Sundanese Sufi and Religious Diversity in the Archipelago: The Pluralistic Vision of Haji Hasan Mustapa (1852-1930)

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze moderate understanding of Haji Hasan 
Mustapa on religious diversity in the archipelago. He is a greatest
Sundanese poet who has studied in Mecca and served as Hoofd Penghulu
of Kotaraja Aceh and Bandung in the colonial era. This study is focused on
sufism and religious diversity, Mustapa‟s scholarship, and on his pluralistic
vision, using intertextual studies and semantic analysis. This research argues
that Mustapa has tolerance and moderate understanding similarly with Ibn
„Arabi‟s thought. He uses kernel and husk as symbolic images which
expressed using natural richness of Sundanese culture for demonstrating his
religious conviction that rasa is the kernel of all religions. This study is
significant for strengthening the discourse of religious pluralism from sufi
perspective in the archipelago which cannot be separated from the chain of
Islamic intellectual network. This research has also a significant impact on
Chittick‟s assumption about the depth of sufi poetry which mostly reveal
their tolerance views on religious diversity living in harmony.