Book Reviews 333

M. Muntahibun Nafis
Pesantren Pluralis: Peran Pesantren Ngalah dalam Mengembangkan Nilai-nilai
Pluralisme di Tengah Masyarakat yang Multikultural. Yogyakarta: Insan Madani
[with forewords by James J. Fox and Mujamil Qomar], 2017, xxii + 330 pp. isbn
9789790264533, price idr 75,000.00 (paperback).

A number of authors have recently investigated several aspects of pesantren

(Islamic boarding schools) in Indonesia. Florian Pohl (2006), for instance,
explores, among other topics issues of anti-violence, interfaith dialogues, and
human rights in the pesantren world. In a similar vein, Martin van Bruinessen
(2008) examines traditionalist and Islamist pesantren in Indonesia, with a
focus on three pesantren connected with the underground Darul Islam move-
ment. Furthermore, Azyumardi Azra, Dina Afrianty, and Robert W. Hefner
(2007) review a broad spectrum of Islamic education in Indonesia that includes
the institutions of the pesantren, the madrasa (Islamic day schools), and other
types of Islamic schools. Meanwhile, Munʾim Sirry (2010) and Eka Srimulyani
(2007) observe the pesantren’s role in the development of civil society dis-
course and its efforts to provide education for women and to tackle gender
issues, respectively. All of them attempt to prove that there is no relation
between the pesantren and Islamic radicalism, and that pesantren are tradi-
tionalist, moderate, peaceful, contributive to democratization, adaptive to the
ideals of Indonesian nationhood, and supportive of the nation’s democratic
civil society.
A lecturer at the State Institute for Islamic Studies (iain) Tulungagung,
Indonesia, M. Muntahibun Nafis—the author of the book here under review—
goes further by probing the pluralism, tolerance, multiculturalism, moderation,
and nationalism of pesantren with a focus on Pesantren Ngalah, an unusually
open-minded pesantren located in Pasuruan, East Java. In the history of Islam in
Indonesia, pesantren are generally regarded as traditional Islamic educational
institutions. They are the centers of rural religious life and tend to be tradition-
oriented and socially conservative (Van Bruinessen 2008: 218). These institu-
tions did not emerge before the eighteenth century and in fact only became
widespread in the latter half of the nineteenth century (Van Bruinessen 1995:
173; Ricklefs 2007: 52).
Pesantren Pluralis: Peran Pesantren Ngalah dalam Mengembangkan Nilai-
nilai Pluralisme di Tengah Masyarakat yang Multikultural (A Pluralist Pesantren:
The Role of Pesantren Ngalah in Developing Values of Pluralism in a Multicul-
tural Society) focuses on the development of religious pluralism specifically
in the Pesantren Ngalah, particularly the way this institute constructs pluralist
values, deals with the concept of pluralism, and manages the implications of
© yanwar pribadi, 2018 | doi:10.1163/22134379-17402014
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc license
at the time of publication.
334 Book Reviews

pluralism inside its classrooms and for the broader community. This book is
mostly intended for students and scholars interested in education, anthropol-
ogy, sociology, and Islamic Studies. It attempts to show some rather unusual
approaches by a pesantren to disseminate religious ideas and Islamic teaching
(daʾwah) in a multicultural society. While most pesantren are skeptical of the
ideas of pluralism which are thought to be closely associated with Western-
ization, capitalism, and liberalism, Pesantren Ngalah, through its main leader,
Kiai Sholeh Bahruddin, promotes pluralist values through daʾwah activities and
through its curricula in the institute’s formal and non-formal education system.
Based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, this book shows that the develop-
ment of religious pluralism in Pesantren Ngalah appears to have taken place
due to the genealogy of Kiai Sholeh, the influence of his teachers, and his posi-
tion as a guide in Muslim mystical brotherhoods (tariqa murshid), and that
the development of religious pluralism in Pesantren Ngalah is implemented
through daily learning and daily activities of the religious leaders/scholars
(kiai), the teachers, the pupils of pesantren (santri), and the surrounding com-
munity.
In a context in which most recent studies on pesantren have had an anthro-
pological or sociological approach, a detail-oriented work that focuses on one
particular pesantren, especially on a sensitive topic in Indonesia (such as reli-
gious pluralism), has value in itself. Due to the vast number of pesantren in
recent years (more than 16,000) (Tan 2011: 92) and the fact that these insti-
tutes have been a significant educational institution since the Dutch colonial
administration, the book offers an important case to study the relationship
between one such pesantren and religious pluralism, which usually do not go
hand in hand. Such a relationship is actually part of a movement starting from
the end of Soeharto’s long authoritarian regime in 1998 for more democratic
Muslim politics in which the participation of Muslim leaders in democratic
campaigns has centered around the formulation of religious arguments in sup-
port of pluralism, democracy, women’s rights, and civil society (Hefner 2005: 4;
Bertrand 2010: 45). Nafis argues that religious pluralism is a system of value that
views religious diversity or pluralism positively and optimistically by accept-
ing it as a reality and striving to do good deeds based on that reality (pp. 32–
33).
In chapter 3 to chapter 6, Nafis explores the Pesantren Ngalah, including its
profile in chapter 3, the ways it constructs pluralism in chapter 4, its transfor-
mation and internalization of pluralism in chapter 5, and the implication of
its notions of pluralism for the surrounding community in chapter 6. As many
accounts associate pluralism with particular Indonesian figures, such as Gus
Dur, Cak Nur, or Syafiʾi Maʾarif, this account becomes interesting as the author

