SINFUL INCOME?: BEING MUSLIMS AND MAGIC AGENTS IN MADURA ISLAND, INDONESIA

The research was based on a study conducted in four regencies of Madura Island, the mostly Muslim Island in the East Java Province of Indonesia. The research applied a descriptive qualitative method and employed an ethnographic case study consisting of interviews, participant observations, and documentation as data collecting method, analyzed by discourse analysis and textual analysis method. Magic agents, the informants in the research and commonly referred to in Madura as Dhukon were Muslim. In addition, the existence of magic agents on the Island with its dominantly Muslim population was relatively clandestine since practicing/utilizing magic is among the biggest sins in Islamic teachings. Most of these magic agents had no other jobs, and made magic as their primary business commodity to meet their needs and their families. Therefore, their income for their lives relied on their community service activities as supernatural agents. They were likely to perform as Muslim (always wearing Arabic outfits) in daily life and employed some attributes taken from the Qur’an/Hadiths as their ‘tools’; thus, their income was blessed, rather than sinful, income. On average, their income from being Muslim magic agents was mostly higher than that of Regional Minimum Wage (RMW). The researcher argues that being a Muslim magic agent in Madura is a profitable professional job, among other jobs with geographical limitations.


INTRODUCTION
Studies of paranormal activities involving magic agents are prevalent among social academics to date. Researches by international academics on topics ranging from ghosts, relations of a community with invisible phenomena, paranormal events in modern society, non-medical alternative medicine using 'other powers' (Ardani, 2013), to the skyrocketing television shows and popular films about paranormal and magic agents are getting worldwide. Magic and paranormal-related businesses, such as ghost hunting services, are flourishing, including in the United States (Eaton, 2015). Ghost hunters, paranormal service providers, and magic agents are some examples. Some discussions related to God existences, religions, spirituality, magic, paranormal, and mysticism have enriched academic and multidiscipline sources, for example, in Sociology (Yamane, Yoneda, & Tsutsui 2019), Psychology (Utinans et al., 2015;Pennycook et al., 2012), gender studies (Ward & King, 2020), education (Wilson, 2018), politics (Haryanto, 2015a), multinational language history (Nourse, 2013), and many more. However, some researchers have said it is still insufficient to fulfill the needs today (Gunardi, 2015).
Magic agents are prevalent in Indonesia's urban and rural areas (Young, 2012), including in Madura Island of East Java. The existence of magic agents in Madura constitutes an undeniable phenomenon despite the so-called most dominantly Muslim Island in Indonesia. In Madura, Islam is adopted as a formal religion by the majority of its society (97%-99%). The degree of the devotion of Madurese to Islam is generally compared with the Acehnese and Minang people in Sumatra, the Sundanese in Java, and the Buginese in Sulawesi (Wiyata & Rifai in Haryanto, 2015b). Even though Islamic teachings are deeply embedded in Madurese people, they regularly perform traditional rituals, believe in supernatural powers, spirits, and respect their ancestors. The traditional magic agents, believed by the community as 'bridging' them with those paranormal powers and supernatural existences, stand problematic.
The traditional magic agents are referred to as Dukun in Javanese, according to Clifford Geertz, whose special position in Javanese culture, as traditional healers and sometimes, at the same time, as respected traditional leaders (Huda, 2015;Sartini & Ahimsa-Putra, 2017;Arini, Alimi, & Gunawan, 2016). It has been academically applied in some updated researches in other areas in Indonesia, such as in Belitung Island (Wildan & Irwandi, 2018), in Sinjaythe South Sulawesi (Togobu, 2018), and in Madura that mentioned the term Dukun as Dhukon who are sinful people according to Islamic teachings since what they do is shirk, which is forbidden in Islamic teachings for forcing God's existence (Haryanto, 2015b).
For some reason, supernatural and magic services also represent economic commodities for most supernatural agents in Madura, as well as in such other cities as Jakarta (Haryanto, 2015). To date, although it is always debatable regarding irrational and rational perspectives, magic is a commodity with relatively many devotees, even those of the upper economic class (see also study in Japan by Yamane, Yoneda, & Tsutsui, 2019). Even in its development, magic has now been packaged as an economic commodity in such a way as to involve innovation from magic agents to win the magic market. They also provide online mantras, magic items, amulets, and others to innovate their services, including communication strategies (Nurdin, 2012). The activities of the Dhukons in Madura at the same time bring benefits in the process of capital accumulation and social problems for their users who are dominantly Muslims.
In the researcher's previous publication (Haryanto, 2015b) that focused on magic agents' ability and where they come from, it is argued that magical services can be used for almost any purpose or enhance any aspect of one's social 'pride' possibilities.
