Persatuan Islam (abbreviated ''PERSIS'' or ''Islamic Union'') is an Islamic organization in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
founded on 12 September 1923 in
Bandung
Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...
by a group of Muslims who are interested in education and religious activities led by Haji Zamzam and Haji Muhammad Yunus.
History
The idea started from an alumnus of Dar al-'Ulum in
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
named
H. Zamzam who since 1910-1912 CE was the religious teacher in the religious school ''Dar Al-Muta'alimîn''. H. Zamzam founded the organization along with his close friend H. Muhammad Yunus. Both of them were born in Palembang. Muhammad Yunus, a trader who was quite successful, in his youth earned a traditional religious education and mastered the Arabic language, so he could self-taught through the scriptures of interests. The equal educational background and culture uniting them in Islamic discussions. The topics of their discussions were usually matters related to religious movements that were developing at the time, or religious matters published in the magazine ''al-Munir'' in
Padang
Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...
or in ''al-Manar'' magazine published in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
.
![A-hassan-pendiri-Persis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/A-hassan-pendiri-Persis.jpg)
One time, there was a discussion took place after an event festivity at the home of a family member, a native of
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
that had been living in Bandung. The matter of the discussion was about religious disagreement between
al-Irshad and
Jamiat Kheir. Since then, subsequent meetings transformed into a group of reviewers, a sort of club in the field of religious studies in which members of the group gladly reviewed, assessed, and tested the teachings they had received. Their discussions were also held with the
Jum'ah prayer congregation, so the frequency increased and the discussion deepened. The number of people was originally only about 12 people. The discussions intensified and became not just limited to religious issues, but wider and more political, such as on the dichotomy between traditional and
Islamic Modernism
Islamic modernism is a movement that has been described as "the first Muslim ideological response to the Western cultural challenge" attempting to reconcile the Islamic faith with modern values such as democracy, civil rights, rationality, ...
that was occurring at the time between scholars of
Jamiat Kheir and al-Irshad in
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
, or the issue of communist infiltration in
Sarekat Islam
Sarekat Islam or Syarikat Islam ( 'Islamic Association' or 'Islamic Union'; SI) was an Indonesian socio-political organization founded at the beginning of the 20th Century during the Dutch colonial era. Initially, SI served as a cooperative of ...
(SI) and the efforts Muslims tried to confront it.
In 1924, Ahmad Hassan bin Ahmad (born in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
; December 31, 1887 CE – died in
Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...
, November 10, 1958 CE), a descant of
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
father (Ahmad) and a
Javanese Tamil mother (Muznah; she was born in Surabaya but her family originally was from Palekat in
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
), joined in the discussions at PERSIS. Hassan was smart and mastered Islamic Sciences and General knowledge at large as well as fluent in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
and
Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...
. He obtained religious education in Singapore and
Johor
Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...
, and enjoyed writing articles on'' Utusan Melayu'' newspaper published in Singapore.
In terms of naming, ''PERSIS'' from the beginning was liberal. At the time, it was uncommon for an Islamic organization to be named with Non-Arabic name. The abbreviated name of ''Persatuan Islam "PERSIS", ''which means ''Persian'' in Latin, was regarded as a westernized word influenced by the
Dutch colonialism. Moreover, sanctity and identification of Islam with Arabic was very strong among Muslims at the time. This means that they were ready to accept the risk and to maintain the establishment and the confidence they had over the use of the Latin name, unlike prior organizations such as
Jamiat Kheir,
Muhammadiyah, and al-Irshad that all use Arabic names.
PERSIS transforms into a bolder and more extreme organization than the Muhammadiyah and al-Irshad in opposing heresy, myth and superstition that are considered Islamic.
It also harshly criticizes
Ba 'Alawi sada
The Ba 'Alawi sadah or Sadah Ba 'Alawi ( ar-at, السادة آل باعلوي, al-sādatu al-bā'alawiy) are a group of Hadhrami Sayyid families and social group originating in Hadhramaut in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The ...
's adherence to
taqlid
''Taqlid'' (Arabic تَقْليد ''taqlīd'') is an Islamic term denoting the conformity of one person to the teaching of another. The person who performs ''taqlid'' is termed ''muqallid''. The definite meaning of the term varies depending on co ...
and rejection of
ijtihad
''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
, visitations of tombs (
ziyarat
In Islam, ''ziyara(h)'' ( ar, زِيَارَة ''ziyārah'', "visit") or ''ziyarat'' ( fa, , ''ziyārat'', "pilgrimage") is a form of pilgrimage to List of Ziyarat sites, sites associated with Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad, his family members and ...
