FRIDAY PRAYER CONGREGATION





FRIDAY PRAYER CONGREGATION

AT ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA (UII) MOSQUES

Aden Wijdan and M. Roem Syibly[1]

Abstract

This article is to account the Friday prayer congregation at UII mosques, their perception of the prayer, and motivation. It is based on a research conducted in 2005 at mosques attached to the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII). Based on the profile of the congregation, this article concludes that members of Friday prayer at UII mosques were below 30 years old who are students as well as university students or officials of private-owned institutions. According to their religious orientation, they were the followers of the Sha>fi‘i> school of Islamic law. In general they did not understand the exact detailed rules of performing Friday prayers, but they did understand the general rules of prayer. They preferred religious issues being addressed at Friday sermon to other issues. In terms of the available mosque facilities, they agreed on the use of ancillary technological equipments. What motivated them to join Friday prayer at UII mosques was a religious devotion.

Keywords: Jamaah, Jum’at prayer, mosque.

Introduction

This article deals with the profile of congregations of Friday prayer at UII mosques. The data is taken from a field-research conducted in 2005 at four mosques attached to the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII). The research was commenced by a prior-research in January at Baitul Qahar mosque, UII campus in Jalan Cik Ditiro No 1 Yogyakarta, which shown that performance of Friday service was not in line with the want and need of congregations. A great number of congregations were chatting with each other or even sleeping while Friday sermon was given. Many of them came late. This might be so for such reasons as unattractive sermons, unsatisfying services, and congregations’ own attitude towards the significance of the prayer. To come to terms with such problems, mosque managers needed to make such endeavours as making sermons attractive, developing facilities, and so on.

This article seeks to answer the following questions: Who have participated in Friday prayer at Masjid Universitas Islam Indonesia? What is their opinion about performing Friday prayer at the Masjid? What have motivated them to perform it there? To answer the questions, in this article, I will use a socio-religious approach to interpret socio-religious context where people under study live. By doing so, I intend to understand the audience of Friday sermon, their opinion on performing Friday prayer, and their motivation.

Little has been made to study the profile of Friday prayer participants. Among them is a study by Machasin on Wacana Demokrasi dalam Khutbah Jum’at di DIY. The study was the result of five-time observation of Friday sermon at a number of mosques in DIY[2]. In general, observation locations were classified into several types, including campus mosques, common mosques and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) mosques. The observation concludes that democracy had become a salient theme of Friday sermons at these mosques. What was meant by democracy here was democracy in terms of doing religion and interaction with each other, including democratic expression. However, democracy in its political sense was rarely mentioned.

In 2002 Azhar Arsyad conducted a research on the content of Friday sermon in South Sulawesi. The data were taken from observation of several mosques there on 12, 19, and 26 April 2002, and 3 May 2002. According to his observation, Arsyad categorised the content into five: the establishment of Islamic shari>‘at, Muslim solidarity, condemnation of other religions, criticism of governmental policies, and blaming the others. Arsyad concludes that there is an intimate relation between public opinions on emerging issues and preachers’ attitude toward them as reflected in their sermons (content). The more intense the opinions come up in press, the more intense they express in Friday sermons.[3]

Another research which was focused more on the content of sermon was conducted by Soetarman S, Persepsi Masyarakat terhadap Khutbah Jumah: Studi di Beberapa Daerah di Jawa Barat (People’s Perception of the Content of Friday Sermon: A Study in Various Areas in West Java). As the title indicates, the research focused on the perception of members of Friday prayer toward the content of sermons address at a number of mosques in West Java. It was concerned with the want and hope of the members in regard with the observance of Friday prayer and ancillary facilities available to the mosques, and more importantly the issues dealt with in the sermon. Soertarman suggested the importance of improving the services which might be served by the mosque managers (ta’mi>r) in West Java.[4]

