At 35,000 feet, as sleek metal birds stitch together continents and cultures, civil aviation is often portrayed as the triumph of physics, regulation, and economics. Yet beneath this veneer of technical mastery lies a profound ethical horizon: Which moral compass guides our stewardship of the skies?
In Indonesia—a nation attuned to spiritual nuance—this question resonates deeply with the classical ethos of Ahlusunnah wal Jamaah (Aswaja), as interpreted through the living tradition of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). More than a collective of ritual practice, NU embodies an integrated worldview of moderation (tawassuth), equilibrium (tawazun), and justice (ta’adul), articulated by its founder, Hadratus Syaikh KH. Hasyim Asy’ari. When we reframe civil aviation with this Aswaja-NU prism, its five foundational pillars—safety, capacity & efficiency, security & facilitation, economic development, and environmental stewardship—transcend technicalities to become eloquent expressions of maslahah (public good), amanah (divine trust), and ijtihad (reasoned responsibility).
Below, each pillar is revisited through an Aswaja lens, punctuated by KH. Hasyim Asy’ari’s own words, in an English editorial idiom, each quote immediately followed by its source.
1. Safety: The Sanctity of Life as Supreme Mandate
In Aswaja-NU theology, safeguarding life (hifz al-nafs) is paramount among the objectives of Islamic law (maqashid al-shariah). For civil aviation—where complexity and risk converge—safety cannot be a mere compliance item; it must be honoured as a sacred duty.
As KH. Hasyim Asy’ari declared:
“The sanctity of life is the highest law; to compromise it is to dismantle the very pillars of faith.” (Hasyim Asy’ari, Adab al-‘Alim wa al-Muta‘allim, Jakarta: Lajnah Tarjamah PBNU, 2012, p. 58)
This pronouncement recasts safety culture into a spiritual covenant. Every deferred airworthiness directive, every fatigue-strained roster, or every procedural shortcut no longer represents mere operational lapses—they are betrayals of an amanah, a divine trust vested in regulators, pilots, engineers, and ground staff alike. When we view safety through this lens, metrics such as incident rates and audit scores become part of a broader moral ecosystem of trust (tsiqah), accountability (mas’uliyyah), and compassion (rahmah).
To enact this vision, Indonesian aviation authorities must shift from a box-ticking mentality to fardhu kifayah—a collective obligation whose neglect invites communal sin. In practice, this means elevating Safety Management Systems (SMS) beyond procedural manuals into living, faith-inspired cultures; embedding regular “ethical safety dialogues” in airline boardrooms; and sanctioning any stakeholder whose negligence endangers a single life. Only then can “la dharar wa la dhirâr” (“do not harm and do not be harmed”) become more than a sacred maxim—it becomes the heartbeat of our national airspace.
2. Capacity & Efficiency: Growth Tempered by Justice
Modern aviation thrives on expansion—runway extensions, higher flight-slot allocations, AI-driven ground operations. Yet Aswaja-NU cautions that unbridled growth, when severed from justice, collapses into its folly.
KH. Hasyim Asy’ari taught:
“True advancement is rooted in justice; unchecked utility without fairness becomes its corruption.” (Hasyim Asy’ari, Adab al-‘Alim wa al-Muta‘allim, Jakarta: Lajnah Tarjamah PBNU, 2012, p. 12)
Viewed through this maxim, capacity enhancements must be calibrated against equitable access. When multi-billion-dollar hubs in Java flourish while remote airstrips in Maluku or Papua languish, the result is fasad, a corruption of purpose. efficiency that sidelines the archipelago’s fringes also sows social divides.
An Aswaja approach to capacity, therefore, demands tawazun (balance):
- Public Service Obligations (PSO): Expand and sustain subsidized routes to the most isolated communities, recognizing air connectivity as a lifeline akin to roads and ports.
- Tiered Landing Fees: Scale fees so that larger carriers subsidize smaller operators at underused airports, ensuring viability without market distortion.
- Community-Based Ground Services: Partner with local cooperatives—pesantren alumni associations, women’s microenterprises—to manage catering, cleaning, and logistics, redistributing economic gains.
By weaving justice into technical proficiency, aviation growth becomes horizontal rather than vertical—uplifting both metropolitan and periphery alike—and aligns with the Aswaja ideal that progress must uplift every segment of society.
3. Security & Facilitation: Dignity at the Threshold
In the post-9/11 era, airport security often invokes images of invasive scans, racial profiling, and dehumanizing queues. Aswaja-NU, however, elevates security into a dignity-centred protection, in harmony with the Qur’anic injunction to safeguard both life and honour.
The Syaikh reminds us:
“Security without compassion is a cage; true protection is woven from mercy and justice.” (Hasyim Asy’ari, Risalah Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah, Surabaya: Tebuireng Press, 2006, p. 34)
This duality—of vigilance and rahmah—must infuse every layer of airport operations:
- Checkpoint Culture: Train officers in empathy-driven procedures, ensuring suspect screening does not become an exercise in humiliation.
- Facilitation as Worship: Streamline e-gates, multilingual assistance desks, and priority lanes for the elderly and disabled—not as perks, but as acts of khidmah (spiritual service).
- Inclusive Design: Provide prayer rooms, halal-certified food outlets, and family-friendly lounges, making every traveller feel honoured, regardless of creed or class.
