Pidato Haedar Nashir & Abdul Mu’ti di UMJ | Muhammadiyah, Tajdid, Dakwah & Peradaban

Summary

The event at Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta (UMJ) focuses on Muhammadiyah as a tajdid (renewal) movement and its ambition to contribute to civilization. The speakers argue that renewal must shape not only religious understanding, but also personal conduct, public life, education, and social progress.

Abdul Mu’ti: Muhammadiyah’s distinct approach

• Muhammadiyah is distinguished by its manhaj, or approach to understanding and practicing religion. That approach shapes how its members act and how the organization serves society.
• Personal change begins with a change in mindset:
  • Mindset influences individual behavior and character.
  • Shared behavior forms culture.
  • A strong culture can develop into civilization.
• Muhammadiyah’s leadership tradition is presented as different from systems based on lineage: leaders are selected through the organization’s own traditions and processes.
• Muhammadiyah’s service should be practical, creative, and cooperative. Mu’ti gives the example of Muhammadiyah members providing free food at an NU congress as a simple act of service that builds goodwill.
• He congratulates UMJ on opening new study programs and credits its progress to collaboration and initiative across the university.

Haedar Nashir: Faith, social conduct, and the mission of dakwah

Haedar argues that religious commitment must be visible in ethical and civic life. He points to a gap between Indonesia’s large Muslim population and problems such as corruption, uncivil online behavior, and weak reading and scientific habits. In his view, religious observance should lead to honesty, social responsibility, knowledge, and progress—not remain merely personal or ceremonial.

He also cites surveys reporting high public trust in Muhammadiyah, including among millennials and Generation Z. He says that trust should be protected through conduct and service, especially since some young people question religion when they see conflict, poor public behavior, or a lack of exemplary leadership.

Muhammadiyah’s religious and social mission

• Muhammadiyah should make religion enlightening, intellectually enriching, empowering, liberating, and beneficial to society.
• Haedar invokes Kiai Ahmad Dahlan’s warning that religion may appear to lose its light because of the conduct of its adherents, not because of religion itself.
• Religious understanding should be comprehensive rather than fragmented: it includes commands, prohibitions, and guidance for spiritual and intellectual life.
• Faith should be revitalized by bringing human religious disposition together with the guidance of revelation. In Haedar’s account, this helps produce a grounded and constructive religious life.
• Muhammadiyah should advance human dignity and mutual respect, including between women and men. He describes the founding of ‘Aisyiyah as part of Muhammadiyah’s effort to raise women’s dignity and contribute to wider society.

A practical approach to preaching and renewal

Haedar outlines an approach to dakwah that combines depth of understanding with care for people:

• Understand Islam comprehensively. Study its teachings deeply and in context rather than relying on isolated or partial interpretations.
• Use three complementary modes of understanding:
  • Bayani: Engage closely with scripture and textual evidence, interpreting it in relation to life and context.
  • Burhani: Use reason, intellectual inquiry, and scientific understanding.
  • Irfani: Bring spiritual awareness, empathy, and sensitivity to people’s inner lives.
• Preach with wisdom and kindness. Correct and guide people without humiliating or alienating them; when opposing wrongdoing, be polite but clear.
• Keep learning. Leaders and cadres, especially younger ones, should build their knowledge and reading habits.
• Turn belief into beneficial action. Serve communities, the nation, and humanity through good works and constructive organizational activity.

Building culture and civilization

Haedar distinguishes culture from civilization: culture is the shared knowledge and practices that enable people to live together, while civilization is culture at its highest development. Muhammadiyah’s goal, he says, is not to reject tradition wholesale but to transform traditions that cause stagnation, ignorance, or regression.

He warns that digital technology and artificial intelligence can bring benefits but may also contribute to dehumanization if they weaken human relationships, attention, or reading. He argues for preserving the value of books and sustained reading alongside digital media. Muhammadiyah’s work in education, health, social services, and economics should help create a culture that is knowledgeable, ethical, and humane, with the longer-term aim of contributing to Islamic civilization.

Speakers and sources mentioned

Speakers in the provided subtitles

• Prof. Abdul Mu’ti — Secretary-General of PP Muhammadiyah and Minister of Primary and Secondary Education.
• Prof. Haedar Nashir — General Chair of PP Muhammadiyah.
• Unidentified opening narrator/voice-over — Introduces the event and its theme.

People and sources cited or acknowledged

• Kiai Ahmad Dahlan — Quoted on the relationship between religion and the conduct of its adherents.
• The Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah — Cited as foundations for Muhammadiyah’s understanding of Islam.
• Muhammadiyah’s Tarjih formulation — Invoked in defining Islam through revelation, commands, prohibitions, and guidance.
• A 2024 Kompas survey and a public-policy institute at Universitas Ahmad Dahlan — Cited for reported public trust in Muhammadiyah.
• Microsoft (2022) — Cited regarding online civility in Indonesia.
• Yuval Noah Harari — Referenced in discussion of technology and human society.
• Dudung Abdurrahman — Mentioned as having spoken earlier at the event; his speech is not included in the provided subtitles.