Prophetic Communication: Islam as a Knowledge System
At the end of 2020, Holy Rafika Dhona wrote a book published by UII press. In this book entitled Prophetic Communication ” of Islamic Prophetic Perspectives, Holy refers to Kuntowijoyo who also sees Islam as a scientific concept rather than a mere religious building.
According to Holy, Kuntowijoyo was actually just trying to explain how to implement the prophetic paradigm. “Yes, Kunto explained the prophetic method with two things: synthetic analytic and transcendental structural. Then I added the historical dialectic because of course Kunto as a historian used it,” he explained. Holy Rafika Dhona said this in his online Book Review on Sunday (17/1) at the KBM Alumni Forum (Cultural and Media Studies).
From this, Holy wants to emphasize that he adds more to how prophetic communication is used as a means of resistance for the weak, and defends mustad’af (the weak or vulnerable groups).
Holy tries to translate prophetic terms into things that are communication in nature. “Islam is a knowledge system, then we need to develop it, and he named it a prophetic perspective. Kunto said,” Holy explained about Kuntowijoyo’s prophetic perspective.
“I am currently compiling a history of discourse on why Islamic communication emerged. For example, when discussing the character Harjani Hefni. In my opinion, the logical model imports everything in Egypt there and then it is translated into Indonesia. So it appears Islamic communication. If Prof. Iswandi takes it from Kuntowijoyo. Then there is a difference between Islamic Communication, Da’wah Communication, and others. I took this terminology from Prof. Iswandi, “said Holy.
Muhammad Heychael, Communication Lecturer at Multimedia Nusantara University, who is also one of the book reviewers at the forum, said that this book was able to break out of the trap of Islamization of knowledge which was very dichotomous in the 80s, despite the lack of methodology and praxis. “The Islamization of this knowledge is a sign that this is Islamic and this is not. And this arises from the inferiority of globalization. And this is ultimately not substantive,” Heychael argues.
Instead of marking what Islam needs to contribute to the discourse, “I think this is important so that we do not become normative. So we are not busy marking this as secular and Islamic, but not bringing up any new substance. And Holy managed to get out of the trap,” Heychael added.
According to Heychael, the book Holy written in this book is only the beginning that describes its principles. He gave a view to describe this book with a new perspective like Kuntowijoyo, for example on how the concept of prophetic communication is used in journalism or other domains.
“What Holy has written is not finished yet. The dialogue is not finished. We might be able to offer a new perspective from the previous one. Kan kunto is a liberation theology perspective. For example, we take it from journalism. How does journalism use this (prophetic communication). concept of justice. Now Holy just describes the principle, “he explained.