By harmonizing justice (ta’adul) with compassion, security ceases to be a cage and instead becomes a sanctuary—a testament to the Aswaja belief that every soul passing through our checkpoints remains a sacred responsibility.
4. Economic Development: Aviation as an Engine of Barakah
Civil aviation today is an undeniable economic leviathan, fostering tourism, trade, and labor mobility on an unprecedented scale. Yet Aswaja-NU insists that markets must serve the ummah (community), not reduce it to commodities.
KH. Hasyim Asy’ari warned:
“When wealth eclipses welfare, society succumbs to its own avarice; economic policy must be a path of blessing.” (Hasyim Asy’ari, Adab al-‘Alim wa al-Muta‘allim, Jakarta: Lajnah Tarjamah PBNU, 2012, p. 58)
From this vantage, aviation economic policy should prioritize barakah (blessed growth) over mere laba (profit). Consider these imperatives:
- Subsidized Island Air Services: Guarantee affordable tickets on routes that connect fishermen, farmers, and indigenous communities, recognizing air access as a right, not a luxury.
- Pesantren Vocational Scholarships: Fund mechanics, air-traffic control, and cabin-crew training for pesantren graduates, channelling local talent into high-value aviation roles.
- Community-Owned Ground Ventures: Support cooperative models in airport catering, retail, and transport, ensuring that economic multipliers flow back to local stakeholders.
When aviation acts as a vehicle for social uplift—rather than an enclave of corporate profit—it embodies the Aswaja vision of an economy suffused with collective welfare.
5. Environmental Sustainability: Guardianship of Creation
Perhaps the most urgent ethical recalibration concerns aviation’s carbon footprint, which now accounts for approximately 2–3 percent of global CO₂ emissions. Aswaja-NU theology, viewing nature as an amanah entrusted to humanity, mandates rigorous ecological stewardship.
Hadratus Syaikh admonished:
“To ravage creation is a grave injustice; stewardship of nature is a sacred trust.” (Hasyim Asy’ari, Adab al-‘Alim wa al-Muta‘allim, Jakarta: Lajnah Tarjamah PBNU, 2012, p. 12)
Translated into aviation, these imperative demands:
- Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF): Prioritize research, subsidies, and blending mandates for biofuels derived from waste feedstocks, reducing lifecycle emissions.
- Electric-Hybrid Propulsion Trials: Foster public-private partnerships to test electric taxis, regional commuter aircraft, and airport ground vehicles.
- Green Airport Designs: Insist on carbon-neutral terminals, rainwater harvesting, solar canopies, and native-species landscaping that preserve local ecosystems.
- Genuine Carbon Offsets: Channel offset revenue into community-led reforestation and mangrove restoration, ensuring that “offset” is more than a marketing ploy but a living example of maslahah.
By elevating environmental policy from CSR window-dressing to taklif syar’i—a moral imperative—we align aviation with the Aswaja commitment to protect God’s creation for present and future generations.
Embedding Aswaja Values: From Regulation to Runway
To realize this reimagined doctrine of civil aviation, Indonesia must undertake a systemic infusion of Aswaja-NU principles across every dimension:
- Regulatory Reform: Amend DGCA and MoT regulations to integrate maqashid assessments, making justice-and-mercy audits as fundamental as technical reviews.
- Educational Integration: Embed Aswaja ethics modules into aviation curricula—from flight schools to air-traffic control colleges—so graduates internalize amanah, maslahah, and rahmah before ever boarding a cockpit or tropospheric radar station.
- Multi-Stakeholder Councils: Convene pluralistic bodies—NU scholars, community leaders, environmental scientists, and industry experts—to co-govern PSO routes, green airport projects, and social-impact assessments.
- Public Fatwas and Guidance: Empower PBNU’s legal council (LBM PBNU) to issue contemporary fatwas on drone services, urban air mobility, and AI-driven logistics, ensuring innovation advances within an Islamic ethical framework.
Through such measures, civil aviation can evolve from a technocratic monolith into a living testament of Indonesian pluralism, moral purpose, and communal well-being.
Closing: Aviation as Amanah, Flight as Ibadah
As Indonesia charts its next ascent as an archipelagic aviation hub, it must not forsake the moral keel that sustains any society. The doctrines of safety, capacity & efficiency, security & facilitation, economic development, and environmental stewardship need not remain the exclusive domain of ICAO manuals or market analyses. They can—and indeed must—be indigenized through the ethical mastery of Aswaja-NU.
In the final words of KH. Hasyim Asy’ari:
“Knowledge severed from character invites ruin; let our science be sanctified by virtue.” (Hasyim Asy’ari, Qanun Asasi Nahdlatul Ulama, Jakarta: Lajnah Tarjamah PBNU, 2011, p. 27)
By embedding amanah, maslahah, tawassuth, and rahmah at the very core of civil aviation, Indonesia can offer the world a luminous exemplar: a spiritually conscious, socially inclusive, and ecologically ethical airspace. For flying is never neutral; it is the artful navigation between heaven and earth, utility and transcendence. By honouring life, justice, dignity, community, and creation, we ensure that every take-off becomes an act of communal hope and every landing a redemptive return to responsibility.
In the venerable tradition of NU, that truly is the highest flight of all.
