VISUAL ICONOGRAPHY AND PERFORMATIVE SEMIOTICS IN A PEGON JAVANESE NAQSHBANDĪYAH AL-MRIKIYAH MANUSCRIPT
Atika Ulfia Adlina, Fathul Mufid
Al-A raf Jurnal Pemikiran Islam dan Filsafat December 30, 2025 DOI: 10.22515/ajpif.v22i2.13018 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Contemplation Semiotics Performative utterance Metaphysics Iconography Terminology Literature Notation Epistemology Linguistics Historicity philosophy Aesthetics Function biology Sufism Matrix chemical analysis |
| Key findings | The manuscript generates a linguistic-performative matrix in which Pegon terminology and Javanese expressions operate as affective-semiotic modulators in dhikr and murāqabah, and its diagrams function as epistemic icons that formalize interior states and encode the sequential logics of Naqshbandī contemplative praxis. |
Abstract
This study investigates a 1954 Javanese Sufi manuscript written in Pegon script within the Naqshbandīyah al-Mrikīyah lineage. Addressing a gap in existing scholarship—which has concentrated predominantly on pre-20th-century Pegon Qur’anic exegesis—this article analyzes a modern non-exegetical Pegon Sufi text that articulates Naqshbandī metaphysics through Javanese mystical idioms. Methodologically, the study employs a compounded hermeneutic–semiotic framework, integrating Ricoeur’s layered model of textual configuration with Peircean triadic analysis to examine Pegon's lexical formations and the manuscript’s sixteen doctrinal and contemplative diagrams. The findings demonstrate that the manuscript generates a linguistic-performative matrix in which Pegon terminology and Javanese expressions such as kemrenthek operate as affective-semiotic modulators in dhikr and murāqabah. The diagrams function as epistemic icons that formalize interior states and encode the sequential logics of Naqshbandī contemplative praxis. The study advances current understandings of Javanese Sufi manuscript culture by elucidating the epistemological role of Pegon texts in vernacularizing Sufi metaphysics into localized semiotic architectures.