For the Love of Ahl al-Bayt: Transcending Sunni-Shiʿi Sectarian Allegiance

Abstract

This study problematizes the binary categories of Shiʿi and Sunni as a limiting analytical frame in investigating diversity and sectarian tensions in present-day Indonesia. Based on fieldwork and archival research that examines religious practices of ordinary Muslims in Bandung, Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the study looks beyond the perceived doctrines, orthodoxies, and boundaries that are ordinarily understood to delineate Sunni and Shiʿi religiosity and sectarian allegiance. Amidst increasing anti-Shiʿi sentiment and mounting pressure to excommunicate (takfīr) Shiʿis, there are non-Shiʿi Muslims who engage in Shiʿi communal activities (e.g. study groups, rituals) or attend Shiʿi academic institutions. This study pays special attention to self-identified Sunnis who adhere to Shiʿi philosophical thoughts and who are committed to Shiʿi devotional practice under the umbrella of love for Ahl al-Bayt (e.g. reading Duʿā Kumayl, tawaṣṣul, Ashura commemorations). Instead of hastily interpreting this phenomenon as taqiyyah (dissimulation), the study uses it to question the assumption of rigid Sunni-Shiʿi boundaries. Unlike previous studies on Shiʿism that focus exclusively on a distinctive Shiʿi community (Marcinkowski 2010, Halimatusa'diyah 2013, Zulkifli 2013), this study demonstrates that a shared Sunni-Shiʿi allegiance is not problematic, or at least not impossible, for some Indonesian Muslims.

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