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Max Weber's remarks on Islam: The

Protestant Ethic among Muslim puritans
a
Sukidi
a
Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Published online: 16 Aug 2006.

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 Islam and Christian– Muslim Relations,
Vol. 17, No. 2, 195 –205, April 2006

Max Weber’s Remarks on Islam: The

Protestant Ethic among Muslim Puritans

SUKIDI
Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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ABSTRACT This article takes a look at Max Weber’s remarks on Islam compared with Calvinism
with reference to the doctrine of predestination, the quest for salvation, inner-worldly asceticism and
the concept of rationalization. The comparison shows that Weber regarded Islam as the polar
opposite of the Protestant ethic, particularly in its Calvinist variant. The article then shifts its
focus to Indonesian Islam in order to demonstrate that ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ are not univocal but
multivocal. Indeed, Indonesian Islam contrasts sharply with Weber’s portrait of Islam in the
Middle East. Finally, the article examines the extent to which the rise of Muslim puritans within
the early Islamic reformist movement in the Muhammadiyah of Indonesia resembles ascetic
Protestantism, particularly Calvinism.

Sukidi’s piece reminded me, in an uncanny nostalgia return of the repressed manner,
of a long piece I wrote at Harvard (unpublished, save as an MIT mimeo) when
I was just preparing to go to Indonesia and trying to get the history of ‘Islamic
Reformism’—Afghani, Abduh, etc.—straight and formulate a thesis proposal
around the idea of a ‘Muslim ethic and the rise of petty capitalism’ dissertation,
which I never wrote but which surfaced, chastened and transformed, in Peddlers
and Princes, and now reemerges here a half century on in another academic
pilgrim just setting out: indeed, what goes around comes around. I, too, was
rather more optimistic than I might have been in tracing this supposed course of
rising rationality, going through almost the same steps as Sukidi, and even now,
chastened by the actual course of things, in no way linear, it still seems to me to
possess, as it does to Sukidi, a certain attraction. But Islamic ‘modernism’ has
turned out to be, as we should have guessed it would, a particular type of phenom-
enon, despite its ‘Calvinist’ air . . . It seems to me a doctoral waiting to happen . . .
The ‘Muslim Puritans’ thesis still has, whatever its problems in a jihadist world,
its force.
Clifford Geertz, 14 June 2005

Correspondence Address: Sukidi Mulyadi, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138,
USA. Email: smulyadi@hds.harvard.edu

0959-6410 Print=1469-9311 Online=06=020195–11 # 2006 CSIC and CMCU

DOI: 10.1080=09596410600604484
 196 Sukidi

Introduction
Max Weber’s remarks on Islam, compared with his comprehensive studies of other world
religions—Christianity, ancient Judaism, the religion of China and the religion of India—
are rather short and scattered throughout his works. One important reason for this is that
Weber died before completing his study of Islam. In an introduction to Weber’s The
Sociology of Religion, first published in 1964, Talcott Parsons stated, ‘This series was
left incomplete at Weber’s death. He had planned, at the very least, comparable studies
of Islam, of Early Christianity, and of Medieval Catholicism’ (Weber, 1993, p. xxi).
For this reason, academic research on this subject has been scarce. To the best of my
knowledge, Bryan S. Turner was the first Western scholar to produce a full-length sys-
tematic analysis of Weber’s sociology of Islam. In his book, Weber and Islam: A Critical
Study (first published in 1974), Turner argued that, for Weber, ‘it was the patrimonial
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nature of Muslim political institutions which precluded the emergence of capitalist pre-
conditions, namely rational law, a free labour market, autonomous cities, a money
economy, and a bourgeois class’ (Turner, 1998, p. 2). All these pre-conditions of rational
modern capitalism in the West, in fact, did not emerge in Islamic society in the Middle
East.
In 1987, Professor Wolfgang Schluchter of Heidelberg University in Germany edited a
volume entitled Max Webers Sicht des Islams: Interpretation und Kritik, comprising
papers written for a conference on Weber’s sociology of Islam in 1984. This volume
has been available to English-speaking readers since 1999 (Huff & Schluchter, 1999).
Weber’s remarks on Islam have been noted by Schluchter, indicating four key points of
comparison with other religions:

