Nyalasé is a grave pilgrimage tradition that has long been an integral part of the religious life of the Madurese community. Although previous studies have examined this tradition from anthropological and religious ritual perspectives, its ecological dimension and its relationship with Qur’anic values have received little scholarly attention. This study aims to analyze the relationship between Qur’anic values and local wisdom embedded in the Nyalasé tradition and to explore its contribution to the development of ecological awareness among the Madurese people. The study employs a phenomenological approach and a descriptive qualitative method. Data were collected through field observations, in-depth interviews with religious and community leaders, and a review of Qur’anic tafsir literature and Islamic ecotheology. The findings reveal that the Nyalasé tradition reflects Qur’anic values that emphasize respect for all of Allah’s creation, human responsibility as khalifah in preserving the environment, and the harmonization of relationships between humans and nature. These values are internalized through the community’s socio-religious practices, fostering an ecological awareness rooted in local culture. This study contributes to the development of Living Qur’an studies and Islamic ecotheology by demonstrating that grave pilgrimage traditions can function as a medium for internalizing Qur’anic values that support environmental conservation. The findings affirm that Nyalasé represents a manifestation of ecological spirituality grounded in local wisdom within the Madurese community.
This study utilizes a qualitative framework, integrating empirical research and interpretive thematic analysis to examine productive maintenance within polygamous marriages in Aceh Rayeuk. Grounded in Qur’anic principles of financial maintenance, the analysis evaluates data gathered through field observations of household economic practices and in-depth interviews with polygamous couples, village officials, and community leaders. The findings indicate that financial maintenance within these households extends beyond merely fulfilling consumptive needs; it is actively directed toward productive endeavours, including business capital, agricultural land management, property investment, fisheries assets, and children’s education. Interpretive thematic analysis demonstrates that these practices serve as strategies for long-term economic sustainability and function as tangible manifestations of the principle of justice (‘adl) in polygamous marriages. From an Islamic legal perspective, these practices align with the Qur’anic concept of bil-ma‘rūf, which mandates providing financial maintenance in a proper, proportional, and contextually appropriate manner that reflects prevailing socio-economic realities. Furthermore, this study highlights that the efficacy of productive maintenance is contingent upon proactive financial management, the active participation of wives, and local economic conditions. Ultimately, these factors serve as crucial indicators for maintaining the economic stability and overall welfare of polygamous families within the Aceh Rayeuk community.
Studies on debate verses in the Qur’an have generally focused on linguistic aspects, thematic interpretation, or the ethics of dialogue, while relatively few have specifically examined the rhetorical strategies employed in theological debates through a thematic-hermeneutical approach. This study aims to analyze the rhetorical strategies of theological debate verses in the Qur’an by tracing the lexical roots of jadala, ḥāja, and khaṣama, and subsequently interpreting them through Fazlur Rahman’s double movement hermeneutics. Employing a qualitative descriptive-analytical method, this research integrates thematic Quranic Tafsir and hermeneutical approaches. The data were analyzed through verse identification, thematic contextual analysis, mapping of rhetorical forms, and contextualization of their universal values in relation to contemporary communication challenges. The findings reveal twenty-three verses that contain theological debates. The rhetorical strategies identified include rational argumentation, rhetorical questioning, negative labeling, affirmation of prophethood, descriptions of consequences, semantic contrasts, and historical narratives. Through the lens of Fazlur Rahman’s hermeneutics, the study formulates three universal principles: rational coherence, the cultivation of ethical consciousness, and communicative integrity. The novelty of this research lies in its integration of rhetorical analysis, thematic Quranic Tafsir, and double-movement hermeneutics to examine verses of theological debate. Its contribution is the development of an ethical-rhetorical framework for religious communication in the digital age, particularly in addressing skepticism, disinformation, emotional manipulation, and the crisis of public trust.
Studies on the living Qur'an have predominantly focused on recitation practices, amulets, and ruqyah within mainstream Muslim communities, while largely overlooking the ways in which Qur'anic verses are integrated into indigenous healing systems through material objects, spatial rituals, and local cosmologies among peripheral ethnic communities. This article addresses that gap by examining be-langea, a traditional healing ritual practiced by the Rejang community in Dusun Sawah, Bengkulu, Indonesia, in which water and lime (jeruk nipis) function as the principal therapeutic media through which Qur'anic verses are materially activated and spatially mediated. Employing a qualitative research design that combines ethnographic fieldwork with phenomenological analysis, the study draws on data collected through in-depth interviews with five key informants: two traditional healers, two patients, and one community leader, as well as participatory observation conducted over a period of more than one month. Guided by Rafiq's informative–performative framework, the findings make three principal theoretical contributions. First, be-langea demonstrates a process of Qur'anic materialization in which the sacred text is transferred into physical substances and enacted through bodily gestures and domestic spaces, thereby extending its performative function beyond verbal recitation. Second, the informative and performative dimensions operate as mutually constitutive rather than sequential mechanisms. Third, the dukun functions as a cultural broker who actively negotiates Islamic legitimacy for indigenous healing practices amid ongoing reformist pressures. By foregrounding the material and spatial dimensions of Qur'anic engagement, this study advances living Qur'an scholarship through a framework that illuminates how Muslim communities enact and embody sacred texts across the full spectrum of their cultural resources.
Contemporary debates on contextual tafsīr (exegesis) often emphasize methodological reform, yet they pay limited attention to how such approaches are pedagogically enacted and stabilized within Islamic educational institutions. This gap is particularly relevant to the legacy of Mahmoud Shaltout, whose contextual method sought to harmonize textual fidelity with socio-historical awareness. This study investigates how Shaltout’s methodology is implemented through pedagogical sequencing in Qur’anic teaching, and how this process mediates questions of textual authority. Through a qualitative, multi-site field study, this research draws on classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with instructors and students, and document analysis across selected Islamic educational institutions. The findings reveal a patterned epistemic sequence: instruction begins with linguistic and textual clarification, proceeds to socio-historical contextualization, and culminates in ethical abstraction and contemporary application. This staged process mitigates resistance, preserves scriptural authority, and enables gradual interpretive expansion. Consequently, the study argues that contextual tafsīr attains institutional sustainability not merely through theoretical coherence, but through structured pedagogical enactments that actively negotiate authority in practice.
