A discussion pertaining to a classical teaching material and its methodology : Masail al Muhtadili Ikhwanil Mubtadi

Abstract

Studying in a pesantren entails that junior students have to possess fundamental knowledge at the very outset of their education career. This level of knowledge is salient for the students’ scholarly career even though it is very basic and related to very relatively simply written books. Masail al Muhtadi li Ikhwanil Mubtadi written by Shaikh Daud bin Ismail bin Mustafa Rumî has been taught as the standard text book in pesantren in the last 250 years, in some geographies of the Malay Archipelago. The method of the above- mentioned book ought to be considered in relation to the extent of how this classical course material is vital for the development of critical thinkin g process of students. And due to this reason, this research focussed on the method of the book during teaching- learning process. What makes this book unique is its encouragement of methods such as Question & Answer . Owing to this reasons, the author concentrates on the discovery how effective of this method is and how it encourages critical thinking. The argument is that this fundamental text stimulates the mind through Q&A method and contributes development of critical thinking which is needed in further levels of education. This study is an attempt to discover : (1) whether pesantren education is really and simply based on the indoctrination of reliance on students’ memorization skills or these are the steps in a bottom up education process that encompasses critical thinking; (2) whether pesantren education provides some form of a methodological approach in relation to knowledge acquisition at varying levels and if it is specifically tailored for students from different age groups.