The type of religious ethic—world mastery as world conquest and world adjustment;
the type of political domination—Oriental prebendal feudalism; the type of city—
Oriental urban anarchy; the type of law—theocratic and patrimonial qadi-justice;
and the interrelation of these orders and powers (their mode of ‘integration’)—
‘centralism’. (Schluchter, 1999, pp. 67 –68)

A number of distinguished scholars of Islam—Ira M. Lapidus, Nehemia Levtzion,

Richard M. Eaton, Peter Hardy, Rudolf Peters, Barbara D. Metcalf, Francis Robinson,
Patricia Crone, Michael Cook and S. N. Eisenstadt—were invited to present brief
interpretations and critiques of Weber’s remarks on Islam and Islamic society. Most of
them dealt first with Weber’s view of Islam and then shifted their focus to such different
topics as early Islamic society, the pattern and evolution of Islamic civilization, the nature
of patrimonialism in Islamic history, the Islamic reform movement in India, Islamic law,
and sects in Islam (ibid.).
No attempt was made in the Huff and Schluchter volume to compare Calvinism and
Islam on the one hand with the Protestant ethic among Indonesian Muslim puritans on
the other and it has been the focus of the present research to address questions related
to these two subjects. Let us begin with Weber’s remarks comparing Islam with
Calvinism, focusing on the doctrine of predestination, the quest for salvation, inner-
worldly asceticism and the concept of rationality.
 Max Weber’s Remarks on Islam 197

The Doctrine of Predestination

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904 (abbreviated
hereafter as Protestant Ethic), Weber regarded the doctrine of predestination as the key
central argument linking a certain type of religious ethic and the rise of rational modern
capitalism (Weber, 2005, pp. 68– 69). Calvinism and Islam could be considered as two
opposing approaches to predestination.
Predestination, according to Weber, is a central doctrine for the Calvinists (ibid., p. 56).
Its centrality arose from the importance of the question: how could the Calvinists be sure
that they were among the elect? In Calvinist theology, there was a double edge to predes-
tination: it led either to election or to damnation. The Calvinists did not know whether they
were among the elect or the damned because the God of Calvinism was transcendent and
inscrutable, so they faced a serious problem of religious uncertainty, forcing them to seek
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the certitudo salutis. In the second volume of Economy and Society, Weber defined certi-
tudo salutis as an indication of belonging to the elect (Weber, 1978, pp. 1198– 1199). The
certitudo salutis had to be felt by the elect, those who were predestined for Heaven. The
doctrine of predestination pressed Calvinists to find ways to learn whether they were
among the elect or the damned. Accordingly, success in business and accumulation of
wealth to the glory of God were highly regarded as signs of ‘confirmation’ that they
were among the elect or—to use Weber’s own term—‘a sign of God’s blessing’
(Weber, 2005, p. 116).
Islam, according to Weber, was the polar opposite of Calvinism. There was no double
edge to predestination in Islam. Instead, as Weber stated in Protestant Ethic (ch. 4, n. 36),
Islam contains a belief in predetermination, not in predestination, which concerned the fate
of Muslims in this world, not the next (ibid., p. 185). The doctrine of predestination main-
tained by the Calvinists, which led them to work hard as a duty (vocation, calling), is not
evident among Muslims. In fact, as Weber argued, ‘the most important thing, the proof of
the believer in predestination, played no part in Islam’ (ibid.). Without the concept of pre-
destination, Islam could not provide believers with a positive attitude to this-worldly
activity. As a consequence, Muslims are condemned to fatalism.

The Quest for Salvation

In general, Weber’s interest in salvation focused on religions of salvation. There were a
number of religions of salvation with slightly different attitudes toward the world, i.e.
Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. In the first volume of Economy
and Society, Weber speaks of these religions as means of liberation from suffering and as
responses to the ongoing tension between the world and religion (Weber, 1978, p. 527).
In particular, Weber was interested in the practical behavioral impact people’s struggles
to achieve salvation have upon them. This was what he meant when he talked about salva-
tion as a driving force for this-worldly activity. As Weber stated, ‘our concern is essentially
with the quest for salvation, whatever its form, insofar as it produced certain consequences
for practical behavior in the world’ (ibid., p. 528). In this sense, Weber regarded the indi-
vidual quest for salvation as the key characteristic of Calvinism. ‘The disciplined quest
for salvation in a vocation pleasing to God,’ Weber argued, was the foundation of ‘the vir-
tuosity in acquisitiveness characteristic of the puritan’ (ibid., pp. 573– 574). For Calvinists,
ascetic behavior and good works may be seen as signs of salvation in the world to come.
 198 Sukidi

