madrasah

Friday, September 7, 2007

KH. Mas Abdurahman

KH. Mas Abdurahman
Oleh : Didin Rosidin

K.H. Mas Abdurrahman was born in 1875 in the village of Janaka, Menes. His father, K.H. Mas Jamal, was the leader of a small pesantren in Janaka and was a descendant of the two legendary figures, Ki Jong and Jon, among the first converts to Islam in Banten. From his father’s lineage, K.H. Mas Abdurrahman held a right to add the title of Mas to his name as a sign of his noble status. His grand father, who was an official at the Banten sultanate, fled the capital of the Banten sultanate when the Dutch force annexed the sultanate in the early of the nineteenth century. He, then, lived in a remote village, called Jenaka, of the Haseupan mountain areas, where K.H. Mas Abdurrahman was later born[1].
K.H. Mas Abdurrahman’s early religious education was under the direction of his father. Then, he like other “wandering” santri (pupils) sought higher learning to a number of teachers with different expertises on religious subjecs. First, he studied the basic Arabic grammar to K.H. Shohib of Kadupinang, Menes. He then travelled to pesantrens located outside Menes region as he studied the science of the Qur’an in the pesantren of K.H. Ma’mun in Serang. He then took a long journey to the pesantren of kiyai Afif in Sarang, Central Java, where he learned the higher Qur’anic studies. K.H. Tubagus Bahri of Purwakarta, West Java, gave him special trainings on Sufism and tarekat practices. In 1903, his father died in Mecca while performing the Hajj. Two years after the death of his father, K.H. Mas Abdurrahman went to Mecca where he sought his father’s grave as well as studied Islamic teachings to several religious teachers there, including Syekh Ahmad Khatib of Minangkabau and Syekh Mahfudz of TerMas. In Mecca, he made acquaintance with some of the future prominent religious leaders from Indonesia, such as K.H. Hasyim Asy’ari, one of the founding fathers of the NU. In 1915, due to a strong request from K.H. Tubagus Muhammad Soleh who sought a young figure to run the madrasah system of schooling, K.H. Mas Abdurrahman returned to Menes and soon became the director of education affairs in Mathla’ul Anwar[2].
As the director of education affairs, K.H. Mas Adurrahman had powerful position not only in matters related to the improvement efforts of the madrasah but also religious discourses as well as internal political decision, particularly following the death of two most senior leaders of Mathla’ul Anwar, K.H. Tubagus Muhammad Soleh dead in 1927 after being jailed by the Dutch government and K.H. Entol Muhammad Yasin suddenly died in 1937. For instance, he had unlimited authorities in all processes of teachers’ recruitment. He was also the only arranger of the curriculum applied in the madrasah in which he introduced a number of secular subjects such as arithmetic, Latin alphabet, geography and Islamic as well as world history in the early of 1930s[3]. While, in religious discourses, he held a weekly general study held in every Thursday and Friday and obliged to all teachers and senior students to take part[4]. His position in directing religious viewpoints in Mathla’ul Anwar could be compared to that of A. Hassan in Persis where he was regarded as the supreme professor in religious notions. The death of K.H. Entol Muhammad Yasin left K.H. Mas Abdurrahman as the only powerful figure in Mathla’ul Anwar. His absolute political influence was clearly demonstrated in the 1939 congress in which he appointed his loyal pupil, K.H. Uwes Abu Bakar, who was just only 27 years old, as the general chairman expelling K.H. Entol Junaedi, a son of K.H. Entol Muhammad Yasin, a graduate of the Al-Azhar University Cairo and more popular among members of Mathla’ul Anwar[5]. K.H. Mas Abdurrahman was also active in political movements at the national level. He along with K.H. Entol Muhammad Yasin founded the SI’s branch in Menes in 1915 in which the former acted as the chairman of the religious advisory board and the latter was the chairman of the executive board[6]. Under their leadership, the SI of Menes played prominent roles in the progress of the SI in Banten, which was predominantly in the hand of local aristocrat families that were scarcely influential among peasants. K.H. Mas was frequently requested by the board of the SI of Banten to give speeches stirring villagers to join the association. For instance, in the public meeting held on February 8, 1920, by the SI, he spoke about the importance of supporting the association from religious perspectives and closed his speech by declaring that becoming a member of the SI was one of the important examples of showing obedience to God[7]. After withdrawing from the SI in 1928, he joined the NU at the same year. Actually, his active participation in this kaum tua association had been started earlier as he himself attended the meeting of the foundation of the NU in 1926. He along with K.H. Entol Muhammad Yasin founded a new branch of the NU in Menes in which like in the SI the latter was the general chairman of the executive board and the former was the general chairman of the Syuriah[8]. In the NU’s circle, K.H. Mas Abdurrahman held high reputation as he was included into one of the twenty-six most respected leaders in the history of the NU as could be seen in the book published by the Saifudin Zuhri Foundation in 1994 along with other high-ranking leaders such as K.H. Hasyim Asy’ari and K.H. Wahab Hasbullah[9].
[1] M. Nahid Abdurrahman, K.H. Abdurrahman: Pendiri Mathla’ul Anwar tahun 1916, Rangkasbitung: Penerbit Tawekal, n.d., p. 2.
[2] Ibid., pp. 3 – 6.
[3] Interview with H. Rafi’udin of Bojong, 20 July 2002.
[4] Aceng Abdul Qodir, Biograpi KH. Mas Abdurrahman Mengenai Didaktik Methodiknya Dalam Pendidikan Agama Islam, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, Cikaliung: Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Mathla’ul Anwar (STAIMA), 1999, p. 59.
[5] Tim Perumus, Mathla’ul Anwar …, pp. 45 – 46.
[6] Mimbar, 20 October 1919.
[7] Mimbar, 20 October 1920.
[8] Anonymous, Menapak Jejak Mengenal Watak …, p. 74.
[9] Anonymous, Menapak Jejak Mengenal Watak: Sekilar Biografi 26 Tokoh Nahdlatul Ulama, Jakarta: Yayasan Saifudin Zuhri, 1994, pp. 73 – 87.

No comments: