Muhammadiyah's Political Khittah and Civic Engagement in Contemporary Indonesia

Abstract

This article systematically reviews the relationship between Muhammadiyah's political khittah and its civic engagement in contemporary Indonesia. Political khittah refers to the organizational guidelines through which Muhammadiyah distinguishes its identity as a movement of da'wah and tajdid from formal affiliation with political parties. The apparent separation from party politics, however, has never meant withdrawal from public life. Using a qualitative conceptual systematic review, the study synthesizes 18 traceable sources: twelve peer-reviewed articles, four academic books, and two official Muhammadiyah documents. The analysis identifies four principal modes of engagement: the provision of civic infrastructure through education, health, welfare, and philanthropy; moral and policy advocacy toward the state; civic education concerning pluralism, constitutionalism, and national integration; and individual political participation by members who remain organizationally unaffiliated. The findings show that the khittah functions as a boundary-management mechanism. It protects organizational autonomy, prevents the movement from becoming an electoral vehicle, and preserves the ability to criticize governments and parties. At the same time, the boundary is porous because leaders and members may enter parties, elections, public offices, or advocacy networks in their individual capacities. This produces recurring tensions involving partisan spillover, elite capture, ambiguous representation, dependence on state resources, and uneven internal pluralism. The article proposes the concept of bounded civic engagement to explain this configuration. Muhammadiyah's political stance is neither apolitical neutrality nor partisan mobilization, but principled nonpartisanship combined with active participation in democratic public life.