Islam, according to Weber, was the polar opposite of Calvinism. The quest for salvation
was alien to Islam. In fact, in his view, ‘Islam was never really a religion of salvation; the
ethical concept of salvation was actually alien to Islam. The god it taught was a lord of
unlimited power; although merciful the fulfillment of whose commandments was not
beyond human power’ (ibid., p. 625). While Calvinists regarded ascetic behavior and
accumulation of wealth in business as a sign of salvation, Muslims did not. The
absence of a Muslim quest for salvation in turn affected the limits of practical behavior
and conduct in this world.

Inner-Worldly Asceticism
Asceticism may be categorized as two kinds: inner-worldly asceticism (innerweltliche
Askese) and other-worldly asceticism (ausserweltliche Askese) (Weber, 1978, p. 140).
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The first has been associated with Calvinists who used ascetic means to transform the
world according to their beliefs; while the second has been confined to the traditions
of monastic life and Yoga asceticism which also used ascetic means but did not intend
to transform the world. Parsons’s translation notes that innerweltliche Askese means
‘asceticism practiced within the world as contrasted with ausserweltliche Askese, which
withdraws from the world (for instance into a monastery)’ (Weber, 2005, p. 140).
As a perfect example of inner-worldly asceticism, Calvinism played the most significant
role in the genesis of modern capitalism from the late sixteenth century onwards. Because of
what Weber called an ‘elective affinity’ between asceticism and self-discipline, the notion
of inner-worldly asceticism strongly encouraged the Calvinists to work harder, acquire
money, save what they earned and re-invest the profits (Chalcraft & Harrington, 2001,
pp. 67, 103– 104). In short, it led to profit-making and thus to successful modern capitalism.
Islam was once again the polar opposite of Calvinism. There was no inner-worldly asce-
ticism in the trajectory of Islamic history. Islam in the Mecca period, according to Weber,
developed into ‘pietistic urban conventicles’, which showed a tendency to withdraw from
the world. Islam then became the religion of conquest and of ‘national Arabic warriors’
in the Medina period (Weber, 1978, p. 624). Under the banner of holy war ( jihād ) and
with its classical division between the houses of Islam (dār al-islām) and of war (dār
al-harb), Islam was truly a religion of the ‘inner-worldly hero and warrior ethic’
˙
(Huff & Schluchter, 1999, p. 79).
It should be noted that a number of ascetic Muslim sects have emerged in the course of
Islamic history. However, they could not be characterized as Muslims who used asceticism
as a means to transform the world. Rather, the prevalent warrior groups pulled Islam
toward ‘the asceticism of a military caste, of a martial order of knights, not of monks’,
and ‘not a middle-class ascetic systematization of the conduct of life’ (Weber, 1978,
p. 627). In contrast with ascetic Protestantism and particularly Calvinism, ascetic sects
in Islam did not lead to a systematically disciplined life among Muslims.

Rationalization
Weber defined and used the concept of rationalization in various ways and meanings. This
section focuses on two types of rationalization, i.e. doctrinal, and that related to the conduct
of life. These types were ascribed by Weber to ascetic Protestantism, particularly Calvinism.
The Calvinists attempted to rationalize their doctrine in order to address basic problems
of meaning, in particular: would they be saved? The God of Calvinism predestined each
 Max Weber’s Remarks on Islam 199

person to be among either the elect or the damned. The Calvinists wanted to assure
themselves with certainty that they would be saved in Paradise.
Calvinist rationalization can further be seen in their concerted effort to eliminate magic
from the modern world. Calvinists rejected magic in favor of rational calculation. As Weber
noted, ‘there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play, but rather . . . one
can, in principle, master all things by calculation’ (Gerth & Mills, 1958, p. 139). And
this was precisely what Weber meant by ‘the disenchantment of the world’ (Weber,
2005, pp. 61, 178). In Calvinism there were, at least in theory, no priesthood, no sacramental
grace and no intermediaries between God and humans. The soul of the Calvinists stood in
the presence of God Himself. They were indeed elected by the eternal decree of God.
Calvinists then rationalized the conduct of life through self-discipline, rational calcu-
lation and individualism, all practised systematically. In Protestant Ethic, Weber stated
that ‘the God of Calvinism demanded of his believers not single good works, but a life
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of good works combined into a unified system’ (ibid., p. 71).

