Online Religion as Lived Religion?: The Construction of Living

Quran and Hadith in the Islamic Short Movie Cinta Subuh

Miski

, Ali Hamdan

and Khoirul Hidayah

Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Jalan Gajayana No. 50 Malang 65144

Keywords: Cinta Subuh, religious movie, online religion, living Quran, living Hadith, Islamic studies.

Abstract: This article intends to examine how the short movie Cinta Subuh presented particular online religion. By

using the perspective of constructivism, the primary data is the movie Cinta Subuh and other secondary

data. It is analyzed by using a framework of content analysis. This study shows that Cinta Subuh is a picture

of online religion, especially among the millennial generation by displaying a variety of Islamic faces that

are various, ranging from traditionalist, fundamentalist, modernist to liberalist, even though the face of

fundamentalist Islam tends to be more highlighted. Moreover, this study opens a more specific new space

compared with online religion that is living Quran and Hadith as it is embodied through the existence of

Quran text and certain Hadith that become the opening of Cinta Subuh for each edition. The text of the

verse of the Quran and the Hadith is understood, practiced by each of the main actors so that it becomes the

dominant part of the overall plot of the movie.

1 INTRODUCTION

Cinta Subuh is one of the inspirational short

movies that are popular and has a special attraction

among people, especially the millennial generation.

From the first edition on December 11, 2011, June 7,

2015 for the second edition, October 29, 2015 for

the third edition, until 2018 has already been

watched over one million times for each edition

(Ummami 2015b, 2014, 2015a). It shows the

acceptance and enthusiasm of Indonesian Muslim

society towards the movie (Muslimah 2016;

Firdausiah 2018). This short movie is also

acknowledged in providing inspiration, motivation

and a model of good attitude (Astuti 2017).

At the same time, there are many studies try to

probe the work, for example, Henry Pradana and

Nova Yuliati wrote “Islamic Values in Cinta Subuh

Movie” (Pradana and Yuliati 2015), Nanang Efendi

wrote “The Elements of Da'wah in Cinta Subuh

Movie” (The Analysis of Short Movies Content in

Cinta Subuh 1 by Amrul Ummami) (Efendi 2016),

Fitri Astuti wrote, "Students’ Responses toward

Cinta Subuh Short Movie” (Descriptive Study of

Cinta Subuh 1, 2 and 3) (Astuti 2017), and Azif

Fattahilla Erlangga wrote “Representation of

Identity of Young Muslims Religion in Cinta Subuh

2 Movie” (Erlangga 2018).

However, some of these studies appear to be

less comprehensive, due to the nature of the

normative-impressed study so the results are going

not too far from the finding that the movie contains

the element of religious proselytizing or because of

the nature of the partial study as shown by the

previous study. In fact, Islamic short movie is

considered as one of the media that can represent the

values and piety of Islam through the expression of

various communities, especially among middle-class

Muslims (Lengauer 2018).

Moreover, this movie is alleged to assign to

certain interest or ideology. This can be understood

from the fact that a movie must be in a situation,

condition or even a contestation space between

various interests and ideologies (Lengauer 2018;

Efendi 2016; Pradana and Yuliati 2015; Sholihah

2011; Fitri 2015; Wahyuningsih 2013; Syah 2013;

Hariyadi 2013; Hakim 2010, 2013; Latifah 2016).

Based on the above explanation, this study is

intended to answer a question; how is the short

movie Cinta Subuh presenting certain online

religion? In answering that question, this study uses

a constructivist perspective that is expected to

provide the specific picture of online religion that

seems to involve and overwhelm the millennial

generation. All the data come from the movie Cinta

Subuh as the primary data as well as other written

1904

Miski, ., Hamdan, A. and Hidayah, K.

Online Religion as Lived Religion?: The Construction of Living Quran and Hadith in the Islamic Short Movie Cinta Subuh.

