MUSEOLOGI ISLAM SEBAGAI KERANGKA EPISTEMOLOGI: TAUHID, AMANAH DAN KRITIKAN TERHADAP MUSEOLOGI SEKULAR

(Islamic Museology as an Epistemological Framework: Tawhid, Amanah, and a Critique of Secular Museology)

Abstract

This article examines the epistemological limitations of secular museology in the management and representation of Islamic heritage within museum institutions. Although modern museums are commonly defined as neutral, objective, and ethically grounded public knowledge institutions, such frameworks remain inadequate in addressing deeper epistemological questions concerning authority of meaning, ontological assumptions, and institutional responsibility toward religious heritage that is inherently normative and sacred. As a result, Islamic heritage is frequently reduced to aesthetic, ethnographic, or chronological categories, detaching objects from the integrated systems of knowledge, law, and ethical conduct that originally produced them. Drawing on critical museology literature and Islamic heritage studies, this article argues that the core challenge lies not merely in representational correction or ethical enhancement, but in the absence of an alternative institutional epistemology. It proposes tawḥīd and amānah as foundational principles for an Islamic museological epistemology. Tawḥīd functions as an ontological and epistemological principle that unifies reality, meaning, and the purpose of knowledge, while amānah operates as a principle of epistemic responsibility governing the production, interpretation, and transmission of meaning within museums. Through analytical discussion and a selected case study in Malaysia, the article demonstrates that the tawḥīd–amānah framework is not only theoretically coherent but also operable as an institutional epistemology in museological practice. This study contributes to critical museology by advancing a post-secular museological framework that recognizes religion as a legitimate epistemological source within public knowledge institutions and promotes epistemic justice in the management of religious heritage.