This talk aims to discuss the significance of using a comparative view of the Middle East for research on Islamic matters in Indonesia in connection to history. It will be done through presenting a few case studies that will be used for two main purposes: 1. illustrating how such comparative research can produce interesting insights that otherwise

were almost impossible to observe; 2. emphasizing the need to navigate carefully between the particularities of the local Islamic context of Indonesia and the Middle Eastern perspective that reveal the universalities of Islam.