Kutowijoyo’s Prophetic Social Science (Chalenges and Consequences)

The dynamics of social science in Indonesia today is likely looking for the ideal form. Kuntowijoyo, in this case, becomes one of the Indonesian Muslim figures who brings fresh air for the social sciences by integrating Islamic paradigm that is transcendental/divine (prophetic). The working device is expected to be applicable in the future in order to look at the social dynamics of the Muslims; its culture, its history of the social and political movements. Thus, the purpose of this study was to see the importance of the Islamic paradigm in the social sciences and also to assure that the application of the scientific framework (that is called by Kuntowijoyo) Prophetic Social Sciences should be started as soon as possible. Therefore, this study is descriptive-comparative. Kuntowijoyo ideas provide a comparison among the opinions of other social scientists to see the relevance of his thoughts within the dynamics of value-laden social science. This study presents that the social observation of the Muslim society so far is not only always value-laden, but also full of certain messages and also unwittingly spread the used paradigm, it is not only pure interpretation. Thus, the working device of developing social science today does not only need critical examination, but also need to be improved to scrape a variety of Muslim social problems; culture, history, social movements, and political. The prophetic values require provocative motion (da'wah), professionalism (jihad), and strong integrity (amanah).

stories and columns in various media.His writing is often regarded as a fresh air within the bustle of politics; Javanese (expression culture of Java), plain, but straightforward and unequivocal.He wrote dozens of books and often get award (Kuntowijoyo, 2006).Bahtiar Effendy mentions him as one of the New Muslim Intellectuals (Anwar, 2007).His writings has a vast readership by all parties (Effendy, 1998).
His strong Islamic character was shaped by his early environment.He grew up in a neighborhood of one of the largest Muslim organizations, Muhammadiyah.
Mustajab (Islamic History teacher at Madrasah Ibtidaiyyah), Sariamsi Arifin (poet), and Yusmanam (author) were important persons in his childhood encouraging him to become a prolific writer.In 1980, Kuntowijoyo participated in developing and guiding "Pondok Pesantren Budi Mulia", and in 1980 he involved in developing and directing the Centre of Strategic and Policy study (PPSK) in Yogyakarta.
Kuntowijoyo's main concern in understanding and finding solutions of various problems of the Muslim ummah led him to his unstinting efforts as evidenced in his 16 years intellectual work.The results of his work are an anxiety of the social reality in Islam.In contrast to the other scientist, his ideas were full of prophetic values; a term used often by Kuntowijoyo, which was then integrated with the social sciences and became Prophetic Social Science.This term (prophetic) can be referred to the works of Kuntowijoyo, Paradigma Islam: Interpretasi Untuk Aksi (1991) and Islam Sebagai Ilmu (2004), which aim to steer the Islamic paradigm.Therefore, the prophetic social sciences can be called as Islamic social science.This effort is one of Indonesian Muslim intellectuals' efforts to answer the challenge of Western social science that is full of Western paradigm.For this reason, the ideas of Kuntowijoyo and the term (prophetic) used that is inspired from M. Iqbal and Roger Garaudy, are considered capable in representing different Islamic social sciences to ones from the West, although ibn Khaldun with different characters have preceded much earlier.Theory of Prophetic Social Sciences not only completes the studies of W.C. Smith, who said that "a lot of historical works found today tend to ignore aspects of religious, spiritual, or things that are deemed sacred and transcendental" (Minhaji, 2010), and studies of G.E. von Grunebaum who saw Islam as a culture and a civilization (Bagader, 1991), which contains study generating concepts and long-term strategic steps (Kuntowijoyo, 2006).Some of the published short stories are; Dilarang Mencintai Bunga-Bunga (1968), Khotbah di Atas Bukit (1996), Mantra Pejinak Ular (2000), Jl. "Asmarandan" (2005), Pistol Perdamaian (1996), Wasripin dan Satinah (2003), Anjing-Anjing Menyerbu Kuburan (1997), Hampir Sebuah Subversi (1999), and Pelajaran Pertamabagi Calon Politisi (2013).Year 1995Year , 1996Year , and 1997 sequentally, it get award as the best short story from Harian Kompas.

