Indonesia Cleric’s Council, Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) will likely to issue a fatwa against smoking, or make it HARAM within Islam.

The issue surfaced (again) as MUI prepares their routine meeting forum, bahtsul masail, which will be held next October.

The cleric’s forum hasn’t even started yet but the tension already began. Last week in Jember, East Java, several tobacco farmers protested the predicted-coming fatwa.

Posters saying “MUI stop playing around”, “Tobacco feeds a lot of stomach”, and “Tobacco workers unite!” were displayed.

In Probolinggo, also a small town in East Java, local branch of tobacco farmers association, Asosiasi Petani Tembakau Indonesia (APTI), already rejected the predicted-coming fatwa.

Amin Subarkah, chairman of APTI East Java branch, said, “A lot of clerics have different opinons about smoking. I hope MUI will re-examine their [predicted coming] fatwa.”

Bear in mind that I’m a smoker, a heavy smoker to be accurate. I usually spend two packs of cigarettes a day. But I try to view this issue objectively. And one thing I can tell you is, Amin Subarkah was pretty wrong.

Clerics dont have many different opinions about smoking. The fact is, Islamic scholars are becoming more unanimous in prouncing smoking use clearly HARAM. In Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, for instance, the cleric’s council has already stated smoking is haram years ago.

But Indonesia is different. There’re many tobacco industries here. Also one crucial factor, we have Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s moderate (very moderate, perhaps) muslim organization, which happen to be the largest muslim organization in this country.

And it’s just nice to see how NU officials respond to the issue.

In an article published by The Jakarta Post, Muzaenah Zein, third secretary of Fatayat -NU women organization branch- told participants of the Fatayat NU National Conference in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, that she felt the [predicted] ruling was EXTREME and DETRIMENTAL to the nation’s economy, as it would affect the country’s tobacco industry.

“Cigarette smoking is considered offensive (MAKRUH), as it is detrimental to one’s health. However, it would be better if the prohibiton is conveyed through religious counsel and missionary work (instead of fatwa),” she said.

Hehehe.. Amin Subarkah, and every muslim smoker in this country (me included), will be glad to hear such “fatwa” from NU officials.

But wait, there’s more ‘counter-fatwa’ coming, and this one is from a  higher NU official.

KH. Najmudin, Roois Aam NU Jember, a smoker, said to a reporter of Tempo magazine that difference of opinions within khilafiyah matters [it means okay to have different opinions] is not supposed to be strictened.

Najmudin said that in NU tradition, smoking is in the same league as ‘number of tarawih prayers’ or ‘bank interest’. He futher added that many NU scholars smoke since they were young in order to ‘unblock mental obstacles in thinking‘.

Hahaha… a very-very typical NU fatwa! No kidding. Reminds me of my old ustadz at madrasah. He undoubtely would say the same.

Again, those two are not the only NU officials who disagree with MUI predicted-coming fatwa against smoking. There are more important high ranking NU figures who share the opinion:

• KH. Idriz Marzuki, chairman of Lirboyo Pesantren in Kediri, East Java, argues that smoking is offensive (makruh), not haram.
• Gus Sholah, a brother of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of Tebuireng Pesantren, Jombang, East Java, also rejected the predicted-coming fatwa.

So, how do we explain this counter-fatwa? Is it because most NU figures are smoking-addict?

[Hehe.. though there's no survey about that, I can say that a lot of NU clerics in villagers are smokers -Gudang Garam kretek or Dji Sam Soe]

But that’s not my point. I want to offer a simple explanation regarding MUI fatwa -and NU counter fatwa- which is actually familiar to Indonesian, but perhaps not to foreigners.

NU is the largest Indonesia’s muslim organizations, but they do not operate at a political level. They’re what we called ‘the silent majority’. NU operates by building Islamic schools [pesantren] in villages and taughting Islam to Indonesian people. They have done it years ago, even before Indonesia formally declared its independence. It’s a kinda ‘cultural movement’.

We can even say that NU (and Muhammadiyah) is responsible in shaping the character of ‘Indonesian Islam’ today. I grew up in village and I know that many village clerics dont really care about MUI fatwa. They care more about what NU figures say.

Even in the time of Soeharto, MUI didnt have bargaining power, while NU did. MUI is a new phenomenon after the founding of the formal state of Indonesia, but they have become more aggressive these years, especially after 1998 reform. And I think we will see more gap between MUI and NU in the coming years.

Simply said, MUI doesnt represent even a significant portion of Indonesian muslim population. While NU does, and Muhammadiyah does. Any fatwa in Indonesia which is not endorsed by those two Islamic organizations will likely to have insignificant effect -unless goverment strongly backs it.

So, I guess there’s no need to worry about the predicted-coming fatwa against smoking from MUI.

Personally I know smoking is bad, but I dont feel like to stop at the moment. Besides, when I write articles, I need supply of cigarettes to ‘unblock the mental process in thinking’ hehehe…

But insyaallah I try to reduce it.*

[image source: flickr photo by hegarty_david]