The Ritual Agency and Living Tradition of Aḍ-Ḍamm ‘Alā Qalb al-Qur’ān in Local Islamic Communities of Banyumas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14421/qh.v26i2.6708Keywords:
Living Tradition, Sacred Manuscript, Banyumas, Ritual Agency, Islamic communitiesAbstract
This ethnographic research investigates the living tradition and protective belief (tolak bala’) associated with the Aḍ-Ḍamm ‘Alā Qalb al-Qur’ān manuscripts preserved in two pesantren mosques in Banyumas, Central Java, i.e., Al-Djazuli Pliken and Pasulukan Sokaraja Lor. Local Muslim communities believe that possessing or storing these sacred manuscripts safeguards individuals, households, and places of worship from disasters, particularly fire. Over time, this belief has transformed from an individual conviction into an institutionalized communal practice, representing an intersection of Islamic textual reverence and localized ritual protection. Distinct from prior studies that focus primarily on textual content or codicological features, this study emphasizes the material, social, and symbolic dimensions of these manuscripts as active agents within local religious life. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and narrative analysis, this research demonstrates how these manuscripts function simultaneously as sacred texts, material amulets, and markers of Islamic identity. Theoretically, this study contributes to debates on the materiality of sacred texts, folk belief systems, and the construction of ritual protection within localized Islamic traditions. The findings illustrate how Penginyongan Muslim communities in Banyumas embody and sustain a living tradition in which Islamic manuscripts transcend their textual function and are integrated into everyday practices of spiritual protection. This localized synthesis of belief, ritual, and manuscript materiality offers new insights into the interplay between Islam, culture, and protective traditions in Southeast Asian Muslim societies.
Abstract viewed: 442 times
|
PDF downloaded = 290 times
References
Abidin, Ahmad Zainal, Salamah Noorhidayati, and Imam Ahmadi. “Amulet of Quranic Verses in East Javanese Rural: Unraveling Mystical Theology and Living Quran.” Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 12, no. 6 (November 2023): 392. https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2023-0177.
Adeliya, Dela, and Nur Fateah. “Interaction in the Tradition of Tolak Balak by Juru Ladi at a Javanese Traditional Wedding: An Ethnolinguistic Study.” Journal of Innovation in Educational and Cultural Research 5, no. 2 (May 2024): 319–28. https://doi.org/10.46843/jiecr.v5i2.1473.
Afsaruddin, Asma. “In Praise of the Word of God: Reflections of Early Religious and Social Concerns in the Fadā’il al-Qur’ān Genre.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 4, no. 1 (April 2002): 27–48. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2002.4.1.27.
al‑Suyūṭī, Jalāl al‑Dīn. Al‑Itqān Fī ‘Ulūm al‑Qur’Ān. Riyāḍ: Wizārat al-Shu’ūn al-Islāmiyyah wa al-Awqāf wa al-Da‘wah wa al-Irshād, 1998.
al‑Zarkashī, Badr al‑Dīn Muḥammad ibn Bahādir. Al‑Burhān Fī ‘Ulūm al‑Qur’Ān. Cairo: Dār Iḥyā’ al‑Kutub al‑ʿArabīyah, 1958.
Amir, Abdul Muiz. “Pattula’ Bala as a Discursive Tradition: The Reception of the Qur’an in the Muslim Bugis Community.” PUSAKA 10, no. 1 (July 2022): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.31969/pusaka.v10i1.661.
Anderson, Bradford A., ed. From Scrolls to Scrolling: Sacred Texts, Materiality, and Dynamic Media Cultures. De Gruyter, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634440.
Anggriana, Lathifah, Sovi Oktavia, Ridwan Rahmansyah, and Latifah Rahimah. “Jimat Dan Mistisme Pengikut Tarekat Syattariyah Di Sumatera Barat Abad Ke-19 M.” Hijaz: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Keislaman 1, no. 3 (March 2022): 144–55. https://doi.org/10.57251/hij.v1i3.913.
Asad, Talal. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
———. “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam.” Islamology 7, no. 1 (June 2017): 41. https://doi.org/10.24848/islmlg.07.1.02.
Azra, Azyumardi. Jaringan Ulama Timur Tengah dan Kepulauan Nusantara Abad XVII & XVIII: Akar Pembaruan Islam Indonesia. Ed. rev. Jakarta: Kencana, 2004.
