CHARACTERISTICS OF ORIENTALISM STUDIES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ISLAMIC WORLD

: This study aims to analyze the study of orientalism through a qualitative approach to literature study, which will be observed based on several indicators, namely in terms of understanding, characteristics, and implications for the Islamic world. Initially, Orientalism was understood as an understanding carried out by Westerners to explore the East, both in terms of religion and civilization. The study of Orientalism has a strong relationship with Western colonialism in the Eastern world, colonialism, imperialism, missionaries and Christianization movements. In its development, orientalism gave another color through the emergence of controversial things circulating about Islam such as damaging the real image of Islam, opportunities to enrich Islamic studies and introduce the original face of Islam rahmatan lilalamin , joy for the western world that began to recognize Islamic civilization, its contribution in the field of translation as well as Eastern scholarship, and encouragement in efforts to achieve peace. With this study we can also understand not always negative orientalists, but there are also those who purely as academics make themselves objective researchers. So that the faith of Muslims in orientalism should not be shown through emotions, and diversity of judgments of Islam also exists. However, there is nothing wrong with staying vigilant and caring for aqidah by increasing faith in Allah SWT and making this motivation through the need for intention and deepening shahih knowledge, especially in the current era.


Introduction
Research on Islam, in Muslims as well as in the West (scientific studies) has put a distinctive image.The study of orientalism in the global academic west already has its own relatively long traditional roots.As a science, it develops and grows along with various interests around it since decades or even hundreds of years ago, especially in studying or looking at Eastern and Islamic countries.In other Islamic study materials, He has an almost inseparable part.This has also caused a stigma in Muslims that whatever Western scientists' value about Islam will always be suspect.
As Edward Said explains in The Book of Orientalism, Western Orientalism studies are not only aimed at scientific studies, but there is a connection between Eastern studies and the practice of imperialism and cultural hegemony in Eastern countries with a modus operandi that represents Eastern reality in a Western perspective, thus giving them legitimacy to voice what might be good to apply in the East.This practice of representation is still alive today, but with a different appearance, one of which is that, when Islam and the Muslim community after the September 9/11 tragedy became victims of demonization of terror that they themselves had never done, either by Western societies or even by fellow Muslims as well. 1 "East and West" is the result of the division of the world which has previously formed a different way of view of religion because it is not measured geographically between East and West which are different, such as climatic conditions, land surfaces, and diversity of flora and fauna.Instead, the division seeks to distinguish the real socio-humanities that exist in the two regions or can be said to try to create a negative image.In this case the opposition biner is the goal of the West to always place the nation of the East, so that the West will attract foreign socio-humanities from the East, so as to make the West have a belief that gives a boundary between the West and the East, we (we) and them (the others), This view is known as orientalism.

Understanding Orientalism
Regarding orientalists, when viewed in terms derived from the root word "Orient" The word "Orient" entered various languages in Europe including English and French.In English, the word "Orient" means "Eastern", and the word "Oriental" is devoted to "Eastern people or nations".While in French it means "East". 2 While if traced to the point of view of the terminology of orientalism is a point of view, understanding, description or identification of the West about the Eastern World with different religions, cultures, economies, languages, and politics. 3e definition of orientalism according to some scholars who study about it: 1. Maryam Jamilah (1934)  Maryam Jamilah defines orientalism as a movement or perspective in tracing the Eastern world, both in terms of religion and civilization, and Westerners are her studies in this regard.

West Author
Western writers define the broad meaning of orientalism not only as about the Arab world and Islam, but everything that has to do with the East.They not only saw the beginning of the Western efforts in the dark ages to study the East.Orientalists for them are Western scientists who study the language, literature, religion, history, and customs of the Eastern world.
In this case analytically, orientalism is distinguished by 3 things: Expertise of the region to the Eastern; Methodology of studying eastern problems; and Ideological concern on the eastern (Islamic) question.

Ismail Yakub (1915)
Ismail defined the meaning of orientalism in the study of the Islamic and Arab worlds which includesculture, civilization, religion, behavior, life and others.