DOI: 10.5220/0009937119041909

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 1904-1909

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

data as secondary data then those are analyzed by

using the content analytics framework.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 Cinta Subuh as a Picture of Online

Religion of the Millennial

Generation: Between Image and

Picture

Cinta Subuh is a short movie of Islamic

inspiration initiated by Film Maker Muslim; a

community that focuses on the audio-visual media.

This community was launched at the end of 2014,

exactly on the preparation process of Cinta Subuh.

In its organizational structure, this short movie has

of several crew and talent of Islamic movies; M.

Amrul Ummami as coordinator and director; M. Ali

Ghifari as producer and scriptwriter; Ryan

Kurniawan as cinematographer and media; Andre

M. Addin as line producer and general affair; M.

Iqbal as sales and event and Andry Surya Pratama as

marketing. Initially, this community joint WANT

Production then they moved to Daqu Movie under

Ustadz Yusuf Mansyur's Daarul Quran Islamic

Boarding School then they started to produce

Islamic movies (Astuti 2017; Firdausiah 2018;

Muslimah 2016).

Cinta Subuh series 1, 2 and 3 are generally

focused on several characters as the main actor like

(1) Andre M. Addin acts as Rezky Angga

Wijayanu; an adolescent before adulthood, living

well and not studying religion. His meeting and

parting with Ratih became an important moment of

his life in the process of change and maturity; (2)

Hidatur Rahmi acts as Ratih; intelligent woman,

beautiful and knowledgeable; (3) Bismo Satrio acts

as Dodi Qori Pratama; Angga’s housemate and

identically Javanese man. He is an employee with

various skills in a company. (4) Yudi Guccy acts as

Ust. Raditya Sapta Anugerah; he is Ratih's brother,

and (5) Diyan Novita acts as Septi Avicena; Ratih’s

sister-in-law; a wise woman who experienced quite

long religious education (Firdausiah 2018; Astuti

2017; Muslimah 2016).

Cinta Subuh focuses on the story of

adolescence before adulthood with all its problems,

especially the issue of love; Cinta Subuh 1 started

when Ratih broke his relationship with Angga

because he had difficulty in getting up at dawn.

Ratih's simple logic is how Angga can build a good

household if he cannot manage himself to get up

early. This forces Angga to change, doing Subuh

prayers even though it must be done with Dodi’s

help and still sleepy. Cinta Subuh 2, is a

continuation of the previous episode. This episode

reinforces the inner conflicts experienced by Ratih

during her relationship with Anga; upholding the

principle of religion that courtship is prohibited

while another fact that Angga is her first love and

the first person who is able to tear her heart and

force her to have a relationship that was called syar’i

before then she broke the relationship altogether.

Moreover, Cinta Subuh 3 focused on the

character of Dodi who dare to propose Aghnia,

Ustadz Jameel’s daughter, even though both of them

do not know each other. He was challenged to pray

Online Religion as Lived Religion?: The Construction of Living Quran and Hadith in the Islamic Short Movie Cinta Subuh

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congregation on Subuh for 40 days at the mosque as

a prerequisite for his proposal to be accepted. He

accepts the requirement even though it must always

come late to his workplace and eventually force him

to quit the job.

In the middle of undergoing such condition, he

had to fail because it was hampered by Angga who

was difficult to be awakened to Subuh prayer so that

he lost the chance of praying Subuh congregation in

the mosque as it should be. After having a long

process, in the end, both Dodi and Angga succeeded

in marrying women who are struggling (Ummami

2014, 2015a, 2015b).

As part of an Islamic movie, on its entire plot,

there are variety of scenes laden with Islamic

symbols, both in the order of practice and thinking

of the characters. These symbols can be categorized

into several important parts of Islam (1) aqidah, as

seen from the activity of Ratih in praying for

forgiveness of Allah or in Islamic terminology is

called by repentance; (2) Islamic ethics or akhlaq.

