Teungku Muhammad Hasbi Ash-Shiddieqy

Teungku Muhammad Hasbi Ash-Shiddieqy was acknowledged as great Indonesian ulama whose moderate thought, especially in Islamic legal law, created new Islamic discourse in Indonesia. When the majority of Indonesian ulamas grasped Muslim traditional paradigm, Teungku Hasbi regularly delivered his modern paradigm instead. His scholarly works obviously represent how that late ulama dreamed to construct Indonesian Muslim society based on local culture and tradition. Such outlook crystallized in his mind during his extensive works in academic world. Born to Muslim religious parents, Hasbi attended moderate Islamic education since the early year of his age. It seems that both family and formal education had an important role in shaping his thought and attitude. Therefore we deem it useful to explain the details of his story of life, thought, works and awards.            

1. Story of Life

Teungku Hasbi was born on March 10, 1904 in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, Indonesia. His father, Al Haji Teungku Qadhi Cik Maharaja Mangkubumi Husein ibn Muhammad Mas‘ud, was the prominent ulama who headed a big pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Aceh. While his mother, Teungku Amrah, was the daughter of Teungku Abdul Aziz who at that time occupied Qadhi Chik Maharaja Mangkubumi (the judge of Aceh Sultanate). Based on the family tree of Aceh Sultanate, Teungku Hasbi was the thirty-seventh generation of the first Aceh Sultan, Abu Bakar Ash-Shiddieqy. Therefore, Teungku Hasbi titled himself as “Ash-Shiddieqy” at the end of his name. His mother died when he was at the age of 6. His aunt, Teungku Syamsiah, then replaced his mother in taking care of him.        

In his early age, Hasbi had begun learning Islamic knowledge at his father‘s pesantren. From the age of 8 until 28, Hasbi moved from pesantren to pesantren in many cities, continuing his study on Islamic knowledge. During his study, he learned Arabic language supervised by the Arabian ulama, Syekh Muhammad ibn Salim al-Kalili. In 1926, he continued his study at the Islamic school of al-Irsyad in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. Al-Irsyad was previously an Islamic organization founded by Syekh Ahmad Soorkati (1874-1943), the moderate ulama from Sudan. In that school, Hasbi took Arabic language as a main subject of study for two years. Afterward, he continued his in-depth study on Islamic knowledge in the Middle-East. After having completed his formal study during twenty years, Hasbi began to deepen the Islamic knowledge by autodidact.

In 1928, he backed to Aceh, and took part in social and religious activities in Muhammadiyah (the second biggest Indonesian Islamic organization), and encapsulated within the political activities of MASYUMI. In 1951, he moved and settled in Yogjakarta to spend his times in Islamic education. Beginning from that year, he worked extensively in academic world. In 1958, he was invited to give speech at International Islamic Colloquium held in Lahore, Pakistan. In 1960, he was inaugurated as a professor of the science of hadith (a report of the sayings or actions of Muhammad or his companions, together with the tradition of its chain of transmission) by the State Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga, Yogjakarta. And at the time, he was a dean of the Faculty of Sharia of the same university until 1972.    

During his lifetime, Hasbi had published many scholarly works, especially on Islamic science, such as Islamic legal law, hadith, tafsir (Quranic interpretation), and tauhid (Islamic theology). His scholarly works published in book are about 73 titles, 36 of which on Islamic legal law; 8 books are on hadith; 6 books are on tafsir; 5 books are on tauhid; and other books concentrate on other topics. Before passing away, he completed his last book titled Pedoman Haji (the Guidance of Muslims Pilgrim).

Teungku Hasbi passed away at the age of 71, on December 9, 1975 in Jakarta. He was buried in the complex of the big family of the State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta. In his death ceremony, both Buya Hamka RIP (the Indonesian prominent ulama) and Mohammad Rum RIP (the prominent Indonesian politician) came to give their last honorary speech.  

2. Thought

Teungku Hasbi, as the contemporary ulama, had a moderate view on the implementation of Islamic sharia. He viewed the Islamic sharia is an elastic and dynamic system that pays large attention to socio-cultural contexts to coincide with the development of time. Its scope involves overall aspects of human life, and regulates the vertical relation between human beings and God, alongside the horizontal relation among the creatures. Teungku Hasbi believed that the Islamic sharia is founded upon the divine revelation of God, but in its implementation, the Muslims should learn and understand it through the method of Muslim endeavor (ijtihad) to adjust the doctrine with the condition of society. Various books of Islamic legal law are the result of ijtihad. The founders of Islamic legal schools, Abu Hanifah, Malik, Shafii and Hanbali, are considered as the most authoritative authors of the Islamic legal law until today. They are well known as imam-imam mujtahid.

According to Hasbi, most of Indonesian Muslims are incapable of separating the revealed doctrine of God from the ijtihad of the four imams. Most of them tend to believe that the imams‘ ijtihad is the final and absolute truth. Therefore today the books authored by those imams are taken as the marvelous sources of reference of their life guidance. Their ijtihad, as Hasbi pointed, should be criticized and then adapted with the modern context of Indonesia, because the ijtihad is certainly the result of their response toward their social and cultural condition at that time.

