The Achehnese/Volume 2/Chapter 4

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The Achehnese
by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, translated by Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan

Chapter IV: Religion

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4166533The Achehnese — Chapter IV: ReligionArthur Warren Swete O'SullivanChristiaan Snouck Hurgronje

CHAPTER IV.

RELIGION.

§ 1. Introduction.

In the preface to our first volume we announced that this last chapter should be devoted to supplementary remarks and a general resumé. In describing in somewhat close detail the political, family and individual life of the Achehnese people, it was a foregone conclusion that questions of religion should crop up at every turn. It might thus be supposed that the drawing of conclusions regarding the part which Islam plays in the life of the Achehnese might safely be left to the observant reader. It will however be seen that we do not by any means share this view.

Misconception of the significance of Islam for its Indonesian adherents.We have already pointed out more than once that the significance of the creed of Islam for those who profess it in the East Indies, has been the subject of much misconception in the majority of works which deal with the matter either passingly or of set purpose.

The causes of this phenomenon are not far to seek. Everyone who comes into close political or social contact with any portion of the Mohammedan population of these countries finds himself occasionally face to face with this very question of religion. Now as most such observers make their first acquaintance with the creed of Islam in the Far East with no further enlightenment than what is afforded by one or two popular European works, they form their judgements on the basis of entirely incomplete observation, under the influence of superficial and sometimes quite accidental impressions received in a limited environment. Yet it is such as these that are by way of enlightening the public both here and in Europe; this imposture, committed often in entire good faith, would be at once unmasked, were it not that most people both in the East and at home are profoundly ignorant as regards the religious life of the native peoples.

We still meet every day in the newspapers and magazines of Netherlands India the most absurd misconceptions on this subject, even in regard to matters which could be cleared up by interrogating any of our native neighbours, not to speak of more complicated or general questions on the same head^[1]. An equal amount of folly may be overheard in the conversations of Europeans respecting the religion of the Indonesians; this misinformation is no doubt partly inspired by the press, but to some extent the opposite is the case, and it is the speakers who inspire the journals.

Ignorance of the subject displayed by Europeans.Without even a distant knowledge of the conditions of the question, and without giving himself the trouble to get at the truth, each one confidently puts forward his solution of the problem. One tells you that there lurks under every turban a would-be rebel and murderer, a fanatical enemy of all things European; with the same degree of assurance another avers that not a single grain of fanaticism exists throughout the whole of the East Indian Archipelago, while a third declares that both are wrong and that it requires experience such as his (the speaker's) in actual intercourse with the natives to be able to sift the wheat from the chaff. In place of arguments one hears nothing but assertions or examples which taken by themselves and without a discriminating analysis prove nothing.

Theoretical and practical teaching of Islam.In order to arrive at the basis of the significance of Islam in the lives and thoughts of the natives, it is of course primarily necessary to take into account what this Islam is, and what are the demands that it makes, in practice as well as in theory, upon those who profess it.

The theoretic requirements may be learned from the authoritative works on Mohammedan law and doctrine^[2], supplemented as far as necessary by the books of the mystics. The study of these puts us in possession of the final result of the development during the past thirteen centuries of the Moslim school, which has always claimed the right to govern and control the entire life of Mohammedans in all respects, but which, ever since the nascent period, covering some thirty years from the hijrah of the founder of Islam, has fallen further and further short of attaining that object.

It will be understood that it does not concern us to define according to this theoretical standard the authority and significance of Islam in respect of any of those who profess it. Did we in like manner apply to the morality, the superstitions and the laws of a Catholic people the text of the morale, the dogma and the canonical law of Holy Church, we should seek in vain throughout the world for any traces of Catholicism. Indeed we should necessarily arrive at the same result in estimating the influence on its votaries of any creed whatever, if we overlooked the gulf which invariably separates the real from the ideal.

