Each year, millions of Muslims worldwide carry out the haj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
For some, the pilgrimage is interpreted as the highest form of worshipping God. For others, prayers around the Ka’bah will be better heard by God than those in other places.
Regardless of their various motivations, Indonesia reached the highest number of pilgrims in the early 20th century (Bruinessen, 1995), during the Dutch colonialism era. Most of these pilgrims stayed longer in Mecca to study Islam.
It is worth noting that the pilgrimage performed by Indonesian Muslims at the time contributed to the strengthening of nationhood ideas among Indonesian Muslim scholars.
Those scholars were able to translate the idea of pan-Islamism spreading in Mecca. They were successful to redefining what is called ummah. They were not trapped to campaign for pan-Islamism as spreading in the Middle East at the time.
Instead of determining the same religion as the basis for ummah, they preferred to define the same territory as the foundation of ummah.
This indicates that the ideas of pan-Islamism travelling to Indonesia have been domesticated.
On the one hand, Indonesian Muslim scholars were able to absorb and adopt the ideas spreading in Mecca.
On the other, they assessed that those ideas could not be implemented in Indonesia completely, as the country has a particular context that is different to the Middle East.
While the emergence of ideas of nationhood were also influenced by Western ideas through Indonesian “secular” scholars, (reformist) Muslim scholars were regarded as the earliest agents discussing and campaigning for nationhood in Indonesia (Michael Francis Laffan, 2003).
Magazines and newspapers such as Wazir Indie (established in 1878), al-Imam (established in 1906), al-Munir (established in 1911), and al-Islam (established 1916) were some of the devices used by these Muslims scholars.
The discourse on nationhood that emerged in Indonesia can be categorized as the travel of ideas. As mentioned by Edward Said (1984: 226) that like people and institutions, ideas also travel.
However, most ideas when travelling from one country to another country or from one society to
another society experience a “dialectical struggle”.
A community that transplants and adopts ideas will place and locate them after negotiating and adjusting the ideas to their new context.
It is worth noting that in the context of early 20th century Indonesia, the ideas of nationhood were a “dialectical struggle” of reformist Muslim scholars who studied and absorbed the rising spirit of pan Islamism in the Middle East during 19th and early 20th century.
Even though their concept of nationhood were not as clear as the later ideas raised by Indonesian “secular” scholars, their attempts contributed significantly to the discourse of nationalism and the modern nation state.
It is also important to emphasize that the rise of intellectual life is dependent on the circulation of ideas from anywhere.
Intellectual creativity that occurred amongst Indonesian Muslim scholars could not be separated from their travelling to Mecca to conduct the haj, and their willingness to convey ideas they learned in that country.
We have great expectations that the pilgrimages to Mecca performed by Indonesian Muslims every year will similarly contribute to the Indonesian people.
It is obvious that worshipping is not devoted to the goodness of God (Allah), but for humans themselves. Indeed, there are many ideas offered by this form of worship.
There was a famous moment in the valley of mount Arafah in which the Prophet Muhammad delivered a speech called Khutbah al-Wada (the last sermon).
In this speech the Prophet called Muslims to respect human rights. This moment will be always celebrated by pilgrims with wuquf (staying) in Arafah, and it is determined as the culmination of conducting the haj. As far as wuquf is concerned, pilgrims are required to pray and think about the messages of the Prophet’s speech.
Unfortunately, there are not many Indonesian pilgrims who absorb and develop the Prophet’s messages. Indonesia is still known as a country in which human rights abuses are rampant.
We often see that on behalf of God, Muslims destroy places of religious worship and kill followers of certain religion as well.
On the one hand, Indonesia is one of the top countries in terms of Muslims conducting the haj every year. On the other, Indonesia is recognized as a country where religious freedom (one element of human rights) is neglected.
We hope that the messages of the Prophet will travel from Arafah to Indonesia. Of course, the messages cannot travel by themselves. There should be creative agents who are committed to adopt and spread the messages to the country. This is probably what God means as by haji mabrur (the successful haj).
The successful haj is not indicated by the fulfilment of a set of requirements, but by the commitment of pilgrims to upholding human rights. As long as this sort of spirit appears among pilgrims, we will see the pilgrimage contributing to a “new nationhood”.
The writer is a lecturer at Muhammadiyah University, Jakarta (UMJ).
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