According to a reported account, the rumors were true. One day, the jinn possessed Kiki’s wife as she prayed. Fortunately, Kiki and three Muslim ustaz, or experts, came to cast out the evil jinn by performing ruqyah, an Islamic exorcism.

The term means to cast spells and provide protection from evil.

This scene appears in an episode of the TV series Astagfirullah, which originally aired in 2005. The ruqyah is one of many similar rituals employed in the series, and quickly became its trademark.

According to Ustadz Ahmad Junaidi, who is an actual ustaz, the series was significant in bringing ruqyah into the mainstream, and particularly so for people already in the business, as well as those looking to get into it.

"[Ruqyah] experienced great progress with the help of that series," said the 48-year-old, who heads the editorial team at Majalah Ghoib (supernatural magazine).

Ahmad and his team are one of the country’s most popular “ruqyah therapists”, and he claims to be the inspiration for shows like Astagfirullah.

The growing popularity of supernatural soap operas and “reality ruqyah shows'', helped by not a little dose of self-promotion in Majalah Ghoib, marked the start of a great career for Ahmad. He started to see monthly growth in the numbers of “clients” who sought him out, wanting him to purge jinn, demons and other evil spirits from themselves and the people they cared about. They believed that these supernatural beings could possess them as well as cause illness.

Going mainstream

It all began as a media business in 2002, when Ahmad and other senior ruqyah therapists like Fadhlan Adham Hasyim and Ahmad Zairofi established Majalah Ghoib.

Pre-2000, ruqyah was not a commonly known form of “therapy”. While ustaz practiced exorcisms on individuals, it was not a commercial enterpruse and they certainly not work out of "clinics”.

The magazine aimed to change this. Its goal was to introduce the mystical world through the Islamic lens and also quash the idea that the mystical world was all about shamans and their spells.

“We publish testimonies [on the mystical world] from regular people and we explain the background behind jinns, devils and imps. We examine [mysticism] through the Quran, the Hadith, as well as the teachings of Islamic scholars,” said Ahmad.

They set up their first headquarters at a small office in a narrow alley in Matraman, Jakarta. The magazine printed 5,000 copies of its inaugural issue, which sold out immediately, so it printed 7,000 copies of its second issue the following month. As its readership grew, it shifted from a monthly to a biweekly publication.

In the meantime, Ahmad ran his growing ruqyah therapy service at the magazine’s offices with one other therapist. They did not keep regular hours. He claimed that the Quran was the only guide his ruqya service used, which set it aside from shamans that used mystical tools like amulets.

In 2004, Majalah Ghoib moved to a bigger office in Central Jakarta so its ruqyah therapists could serve more clients. Some came saying they were possessed, while others were plagued with physical illnesses. By then, the magazine had named the practice Ghoib Ruqyah Syariah.

The service expanded by hiring a dozen new therapists, and even recruited medical students for providing scientific explanations of disease to clients. Ghoib Ruqyah Syariah was attracting around 200 clients a day.

Ahmad said that TV and film representatives visited the magazine’s offices to ask about actual ruqyah cases, to turn them into productions. He added that every show inspired by his cases used religious solutions with “an Islamic perspective”.

Ghoib Ruqyah Syariah also began sharing its therapies on Sentuhan Qolbu Metafisika (metaphysics of the spiritual touch), a TV show. According to Ahmad, the show prompted a 100% increase in client numbers.

“Before the series, the clinic was open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m,” he said. After the show started airing, it closed at 9 p.m.

The show inspired more people to learn how to become ruqya therapists, with Ahmad’s team flying to many different Indonesian cities to teach their methods. Better yet, the Indonesian Council Ulema (MUI) gave its official blessing to the ruqyah method in 2005 while issuing a fatwa against shamanism. This added another layer of credibility.

Still, the rise of the internet cut into Majalah Ghoib's sales, and the magazine shut down in 2007. Ahmad then left the clinic he cofounded and ran with Fadhlan, and Zairofi, and set up his own practice in 2009, Yayasan Rumah Ruqyah Indonesia (Indonesian Ruqyah House Foundation).

Today, he sees at least 10 clients each day at his East Jakarta clinic. His fees vary from Rp 100,000 for regular services to Rp 300,000 for VVIP services, which offer clients the therapist of their choice.

By 2013, Ahmad and several others had established the Ruqyah Syar'iyyah Indonesia Association (Arsyi), which has a membership of more than 1,000 ruqyah therapists.

In 2019, Arsyi launched the Go Ruqyah application, which works like telemedicine to connect clients with nearby therapists. But it wasn’t the rousing success the association had hoped, with only a little over 1,000 registered users to date.

New generations of ruqyah therapists have emerged, influenced by Majalah Ghoib’s mainstream marketing approach. One of these is Ustadz Syuhada Hanafi, the founder of the Cinta Ruqyah Syar'iyah foundation. He is also a well-known ruqyah therapist, ruqyah instructor and a TV personality, who has said his goal is "to cut the chain of shamanism”.

“We aim to at least have one ruqyah clinic in every district in Indonesia," Syuhada said, adding that he had traveled to countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam to help clients there.

Commercialism and Islam

The practice remains popular, but it is unknown if ruqyah works, or if it triggers spiritual and placebo effects like many forms of faith healing.

Journalist Elma Adisya once visited a ruqyah clinic for a story. "I did not feel anything," said the 25-year-old. "Maybe because I did not believe in it, I felt no effect."

Assistant professor Achmad Munjid at Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), attributed the sustained popularity of ruqyah to the rise of religious conservatism in Indonesia in the early 2000s. This era also saw the proliferation of Islamic labels on commercial goods, fueled in part by the emergence of political Islam.

"Islamic labels became more marketable," said Achmad. "The market is pretty big, and it craves consumers."

Without fully denouncing ruqyah, Achmad suggested that people should gain knowledge about the types of healing methods that could meet their needs.

As for Ahmad, the ruqyah therapist wants the last word: "To do ruqyah, all we need is the Quran. No jinn, no amulets.”

-Additional reporting by Aryo Bhawono