Maulid and the Making of Public Religious Subjects: Ritual Pedagogy, Kyai Authority, and Social Reproduction in Madurese Islam

Ismail

doi:10.59689/iera.v5i3.2190

Ismail Institut Agama Islam Al-Khairat Pamekasan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59689/iera.v5i3.2190

Keywords: Maulid; Madurese Islam; Lived Religion; Ritual Pedagogy; Kyai Authority; Social Reproduction.

Abstract

This study examines the celebration of Maulid, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, as a cultural-pedagogical practice that shapes public religious subjects in Madurese Islam. Moving beyond interpretations of Maulid as merely commemorative or symbolic, it investigates how ritual participation transmits Islamic values, reproduces kyai authority, and sustains communal identity across generations. The study employed a qualitative, multi-sited ethnographic design in Camplong District, Sampang, Madura. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews with kyai, community elders, adults, adolescents, and younger attendees, as well as documentary analysis of ritual materials. Data were analyzed thematically using NVivo 15 through open coding, thematic clustering, and code co-occurrence analysis. The findings indicate that Maulid functions as lived religion, informal religious education, situated learning, and cultural pedagogy. Participants learn religious norms through observation, imitation, repetition, bodily discipline, Barzanji and shalawat recitation, food sharing, and communal labor rather than through formal instruction. Kyai authority is reproduced relationally through ritual leadership, spatial centrality, and communal recognition. Maulid also cultivates emotional attachment to the Prophet, social solidarity, respect for authority, and religious habitus. The study concludes that Maulid is a significant mechanism of Islamic social reproduction in Madurese society. It contributes to scholarship on lived religion, religious education, and ritual studies by showing how communal ritual shapes religious identity through embodied, affective, and intergenerational practice

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