THE CONVERSION OF NAHDLATUL ULAMA’S (NU) AFFILIATED PEOPLE TO MAJELISTAFSIR AL-QUR’AN (MTA): A CASE STUDY FROM TRADITIONAL TO PURITAN ISLAM

Religion is a principle that has been taught since the early age. Therefore, religion is difficult to change and even contributes to form one’s soul. However, it does not mean that one’s religious understanding or religion cannot change. Religious change, which is often synonymous with religious conversion, can be considered as the transfer of mażab (schools) or religious beliefs, such as from Nahdlatul ’Ulama (NU) to Majelis Tafsir Al-Qur’an (MTA). To explain that phenomenon, this study is conducted based on three main issues: the process of conversion from NU to MTA, the basis of its rationality, and further implications. Those issues are examined using qualitative research method, applying phenomenological approach. The following results are the research’s findings: changes on understanding from NU to MTA are often caused by one’s psychological factors, while its complementer is caused by social factors. The process of the changes does not happen suddenly, but gradually with the basis of rationality. There are seven phases of the conversion from NU to MTA, namely curiosity and crisis, quest, encounter, interaction, commitment, consequences, and deployable agent. Meanwhile, its basis of rationality consists of clarity and certainty of the basis of Islam, obedience to Al-Qur’an and al-Hadiṡ, and egalitarianism. The phenomenon of conversion may result in counterproductive effects, such as verbal violence towards the perpetrator and social exclusion. Thus, to avoid conflict, one of the important things to do is to give tasamuh education to the moslem community so that they are willing to accept differences wisely.

(NU) to be the member of Majelis Tafsir Al-Qur'an (MTA). Seeing this conversion from the dynamic of the human's characteristics could be a natural phenomenon. But it is different if it among Muslims has been affected. This means that social cohesiveness of the community has been disturbed by that phenomenon.
The most recent case is the conflict between the people affiliated with NU and the members of MTA in Bentangan Village, Doplang Sub-district, Teras District, Boyolali Regency in Central Java Indonesia. The case happened at the end of July in 2016. MTA has developed their da'wah in several regions. As the result, many societies in Bentangan migrated from NU to MTA. During this process, the conflict of interest among these Islamic communities cannot be avoided until this finally can be solved properly. 2 Social exclusion as the implication of joining MTA can be in the form of dismissing someone who decided to join MTA from the imam (leader) and preacher of the mosque and sometimes from the involvement of religious activities. In short, self-declaration as a member of MTA resulted which means they have been receiving such social exclusion afterwards.
Further, this is followed by the domestic implications that happened. Another case is in Sruwen Sub-district, Tengaran District, Semarang Regency, Central Java Province. This happened in a family in which a husband becomes the member of MTA and it is based on the interview with local people.
Based on its diversity, people in Sruwen (also the focus on this research) can be categorized as Traditional Islam that they are affiliated with NU, they admit that they join NU based on their practice on praying (amaliah). In this case, one of the fundamental principles is following the existing tradition, without in-depth study of what they have practiced. Such transmission of religious understanding definitely contributes to the social problem particularly when people meet different religious understanding and practice. Thus, the counter-productive thing in society cannot be ignored. This is important to take the understanding of the issue deeply and to deal with negative impacts and it is the background of why the researcher conducted the study.
To develop the discussion, this study has several research questions, they are: 1) what is the conversion's process of the religious understanding and practice of NU into MTA?,2) what is the rationality of the shift from the religious understanding of NU to MTA? and 3) what are the sociological implications of the conversion from the religious understanding of NU to MTA?

