From Senyum, Salam, Sapa to Raḥmatan Lil-‘Ālamīn
Nurturing Love and Tolerance Through A Local Wisdom-Based School Culture Ecosystem in Islamic Primary Education
Abstract
Growing concern about intolerance and polarization has renewed interest in how Islamic education can cultivate love and tolerance from the earliest years of schooling. In Indonesia, this concern is reflected in the national agenda of religious moderation and, more recently, in the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Love-Based Curriculum (Kurikulum Berbasis Cinta). Yet love and tolerance are frequently taught as abstract values or slogans, detached from the cultural grammar through which children actually learn how to treat others. Drawing on the first phase of an ongoing doctoral study on school culture in Islamic primary education, this paper examines how local wisdom can serve as a bridge between Islamic scholarly ideals of love (maḥabbah, raḥmah) and tolerance (tasāmuḥ) and children’s everyday practices. Using a qualitative instrumental case study of an Islamic elementary school in Malang, East Java, combined with a hermeneutic reading of Qur’anic, prophetic, and classical sources, the study identifies five pathways through which Javanese-Islamic local wisdom, namely senyum-salam-sapa, gotong royong, andhap asor within uswah ḥasanah, tepa slira, and rukun, translates love and tolerance into routines, relationships, reflection, and responsible action. These pathways are integrated into a “concentric circles of love” framework that extends children’s love from the self and the classroom to the family, the nation, and humanity. The paper argues that local wisdom is not an obstacle to global harmony but its most accessible starting point, provided that it is reflectively interpreted rather than merely preserved.
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