Martin van Bruinessen, “Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani and the Qadiriyya in Indonesia”, Journal of the History of Sufism, vol. 1-2 (2000), 361-395.
The temptations of `Abd al-Qadir (1)
The Qadiriyya is presently represented in Indonesia in the form of the composite order Qadiriyya wa Naqshbandiyya, which appears to be specifically Indonesian and has hundreds of thousands of devotees. The Qadiriyya wa Naqshbandiyya was founded by — or, in any case, introduced into Southeast Asia — by a `âlim and Sufi from West Borneo who lived and taught in Mecca in the early 19th century, Ahmad Khatib Sambas. There were earlier incursions of the Qadiriyya into Indonesia; its presence can be documented with certainty from the 17th century on, although it does not appear to have gained a mass following before the 19th century. One can also attest the presence of a cult of Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir, in the form of regular readings of the saint’s manâqib and the invocation of his assistance in danger, in healing wounds or in acquiring invulnerability. This cult is often associated with the Sufi order but has also existed apart from it, and it may in fact predate the spread of the Qadiriyya as an organised order in Indonesia.
The arrival and propagation of Islam in Southeast Asia
The islamisation of Indonesia began relatively late. Towards the end of the 13th century a Muslim dynasty ruled the harbour state of Sumadra Pasai on the northern tip of Sumatra, and in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries a few other centres of Islam emerged in Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, most importantly the entrepot harbour state of Malacca (founded ca. 1400). Following the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511, Muslim shipping and trade shifted to Acheh in north Sumatra, which in the early 16th century became the major Muslim kingdom of the Archipelago.
The rise of Muslim harbour states on Java’s north coast (while much of the interior still clung to Hinduism, Buddhism and syncretistic popular religion) dates from the same period: Demak in east Java was established by foreign Muslims in the late 15th century and rose to prominence in the early 16th, Banten and Cirebon in the west became important in the second quarter of the 16th century. The inland Muslim kingdom of Mataram in central Java emerged in the second half of the 16th century.
Further east in the Archipelago, Ternate in the Moluccan spice islands was already Muslim in the early 16th century, and the islamisation of South Celebes (Sulawesi), presently very staunchly Muslim, began only in the early 17th century, when one of the local rulers, the king of Gowa, converted to Islam.
It has been suggested that the gradual spread of Islam in this part of the world was the work of Sufi missionaries, but there is little hard evidence to support that thesis. It is true that the first Muslim authors whom we know by name were Sufis, but these authors flourished centuries after the process of islamisation had begun. About the place of Sufism in Indonesia prior to the late 16th century one can only speculate.[1]
Hamzah Fansuri and Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir
The earliest reference to `Abd al-Qadir, and indirectly perhaps to the Qadiriyya, in an Indonesian work is found in the poems of the great Sumatran Sufi poet Hamzah Fansuri. Hamzah, who lived in Acheh in the second half of the 16th century, is the first of the great Malay Muslim authors, and many consider him as the best poet of the Malay language. His mysticism is a radically monist version of wahdat al-wujûd that became locally known as wujûdiyya. Hamzah was a learned man, who may have travelled widely in search of knowledge; in his poems he mentions Mecca, Jerusalem and Shahr Naw (as the Thai capital of Ayuthia was known among foreign Muslims). One quatrain has repeatedly been quoted as proof that he actually was a khalîfa of the Qadiriyya:
Hamzah nin asalnya Fansuri
Mendapat wujud di tanah Shahr Nawi
Beroleh khilafat ilmu yang `ali
Daripada Abdul Qadir Jilani
This Hamzah hails from Fansur
He found Existence in the land of Shahr Naw
He received trusteeship of the exalted knowledge
From `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani[2]
The expression mendapat wujud, “found Existence”, appears to refer to an initiatory experience, and one could read this quatrain as stating that the poet received an ijâza to teach the Qadiriyya during his stay in Shahr Naw, which in those days had a considerably community of Persian and other West or South Asian Muslims. Hamzah mentions `Abd al-Qadir in a few other poems, always in the final stanza in which he mentions himself as the poet, which suggests that his connection with `Abd al-Qadir was central to his identity as a Sufi and poet:
Hamzah Fansuri sedia zahir
Tersuci pulang pada Sayyid Abdul Qadir
Dari sana ke sini terta’ir-ta’ir
Akhir mendapat pada diri zahir
Hamzah Fansuri, originally earthly
Was purified when he turned to Sayyid `Abd al-Qadir
He fluttered about from place to place
And finally found Him manifested in himself[3]
Like the first quatrain quoted, this appears to refer to an initiation that ultimately led to a mystical experience of unity.
