T

he music craze among Indonesian Muslim millennials these days centers on Sabyan. With its Middle Eastern-style, gambus musical genre, the group’s hit song Habibal Qalbi (Love of My Heart), had 171 million views on YouTube by June — the fourth most popular Indonesian song on the digital platform.

Number three is a Javanese dangdut hip-hop hit about love sung by Nella Kharisma, Jaran Goyang (Crazy Horse), with 176 million views. The two top songs are Virgoun’s Surat Cinta Untuk Starla (Love Letter for Starla) with 237 million views and Armada’s Asal Kau Bahagia (As Long as You’re Happy) with 236 million views.

Who is Sabyan and how did they become so popular? Formed in 2015, the band features Ahmad Fairuz on keyboard, Sofwan Yusuf on percussion, Kamal on darbuka percussion, Tubagus Syaifulloh on violin, lead vocalist Khairunnissa and backing vocalist Anisa Rahman. Starting out as a wedding band, the group explored more popular songs and decided to focus on the gambus Islamic musical genre, according to CNN.

It is believed that gambus became popular along with the spread of Islam in Indonesia. Is the genre originally from Indonesia, or was it imported from the Middle East? Birgit Berg in her published dissertation, The Music of Arabs, the Sound of Islam: Hadrami Ethnic and Religious Presence in Indonesia, stated it was unknown whether gambus was imported from the Arab world or was originally from Indonesia.

Several gambus performers in my East Java hometown of Jombang believe the genre was brought in from Yemen. The fact that gambus is highly popular among the local Arab community, especially the Hadrami who are known to originate from Yemen, lends strength to the
assumption.

Sabyan’s adoption of the genre differs from the older, classical gambus style. The difference is in the instruments, their singing style and the language. In classical gambus, the instruments consist of the gambus lute (similar to the Egyptian oud), the keyboard and classical drums (kaprak and darbuka). Sabyan retains the keyboard and the violin, with its percussive differences in the dangdut kendang and a full drum set.

In terms of singing, Sabyan prefers pop while the classical style has more similarities with Middle Eastern music. This is why classical gambus music is popular mainly among the Arabs, especially at weddings. While the classical style plays mostly Arabic tunes, Sabyan mixes Arabic and Indonesian songs. These three aspects mean that the young public prefers Sabyan’s music to classical gambus music.

Further, Sabyan’s popularity represents the relief among fans of Islamic music in Indonesia. Long after the rise of Islamic music in the post-Soeharto era, with the emergence of Raihan from Malaysia, later followed by similar “Islamic boy bands” of the nasyid (largely acappella) genre, local fans of Islamic music never had the same chance to enjoy the genre. Probably it is because the nasyid groups, usually comprising student activists, not only expressed their desire to return to Islamic orthodoxy through their artistic and daily practices, but also became actively involved in practical politics.

For instance, in the 2004 general elections, one such nasyid group, Snada, supported the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Many Islamic music fans probably thought twice about supporting and liking bands that were highly involved in politics.

At least Sabyan is not following its predecessors in Islamic music in terms of political involvement. In the recent Central Java gubernatorial election, they were seen performing as part of a campaign for one of the candidate pairs. It did not seem as though they were endorsing the candidate pair, and instead seemed to be hired professionally, just like any other band hired for special events.

In the Islamic community, popular culture — especially music — is typically used in Islamic propagation (dakwah) or in promoting peace. Sabyan is a great example of this. Their cover of Deen Assalam (‘Religion of Peace’, the original sung by Sulaiman al-Mughni of Dubai) explains that Islam is a religion of peace to make this world more beautiful.

However, music is a controversial topic in Islamic law. For the literalist Salafis, music is forbidden and Muslims should not listen to music, let alone perform it. Some famous Salafi preachers in Indonesia, such as Khalid and Syafiq Bassalamah or Yazid Jawwas, have condemned music as haram on their YouTube channels.

Fortunately, the two largest Islamic organizations that advocate moderate Islam, the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, are tolerant toward music. For them, music and other artistic expressions are permissible as long as they are used for good purposes.

In the Middle East, art forms that fall under the “art with a mission” (al-fann al-hadif) genre are allowed, such as music and soap operas in Egypt, as long as they are used to encourage Muslims to be more pious in their lives, as researcher Karin van Nieuwkerk noted.

Sabyan’s success, with over 2.8 million subscribers on their YouTube channel, shows that Indonesian Muslims accept music and reject the literalist approach that forbids it. Sabyan could be further useful as a representative image of Indonesian Islam, which has long been accepted as a model of moderate Islam, amid the present-day challenges of radical Islamic groups and the literalist Salafi school.

Hopefully, Sabyan will produce other creative works that will spread the message of a tolerant and moderate Islam, which Muslims will listen to and watch, not only in Indonesia, but also in the world.
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