'Pesantren is insperable from the history of Islam'

Lamongan, NU Online
Deputy chairman of the Lamongan chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) KH Ahmad Suyuthi said that the history of pesantren in Indonesia was inseparable from the history of Islam itself.

"We know that the historical facets of pesantren in the archipelago (Nusantara) are in line with the historical evidence of the socialization of Islam itself," he told NU Online here on Monday (29/08).

According to Kiai Suyuthi that since the 16th century there has been a strong presumption that pesantren are such a dynamic factor in every process of the history and struggle of the nation.

He was of the opinion that the history of Indonesian Islam was the one of expanding the civilization of so-called santri (students) and their influence on such fields as religious, social and political in Indonesia.

"Islam has brought a new civilization, a system that is accessible to all levels of society. The system is built and based on an operational consequence of the concept of "ummah" in Islam that is egalitarian and put in common human dignity before God,"he said.

He also said that the existence of pesantren in Indonesia's history had come to a hypothesis that the pesantren in social change has always served as a platform for distributing and disseminating the teachings of Islam. (Masdar)