How Prophet “Muhammad” Faced The Diversity
We know that diversity among Muslim people is a blessing, this statement is attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. This means that juristic differences provide Muslims with a few options, based on their conditions and situations.
Islamic tradition takes pride in Islamic legal theory and comparative Islamic law, developed for studying the differences in interpretations of the Qur’an and differences in the transmission of the hadith, as well as differences in the methods of interpretation text.
If we see in the history of Islam, even in the era of the Prophet, there have been juristic differences among the companions of the Prophet, such as the diversity not only existed, but was also respected. Islamic teaching are claimed to be based on Allah revelations, but there are many different opinions in Islam itself.
We can read in hadith and find two different views emerge from a story of how companions of the Prophet have interpreted the Muhammad’s direct instruction to them. One event of such an incident has been recorded in islamic literature, the Prophet is reported to have said to his companions: “Do not perform the asr prayer until you get to the place of Banu Qurayzah”. But still on their way, the time of the prayer came.
Some of the companions said, ‘We will not perform the prayer until we get to the place of Banu Qurayzah while some others said, ‘We shall pray. That saying of the Prophet will not prevent us from praying now. The problem was later brought before the Prophet and he did not disapprove of either group. They had split into two groups over the interpretation of the Muhammad’s instructions, one group intepret the literal meaning of the injunction while the other group derived a meaning from the injunction, which they considered suitable for their condition. The Prophet Muhammad approved of both groups showed that eachposition was legally just as valid as the other group.
Al-Qur’an and Hadith as islamic source of guidance may be conveyed in a text which is either clear and open to different interpretations. A definitive text is one which is clear and specific. It has one meaning and admits of no other interpretations. In other type, we can see in a Qur’anic text and Hadith may have several different meanings which have different legal consequences, we might use ijtihad to find and understand the most suitable meaning of a particular Islamic source.
Pluralism in Islamic Indoneisan people cannot be avoided. In fact, such diversity of views has been one of the prominent characteristics of fiqh throughout its history. Although the differences between scholars has produced diverse, and often conflicting, opinions, and, despite the fact that scholars have frequently stressed the need for unifying laws, difference of opinion has been continuously respected in their principle.
We can find it in Indonesian government itself, they have attempted to accommodate differences regarding observing the hilal for Ramadan, Idul Fitri and Idul Adha, but in the end the decision has to be made, as the community expects there to be an official decision, to avoid confusion. The tendency is for the Government to join with the MUI in reaching a decision. This has left other major organisations like Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama sometimes in different positions to that of the Indonesia government.
In other case, the differences amongst Islamic organisations faced the Government could become more complex when political and business interests
also play a role. Competition would lead to a contest over Islamic authority, in a plural society like Indonesia. In this era of democracy, unlike in Soeharto era, the
Government could no longer force compliance with its decisions on religious
matters. At the other end of the spectrum, Muslim leaders should not insist that
their opinion is the correct one and therefore stop the dialogue.
Fair dialogue is the key for understanding the plural society like Indonesia. Imam Syafi’i as classic scholar has reminded us that Our opinion is a right one with the possibility of being wrong and others’ opinions are wrong ones with the possibility of being right. The Prophet also said about it that When a jurist makes ijtihad and reaches a correct conclusion, he receives a double reward; and if his conclusion is incorrect, he still receives a single reward. This is seen as the pure of the plurality of interpretation in Islamic thought
