https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0333-8344
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ABSTRACT
The Ahmadiyah in Indonesian Islam has often been seen as a deviant Muslim group, but there was a time when it had a cordial relationship with major Muslim organisations, particularly Muhammadiyah. The Ahmadiyah was once perceived as a highly respected revivalist and modernist Muslim movement, and became a model to be emulated by other Muslims. Erfaan Dahlan is a symbol of the dynamics of this religious relationship in the first half of the 20th century. Motivated by the spirit of Islamic revivalism, he was sent to an Ahmadiyah college in Lahore, British India, during the period of friendly relationship between Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah. But when he returned to Indonesia that relationship had deteriorated. As an alumnus of an Ahmadiyah missionary college, on the one hand, and a son of the founder of Muhammadiyah, on the other, he was in the midst of that difficult relationship. His religious identity has been a subject of controversy among competing Muslim communities. The fact that he chose to leave his country to live in Thailand after he completed his study in Lahore further raises curiosity about his religious affiliation. This article, firstly, intends to reveal the dynamics of Muhammadiyah’s relationship with Ahmadiyah in the 1920s. Secondly, it will discuss Erfaan Dahlan’s religious relation with Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah, and particularly, the controversy around the alleged heresy of the Lahori Ahmadiyah and persistent misunderstanding of Erfaan Dahlan’s religious affiliation. Finally, the article shows that the case of Erfaan Dahlan reveals the discordancy in a society which categorises its people on the orthodox-heterodox spectrum.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the family of Erfaan Dahlan in Thailand, particularly Dr Winai Dahlan, for their warm welcome and information. The Ahmadiyya community in Thailand was also helpful and generous during my fieldwork. Additional thanks to the two reviewers and to the IMW editorial team for their prompt and helpful feedback. Dr Kevin W. Fogg took time to read and suggest improvements to the draft of this article. The fieldwork in Thailand was partly supported by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. A draft of this article was first presented at the symposium on ‘Religious Literature and Heritage - Cultivating Religious Culture for Nationalism’, in Bogor, Indonesia, 18–21 July 2017.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Note on contributor
Ahmad Najib Burhani is a Researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta, and currently, visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. His research focuses on religious minorities and Islamic movements in Indonesia. Email: [email protected]
ORCID
Ahmad Najib Burhani http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0333-8344
Notes
1 Von der Mehden (Citation1963: 203) incorrectly mentions that the Lahore branch came to Indonesia in 1925, a year after the Qadiani began its activities in Indonesia.
2 The Tashwirul Afkar was established and led by KH Abdul Wahab Hasbullah and KH Mas Mansur. Mansur then joined the Muhammadiyah and served as its president from 1937 to 1941 (Aboebakar Citation1957: 125).
3 This book has another title: The gospel of action. It was originally written in Urdu with two titles: Raaz-e-hayaat and Injil ‘amaal.
4 In the Urdu edition, this signature appears on page 245 (Kamal-ud-Din Citation1921). In the English edition, it appears on page 17 (Kamal-ud-Din Citation1923). In the Indonesian edition, it appears on page xxi (Kamaluddin Citation1966).
5 Beck (Citation2005: 220); Blood (Citation1974: 25); Pijper (Citation1950: 251), Soedewo (Citation1937: 93); Zulkarnain (Citation2005: 180–181).
6 Some of the articles in the Muslim World that discuss Christian missionaries and Islam in Southeast Asia (particularly the East Indies), before the arrival of Ahmadiyah missionaries in Indonesia in 1924, are Zwemmer (Citation1911) and Mansell (Citation1918). This journal also had a number of articles on Ahmadiyah e.g. Griswold (Citation1912), Walter (Citation1916; Citation1918), Gardner (Citation1919), Stanton (Citation1925), Bakhsh (Citation1927), and Titus (Citation1941).
7 Before the arrival of these muballigh, as witnessed by Djojosugito, information about Ahmadiyah had been heard in 1921 and 1922 through the Islamic Review published in Singapore (Aboebakar Citation1957: 157).
8 When Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din came to Surabaya in 1920, he did not discuss the Ahmadiyah. The reports also mention that he was there there for medical not religious reasons.
9 This is particularly related to the success of Ahmadiyah missionaries in converting prominent figures in England to Islam such as Lord Headley, Sir Archibald Hamilton, and Marmaduke Pickthall.
10 Some scholars such as Harry J. Benda (Citation1958: 53), Fred R. von der Mehden (Citation1963: 203), and Martin van Bruinessen (Citation1999: 169) considered that there were three centres of Islamic revivalism and scholarship at the turn of the 20th century: Arabia, Egypt, and India.
