Between Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah: Tracing Erfan Dahlan’s Religious Identity

Prepared for the 2nd InternationalSymposium on Religious Literature & Heritage on “Cultivating Religious Culture for Nationalism”, Bogor, 18-21 July 2017

Between Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah: Tracing Erfan Dahlan’s Religious Identity

Ahmad Najib Burhani

Senior Researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta and Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore

Abstract

The religious identity of Erfan Dahlan, a son of Ahmad Dahlan (the founder of Muhammadiyah), has been a subject of controversy in Indonesian Muslim communities. The fact that he did not return to Indonesia and preferred to live in Thailand after he completed his study at Ahmadiyya College in Lahore, British India, further raises curiosity over his religious affiliation, whether he was still a member of Muhammadiyah or had converted and became an Ahmadiyah missionary. By studying old Indonesian magazines and reports on Erfan Dahlan published by both Muhammadiyah and Ahmadiyah, this article, firstly, intends to reveal Erfan Dahlan’s religious-organizational status. Secondly, it aims to study the reasons of his decision of staying in Thailand and not returning to his family in Yogyakarta and even hiding his Indonesian family ties to his children. Thirdly, it will discuss the reunion of Ahmad Dahlan’s family in Thailand and Indonesia in 2013 after decades of separation.

Keywords: Erfan Dahlan, Muhammadiyah, Ahmadiyah, Thailand, Islamic revivalism, mission.

http://lektur.kemenag.go.id/islage-2/