Abstract
This paper presents the origins of and the expansion of Tarbiyah in Indonesia based on the findings gathered through interviews with informants and examines its effectiveness as a learning system of Islam from the student’s point of view. Tarbiyah is a system to learn Islam which has been used among the students of the dakwah kampus organization in non-religious universities in Indonesia. Tarbiyah, which means originally means “education” in Arabic, has expanded rapidly all over the country in the past 20 years. This system was introduced to Indonesia in the early 1980s by some Indonesian students who had studied in Saudi Arabia, and was adopted by students in the secular, elite universities. The subsequent expansion and development of Tarbiyah came from the students’ voluntary activities and their personal networks. The advantages of this learning system include its continuity, interactivity, and its ability to deepen relationships among members. The main contents of Tarbiyah are related to the basis of Islamic teachings which are quite new to the most Muslim students in secular universities in Indonesia and therefore widely attracts their attention and interest widely.
