Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/37

 induced the disciples of Abdurraʾuf to avail themselves of this method in order the better to propagate their own orthodox mysticism.

Abdurraʾuf has undoubtedly had a great influence on the spiritual life of the Achehnese, though it is true that of such mystic systems only certain externals (such as the repetition of ḍikrs at fixed times, and the honour paid to their teachers) are the property of the lower classes. But his works are now little read in Acheh, and adherents of a Shattarite ṭarīqah or school of mysticism are few and far between. The other ṭarīqahs, which in later times caused so great a falling away from the Satariah, cannot boast one whit the more of great success in Acheh. Perhaps the war is to blame for this, but without doubt the Achehnese adherents of the Naqshibandiyyah or Qadiriyyah are of no account as compared with those of West Java or of Deli and Langkat.

On the other hand the tomb of Abdurraʾuf continues to attract crowds of devout visitors, and it is made the object of all kinds of vows which are fulfilled by pious offerings to the saint. This tomb has become the subject of a characteristic legend which shows how little regard the Achehnese pay to chronology.

Some of them make out Abdurraʾuf to have been the introducer of Islam into Acheh, although this religion was prevalent in the country at least two centuries before his time. Others make him a contemporary of Ḥamzah Pansuri and represent him as the latter's antagonist, as it became a holy teacher to be. The story goes that Ḥamzah had established a house of ill-fame at the capital of Acheh; for no vice is too black to be laid at the door of heretics. Abdurraʾuf made appointments with the women, one after another; but in place of treading with them the path of vice, he first paid them the recompense they looked for, and then proceeded to convert them to the true faith.

From the above remarks it may have been gathered that for more than three centuries the three chief branches of learning of Islam (Figh, Uçul and Taçawwuf, Ach. Pikah, Usuy and Teusawōh) and as a means or instrument to attain them, the Arabic grammar and its accessories