Page 202 - INDONESIA ISLAMIC CULTURE

It is also assumed that some members orthodox Muslims would probably find lā ‘adda ma‘a zuhūrihi wa tajallīhi bi al- Something different took place in
of the jama’at al-Jawiyyin visited Aceh them acceptable. shakli wa al-haddi wa ‘adami tagayyurihi Java. The seed of heterodoxy that had
to meet Shamsuddin al-Sumatra’i. A good example in this context ‘ammā kāna...” Thus, he omitted the spread in Java in the 18th and 19th
The latter then showed his interest as isal-Falimbani’s al-Mulakhkhas li al- introductory phrase “wa inna dhālika al- centuries were partly contributed to the
he might had highly appreciated the Tuhfah, which is a Malay translation wujūd” and provided several alternative introduction of the mystical martabat
book of al-Burhanpuri. Al-Sumatra’i of the al-Tuhfah al-Mursalah. wordings, but the substance remains tujuh and wahdat al-wujud doctrines.
is known to have beenthe first Malay However, al-Falimbani seems to have the same. Beside, al-Falimbani also There is, however, no written evidence
Sufi who disseminated al-Tuhfah al- “accommodated” the original text as omitted the first paragraph of the original that the spread of the martabat pitu and
Mursalah’snotions of the martabat tujuh he did not make a literal translation but text substituted by his own introductory manunggaling kawula Gusti notions had
and the wahdat al-wujud. remarks . incite dantagonism between orthodox
made significant changes by his choice
As stated above, al-Sumatra’i wrote the of specific words and his arrangement Several hypotheses may explain why and heterodox factions in Java with
Jawhar al-Haqa’iq (the Substance of of the syntax of the Arabic text. He al-Falimbani did what he had done reference to the same notions in al-
Realities) in Arabic and it is acknowledged substituted verbs in the original, for with the al-Tuhfah al-Mursalah. As Tuhfah al-Mursalah. However, it is clear
as the highest intellectual achievement example, with nouns and he divided up explicated above, this book had incited that al-Tauhfah al-Mursalah was well
ever made by a Muslim from the long sentences into simpler and shorter tension and was vehemently rejected known in Java.
Indonesian archipelago. It presents ones. This means that al-Falimbani by orthodox Muslims in Aceh. As a An indication of this probable popularity
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al-Sumatra’i’s profound analyses of reshaped the original text. It is as if he consequence, al-Falimbani was forced is the discovery of a translation of al-
the mystical concept of existential “translated” the text from Arabic into to “modify” the text and totranslate it Tuhfah al-Mursalahin the shape of a
monism (wahdat al-wujud) and also a kind ofArabic that was much easier into Malay to make it easier for orthodox Javanese poem (macapat). A.H. Johns
offers a description of God through His to follow than that of the original text. laymen to understand. As a matter of conducted research on this Javanese
divineAttributes and His Finest Names. Nevertheless , its substance and its fact, al-Falimbani was never accused version and demonstrated how close the
of committing heresy, even though he
In fact, al-Tuhfah al-Mursalah’s impact systematic arrangement remained similar enclosed the mystical doctrine of the composer of the poem had remained
went beyond al-Sumatra’i and other to the original text . seven lofty stagesin his masterpiece, with the original text while he the poet
Acehnese Sufis. It was also adopted, A.H. Johns gave the following example, Siyar al-Salikin, as they had been also referred to several other copies of
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accommodated, and reinterpreted “wa inna dhalika al-wujūd laysa lahu taught by al-Burhanpuri in his al-Tuhfah the text.
by Sufis from other regions in the shaykhun wa lā haddun wa lā hasrun wa al-Mursalahand by al-Sumatra’i in his In addition, a translation of a commentary
archipelago who believed that the ma’a hādhā zahara wa tajallā bi al-shakli Jawhar al-Haqa’iq. After all, same ‘seed’ on al-Tuhfah al-Mursalah has also been
mystical notions in the book posed no wa al-haddi wa lam yatagayyar ‘ammā would not have resulted into a completely found in Java . The book is entitled al-
problems. They only thought that these kāna min ‘adami al-shakli wa ‘adami similar fruit, had it been planted in a Mawahib al-Mustarsalah ‘ala al-Tuhfah
notions needed to be more profoundly al-haddi...” According to Johns, this part different place and time. Such may be (Various Kinds of Gifts Related to the
explained and interpreted after which was rewritten by al-Falimbani into: “...lā inferred from al-Falimbani, were he taken Tuhfah) and several manuscripts are
31. Johns, “Reflections...”, p. 152. shakla lahū wa lā hadda wa lā hasra wa as an example. 32. Johns, The Gift Addressed…, p. 13-20.

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