Applying Interdisciplinarity: An Analysis of Approaches in Leading Islamic Studies Journals in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education

Oleh Irham Yuwanamu 

Previous Islamic studies were considered to be a dichotomy between insider and outsider perspectives, and between Western and Islamic traditions. Subsequent developments in Islamic studies have led to Islamic studies with an interdisciplinary approach and an intersubjective perspective. This article aims to analyze the approaches in international journals of Islamic studies published by Indonesian Islamic higher education institutions. The journals studied are Studia Islamika, published by UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta; Al-Jamiah, published by UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta; and the Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies (IJIMS), published by UIN Salatiga. This study finds that Islamic studies have been integrated into traditional Islamic sciences, social sciences, and humanities with an interdisciplinary approach. The scope of themes and scientific perspectives is also very diverse and broad. This article further concludes that contemporary Islamic studies in Indonesia, with an interdisciplinary approach, have become a meeting point between the dichotomy of subjective and objective perspectives. In other words, this approach can be referred to as intersubjective. This study disagrees that Islamic studies are still trapped in a dichotomy of perspectives, and this article can contribute to the development of interdisciplinary Islamic studies.

Islamic studies in Indonesia and the world have a variety of models and approaches. Similarly, Islamic studies continue to live and develop in methodology and results in the context of the West and the Islamic world (non-West) (Hughes, 2022). However, the problem is that there seems to be a separation of Islamic studies between Western and Islamic traditions. The two forms of study tend to be contradictory (Stenberg & Wood, 2022, p. 1). Islamic studies conducted by Muslims themselves are considered subjective and normative, and those conducted by non-Muslims are more objective, historical and scientific. In Kim Knot's perspective, it is called the insider-outsider perspective (Knott, 2005, p. 243).

Islamic studies in the Western world is growing fast. Even the term Islamic studies itself has a Western nomenclature (Kurzman & Ernst, 2016; Waardenburg, 1997). This term means the study of Islam. Islam and Muslims as objects of science are studied with various approaches. Islam is studied not to be believed but as a science that can be approached with science. The orientation of Islamic Studies in the West has also evolved from missionary, colonialism to critical dialogical interfaith education (Salem, 2018) and its development towards the social sciences and humanities (Waardenburg, 1990).

Meanwhile, in the Islamic world, the term Islamic studies has not been known for long. Al-Azhar University Cairo, Egypt, used it by opening the Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies in 1965. The terms that have long been known in the Islamic world are ulum al-din, usul al-din, ‘ilm al-naqliyah, and ‘ilm al-aqliyah, as developed by al-Ghazali, Ibn Taimiyyah, and other classical Muslim figures (Khir, 2007). This term has come to colour the names of faculties in Islamic universities worldwide. Generally, the study of these sciences is subjective, to be believed and preached.

The question is whether Islamic studies developed by Muslim communities today still have a subjective-normative perspective, or have shifted to an objective one, or whether they combine both (intersubjective) with an interdisciplinary approach? This article empirically investigates whether and how an interdisciplinary approach is used, as seen in the content of leading Islamic studies journals published by Indonesian Islamic universities. This approach is a meeting point between insider and outsider perspectives; in other words, it is called an intersubjective perspective.

This article reinforces studies showing that Islamic studies in Indonesia have their own distinctive character as a form of post-orientalist/decolonised Islamic studies (Ali, 2025; Hefner, 2025; Hoesterey, 2025; Smith-Hefner, 2025; Woodward, 2025). This article disagrees with the view that still dichotomises perspectives in religious studies, and which states that Islamic studies between Western tradition and Islamic tradition tend to be contradictory (Stenberg & Wood, 2022, p. 1).

This article can contribute to the future development of Islamic studies with an interdisciplinary approach that takes an intersubjective perspective. In practical terms, the contribution of this study can be used as material for the development of Islamic universities in conducting Islamic studies.

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