a. Traditional and Puritan Islam
Normatively Islam is one religion with the two main guidance books namely al-Qur'an and as-Sunnah (Hadits). 5 Meanwhile, Islamic school of thought (Mazhab) can be varied particularly when comes to the interpretations that have been done by human's common sense and their practiced of their followers, this means Muslims. Islamic dialogue with the socio-cultural aspects of Muslims have resulted the various interpretations in this religion, for instance, between the traditional Islam and puritan Islam. Also, there are the differences among fundamentalist Islam, liberal Islam, and other Islamic affiliated groups. Such distinction is an effort to identify the understanding and practice of Islam by Muslims.
The traditional Islam, according to Azyumardi Azra, has been interpreted by Muslims who hold the tradition of the sacred Islam, either contained in al-Qur'an and al-Haditṡ or developed by scholars and Sufis throughout history. Then, the traditional Islam is to those who accept the al-Hadiṡ not only as a source but also as a guidance and ethic inspiration without questioning whether it is authentic or not. In the context of Indonesian of religion is a change of religion of a person that changes his worldview and his position to the world. 10 Thus, the conversion of religion is a term referring to a process of accepting a religious attitude, either gradually or accidently. Religious conversion is an act in which a person or a group of people move to a belief system or attitude that is different or contrary to the previous beliefs.
Meanwhile, some people classify the conversion of religion into two kinds. An internal conversion has happened when someone moved from a certain school of thought (mazhab) and perspective to another school of thought (mazhab) and perspective in which this is still within the same religious environment. Meanwhile, an external conversion happens when someone moves from one religion to another religion. This external kind might happen in a particular circumstance.
Lewis R. Rambo explains that all changes in mindset, attitudes, and religious behavior are called religious conversion, yet only the type is kind of different. The types including: first, apostasy which is the conversion of a person from a religious to become atheist. Second, intensification, it is a revitalization of commitment to the faith that has been owned, for instance from Islam "KTP" (religion as an individual identity for administration purpose) to become a more religious Muslim who really obey the teachings of Islam. Third, affiliation that describes a person's movement from never being involved in religious activities to being fully involved in a particular religious group. Fourth, institutional transition, this is a change from the mindset of certain religious group to the mindset of other religious group in one religion such as from Methodist to Orthodox.
Fifth, tradition transition, it is the conversion from one religion to another religion. 11 Looking at those various types, the movement of some people with religious understanding of NU to MTA is included in the category of institutional transition.

c. Phases of Conversion and Rational Choice: Theoretical Framework
The theory of conversion phases helped the researcher in analyzing the conversion process experienced by NU people who move to MTA. Religious conversion, as a human psychological dynamics, does not just happen, but through a process. According to Lewis R. Rambo context, crisis, quest, encounter, interaction, commitment, and consequences. 12 These steps will be explained bellow.
First of all, it is context which covers a broad panorama of factors that are dialectic and contradictory from one to another and these facilitate the conversion process. The context can be macro and micro context. Macro context is a broad social context that includes political, economic and religious policies. Meanwhile, micro context includes family relationship, friendship, ethnicity, and so on. 13 The next stage is crisis, which is the stage when a person feels differences or even conflict between ideal condition and reality. Crisis might happen in various forms such as in social, political and self-exploration process that makes a person in tension. The next stage is an encounter in which after a person goes through the searching stage, they will go to the next stage of learning about religion. After he goes through the learning stage, he will go to the next stage, which is interaction stage. It is the interaction with the community whose religion is followed by them. After establishing an intense relationship with the adherents of the religion that he follows, then there will be a commitment formed within him, as the next stage. To enter this stage, the convert need some time that varies from one person to another. The last stage of the conversion process 12  is consequences. That is a stage where a convert will face various consequences, both from the family, friends, and institutions.

Considering that case, Ali
The second phase of the conversion is the rational choice which the theory focuses on actors whom they have goals and intention. The actions they undertake are directed to the ends and the final goals. In this theory, humans are seen as the actors who have choices or preferences where the actions are taken based on the level of preference. 16 As an actor in carrying out his action, human uses consideration of optimizing profit in a situation in which there are many obstacles. As an actor, it is possible for human to take actions that may harm them to some extent. With such an assumption, this theory provides an explanation why an action is performed. 17