Mahmud Hamid Zaqzuq (1933)
Mahmud defines the meaning of orientalism as Western scientists who examine the Eastern world in the part of Islam that includes language, literature, history, beliefs, sharia and civilization.
It can be concluded that the meaning of orientalism has a narrowing of meaning.Initially, orientalism was widely understood as an understanding, study activity or study carried out by Western scholars or scientists on the development of Eastern countries, both from aspects of religion, language, culture, history, economics, politics, and others.But lately, some experts say that studies conducted by Western scholars or scientists in the Eastern world, have a stronger relationship with the Arab world and Islam. 456anwhile, if you examine the definition again, orientalists are people who are capable of mastering things related to the east (eastern experts). 7We can know that the term "East" referred to in this case refers to regions located in the Near East (such as Persia, Egypt and Arabia) to the Far East (such as Japan, China and India) and countries located in North Africa. 8On the other hand, if you want to know when Orientalism first emerged and who was the first person to coined this term, there are various opinions from the side of historians themselves because researchers find it difficult to determine exactly who and when Orientalism occurred.Some argue that the history of orientalism emerged as early as the 11th century AD.While some others argue that Orientalism emerged in the 7th century Hijri with the argument that orientalist had appeared in Andalusia (Spain) in the 7th century Hijri, when the Spanish Slaibis attacked the Muslims, at which time, Alfons as Raja Constantinople ordered Michael Scott to conduct research on the disciplines of Andalusian Muslims , Scott began translating Arabic books into French by first gathering some of the priests of the city of Thalita.After the translation he handed it over to Sicily who then inR's hands, he gifted it to the university of Paris.Similarly, the head of Thalita diocese, Raimon Laol, did the same when translating the work of Andalusian Islamic scholars.Therefore, it can be concluded that the existence of orientalism was not originally official, but that by the end of the 13th century AD historians almost agreed that this century was the beginning of orientalists being official .9

Characteristics of the study of orientalism
If orientalism is tried to be related along with the development of the first study of the world, then it will never be final, because it is many parties who have different perspectives on orientalists that make this acceptable and diverse studies.Each expert has a different perspective and different results from their study of the East.On the other hand, there are those who view orientalists as negative and suspicious, there are those who view them as pure academics, and there are also those who view them as academics and missionaries.The variety of perspectives will also lead to other events, especially regarding the relationship between the Western and Eastern worlds, or Islam as a representation of eastern culture and Christianity as a representation of Western culture. 10arning about orientalists is like rereading the history that was once engraved between East and West, and its development that occurred from time to time which to this day still continues. 11Quoting from the journal entitled "Orientalists and Orientalism" in "Historical Perspectives" the work of Muhammad Bahar Akkase, an interesting fact was obtained, namely that with only five hundred years they (orientalists) have been able to produce about sixty thousand books of research works that regarding Islam. 12. Studies of orientalism and the Christianization movement (Spread of Christianity).
The increasing number of Christians in priestly schools to be able to study the Old Testament with the New Testament is evidence of the relationship between Orientalism and the process of Christianization.Theythen collaborated with Jewish orientalists to study Islamic science and the social situation of Muslims, after the knowledge of Christianity (orientalist religion) was solid.
If the study of Orientalism is measured scientifically and objectively, then the statements and thoughts of Orientalism cannot be accounted for because they are based on wrong benchmarks.They have already drawn conclusions and pinned negative labels that Islam is low, despised and so on, before making a study of Islam.If looking in terms of its original purpose, then it is not surprising that there are research results from orientalists deviating from the arguments and actual historical facts.

The study of orientalism as a cent, effective in defeating opponents (Islam).
According to Western political science, it is very effective and efficient to defeat the enemy.Gibb, an orientali and consultant to the British and American states in planning his politics to help Israeli forces fight and destroy the Arabs who are considered the center of the Islamic world. 14t much different about the characteristics of Orientalism studies described above, Musthafa Mafaur as quoted from the journal "Mustafa Azami's Critique of Orientalist Thoughts on the Hadith of the Prophet Kamaruddin", mentions several characteristics of orientalism, including: 1. Orientalist mentalism is a study that has a strong relationship with Western colonialism in the East, where orientalism has an organic relationship with the phenomenon of imperialism.2. There is a common interest between imperialism and missionarism.However, Orientalism now has a different face.Since the seventeenth century, these changes have occurred as a result of numerous sociopolitical and technological advancements made during the modern era.According to Mohammed Abdou Yamami (1997) Islamic and Christian mutual understanding is the driving force behind modern orientalist study of the Orient, which aims to revive Muslim and Christian encounters and interactions.
As a result of contemporary political and economic trends, the alterations have occurred.