Hamzah nin ilmunya zahir
Ustadnya Sayyid Abdul Qadir
Mahbubnya selalu hadir
Dengan dirinya nentiasa satir
This Hamzah’s knowledge is manifest
His teacher was Sayyid `Abd al-Qadir
His Beloved is ever-present
Though constantly concealing Himself[4]
Al-Attas adduces yet another verse in support of his claim that Hamzah actually visited `Abd al-Qadir’s shrine in Baghdad and was appointed as a khalîfa of the Qadiriyya there:
Shaykh al-Fansuri terlalu `ali
Beroleh khilafat di benua Baghdadi
Shaykh al-Fansuri, most exalted
Received the trusteeship in the land of Baghdad[5]
The poem from which these lines are taken occurs in one of the few manuscripts with Hamzah’s poetry, but both the style and the takhallus show that it is the work of another author. He identifies himself as Shaykh Hasan Fansuri and may have been a spiritual disciple of Hamzah. It is not impossible that the quoted lines do refer to Hamzah (although it is more likely that the author meant himself), but even if they do, they do not necessarily refer to an actual voyage to Baghdad. I am very hesitant to accept Al-Attas’ conclusion that Hamzah actually became a khalîfa and taught the Qadiriyya. In his prose works, in which he expounds his mystical metaphysics more systematically, he never mentions `Abd al-Qadir or the Qadiriyya (but he does mention Abu Yazid Bistami, Junayd, Hallaj, Rumi, Ibn `Arabi, Jami, `Attar and several others). More importantly, the mystic who is considered as his spiritual successor, Shamsuddin of Pasai, never refers to `Abd al-Qadir either.[6]
Yusuf Makassar and traces of the Qadiriyya in Acheh, West Java and South Celebes
The first Indonesian author who expressly claims to have been initiated into the Qadiriyya, along with several other orders, is the famous Shaykh Yusuf Makassar (1626?-1699). Yusuf was born in the small Muslim kingdom of Gowa in South Celebes, and he appears to have been related to the ruling family there. Makassar is both the name of an ethnic group and of the major port in this region. There were several kingdoms in South Celebes, most of which belonged to the Bugis ethnic group. Gowa was the only Makassarese kingdom, and the first to adopt Islam (in 1604, according to tradition).
As a young adult, in 1644, Yusuf set out for Arabia in search of learning. His voyage first took him to the harbour states where Islam had been longer established, Banten and Acheh. He stayed long enough in the first to become a close friend of the crown prince and in the second to receive his first initiation into a Sufi order, the Qadiriyya. Once in Arabia, he stayed for more than two decades, studying with many different teachers in Yemen, the Hijaz and Syria, taking initiations into and acquiring licences to teach various other orders, including the Naqshbandiyya, the Shattariyya and the Khalwatiyya. After his return to the Archipelago he settled in Banten, where through the 1670s he was a close adviser to his old friend, who had succeeded to the throne as Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa. He did not return to Celebes but corresponded with the royal elite of Gowa. Many Makassarese had in fact left Gowa after it had been occupied by the Dutch with Bugis allies from Bone in 1669, and there was a large Makassarese community in Banten, among whom Yusuf found his most loyal followers. In 1682 the Dutch intervened in a dynastic conflict in Banten and deposed Sultan Ageng. Shaykh Yusuf led a band of followers, who resisted the Dutch intervention, to the mountains. When he was finally captured he was banished to Ceylon and later to the Cape of Good Hope, where he died in 1699.[7]
Yusuf wrote a number of brief treatises, in one of which, Safînat al-najâh, he gives the silsila of the orders into which he was initiated.[8] His Qadiriyya teacher, according to this source, was an immigrant from Gujarat who taught in Acheh, Muhammad Jilani b. Hasan b. Muhammad al-Hamid, the paternal uncle of Nuruddin al-Raniri.[9] Raniri, one of the great Malay Sufi authors and the most prolific of all, was himself affiliated with the Rifa`iyya. There are reasons to doubt whether Yusuf could actually have met either of these Gujaratis if he had left Gowa in 1644,[10] but the silsila appears to be genuine — Yusuf may have studied with a less prominent Achehnese disciple of Muhammad Jilani. This Qadiri silsila is virtually identical with the one that Nuruddin al-Raniri gives in one of his works as his own Rifa`i silsila. It is a line of Hadrami scholars and Sufis established in Gujarat, many of them of the al-`Aydarus family. It is very well possible that these shaykhs taught both the Qadiriyya and the Rifa`iyya, or a mixed form of the two. The earliest common link in both silsila is Isma`il b. Ibrahim al-Jabarti of Zabid, Yemen, who was also the teacher of the famous `Abd al-Karim al-Jili. The links between Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir and al-Jabarti, according to this silsila, are constituted by a certain Yusuf al-Asadi and three lineal descendants.[11]
After his return to the Archipelago, Yusuf did not teach the Qadiriyya but the Khalwatiyya, into which he however incorporated elements from the other turuq that he had mastered. After his death, this branch of the Khalwatiyya survived in South Celebes among the Makassarese and later also the Bugis. It was taken there by Yusuf’s chief khalifa, `Abd al-Basir, a fellow Makassarese who had been at his side in Mecca and Banten. It remained eclectic and easily incorporated later influences.[12]