Nor does this rule apply with less force to Islam than to other religions. For the first thirty years or so, while Arabia was still the centre of Moslim power, life and doctrine developed hand in hand. Thenceforward the paths diverged more and more as time advanced: the schools of doctrinal learning have troubled themselves little about the practical requirements of daily life, while on the other hand all classes of the Moslim community have exhibited in practice an indifference to the sacred law in all its fulness, quite equal to the reverence with which they regard it in theory.

The contrast between the doctrine and the actual life of the Moslims shows itself in the simplest possible form in the domain of religion in the proper sense of the word. The teaching of the doctrinal works and the books of the law in regard to what are called the "five pillars" of Islam (the confession of faith, the ritual prayers with the condition of ritual purity indispensable thereto, the religious taxation known as zakat, the fasts and the haj) serves as a guide to all who observe these primary obligations with some degree of strictness. At the same time it must be observed that the great majority of Moslims fall very far short of the mark both in their knowledge and still more in their observance of these rules and principles. Now the Law requires that the rulers of the faithful should compel the backward and unwilling to the learning and practice of their religious duties, yet this is not done either in the political (Constantinople) or the religious (Mecca) centre of Islam—not to speak of the larger sphere that lies outside. The only Moslim authorities which have to some extent fulfilled their duty in this respect belong to comparatively small sects, regarded by most of their co-religionists as heretical, as for example the Wahhabites who arose in the interior of Arabia towards the end of the eighteenth century, and in later times the Mahdists in the Sudan.

It is indeed unnecessary to stray away into the fine details of casuistry—we have only to review superficially the primary rules of the Law which deal with the "five main pillars" in order to arrive at the conclusion that it is in the long run an impossibility for the great mass of the citizens of any civilized state to live up to them.

The way in which the doctrine of jihād is interpreted by the Mohammedan teachers and embraced in less systematic form by the mass of the people, furnishes an excellent indication of the progress that Islam has made at any given time or place in this direction, whither it is being impelled with increasing force by the political conditions of modern days. In the end it must yield entirely to that force; it must, frankly abandon the tenets of jihād and abide by the practically harmless doctrine respecting the last days when a Messiah or a Mahdī will come to reform the world. Then will Islam differ from other creeds only in so far as it upholds another catechism and another ritual as the means whereby eternal salvation may be won. But before that day arrives the last political stronghold of Islam will probably have been brought under European influence and all less civilized Mohammedan peoples will have been compelled to submit to the control of a strong European government.

Circumstances have imposed on the Dutch nation the task of impressing this modern doctrine on the Achehnese. It is no light or enviable task, for the doctrine of the jihad has been for centuries more deeply rooted here than in any other part of the Archipelago. But it must be fulfilled, and on the manner of this fulfilment will depend in no small degree the attitude of all other Mohammedans in Netherlands-India towards the Dutch government.