) and consequent approval of saint worship,
Kafa'ah
Kafa'ah or Kafaah ( ar, الكفاءة; ') is a term used in the field of Islamic jurisprudence with regard to marriage in Islam, which in Arabic, literally means, ''equality'' or ''equivalence''. It is thus defined as the compatibility or equiv ...
between
Sayyid
''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...
women and non-Sayyid men, and the belief about elevated status of
Arab Indonesians
Arab Indonesians ( ar, عربٌ إندونيسيون) or ''Hadharem'' (; sing., ''Hadhrami'', ), informally known as Jama'ah, and until the 20th century known as Codjas or Kodjas, note the work was also published in the Hague and Utrecht simulta ...
in the Indonesian Muslim community.
PERSIS publicity was gained mainly through printed media, with its first published magazine ''Pembela Islam'' published in October 1929 in Bandung. The publication lasted until 1933 and managed to publish 72 numbers with a circulation of 2,000 copies, spreading all over the country and even to
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
.
In November 1931, PERSIS published a special magazine discussing issues of religion, without challenging the Non Muslim parties. The magazine was named ''al-Fatwa'' written in
Jawi letters, resulting in more demand by the Muslims in Sumatra,
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
and Malaysia. However, the publication of this magazine only lasted until October 1933 with 20 issues and 1000 copies. In 1935 The ''al-Fatwa'' was replaced with a new magazine called ''al-Lisaan'' that lasted in June 1942 with 65 as its last issue number. During the life of the ''al-Lisaan'' magazine, A. Hassan moved to
Bangil
Bangil or called "Bangel" is the name of a district and of a Capital city in the Pasuruan Regency, East Java, Indonesia. This city is the first metropolitan area in Pasuruan Regency.
The district is divided into fifteen villages. Currently it ...
, so issue number 47 (published in May 1940) to issue number 65 were published in Bangil,
Pasuruan
Pasuruan ( nl, Pasoeroean) is a city in East Java, Java, Indonesia. It had a population of 186,262 at the 2010 Census and 208,006 at the 2020 Census.
It is surrounded by, but administratively separate from, Pasuruan Regency. It is located around ...
,
East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...
.
Besides running the publishing house, A. Hassan also built a PERSIS boarding school in Bangil.
[ See "Bangil" Article]
Notable members
Muhammad Isa Anshary, politikus dan pejuang Indonesia.
Mohammad Natsir, mantan Perdana Menteri Indonesia
Ahmad Hassan, teman debat Soekarno ketika di Bandung
Haji Zamzam, pendiri Persis
H. Eman Sar'an Ketua Dewan Hisbah 1990 - 2005
Achyar Syuhada, ulama terkemuka Persis
Mohammad Yunus, ulama Persis
K.H. E. Abdurrahman, pemimpin Persis tahun 1962-1983
K.H A. Latif Muchtar Ketua Umum Persis 1990 - 1997
KH. Shiddiq Amien, Mba Mantan Ketua Umum persis 1997 - 2010
K.H.Ikin Shadikin, Ulama terkemuka Persis Ketua Majlis Penasihat Persis 2000 - 2011
K.H. Usman Sholehudin, Ketua Dewan Hisbath
K.H Prof Maman Abdurrahman, MA Ketua Umum 2010-2015
K.H. Aceng Zakaria Ketua Umum 2015 - 2020
K.H. M. Romli Ketua Dewan Hisbah 2015 - 2020
K.H. Entang Muchtar ZA Ulama Persis
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persatuan_Islam
See also
*
Jamiat Kheir
*
Muhammadiyah
*
al-Irsyad
*
Ahmad Surkati
Ahmad Surkati ( ar, احمد بن محمد السركتي; ; ; 1875 CE – 6 September 1943) was the founder of the organization Jam'iyat al-Islah wa Al-Irsyad al-Arabiyah (''Arab Association for Reform and Guidance''), which later transformed i ...
References
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*
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{{Authority control
Islamic organizations established in 1923
Indonesian National Awakening
Islamic organizations based in Indonesia