About a century after Shaykh Yusuf’s death, the ruler of the Bugis kingdom of Bone, Ahmad al-Salih (1775-1812), who was a great admirer of Yusuf, wrote or commissioned a Sufi treatise titled Nûr al-hâdî ilâ tarîq al-rashad, of which Bugis, Arabic and Malay versions exist, and that claims to expound Yusuf’s system. A section of the Malay version of this text deals with what it calls the Qadiriyya, which appears to have been introduced to Bone by a a second Yusuf, hailing from Bogor in West Java, who was Bone’s qadi. It also contains a Qadiri silsila, which appears to be largely identical with the Shattari silsila most commonly encountered in Indonesia. It consists of the names of influential teachers in Gujarat and Medina, who are known to have taught a number of different turuq simultaneously.[13]
The key figure in this silsila is, from the Indonesian perspective, Ibrahim al-Kurani, who had several Indonesian disciples and wrote a number of tracts especially at their request.[14] We find him and his Shattari spiritual genealogy listed in manuscripts from various parts of the Archipelago. The text from Celebes mentioned above is not the only one that lists the same names as a Qadiri silsila. The Achehnese Sufi, `Abd al-Ra’uf al-Sinkili, who studied in Medina in the mid-17th century with the Sufi masters Ahmad al-Qushashi and Ibrahim al-Kurani and who introduced the Shattariyya to the Archipelago, also lists them as a line of Qadiriyya teachers, and so does an 18th-century manuscript from Banten.[15]
Royal devotees of the Qadiriyya in Acheh, Banten and Mataram
The Indonesian contacts with the Qadiriyya as a distinct Sufi order appear to have been marginal so far — we only encounter the Shattariyya and the Khalwatiyya as self-perpetuating orders in several parts of the Archipelago. Nevertheless, Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir appears to have acquired considerable prestige as a powerful protector, and at least two royal houses associated themselves with him in one way or another.
In Acheh, certain high offices were hereditary but new incumbents were appointed by the sultan with a letter of investiture (sarakata). In the exordium to these sarakata, intercession, blessings and prayers were invoked from Muhammad and the other prophets, from saints and royal ancestors. From at least the early 17th century on, Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir is always mentioned with special distinction in these formulas.[16]
In Banten, the royal seal of the 18th century Sultan `Arif Zayn al-`Ashiqin (who ruled 1753-1777) adds the title al-Qadiri to the sultan’s name, which suggests an affiliation with the Qadiriyya or at least an invocation of the protective powers of Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir. It is not clear whether he was the first of Banten’s rulers to style himself al-Qadiri — not many of those royal seals are known.[17] In his case, we have more positive proof that he was actually initiated into the Qadiriyya, for a copy of his written ijâza is still extant. It is dated 1186/1772-3, and the ijâza was granted by Muhammad b. `Ali al-Tabari al-Husayni al-Shafi`i.[18] The late date of the sultan’s initiation suggests that this was a novel step, in which he did not imitate his predecessors. Al-Tabari was a Meccan shaykh, who may have had a special relationship with Banten because either he himself or (more likely) his father, `Ali al-Tabari, had earlier initiated a learned protégé of the royal family, `Abdallah b. `Abd al-Qahhar, into the Shattariyya.[19] The sultan’s interest in the Qadiriyya may have been due to the precarious position of Banten vis-à-vis the Dutch, who had sent his father into forced exile and who were to completely abolish the sultanate in the early 19th century, and to Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir’s reputation as a powerful protector. Sultan `Arif Zayn al-`Ashiqin, as I have shown elsewhere, is also associated with the magical invulnerability technique known as debus, in which the supernatural assistance of `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani and Ahmad Rifa`i is invoked.[20]
In the Central Javanese kingdom of Mataram, finally, we find an indication that an 18th century prince of the Surakarta court, Pangeran Purbaya, may have been affiliated with the Qadiriyya. This prince was the owner of a manuscript probably written there between 1727 and 1738, containing various Arabic and Javanese texts, including a Javanese translation of a work by Hamzah Fansuri. Among these texts there is also a silsila of the Qadiriyya, which could mean that the owner was a Qadiri himself (although the silsila does not mention him as the latest chain).[21] This is, however, the only reference to the Qadiriyya that has been noted so far in religious texts from the Mataram court libraries. The silsila does not yield much information; it contains few know names and does not correspond with any other known Qadiri silsila from Indonesia.[22]
The temptations of `Abd al-Qadir (2)
`Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in popular belief in Indonesia
The veneration of Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir and various types of cults associated with him are presently widespread in Indonesia. The origins of the popular beliefs and practices associated with the saint remain unclear, since before the 19th century documentation is lacking. It is quite possible that like other tarîqa-related practices they spread to the population at large from court circles, and at a relatively late date. Be that as it may, popular devotion turned `Abd al-Qadir into a saint with local characteristics. In several parts of Indonesia there is a belief that the saint in fact visited the Archipelago and personally spread his teachings there.