Factors of the Orientalism Movement
In this study of orientalism, it has caused polemical debate among Muslims themselves.Islamic thinkers have divided this group into two camps: First, it accepts orientalists as part of the scientific dynamic by accepting all kinds of research results without criticizing.Second, consider orientalists to study Islam to have a disguised motive, which aims only to find out about Islam how the weaknesses and shortcomings of Islam until finally they give bad views about the history of the Qur'an, the history of hadith, methods of interpretation of the Qur'an, the authenticity of the Qur'an or hadith about the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him).The involvement of Westerners who can be said to be all sides have been carefully studied by them from the past until now It has aroused the suspicion of some Muslim scholars and culminated in the conclusion of their study of hadith which according to Ignaz Goldziher is the result of the religious, historical and social development of Islam in the first two centuries. 16Based on this information, after the second century new hadiths were discovered, which they probably thought were produced by people with political interests or for worldly interests in order to divide the opposing scholars to weaken it which happened during the time of Umayah-Abassiyah, there have been groups that made false hadiths as a way to vilify the legitimate leader of the time.However, in this case not all existing hadiths can be doubted because of the existence of these false hadiths, because Islamic scholars have refuted this with the results of scientific research. 17garding the suspicion by Islamic thinkers of this orientalist group, there is a growing attitude of vigilance by Muslims who think that this group is a group that seeks to damage the image of Islam through the guise of scientific research, so that the actors of the debate of ideas are no longer between East and West but the internal parties of Muslims themselves.Because, Muslims have been trapped by the trap of orientalist groups in order to pit Muslims. 18o, it means that this issue can generate debate or suspicion against fellow Muslims themselves as has been accused by Orientalism to destroy Muslims to argue with each other. 19ientifically, they Orientalists used this as a weapon after physical attacks and insults against Islam which were no longer interesting.Therefore, it is appropriate as Muslims to be cautious and suspicious, because they have different views from Muslims namely materialism, empiricism-rationalism as absolute things for them to hold.Meanwhile, Muslims are equally inseparable from the problem of tawhid-spritual-occult-rational and the like.Therein lies the difference between the two, which from the basis alone is different, the conclusion of each what is seen is also different. 20sanain Bathh revealed that in studying Islam orientalists are not only for the sake of science, so in this case there are several factors that encourage them to take part in the eastern world including: 1. Theological factors, as the main factor of orientalists in carrying out their goals, among the purposes of this orientalism movement are when pastors see many Christians converting and converting to Islam, so they feel that Islam is a threat to them.This is what makes them determined to study Islam which aims to foster doubts about the beliefs or aqidah of Muslims, they claim that Islam is a religion that is apathetic and backward, so they want the soul of Muslims to be weak and subservient to the materialistic civilization of the Modern West.
2. Imperialism factors based on the West's need to understand the customs and religions of the region adjacent to North Africa and Southeast Asia in order to understand the customs and religion of the region.And this then encouraged them to build universities through the help of orientalists by giving salaries and important positions in the government, such as Snouck Hurgronje who was brought in to conduct research in addition to knowing what weaknesses existed in Acehnese society so that the Dutch could conquer them easily. 21 Political factors, which aim to weaken and undermine the spirit of Muslim brotherhood in order to be controlled quickly.Officials in any country are required to learn Western languages, arts and religions in order to make it easy for Orientalists to influence and master them.
4. Scientific factors, from this factor some orientalists there are those who examine eastern studies only as gaining knowledge.And some are purely intent on seeking the truth in Islam and even decide to embrace it.Like Thomas Arnold with his book entitled The Preaching in Islam and Dinet with the book he made entitled Sinar Khusus Cahaya Islam. 22 Business Factors and Self-Interest, these factors are carried out in order to meet the needs of orientalists to help their Western economic, political and imperialist benefits by studying the eastern world.23

