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The Influence of Islam on Local Tradition:

the Minangkabaus Experience1

by

Emeraldy Chatra2

Abstract

Sejarah pertemuan Islam dengan adat Minangkabau sering disebut sebagai pertemuan berdarah karena kaum Wahabi memaksakan kehendaknya kepada kaum Adat. Sikap keras kaum Wahabi dikatakan sebagai penyebab timbulnya Perang Padri yang disudahi dengan lahirnya perdamaian, yang merubah Adat Minang menjadi adat yang Islami. Cerita demikian didominasi oleh sumber-sumber kolonial.

Tulisan ini memberikan perspektif yang berbeda dari sumber lokal yang tidak pernah ditulis; hanya disampaikan oleh tetua Minang secara lisan. Klaim tentang adanya Wahabi, Padri dan Perang Padri dibantah; tidak ada yang selama ini disebut Perang Padri, melainkan Perang Candu. Demikan pula tentang Wahabi dan Padri.

Perang Candu digambarkan sebagai akibat dari usaha kelompok muslim militan memerangi peredaran candu yang diikuti oleh peredaran tuak yang disertai permainan judi. Perang terjadi karena kegagalan komunikasi/diplomasi kelompok muslim militan dengan para elit pemerintahan adat yang mendukung peredaran candu, tuak dan judi.

1. Introduction

Islam was introduced to Minangkabau at time these tribe had

possesed a complex social system. Many say that it was happened in the

12th century, even before. Some argues that Islam was brought and

introduced by Shiite traders under the authority of the Fathimid Dynasty

1 Paper presented at the International Conference in Islamic Intercultural

Communication Studies, UIN Jakarta, 11 November 2013 2 Student of Program Doktor Ilmu Komunikasi, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung.

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of Egypt. M. O. Parlindungan in his book Tuanku Rao (1964) writes that

before Islamic reformation at the 19th century Minangkabau was governed

by Qaramitah Shiites. But his argument is refused by many scholars, since

there was no evidences and the Qaramitah was a deviant sect in Islamic

world. Hamka, the prominent Islamic scholar of Minangkabau in his book

Tuanku Rao : Antara Khayal dan Fakta (1974) accuses that Parlindungan

wrote history based on imagination, not fact.

How and since when Islam was being adhered by the Minang is a

difficult questions to be answered in academic context since there is no

complete historical report about it. Minangkabau history just start being

written at the colonial era and of course it is colored by colonial

perspective and interest. However for the Minang at large the lack of

written history seems not to be a serius problem since most of them

remain believe in old miths and stories.

The history that made by colonial apparatus tells that Islam was

introduced to Minangkabau by force or through a long religious war

between traditional faction or Kaum Adat and fundamentalist muslim that

called Padri group between 1803 to 1837 (see Hadler, 2008). Nevertheless

the colonial version is questionable for its accuracy because padri term is

not refer to Islam but Christian. Padri term was created by Professor Veth,

a Dutch scholar who never come to Minangkabau as long as his life.

Furthermore, there is no support of historical logic that the Padri was a

part of Wahhabi Movement as stated by colonial history version --

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because there is no evidence that the leaders of these Islamic movement

had direct contact with Wahhabi of Arabia.

2. Warfare and the Failure of Communication

Islamization through violence actions as told by colonial version

is a less acceptable statement since the lack of supportive evidences. A

narration of local version, but never written properly, say that Padri War

(1803 1837) was not purely religious movement but a war that triggered

by an effort of combating opium and alcohol market. It is mean that the

war broke between muslim against muslim, but the one of them anti-

opium while another give support to the opium and alcohol distribution.

The warfare then interpreted by colonial scholars as a religious war

because the main supporter of opium and alcohol distribution was come

from a group who apply the traditional custom and majority of them were

at ruling party. Colonial scholars hide facts that they were muslim as well,

but did not fully apply Islamic teaching. But, this argument do not purpose

to support Parlindungans argument about Qaramitah Shiite since no one

knows what Islamic sect that followed by the member of the ruling party.

Facts that the Kaum Adat or ruling party members were also muslim

refused claim that Padri War was the part of a religious transformation

movement in Minangkabau. The fact, before the warfare the Minang had

been being muslim but majority of them were more adhered to the local

custom rather than Islamic teaching. So, the warfare was not to Islamized

the Minang but to change the old tradition that consume opium and

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alcohol. Narration of local version says that marketing of opium and

alcohol was backed up by colonial force. From the perspective of

communication it can be said that the warfare was derived from a

communication failure in resolving and abolishing destructive habit of the

people.

However, at the end of the war the parties arrived on a peace

agreement at Puncak Marapalam it is called Marapalam Agreement --

and declare a new commitment that Minangkabau's customs from that

moment based on Islamic teaching. Therefore, no longer both opium and

alcohol consumption and the customs should resist any praxis that

incompatible with Islamic teaching. In local expression the declaration is

pronounced: adat basandi syarak,syarak basandi Kitabullah (the

customs based on Islamic law, Islamic law based on Quran). With these

declaration then the Minang just approve one religion for its society, i.e

Islam. Any society member who convert to another religion will be

disposed from community. He/she will lose all of their traditional rights.

