Towards a progressive interpretation of Ummah1

This paper elaborates the discourse of the development of Ummah from various contemporary literatures that had been produced by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and intellectuals, ranging from Muslim and Western countries. With the progressive perspective of multiple modernities and intercivilisational approach, this paper argues that the concept of Ummah should be interpreted as a modern concept of inclusive cosmopolitan-humanitarian solidarity that emphasise values of liberalism, pluralism, democracy, human rights and sustainable development. This concept has been also strengthened by a sociological representation of the tradition of Islam Nusantara. Its relative historical continuity in the process of the development of the micro sociological dimension of tradition, it explains that this concept of Ummah is not rootless. Consequently, it can be understood that its applicability is relatively possible . Paper ini ingin mengelaborasi wacana pembangunan konsep Ummah yang digali dari pelbagai literatur kontemporer, baik yang berasal dari para sarjana dan intelektual Muslim maupun non-Muslim, baik itu yang berasal dari negara-negara Muslim maupun Barat. Melalui perspektif multiple modernities 1 I would like to thanks to Professor James Piscatori, for his supervision and his invaluable inspirations during the process of research. The previous version of this paper was prepared and submitted in the examination of the course of “Islam and Democracy” in the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS), the Australian National University (ANU), Australia. Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies Vol. 8, no.1 (2018), pp. 87-116, doi : 10.18326/ijims.v8i1. 87-116