General Chairman of the Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nadhdlatul Ulama (NU) KH Said Aqil Siroj, popularly known as Kiai Said, called for the importance of NU in propagating the teachings of Islam through both religious sermons / speeches and actions like building hospitals, educational institutions, and encouraging Nahdliyin to become outstanding scientists.
According to Kiai Said, currently NU already has several hospitals in several cities such as Jombang, Demak, Tuban, Surabaya, Bayuwangi, and others. In the next few years, the religious social organization will also be build hospitals in Cirebon and Kendal following a favorable cooperation with Wika.
"It's a hospital directly under the NU foundation, not a private foundation," said Kiai Said on the sidelines of a meeting on Building Community Awareness against Diabetes Mellitus (DM) at the NU headquarters on Thursday (2/11).
Related to educational institutions, NU also already has dozens of universities that are directly under the Central Board of NU and hundreds of universities affiliated with NU. Until now, NU universities are among others Nahdlatul Ulama University (UNU) Surakarta, UNU Indonesia (Unusia) Jakarta, UNU Cirebon, UNU Surabaya (Unusa), Unisnu Jepara, UNU Sidoarjo, UNU Lampung, UNU South Kalimantan, UNU East Kalimantan, Unisma Malang, and Unisnu Bandung . In addition, the UNU has also been established in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), as well as other UNUs in several provinces.
In addition, the Al Tsaqafah pesantren leader also called on Nahdliyin to compete in sciences. So that the Islamic civilization that once collapsed when Baghdad was attacked could be rebuilt. According to him, long before America and Europe were found, there had been many Muslim scientists in the Islamic word.
"Ibn Sina is the father of modern medicine, the first compass navigator is Ahmad bin Majid, the first mapmaker is Al Idrisi, and Abbas bin Firnas was the first person to fly," he explained. (Masdar)