Efforts to Moderate Islamic Law Understanding through Hadith Studies in Aceh and West Sumatra Mosques

Abstract

This study aims to examine the preferred subjects of mass studies in Acehnese and West Sumatra mosques; optimize mosques' contribution to Indonesian Islamic studies; and acquire a moderate understanding of hadith and Islamic law. It uses an empirical legal method explained by using the hadith ahkam and Weber’s theory of social action. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and document studies. The study found that understanding of Islamic law is influenced by understanding of hadith, while understanding of hadith consists of two typologies, textual and contextual. Textual understanding gives birth to sectarian and radical ways of thinking, while contextual gives birth to moderate and inclusive understanding. The study of understanding Islamic law based on mosques is important because the understanding of Islamic law is relatively low, in Aceh, it is 17.5% and in West Sumatra, it is 15.62%. Optimizing the role of mosques as a place to gain a moderate understanding of Islamic law from the study of hadith is important even though it is not yet optimal. In Weber's perspective, a person's social actions will be influenced by an understanding that is considered correct, which will then become a religious practice. For that, an effort to socialize a moderate understanding of Islamic law through the attitude of tawazun, tasamuh, istiqamah is not enough but must be added to the understanding of hadith with sciences such as asbab wurud, the science of ma'an al-hadith, so that the perspective of the science of hadith ahkam in understanding the laws contained in the hadith becomes important. Thus, a moderate understanding of Islamic law will emerge, thus giving birth to harmony and tranquility in society.