The earliest recorded instance of this belief is found in the Javanese Serat Centhini, a text that was compiled in its present form in the early 19th century but that contains much earlier material, and that has been described as an encyclopaedia of Javanese civilisation. It is a tale of peregrinations across Java in search of mystical experiences and insights, taking place in the 16th century (but not without anachronisms). One of the wise men who are visited, the hermit Danadarma, relates to the protagonist that he had studied for three years with “Seh Kadir Jalena” at Karang. Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir appears here as the fountainhead of a Javanese Muslim mystical tradition.[23]
Abd al-Qadir teacher instructs him to meditate in the forest and not to move until he has returned
This corresponds with a popular belief held in various parts of West Java in later times that it had been Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir who had personally brought Islam to Java. Legends from West Java invariably associate `Abd al-Qadir with the sacred cave at Pamijahan in the Karangnunggal district on West Java’s south coast. This is, in fact, the location of the shrine of one of the major saints of Java, Shaykh `Abd al-Muhyi, who is credited with introducing the Shattariyya to the island.[24] In popular lore, however, `Abd al-Qadir appears to have blotted out `Abd al-Muhyi. In the martial arts tradition of West Java, as elsewhere, `Abd al-Qadir’s protective powers are highly appreciated. Martial arts schools are organised much like Sufi orders, and each school has its distinctive physical and magical techniques. One of the schools is characterised by its use of the hizb (prayer formula) of `Abd al-Qadir, which, it is believed, this saint “received” as a result of long meditations in Pamijahan.[25]
The teacher returns after a year, disappears again, and returns after another year
Sources closer to Pamijahan mention Shaykh `Abd al-Muhyi, of course, but agree in making `Abd al-Qadir his teacher and source of inspiration. We find this connection, for instance, in a Shattari text from the holy village of Cisondari in West Java.[26] A legend from Pamijahan quoted by Rinkes has `Abd al-Muhyi regularly return, through an underground corridor from his cave, to Mecca, where he takes part in the Friday prayer and converses with his teachers, of whom only `Abd al-Qadir is mentioned.[27]
The teacher reveals that he is Khidr and brings heavenly food for `Abd al-Qadir to break the fast
According to a legend I recorded in Cirebon, Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir had travelled from Baghdad to Java and settled in Pamijahan. A voice from the unseen world (ghayb) warned him that it was not his due to islamise Java, because God had preordained that this was to be the task of `Abd al-Qadir’s (spiritual) descendant Sharif Hidayatullah (one of the Nine Saints of Java and also the founder of the sultanate of Cirebon). `Abd al-Qadir then repented and returned to Baghdad.[28] The legend establishes a subtle balance between recognition of `Abd al-Qadir’s spiritual superiority and the defense of Cirebon’s claims to be the centre from which Java was islamised (and therefore superior to other places in Java).
Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir in Indonesian comic books
Elsewhere in the Archipelago too, one encounters local traditions crediting `Abd al-Qadir with the introduction or purification of Islam. John Bowen describes such a belief among the Gayo people of Central Acheh. In this region, there are twelve holy places associated with ancestral figures. “Each is appealed to for aid in sickness and misfortune by members of the surrounding communities; several are also the foci for agricultural ritual. While each of these ancestors is appealed to separately in each agricultural area, all are traced in Gayo traditions to Muyang Gerpa, a figure who is also identified as Syech Abdul Kadir Jelani. (…) Gerpa/Jelani is credited with bringing Islam to Gayoland after subduing the heretical Syech Syamsuddin…”[29] Read more