Additionally, it is used to give not only the advantage of invisible 'luck' but also the visible one, which is material matter. In Madura, the crucial factor in success or failure might end up being lucky, too. Schieman (2010) has argued that the belief in God's influences in daily life also forms another socioeconomic status in specific societies. The research describes the economic benefits of paranormal activities run by the Dhukons in trade in their magical services in Madura. All informants are Muslim, non-advertised Dhukons, and 'ordinary' Dhukon (Dhukons born in an average family, rather than in a family of high social and economic status).
Based on the introduction of the problem described, the main issue in the research is how Muslim-magic agents in Madura Island, one of the most dominantly Muslim islands in Indonesia, run their economic activities as magic services providers in the case that magic, supernatural, and paranormal practices are met Islamic teaching limitations. From the main problem, several questions can be explored like how and when they start their professional job as magic agents, how they socialize amongst Muslims around them and their contributions to society, how they apply Islamic teachings in daily activities and their magic services as economic strategies, what and how much material benefits they accumulated from their job, how they see their income in their Muslim perspectives, how their income comparing to Regional Minimum Wages (RMW) is and in this case, how actually the role of both religion and magic in Madura Island is.

METHODS
The research is an ethnographic case study conducted in 2014-2015 for approximately seven months on the Madura Island that is 'modernized' by the Suramadu Bridge. Madura consists of four regencies/districts namely Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan, and Sumenep (Bawono, Suminar, & Hendriani, 2019). Data are re-analyzed in order to match the purposes of the research. The Suramadu National Bridge is the longest bridge in Indonesia today. It has a length of 5.438 meters that crosses the Madura Strait, connecting Java Island (in Surabaya) and Madura Island (in Bangkalan regency). Years ago, the only mode of transportation to visit Madura Island was a ferry across the strait. The Suramadu Bridge is mentioned as the realistic way to make Madura more open in all aspects such as industrialization, and other economic changes (Ramadlan, 2013), including modernization. Administratively, Madura is part of the East Java Province and comprises an area of approximately 5.168 km 2 . Geographically, Madura Island has a flat topography with most coastal areas. There is no significant difference in elevation, making it relatively a dry climate daily. Madura Island has limited resources, making it the poorest Island in the East Java Province since regencies in Madura are officially in poverty (Basri, 2017).
An ethnographic case study emphasizes sociocultural issues of the community sharply and deeply. Furthermore, the participant-observation method is performed in the present ethnographic case study. Firstly, the researchers employ the snowball sampling method in order to point out the key informants who then gave 'ways' to see other informants. It is chosen since the existence of Magic agents in the dominantly Muslim Madura Island was clandestine. Secondly, the purposive sampling method is chosen to select informants from different regions in Madura. Several criteria are used (1) Madurese people who are living on Madura Island; (2) Muslim magic agents; (3) Practicing magic services as their source of income; (4) Magic agents with a magical ability that fulfill Clifford Geertz's criteria of Dukun.
Interviews are done with the community where magic practices are performed by the community, magic users, and magic agents. Primary data are collected from interviews, observations, and documentation, while secondary data are collected from other sources like books, mass media, and official data from local governments.
The research is a qualitative research and an ethnographic case study; thus, discourse analysis is selected as the analysis method. In a study of paranormal/magic agents and economic benefits around magic and belief systems in Madura, all discussions, verbatim from interviews, and all text analysis must also always be seen as a valuable technique for investigating and understanding 'newest economic conditions' of the magic agents.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Magic is a practical action involving specific rituals to achieve worldly benefits and basing significant daily activities (Weber, 1993). Weber (1993) has underlined that for Christians, magic is something of sin and lies (superstition) resulting from the betrayal of the Church. In Islam, magic is also known as sinful activity, noted in the Holy Qur'an as Shirk/Syirik (Musyrik: noun), because of beliefs in 'other God' and asking for helps not to God (Allah)'s Power but 'the other God's.
The researcher has been studying magic (supernatural) practices in Madura since 2007 in terms of the social-economic relations among educatedmiddle class people, such as teachers, civil servants, members of the Indonesian National Armed Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia), members of the police, political representatives, or regents, and the magic agents (agents of magic services) in Bangkalan-Madura. The results show that magic socially becomes an inseparable part of their life. To the middle class in Madura, magic is among the efforts to achieve their life goals, such as economic purposes, career, political will, and others. Most users are educated middleclass people with high education; thus, they should be able to differentiate the rational from the irrational if realized (Haryanto, 2007). To educated people, magic is mostly classified as a superstitious or irrational matter. However, magic remains being used by the Madurese people even though it is well-known that they have more faith in the power of religion (God) to solve life's problems and achieve life goals. Madurese people's life goals emerge consisting of many purposes such as achieving quantity and quality of economic ownership in line with the goals for health and gaining a good career and position in the job.
The researcher further studies Dhukons of Madura in the middle of 2014-2015 in four districts: Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan, and Sumenep. Dozens of male and female Madurese supernatural agents whom the researcher met are Muslims. Some of them have performed Hajj and regularly 'served' government officials and the upper-middle class, in addition to the lower classes (Haryanto, 2015b).
In addition to Dhukons, the quite commonly found magic agents in Madura are the Kiai, which are either coincidentally or not coincidentally figures that should be modeled and obeyed in line with the motto of life 'Buppa, Babbu, Gurru, Ratoh' meaning Mother and Father, Teacher, Queen/King/Leader (Jonge, 2012;Wiyata, 2002). The research only describes 'non-Kiai' magic agents, Dhukons with no Pesantren, and freelance Dhukons without formal institutions. They are magic agents of 'ordinary people'.
The research employs a total of twelve informants of 40-60 years old who are Muslim magic agents from four regencies on Madura Island. The following is a short description of them and their magical abilities according to Clifford Geertz's concept of Javanese Dukuns. Those from Sumenep regency are (1)  (2) H. Imam (male, 50 years old, Dukun Jampi, medium, Dukun Petungan, Dukun Japa, Sorcerer) (primary data). Although Madurese culture has a special tradition regarding circumcision, especially female circumcision (Ida & Saud, 2020), none of the informants claim an ability as Geertz's Dukun Calak (circumcisors).
Some magic agents placed an Islamic 'title' on their name, for instance, Kiai, which is associated with one of the Islamic leader titles, Abah or Abi meaning daddy and Umi meaning mommy, taken from the Arabic family culture. The power of Islamic gurus is relatively important to the Madurese people, so that some magic agents called themselves Ustadz, which is a specific title for Islamic teachers/gurus, and placed 'Haji' in front of the male name and Hajjah in front of the female name. Haji/Hajjah title is attributed to those people who have already taken the pilgrimage to Makkah. Haji and Hajjah are socially prestigious titles in Islamic communities. According to them, there is no problem with Islamic knowledge related to paranormal activities (business). They admit to employing the verses of the Qur'an as the main means/tools to perform their magical activities. They also mostly keep praying five times a day, fasting, and even taking a pilgrimage to Makkah and get the Hajj/Hajjah title. In the same vein, the informants disapprove of their actual identity and photographs being shown. Therefore, the researcher uses only their pseudo-names and mentions only the regency where they live (without detailed information about their sub-district, address, and others).
According to those informants, most paranormal activities as Dhukons are started a long time ago, even when they were still teenagers. For example, Buani has said: "I have been practicing to 'help' people since 16 years ago. I use seven magical stones on the special oil that I got from a sacred place called Bhuju'. I only use one stone in the first six years of practicing because I got the six other stones 10 years later; now, I use seven stones." (Buani, Bangkalan) Similar to Buani, Umi Utik, and Dayat spend half of their life to 'help' people as a psychic. Dayat has said: "I am 59 years old now, and I got my magical ability when I was 24 years old. This ability is inherited from my grandfather and my father; however, in order to obtain it, I must pass various difficult conditions such as doing i'tikaf (Berdiam diri/semedi/religious meditation) in the Bhuju' Pesarean and fasting for 41 days. I was also obliged to take a pilgrimage to the seven graves of Kyai or Islamic Wali on foot (Dayat, Sampang). Dayat also said, one of the Wali's graves he had visited is Sunan Ampel's that is known as religious and heritage area in North Surabaya (Kusomowidagdo & Wardani, 2017).
Meanwhile, Umi Utik states that she has been practicing as a magic agent since she was 20 years old. Syah (Pamekasan) says that he started to be a Dhukon at the beginning of senior high school about 29 years ago. Most magic agents had started their paranormal business when they were young, as Kiai Abdur has said: "I have been practicing it since 1982; I have got my ability by learning from my Muslim Gurus in many places and many islands in Madura and other areas in Indonesia. I got to do fasting in seven days and 41 nights in my (every) birthdays." ( Kiai Abdur, Sumenep) The same statement is also said by Umi Utik, who has started her paranormal practices since she was 17, and Imam (Bangkalan) since he was 13 years old.
