Strengthening Islam and Ethnicity through Social Media: Sundanese

Translation of the Qur’an on Facebook

Jajang A. Rohmana

, Mulyana

and Ali Masrur

Faculty of Politics and Social Sciences, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Bandung 40614, Indonesia

Faculty of Ushuluddin, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Bandung 40614, Indonesia

Keywords: The Qur’an, translation, Sundanese, Facebook

Abstract: This paper focuses on the relation between Islam, ethnicity and the use of social media among Sundanese

people, using the construction of identity approach. The object of the study is the translation of the Qur’an

in Sundanese which posted to revive Muslim interests through the mobile application Facebook. My focus

is one of social groups on Facebook, Pustaka Sunda or Sundanese literature, which already discussed the

Sundanese translation of the Qur’an since 2016. This study shows that the emerging of new literacy of

media culture through media technologies is creating structural changes of religious practices within

society, including the reading of the Qur’an and its Sundanese translation on social media. The reading of

the Sundanese translation of the Qur’an through social media is more stronger than before especially when

it relates to the issue of ethnic identity. It is a part of an effort to affirm the closeness of Islam and

Sundanese culture. The group of Pustaka Sunda as one of the largest Sundanese groups on Facebook shows

the effort to affirm their Islamic identity and culture in the form of strengthening of Islamic literacy through

Sundanese translation of the Qur’an.

1 INTRODUCTION

The very central issue in the studies on Islam,

ethnicity and the use of social media is concerned

with the reasons increasingly widespread of the use

of social media through the mobile application as a

means of disseminating information and networking

of religious activities. Some scholars already studied

on religious activities on social media Whatsapp,

Facebook, Twitter, Line, Telegram and others. Both

Muslim (Muslim, 2017)and Nisa (Nisa, 2018), for

instance, have studied the use of social media in

dakwah by One Day One Juz (ODOJ). It is a daily

recitation program of the Qur’anthrough mobile

application Whatsapp in Indonesia. The case of

ODOJ is also studied by Husein and Slama (Husein

and Slama, 2018)who examine Islamic anxieties due

to online piety activities on social media that are

emergingriya’ or showing off one’s piety on ODOJ

and sedekah activities that utilise social media.

Meanwhile, Weng (Hew, 2018) highlights the the

intersection between online activities (Facebook,

Twitter) and offline events in contemporary Islamic

preaching as in case of Felix Siauw and his dakwah

team in Indonesia. Another important study is

Fakhruroji’s article on Islamic app and religious

engagement in contemporary Indonesia (Fakhruroji,

2018). He argues that what the so-called as ‘Aa Gym

app’ illustrates how the mediatization of religion

inherent in mobile technologies is reshaping the way

that Indonesians engage with Islamic teachings.

This study focuses on the other side of religious

practices through social media that related to

strengthening of Islam and ethnic identity. I will

focuse on online activities of the translation of the

Qur’an in Sundanese Groupon Facebook, Pustaka

Sunda or Sundanese literature since 2016 to 2018. It

is a social media group that Sundanese people come

together in an online group of Sundanese literacy.

Sundanese is one of greatest ethnic groups who

mostly lived in West Java, Indonesia. The title of

Sundanese translation of the Qur’an on Pustaka

Sunda group is Al-Amin_net which was posted on

Facebook everyday by one of the members of

PustakaSunda, Agus Age Rustandi.Agus rewrites

the Sundanese translation of the Qur’an which

copied from the book of Al-Amin,

trustworthy(Shaleh, Dahlan and Rusamsi, 1971). Al-

Amin is the most popular book on Sundanese

translation of the Qur’an which previously was

written by Shaleh, Dahlan and Rusyana and has been

A. Rohmana, J., Mulyana, . and Masrur, A.

Strengthening Islam and Ethnicity through Social Media: Sundanese Translation of the Qur’an on Facebook.

DOI: 10.5220/0009936218391844

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 1839-1844

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

1839

published since 1971. I will not only study the

frequency of Agus’s status of Qur’anic translation of

Al-Amin on Facebook, but also analyze the

responses and comments of fellow group members

of Pustaka Sunda to Agus’s status on the Sundanese

translation of the Qur’an.

