Last week, I got a message on my family’s WA Group. Pak Jalal was in critical condition. Several days before, his wife had become a victim of ongoing pandemics. Pak Jalal was in ICU.
Almost 21 years ago, I started my life-changing high school life. After long discussion with my parents, I entered SMU (Plus) Muthahhari. Pak Jalal is the chief and founder of Muthahhari foundation. Later on, during my last 1,5 years there, Pak Jalal became headmaster of the high school, again, after a big protest from students resulted in last headmaster’s departure.
There are many life-changing moments during my high-school years, one of the most impactful was the religious study. Because SMU Muthahhari (we often shorten the name into “Smuth”) is an Islamic school, there were many additional courses compared to standard high-school curricula, such as Arabic Language, Dirasah Islamiyah (Ulum Al-Qur’an, Ulum Al-Hadits, etc.), Spiritual Work Camp, etc. However, they all had a common message, and this was reflected in how the standard Islamic Religion course (Pelajaran Agama) was and still conducted in Smuth.
During my elementary and junior high, Islamic Religion classes were mostly one way, we learned from our teachers about Islamic religion aqidah, practices, etc. And the standard high school curriculum for Islamic Religion was also like that. But Smuth’s was different. From day one, the Islamic Religion classes focuses on Debates. Yes, religious debates. Each week, the teacher (Ust. Dede) assigned a topic, and we were assigned to two or three different groups. Each group would represent a distinct thought on the topic.
Then as our homework, we should do research on the topic (mainly in the school’s library). In the next Islamic Religion class, the debate will take place. This process made me realize that there are really many perspective that one can take on a problem. Maybe several thought are based on the same perspective, religious perspective, but the resulting conclusion can be very different. By doing the research ourselves, we were exposed to many books, article and writings of many. By debating the result, we were trained to see the logic in each approach, the strength and weakness of them.
This is only the first one of the principle underlined by our schools’ principal, Pak Jalal: freedom of thought.
(to be continued…)