Maqasid al-Shari’ah & Indonesia’s HDI on Literacy

By: Dr. Sanuri, M.Fil.I.

Lecturer of Philosophy of Islamic Law Course

Faculty of Syari’ah and Law, UINSA Surabaya

Human development is one of the concerns and becomes a pilot project of the United Nations as other programs such as peace, health, and cooperation among the nations of the world. It has been one the determinant factors of how prosperous a country is. The higher the level of the human development, it can be said that the more prosperous the country is. However, Indonesia has not yet considered to be one of the countries with constantly improving HDI. In 2007, Indonesia’s Human Development Index (HDI) reached 0,728 that put Indonesia on the 100^th level of the overall list of the world’s HDI. However, the number decreased in 2012 and 2013 which put Indonesia in the position of number 108.

Yet, the bigger concern other than the HDI number is that although Indonesia’s HDI rank was at the intermediate level of the countries of the world’s 0.684 score, job availability is still under the world average of 0,702.

Maqasid al-Shari’ah and Indonesia’s HDI

 In the context of contemporary Indonesia, maqasid al-shari’ah can be interpreted as the objectives that can be achieved through stipulation of law for a just and prosperous society. The five components of Islamic law, which serve as indicators for achieving these objectives, are not just imprudent, but also precautionary and regulative. These five features are: (1) Maintaining religion (hifz al-din): Shari’ah requires a variety of worship aimed to ensure the establishment of the religion of Allah by carrying out all of His commands and avoiding all of His prohibitions. This can also mean that to maintain our faith to Allah and Islam, fighting in wars is not the only option available. In fact, it is not near sufficient. Not only that war does not solve any problem, even worse, it is more likely to raise many new and dilemmatic problems.. The process of maintaining faith would be more effective when done in the sense of shared respects among religions and in the mutual effort of understanding the psychological aspects other religions in order to create peace. (2) Maintaining soul (hifz al-nafs). This process is not only oriented toward the execution of qisas for perpetrator of criminal act, but also is intended to create strong physical condition and spiritual health for the doers. (3) Maintaining descendants (hifz al-nasl). This is not only applied through  legitimate marriage or the sentences given for adultery, but it also should be evolved into an obligation for all Muslims to create better and greater generation by providing adequate knowledge to ensure the positive effect of education, to strengthen faith, and to maintain psychological stability of the children. (4) Maintaining the mind (hifz al-‘aql). This process is not merely to prohibit oneself from drinking liquor or doing bad deeds, but rather on development of intellectual ability, critical thinking, knowledge, as well as adequate education and skill for young people to help them face the future better.. (5) Maintaining property (hifz al-mal). This process is done not just by giving mulct (fine) for perpetrator of thievery and damage, but it also should be oriented toward how the local economy of the people will evolve through an enhancement in human resource sector for the welfareness of the people.

Hifz al-‘Aql and Literacy

 Anies Baswedan, Indonesia’s Minister of Education, says that the restricted access to education in rural and remote area is outcome of rapid urbanization, especially towards metropolitan cities such as Jakarta and Surabaya. In the international level, based on the annual report of the UNESCO “Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2012”, the quality of education in Indonesia ranked 64^th out of 120 countries in the world. While in 2011, based on Education Development Index (EDI), Indonesia was the 69th country out of the 127 countries. A big question that emerges is whether the sustainability of a country, the national culture, and the human prosperity of Indonesia are some of the competent to survive the future changes and challenges.

 @ Moral-Ethical Term of Hifz al-‘Aql

 The concept of maintaining the mind (hifz al-’aql), in a moral-ethical context, offers several features which help enhance the literacy figure in Indonesia. Islam is a religion that has a great concern about the moral of the future generations. In Islam, education has begun, in fact, since one was in mother’s womb. Children, then, should be given facilities and infrastructures to evolve themselves. Moral education starts from the family and it requires the value of piety, honesty, tolerance on the others’ culture, obedience to the existing rules, manner, respect for the people around, hard work, responsibility, sympathy, and empathy for others.

 @ Integrity and Responsibility of Parents

 The next principles are the integrity and responsibility of parents toward education and physical-spiritual growth of their children. Family is the first educational institution which shapes the identity of the next generation. As the smallest social unit that was formed through a legitimate marriage, family has a strategic role in formatting the character of the children. The internal education of the family will greatly influence the triumph of education in the next period. Children, who are born within a family frame, are the main asset of the national development. Therefore, integrity and responsibility of parents in the family is extremely necessary for the growth and development of the children. This is in harmony with the transcendental purpose of marriage which is to form a sense of responsibility of each member among all family members. In addition, parents and families should be capable to guarantee them to be free of fear, domestic conflict, and excessive burden for the children. These psychological factors often lead to children becoming traumatized, depressed, and not being creative in decision-making.

  @ The Government’s Policy

 The proactive role of the government on education is crucial. The government has moral and transcendental responsibility on the real condition of the people. Some suggestions that may need to conduct are: (1) Policy on scholarship opportunity, which should be given as many as possible, especially for those with low economic level; (2) Policy which orients in the acceleration of equity and quality of education in all areas, particularly in remote, underdeveloped, bordered, as well as low economic areas; (3) Census on school age children who are not provided with appropriate education and who had dropped out of their formal education; and (4) Optimization of assets owned by the local community or the security forces, community public figures, notable religious leaders and government officials as some of the driving force for the community to reduce the number of literacy rate in their areas.