Preventing Abusive Language in the Domestic Sphere: Habituating Qaulan Ma’rufa Through a Gender Tafsir Approach

Abstract

The phenomenon of abusive language (verbal violence) among adolescents today has reached an alarming level, both in cyberspace and in daily social interactions. The family, which should serve as the primary socialization environment, often unconsciously reproduces gender-biased and patriarchal hierarchical speech patterns that foster abusive communicative acts. This study aims to reconstruct the concept of qaulan ma’rufa in the Qur'an through a gender tafsir (exegesis) approach and formulate its habituation mechanism in the domestic realm as a preventive instrument against abusive language in adolescents. By integrating gender critical hermeneutics and Pierre Bourdieu's habitus theory, this study finds that qaulan ma’rufa is not merely interpreted as 'good words,' but as communication that is egalitarian, gender-just, and free from subordination and power-relation intimidation. The internalization of a gender-perspective qaulan ma’rufa within the family forms a supportive fortress (habitus) that decompresses adolescents' tendencies to imitate and legitimize abusive language in the public sphere.