M. Aji Subki wrote a BA thesis on “Isi Khutbah Sebagai Pesan Dakwah, (Studi Analisis Isi Khutbah Ust. H. Sunarto) (The Content of Sermon as a Calling Message: An Analytical Study of the Content of Ust. Sunarto’ Khutbah).  Subki analysed the content of Ust. [abb. Usta>dh, a religious teacher] through a discourse analysis method of Teun A. Van Dijk. He concluded that the content of Ust. H Sunarto’s sermon contained themes concerning Islamic faith and piety which had to be implanted into each Muslim.[5]

This article is based on a field research[6] conducted at four mosques attached to the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) Yogyakarta, including the Ulil Albab mosque (integrated campus at Jalan Kaliurang), Baitul Qahar mosque (Jalan Cik Ditiro), Al-Muqtashidin mosque (campus of faculty of economy), and Al-Azhar mosque (Faculty of law). Research population of this research includes all congregations at those four mosques. They consist of students, lecturers, administrative staffs, and communities surrounding the mosques.

The research sample includes 185 respondents who were assumed to represent all population. Ulil Albab mosque has 48 respondents, Baitul Qahar 48 respondents, Al-Muqtasidin, and Al-Azhar mosque 49 respondents. The samples were taken accidentally or, in other words, this research used an accidental random sampling[7]. This technic was used because the population sample was temporary in that people were in research locations only for short times, in this case only before performing prayer at the mosques and leaving afterwards. Pre-research observation had shown that congregations mostly came to the mosques before or after the call for praying (adhan) was launched, and left the mosques two minutes after salam (closing of prayer). The time limit to gain the data from respondents was ten minutes before adhan, and, at the other times, the researcher visited their work places. To complete the data needed, the researcher used a questionnaire method by making written interviews[8]. By this method, it was hoped that the profile of congregation of UII mosques could be drawn. In the questionnaire, three basic questions were posed: whoever performed Friday prayer at UII mosques; what was their opinion about the performance of Friday prayer at UII mosques; and what motivated them to perform Friday prayer there.

After investigating identity, opinion and motivation of congregation, the next step was to make a quantitative analysis. In this regard, this research applied five analytical categories: (1) understanding the identity of congregations of Friday prayer by classifying them according to their ages, jobs, social and religious organisations, education, specialisations, the ways they learned Islam, religious inclinations, and knowledge of rukn of Friday prayer, dispensation of leaving Friday prayer, and prerequisites of prayer. (2) Understanding their opinions on performing Friday prayer at UII mosques, by classifying them into those concerning the sermon preachers, the content of sermon, time of sermon, media of sermon, imam of Friday prayer, and the convenience of performing Friday prayer. (3) Understanding motivations of congregations to performing Friday prayer at UII mosques, by classifying the profile of congregations according to their reason of joining Friday prayer at UII mosques, and their perception the advantage they received after performing prayer there.

Congregational Friday prayer and sermon

Congregational Friday prayer comprises two rakaat, is conducted after sermon. It is an individual obligation (fard ’ain) for adult Muslim males. This is prescribed in Q. 62: 9: “O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday (the Day of Assembly), hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of God, and leave off business (and traffic): That is best for you if ye but knew!”[9] Majority of ‘ulama are of the opinion that Friday sermon is obligatory. This is based on hadiths of the Prophet which state that the Prophet always made sermons before performing Friday prayer. Different from general speech or kultum (kuliah tujuh menit, five-minute lecture), Friday sermon has prerequisites and basic elements to fulfil as part of Islamic devotion. According to Sulaiman Rasyid (1990), the prerequisites of Friday sermon include: its set time is when the sun commences its decline; sermon is addressed in an upright standing position; the preacher sit down between two khutbah (sermons); turning up the voice to the extent the audience can listen; being purified from minor as well as major hadath and impurity (najs); and covering the pudenda (awrat). Rukn of Friday sermon comprises: lauding God, chanting salawat for the Prophet; uttering confession (shahadat); calling for taqwa, reading some Quranic verses; and praying fellow Muslims.[10]

A khatib may choose certain themes relevant to his audience or based on their actuality. Thus, it is not recommendable that he read a manual of Friday sermon repeatedly. The language he uses is not necessarily Arabic, but other official national and local languages may be used. What is important is that his audience can really understand the sermon.