a. Review of Geographical, Social and Religious Context
This study was conducted in 2013 in Sruwen Sub-district, Tengaran District, Semarang Regency. Sruwen is in the southern part of Semarang regency while the border of the northern part with Boyolali regency. Sruwen is on the edge of Solo-Semarang main road and until 2019, the geographical, social and religious Context in this study have not changed much.
Despite geographical status that Sruwen is a sub-district, the social aspect of this context can be categorized as advanced. This can be seen from the educational aspect that many of the residents have received higher education. Further, many people in Sruwen who have undertaken the undergraduate program (S-1) and also followed by quite many who have undertaken postgraduates (S-2 and S3) which means most the society are educated in higher education level.
However for the elderly people who still uphold the rituals and mystical beliefs, they still do it hereditary. Meanwhile, some rural areas still use the social system within the community or it is called paguyuban for the mechanical solidarity and some areas tend to patembayan with organic solidarity.
Seeing the aspect of the religious life of the society, the understanding and practice of their religion is closer to the understanding and practice of Nahdliyin/ Nahdlatul  According to Lewis R. Rambo's theory and data obtained, the study formulated the conversion's process from NU to MTA into the following stages. First, it is curiosity and crisis in which these two conditions are interconnected as the beginning stage. Curiosity can be defined as an urge and desire to know new things including understanding and practices of religious teachings. Meanwhile, crisis is a state of tension or instability of the soul caused by the gap between the expectation and reality. In this context, it is related to the practice of Islam. Curiosity owned by the doers of the conversion from NU to MTA resulted in a crisis. Crisis might be influenced by the references; the way they read from books and some references that have not been able to satisfy their curiosity and this affected personally they were still curious and considered to know further.
These two things become the basic reasons for the doers of conversion to carry out the quest (self-searching) as the second stage. The quest is kind of a tit for tat which is on one side of the doer of conversion that has resulted very powerful self-searching process.
On the other hand, there are various "menus" of Islam "offered" to them. Menus here mean the various presented media such as television, radio, bulletins and invitations from friends. At this stage, the doers of conversion from NU to MTA entered the third stage, it is encounter. This means a dialogue of thought and understanding between himself and "menu vendors", one of them means referring to MTA. The meeting of ideas and ideologies through various media encouraged a fourth stage, namely more intensive personal interaction with MTA followers. If that happens, it can be confirmed that someone will enter the next (fifth) stage, namely commitment to the "new" understanding and practices. At the commitment stage, a convert from NU to MTA is a "new" person who is different than before particularly in terms of understanding and practices of their The real form of the deconstruction of Islamic understanding can be seen in the reluctance to attend tahlilan, barzanji, yasinan, shalawatan, and manaqiban conducted by the majority of Muslim communities in Sruwen. These rituals are no longer the practices that will increase the reward (pahala) instead of this will bring sin to the doers due to it is considered a form of bid'ah that should be avoided.
As the intensive interaction of Islamic belief with MTA understanding and the followers increased, the rejection of such rituals is also getting stronger. For instance, someone who is invited to a "celebration" (selamatan) hosted by the neighbors which comprising rituals, the doer of conversion from NU to MTA might present but they will not follow the ritual. When the other people who attended that event, they recited tahlil, then the MTA's follower was just silent and looked down without joined the recitation.
Then, when there was al-Barzanji where in this religious tradition, there was called asyraqal ritual, the MTS's follower just sit. In the next development, the rejection of such rituals can be seen through the absence of someone at an invitation to a social-religious event organized by the surrounding community. If so, then the conversion process done by someone will be easily seen and identified by the surrounding community.
Then, such process leads to a convert to the sixth stage, namely consequences. That is an implication that must be accepted by the convert. An ideological personal implication for instance, is one must teach the "new" understanding to the other people that closest to him. The problem is if the people closest to them resist, there will be more serious problems. The data findings have showed that there is a convert who has to divorce with his wife if she did not follow his new understanding. On the one hand, his wife still followed the plurality of the surrounding Muslim community while her husband wanted the opposite understanding. As the result, the divorce between husband and wife was a choice that was taken as a logical consequence that must be accepted as a follower of MTA. Further, the social consequence that must be accepted by the convert is how they should be positioned as an in group in the community. The terms used by local people to show that they are no longer in a group are called Islame bedo (their Islam is different), ora kaya awake dewe (no longer like us), saiki wis bedo (now they are different). These terms are often expressed by the community as the result of the converts, in this case, Here is the chart to describe the conversion process:

Clarity and Certainty on Religious Basis
The first underlying factors of the converts for deciding to follow the religious understanding of MTA are clarity and certainty of the basic of the religious practices.
They feel different than before. Before conversion to MTA, they thought that the religious This has been different from the previous condition before their conversion.What they felt was obedience only to the words of Ustadz without knowing the dalil (basis) clearly. Furthermore, now they can say that it is not certain that what is said ustadz is true since they only follow without knowing the basis.

