Resepsi Fungsional Al-Qur’an dalam Tradisi Tolak Bala di Pesantren Nur Yaqdhah Aceh Selatan

Qur’anic recitation in protective rituals raises questions about how numerical prescriptions relate to individual and congregational practice. This article examines recitation sequences, numerical repetition, water, and religious authority in the Tolak Bala tradition at Pesantren Nur Yaqdhah, South Aceh. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, it analyses documented interviews, observation notes, and accounts of local devotional practice through the framework of functional reception. The findings identify a sequence connecting selected Qur’anic passages, supplication, walking around the pesantren grounds, and a four-unit prayer described by participants. Forty-one recitations of Yāsīn provide a prescribed reference, while one collective recitation is considered sufficient when participation exceeds forty-one people. The numbers function primarily as inherited instructions rather than as explicitly articulated numerical symbolism. Al-Insyirāḥ is associated with relief from hardship, and water placed near the recitation expresses hopes for blessing and healing. Daily devotional routines provide a setting for transmitting these practices. The article argues that numerical prescription and collective sufficiency are connected through locally recognized religious authority. Its contribution is to explain this relationship within functional reception rather than to claim the uniqueness of individual ritual elements. Chronological and attributional limitations restrict conclusions about actual performance and the uniformity of participants’ interpretations.