<![CDATA[Contemporary Islamic community development discourse has largely emphasized top-down financialinstruments such as zakat, waqf, and Islamic microfinance, while giving limited attention to endogenouscultural mechanisms. Although Indonesian scholarship has documented the coexistence of Islam andlocal tradition, these traditions have rarely been theorized as replicable models of communitydevelopment. This study examines the Sa-uyunan Muharam tradition in Sukakerta Village, Tasikmalaya,Indonesia, focusing on how a locally initiated ritual transformation generates social capital, facilitatesnon-formal Islamic education, and preserves Sundanese cultural heritage as a model of communitybasedIslamicdevelopment.Thisstudyemployedaqualitativeethnographicdesign.Datawerecollected through participatory observation, semi-structured interviews with fifteen purposively selectedinformants, and document analysis during Muharam 1447 H. Thematic analysis was conducted usingSiddiqui’s Islamic social development theory, Putnam’s social capital framework, and Woodward’sconcept of Living Islam. The findings show that the tradition’s six-stage ritual sequence simultaneouslygenerates bonding, bridging, and linking social capital across familial, communal, and intergenerationaldimensions. Universal Islamic values such as ukhuwah, ta‘awun, takaful, and tazkiah are expressedthrough Sundanese cultural idioms without theological dilution, reflecting functional acculturation. Thetradition also functions as experiential non-formal Islamic education. This study proposes a four-elementmodel of tradition-based Islamic community empowerment: deliberative multi-institutional initiation,progressive ritual sequencing, intergenerational integration, and balanced theological-culturallegitimacy. The study contributes to Islamic community development theory by demonstrating that asingle ritual tradition can simultaneously operationalize all three dimensions of social capital.]]>
