The practice of Kafaah in the view of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) cadres: Case study in DPC PKS Lowokwaru

ABSTRACT

People connected to a certain community do not only influence their changing in the way of behaving, but also in thinking and their considerations in taking decision. It happens to Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) cadres in Malang. There is a unique phenomenon among them. Most of PKS cadres expect that their partner in marriage is from one community. It means the marriage happens between cadre and cadre or sympathizer. Moreover they assume that this marriage as the ideal sample, eventhough this phenomenon does not happen for all the cadres. But the practice of marriage in the same party happened to some couples in Lowokwaru. Therefore, the researcher does a research in DPC Lowokwaru.

Related to those phenomenon, research problems are explored, namely what the factors that influence kafaah practice in PKS cadres are, and what the opinions of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) cadres about that are. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe the factors that influence PKS cadres for selecting and marrying people from their own community, and also to describe the opinions of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) cadres of the same view in couple selection as a practice of kafa’ah.

This study used phenomenology paradigm and applied as qualitative research approach. The data collecting method used in this study is primary and secondary data. Primary data was taken from observation and interview to some cadres who has practiced this kafa’ah by getting married in the same community. Then, secondary data was got from the number of cadres who has not gotten married, and a paper about marriage guidance from PKS Malang. After finding and reading the data, the researcher selected the data based on the research problem by classifying the data. Finally, the researcher conducted and analyzed the collected data by using descriptive qualitative analysis. Then, the last step is to draw conclusion.

The discussion reveals that core cadres are the group who pay attention more to the same view in political party (community) existence. Some of them have practiced this kafaah criteria because of two factors. The first is the external factors. It is the murabbi/ah authority in choosing cadres’ partner. The second is the internal factors. They are: (a) Cadres' understanding about marriage rule in Islam and in that community. (b) Parents' understanding about the marriage rule in PKS. (c) The cadres have to be mentally and materially ready. (d) Cadres’ understanding about proselytization methods (fiqh ad-dakwah). Thus, there are two impacts that influence this phenomenon. The positive impact is as the preventive effort to avoid the dating (pacaran) custom nowadays. Besides, for the party (jama’ah) this marriage will accelerate the proselytization process through family institution while the negative impact that this phenomenon will impress jama’ah inclusivity to other people and also will limited sakinah interpretation as the marriage purpose.