Some of his popular intellectual works are Paradigma Islam: Interpretasi
Untuk Aksi (1991), Radikalisme Petani (1993), Demokrasidan Budaya (1994), Metodologi Sejarah (1994), Pengantar Ilmu Sejarah (1995), Intelektualisme Muhammadiyah: Menyongsong Era Baru (1995), Identitas Politik Umat Islam (1997), Muslim Tanpa Masjid (2001), Selamat Tinggal Mitos, Selamat Datang Realitas (2002), Islam Sebagai Ilmu (2004), and Penjelasan Sejarah (2008).Kuntowijoyo has undoubtedly dedicated all his life and especially his intellectual struggle against all mischief until the last evil is destroyed, or in his own words, "until dhu'afa and mustadh'afin were appointed by Lord from suffering" (Kuntowijoyo, 1995).This is the spirit and the struggle of Kuntowijoyo's 62 year long life."He was a thinker who mastered not only history, but also sociology, culture, and literature.It's understandable that his works are widely much appreciated" main Rais, reformer Head of People Consultative Assembly and professor of political science Gadjah Mada University, "Mr.Kunto will never die, nobody would be able to replace him.However, we should not lose him ... he would rather be an angle than a man, never had any ambition, never had any sin or any immoral deed.Persevering to think and he is an exceptional person," said a leading poet and humanist, Emha Ainun Najib (Ed., 2016).
The prophetic values contained in the framework of "deep thinking of Islam" is Kuntowijoyo's contribution to the world of academic in the field of history, sociology, and cultural studies, with the base of the necessity of Islamic Paradigm in it.Here, Michel Foucault has a special place in Kuntowijoyo views, because his theory elaborated in his Knowledge is Power.Kuntowijoyo argues "The Historical Periodicity of Indonesian Muslim Religious awareness: Myth, Ideology, and Science", the inaugural speech of professor in History in the Faculty of Humanities, Gadjah Mada University.

Overview of Foucault
Kuntowijoyo argues that knowledge could be perceived as an object or a product.Knowledge does not come from empty space but it is formed through various power; structure power, individual, socialization, culture, language and social structure."It is not possible for power to be exercised without knowledge, it is impossible for knowledge not to endanger power," said Foucault (Foucault, 1980).According to Mannheim and Tim Dant also agreed, that this issue is a systematic study of knowledge, ideas and intellectual phenomena in general (Dant, 1991).In the hands of Tim Dant, it is called "sociology of knowledge".
Foucault archaeological science or sociology of knowledge sought to understand human thought and behavior on one side and on the other side it seeks to develop theory and contemporary situation related to the significance of nontheoretical condition factors.Therefore, attention to the discourse is essential in this theory.Foucault's Theory believes that knowledge is the result of social processes, and it is not intended to seek the absolute truth, but the contextual truth, dynamic, and open to a correction.In this case, the truth eventually is a development process of human knowledge about the objective nature (Ash-Shadr, 1999).
In contrast to Foucault and Dant, Mannheim proposes "relasionism theory" which argues that every thought is always concerned with the whole surrounded social structure (Fanani, 2008).As for Nietzsche, this theory is the "art of suspect" (Luckmann, 1990), because it was always suspicious to the ideological content of a thought or knowledge.Typically, a thought or idea will be checked whether it carries a certain ideology.
This is what probably brought Feyerabaend to shout "anti-science" because everything is full of interest (Feyerabaend, 2010).In a sense, that he was always fighting against science considered superior compared to other fields.According to his work, science becomes superior because of propaganda (epistemological anarchism) from scientists and because there were institutionally benchmarks authorized to decide (which in the perspective of Foucault it is called "power").For that reason, he always suggested to find faces of the real science (Prasetya, 1993).
And one of the main tasks of this theory (archaeological science by Foucault, the sociology of knowledge by Dant, relasionism theory by Karl Mannheim, arts suspected by Nietzche, or science anarchism by Paul Karl Feyerabaend) is to explain the dialectic of the social and cultural world.(Faqih, 2011).
The differences of those theories were: Tim Dan and Karl Mannheim emphasized on the relationship between knowledge and the social conditions, Nietzche saw the relationship the knowledge and the certain influencing ideology, then Feyerabaend wanted to avoid political truth, then (although it was similar to Feyerabaend) Foucault asserted and concluded on the participation of the relationship between the knowledge and the authority.That is why it is true to say that "the development of Islamic social sciences is prospective but its resistance is so great if there are no alliances with the authorities."(Esposito, 2002) The last, Esposito says "full prescribing never feed the hungry people, just the real dishes can meet those needs" (Esposito, 2002).This illustration shows us how the project of Prophetic Social Sciences should not only be applied soon in viewing the social movements of Islam, but also must be refined firstly, of course with the support of the authorities and an adequate mastery of knowledge about history of classical Islam.This is important and quite reasonable, in order to avoid political blasphemy and justify the objectives of secular Islam, secularists often also based on the written studies about the early Islamic period (Esposito, 2002).