Weber selected Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Advice to a Young Tradesman’ as a religious
foundation for the rational conduct of life: making money as a profession, as a calling
(Beruf ). Franklin’s famous quotation, ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He
shall stand before kings’ (Prov. 22:29), inspired Weber to conclude that ‘the virtue and
proficiency’ of earning and saving money in a calling was ‘the real Alpha and Omega
of Franklin’s ethic’ (Weber, 2005, p. 19).
Though a deist, Franklin was highly regarded by Weber as a personification of the
Protestant ethic. A strong sense of moral-religious obligation to work hard and make
money was certainly blessed by God, whereas worldly pleasures were sinful. As a
result, the Calvinists were not the spenders and wastrels of the world. Their rational
conduct in professional work and everyday life led to a surplus of production over
consumption. Modern rational capitalism emerged from this process. Aptly enough, the
Calvinists saw the acquisition of wealth as a ‘sign of God’s blessing’ (ibid., p. 116).
Here, too, Islam was the polar opposite of Calvinism. The rationalization of doctrine
and conduct of life were alien to Islam. Weber used the belief in predestination as the
key concept to explain the rationalization of doctrine and the conduct of life. In Calvinism,
the belief in predestination could certainly generate an ethical rigor, legalism, and rational
conduct in this-worldly activity. None of these things was present in Islam. In Weber’s
view, the Islamic doctrine of predestination ‘often produced a complete obliviousness
to self, in the interest of fulfillment of the religious commandment of a holy war for the
conquest of the world’ (Weber, 1978, p. 573). This was due to the dominant role of
Muslim warriors in the spread of Islam throughout the Middle East. These groups
turned Islam into a militaristic ethic for world conquest. They did not ascribe to them-
selves any rational system of ascetic conduct of life. In this sense, Weber’s remarks on
Islamic predestination were a critical point of his analysis:

The belief in predestination practically always had an ascetic effect among the
simple warriors of the early Islamic faith, which in the realm of ethics exerted
largely external and ritual demands, but the ascetic effects of the Islamic belief in
predestination were not rational and for this reason they were repressed in everyday
life. The Islamic belief in predestination easily assumed fatalistic characteristics in
the belief of the masses, viz., kismet, and for this reason predestination did not elim-
inate magic from the popular religion. (Ibid., p. 575)
 200 Sukidi

Accordingly, the Islamic belief in predestination did not lead toward rationalization of
doctrine and the conduct of life. In fact, it turned Muslims into irrational fatalists. ‘Islam’,
in Weber’s view, ‘was diverted completely from any really rational conduct of life by the
advent of the cult of saints, and finally by magic’ (ibid.).

