*MUI INDRAMAYU REGIONAL WORKING CONFERENCE MATERIAL TEAM, A NEW DIRECTION LIVING THE SKY BASED ON THE EARTH*
By: H. Adlan Daie
Political analyst, Secretary General of the MUI Indramayu.
The Regional Working Conference (Mukerda) of the MUI of Indramayu Regency, scheduled for after the 1447 H Hajj, is not merely an “organic forum,” but a starting point for collective awareness of the new direction of the MUI Indramayu: “Living” (glorifying) the doctrine of heaven while simultaneously bringing it down to “ground” the earth, guiding the path of civilization.
Drafting the Mukerda materials is not a technical endeavor, but rather a mental endeavor to promote public interest. It was guided by Drs. KH. Mahfud, MA, and KH. Sulaiman Hasan, MA, both former heads of the Indramayu “Depag” (before the “Ministry of Religious Affairs” nomenclature), not only understand the technocratic and bureaucratic organs of the religious sector but also grew up in the social ecosystem within the “local” context of Indramayu.
H. Moh Tadri, M.Pd., and H. Agung Mardiyanto, M.Ag., the Mukerda material coordinator duo, articulated the drafting of materials for four commissions: the Religious Commission, led by Dr. H. Mohamad Khalil and Dr. H. Sofyan Tsauri. The Social Commission was orchestrated by Dr. H. Masduki Duriyat and Dr. H. Lutfi Harras, two academics and education practitioners.
The Community Economic Commission was handled by H. Fahmi Labib, SE, and H. Dudung Badrun, SH. MH, an advocate. Finally, the “Main Thoughts & Recommendations” commission was led by Dr. H. Tobroni and Saefullah Qomarudin (Gus Eep), two intellectual activists who manage the “bottom-up” thinking of the MUI sub-district.
The author intentionally published the composition of the MUI Indramayu Mukerda material team above not for “showy display,” but to prevent what Jürgen Habermas calls the “public sphere,” the public space from being dominated by “trash” content from social media produced by manipulative image factories with the intention of a single message:
First, this is the kick-off point, where the “substance” of the Mukerda material was compiled by a team of “santri” (Islamic students) across generations and fields, transcending the barriers of differences in Islamic mass organizations, whose human resources qualifications are not merely academic degrees but sources of guidance for public exemplary behavior within the social spectrum of Indramayu.
The definition of “santri” here is based on the anthropological theory of Dr. Zamakhsyari Dhofir is an intellectual product of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Islamic boarding school (pesantren) and a “santri” (Islamic student) in the political sociology of Clifford Geertz, meaning figures who, although not “Islamic boarding school” (Islamic boarding school) but who grew up within the social ecosystem of Islamic organizations. Therefore, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is essentially a “melting pot,” a gathering place for various santri (Islamic students).
Second, to reaffirm that the MUI, with its attribution of the entity “Ulama” (Ulama in the definition of KH. Wahid Hasyim, Gus Dur’s father, are religious figures, Muslim intellectuals, and social activists) can gather under one MUI umbrella: united in faith, congregational in worship, tolerance in furuiyah (Islamic teachings), and collaboration in da’wah (preaching).
This social cohesion of the “santri” community was “fractured,” even destructive, due to the residue of extreme divisions in the 2019 political contest, which emerged into extreme entities of “cebong” versus “kampret” and “kadrun” versus “buzzer,” etc., a low point in political civilization fostered by false imagery.
Third, within the above construction, the Mukerda material team must be able to lay the foundation for “guiding ideas” regarding the threshold of public propriety. The MUI is present not to offer “luxury physical infrastructure” but rather the power of thought to guide public morality. The MUI is not a “spectacle” political accessory, but a political force “guiding” the direction of public morality.
From here, the articulation of “construction of benefit” (“Al Amru bil makruf”) is built within a balance of psychological courage to “prevent social destruction” (“An nahyu ‘anil Munkar”), that in the public sphere, moral values are not merely what is permissible and what is not permissible, both from a formal legal and sharia perspective, but about the threshold of propriety. Social Ethics
Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim sociologist, reminded us that “a national entity will sink into the extinction of civilization if it is nurtured only by physical modernity but lacks a threshold of public ethical morality,” he wrote.
The perspective of the message above, in the context of the MUI’s role, is a guardian of public moral guidance by narrowing the “spectacle” of moral decadence and the destructive impact of socio-political residue that legitimizes lies.
This brief introduction, and herein lies the foundation of the MUI Indramayu Mukerda material team, laying the foundation for the MUI’s future organic work, with simple, down-to-earth, measurable, and implementable material construction.
The author firmly believes that the MUI Indramayu Mukerda material team, as mentioned above, is capable of articulating drafts of material that are articulate and implementable, and that have a local “socio-religious” context within the Indramayu social spectrum.
Good luck with your duties, and your maximum intellectual effort will have a proportional impact. That is the MUI Indramayu’s national charity.
Indramayu, April 21, 2026
Wassalam.
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