B. PROPHETIC VIEW: PRELIMINARY NOTE ".... If every human activity takes place within a period of time without being
regulated by intellectual control or criticism, the activity tends to be uncontrollable."(Mannheim, 2002) In its history, the dynamics of social science applications in life has taken a lot of inevitable variation and contradiction.Its variation emerges coincidentally with the context in which the social sciences are started, and the contradictions appears because social science does not show up in one place and one condition, so it is impossible to avoid clash of perspectives."Generalization" become a relentless problem, as well as because "prestige fighting", the collision is often tinged by "intellectual coercion", and lately it hardly cannot be separated from Westernization (Alatas, 2010) (Ritzer, 1992).
As time goes by, the western type of social sciences slowly dominate almost all corner of the world.Intended western type of social science is none other than the work of a theory created by Western scientists, with the (Mannheim, 2002) background (experience and practice) in the West, with little snowing impression that their created sciences are able and feasible to be embraced by all observers of Muslim society while neutralize that discussing "the trigger" is not so important, but only to convince of the importance of their theory application.As a result, these observers are unaware about their research capability, their effective working tools, and their research quality.
It is interesting when those problems are associated with the theory of power relations and intellectualism built by Foucault.According to him, science has dramatically politicized in such a manner, and therefore sciences are full of interests that are too naive when it is separated from vigilance.So, it is reasonable that intellectuals are understood by Foucault as "those who utilize their knowledge, competence and its relation to the truth in the field for the political struggles" (Foucault, 1980).Later, in formulating intellectual war strategies, Farid Al-Attas sees that the theory initiated by Foucault is very relevant, so Farid provides keen study on such intellectual hegemony (Eurocentrism) especially in Asia (Alatas, 2010).In Indonesia, there is Hanneman Samuel who analyzes academic colonialism in the social sciences (Samuel, 2010).
Even Hitti notes that unconsciously in the 17th century of Middle East, "the West exploits scientific methods by adding a variety of experiments and develops scientific techniques that emphasize on the physical aspect of a reality."(Hitti, 2010).Hitti's above analysis apparently has a strong foundation and thus it should be taken seriously.The phrase "to develop scientific techniques that emphasize the physical aspects of reality" is usually viewed as irrelevant by some social scientists, but it is crucial in epistemological contexts.This is a serious problem in the context of social science of Indonesia, the over emphasis on physical aspects of reality is a grave problem and highly problematical.
Furthermore, Farid's efforts are clearly a worthwhile endeavor to select the quality of the growing social science.Indeed, the study of the knowledge "working tool" in Indonesia are unlikely popular because it was considered complicated, or too much exertion, and potentially to lead to philosophy.This discipline of study is not popular in the society, as evidenced in the small number of the faculty of philosophy in Indonesia compared to the much greater number of the faculty of social sciences and humanity.In fact, philosophy is a scientific basis.