The Muhammadiyah as a Protestant Type of Islamic Reform

The Muhammadiyah has long been widely acknowledged as a religious reform movement
within Indonesian Islam. My experience as a movement insider in the 1990s has led me to
reconceptualize the early picture of the Muhammadiyah in the light of the Protestant
Reformation. The tenets of Islamic reform in the early stages of the Muhammadiyah
resemble to some extent those of the Protestant Reformation. They share a few elements
of the Protestant ethic, and may appropriately be called a Protestant type of Islamic reform.
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Since the term ‘puritanism’ is closely associated with both Calvinism and the Muslim
puritans of the Muhammadiyah, at least some similarities are to be expected.
First, both Calvinists and Muslim puritans have indeed preached the doctrine of scrip-
turalism, reliance upon scripture alone (the Bible or the Qur’an). ‘Back to the scripture’
has been the clarion call of reformist-puritan movements in both religions. Calvinism
relied heavily on the strict reading of the Old and New Testaments, whereas Muslim pur-
itans want to return to the original sources of Islam (al-rujūc ilā al-qur’ān wa-al-sunna).
Both the Bible and the Qur’an are seen as a primary source of authority and legitimacy. As
a consequence, all believers should have equal rights to access and interpret scripture, just
as religious clerics have had for years.
Second, as a consequence of the slogan ‘back to scripture’, both the Calvinists and
Muslim puritans stand directly before God. ‘The Calvinist’, as Weber asserts, ‘also
wanted to be saved sola fide’ (Weber, 2005, p. 68). The doctrine of ‘justification by
faith alone’ (sola fide) has been at the core of Calvinism with its ascetic action in this-
worldly activity. There is no such thing as a religious intermediary in the divine relation-
ship between God and humans. In Calvinism, the absence of religious intermediaries is
visible in, for example, the dismissal of sacramental grace, the exclusion of priests and
the rejection of church hierarchy. There is indeed no priesthood in Calvinism.
The Muslim puritans have shared basic tenets of Calvinist reform. No priesthood stands
between the Muslim puritans and Allah. Believers are held to be in direct and personal
relationship with Allah. Just as for Calvinists, the belief in Allah for Muslim puritans
must be proved by ascetic action in this-worldly activity (explained further in the next
section). Muslim puritans grew up in the milieu of Javanese syncretism. Their refor-
mist-puritanical style can be seen in their struggle for the purification of Islam and the
abolition of saint and spirit worship in Java.
Third, both Calvinists and Muslim puritans have pursued, using Weber’s own terms, the
‘disenchantment of the world’ (ibid., pp. 61, 178). This process began in ancient Jewish
prophecy, influenced by Hellenistic scientific thought. It culminated in Calvinistic
theology and practice, which rejected all magical-sacramental means in the quest for
salvation (ibid., p. 61). The revival of Muslim puritans in the early development of the
Muhammadiyah was basically a response to bidca (innovation), takhayyul and khurāfāt
(superstition). All these magical elements were anti-rational, and, to use Weber’s thesis,
must be excluded from both the practice of Islam and the conception of the world. In
short, the Muslim puritans have struggled for two main objectives: the exclusion of
 Max Weber’s Remarks on Islam 201

those magical elements from the practice of ‘pure Islam’ and the demystification of the
conception of the world in favor of rational calculation and behavior.
Fourth, as a consequence of the ‘disenchantment of the world’, Muslim puritans have
fully shared several similarities with Calvinism in terms of rationalization. Islamic doc-
trine was rationalized by purifying the faith of the mystic form of Hindu-Javanese
Islam. Uncritical acceptance of clerical authority (taqlı̄d ), which is regarded as a source
of conservatism and stagnation, has been abandoned in favor of rational-independent
thinking (ijtihād ). Commitment to rational interpretation of Islam has been for Muslim
puritans the key to progress and prosperity in the modern world.
The rationalization developed by the Muhammadiyah as a reformist-modernist
organization can further be seen in the shift from charisma to modern bureaucracy. The
Muhammadiyah has become a highly organized and bureaucratized movement, with
more capable and efficient administration. It contains functional divisions, a central
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office, district and local branches and a coordinated network. The creation of a modern
organization and bureaucracy has been an effective means of social transformation.
Similar to what may be observed in Calvinism, the rationalization of the conduct of life
can be seen in the re-interpretation of Islamic doctrines in accord with modern rationality
and progress. To Muslim puritans, Islam and progress can certainly be reconciled. The
spirit of ijtihād as a source of rationality and progress has always been linked with the
habits of entrepreneurship (explained further in the next section).
Finally, both Calvinists and Muslim puritans have adopted what Weber called a stance
of ‘innerworldy asceticism’. Ascetic Protestantism, particularly Calvinism, used ascetic
means to transform the external world. The spirit of modern capitalism emerged as a
result of the so-called ‘elective affinity’ between asceticism and self-discipline among
Calvinists. Aptly enough, Muslim puritans have engaged in Islamic asceticism without
escaping from the world (explained further in the next section). In fact, they have regarded
ascetic means as the driving force toward world transformation.

