Collective Reasoning of Cirebon’s Petatah-petitih in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Iffan Ahmad Gufron (Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies Department, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten, Serang)
Jajat Darojat (Islamic Education Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah, Institut Agama Islam Bunga Bangsa Cirebon, Cirebon)
Barnawi Barnawi (Sharia Banking Department, Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, Institut Agama Islam Bunga Bangsa Cirebon, Cirebon)

Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan
Vol 30, No 1 (2022)

The local wisdom-based Cirebon's Petatah-petitih, namely Slaman, Slumun, Slamet, and Slata, Slutu, Wutuh, has played an important role in shaping people's mindsets, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is a philological study of copies of manuscripts about Jawokan and Suluk still practiced by the people of Cirebon. The paper aims to discuss the contextual problems of COVID-19 from the perspective of oral literature that has developed in Cirebon. Using a qualitative-descriptive approach, this study will examine the oral literature of Cirebon's Petatah-petitih through Abed al-Jabiri's critique of reason named burhānī. The study found that the ideas formed in Cirebon's Petatah-petitih could be a power of knowl­edge in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, it will use Michel Foucault's theory of the relationship between power and knowledge as an analytical framework. In this regard, the meaning of something is always found in relation to other meanings. The value of Cirebon's Petatah-petitih will be meaningful and have life value if it is applied to deal with the recent pandemic.