Berkey, Jonathan Porter. The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Bruinessen, Martin van. Kitab Kuning, Pesantren, Dan Tarekat. Yogyakarta: Gading Publishing, 2012.
“Challenging Orders: Ṭarīqas and Muslim Society in SoutheasternIndia and Laṅkā, ca. 1400–1950.” In Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia, by Torsten Tschacher, 75–98. University of Hawaii Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824877200-005.
Chittick, William C. The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Demi̇Rel, Serdar, and Hikmatullah Babu Sahi̇B. “Concept of Barakah in Qur’ān and Sunnah: Towards Its Realization in Modern Discourse.” FSM İlmî Araştırmalar İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Dergisi 0, no. 5 (June 2015). https://doi.org/10.16947/fsmiad.24408.
Dundes, Alan, ed. International Folkloristics: Classic Contributions by the Founders of Folklore. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
Durkheim, Emile, Carol Cosman, and Mark Sydney Cladis. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
El-Rouayheb, Khaled. Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century: Scholarly Currents in the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb. First paperback edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
“Ethnographic Method.” In Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences, by Bonnie Pang, 443–56. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5251-4_81.
“Ethnographic Methods.” In The Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation, by Tatjana Thelen, 201–11. Oxford University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198829911.003.0020.
“Ethnography/Ethnographic Methods.” In The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, 1st ed., by Devika Chawla and Rebecca Mercado Jones, 1–18. Wiley, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118901731.iecrm0090.
Gade, Anna M. Perfection Makes Practice: Learning, Emotion, and the Recited Qurʾān in Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004.
Ghozali, Mahbub, Achmad Yafik Mursyid, and Nita Fitriana. “Al-Qur’an (Re)Presentation in the Short Video App Tiktok: Reading, Teaching, and Interpretive.” Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 30, no. 3 (August 2022): 1263–82. https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.30.3.18.
Gibson, Thomas. Islamic Narrative and Authority in Southeast Asia: From the 16th to the 21st Century. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Gruber, Christiane J., ed. The Islamic Manuscript Tradition: Ten Centuries of Book Arts in Indiana University Collections. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.
Hasim, Ruziaton, Abdulkarim Samaeng, Akehsan Dahlan, and Ruhana Samaeng. “Scoping Review on the Benefits of Reciting, Listening and Memorising the Quran.” Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal 8, no. 25 (July 2023): 37–43. https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v8i25.4826.
Hirschler, Konrad. A Monument to Medieval Syrian Book Culture: The Library of Ibn ’Abd al-Hādī. Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
Houtman, Dick, and Birgit Meyer, eds. Things: Religion and the Question of Materiality. 1st ed. The Future of the Religious Past. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012.
Hufford, David J. The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. Publications of the American Folklore Society New Series 7. Philadelphia, Pa: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Kiyanrad, Sarah. “Sasanian Amulet Practices and Their Survival in Islamic Iran and Beyond.” Der Islam 95, no. 1 (March 2018): 65–90. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2018-0003.
Laffan, Michael Francis. The Makings of Indonesian Islam: Orientalism and the Narration of a Sufi Past. Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics. Princeton [N.J.] Oxford [England]: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. 1. publ. in pbk. Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2007.
Lindholm, Charles. Culture and Authenticity. Malden, MA ; Oxford: Blackwell Pub, 2008.
Lisman, Resta, Darmaiza Darmaiza, and Dwi Wahyuni. “Safeguarding Communities: Exploring the Tradition of Tolak Bala in Nagari Bungus.” Journal of Contemporary Rituals and Traditions 1, no. 1 (July 2023): 25–42. https://doi.org/10.15575/jcrt.212.
Lochmiller, Chad. “Conducting Thematic Analysis with Qualitative Data.” The Qualitative Report, ahead of print, Nova Southeastern University, June 20, 2021. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2021.5008.
Lukens-Bull, Ronald. A Peaceful Jihad: Negotiating Identity and Modernity in Muslim Java. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980298.
Manan, Abdul, Kamarullah, Rahmad Syah Putra, Saprizal, Cut Intan Salasiyah, and Muhammad Arif Fadhilah. “Tulak Bala as an Outbreak Prevention Within Sharia-Based Community: The Practice and Views.” Paper presented at 2nd International Conference on Science, Technology, and Modern Society (ICSTMS 2020), Langsa, Aceh, Indonesia. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, Atlantis Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210909.034.