The Protestant Ethic among Muslim Puritans: Closing Remarks

In Protestant Ethic, Weber regarded ascetic Protestantism, particularly Calvinism, as
‘a contribution to the understanding of the general manner in which ideas become effective
forces in history’ (Weber, 2005, p. 48). When he wrote those words, Weber obviously had
Karl Marx in mind. The power of ideas is positioned in opposition to Marx’s doctrine of
historical materialism. ‘I want to register a protest’, Weber asserted, ‘against . . . the prop-
osition . . . that anything, be it technology or economics, is the . . . “ultimate” or “essential”
cause of anything else’ (Ringer, 2004, p. 113). ‘The chain of causation’, he added, ‘. . .
runs sometimes from technological to economic and political, sometimes from political
to religious and then to economic matters, etc’ (ibid.). In making a direct criticism of
Marx’s monocausal economic factor, he offered a strong alternative understanding of
how religious ideas and beliefs among ascetic Protestants became ‘effective forces’ in
the spirit of modern rational capitalism in the West.
Weber went on to demonstrate that those who made up the trading classes of the bour-
geoisie were chiefly Protestants. In particular, the industrialists, traders, financiers and
skilled industrial workers were much more often Protestants than Catholics (Weber,
2005, p. 3). The latter have always been more associated with handicrafts. The high
growth of capitalist activity also occurred within the Protestant communities of the
 202 Sukidi

Huguenots in France, the Dutch merchant class and the Puritans of England (ibid.). These
remarkable facts inspired Weber to conclude that there was indeed more than a casual or
coincidental connection between ascetic Protestantism, particularly Calvinism, and the
spirit of rational modern capitalism.
One may therefore put Weber’s thesis to a further test: is there also a similar affinity
between Islamic belief and economic behavior among Muslim puritans? ‘Yes,’ said
Clifford Geertz, a distinguished American anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced
Study in Princeton, who had Weber in mind. In the early 1950s, Geertz went to
Modjokuto, a small town in East Java, and attempted to look at a closer connection
between the Muslim puritans and the rise of what he called at the time ‘petty capitalism’.
In Peddlers and Princes, he argued,

In the light of the theories of Max Weber concerning the role of Protestantism in
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stimulating the growth of a business community in the West, it is perhaps not

wholly surprising that the leaders of the creation of such a community in Modjokuto
are for the most part Reformist Moslems, for the intellectual role of Reform in Islam,
in some ways, has approached that of Protestantism in Christianity. Emphasizing
that the systematic and untiring pursuit of worldly ends may be a religiously signifi-
cant virtue of fundamental importance, Reformism, which swept the urban trading
classes all over Java from 1912 to 1920, paved the way for the creation of a
genuinely bourgeois ethic.

Chinese-owned enterprises aside, of the seven well-established modern stores in

Modjokuto, six are run by Reform-influenced Moslems; of the two dozen or more
small factories, all but three or four are in pious Moslem hands. (Geertz, 1963, p. 49)

Geertz then concluded that ‘Islamic reform, a sort of Muslim Puritanism, is the doctrine of
the overwhelming majority of the entrepreneurs’ (ibid., p. 150). The present study follows
in Geertz’s footsteps, though he certainly presents a number of different case studies, i.e.
early reformist movement in the city of Yogyakarta and the village of Pekadjangan in
central Java. Having established that early development of the Muhammadiyah reflected
a Protestant-type Islamic reform organization with several similarities to Calvinism, I will
now propose that there were also a few elements of the Protestant ethic present among the
Muslim puritans of the Muhammadiyah.
First, Ahmad Dahlan (1868 – 1923), the founder of the Muhammadiyah, was an ascetic
reformist-puritan Muslim and also a merchant. He was born into a pious family and grew
up in a religious environment in the Kauman or Muslim quarter of Yogyakarta. His
ascetic style colored his entire life and performance of Islamic rituals. On his visits to
Mecca in 1890 and 1903, he deepened his knowledge of the writings of the greatest Egyptian
reformist, Muhammad cAbduh (1849 – 1905), such as Risālat al-tawhı̄d, Al-islām wa-al-
˙
nasrāniyya, Tafsı̄r juz’ camma, and Tafsı̄r al-manār (Salam, 1963, p. 6). Inspired partly
˙c
by Abduh’s writings, he founded the Muhammadiyah, on 18 November 1912, to carry
out such Islamic reforms as the return to scripture, the purification of faith, the use of inde-
pendent reasoning, the rejection of uncritical acceptance of religious authority, and striving
toward a re-interpretation of Islamic doctrines more suited to the aspirations of modern life.
Equally important, Dahlan’s pilgrimage to Mecca made his life experience a decisive
˙
stage in the spread of Islamic reform and the habits of entrepreneurship. Geertz wrote
 Max Weber’s Remarks on Islam 203