11 This letter was published in Soewara Moehammadijah no. 7, year 5/1924, pp. 105–106. I thank Farid Setiawan of Muhammadiyah for providing me with the copy of this magazine, and Saptoni for helping me translate the letter from High Javanese into English.
12 Some references (Beck Citation2005: 228) mention that Erfaan Dahlan was born in 1905. However, the information from one of his sons, Winai Dahlan, gave the year of birth as 1907, based on Erfaan Dahlan’s passport (interview with Winai Dahlan in Bangkok, Thailand, on 17 October 2018).
13 Soewara Moehammadijah, no. 7, year 5/1924, pp. 105–106.
14 The use of this new name can be found, for instance, in the report about Erfaan Dahlan in Pandji Poestaka, no. 84, Year VIII, 21 October Citation1930, p. 1340. I would like to thank Dr Suryadi Sunuri of Leiden University for information on this archive.
15 Interview with Rambhai (Marifah) Dharmikarak at the home of her later father, Erfaan Dahlan, in Bangkok, Thailand, on 19 October 2018.
16 The names of Erfaan Dahlan’s ten children in Thai and Arabic: (1) Mrs Rambhai (Marifah) Dharmikarak (b.1942), (2) Mr Phaiboon (Ismail) Dahlan (b.1946), (3) Mr Phaerat (Sierat) Dahlan (b.1948), (4) Mr Phaesaan (Ahmad) Dahlan (b.1950), (5) Mr Winai (Basir) Dahlan (b.1952), (6) Mrs Amporn (Aminah) Sanafi (b.1953), (7) Mr Anant (Adanan) Dahlan (b.1955), (8) Mr Artorn (Ahsan) Dahlan (b.1957), (9) Mrs Walida (Walidah) Thanakorn (b.1959), and (10) Mr Amnaj (Anwaruddin) Dahlan (b.1962).
17 Some people, including the children of Erfaan Dahlan in Bangkok, believed that he went directly to Thailand after finishing his study in Lahore. Widyastuti (Citation2014) also mentions that Erfaan did not return to the Dutch East Indies after his study in Lahore. This issue will be discussed later in this article.
18 Herman Beck challenges Hamka’s view that his father was the catalyst of the rupture between Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah. He shows that after the meeting between Haji Rasul and Mirza Wali Baig: (1) sympathetic articles on Ahmadiyah were still found in the Almanak Moehammadijah of 1926–1927; (2) the publishing house Taman Pustaka Muhammadiyah, still published Ahmadiyah books; and (3) these two organisations still cooperated in opposing Christian missionaries (Beck Citation2005: 231).
19 Abdul ‘Alim Siddiq al-Qadiri was a travelling missionary. He was born on 3 April 1892 (15 Ramadhan 1310) in Meerut, India. He came to Southeast Asia and then lived in Singapore for several years from 1930. He died on 22 August 1954 in Madina, Saudi Arabia. This information comes from an inscription in Abdul ‘Alim Siddiq al-Qadiri mosque in 90 Lorong K, Telok Kurau Road, Singapore.
20 ‘Erfan Ahmad Dahlan (1905–<1967)’, <http://ahmadiyah.org/irfan-dahlan/>
21 Interview with Rambhai Darmikarak at her home in Bangkok, Thailand, on 19 October 2018.
22 Pers. comm. Winai Dahlan to author, 19 August 2013.
23 The Indonesian government awarded Ahmad Dahlan the status of Pahlawan Nasional (National Hero) following Presidential Decree No. 657 on 27 December 1961. On the question of pahlawan nasional awards, see Fogg (Citation2019).
24 Interview with Winai Dahlan at the Halal Science Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 17 October 2018 when he reasserted that his father was not an Ahmadi.
25 Interview with Uung Kurnia and Prasit Jumma Khan Rakpraphapan, local missionary of Ahmadiyah, in Royal Rattanakosin Hotel, Bangkok and in Ahmadiyahh Mission House in Pathumthani province, Thailand, 16 October 2018.
26 Pandji Poestaka, no. 84, Year VIII, 21 October Citation1930, p. 1340. I thank Dr Suryadi Sunuri of Leiden University for providing me with this archive as well as Saptoni for helping to translate the letter from High Javanese into English.
27 The status of Dr Khan as physician is also stated by Winai Dahlan in his correspondence with the author on 19 August 2013.
28 Interview with Winai Dahlan at the Halal Science Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 17 October 2018.
29 <http://www.abdulhaq.info/photos/sketch.htm> The website is that of Dr Zahid Aziz, a grandson of Vidyarthi. The content of this website has been reproduced on Indonesian Lahori Ahmadiyah website.
32 The position of the Lahori Ahmadiyah on MUI’s fatwa in 2005 and its difference from the Qadiani Ahmadiyah is discussed by Ali Yasir (Citation2005).