Lived Religion in Ziarah: The Dialectics of Scriptural Knowledge and Spiritual Experience among Prospective Muslim Scholars in South Kalimantan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66277/jimws.1.1.187Keywords:
Guru Sekumpul, Integrative Piety, Lived Religion, Scriptural Knowledge, Spiritual Experience, Ziarah TraditionAbstract
How do prospective Muslim scholars reconcile advanced textual study with the embodied appeal of saint veneration? This question remains underexplored among educated religious actors who possess both scriptural literacy and devotional commitment. This study investigates how Indonesian students of Qurʾanic exegesis and hadith sciences from the Cadre Program for Muslim Scholars (Program Kaderisasi Ulama, PKU) at UIN Antasari, Banjarmasin, Indonesia, navigate the dialectic between textual knowledge and spiritual experience during ziarah (pilgrimage) to the grave of Guru Sekumpul. Drawing on lived religion theory and phenomenological interviews with ten final-semester students, the research examines their hermeneutical strategies, affective experiences, and forms of authorization. The findings reveal that participants inhabit a pre-validated framework of integrative piety: their PKU training provides sophisticated tools—contextual interpretation, juristic reconciliation (fiqh al-ikhtilāf), and historical reasoning—that neutralize textual conflicts before pilgrimage. This intellectual grounding is affirmed through embodied experiences: feelings of peace, witnessed communal generosity, and perceived barakah (blessing) that serve as empirical validation. Rather than experiencing cognitive dissonance, these students treat scriptural mastery and somatic knowing as complementary sources of religious authority. The study advances understandings of lived religion by demonstrating how elite religious education can authorize, rather than undermine, venerative practices, revealing a model in which intellectual rigor and devotional wholeheartedness operate in constitutive partnership.
[Bagaimana calon ulama memadukan pendalaman teks-teks keagamaan dengan daya tarik spiritual dalam penghormatan terhadap wali? Pertanyaan ini masih jarang dikaji, khususnya pada aktor-aktor religius terdidik yang memiliki kemampuan membaca teks keagamaan secara kritis dan komitmen spiritual yang kuat. Penelitian ini mengkaji bagaimana mahasiswa ilmu tafsir dan hadis yang tergabung dalam Program Kaderisasi Ulama (PKU) di UIN Antasari, Banjarmasin, menavigasi dialektika antara pengetahuan tekstual dan pengalaman spiritual dalam praktik ziarah ke makam Guru Sekumpul. Dengan menggunakan teori lived religion dan wawancara fenomenologis terhadap sepuluh mahasiswa tingkat akhir, penelitian ini menelaah strategi penafsiran, pengalaman afektif, serta bentuk-bentuk otorisasi keagamaan mereka. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa para partisipan hidup dalam kerangka kesalehan integratif (integrative piety) yang telah mapan. Pelatihan PKU membekali mereka dengan perangkat ilmiah yang canggih—seperti penafsiran kontekstual, rekonsiliasi fikih (fiqh al-ikhtilāf), dan penalaran historis—yang memungkinkan mereka menetralisasi potensi konflik tekstual sebelum praktik ziarah dilakukan. Landasan intelektual tersebut semakin diteguhkan melalui pengalaman batin dan jasmani: perasaan tenang, kemurahan hati masyarakat yang mereka saksikan langsung, serta barakah yang mereka rasakan sebagai bukti nyata. Alih-alih mengalami kegamangan batin, para mahasiswa ini justru menjadikan penguasaan teks dan pengalaman batin sebagai dua sumber otoritas keagamaan yang saling melengkapi. Penelitian ini memperkaya studi tentang lived religion dengan menunjukkan bagaimana pendidikan agama yang elite justru dapat melegitimasi, bukan malah merusak praktik penghormatan terhadap wali, sehingga melahirkan model keberagamaan di mana ketajaman intelektual dan kesungguhan spiritual berjalan beriringan secara utuh.]
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