Prophetic View Challenge
"...The conflicts among sociology paradigms are highly political.Each paradigm competes in every field of sociology.Most efforts devoted solely to attack other opponent paradigms with a barrage of exaggerated words" (Ritzer, 1992) The phenomenon of Western social science with positivistic character apparently have aroused and riled some parties (Agger, 2007).The consequences is that the religion (non-physical aspects) is slowly marginalized and even has no room.In this context, any social movement motive should not be lillahita'ala (only because God),", but there must be a "logical" and "realistic" reason it.(Wiktorowicz, 2004) (Meijer, 2009) (Kuntowijoyo, 1991).It is difficult indeed for the religion with metaphysical character to have a place in the positivistic research tradition.This is because religion consists not only a way of life but also a very rich source of ethics and morality (Al-Attas, 1995).Therefore, positivistic research practices and tradition would not be able to reach or even touch the very heart of religion.
The positivistic paradigm of social sciences tries to see the world as it is.It does not emphasize that theories shape the world, as described by the postmodernists, but "the theory was formed outside of much empirical researches."Therefore, the paradigm had no political purpose and did not also involve a significant participation (Agger, 2007).
Social science constructs gradually shift from very positivistic one to the paradigm of interpretative (which usually uses the method of interpretation (1) social hermeneutics and (2) the dialectic that is focused on the construction, reconstruction and elaboration of a social process), then toward the critical paradigms (which views that knowledge is not merely a reflection on the static world out there, and it is an active construction by scientists and the theories that make certain assumptions about the world they are learning, so it is not entirely free value) (Agger, 2007), although the critical paradigm still remains a serious problem.
However, it seems that the foundation of positivistic is still reluctant to recognize its weaknesses.Massively and strategically, this approach spread widely and thus could be recognized as a consequence of modernization and globalization.Now, "European feels that they are the only group of people who have the fate of all mankind and refuse, without a survey, the civilization principles and values outside" (Boisard, 1980).
The European aggressive intellectualism movement, according to some Western admirers, brings fresh air in the so called modernization projects in which secularization becomes one of the most important features.Thus, the carried scientific work certainly was not only arrogant but also patterned secular.
Secularization is emptying the disenchantment of nature, desacralization of politics, and deconsecration of values (Cox, 1967).This pattern shifts the purity of Islam in science.Boisard is true when he says that "the colonialism has undermined the traditional Islamic juridical system, it does not integrate the system."It happens because there is still compromise and problem between the reality and the ideals (Boisard, 1980).Islamic Intellectuals are constructed continuously to compromise and bang between the reality and the ideals, das sein and das solen, the real and the supposed.Coulson's statement is even more comprehensive, it is not only a problem of ideals and reality, but also about revelation and reason, unity and diversity, authority and freedom, law and morality, also stability and change (Coulson, 1969).In contrast, Peter R. Demant saw 5 dilemma of Muslims; (1) study about source criticism, (2) homogeneity and heterogeneity, (3) modernity, rationalism and science, (4) democracy and (5) the challenges of Western Islam (Demant, 2006).
It could not be denied, that the influence of classical social scientists like Comte (by the positivism theory in Course of Positive Philosophy, he builds a social science based on "scientific method" that has been applied to the natural sciences), Durkheim (by the sacred and profane dichotomy about the religion theory of his work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, he establishes the concept of "social facts" to separate sociology from the influence competition between psychology and philosophy), Marx (by the theory of materialism (mode of productions, division of labor, relations of productions, dictatorship of the proletariat) in his Das Kapital), J.S. Mill (by the freedom and the utilitarianism theory in On Liberty and Utilitarianism), and Weber (by the capitalism theory in The Protestan Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism) remains strong and widespread although a great number of criticism has been presented.That is the reason why serious studies about their ideas for the beginners are obligatory.These efforts should eventually reach a point to the study and critical analysis of the various ideas implications from the Western social scientists.

