Auditorium of Prof. Dr. Suwito, MA SPs UIN Jakarta, SPs NEWS - The Graduate School (SPs) of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta held the 2814th Thesis Exam at the Auditorium Room of Prof. Dr. Suwito, MA SPs UIN Jakarta on Friday, June 26, 2026 with candidate Taufik Illahi.

Taufik is a student of the Master of Islamic Studies program with a concentration in Islamic Thought. His thesis is entitled "Ethical Transition in the Locality of Surau Minangkabau ".

This research was born from an academic anxiety to re-dissect the heart of the morality of the Minangkabau people. Through the legendary surau institution, he managed to map how cultural signs and shifts in moral values manifest in social reality.

Methodologically, this study is designed as a qualitative field research that elaborates a sharp semiotic approach. Taufik relies on the analytical knife of Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic theory to skin the deepest layers of meaning that live in society. This theory is used as the main tool to track how a sign transforms into a shared value system.

The main focus of his analysis rests on Peirce's semiotic trichosis, which involves the dynamic relationship between representations (signs), objects (reference signs), and interpretants (effects of meaning). Through this initial basis, Taufik traces how the icons, indexes, and symbols attached to the existence of surau are interpreted by the community. This process of meaning ultimately crystallized into the foundation of the contemporary value system of Minangkabau people.

This study successfully concluded that the values of responsibility, togetherness and solidarity, harmony, and adaptive and inclusive nature are the essential ethical pillars for the Minangkabau people. However, Taufik's important findings show that these ethical pillars have never stagnated at one point in history. These noble values continue to undergo transitions and move dynamically from time to time.

Furthermore, this thesis argues that the transformation of surau as an indigenous educational institution of the Minangkabau people is a real representation of the ethical transition. Physical changes, functions, and activities in the surau symbolize a very strong cultural sign change. When the cultural signs in the surau shift, at the same time the moral values embraced by the people also move with the wheels of the times.

Interestingly, the theoretical arguments built by Taufik in this study succeeded in strengthening the concept of moral relativism. This philosophical view affirms that the standards of good and bad are not always universal and rigid. On the contrary, the moral values that a community upholds always have a different face and continue to adapt from one generation to the next.

Specifically, this study provides new scientific ammunition that supports the concept of descriptive moral relativism. This concept illustrates how cultural diversity and ethical standards of society are fluid and continue to evolve empirically. The surau in Minangkabau is the most concrete example of how a sacred space is able to record the evolution of human morality in it.

This novelty is what makes Taufik Illalahi's thesis go further than previous researchers. If studies from Pakpahan (2021), Gumelar et al. (2024), Kristanti (2014), and Muhammad Husni (2024) tend to capture cultural values as something static at one time, Taufik has succeeded in proving that society's moral compass is dynamic.

Taufik successfully defended his thesis under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Yusuf Rahman, MA, and was tested in front of a board of examiners consisting of Hamdani, M.Ag, Ph.D, Prof. Dr. Yusuf Rahman, MA, Prof. Dr. Zainun Kamaluddin Fakih, MA and Prof. Dr. Hamid Nasuki, M.Ag.

After paying attention to the thesis writing, the comments of the examiner team and the candidate's answers, the examiner team determined that Taufik Illahi graduated with the title of Very Satisfactory. Taufik Illahi is the 2814th Master in the field of Islamic Studies, in the Master's program of the Graduate School of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. (JA)