Al-Imam magazine (1906-1908): the study of Kaum Muda's thought on Islamic education renewal in Southeast Asia

Abstract

In the early 20th century, the discussion of Islamic educational progress in Southeast Asia can not be separated from the thought of Kaum Muda in Al-Imam magazine. Some researchers have touched the role of Islamic renewal scholars group in modernizing Islamic education in Southeast Asia, unfortunately this kind of thought which encourages renewal gains less support. This article seeks to fill in this gap by mainly focusing on the thought of Kaum Muda about the education renewal in Al-Imam magazine. This study has three objectives, first, to investigate The Kaum Muda's view of knowledge, second, to analyze The Kaum Muda's view about the balance of religious knowledge and general knowledge, and third, to assess The Kaum Muda's view towards education reformation. This is a qualitative research method with Al-Imam manuscript as the main research resource and the other secondary source as the research support. The research results revealed that, firstly, Al-Imam emphasized greatly towards knowledge as one of the ways to achieved improvement for both in religious field and real life. Secondly, Al-Imam stated that religious knowledge and general knowledge cannot be separated since there will be no improvement without these two things. Thirdly, Al-Imam encouraged the importance of education modernization in traditional Islamic education institution in order to generate scientifically insightful Muslim generation.