Building Solidarity for Peace

Building Solidarity for Peace

Humans were created on this earth to love, love, and help each other (At-Taubah:71). The differences that exist in humans are not to be contradicted, but to be recognized. As stated in Al-Hujarat: 13, humans were created to be male and female, nations, and tribes to share love and get to know each other. Love and efforts to get to know each other can be realized by being in solidarity with each other.

In the Thesaurus dictionary, literally solidarity means togetherness, cohesiveness, or tolerance. Whereas conceptually, solidarity is a feeling or expression of individuals or groups formed by shared interests and goals. Prophet Muhammad SAW illustrates that solidarity between people is like an interrelated building. One circuit will strengthen the other circuit. It's the same with the human body, when a part hurts, the rest of the body feels it too. That is, doing solidarity is an effort to build peace, because by doing solidarity there is a sense of closeness and togetherness among others.

In the Indonesian context, tolerance has been taught by our ancestors, for example through the tradition of mourning (ta'ziyah), visiting the sick, seeing people giving birth or having other purposes. This habit turns out to have a huge impact on the people who are visited. They feel supported, feel helped, and feel less alone when others visit. For people who are sick, the arrival of other people can give new enthusiasm to heal, even it can be a cure for their illness. Why is that? If we refer to Abraham Maslow's theory of needs, humans have the need for friendship (affiliation), the need to feel safe (safety), and to be appreciated. When these needs are met, what arises is happiness.

Another benefit of solidarity is that it can reduce the level of violence and create harmonious relations between religious believers. Umar bin Khattab once gave an example of this when he found elderly parents from the dhimmis (non-Muslims living under the auspices of an Islamic state) who were in need of help. He immediately provided living expenses from the Baitul Mal even though the person was not a Muslim.

In this modern era, examples of solidarity can be seen in Tentena, Poso. Interfaith residents there share in social relations and respect each other when someone celebrates religious activities. Ustadz Mustamine, for example, used to do ta'ziyah when a Christian died. In addition, the man who is currently serving as the imam of the Great Mosque of Tentena is used to congratulating during the celebration of Christian holidays. On the other hand, the priests in Tentena are not reluctant to give support to Muslims who are in mourning. They also always congratulate on major Islamic holidays such as Eid al-Fitr. The aim is none other than to maintain the peace of the people in Tentena.

The examples above illustrate the spirit of the Indonesian people in maintaining unity and peace. Other groups will take actions of solidarity when one part of the nation faces a disaster. This attitude of solidarity, which is manifested in mutual respect, mutual assistance, and empathy has been emphasized by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) through a fatwa on Masail Asasiyah Wathaniyah (national strategic issues) in 2009 (MUI, 2011). In paragraphs 1 and 2 of the fatwa it is emphasized that the Indonesian nation is committed to maintaining the nobility of religion and regulating the welfare of common life and has an agreement to idealize the nation as a pluralistic but still one nation (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika).