Practicing Reform, Performing Belonging: Religious Practice and Social Identity among Muhammadiyah Members

Abstract

This article examines how religious practices produce, express, and contest social identity among Muhammadiyah members in Indonesia. Rather than treating membership as a fixed doctrinal category, it uses qualitative thematic synthesis of organizational documents, historical ethnographies, and empirical studies published no later than 2023. The analysis identifies six interconnected themes: the reformist prototype of the 'good Muslim'; ritual discipline and tarjih-based authority; associational piety through study circles, mosques, and cadre networks; al-Ma'un-oriented social service; boundary negotiation with local traditions and other Islamic currents; and identity differentiation across gender, generation, class, region, and digital settings. The findings show that Muhammadiyah identity is reproduced less through formal membership than through repeated participation in worship, learning, organizational work, philanthropy, and public service. Yet practice is neither uniform nor mechanically determined by official doctrine. Members selectively interpret guidance, accommodate local customs, and negotiate competing religious authorities. The study concludes that Muhammadiyah identity is best understood as institutionalized but lived reformism: a socially recognizable repertoire whose coherence depends on continuous socialization, practical credibility, and room for contextual variation.