Orientalist views on hadith
Of the many orientalist studies, one of them is about the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him).Of course in this case there are figures who study it for the first time but have not been found in historical studies.However, G.H.A. Joyn Boll agrees with Daniel W. Brown, if the orientalist who first studied hadith was Alois Sprenger and accompanied by Sir William Muir in his Life of Mohamet to the culmination in the work of Ignaz Goldziher.As for M. Mustafa Azami, he said that the first orientalist to research hadith was a Jew born in Hungary named Ignas Goldziher, with his work entitled Muhamedanisce Studien which was about his thoughts on hadith in 1980.However, this was rejected by A.J. Wensinck, according to him the first researcher of hadith was Snouck Hurgronje with a book he published in 1886, entitled Revre Koloniale Internationale and when compared to Goldziher's work, Hurgronje's work was published four years earlier.Furthermore, the study of this hadith was continued by Hamilton Alexander Roskeen Gibb, as an orientalist from England he made his work entitled Muhammedanism and Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, then continued again by Joseph Schacht, he was an orientalist from Poland, in this case he also made a work entitled The Origin of Muhammadan Jurisprudence , and G.H.A. Joynboll, one of whose books is titled Muslim Tradition. 24 all the studies conducted by the figures above, there are two orientalist figures who are very influential in his study of hadith, namely Goldziher where he can raise doubts about the authenticity of hadith by adding scientific studies he conducted, so that orientalists themselves consider that his work is a holy book for them.And the second figure is Joseph Schacht in his work The Origin of Muhammadan Jurisprudence is also considered by orientalists of later generations as the second scripture.This will certainly have a strong impact on some hadith studies for orientalists.However, there are also orientalists who have different views from these two figures, such as Freeland Abbott with his book entitled Islam and Pakistan in 1908, he grouped the substance of hadith into three types, including: (1) hadith that describes the life of the Prophet in general; (2) the hadith in question because it does not correspond to the words of the Prophet; and (3) hadith relating the revelation given to the Prophet.From Freeland's portrayal, although it is not identical to the views of hadith scholars, it can be said if he admits that hadith does come from the Prophet Saw.In this case, orientalists differ in views about Islam like this hadith, inseparable from their goals and attitudes in researching Islamic studies.This can be seen in the three differences in their attitudes.That is, the orientaists were neutral at the beginning of the controversy before the time of the Crusades by East and West.Later, this attitude changed to distortion after the end of the Crusades against the background of strong religious problems.And finally, during the development of contemporary orientalism their attitude began to emerge to be able to appreciate everything in Islam with the motivation to develop a rational intellectual. 25egarding the study of orientalists about this hadith, their goal cannot be separated from the image of the Prophet Muhammad (saw).because hadith is whatever words, deeds and approval by the Prophet Saw.In the context of this image, orientalists view from two reasons, namely: first, according to De Boulavilliers and Savary that Muhammad is a Prophet and Messenger who will save mankind from tyranny.Second, Muhammad claimed to be a pagan, that is, a person who had been considered an apostate from Christianity and Judaism and would one day abolish the teachings of Christianity and Judaism, Muhammad was also seen as having an intelligent intellectual and strong imagination and a liar, even considered a sorcerer who had a disease.Such statements have been made by D'Herbelot, Dante Alighiere, Washington Irving, Hamilton Gibb, Goldziher, and Joseph Schacht. 26 As for the purpose of the orientalists to criticize the hadith when in fact it is to change the views of Muslims so that they doubt the authenticity and truth of the hadith which ultimately ends in the attitude of distrust of Muslims that the hadith is the second source in Islamic law after the Qur'an which they have previously tried to tamper with the Qur'an which is the holy book and the first source in Islamic law.However, fortunately the Qur'an has been guarded directly by Allah Almighty through the hafizah who memorize the Qur'an, plus the Qur'an as a word or kalam derived directly from Allah Almighty, therefore, they are difficult to trace it, then turn them to tinker with the hadith which will eventually lead to the denial of the apostleship of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) by Muslims themselves. 27wever, not all in the study of this hadith do not believe in the authenticity of hadith, there are some orientalists who managed to find the truth of Islam through their research on hadith until they finally decided to embrace Islam as experienced by Maryam Jamilah whose real name is Margaret Marcus.And there are also orientalist figures who appear to defend the authenticity of hadith as the source of law of the two religions of Islam, among others: Mustafa al-Siba'i, Mustafa Azami, Nasiruddin al-Al bani and others. 28It should be noted that behind the efforts to confuse the hadith by the orientalists, there is also a positive thing for Muslims that the hadith can be studied more deeply by Muslims and other orientalists so as to grow new sciences related to hadith.Thus, it can be said that hadith can help develop new knowledge and at the same time as a means to spread the teachings of Islam to all corners of the world.29

