The Hijrah Phenomenon and Shifting Religious Preferences: Religious Expressions of Urban Muslims in Contemporary Islamic Law Practice

Abstract

This research examines the issue of understanding and religious practices in urban Muslim communities in Bandung in the field of muamalah. The reality of religion in urban Muslim communities has a different character from other religious communities. The linkage between the reality of modernity, Islamicity, and identity makes a model of the distinction of contemporary Muslim religious practices. This study is based on field research with a phenomenological approach. Data were obtained by participatory observation in several mosques spread across Bandung. As is known, mosques are the production base of religious discourse for urban Muslim communities and routinely hold a number of religious studies. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with a number of worshipers. Secondary data came from research, journals, books, and other. This article concludes that urban Muslim identity is shown by migrating from practices that contain elements of usury and choosing halal products. The discourse cannot be separated from the social construction of urban Muslims through studies in these urban mosques and their social media. In this context, hijrah has become one of the trends in giving birth to new nuances and perspectives of any Islamic legal thought, which is an annotation of old works. Such changes in preferences have placed the discipline of Islamic law, specifically muamalah fiqh, into one of the expressive spaces of the Muslim community.