Indonesia's Sirajut Thalibin hijacked

Jakarta, NU Online
Sirajut Thalibin, one of the greatest works written by Indonesia's ulema Syeikh KH Ihsan Jampes bin Dahlan from Jampes, Kediri, East Java, has been hijacked by a prominent publishing house Darul Kutub Al Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon. Even, its author's original name was replaced with the name Sheikh Ahmad Zaini Dahlan Al Hasani Al Hasyimi.

The replacement of its author's name is perhaps due to the mistake of the publisher. Likely, the replacement has deliberately been conducted by the publisher because the author's name in  the book's preface was also replaced.
gt;
In addition, the remarks of NU founding father Hadratus Sheikh KH Hasyim Asy'ari in the book were omitted. While all its contents comprising two volumes remained the same in nature.

The hijack of the book has reportedly occurred since 2006 and just been known following its circulation in Indonesia. The information about the hijack is from one of alumni of Lirboyo Islamic boarding school (Pesantren).

The Lirboyo Alumni Student Forum (Formal) in Jakarta has also  checked and rechecked the information related to the Indonesian pesantren work hijacked by the Beirut-based publishing house.

NU Online has compared the worldly tasawuf book published by Darul Kutub Al Ilmiyah with the previous one which is published by Darul Fiqr, a publishing house also located in Beirut, Lebanon. In this case, the name of Sheikh Ihsan bin Dahlan Al Kadiri or popularly known in pesantren circle as Sheikh Ihsan Jampes has been replaced with another name, namely Sheikh Zaini Dahlan.

In the preface, the name of Sheikh Ihsan Jampes in the second paragraph was also replaced and the publisher added three more pages containing the biography of Sheikh Zaini Dahlan (died in 1941). He considerably lived in the same generation as Sheikh Ihsan Jampes who died in 1952. While all contents of the preface and the two volumes written in the book were the same as the previous one.

In addition, the pubhisher also omitted the taqaridh or notes on the preface of Sheikh KH Hasyim Asy’ary (Jombang), Syekh KH Abdur Rahman bin Abdul Karim (Kediri) and Syekh KH Muhammad Yunus Abdullah (Kediri).

The hijack by replacing its author's original name is perhaps for market considerations.

"The name of Sheikh Zaini Dahlan might be more popular especially among Arab people," Abdul Rosyid, member of the Formal board who also works in one of Islamic publishing houses in Jakarta.

In various pesantren in Indonesia the name of Sheikh Zaini Dahlan has been very popular. He has popularly known as the author of the Syarah Jurumiyah, a book that elaborates the Arabic gramatical theories. This book has widely been studied by those (santri) studying in pesantren.

Sirajut Thalibin is such an elaboration of Imam Ghazali's Minhajut Thalibin. This pesantren work has internationally been appraised especially by ulema (Islamic scholars) from the Middle East and now become one of the main references used by students in Egypt and other Middle East countries. Chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) recently told NU Online that this work had widely been studied in Africa and America. (nam)