All magic agents in the research make magic as their main commodity to meet their own and family's needs. Being a magic agent is an alternative job on Madura Island since this island is geographically known as an area with limited natural resources. The island is plains with beaches and limited agricultural areas without sufficient irrigation systems. Thus, the land quality is relatively infertile. Madura is known as the island with dry-land agricultural products, such as tobaccos, corn, sugarcane, and others. In addition to salts and tourism, other maritime products of Madura Island are fish, crabs, and others, and large amounts of natural gas and oil, which unfortunately can only be explored and economically utilized by companies rather than individuals. According to data published by BPS, with such natural resources and climate conditions, the suitable jobs on the Madura Island, in addition to being government employees and other formal sectors, are fishermen, farmers, or traders (BPS-Statistic of Bangkalan Regency, 2020; BPS-Statistic of Sampang Regency, 2020; BPS-Statistic of Pamekasan Regency, 2020; BPS-Statistic of Sumenep Regency, 2020).
Unfortunately, according to the poverty line and welfare indication, four districts on the Madura island, Bangkalan, Sampang Regency, Pamekasan Regency, and Sumenep Regency, are officially announced as the most underdeveloped or poorest regencies in the province of East Java. According to a report released by the Information and Communication Department of East Java Province (Dinas Komunikasi dan Informasi Jawa Timur, 2020) year 2019, until the end of 2019, about 21 districts in the province of East Java are indicated as the most underdeveloped areas, especially in poverty. Two of them are Sumenep Regency and Bangkalan Regency on Madura Island.
The users of magic services agents in Madura Island are varied. In addition to being from the surrounding communities of Madura Island, the users also come from outside of Madura Island, whose economic status could be classified as lower, middle, and higher-level economic communities. Besides farmers and fishers, most magic users in Madura Island come from the middle-to-upper classes, such as teachers, government officials, lecturers, members of the National Armed Forces and Indonesian Police, and even regional leaders (Haryanto, 2007).
With the wide variety of their users, those psychics earned their income and property, as shown in Table 1.
The previous section has described magic agents begin their activities as psychics. Some have started running their business for a long time, and some for only a few years. The longer they have been running the business, the larger the income would be. This, in turn, impacts their average income, as described in Table 1, along with the property.
In this case, houses indicate permanent/semi-permanent dwellings. As Table 1 shows, 'house' describes residence with the quality (appearance, area, and material) of more or less similar to the average house around the area. 'Luxury house' (Figure 1) means a residence with the quality, size, and shape above the average 'house' described. 'Simple house' (Figure 2) indicates the quality of the house is not better than that of the average house around the area. Indeed, within the Madurese people, the existence of mushalla (Islamic prayer rooms), commonly called langgar in Madurese (also Javanese),  is an inseparable part of the traditional housing concept of most Madurese people from all walks of life. In terms of architecture, Madurese adherence to Islam is very pronounced since, in almost every group of family dwellings, there must always be a langgar in the western part of its courtyard (Rifai, 2007). It is only the shape and quality of each family langgar that is not the same. It depends on the economic capability of the family; thus, there are simple, very simple, and even luxurious langgar. Therefore, in certain areas in Madura Island, langgar is more luxurious and permanent, which can be in the form of Mushala (wider than Mushalla). The local mosque is a representation of the financial wealth of the family. Even within paranormal families, mosques and mushalla are included in the property that follows the income they earn from their business; thus, Table 1 constitutes an important part. The same is true to land ownership, which is an important form of welfare and material wealth among the Madurese people and in most other cultures in Indonesia. Material benefits collected from being a magic agent as an economical business, as displayed in Table 1, vary. Perhaps, the most crucial thing is advertising or something else since they mostly obtain users by means of the word-of-mouth method. Unlike advertised magic agents, non-advertised magic agents usually have a slight chance of being widely known (Haryanto, 2015b).
Magic service users are usually introduced to magic service agents by third parties or previous users who are satisfied with the magic services provided by magic agents. However, most magic agents, who are informants in the present research, are magic agents with no advertising in their business. Suudi has said: "I do this business just to help people in need. I don't need to advertise my business, I just like this (word of mouth) because I believe that material fortune is already set up by God." (Suudi, Pamekasan) Implicitly, Suudi has said that he can get users and earn income sufficient for him even without advertising. He believes that his income has been determined by God; it would not come to him if that money and fortunes had not already been prepared by God for Suudi.
