Wasatiyyah Discourse by the Perspective of Indonesian Muslim Scholars

Abstract

Wasatiyyah often referred as the proper method to practice in all of human life. Its simplicity and balanced are the best approaches in rejecting extremism holistically. Even so wasatiyyah adopts Islamic teachings but still misunderstood by some people. Moreover there were a handful of people who put wasatiyyah as a platform to justify any means to achieve personal ambitions. Therefore, to reach a better understanding of the idea, this article debates on the perspective of Indonesian Muslim scholars. This study applied the document analysis method to discuss this issue in the composite. Therefore, the study found that wasatiyyah according to Indonesian Muslim scholars means fair, best and balanced. Although different definitions, but consists positive meaning. In addition, wasatiyyah also intends Islam denied the extremist group that symbolizes the lack of knowledge and stiffness in facing various issues. Instead wasatiyyah needs balance or middle attitude to highlight the characteristics of justice. Wasatiyyah according to Muslim Indonesia also gained from the arguments of the Quran and Hadith. However, the fruits have not been comprehensively picked regarding its implementation.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s1p480