Western Efforts to Fight Islam and Attitudes to Deal with It
For the negative attitudes and treatment carried out by Western nations towards Islam cannot be separated from several reasons, Sa'duddin said that the reason Orientalists are biased in viewing Islam is due to several factors, including: (1) it has been influenced by its old belief that Islam is a religion that can make people heretical and therefore must be abolished.( 2) regarding the study of the question of aqidah and Islamic thought, orientalists do not rely on the original sources.(3) Orientalists mostly do not understand Arabic very well.(4) their misunderstanding of Muslims in which they assume that all the realities of Muslims are as identical to Islam itself, as there is a claim that Islam is terrorist. 30e West's fear of Islam has been harbored since the end of the Crusades, as they consider Islam to be a religion that has the potential to move its people against any force.Therefore, they require Muslims to follow the way and adapt to the culture, mindset, and order of life like the West, because the West is the teacher of human civilization. 31Similarly, the Islamic world itself fears that the younger generation of Muslims will now be influenced by Western culture. 32o, even though they are outwardly Muslims, their mindset, philosophy of life and mentality have been colonized by Westerners. 33This will greatly impact the attitude of admiration for Western nations where they will like to imitate anything that exists in Western nations, for example, clothing styles, hairstyles, to the principles of thought that will be imitated by people who are mentally colonized. 34forts made by orientalists in perverting and distorting scientific facts continue to be carried out today through the forum of "Islamic Studies" in Western universities, even large Islamic organizations and figures of these organizations are also influenced so that their power is spread everywhere. 35 36 his is certainly very dangerous if their doctrines are accepted by Muslims who are weak in their Islamic knowledge. 37It should be noted that in this regard the West has instilled principles under the pretext of research and scientific which include: 4. Fourth, be free in opinion.And this will lead to anyone being able to violate anything as prescribed in Islamic law even though it is qath'i to zhanny according to Western perception. 38cording to most prominent Islamic figures, that Muslims in viewing the glittering world of the West are divided into two things, namely for ordinary people only seeing from the outside can make these people slip into the abyss of misdirection. 39As explained by Allah in the Qur'an, namely:: It means: "Then never be deceived by the glitter of the life of the world, and let never the clever devil deceive, deceive you about God" (Q.S. Al-Faathir:5). 40d there are also those who can see the civilization from the outside and inside.For people like this they can take advantage of the products of civilization accompanied by hidayah from Allah Almighty so as not to stray from His path.Because, in a 41 sophisticated era like today, through mass media it becomes very significant by the West in fostering a negative image of Islam combined with Terrorism, Fundamentalism to violence. 42r this reason, a wise and critical attitude is needed in this regard as the young generation of Islam, especially academics, to be aware and try to fight negative things from the West and take the positives from them.Thus, we must think about upholding the religion, we as Muslims must be able to defend the fortress of Islam with advanced and optimistic thinking in order to deter the actions of enemies of Islam under scientific pretexts as have been launched by orientalists as the eternal enemies of Muslims.By moving together to sacrifice and contribute to the victory of Islam in the future.Because, we believe that Islam is the Way of life and Islam will triumph like any civilization ever recorded in Islamic history. 43

Conclusion
Orientalism if interpreted broadly is a study or study activity that concerns matters from the Eastern world nation which includes the environment and even various fields of life in it both in terms of language, history, religion, literature, culture, politics, economics and so on.According to some Western scholars, they have studied the East, especially in terms of the Arab and Islamic worlds.
The influence of the mentality of the orientalists is closely related to the goal of exploring the Eastern world even under the pretext of scientific factors, but actually the main goal is due to imperialist and political factors.In addition, orientalism is also a study that can provide positive things for Western policies towards Muslim countries in the Eastern world.
Most Orientalists whose sole purpose in studying Islam is only for the sake of finding out and then to compare with their methodology which is considered scientific, but they insult Islam because they do not have the methodology they do.This shows that under their guise, it has been seen that they are not fully sincere in studying Islam so that the truth will not be achieved.They do not try to know Islam more deeply, but only know the basic things without knowing the true truth.On the other hand, many of them are honest in their study of Islam without any intention of insulting Islam.So they voluntarily convert from their religion to embrace Islam because they know what they think is right.It was with the help of these orientalists that books of classical Islamic knowledge were touched and can still be found today.
As Muslims themselves, it is also appropriate to make anticipatory efforts regarding the actions of orientalists who make false accusations about Islam.The most basic thing is a vigilant and critical attitude and selective in choosing books from orientalist studies so as not to be influenced by their negative thinking.As a form of inadmissibility, Muslims also do not harm in studying Western knowledge in order to find out the things that are their weaknesses and the most important thing is to correct things or bad views about Islam according to true history.It is hoped that Muslims can learn Islam only with ulama, ustadz, kyai or experts who are Muslim as well.And if the orientalists continue to insult and antagonize Islam, then we should give conceptual resistance.
3. Studiesthat have strong links with missionarism, such as with the orientalist studies of Samuel Zwemmer, Mc Donald, and Alfred Guilame. 4. Studieswere effective in contributing to Western scientific policy making towards Islamic countries, such as Snouck Hougranje who had been the main advisor to the Dutch Colonial. 15