The double-edged sword of Islamic reform: Muhammadiyah and the dilemma of 'tajdid' within Indonesian Islam

This paper seeks to analyse how Muhammadiyah, a modernist Muslim organisation in Indonesia, is facing a dilemma in its vision of reform. 'Tajdid', Muhammadiyah's key intellectual concept of reform, implies two visions: progressivism and conservatism. On the one hand, Muhammadiyah uses 'tajdid' as a means of modernising society by maximising the use of rationalism in order to achieve progress. The slogan, 'directly return to the Qur'an and Sunnah', can be used to criticise the stagnant condition of Muslims in the country, especially during the early stages of its development, due to their reliance on classical texts, rather than the Qur'an and Sunnah, in intellectual activities. On the other hand, this slogan risks exposure to conservatism. The purificationist vision contained in the slogan can lead to a regressive interpretation of Islam. It is Muhammadiyah's engagement with social movements and civil society that prevents it supporting the ideology of radical Islamism.