Religious Moderation through Prophetic Ethics: Qur’anic Principles, the Medinan Experience, and Indonesian Moderation Discourse

Abstract

Religious moderation in Indonesia is commonly articulated through policy indicators intended to support peaceful coexistence, yet Qur’anic ethics, the Medinan experience, and contemporary moderation discourse are frequently examined as separate domains. This article analyzes how selected Qur’anic texts and the Medinan experience can inform an ethical reading of religious moderation in contemporary Indonesia. It employs qualitative library research that combines a thematic reading of Q.S. Al-Hujurat 49:13, Q.S. Al-Anbiya 21:107, Q.S. An-Nisa 4:135, and Q.S. Al-Baqarah 2:256; a historical-contextual reading of scholarly accounts of the Charter of Medina; and a conceptual comparison with Indonesia’s religious moderation framework and selected studies of religious and digital discourse. The analysis identifies three interrelated ethical dimensions—humanization, liberation, and transcendence—from which five principles are derived: human dignity, justice, transcendental accountability, inclusivity, and social responsibility. The Medinan experience illustrates how distinct communal identities could coexist within an arrangement of reciprocal obligations, although it cannot be treated as a directly transferable model of modern governance. In the Indonesian context, the prophetic framework complements existing policy indicators by foregrounding ethical questions concerning dignity, coercion, unequal treatment, and moral accountability. The article contributes a heuristic framework for evaluating religious moderation without presenting it as an empirically validated theory or an alternative administrative model.