Social Sciences are Value-laden
The comprehensive, integrated, value rich religious character of Islam has been fiercely criticized and juxtaposed against the very simplistic nature of positivism, which claim to be value-free.Efforts toward secularism are carried out in a way that is simultaneous, deliberate and well-planned.Therefore, secularism is actually an agenda on the part of western admirers.These phenomenons confirm that social science is not value-free and highly subjective.In other words, "value-laden" Islam is impossible to be neglected to be used and applied in social science.Scientific devices to see Islamic social movements or Muslim society are certainly "valueladen", such as the movements also contain a defended value.Furthermore, Ilyas Ba-Yunus and Farid Ahmad observe serious confusion when many social scientists prefer to be value-neutral (Ahmad, 1996), whereas the matter of science application in the social sciences always causes value involvement problem.They work hard to get involved in the world of "application" (and ignore the "theory"), because they have a serious problem on the 'theory' that is very various and even contradictory (Ahmad, 1996), as if the science devices are not problematic and could (should?) be used in general.Of course this is a form of Europe intellectual arrogance.

Gray, in his book, Value-Free Sociology: A Doctrine of Hypocrisy and
Irresponsibility, writes with a harsh tone that "value-free" social science is actually "a doctrine of hypocrisy and irresponsibility" (Conyers, 1968).In other words, the social sciences that has spread throughout the country are certainly not only (1) "value-laden", but also indirectly (2) replace, so (3) it erode the dynamics of local knowledge, while (4) spreading the new science paradigm, and (5) creating an arrogant Western scientific construction.Then, we could slowly understand the words of Al-Faruqi few years ago, "materials and methodologies taught by Islam recently is plagiarism of West materials and methodologies" (Al-Faruqi, 1984).

C. INTELLECTUAL JIHAD: PROPHETIC IMPLICATIONS
When the social sciences emanated from western tradition have their own struggled agenda, values, and vision, similarly Islamic social sciences, better termed as 'the prophetic social sciences', struggle to materialize the following points: (Kuntowijoyo, 2006) 1.The ultimate goal of Islamic Paradigm is goodness in the world and the hereafter.
2. The involvement of actor in history is active and thus they stand as agent or alcaliph, in Qur'anic term, to direct people and society towards goodness and righteousness.
3. The concept of "objectification".As a strategy, the objectification of Islam as the media towards Islamization, and can be seen to build compound public sympathy, dismiss the phobia of Islam implementation in the public sphere.So, it is expected that the society is no longer allergic or worried with the implementation of Islam in the public sphere, they will appreciate and support it.Slowly, there will be emerging confidence in the implementation of Islamic teachings and it becomes an important capital for the sharia law implementation.Thus, gradually sharia will be implemented in public and finally, Sharia is applied perfectly in all aspects of the society.
4. Its position with secular sciences highly different.
It becomes an important foundation in the intellectual jihad because of the Muslims glorious achievements in culture are humiliated generally through sociology or social science approaches.So Muslims are not only experiencing problems with low self-esteem, but also doubtful to their self, to people, to the religion, and to the predecessors.This is what Al-Faruqi cautioned Muslims earlier to strive in order to maintain: (1) the integrity of the Qur'an, (2) the apostolate of the Prophet Muhammad, (3) the truth of Sunnah, (4) the perfection of sharia and (5) the various glorious achievements of Muslims in culture (Al-Faruqi, 1984).

Mukmin Intellectual Weapon
"(19th Century is) the century in which Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud forged philosophies and scientific interpretations of reality which had no place for God.Indeed, by the end of the century, a significant number of people were beginning to feel that if God was not yet dead, it was the duty of rational, emancipated human beings to kill him."(Amstrong) In this regards, Kuntowijoyo sparked prophetic social sciences after a great deal of efforts to consider its terminological and phenomenological consideration.
Kuntowijoyo, with his comprehensive knowledge and deep concern on Islamic scientific tradition, wanted to develop intellectual weapon against materialism, secularism, hedonism, utilitarianism and pragmatism (Kuntowijoyo, 1991), although this intellectual movement is difficult and rifle with challenges (Kuntowijoyo, 2006).Ultimately, prophetic social science is an effort to direct toward what is referred to by Kuntowijoyo as Islam Ethical Paradigm.For Islam Paradigm is full of vision and mission.As a result, every social scientific tools coming from external sources must be processed, examined and critically scrutinized by Islamic scientific filters, in context of prophetic social sciences.(Kuntowijoyo, 2006).Imported "scientific tool" is required to be able to show and answer the following points; Using the above mentioned filters, conclusion could be withdrawn whether imported scientific tools pass the criterions or not.Firstly, what is the motives of the device; secondly, Muslim intellectual should appear in the public not only to provide a justification for adopting the way social movement in Muslim society are viewed, but also to convince the public that it should be the way.Like Syed 'Ali Ashraf said, "if the secularists attempts to justify their concept of society and social change with empirical data and convince people that the attitude of the religious life must be abandoned if the people wants to live in a modern society, then the Muslim sociologist should come forward to provide justification for the way they look at society from their rules point of view stand that are full of norm...(namely) the khalifatullah.Norm which has become a major driver of mentally, spiritually and even material growth" (Ahmad, 1996).

