The study of Islamic Astronomy applied by Walisongo State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN Walisongo) is the most interesting study among all studies of Islamic Astronomy in Indonesia. The reason is that it is organized in the concentration form (Concentration of Islamic Astronomy / KIF), which is the only one in Southeast Asian. In addition, Prof. Nazaruddin Umar who was Director General of Islamic Society Guidance expected in order that IAIN Walisongo can be the development beacon of Islamic Astronomy in Indonesia. This research wants to express the study of Islamic Astronomy’s model applied by IAIN Walisongo through two problem focuses, which are how IAIN Walisongo establishes the epistemology of study of Islamic Astronomy and how the praxis of the study of Islamic Astronomy at IAIN Walisongo is.
The category of this research is a qualitative research. The main source and the data input of this research is some information of people who are involved directly with the activity observed, so this research is also called field research, which has two data source types, which are primary data source and secondary data source. The primary data source of this research is interview results with the founders of KIF. The secondary data sources of this research are books, newspapers, magazines, working papers and Concentration of Islamic Astronomy’s documents related to this research. Next, these data are analyzed by descriptive analysis method.
The results of this research are, first, Epistemology applied by Walisongo State Institute for Islamic Astronomy to organize the study of Islamic Astronomy is combinative epistemology, which combines the epistemology of astronomical science and Islamic law epistemology. As an observational science, Islamic Astronomy is a science to know the positions of celestial objects by calculation and observation. Therefore, the observation data is the primary data that can annul the Ephimeris data. Many mathematical sciences are originally developed to facilitate the astronomical research, such as observation. In addition, Islamic Astronomy also related to the Islamic worship, such as ṣalāt, ḥajji, fasting, etc. In Holly Quran, Allah commands Muslims to perform Islamic worships in the certain times. The natural phenomena are as indication of these times. Therefore, Islamic astronomy is part of Islamic law. Second, Practically, IAIN Walisongo has the high commitment to organize the study of Islamic Astronomy as the epistemology of Islamic Astronomy. This is based on three considerations, which are the curriculum framework covering not only the substantive courses, but also the supporting courses, such as Mathematics, Methodology of Science, Astronomy, Computing, and Instrumentations, teaching staff structure involving the internal lecturers and the external lecturers of Shariah Faculty of IAIN Walisongo, and (3) some discussions held by Shariah Faculty and scientific works. Both of them discuss about the subjects of ‘Ilm al-Falak (Qibla, prayer times, Qamariyyah months, and eclipses) from not only jurisprudence perspective but also scientific perspective.