Friday prayer at UII Mosques

This research involved as many as 185 respondents which included: 48 participants of Ulil Albab mosque, 48 of Baitul Qahar mosque, 40 of Al-Muqtasidin mosque, and 49 of Al-Azhar mosque. Most of them, 135 or 72.9 % of them, were under thirty years. Viewed from their job, they were students or university students and private officials, of which the number reached 101 (54.6 %) and 64 (34.6%) respondents. Counted from their socio-religious organisation affiliation, those who were not involved in any organisation numbered 92 (49.7%) respondents. The rest were affiliated to Muhammadiyah (53 or 28.6% respondents) and NU (36 (19.5% respondents) respectively.

Based on their education, they were university students or graduates whose total number was 121 (65.4%) respondents. They learned Islam from public religious gatherings (pengajian) and schools or campuses, including 59 (31.9%) respondents and 47 (25.4%) respondents respectively. Seen from their affiliation to Islamic school of law, majority of them were adherents of the Shafi’ite school of law, numbering as many as 112 (60.5%) respondents. The rest were not affiliated to any of four acknowledged Islamic schools of law, whose number were 57 (30.8%) respondents. Regarding their knowledge of fiqh, only 79 (42.7%) of 185 respondents understand the rules of performing Friday prayer, especially on rukn of Friday sermon and 176 (95.1%) of 185 respondents understand about the dispensation of leaving Friday prayer. And, 181 (97.8%) of 185 respondents understand prerequisites of performing Friday prayer. In terms of Friday sermon at UII mosques, as many as 108 (58.4%) respondents wanted the content of sermon to be about religion. 80 (43.2%) respondents hoped that sermon took no more than 20 minutes. Congregation of Baitul Qahar mosque prefer the sermon be addressed in 15 minutes.

One of the questions asked to the respondents is related to the use of supporting equipments such as OHP or LCD projector in Friday sermon.  The question is whether such equipments are useful for sermon addressing. As many as 77 (41.6%) respondents disagreed on the advantage of such equipments. Another question explored is concerned with reading ability of imam (leader of obligatory prayer). As many as 114 (61.6%) respondents regarded the reading ability of imams quite well, while 71 (38.4%) respondents did not think so. The convenience of joining prayer at UII mosques is another question raised in the research. As many as 140 (75.7%) respondents stated that they were quite satisfied with the convenient invironment of the UII mosques.

Motivation is an important question in this research. Most of respondents, including 129 (69.7%), stated that Friday prayer was a useful activity. 92 (49.7%) respondents explained that what motivated them to join the prayer at UII mosques was the distance. 127 (68.6%) respondents explained that UII mosques were near their places. As many as 175 (94.6%) stated that performing Friday prayer at UII mosques was better than at others, the reason was the facilities they had (67 or 36.2% respondents).

Interpreting the Data

Viewed from their ages, 133 (73%) respondents are below 30. This means that adults and youths enjoyed a dominant place in Friday praying activities at UII mosques. This was understandable since most of them were students or university students. Only four lecturers could be found attending at Al-Muqtasidin mosque and Al-Azhar mosque. This contradicted the fact that ideally UII mosques were attended by students, staffs, as well as lecturers of the UII institution. Most of the congregation were affiliated to any of four great socio-religious organisations in Indonesia. They were mostly university students. This corroborated what Kuntowijoyo called “Muslim tanpa Masjid” (Muslims without mosque) in that they did not learn Islam from the existing major Islamic organisations, but they got the Islamic knowledge from religious courses, seminars, books, magazines, cassettes, CDs and VCDs, the Internet, radio, and television[11]

Pertaining to their education level, 65.4% participants of Friday prayers were studying or graduated from universities. However, participants at the Baitul Qahar mosque seemed distinct compared to the others since most of them were at elementary and junior and senior high schools. This might be because the mosque was located in between SMP 8 and SMU 5 Yogyakarta, offices, and shopping places.