Paradigmatic Difference Sources
There are at least three factors leading to paradigmatic differences in social science or sociology (Ritzer, 1992).First, because of the differences in philosophical view underlying their own ideas of sociologist community about issues that should be studied by sociology.Every community of sociologists has its own basic assumption or axiom regarding a community.Then, the first logical consequence is the theories constructed and developed by each scientific community are different, and this is the second.Third, the methods used to understand and explain the substances of science are also different.A simple scheme showing the differences of various social science paradigms is presented in the appendices of this writing.

Integrality Strategy
Here is strategy prophetic of social sciences that should be taught in classrooms, and then applied in the society (Ahmad, 1996) (Kuntowijoyo, 1991).
First, Islamic sociology must be theoretical.In other words, from this first strategy the student should be able to know the principles of human behavior related to the statements in the Qur'an about human nature, organization nature, and history nature (Al-Attas, 1995).Second, the Islamic sociology must be critical.It means that the students are expected to develop comparative techniques that could help sociologists in determining the societal deviations from Islamic ideas.Third, the Islamic sociology must be strategic.This aims to encourage students to be able to propose and arrange a planning in such a way that societal deviation from Islamic perspective can be minimized or even avoided.
Individual, social and social structures are three most important are three most important targets that should always be considered in conducting a change project.(Lauer, 1989).The method of the changes can be done through three approaches; rational-empirical (biqolbihi), normative-deductive (bilisanihi), force-power (biyadihi).

D. ENDNOTES
The emergence of Kuntowijoyo idea bringing the prophetic social sciences seems to be a continuous effort to develop Islamic social sciences, as a result of deep understanding of the Qur'an chapter ali-Imron verse 110 (commanding the good, forbidding the evil, believing in Allah), and also as "process" to see the empirical reality.For certain, those talk more on 'the processes rather than 'the results'.Even Heddy Shri Ahimsa-Putra has attempted to complete Kuntowijoyo's framework with more detailed and systematic one but it remains unfinished (Ahimsa-Putra, 2011).
By looking at the implications of the prophetic paradigm in the context of the social science, then the sciences are full of provocative motion (dakwah), professionalism (jihad), and strong integrity (amanah).This is the consequence of a prophetic "working tool", able to compete with the secular sciences.Thus, the main motive of a Muslim sociologist in reviewing Muslim society is that the social object does not only presents the data and the field facts as a result of the research or only to observe the phenomenon of a reality, but also there must also be "motion provocative" to be better according to the prophetic ethics (i.e. the virtues of the world and the hereafter), what is popularly known as dakwah or amr ma'ruf nahi munkar.
Therefore, if a Muslim has involved and talked about dakwah or amr ma'ruf nahy munkar, then the spirit of prophetic professionalism (jihad) and integrity (amanah) to others and especially to God must necessarily be maintained.
figures in various branches of social science, humanities, and culture.
a. Explaining and changing the social phenomena (transformation), b.Giving direction to the transformation, c.Explaining the causes of the transformation directed towards them, and d.Who will lead the transformation toward the direction.
For him, action is community movement is history.So, it is not merely interpreting Islamic social movement of Muslim society without directions, and criticizing them fierce fully without proposing a solution.It's time to move and act… rise to challenge the bleachers!The Differences of Social Sciences Paradigm