was higher than the culture and must be obeyed more than anything.
This fatwa provoked anger of some people, esspecially amongst the alaween, but others stood in to speak out their agreement and support for the fatwa, esspecially amongst the non-Alaween.
From the conflict about marriage law, the battle continued and creeped to other religious problems and teachings. The Alaween believed that one must learn Islam by following and learning from some good and profound ulema or religious leader, and Ahmed Sukarti believed this was a falsehood. That what made people following the wrong teachings such as the marriage system by the hadramawt ulema and regarded it as Islamic.
Ahmed insisted one must learned Islam directly from the source: Quran and Hadith, not by following some religious sheikh.This tension continued and the
Jamiat broke into two radical groups, those who insisted on the caste system and those who followed Ahmed Sukarti to break the old tradition. In 1914, Ahmed Sukarti resigned from Jamiat and established his own Arab Indonesian Islamic organization known as
Al Irshad, which focused on Islamic teachings, building economy, education and political power to free Indonesia from the Dutch collony. Ahmed Sukarti met Ahmad Dahlan, one of prominent ulemas in Indonesia and asked him to established a muslim Indonesian native Islamic organization. Ahmad Dahlan found
Muhammadiya,
and today
Al Irshad has become the sub-organization of the most prominent Islamic organization in Indonesia.
Since one of the most important teaching of Ahmed Sukarti, the founder of
Al Irshad,
is to study Islam directly from the source: Quran and Hadith, and since the Quran is written in Arabic, he stated the importance of studying and understanding the Arabic language. That's why his followers regarded the Arabic language to be one of the most importance site in studying Islam.
Until today, most Arabs of his followers speak and understand Arabic.
