Ma'ruf Amin Calls Dangers If There Is No Successor Of Alim Ulama

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin (Photo: Antara)

LAMPUNG - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, who is also the Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), appealed to all Islamic boarding schools in various regions to be able to prepare figures with religious understanding or pious scholars.

If the ulama die, their religious knowledge will not be left behind in the world, so there must be a replacement for the ulama, he said at the Sabilil Muttaqien Muhammadiyah Islamic Boarding School, as monitored from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) TV Youtube broadcast, Thursday, December 23.

"If a scholar dies, his knowledge is not left (but) taken. If there is no substitute, then this is a danger, there is no successor. If there are no pious people left, then people will take stupid leaders who don't understand to be leaders," said Ma'ruf Amin in Lampung, as reported by Antara.

He called Islamic boarding schools a place to prepare human resources (HR) who understand religious teachings. Thus, Ma'ruf Amin encouraged Islamic boarding schools to be able to create pious ulama, with a good and correct understanding of Islam.

"If asked, (then) he gave a fatwa without knowledge, then they are misguided and misleading. This is not (me) as the vice president, this (as) the chairman of the MUI. So there must be a replacement, regeneration. Don't let the fatrah name lose the ulama," he explained.

In addition, the vice president also asked all Islamic boarding schools to carry out their functions as centers for community empowerment, as regulated in Law Number 18 of 2019 concerning Islamic Boarding Schools.

"I think this pesantren should be a center for community empowerment, so that according to the Pesantren Law, pesantren has a function as an education center, as a center for da'wah and community economic empowerment," he said.

To carry out this community empowerment function, the Government has encouraged the establishment of Micro Waqf Banks (BWM) in a number of Islamic boarding schools in the regions.

The vice president hopes that Islamic boarding schools that already have BWM will be able to properly maintain these sharia microfinance institutions and improve the welfare of the community around the pesantren.

"I hope this BWM is managed properly. This is a mandate, so that there is no distrust in the pesantren. (Don't let it) Be given a mandate, instead of developing, it will run out," said the vice president.