This study explain that the religious practice in

the form of Sundanese translation of the Qur’an on

social media is not only strengthened the identity of

Islam, but also intersected with that of Sundanese

ethnic identity as affirmationof the closeness of

Islam and Sundanese culture. It is easy for

Sundanese people to identify Islam as their religions

when they also have the Sundanese identity (Millie

and Syarif, 2015). Sundanese translation of the

Qur’an on social media is one of expressions of the

identity construction of Islam-Sunda in the digital

age. It marks the strengthening of literary shift of

santris into modern culture. i.e. from

pégon(Sundanese or Javanese using Arabic script) to

latin script, from manuscript tradition to print

culture(Moriyama, 2003),from print culture to

digital technology. I argue that the issue of religious

and ethnic identities on social media is very

important. It will show that Islam in West Java is

more strongerthan before in line with the use of

media technologies by Sundanese people. Sundanese

people as the second greatestethnic after Javanese

people who mostly lived in West Java ware regarded

as the largest Muslim population in Indonesia

(Suryadinata, Arifin and Ananta, 2003).

2 METHOD

This research uses case studies method on

strengthening Islam and Sundaneseness in the case

of translation of the Qur’an on Facebook. I collect

the primary data from online activities of translation

of the Qur’an which posted by Agus Age Rustandi

on the group of Pustaka Sunda from 2016 to 2018.

There are about one hundred Agus’s posts. I also

make reference to the book of Al-Amin which used

by Agus. All responses and comments from the

members of group to Agus’s posts will be listed in

the form of posting table {see appendix). The

comments of members of the group are very

important to correct the quality of the translation of

the Qur’an. I also interviewed Agus via messenger

several times. The data would be analyzed by the

construction of identity approach. Following picture

describes the process of my research:

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The Group of PustakaSunda on

Facebook

There are many groups on social media of

Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and others that are

established by their members for certain purpose. I

found on Facebook, for instance, a lot of Sundanese

social groups which established about the first

decade of twenty first century, such as

SALAKANAGARA, the first Sundanese kingdom

(45,474 members), Gerakan Pilihan

Sunda,Sundanese elections movement (43,072

members), Fikmin Basa Sunda, Sundanese flash

fiction (6,464 members), Cakar Kuda: Carita

Motekar Kulawarga Sunda,Creative story of

Sundanese family (6,458 members), Facebook

Aksara Sunda, Sundanese script on Facebook (1,899

members) etc. The PustakaSundagroup (17,264

members) was establishedto revive an interactive

discussionson Sundanese people, nature and culture.

This group was establishedin December 30, 2011

by Ki Hasan alias Harja Santana Purba, a scholar

from Ciamis who was a lecturer at Lambung

Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin, South

Kalimantan. It is a Sundanese groupwhich intended

to make a citizen journalism fortheir members or

baladPustakaSunda to be an ambassador of the story

of their regions. The main purpose of the grup is to

produce various documentations on Sundanese

nature, culture, and people. The group of Pustaka

Sunda has more than ten thousands members from

different parts of the world. The members are not

only from West Java where majority of Sundanese

people stayed there, but also other Sundanese

members who live in various regions in Indonesia

orwho stayed abroad, such as USA, Morocco, Egypt,

Hong Kong, Georgia and others. In addition to

Facebook, the group of Pustaka Sunda also opened

other online groups on google and yahoo, but

BookofAl‐Amin(1971)

PostofAl‐AminonFacebook(2016‐

2018)

SomeResponsesdanComments

StrengtheningIdentity

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unfortunately it cannot led to rise the member

interest.

If we look at the documentation which stored in

the group’s files (koropak), there are many works

onSundanese nature, culture, and people. It

werereported and discussed in the group for last

seven years (2011-2018).It is not only writing on

flora and pauna, food, tradition, family, and the life

story of its members, but also the translation of some

Islamic texts into Sundanese, such as the Qur’an.

The group of Pustaka Sunda generally do not

only reported and discussed on Sundanese nature,

culture, and people, but also discussedMuslim’

religious practies in daily lives. All members of

group are Muslim. It is different with other

Sundanese group on Facebook, such as

SALAKANAGARAthat mostly discussed the story of

glory of Sundanese kingdom when ruled in Sunda

regions based on pre-Islamic values. The group of

PustakaSundaheld consistentlyon believe that both

Sunda and Islamic identity cannot be inseparable.

There is a number of Facebook statuses on the group

of Pustaka Sunda which commonly referred to

strengthening Islamic identity, such asthe serial of

Sundanese story of hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca

(guguritan naek haji); the instruction of group

chairman who suggests to make the Qur'an and its

translation as the main collection of library for every

Sundanese families when commemorate the mother

language in February 21, 2018;the Ibn Kathir’s work

on history of Islam; and the translation of the Qur’an

in Sundanese which are studied in this article.

3.2 Agus Age Rustandi and Sundanese

Translation of the Qur’an

The translation of the Qur’an on Facebook on the

group of Pustaka Sunda has operated for more than

two years. The translation was uploaded on

Facebook everyday by one of the members of

Pustaka Sunda, Agus Age Rustandi (52 years old).