For sum, in analysing the influence of Islam on local tradition of

Minangkabau we cannot start from the war between Padri and Kaum

Adat in the 19th century but should look back to a long period before the

warfare. We should pay attention to the process of adoption Islamic

teaching that may be had begun since 10th century or before. In the 8th

century the Fathimid Dynasty of Egypt strongly supported Islamic mission

to many countries around the world, including to some part of Indonesia.

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With this activity probably Islamic missionaries had reached Minangkabau

land and introduced the religion to the people. Since the beginning up to

the 19th century the history of religious conflict between local people is

absolutely absent. Islam came and develop among the Minang in peace.

But we cannot argue about the quality of religious praxis for the lack of

information about it. The burst of war in the 19th century pointed that

there was a degradation of religious praxis: opium, alcohol, and gambling

had integrated with the daily customs even practiced among traditional

leaders. Christine Dobbin (1987) describes how the widespread of banditry

phenomena, even inhabitant of some villages were bandit that always

disturb traders for obtaining opium and they play cockfight and other form

of gambling.

Why the degradation has happened there? Isnt the main mission of

Islam to change human kind morality? Where did the religious clerks go

and what was they role in maintaining the value of Islam? These are the

fundamental questions that bring us to assumption that the religious

clerks did not have strong position among the people, even up to an

assumption that the argument of Parlindungan about the influence of

Qaramitah Shiite may be true. An unpleasant assumption, off course ! The

reason is the Qaramitah Shiite the most liberal sect in Shiite faction since

it do not oblige muslims to carry out fundamental rites of Islam i.e pray,

fasting and other precepts (Livingstone, 2007:73), even according to some

sources it also permit to conduct adultery as well as consume opium and

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alcohol. By these ideology the Qaramit seems did not make crucial

contradictions among the people that presumably had consumed opium or

alcohol long before the ideology introduced.

However, these traditions brought crucial problems among the

society members; morality lost and ultimately Islam just being a cultural

symbol. The Islamic purification movement that appeared in Arab, i.e

Wahhabi Movement seems had inspired some local Islamic leader to

follow the movement, but there is not enough evidence to say that Islamic

movement in Minangkabau is a part of or supported by Wahabbi

Movement of Arabia.

Out of the interconnection issue between the two movements we can

conclude that at that time Minangkabau Islamic leaders had intensively

exchanged information with muslim community outside Minangkabau.

They did not only adopt the idea of purification but also about the war

tactics and used weapons. Communication media was still not as

sophisticated as this time, but they could use it properly. In the side of

communication studies these matter is an interesting to be studied

particularly on how did they set up and control internal communication to

sustain and maintain the movement up to 30 years.

3. Islamic Influences

The implication of Marapalam Agreement do not only cover the

matter of opium, alcohol and gambling, but also other aspects of life of the

Minang, among others the rule of marriage, inheritance law, leadership

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etc. In brief, all aspect of the Minang life must refers to the norm and value

of Islam.

However, Islamization in Minangkabau is not equal with Arabization

or making Minangkabau being identical with Arabic. Islam is accepted as

the core value of the culture and ritual tradition, but it is not abolish the

local culture of Minangkabau. In family system for instance, the structure

is remain unique; do not refers to Arabs culture. The role of mothers

extended family is more important than those of fathers. Minangkabau is

still maintain the matrilineal system for collective legacy in its inheritance

law (Kahn, 1980: 25). Even though, faraidh law or Islamic inheritance law

is implemented for parents legacy. After married the bride do not live with

her husbands family but conversely the husband live with her family.

Nevertheless, changes appear at any aspect of the life of the Minang

nowadays. The role of mothers extended family is gradually decline and

replaced by both parents' extended family, or no replaced by any one of

those extended family. The absence of both or one of parents' extended

family for their children means that nuclear family is being more

important than extended family; children just belong to their parents, do

not belong to their parent's family.

On the other hand, quite many of the Minang prefer to choose

western value rather than Islams for their way of life. They adopt many

thoughts from the West and put Islamic values as the alternatif

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perspective. Therefore, any issues related with Minangkabau culture

including its degradation will not be an important problem for them.

4. Conclusion

To sum up above description, Minangkabau culture can not be

separated from Islam since Islamic value is the core value of this culture.

No one of community member of Minangkabau ethnicity is permitted to

adhere other religion than Islam, and anyone who convert to other religion

will be disposed from its community. However, many efforts to pull those

people leave Islam is intensively carried out particularly by Christian

movement. It is a crucial problem for Minangkabau culture and the

Minang nowadays because some of them even being priest and persuade

the others convert to their religion.

References

Dobbin, C. (1987). Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy: Central Sumatra, 1784-1847. (2nd edition). London: Curzon Press.

Hadler, J. (2008) A Historiography of Violence and the Secular State in Indonesia: Tuanku Imam Bondjol and the Uses of History. The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 67, No. 3 (August): 9711010.

Hamka (1974), Tuanku Rao : Antara Khayal dan Fakta. Jakarta: Bulan Bintang

Kahn, J. S. (1980) Minangkabau Social Formations Indonesian Peasants and The World-Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Livingstone, D. (2007) Terrorism And The Illuminati, A Three Thousand Year History. Charleston: BookSurge LLC

Parlindungan, M.O. (2007) Tuanku Rao. Teror Agama Islam Mazhab Hambali di Tanah Batak. 1816 1833. (2nd editition) Yogyakarta: Penerbit LkiS