This is apparent at minute 5:00 on the episode of

Cinta Subuh 1 and minute 20:36 on the episode of

Cinta Subuh 3 when Dodi did not give up trying to

get Angga up to pray Subuh at the mosque.

Another example is at minute 13:50 on Cinta

Subuh 3, seen from the greeting delivered by Dodi to

his co-workers. Including the scene of majlis taklim

on Cinta Subuh 2 at minute 16:55; (3) sharia or

Islamic law. As seen at minute 05:00 and 07:47

Cinta Subuh 1 and minute 20:36 Cinta Subuh 3

about the Subuh prayers; as well as the procession of

khitbah conducted by Angga at minute 18:13 on

Cinta Subuh 2, giving charity by putting money into

the mosque charity box at minute 16:33 on Cinta

Subuh 3, ablution; revealed by Dodi at minute 16:27

on Cinta Subuh 3 and pilgrimage as what have been

done by Ratih at minute 01:38 on Cinta Subuh 2; (4)

muamalah (Islamic jurisprudence), this is as shown

in the act when Ratih feels reluctant in shaking

Angga’s hand (for greeting) at minute 12:12 on

Cinta Subuh 1 and prohibition of zina (unlawful

sexual intercourse) which means dating as shown in

the dialogue of Ali and Angga at minute 09:59 on

Cinta Subuh 2. Besides the aforementioned symbols,

Islamic nuance in that movie is presented in the

clothing worn by the main actors and actresses –

Ratih, Kak Septi, and Aghnia always wear hijab,

meanwhile Ustaz Sapta, Ustaz Jameel, and Dodi in

some scenes mostly wear peci – as well as

Masjid/Mosque shown in the movie (Ummami

2015b, 2014, 2015a; Astuti 2017).

It cannot be denied that “Cinta Subuh” is a

portrait of online religion, precisely the millennial

generation (Helland 2005). The existence of the

internet including its components and attributes,

such as social media (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp,

YouTube, and so forth) with various pictures and

images is the concrete of real social life or at least,

we should admit that there is a line that connects and

affect between illusion and real worlds, even by the

time, they will be identical and cannot utterly be

differentiated (Miski 2017; Indrajit 2009; Ibrahim

2017). In such a fact, no wonder if one day, Muslim

youths say that they find Islam in religious movies

or ones that represent Islamic nuance (Hariyadi

2013).

However, we should acknowledge that Cinta

Subuh pictures millennial mid-class Muslims. It is

shown in many indicators attached to them, take the

example, Ratih, Aghnia and Septi wear Islamic

clothing which does not reflect them as country girls

(villagers). Hasanuddin Ali et al found, majority of

ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation

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Muslim living in a city (79,4%) tends to choose

Muslim cloth (hijab) that shows their faces but not

too wide, meanwhile the rest of 13,1% chooses the

same cloth but a bit longer and their veils are wider

(usually called burqa) (Hasanuddin Ali, LIlik

Purwandi 2015). Another picture of Muslims living

in a city is shown in their economic life; Dodi works

as an officer although in the end he has to resign;

Angga is also an officer and lives with Dodi in a

rental luxurious room and surely got a subsidy from

their parents before their works made them move to

another city. Living in a city is chosen by the

majority of mid-class people because it is the center

of economic and business, easy to get access to

vocation, education, resources, and the like. Because

of these factors, mid-class people really depend on

various aspects of city life's culture (Hasanuddin Ali

2017).

2.2 Cinta Subuh as an Islamic Movie:

A New Room for Living Quran and

Hadith?

The existence of Cinta Subuh movie presents

the interaction among city Muslims, industry,

capitalism, market, and pop-culture, particularly in

the millennial generation that is close to information

technology. There are various faces of Islam

presented in this movie; they are traditionalist,

fundamentalist, modernist, and liberalist although

they tend to be a fundamentalist without neglecting

their stylish acts. This is relative different with some

experts' finding; Lukman Hakim, for example,

through his study on Ayat-Ayat Cinta movie,

assisted that liberal Islam tends to be prominent in

that religious movie (Hakim 2010, 2013).