↑ This is characteristically illustrated by the feuilleton Abu Bakar, which appeared in the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad in the latter part of the year 1893. It is from the pen of Maurits (P. A. Daum), a writer of some repute, and it deals with subjects which cannot be handled without some knowledge of the first principles of the Mohammedan religion as professed by the natives of the Eastern Archipelago. Yet the author displays an absolute ignorance of almost every branch of his subject. He gives a penghulu the rôle of unctuous hypocrite and converter of Europeans, whereas the really typical pangulu is an official who can give himself no airs and is frowned upon by the "pious", and one who might be called anything rather than Pharasaical. He makes the convert Abu Bakar learn "texts from the Koran" by heart and constantly quote them, while as a matter of fact it is only finished students who attain so far, and the ordinary, nay even the more highly developed and prominent native never quotes from the Qurān. Perhaps however Maurits refers to his own copy of the Qurān; it seems to be a new edition for we find a quotation therefrom to the effect that "he who loves one of his wives more than the other, shall appear at the day of the Resurrection with buttocks of unequal size". There is nothing of the kind in the ordinary editions of the Qurān, and such a difference in the degree of affection of the husband for his wives is expressly recognized as permissible by the sacred books. Again it is stated that the married man who commits adultery must be punished with a hundred lashes of the whip (the Mohammedan law ordains the punishment of stoning for this offence), and that the wedding gift should consist of one hundred dinars—an entirely novel rule. Abu Bakar after his conversion is constantly spoken of as a Tuan Said, a title appertaining only to those descended from Ali; the confession of faith is given as al-illah allah, the haji performs his pilgrimage to Mohammed's tomb, etc. Nothing but the profound ignorance of the public can enable an author of reputation to perpetrate such blunders.
↑ In studying these we must always remember that for many centuries past neither the Qurān nor the sacred Tradition may have been used as textbooks of dogma and law; for no one is authorized even to explain, much less to supplement these holy books, nor can anyone comprehend the texts of eleven to thirteen centuries ago without further elucidation. The real text-books are the works of certain authors who derive their authority from the consensus of teachers among the faithful. Hence we see how foolish it is for Europeans who have but a superficial knowledge of Islam to make verses from the Qurān and the like the basis of conversations on religion with their native friends
↑ The former is called in Arabic fardh (Mal. pěrlu, Ach. peureulèë) or wajib, the latter sunnat (Mal. and Ach. sunat).
↑ See Les confréries religieuses musulmanes by Depont and Coppolani, Algiers 1897, pp. 34–35.

[1] This is characteristically illustrated by the feuilleton Abu Bakar, which appeared in the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad in the latter part of the year 1893. It is from the pen of Maurits (P. A. Daum), a writer of some repute, and it deals with subjects which cannot be handled without some knowledge of the first principles of the Mohammedan religion as professed by the natives of the Eastern Archipelago. Yet the author displays an absolute ignorance of almost every branch of his subject. He gives a penghulu the rôle of unctuous hypocrite and converter of Europeans, whereas the really typical pangulu is an official who can give himself no airs and is frowned upon by the "pious", and one who might be called anything rather than Pharasaical. He makes the convert Abu Bakar learn "texts from the Koran" by heart and constantly quote them, while as a matter of fact it is only finished students who attain so far, and the ordinary, nay even the more highly developed and prominent native never quotes from the Qurān. Perhaps however Maurits refers to his own copy of the Qurān; it seems to be a new edition for we find a quotation therefrom to the effect that "he who loves one of his wives more than the other, shall appear at the day of the Resurrection with buttocks of unequal size". There is nothing of the kind in the ordinary editions of the Qurān, and such a difference in the degree of affection of the husband for his wives is expressly recognized as permissible by the sacred books. Again it is stated that the married man who commits adultery must be punished with a hundred lashes of the whip (the Mohammedan law ordains the punishment of stoning for this offence), and that the wedding gift should consist of one hundred dinars—an entirely novel rule. Abu Bakar after his conversion is constantly spoken of as a Tuan Said, a title appertaining only to those descended from Ali; the confession of faith is given as al-illah allah, the haji performs his pilgrimage to Mohammed's tomb, etc. Nothing but the profound ignorance of the public can enable an author of reputation to perpetrate such blunders.

[2] In studying these we must always remember that for many centuries past neither the Qurān nor the sacred Tradition may have been used as textbooks of dogma and law; for no one is authorized even to explain, much less to supplement these holy books, nor can anyone comprehend the texts of eleven to thirteen centuries ago without further elucidation. The real text-books are the works of certain authors who derive their authority from the consensus of teachers among the faithful. Hence we see how foolish it is for Europeans who have but a superficial knowledge of Islam to make verses from the Qurān and the like the basis of conversations on religion with their native friends

[3] The former is called in Arabic fardh (Mal. pěrlu, Ach. peureulèë) or wajib, the latter sunnat (Mal. and Ach. sunat).

[4] See Les confréries religieuses musulmanes by Depont and Coppolani, Algiers 1897, pp. 34–35.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

The Achehnese/Volume 2/Chapter 4

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