Enacting Qur’anic Meaning in the Indonesian Tablighi Jamaat as a Transnational Islamic Movement
Abstract
Qur’anic meaning in Indonesian Tablighi Jamaat operates through disciplined enactment rather than formal exegetical production. Situated within the movement’s transnational circulation, this article examines how selected Qur’anic meanings are carried through dakwah, taʿlīm, prayer, żikr, moral discipline, and khurūj fī sabīlillāh. The analysis draws on internal Tablighi texts, particularly Fadhilat Tabligh, Fadhilat Qur’an, and Hayatus Sahabah, as well as the author’s field-based records of mudzakarah and bayān sessions in Indonesia across different local religious settings. Talal Asad’s notion of Islam as a discursive tradition provides the main theoretical ground, while Abdurrahman’s formulation of embodied fiqh and Ibn ʿArabī’s distinction between ʿilm al-ʿaqlī, ʿilm al-aḥwāl, and ʿilm al-asrār function as operational lenses. The article argues that Tablighi Jamaat turns Qur’anic verses from textual evidence into repeatable practices that train the body, reform intention, organize time, cultivate moral dispositions, and generate transnational religious subjectivity. These practices also show how scriptural authority is mediated through collective routines, oral instruction, and movement-based forms of religious learning. By tracing the movement from verse to disciplined practice, the article demonstrates that Qur’anic meaning is enacted not only through interpretation in written commentary but also through embodied and socially transmitted forms of religious life. Such a reading extends Qur’anic studies beyond authored commentary and clarifies how scriptural meaning becomes socially portable through discipline, repetition, and movement practices.
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Copyright
Copyright Holder: Ahmad Solahuddin
Copyright Year: 2026
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License