that those Javanese who had been on the pilgrimage had more capital and enterprise than
their fellow villagers (Geertz, 1963, p. 56). In his post-pilgrimage period, Dahlan trans-
formed his life into two forms of vocation, so to speak. He became an official religious
preacher with a salary of seven guilders a month who delivered occasional sermons in
the Sultan mosque of Yogyakarta, and also a manufacturer of batik fabric (Peacock,
1978, p. 34).
For Dahlan, the hajj—the pilgrimage to Mecca—was a driving force that generated the
virtue of hard work in the pursuit of economic activity. Asceticism and self-discipline in
economic life were blended. The work ethic was reflected in Dahlan’s conduct of life, as
he was indeed ‘diligent, honest, helpful’, and ‘exceptionally clever and industrious with
his hands’ (ibid., p. 32). The virtues of hard work and honesty in business drove him
toward acceptance of a Calvinist-type ethic. In 1913, a Dutch official, Rinkes, rightly
regarded Dahlan as a prototype of the ‘Indonesian epitome of the Calvinist ethic, an ener-
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getic, militant, and intelligent man some 40 years of age, obviously with some Arab blood
and strictly orthodox but with a trace of tolerance’ (ibid., p. 36). Near the end of his life, his
wife Siti Walidah asked him to rest. Dahlan’s answer was remarkable:

I must work hard, in order to lay the first stone in this great movement. If I am late or
cease, due to my illness, there is no one who will build the groundwork. I already
feel that my time is almost gone, thus If I work as fast as possible, what remains
can be brought to perfection by another. (Ibid., pp. 38 –39)

A. J. Anies, one of his students, offered a direct quotation from Dahlan’s Teachings and
Pearls of Wisdom: ‘We humans are given as a trust only one life in this world. After you
die, will you be saved or be damned?’ (ibid., p. 39). Dahlan’s words recall, more or less,
the double-edged quality of predestination in Calvinist theology.
Second, Weber’s ‘elective affinity’ between ascetic Protestantism and the spirit of capit-
alism may be comparable to a similar affinity between the high ranks of ascetic Muslim
puritans in the early phase of the Muhammadiyah and their active participation in the
batik industry in Yogyakarta, where the Muhammadiyah originated. In this city, Dahlan
was born and grew up as an ascetic Muslim preacher and a manufacturer of batik
fabric. The batik industry there has been acknowledged as one of the largest indigenous
handicraft industries in Indonesia. In 1960, Hawkins conducted a survey of batik manufac-
turing and revealed that most of the batik firms in Yogyakarta were owned and run by the
Muslim puritans of the Muhammadiyah (Hawkins, 1961, p. 52). Aptly enough, the driving
force behind its success was based, among other things, on the Islamic call for honesty in
business. As Hawkins stated,

The largest firm in Jogjakarta, the Hadji Bilal organization, was started in 1912 [the
same year as the establishment of the Muhammadiyah in the city]. In 1941, the Hadji
transferred the business to his eldest daughter, who became the managing director,
while the other children were made partners in the firm. The firm of Hadji Bilal
prides itself on its honesty to its customers and on the quality and style of its
product. In discussing the success of the Bilal business and why it is the largest
batik firm, one of the son-in-laws stated it was based on religious good will, on
the holy Koran. (Hawkins, 1961, p. 54)
 204 Sukidi

The Hadji Bilal’s principle of honesty in business recalls Benjamin Franklin’s advice to
a young tradesman about the importance of honesty in the spirit of capitalism.
Further evidence can be found in the case of the Muhammadiyah in the village of
Pekadjangan, central Java. Prior to the arrival of the Muhammadiyah, Pekadjangan was
better known as the home of illiterate thieves and murderers, with a high degree of
poverty among its members. However, it then became the center for batik manufacturing,
due mostly to the pivotal role of Dahlan’s pupil. This is what the anthropologist of Islam,
James L. Peacock, reported in the 1970s when he conducted an interview with a ‘still-alert,
bicycle-riding 81-year-old man who was one of the catalysts’:

Before 1924, the village consisted of thieves and murderers who were illiterates. I
have been a hadji since 1930, before then I myself was a hoodlum. But then
came an Islamic teacher who preached that we would be damned if we follow our
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old way. Fearing God, we reformed. When Muhammadiyah was founded, we joined.