McAllum, Kirstie, Stephanie Fox, Mary Simpson, and Christine Unson. “A Comparative Tale of Two Methods: How Thematic and Narrative Analyses Author the Data Story Differently.” Communication Research and Practice 5, no. 4 (October 2019): 358–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2019.1677068.
Mulder, Niels. Mysticism in Java: Ideology in Indonesia. 2nd ed. Deresan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Kanisius Pub. House, 2005.
Mustofa, Ahmad. “Living QS. Saba`: 13 among Javanese Moslem Sculptors.” Jurnal Studi Ilmu-Ilmu Al-Qur’an Dan Hadis 26, no. 1 (March 2025): 31–52. https://doi.org/10.14421/qh.v26i1.5723.
Muttaqin, Zainul, and Jamil Jamil. “Exploring the Ratib Tolak Bala Ritual in Langkat, North Sumatra: Analysis of Living Qur’an.” HERMENEUTIK 18, no. 1 (June 2024): 67. https://doi.org/10.21043/hermeneutik.v18i1.25870.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. The Garden of Truth: Knowledge, Love, and Action. 1st ed. Bielefeld: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008.
Ong, Walter Jackson. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Ed. first published 2002. New Accents. London: Routledge, 2005.
Peacock, A.C.S. “Vernacular Religious Literature: Tales of Conversion, Eschatology and Unbelief.” In Islam, Literature and Society in Mongol Anatolia, 1st ed., 188–217. Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108582124.006.
Pontzen, Benedikt. “What’s (Not) in a Leather Pouch? Tracing Islamic Amulets in Asante, Ghana.” Africa 90, no. 5 (November 2020): 870–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972020000625.
Rafiq, Ahmad. “The Living Qur’an: Its Text and Practice in the Function of the Scripture.” Jurnal Studi Ilmu-Ilmu Al-Qur’an Dan Hadis 22, no. 2 (July 2021): 469–84. https://doi.org/10.14421/qh.2021.2202-10.
———. “The Reception of the Qur’an in Indonesia: A Case Study of the Place of the Qur’an in a Non-Arabic Speaking Community.” Temple University, 2014.
Reese, Scott, ed. Manuscript and Print in the Islamic Tradition. De Gruyter, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110776485.
Shamad, Irhash A., and Danil Mahmud Chaniago. Islam Dan Praksis Kultural Masyarakat Minangkabau. Cetakan I. Palembang, Indonesia: Noer Fikri Offset, 2022.
“The Branches of the Qādiriyya and the Shādhiliyya in Northern Mozambique: Silsilas to the South.” In Islamic Sufi Networks in the Western Indian Ocean (c.1880-1940), by Anne K. Bang, 47–71. BRILL, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004276543_004.
Watt, W. Montgomery. Islamic Philosophy and Theology: An Extended Survey. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995.
Woodward, Mark Rhey. Java, Indonesia and Islam. Muslims in Global Societies Series 3. Dordrecht: Springer, 2011.
Zamhari, Arif. Rituals of Islamic Spirituality : A Study of Majlis Dhikr Groups in East Java. ANU Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.26530/oapen_459498.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Mohamad Sobirin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Publishing your paper with Jurnal Studi Ilmu-ilmu al-Qur'an dan Hadis means that the author or authors retain the copyright in the paper. Jurnal Studi Ilmu-ilmu al-Qur'an dan Hadis uses license CC-BY-NC-ND or an equivalent license as the optimal license for the publication, distribution, use, and reuse of scholarly works. This license permits anyone to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, translate, transform or build upon the material you may use it for private use only and not for distribution. Jurnal Studi Ilmu-ilmu al-Qur'an dan Hadis granted an exclusive non-commercial reuse license by the author(s), but the author(s) are able to put the paper onto a website, distribute it to colleagues, give it to students, use it in your thesis, etc, so long as the use is not directed at a commercial advantage or toward private monetary gain. The author(s) can reuse the figures and tables and other information contained in their paper published by Jurnal Studi Ilmu-ilmu al-Qur'an dan Hadis in future papers or work without having to ask anyone for permission, provided that the figures, tables, or other information that is included in the new paper or work properly references the published paper as the source of the figures, tables or other information, and the new paper or work is not direct at a private monetary gain or commercial advantage.
Jurnal Studi Ilmu-ilmu al-Qur'an dan Hadis journal Open Acces articles are distrubuted under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Article can be read, copy and redistribute the material ini any medium or format under the following conditions:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
