Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/188

 At the same time these adventurers had the unmistakable advantage of introducing a new departure from the old and superseded order of things, and the conditions which arose from the coming of the Dutch to Acheh were exceptionally favourable to their objects. While the hereditary ulèëbalangs are engrossed by care for their own territories, they seize the opportunity to rally around them all the restless spirits in each district. They weigh their chances carefully before deciding to try their luck against the foreign invader. They lack but one thing, which is the special property of the second class of rivals of the adat chiefs; they cannot inspire their followers with holy zeal and self-sacrificing devotion.

This second class requires much more extended notice; it consists of the various representatives of religion or of such as borrow a certain prestige therefrom.

So far we have learnt of the indissoluble union and indispensable coöperation of hukōm or religious law with adat, the custom of the country, as being the very basis of life in Acheh. At the same time we have constantly remarked how the adat assumes the part of the mistress and the hukōm that of her obedient slave. The hukōm however revenges herself for her subordination whenever she sees the chance; her representatives are always on the look-out for an opportunity to escape from this servile position. They do not require, like the political adventurers, to seek for adherents; these are voluntarily furnished by the anthropolatry which is as strong a feature in the religion of the Achehnese as in that of most other Mohammedan countries.

In the earlier days of its existence Islam gave little weight to persons. The Believers had to do with Allah only, and although there were amongst mankind appointed instruments of God, who once for all conveyed and interpreted his commands to humanity, these had no real part in the salvation of man.

This was soon modified, and the change grew more pronounced as time went on and Islam spread beyond Arabia amongst peoples of different requirements and modes of thought. The reverence paid to the Prophet grew so great, that in the beginning of the present century the Wahhabites (following in the footsteps of many learned dissenters of earlier times) branded it as idolatry—but this sect was declared heretical and persecuted. The same veneration was in a measure