KH. Imam Zarkasyi's Tajwid Pedagogical Legacy: An Analysis of the Ilmu Tajwid Gontor Textbook and the Continuity of Tajwid Instruction in Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines the Ilmu Tajwid textbook authored by KH. Imam Zarkasyi in 1955 and indications of its continued use in Tajwid instruction at Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor (PMDG) and its alumni network in Indonesia, drawing empirical data from Gontor campus 1 and a limited set of alumni and academic informants. Employing an embedded mixed-methods design in which qualitative data are primary, the study combines content analysis of the textbook against four comparative works (Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl, Syifā' al-Jinān, Ummi, and Tajwid Praktis), semi-structured interviews with fourteen informants (ten of whom were analysed thematically), classroom observation, curriculum document review, and a Likert-scale perception survey administered to forty-three teachers and students at one campus. The findings suggest that Zarkasyi retained the classical tajwid terminology and sequencing inherited from Tuḥfat al-Aṭfāl while recasting the versified (nazam) form as structured prose with Qur'anic verse references and graded “Ulangan dan Latihan” exercises that were not found in the comparative editions examined. Interview and survey data indicate that informants associate the book's continued use not with its content alone but also with its integration with talaqqi practice and its place in the KMI curriculum. Counter-evidence is also discussed, including an alumnus who now uses Ummi, the absence of reprints since 2014, a decline in examination scores until 2024, and a minority of informants calling for modern media. Chevallard's didactic transposition, DiMaggio and Powell's institutional isomorphism, and Graham's notion of living tradition serve as interpretive lenses rather than tests of hypotheses. Records from the IKPM Central Office listing 446 alumni pesantren across 29 Indonesian provinces suggest that this approach to teaching tajwid has spread widely, although direct use of the textbook beyond the central campus remains to be confirmed because the empirical data come from a single campus.