In addition, Hasbi noticed that several Islamic legal laws (fiqh) upheld by the Indonesian Muslims today are historically and culturally different from their own condition. Nevertheless, they forced themselves to implement the imams‘ ijtihad in their daily life. In such abnormal condition, Hasbi offered his view to reformulate new Islamic legal laws that appropriate historically and culturally with the Indonesian Muslims condition. He argued that Islam must be capable of creating legal laws that coincide with local condition, without leaving totally the previous ijtihad. However, the validity of the previous ijtihad should be learned, criticized and examined by ignoring a fanatic attitude toward one of imams‘ works. In such proportional outlook, the Indonesian Muslims may find out new appropriate Islamic legal laws to be applied in Indonesia.

To actualize the idea above, according to Hasbi, the Indonesian ulamas should be encouraged to do ijtihad. Hasbi absolutely rejected a common ground shared by traditional Indonesian ulamas that the door of ijtihad has been closed, because the modern Muslims are in urgent need of producing new ijtihad until the end of the day. Hasbi offered three forms of ijtihad to produce Indonesia‘s Islamic legal laws: first, classifying the previous results of ijtihad to select analytically whether the imams‘ ijtihad could be applied in Indonesia or not. Second, classifying local traditional laws upheld by the people. According to him, such laws can be changed every time as the need of the upholders. Third, doing independent ijtihad for searching laws in order to answer modern challenges, such as transplantation of human part of body, bank, insemination, cloning, etc…

Human civilization grows fast that currently urges the emergence of complex modern issues among the Muslims. One issue may have various causes, thus, one may have different outlook from another, and modern ijtihad is therefore in urgent need of involving many experts of various disciplines. In the modern context, economical problem, for instance, positively has tight correlation with other aspects. In this circumstance, Hasbi suggested the Indonesian Muslims to do ijtihad collectively (collective ijtihad) rather than individually. The participants of ijtihad are not only ulamas, but also economist, doctor, expert on culture, politician, etc…whose sharp vision and knowledge are concentrated on the modern problems faced by the Indonesian Muslims. This step primarily purposes to formulate Indonesia‘s Islamic legal laws that not merely refer to one imam, but rather as collaboration of the four imams‘ works that appropriate with Indonesian recent condition.

Additionally, Hasbi pointed that good law is that pay more attention to social, cultural and economical condition of the society. Hasbi asserted that most of the previous ijtihads were definitely depended on the culture and tradition of local people. He took the ijtihad of imam Shafii as a good example for strengthening his view. The imam‘s ijtihad was regularly changed from place to place; his ijtihad in Iraq clearly differed from his ijtihad in Egypt. His ijtihad in Iraq, which historically and culturally depended on the local condition, is well known as qaul qodim (old saying). After having moved to Egypt, he revised his previous saying that was no longer appropriate with the new condition. His last saying is then well known as qaul jadid (new saying). All above suggest the Indonesian Muslims to produce new ijtihad continuously. The door of ijtihad must not be closed until the end of the day.

3. Works

Teungku Hasbi, as great ulama, had published the following scholarly works in books:

1. Koleksi Hadis-Hadis Hukum, Volume I, III, VII, VIII, IX, Semarang, Pustaka Rizki Putra
2. Koleksi Hadis-Hadis Hukum, Volume II, IV, Bandung, Al Maarif                              
3. Koleksi Hadis-Hadis Hukum, Volume V, VI, Yayasan Teungku Muhammad Hasbi ash-Shiddieqy.
4. Mutiara Hadis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Semarang, Pustaka Rizki Putra.
5. Tafsir Alqur‘an al-Madjied-An-Nur, Jakarta, Bulan Bintang, 1965.
6. Sejarah dan Pengantar Ilmu Alqur‘an dan Tafsir Teungku Muhammad Hasbi ash-Shiddieqy, Semarang, Pustaka Rizki Putra, 2000
7. Sejarah dan Pengantar Ilmu Tafsir, Jakarta, Bulan Bintang, 1965.
8. Sejarah Pengantar Ilmu Hadis, Jakarta, Bulan Bintang, 1978.
9. Sejarah Pengantar Ilmu Hadis, Jakarta, Bulan Bintang, 1978.
10. Kriteria antara Sunnah dan Bid‘ah, Jakarta, Bulan Bintang, 1993.
11. Islam dan HAM (Hak Asasi Manusia): Dokumenter Politik Pokok-pokok Pikiran Partai Islam dalam Sidang Konstituante 4 Februari 1958, Semarang, Pustaka Rizki Putra, 1999.
12. Pedoman Haji, Semarang, Pustaka Rizki Putra, 2005.

Many others books have also been published, but are not mentioned here.

4. Awards

Due to his extensive works in Islamic educational field, Teungku Hasbi had been given the awards below:

1. An honorary degree of Doctor by the Islamic University of Bandung (UNISBA) in 1975.
2. An honorary degree of Doctor by the State Islamic Institute of Sunan Kalijaga, Yogjakarta, in 1975. 

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