Sunnatullah as a Bridge Between Revelation, Tradition, and Reason: The Relevance of Nurcholish Madjid’s Thought for Contemporary Indonesian Islamic Politics
Analisis Pemikiran Nurcholish Madjid tentang Politik Islam Di Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59029/int.v5i1.84Keywords:
Nurcholish Madjid, Sunnatullah, Substantive Islamic Politics, Islamic Tradition, Islamic Neo-ModernismAbstract
This study aims to analyze the relationship between revelation, tradition, and reason in the thought of Nurcholish Madjid and to explain its relevance to the development of Islamic politics in contemporary Indonesia. This study is important because debates concerning the relationship between Islam, modernity, and politics continue amid the growing tendency toward the formalization of religion in the public sphere. The study employs a qualitative approach and collects data through library research. The findings show that Nurcholish Madjid’s thought centers on tawhid as an epistemological principle that connects revelation, tradition, and reason through the concept of sunnatullah. He understands tradition as a source of values that must be dynamically reinterpreted to respond to social change, while he views modernization as an internal process that remains consistent with Islamic values. This framework generates a substantive vision of Islamic politics that prioritizes justice, democracy, pluralism, and public welfare over religious symbolism. The relevance of this perspective appears in the development of Indonesian Islamic politics, which demonstrates a gradual shift from formalism toward substantivism. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that the concept of sunnatullah functions as an epistemological bridge between revelation, tradition, and reason in the construction of substantive Islamic politics. These findings expand interpretations of Islamic neo-modernism within the context of contemporary Indonesia.
References
Abdullah, M. A. (2021). Nurcholish Madjid and Religious Pluralism in Indonesian Islam. In Pluralism in Islamic Contexts-Ethics, Politics and Modern Challenges (pp. 189-199). (pp. 189–199). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66089-5_11
Arifianto, A. R. (2020). The State of Political Islam in Indonesia: The Historical Antecedent and Future Prospects. Asia Policy, 15(4), 111–132. https://doi.org/10.1353/asp.2020.0059
Azra, A. (2006). Indonesia, Islam, and democracy: Dynamics in a global context. Equinox Publishing.
Bakti, A. F. (2005). Islam and Modernity: Nurcholish Madjid’s Interpretation of Civil Society, Pluralism, Secularization, and Democracy. Asian Journal of Social Science, 33(3), 486–505. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853105775013634
Barton, G. (1997). Indonesia’s Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid as intellectual Ulama: The meeting of Islamic traditionalism and modernism in neo‐modernist thought. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 8(3), 323–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596419708721130
Bruinessen, M. V. (2006). Nurcholish Madjid, Indonesian Muslim intellectual. ISIM Review, 17, 20–21.
Bruinessen, M. V. (2013). Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam. ISEAS Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814414579
Bruinessen, M. V., Barton, G., & Fealy, G. (1996). Nahdlatul Ulama, traditional Islam and modernity in Indonesia. Monash Asia Institute.
Burhani, A. N. (2018). Contestation of Religious Authority in Indonesia. In Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Modernity (pp. 140–162). ISEAS--Yusof Ishak Institute. https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814818001-009
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches 4th ed,. SAGE Publications.
Fealy, G., & White, S. (2008). Expressing Islam (G. Fealy & S. White (eds.)). ISEAS Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1355/9789812308528
Hasan, N. (2018). Reformasi, Religious Diversity, and Islamic Radicalism after Suharto. Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(1), 23–51. https://doi.org/10.14203/jissh.v1i1.2
Hefner, R. W. (2011). Civil Islam. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400823871
Kadir, S. (1999). The Islamic factor in Indonesia’s political transition. Asian Journal of Political Science, 7(2), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/02185379908434146
Lahaji, & Faisal, A. (2023). “Caliphate no in Indonesia”: Nurcholish Madjid and Yudian Wahyudi critiques toward Islamic State discourse in Indonesian Islam. Cogent Social Sciences, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2023.2278207
Lukens-Bull, R. A., & Makin, A. (2025). Paradoxical Pluralism: Training Militants for Tolerance in an Indonesian Youth Movement. Studia Islamika, 32(2), 211–239. https://doi.org/10.36712/sdi.v32i2.45842
M. Fakhriansyah. (2024). Pertama dalam Sejarah, PPP Tak Lolos Senayan! Ini Kiprahnya di Pemilu. CNBC Indonesia. https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/research/20240320193121-128-523853/pertama-dalam-sejarah-ppp-tak-lolos-senayan-ini-kiprahnya-di-pemilu
Madjid, N. (2008). Tradisi Islam: Peran dan Fungsinya dalam Pembangunan di Indonesia. Dian Rakyat.
Mahendra, F. R. (2023). Dialektika Pembaruan Islam dalam Pembacaan Fazlur Rahman. Zawiyah: Jurnal Pemikiran Islam, 9(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.31332/zjpi.v9i1.4484
Miftahuddin, M. (2025). The Ideal Islamic Education in The Indonesian Context: The Islamic Thought Of Nurcholish Madjid. International Joint Conference on Arts and Humanities 2024 (IJCAH 2024), 537–548. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-317-7_55
Mujiburrahman. (1999). Islam and politics in Indonesia: The political thought of Abdurrahman Wahid. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 10(3), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596419908721191
Nurdin, A. A. (2016). Revisiting discourse on Islam and state relation in Indonesia: the view of Soekarno, Natsir and Nurcholish Madjid. Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies, 6(1), 63. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v6i1.63-92
Pratama, D. A. (2023). Islam and Neo-Modernism in Indonesia: Revisiting Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid’s Thought on Civil Society. Al’Adalah, 26(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.35719/aladalah.v26i2.371
Rahman, F. (1984). Islam and modernity: Transformation of an intellectual tradition (Vol. 15). University of Chicago Press.
Saeed, A. (2006). Islamic Thought. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203015247
Samosir, L., Djunatan, S., Haq, M. Z., & Viktorahadi, R. F. B. (2023). Kiat Sukses Menulis Karya Ilmiah bagi Mahasiswa. Gunung Djati Publishing.
Soroush, A. (1990). Qabz wa Bast-e Teorik-e Shari’at. Serat Cultural Institute.
Sumantri, R. A. (2019). Pemikiran dan pembaharuan Islam menurut perspektif Nurcholish Madjid di Indonesia. An-Nidzam: Jurnal Manajemen Pendidikan Dan Studi Islam, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.33507/an-nidzam.v6i1.184
Woodward, M. (2007). Piety and Politics: Nurcholish Madjid and His Interpretation of Islam in Modern Indonesia. Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 22(2), 289–294. https://doi.org/10.1355/SJ22-2H
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Julianus Eduardus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
You are free to:
Share - copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