Egalitarianism
The view of equal treatment between old and new followers as well as between the Ustaż's family and ordinary followers is another reason that make the converts are interested in and the commitment to the teachings of MTA. The converts thought that MTA organization do not apply for certain privileges to followers or their family members. The simple thing is that there is no difference between the way to mention the sons or daughters of ustaż and those who are not; all are considered the same. At least that's what the correspondent said.
Those conditions have attracted the interests of the converts as an egalitarian attitude that should be shown by Muslims. Meanwhile, there is a gap that make NU has been perceived as different in terms of attitudes, although this might result social stratification in NU community. For instance the terms among santri, there is a term of "santri ndalem", which refers to certain santri who are very close to Kyai (Islamic religious leader) and serve at Kyai's house. There is a special designation for "Gus" for Kyai's descendants, while for ordinary people's descendants they will not get such designation. Likewise there is a term of jażab for the things that are not common for Kyai's family, while for ordinary people who do uncommon things, they are not called jażab but it is kind of disorder. Egalitarianism in MTA has become a reason for the converts to choose MTA as their Islamic manhaj.

d. Response and Implications of the Conversion
Every action that it is in opposition to the mainstream will definitely have the implication, in this case including the conversion from NU to MTA. Here are the implications that happen as the result of the conversion from NU to MTA in Sruwen.

Public Resistance
The phenomenon of conversion from NU to MTA that happened in Sruwen community have resulted various reactions from the Muslim majority particularly who are affiliated with NU. One of them is resistance or public rejection. Although the resistance is not explicitly stated, it can be seen in people's daily lives such as in their daily conversation when they are talking about social and religious life. Meanwhile the rejection might happen in preaching when the preacher clearly mentions the rejection to the particular organization, in this case MTA as this seems not in line with ASWAJA.

Solidarity: Becoming Out of Group
The community sees that the members of MTA are no longer part of themselves or in terms of sociology, they are no longer a solidarity. People often express it with the term "awake dewe" (ourselves) to refer to people who are still in the same religious understanding (NU) while MTA followers are said as "dudu wonge dewe" (not our people), "bedo karo awake dewe" (different from ourselves), or "Islame bedo" (their Islam is different). Becoming MTA followers means being out of the group of the major community. People who still adhere to their traditions identify themselves as "awake dewe" (ourselves) and MTA followers are called "wong liyo" (others). Thus, there is a different sociological identification between NU as the major community and MTA followers. At the same time, this kind of identification with "awake dewe" and"wong liyo" is also applied to MTA community's circle.

Religious-Social Exclusion
This study identified that the religious conversion naturally leads to exclusion from religious social life (religious social excluding). Such isolation is a necessity that happens as a logical consequence of ideological commitment. Taking a real example that an MTA's congregation considers that the rituals of manaqiban that are practiced at the time of the aqiqah by the community as heretical, as the result they will not attend the event.
They possibly avoid the practices that considered as heresy. That means staying away from religious social life in the community. So exclusion from religious social life for members of the MTA congregation in the midst of the NU community is a sure thing to happen everywhere.

Verbal Violence
Verbal violence happens caused by people who generally are not able to accustom to living in the differences. The differences in understanding and religious practice that have resulted in the polarization of Muslim solidarity whether within this group or out of this group often lead to the conflicts, consequently verbal violence arises and the minority group is affected by that verbal violence from the majority group. Taking examples of verbal violence in this context, when one family member of MTA follower passed away for instance, there will be a question and answer of the burial process that has a satirical tone. Following the tradition of Sruwen people before the procession of burial to the grave, it is usually started first with the prayer's calling.
However, this is considered heresy by MTA circles, so there was a dialogue with a satirical tone as the following quote.
("Do we need to recite adzan? The informant says: "No need to". Another person says: "We will not do salat, so we do not need to recite ażan".). 18 These statements are such kind of attitude of resentment of the neighbors towards the correspondent (NA) who are no longer carry out the traditions of handling the corpse when it has been inserted into the tomb, not like what it has been previously done by the community.

C. CONCLUSION
First, the conversion of religious understanding from NU to MTA through several stages 1) the stage of curiosity and crisis. 2) the stage of quest (self-searching), 3) the stage of encounter, 4) the stage of interaction, 5) the stage of commitment, and 6) the stage of consequence. Some of the converts reached to the last (seventh) stage, as the agents for spreading the mission of their religous understanding and thought (deployable agent).
Second, the main factor that influenced the religious conversion from NU to MTA is the psychological factor, while the social factor is also influenced but it is as the supporting factor. The social factor will strengthen and increasing the way for the conversion process from NU to MTA.
Third, there are several implications of the conversion process from NU to MTA, both sociological and personal-psychological implications resulted. From the sociological implication, this can be identified clearly from the response of the correspondents. There are several public responses to this conversion. The first implication is the resistance which is cracking of solidarity and exclusion in religious social life. Another implication in this study also can be identified from the psychological aspect referring to the existence of verbal 18 Nur Ahyani, Alasan Ikut MTA, 2014.