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Book Reviews 335

illustrates how pluralistic ideas are deeply attached to an institution, not only
to an individual.
Nafis shows us how Kiai Sholeh’s wide and flexible interpretation of Islamic
jurisprudence ( fiqh) has generated the construction of pluralistic ideas and
practices in Pesantren Ngalah (p. 158). Of these practices, some are worth
noting: the institute has been a place for interfaith dialogues and seminars, it
has been known to promote a moderate and accommodative way of Islamic
textual interpretation, Kiai Sholeh has delivered sermons in churches, non-
Muslims have taught certain subjects in the pesantren, non-Muslims have
resided in and studied at Pesantren Ngalah, and the curricula of its formal and
non-formal educational system have been influenced by multiculturalism and
pluralist ideas (p. 175). As a result of the construction of pluralist ideas and
practices, Pesantren Ngalah has been known as a place to promote counter-
hegemonic ideas against capitalism and Westernization, and as a pesantren
that has supported the development of a number of Islamic organizations and
congregations in Pasuruan and East Java (pp. 209–215).
Unfortunately, this book has some serious shortcomings. First, it has no clear
arguments based on actual data; the author’s opinions dominate many pages
and too often the author sides with Pesantren Ngalah. The book also provides a
rather naïve understanding of its development, such as how Kiai Sholeh dealt
with rumors of adultery with his female santri (p. 126), his genealogy that is
claimed to be clearly traced to the Prophet Muhammad (pp. 128–129), and the
way the author feels that the pluralist aspects of Pesantren Ngalah are perfectly
suitable for various ethnic communities in Pasuruan (p. 250). Therefore, we
learn nothing of how and why most pesantren in Indonesia avoid pluralist
ideas and practices. Likewise, the fact that there is an up close and personal
relation between the kiai and his santri in Pesantren Ngalah (p. 161), or that its
three functions as a religious, social, and educational institution are integrated
(p. 169), are neither new nor disputed. The book might have been stronger if
the author had included more factual findings and analyses in chapter 3 to
chapter 6, instead of focusing on theoretical discussions.
Second, chapters 1 and 2 are long-winded and lifted mostly unmodified from
the author’s doctoral dissertation, and probably could have been edited and
concisely revised into a single chapter. The theoretical discussions in Chapter 2
seem to be a decorative addition, as is often the case with doctoral dissertations
in Indonesian universities. In addition, the author does not clearly identify his
methods and sources.
Third, the author depends too much on other authors for information on
Pesantren Ngalah that he could have discovered himself from fieldwork. Worse,
Nafis mostly does it without any critical discussion. Instead of relying on anoth-

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336 Book Reviews

er author for information on the local government’s limited concern towards

religious life in Pasuruan (p. 239) or the role of Pesantren Ngalah in daʾwah
activities (p. 251), he could have interviewed the kiai himself on the subject.
This raises doubts about the accuracy of his descriptions of the institute, its
kiai, Pasuruan, and many other things.
Fourth, the book lacks cohesion. The objectives of the book appear relatively
late in the book’s introduction (p. 7). Meanwhile, key definitions also appear
late; for example, the definition of ‘pluralism’ only appears in chapter 2. In addi-
tion, there are several misprints scattered throughout the book, and the spelling
of names and concepts is inconsistent or wrong. For example, Zamakhsyari
Dhofier turns into Zamakhsyari Dlofier (p. 3), ‘pendidikan’ is spelled as ‘pan-
didikan’ (p. 7), ‘inovasi’ is wrongly spelled as ‘inofasi’ (p. 12), or ‘reporduksi’ and
‘suifistik’, instead of ‘reproduksi’ and ‘sufistik’ (p. 283).
Given the book’s intended readership, the author could have demonstrated
that there have been continuities and changes in the development and debates
of pluralism in Islamic institutions in Indonesia and beyond. It could be done
by tracing the history of pesantren in East Java and by exploring the charac-
ters of traditional understanding and application of Islam in a multicultural
province such as East Java.
All in all, despite these critiques, this book is a very positive addition to
scholarship on the pesantren initiated by Zamakhsyari Dhofier almost forty
years ago. Nafis offers a sympathetic portrait of a religious institute that, one
would hope, could become a role model not only for Muslim communities but
also for the Indonesian government, given contemporary problems of political
polarization, radicalism, and religious intolerance, particularly since the 2014
presidential elections.

Yanwar Pribadi
uin Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten, Indonesia
[email protected]

References

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Bertrand, Jacques (2010). ‘Political Islam and democracy in the majority Muslim coun-
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pp. 45–64. London and New York, Routledge.

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Book Reviews 337

Bruinessen, Martin van (1995). ‘Shariʾa court, tarekat and pesantren: Religious institu-
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