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Alkhairaat’s Executive Board Chairman, Ali Muhammad Aljufri with Executive Director of Leimena Institute, Matius Ho, at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Development of Understanding and Application of Cross Cultural Religious Literacy (CCRL).
IL News 006/2022Jakarta, April 12, 2022 – Alkhairaat’s Executive Board Chairman, Ali Muhammad Aljufri, called attention to the important teachings of the Qur’an about being brothers in humanity so as to build interfaith relations. This principle has been the guide of Islamic education figures in East Indonesia, particularly the founder of Alkhairaat, Idrus Bin Salim Aljufri (Elder Teacher), in expanding Alkhairaat’s educational institutions.
“The Apostle said, while complaining to Allah. O Allah, O my Lord, my people have forsaken the Qur’an, it became just a display. When in fact if we read the Qur’an, there is a verse that says, we are brothers in humanity,” said Habib Ali during the socialization event for the implementation of the Cross Cultural Religious Literacy (CCRL) international program which was held in partnership with Leimena Institute, in Alkhairaat University’s Faculty of Religion Hall, Palu, Central Sulawesi, Saturday (26/3/2022).
In the said event, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Alkhairaat’s Executive Board and Leimena Institute on the Development of Understanding and Application of CCRL was also conducted, along with the signing of a cooperation agreement between Alkhairaat University and Leimena Institute on the Implementation of the Development of Understanding and Application of CCRL.
Habib Ali stated that all human beings are fundamentally created from one life, that of Prophet Adam, therefore showing goodness to fellow human beings should be universal. He recounted the example of Elder Teacher, Idrus Bin Salim Aljufri, in applying the values of human brotherhood, specifically the time Alkhairaat school did not have a Mathematics teacher at the beginning of its establishment, and then a pastor expressed his willingness to teach there.
“Elder Teacher said, go ask him (the pastor), do you want to teach? It was asked, can I really teach at Alkhairaat? Teaching is a form of goodness, thus Alkhairaat accepts that goodness,” said Habib Ali, who is the grandson of Elder Teacher or Habib Idrus.
According to Habib Ali, being brothers in humanity cannot only remain a theory, but should be put into practice in real life. He cited as an example the establishment of an emergency relief center for earthquake victims by Alkhairaat which involved various parties including residents from Nabire, Papua, because everyone had the same humanitarian goal.
“During the earthquake in Palu, there was an emergency relief center that wrote ‘humanitarian aid except for …’ I won’t say who the exception was, but how can there be exceptions with regards to humanity? I am confounded, too. Besides what we term as a human being is precisely that, every human being,” he remarked.
Habib Ali added that as a matter of fact, the practice of CCRL has already been circulating within the Islamic archipelago, where Islam adherents in Indonesia respect each other’s differences. However, the Islamic archipelago practices become damaged gradually when it is only presented as a narrative.
“We are grateful to Leimena Institute, because in reality, if you want to study it, everything is at hand, but sometimes people forget,” he mentioned.
Executive Director of Leimena Institute, Matius Ho, and Rector of Alkhairaat University, Dr. Umar Alatas, signing of a cooperation agreement on the Implementation of the Development of Understanding and Application of CCRL.
The Largest Islamic Community in East Indonesia
The late Idrus Bin Salim Aljufri has been renowned as an Islamic education figure in East Indonesia, especially in Central Sulawesi. His success in establishing Alkhairaat to become the largest Islamic community organization in East Indonesia has produced results, to wit, there are now around 1,600 madrasas/schools and 34 Islamic boarding schools in the eastern region of Indonesia. Alkhairaat’s Executive Board also has Alkhairaat University (Unisa) with 7 faculties as well as Aljufri S.I.S. Islamic Hospital.
The CCRL international program is the first collaboration between Alkhairaat’s Executive Board and Leimena Institute. For the initial stage, the CCRL training will be held online on May 23-27, 2022 with a target of 500 madrasah teachers and lecturers within the Alkhairaat environment from a total of about 3,000 participants who are going to be trained.
In his remarks via online, Leimena Institute Senior Fellow, Prof. Alwi Shihab, said the founder of Alkhairaat, Habib Idrus, had laid a solid foundation for creating inter-religious harmony. He acknowledged that the concept of CCRL is not something new, but indeed comes from the Qur’an and the example of Prophet Muhammad.
“The core of the CCRL program is how people can interact personally with other parties, guided by the primary sources, which is the Qur’an and the example of the Prophet,” remarked Prof. Alwi, who is also a former foreign minister and a former special presidential envoy to the Middle East and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Executive Director of Leimena Institute, Matius Ho, stated that Elder Teacher had bequeathed a legacy that is very visionary, namely, character or multicultural education, nationalism or love for the homeland, and wasatiyyah or cosmopolitan Islam.
Those three legacies are in line with the core of the CCRL program which is based on three competencies, namely personal competence, which means how we understand our respective religions well, comparative competence, which means how we understand a different religion from the perspective of the adherents of said religion themselves, and collaborative competence, which means how to collaborate with people who are different from us.
“The CCRL program is a program that we have developed together since last year. The point of it is how we can further strengthen brotherhood between each other as human beings even though we have different religions and beliefs. We can work together for goodness and humanity without leaving our diverse characteristics behind,” said Matius.
Rector of Alkhairaat University, Dr. Umar Alatas, stated that CCRL is in line with the campus’s zeal to strengthen pluralism. Differences become a boon to everyone and consequently, the problems of humanity can be solved together. (IL/Chr)