Most of them did not know the exact rules of Friday prayer, especially related to rukn of Friday sermon as it was the case of Baitul Qahar mosque’s congregation. This was in line with the fact that they learned Islam from public Islamic gatherings (pengajian) which did not teach specifically about Islamic rituals in detail. Even they in fact were university students. This seems ironical since they are studying at an Islamic university and this is of course the responsibility of the UII institution to equip them with adequate knowledge of Islam.

The congregation seemed concerned very much with the content of Friday sermon, since as many as 108 or 58% respondents paid much attention to it. However, there seemed two reasons as to their concern with this aspect of sermon. In the first place, they seemed to regard Friday sermon containing religious subjects as part of the obligatory Islamic devotion. Secondly, they really wanted religious subjects and were less interested in non-religious subjects. At Al-Azhar and Al-Muqtasidin mosques, for instance, even though participants were students at law faculty, they were not much interested in legal issues addressed in Friday sermon. Students of economic faculty were less interested in economic subjects dealt with in the sermon.

It is interesting that congregation of Baitul Qahar and Al-Azhar mosques mostly preferred the sermon no more than fiveteen minutes. This seemed in line with their jobs. Since they were private officials, they preferred taking time as efficient as possible. Taking this into consideration, officials of these two mosques must arrange the sermon in no more than fiveteen minutes.

As mentioned above, the question of supporting equipments is explored in this research. Although many of congregation did not agree with the additional facilities such as OHP or LCD projektor, some of them did agree. As many as 50 or 27% respondents who supported were studying at universities or graduated. This proved that the congregation whose education was higher could accept the idea of providing additional facilities such as OHP or LCD as media of giving sermon. This was probably also linked to their experience of making use of the media in class rooms.

The reading ability of imam is another question investigated. The number congregation who considered they way imam read praying formula quite well and who regarded not were equal. Exception was to the congregation of the Ulil Albab mosque who as many as 95.8% valuated the imam’s ability quite well. This might be so because the Ulil Albab mosque has the regular prayer imam and the well-arranged schedule.

From 19 congregation who were studying or ever studied at pesantren (Islamic boarding school), 15 of them saw that the reading ability of imam was under developed. Given that it was students of pesantren or santri who assessed, it strikingly indicates that the reading ability of imam was still not quite well. Their assessment was more reliable since they gained better training on Quranic reading arts more than those who learned Islam from schools, universities, families, and, let alone Islamic gatherings.

They considered the distance as their reason for joining Friday prayer at UII mosques, in addition to the better facilities the mosques had. Seen from this, UII mosques seem less significant for Islamic propagation. Friday sermon or other Islamic sermons as medium of value and knowledge transformation was not the reason why congregation came to the UII mosques.

Based on the data collected during the research, the number of regular congregation of the UII mosques were 127 or 68.7%. Considering this, religious counselling for them was very helful. In addition, content of sermon would be better if it was designed thematically and systematically. By doing so, religious understanding of sermon content would be well accepted. Given most of them were not affiliated to major Islamic organisations it would be easy to make the mosques the places of counselling without being intervered by the religious inclinations of thoses organisations.

Conclusion

This research is concerned with four campus mosques at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) Yogyakarta. Among them, Ulil Albab mosque has the greatest number of congregation, some 750 congregations. Then Baitul Qahar mosque has about 580 congregations, Al-Muqtasidin mosque some 300 congregations, and Al-Azhar mosque about 250 congregations. The field-research was conducted from June to August 2005. From the explanation above, it can be concluded that the participants of the Friday congregational prayer were below 30 years age, who were students, university students and private officials.

Most of them were not involved in certain socio-religious organisations. Based on their educational level, mostly they were both studying and graduates. Their religious orientation was attached to the Islamic Shafi’ite school of law. They did not understand specific rules of performing Friday prayer but they did understand the general rules of performing obligatory prayers. According to them, they wished that sermons were on religious matters and delivered at no more than twenty minutes. Even participants of the Baitul Qahar mosque preferred five teen minutes instead. Availability of various ancillary facilities for performing sermons seems vital. However, the case is not always so. This can be seen from the fact that most of them do not think it is more convenient if the OHP or LCD projector is used. In addition, for them, Imam’s reading ability was quite well, especially imams at the Ulil Albab mosque. They feel convenient with performing congregational Friday prayer at UII mosques.