Being a paranormal agent from among 'ordinary people', rather than descendants of Madurese people, without advertising and the title 'Kiai' with its popularity due to being the great kyai descendants or leading Islamic boarding schools, economic benefits in the form of income from being paranormal agents, are quite tempting. All magic agents, except Buani (Bangkalan), Fatorahman (Sumenep), and Ustads Hasan (Pamekasan), earn an average of IDR 1.500.000,00 per month. With that amount of income, all three magic agents are happy enough. As stated by Buani, a female psychic: "I don't have too many needs to meet. In this small village, one million rupiah is enough for living and even fulfilling other needs besides food. For example, I can save money and buy some land." (Buani, Bangkalani) Similarly to Buani, Fatorahman said: "I never set price and never ask people to pay some (determined) money. I accept whatever (money) they give. Helping them is my passion and makes me happy." (Fathorahman, Sumenep) The income of most magic agents of Madura Island is relatively high, even in comparison with data on the amount of Regional Minimum Wages (UMR) of East Java in 2020. Indonesia has a minimum standard of income, which amount depends on the provincial regulation (Amanda & Salim, 2019). Based on the East Java Governor's Decree Number 188/568/ KPTS/013/2019 concerning MSEs for East Java in 2020 issued in November 2019, the UMR for areas in Madura Island is described in Table 2. Sampang and Pamekasan are among the areas with the lowest UMR in East Java. Referring to the data, most magic agents have an income above the specified UMR. Some even have an income ten times the amount of the specified UMR. For example, H. Imam (Bangkalan) and H. Sadiq (Sampang) have an income from the magic service business of around IDR 10.000.000,00 to IDR 15.000.000,00 per month.
Being a magic agent in Madura is not merely for money. Most informants have argued that the main purpose of their magic service business is only to help others. Satisfaction as a magic agent in the community is to gain a special 'social status', being a 'holy person' within the community, even though the community perceived practicing magic is forbidden by their religion, even a sinful activity. Their position as magic agents has upgraded their social status from 'only' ordinary people to respected ones within the community. In addition, people recognize magic agents as important persons because of the mobility of the magic agents' guests from other regencies, other provinces, and even other countries. In fact, people who are living around the magic agents' residence also mostly rely upon magic agents' help to solve their daily problems, such as relieving physical and non-physical sickness, helping for political purposes, trading security, and many others. Religiously, most magic agents have said that what they do (helping people, despite the use of magical abilities) is rewarded by good things in the world and the afterlife, as promised by Islam teachings. The following statement is stated by Imam, who believed in their magic service activities: "Magical ability is a gift from God (Allah SWT), not all people have it. To me, helping people is part of religious activity and gives me satisfaction. money is just the bonus." (Imam, Bangkalan) It confirms that the role of religion and magic is something completely uncontroversial (Haryanto, 2020). In certain communities, such as Madurese people, in this case, religion and magic are two mutually reinforcing things that are strongly building social awareness and social stability since some community members believe that the existence of religion is preceded by magic and both are complementary. Magic agents in Madura Island are aware of it and blended it into economic products that are easily accepted by the community, considering that the demand for magic services is also increasing every day.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the practice of magic, magic agents and the Muslim community on Madura Island keep their faith in Islam. Socially, they are not worried about whether the community accepts them or not because of their Islamic teachings, such as praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan, and even going to Mecca to do the Hajj. Data shows that most magic agents also believe that what they do is only to help people solving their problems by employing their magic abilities; it was not a sinful activity or Shirk (syirik). They argue that their magic practices are imbued with Islamic significance. They use the Qur'an verses to solve some users' problems, recite the wirid, and performed special fasting as Islam orders. Some psychics are known as Hajj, Hajjah, Ustadz, Umi, Abah, or other Islamic titles within the community, and makes it easy for the magic agents to socialize. They are accepted by the community as respected persons because they have good attitudes and help others unconditionally.
In fact, being Muslim magic agents in Madura provide some benefits in economic aspects and life quality, even though their income is 'just a little bit more' than the Regional Minimum Wage rate. Economically, most magic agents state that they earn lawful money from their business as magic service providers, known as Dhukon, and their income is better than that of their previous life (prior to being a magic agent). Although it is difficult to precisely estimate the number of their economic benefits by running the business as magic agents, land and houses are now relatively affordable items for them, and they also sometimes do charity in their community. In addition, helping solving problems within the community is spiritually and religiously satisfying for Muslim magic agents, despite the use of their magical ability.
The limitation of the research is that all informants are not allowed to be visually recorded so that some interesting and supporting information is only described by written text. The future research suggests that other studies involving multidisciplinary approaches related to the existence of magic agents with various forms in other regions of Indonesia are recommended. This is interesting and academic challenging because Indonesia has many other forms of profitable professional jobs based on traditions and 'religions', which are still relevant to be run as income sources today, although their existence is mostly limited by social acceptances.