Kenapa Kita Harus Percaya Legenda Kiai? (Studi Kepercayaan Masyarakat Muslim terhadap Legenda Kiai Sepuh di Kota Pasuruan)

Abstract

Jan Harold Brunyand divides three types of legends based on the subject of the story: religious legends, supernatural legends, individual legends and place legends. Muslim communities in the city of Pasuruan have many types of religious legends. The religious legend contains stories of legend with the subject of the story: people in the past who were considered holy, godly, or people who fought to preach religion. The community of Pasuruan conveyed oral literature in the form of religious legends through the ritual of 'haul', which is a religious activity intended to pray for a person or religious figure who has died. In the ritual of 'haul', religious legends with the subject of a pious person (Kiai or Mbah) are read orally in the form of reading 'manakib'. The uniqueness of the religious legends about ulama, Kiai, or Mbah are the themes of the stories that were conceived. Most of the contents of the story are about the supernatural powers of the characters. Muslim communities believe the stories and images presented in this legend, although they cannot be accepted with reason or logic in general. In this study researchers found that this belief has a special function in order to maintain religious values ​​in the Muslim community in the city of Pasuruan. The author concludes that two forms of belief in religious legends include (1) beliefs built by Muslim communities collectively as a form of interpretation of various phenomena outside their logic of reasoning and 2) beliefs built by Muslim societies as regulators of social institutions and norms, and to internalize collectively valid norms. In addition, this legend also functions as (1) a tool for the development and preservation of local culture around legendary area sites, 2) a tool for determining the normative order of local Muslim communities around the site, and 3) tools for certain groups that have special interests or relationships with the subject of the story and the site.