He is a Sundanese art expert and librarian who is

currently working as a Local Village Assistant

(Pendamping Lokal Desa, PLD) in Ciparay,

Bandung. Since September 2016 to April 2018,

Agus uploadedQur’anic translation to the group of

PustakaSundaon Facebook. The period of 2018

(January-April) has became the most productive of

Agus who has posted his translationsfor 52 times.

He previously only posted 43 timesin 2017 (January-

December). Even two years ago in 2016, he only

posted 5 times. The last postis April 21, 2018, which

his translations stopped in sura Fushshilat/41: 51-54.

He posted his early translation of the Qur’an in the

form of long translation up to 50 verses for every

status. However, his post in 2018 generally between

5-10 verses. Following picture is a screenshotwhich

drawn from Agus’s Qur’anic translation status on

Facebook:

Strengthening Islam and Ethnicity through Social Media: Sundanese Translation of the Qur’an on Facebook

1841

Agus says several reasons why he posted the

Sundanese translation of the Qur’an on the group of

Pustaka Sunda.The first is relating to the

encouragement of the group leader of Pustaka

Sunda, Ki Hasan.The group leader motivated its

members to post their own interest in order to revive

Sundanese literacy; Second, it is relating to Agus’s

motive as a Muslim who is always read the Qur'an

every day. His post of the translation of the Qur’an

became an effort to fulfilled the Islamic worship. He

believed that Sundanese Muslims not only have to

maintain the Sundanese identity, such as using

Sundanese language, but also become pious

Muslims who obey God’s rules based on the

guidance of the Qur’ān; Third, Agus says that he

want to learn continually and emerge his skills in

using Sundanese language well. Sundanese people

mostly are feeling weakness in Sundanese speaking

now. It is relating to the policy of Indonesia

government to use bahasa Indonesia as the national

language in the socio-religous activities as well as

the insistence of international languages that

contributed to the decreasingthe speakers of regional

language(Sobarna, 2007); Fourth, he believes that

the translation of Sunda is more compatible and

richer, so it is more pervasive intoSundanese heart

than the Indonesian language. Agus, for instance,

cited Qur’anic translation of sura Al-Baqarah/2:

180:idh jā’ahum al-mawt (QS: 2: 180).The verse is

more accurately translated into Sundanese “méh

maot,”almost death, than “kedatangan (tanda-

tanda) maut,”when coming (signs) of death (Age

Rustandi , 2018).

There are many responses and comments from

group members of Pustaka Sunda who usually read

Agus’s post on Sundanese translation of the Qur’an,

though not as much as comments on other posts.

There are five comments for each post.Meanwhile,

the number of responses in both form of emoticon of

like and super for each post of status are 25-31

responses. Some members frequently also provide

some comments positively in the form of the

experience stories when interact with Qur’anic

translation of Al-Aminbook as we can see on Aris

Kumetir’s status which posted on the group of

PustakaSundain June 18, 2015. Another members,

for instance, give good responses and comments.

They said: “agresiptarjamahanana (Al-Amin book is

an aggressive translation); samikameumeutabdi (Al-

Amin is my favorite too)” etc.

The comments shows the other side of social

interaction on social media in reading the translation

of the Qur’an. If we look at an offline activities of

Qur’anic reading, the readers passivelyread the

translation of the Qur’an.However, on the online

activities, the readers more active to give their

responses and comments into the member who

posted the translation of the Qur’an. The post of

Qur’anic translation status are then filled with some

discussions and comments on the quality issue of the

translation. The comments mostly related tosentence

or word choices that tend to be like a Malay

(kamalayon) becauseit often use Indonesian word,

not only Sundanese. One of examples is the use of

the term “ibukota” (a capital of the city). Al-Amin do

not use Sundanese term “puseur dayeuh” and others.

Following chart is Agus’s post of translation of the

Qur’an on Facebook which recorded on the group of

PustakaSunda:

Source: Agus’s post of status on Facebook in September

2016-April 2018.

3.3 The Translation of the Qur’an and

Sundanese Islamic Identity

In the digital age, social media is not only

strengthening the social relationship of the users, but

also becomes a platform for the formation of shared

identity. For Sundanese Muslims, social media is

one of spaces where they can express Islam and

Sunda as we can see at the group of Pustaka Sunda

on Facebook. It is an expression of the construction

of Sundanese Islamic identity in the digital age. It

marks increasingly what Moriyama says as shifting

the literacy of Sundanese Muslims into oral culture

in the digital age, from print culture to digital

culture. It is an unimaginable shift since the outbreak

of the 19th century print culture in West Java

(Moriyama, 2005).