Because our Pekadjangan Muhammadiyah members were thieves and murderers

formerly, we did not fear disfavor by society, and we kept on even when we were
opposed by society. Luckily the head government official here was a pupil of
K. H. A. Dahlan, and he helped Muhammadijah develop. Sarekat Islam [the
Islamic nationalist movement] tried to found a batik cooperative, but it had no
laws, and it fell apart. But a cooperative with Western-style laws could work. My
son learned Dutch in order to read the statutes! Then we made a Dutch-language
Muhammadijah school for the children of the hadjis who were not allowed to go
to the regular Dutch schools. People here feared organizations like Muhammadijah
since the Muslims were [traditionally] not organized, and they thought that to
organize was to become Christian. But in 1934 the batik cooperative was
founded, and by 1936 it had begun to truly advance because people saw the profit
in it, and also because textiles made in Holland were more expensive than those
made in Indonesia. (Peacock, 1978, p. 70)

In sum, two historical cases, the batik industry in Yogyakarta and the village of Pekad-
jangan, may support the argument for a similar affinity between the rise of Muslim puritans
and the habits of entrepreneurship. This is what Geertz referred to when he spoke of
Islamic Puritanism as ‘the doctrine of the overwhelming majority of the entrepreneurs’
(Geertz, 1963, p. 150). In his field work from May 1953 to September 1954 under the
sponsorship of the Center for International Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), Geertz came to the conclusion that the economic attitudes of
Muslim puritans had led them to be leaders in ‘petty capitalistic activity’ (Geertz, 1956,
pp. 134– 158). They eagerly engaged in the batik industry, as Geertz stated: ‘With the
development of simpler and faster methods of production and the expansion of the
market for batik beyond the court; the santris more and more pushed their way into indus-
try, until today many of the largest concerns are santri-run’ (ibid., p. 155).
Last but not least, the Muslim reformist-puritans may appropriately be considered the
prototypical ‘urban traders of the first years of the present century’ (Wertheim, 1969,
p. 212). They were indeed bourgeois Muslims. Like Weber’s Calvinists, their ethical
philosophy and ascetic Islamic faith strongly displayed the so-called ‘typical bourgeois
individualism and rationalism’ (ibid.). According to Wertheim, ‘the ethics of the
 Max Weber’s Remarks on Islam 205

Muhammadiyah were purely individualist, concerned exclusively with conduct towards

one’s individual fellowman’ (ibid., p. 218). ‘He was urged’, Wertheim explained further,
‘to lead a sober life and to perform pious works with the wealth he had won for himself’
(ibid.).
In sum, the acquisition of worldly possessions was never seen as a sinful activity. Early
activists of Muhammadiyah could be pious Muslims by devoting themselves to their
business and social-welfare activities. However, close interaction between the Muslim
puritans and the rise of ‘petty capitalism’ has been in serious decline since the late
1960s. This is in part due to the uncooperative position of the new regime in the 1960s,
which gave high priority to economic liberalization, and in part to the shift of internal
orientation among the younger generation of Muslim puritans, who have chosen civil
service positions instead of business careers in the batik industry.
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank David Little and Diana L. Eck (Harvard Divinity School,
Harvard University), Clifford Geertz (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton),
R. William Liddle (Ohio State University), Robert W. Hefner (Boston University),
Amira Sonbol (Georgetown University), M. C. Ricklefs (Melbourne Institute of Asian
Languages and Societies), and Carol Bebawi (University of Birmingham) for their help
and insightful criticisms on an earlier draft of this paper. I would like to extend my
deepest thanks to Syafii Maarif, Din Syamsuddin, Hajriyanto, Jeffrie, Rizal Sukma,
Clara Juwono and Said Tuhulele for their generous support of my graduate program at
Harvard University.

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