According to the recent author, the difference

is caused by several reasons. One of them is that

because almost all the main actors in Ayat-Ayat

Cinta movie are santri who learned in a religious

higher institution and are often close to religious

literature which is varied. Moreover, they live in a

city that made it possible for them to have a tolerant

act because they are used to deal with many

differences. This is not similar to the story plot in

Cinta Subuh. Although the setting is in a city, the

actors in the story are not well-educated and do not

have sufficient religious science. The diversity

shown in Cinta Subuh movie is limited to a practical

area and the comprehension of religious text tend to

be singular.

Other than those things, there is one single

interesting point that does not yet being discussed by

other studies; that is about the Quran and Hadith

texts which become the opening of each movie

series. First serial, “Rasulullah saw says: no shalat

(prayer) which is harder for the hypocrites but Subuh

and Isya. If they know the virtue, surely they will do

it even though they have to crawl" (HR. Bukhari

Muslim) (Ummami 2014). The second serial, "and

do not approach unlawful sexual intercourse. Indeed,

it is ever an immorality and is evil as a way" (QS. Al

Israa: 32) (Ummami 2015a). Third serial,

“Rasulullah saw says: … those who do

congregational Subuh prayer (jama’ah), they are

given virtue the same as people who pray all night

long” (HR Muslim) (Ummami 2015b).

Those texts uncover the new paradigm in the

discourse of living Quran and Hadith studies which

is part of the study of lived religion, practical

religion, popular religion, and lived Islam. The study

of living Quran and Hadith aims to dig up the

knowledge of how people and society comprehend

and perform their religion, in this case, how Quran

and Hadith are comprehended and practiced in their

Online Religion as Lived Religion?: The Construction of Living Quran and Hadith in the Islamic Short Movie Cinta Subuh

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daily lives. According to Ali (2015), although both

studies, especially living Hadith study, do not

receive a significant portion of the study, they

indeed have large potential study (Ali 2015).

Living Quran and Hadith are shown by

presenting ayah of Quran and Prophet’s Hadith in

the opening part of Cinta Subuh movie and then how

the texts are understood and applied in the movie

plot. However, based on the title, Cinta Subuh

initially indicates the endeavor to earthed subuh

prayer. Angga and Ratih broke up because he did

not wake up for performing subuh prayer, he then

slowly changed to be better and perform subuh. In

Dodi’s case, the scene where he uttered his purpose

to propose Aghnia for marriage, Ustaz Jameel then

gave him pre-requirement to perform congregational

subuh prayer in masjid/mosque for 40 days. The

story is also about an ayah that forbids the act that

leads to zina in the opening of Cinta Subuh 2. It is

shown when Ratih has internal conflict and doubt to

decide whether she should maintain her love

relationship despite knowing her religion's

prohibition about dating or just end the relationship.

What has been presented by Ratih and Ustaz Jameel

and what has been practiced by Angga and Dodi are

the implementation of what they understand about

an ayah of Quran and Hadith. In general, the movie

plot as a whole is a realization of all the movie

crews' comprehension of the aforementioned ayah

and Hadith (Ummami 2014, 2015a, 2015b).

3 CONCLUSION

Looking up the above discussion, the study

shows that Cinta Subuh is a portrait of online

religion, mainly on the millennial generation. The

portrait is there along with specific characteristics,

such as representing the face of Islam which is not

singular, starting from traditionalist, fundamentalist,

modernist, and also liberalist – although in the

movie, the fundamentalist part is dominant.

Furthermore, this study uncovers the new paradigm

which is more specific than online religion that is

still relatively general and broad such as living

Quran and Hadith. It is just like what has been

shown in the opening of each serial of Cinta Subuh

movie. The texts of ayah of Quran and Hadith

related to the specific theme are comprehended and

then applied to be the dominant part of movie plot as

a whole.

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