It is a mirror of the vertical mobility of

scripturalist Sundanese Muslim or santri who

increasingly took a significant role in seizing the

Islamic discourse in Sundanese daily lives.It is a

construction of identity which formed by society in

certain tension of social relationships with many

factors, such as global culture, the politics of

national language, and Sundanese cultural resistance

on pre-Islamic values.

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

2016 2017 2018

Responses

Com ment s

PostofStatus

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The construction of the Islamic identity in

Sundanese translation of the Qur’an on Facebook

takes place during a process of social interaction in

identifying itself with other groups in certain

situations. They then strengthen the divisions and

boundaries in two conflicting categories in

Sundanese society, namelybetween similarities and

differences(Eriksen, 1995; Bowie, 2001). Although

there are various of Muslim organizations in West

Java, all Sundanese believe that the Qur’an is able to

unify the various Islamic backgrounds dealing with

other groups that tend to be abangan.The latter

group is the Sundanese Muslims who are more

inclined to the pre-Islamic belief and

practices.Foucault, for instance, asserts that the

identity cannot be separated with the discourse.

Therefore, human understanding (including

Facebook users) about the world is shaped by their

frame of minds in which this frame limits the variety

of identities (Foucault, 1981).

Therefore, the Sundanese translation of the

Qur’an on Facebook shows increasingly expression

of Sundanese Islamic identity dealing with the

infiltration of cultural diversity in the digital age. It

is an increasingly Islamic identity which more

clearer than other Islam in Java. It is a formation of

strengthening Islam which regarded as a great

tradition over the values of Sundaneseness

(Redfield, 1956).

The Qur’ān often read by Sundanese people

everyday. It adorns daily religious life. From birth to

death. Sundanese people usually read the Qur’ān in

following rites: pregnancy, birth, circumcision,

marriage, sickness, death and many others rituals.

The important role of qur’ānic position in Sundanese

culture makes it a generic culture inherited from

previous generation collectively(Abdullah, 2007).

It can be seen from following surahsthat usually

read: surah Al-Fatihah that commonly used in

almost all rituals;surah Yusuf or Maryam that read

to expect pious and beautiful or handsome

children;surahAl-Mulk that read to keep away from

the torture of the grave orexpect the life becomes

more prosperous;surah Al-Waqi'ah that read in order

to bring a lucky;and surah Yasin which read to

expect the dead people will find peace in hereafter.

Therefore, the rubric of tafsīrin Sundanese Islamic

magazines is also relating to the verse or surahthat

read by Sundanese people in their daily lives.

Allsurahs that is commonly read and memorized by

Sundanese people then shape their identities as

aSundanese Muslims whoseeks close to the

Qur’ān(Moestapa, 1913).

In West Java, the religious life of Sundanese that

connected to the Qur’anic tradition as a formation of

Islamic identity then continually to be ingraftedby

current Sundanese Muslims through social media.

Sundanese traditionsand customs which are regarded

as truly Sundanese heritage almost limited to the use

of Sundanese language and a number of customs

(adat) that were constantly influenced by Islam and

continually Islamized. The Qur’anic tradition is one

of the significant elements of the greater

Islamisation process of the Sundanese people,

succeeded in circulating through the Sundanese

through localised traditions of the Qur’anic

translation. For this reason, the translation of the

Qur’an in Sundanese, and of other Qur’anic tradition

in the region, are critical knowledge for the

Sundanese people seeking to understand the

successful indigenisation of Islamic teachings.

Therefore, from the comparison of Sundanese

traditional teachings that disseminated by other

groups on Facebook, the member of Pustaka Sunda

who read the translation of the Qur’an in Sundanese

emphasize the core of Islamic teachings that are

believed have to practiced in their daily lives to be a

pious and obedient Sundanese Muslims.

4 CONCLUSIONS

This article affirms the intersection between

religiosity, ethnicity and the use of social media

among Sundanese people in the digital age. This

study shows that the emerging of new literacy of

media culture through media technologies is creating

structural changesof religious practices within

society, including the reading of the Qur’an and its

Sundanese translation on social media. The reading

of the Sundanese translation of the Qur’an through

social media is more stronger than before especially

when it relates to the issue of ethnic identity. It isa

part of an effort to affirm the closeness of Islam and

Sundanese culture. The group of PustakaSundaor

Sundanese literature as one of the largest Sundanese

groups shows the effort to affirm their Islamic

identity and culture in the form of strengthening of

Islamic literacy through Sundanese translation of the

Qur’an. It is areligious practice that reinforces the

reality of Islamic success in the Indonesian public

sphere (Millie, 2017).

Strengthening Islam and Ethnicity through Social Media: Sundanese Translation of the Qur’an on Facebook

1843

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