Rereading the Map of Hadith Studies in Indonesia: Contributions from Islamic Scholars and Social Organisations

Abstract

Despite hadith serving as Islam’s secondary religious authority, scholarly work on hadith in Indonesia has developed slowly. This raises the question of what role Indonesian Muslim intellectuals and Islamic community organizations have played in advancing hadith scholarship within the country. To explore this issue, researchers employed a library-based methodology with analytical examination to assess these contributions. Information was collected by reviewing published works from Indonesian Muslim scholars, applying both inductive reasoning and content evaluation techniques. Findings indicate that insufficient scholarly focus and scarce hadith resources account for the delayed progress in this field. Nevertheless, hadith scholarship gained momentum during the latter half of the 1800s and continued expanding into the early 1900s. This growth was partly motivated by efforts to purify Islamic doctrine and by responses to Orientalist criticism that challenged hadith authenticity. Within this framework, Indonesian Muslim intellectuals and Islamic community organizations have made substantial contributions to hadith scholarship development, particularly by producing hadith literature and related scholarly materials. Their methodological approaches, however, show variation. Muslim scholars employ both literal and contextual interpretive methods when examining hadith, whereas Islamic community organizations—with the exception of NU—predominantly rely on literal interpretation. NU distinguishes itself by incorporating both interpretive strategies in its decision-making processes.