The reason why they chose to attend Friday prayer at UII mosques is worthy noting. They considered the distance of the place as an important reason they came there. Thus, they prayed at UII mosques because those mosques were quite near their places or offices. They also saw that performing Friday prayer at UII mosques was better than at others for the facilities available there.

Reference Cited

Arsyad, Azhar, Materi khutbah Jum’at di Sulawesi Selatan pada Tahun 2002, Sulawesi Selatan: Hasil Penelitian, n.d.

Kuntowijoyo, Muslim Tanpa Masjid, Esai-Esai Agama, Budaya, dan Politik dalam Bingkai Strukturalisme Transendental, Jakarta: Mizan, 2001.

Machasin, Wacana Demokrasi dalam Khutbah Jum’at di DIY, Yogyakarta: Penelitian, 2003.

Mustafa, Hasan, Teknik Sampling, Bandung: Unpar, 2000.

Nawawi, Instrumen Penelitian Bidang Sosial, Yogyakarta: UGM Press, 1995, p. 72.

Rasyid, Sulaiman, Fiqh Islam, Bandung Sinar Baru, 1990.

Soetarman S. et al., Isi Khutbah Jum’at di Wialay Jawa Barat, Jawa Barat:  Laporan Hasil Penelitian, n.d.

Subki, M. Aji.  Isi Khutbah Sebagai Pesan Dakwah, (Studi Analisis Isi Khutbah Ust. H. Sunarto), Surabaya: BA thesis at IAIN Suana Ampel, n.d.

Surakhmad, Winarno, Pengantar Penelitian Ilmiah Dasar Teknik, Bandung:  Tarsito 1990.

Artikel ini telah dimuat dalam:

Jurnal Qanun Vol I No 1 February 2010 diterbitkan oleh Pascasarjana FIAI UII

[1] Lecturer, Universitas Islam Indonesia, yogyakarta

[2] Machasin, Wacana Demokrasi dalam Khutbah Jum’at di DIY (Yogyakarta: Penelitian, 2003).

[3] Azhar Arsyad, Materi khutbah Jum’at di Sulawesi Selatan pada tahun 2002 (Sulawesi Selatan: Hasil Penelitian).

[4] Soetarman S, et al., Isi Khutbah Jum’at di Wilayah Jawa Barat (Jawa Barat:  Laporan Hasil penelitian, n.d.).

[5] M. Aji Subki,  Isi Khutbah Sebagai Pesan Dakwah, (Studi Analisis Isi Khutbah Ust. H. Sunarto) (Surabaya: BA thesis at IAIN Suntan Ampel, n.d.).

[6] A field research is a research which is conducted extensively and in detail toward an object of research, by scrutinizing all supporting data concerning a certain case. See Nawawi, Instrumen Penelitian Bidang Sosial (Yogyakarta: UGM Press, 1995), p. 72.

[7] A person is taken as a sample since he or she is there or the researcher knows him/her. Thus, some writers use the term accidental sampling or captive sample (man-on-the-street). This kind of sample is useful for a preliminary research, and then it is followed up by a further research which takes its data at random. See Hasan Mustafa, Teknik Sampling (Bandung: Unpar, 2000).

[8] Winarno Surakhmad, Pengantar Penelitian Ilmiah Dasar Teknik, (Bandung:  Tarsito 1990), p. 180.

[9] The Quranic translation is that of Yusuf Ali.

[10] Sulaiman Rasyid, Fiqh Islam (Bandung: Sinar Baru, 1990), p. 34.

[11] Kuntowijoyo, Muslim Tanpa Masjid, Esai-Esai Agama, Budaya, dan Politik dalam Bingkai Strukturalisme Transendental (Jakarta: Mizan, 2001).

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