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his works, Hamzah barely mentions notions of both Sufis to be perverted and After listening to the arguments the aural communication with a number of
al-Burhanpuri’s al-Tuhfah al-Mursalah, need to be combated. 42 adherents to absolute monism put witnesses who had been present during
which may be taken as an indication At the time, al-Raniri himself had not long forward, al-Raniri did not hesitate to the execution of the wujudiyyahfollowers:
for the correctness of the theory that before arrived in Aceh coming from India declare them false and heretics and they they had been thrown into the fire and
Hamzah had already passed away in and he was instantaneously trusted by were accused of having deviated from were thus burned alive. 45
1527, sixty-three years before al-Tuhfah the basic principles of Islamic Shari’a. Al-
all-Mursalah was written. Sultan Iskandar Thani, whom al-Raniri Raniri issued his fatwa against them, In fact, al-Raniri himself illustrated what
called Sultan Shah Marhum Darussalam had taken place in his Fath al-Mubin:
Al Raniri’s “hostile attitude” roward the who appointed him as Shaykh al-Islam, “...whoever takes argument and
teaching and the following of Hamzah or the court’s supreme religious scholar. evidence by rendering to the basic “…and again they said, al-‘alam huwa
Fansuri was supported by Sultan Iskandar In one of his works, Fath al-Mubin, meaning of the unclear verses, the Allah, Huwa al-‘alam, ‘the universe
Thani (1637-1641) . As a consequence, al-Raniri related the story of his early prophetic tradition on divine attributes, is God, and He is the universe’. After
Hamzah Fansuri’s followers had to suffer arrival in Aceh where he had to face the and the Sufi ecstatic utterances, this, the king ordered to present them
bitterly. They were persecuted and forced problem of the monistic notions: he or she had become heterodox to repent from their heretical beliefs.
to abandon their beliefs in the wujudiyyah unbeliever.” 44 After several times of deterrence,
doctrine; if not, they would be condemmed “...Shahdan, when I arrived in Aceh as they keptrefusing to repent;
to death. In 1637, Hamzah Fansuri’s under the reign of Sultan Shah As became of al-Raniri’s dissident fatwa hence they would be surprised by
works were collected and burned in Marhum Darussalam, there were on kafir (infidelity) which Sultan Iskandar king’s order.The kinginstructed to
front of the great Baiturrahman mosque people who adhered to absolute Thani fully supported, the notions and kill themalland he also commanded
in Banda Aceh because they were the monism (wahdat al-mutlaq), the the adherents to the existential monistic to collect all the works composed
sources of the theological deviation from heretical existential one, which was doctrines suffered a tragic fate as their by their master in the middle of the
the Muslim faith. It is for this reason also heterodox. Then, the King works were burned and its followers were field before a mosque called Bayt
41
that in the history of socio-religious ordered to bring together all the slaughtered. al-Rahman. Then, the king ordered to
developments in Aceh, the year 1637 is experts on religion to scrutinize Beside local sources like the Bustan torch them all.” 46
often seen as a dark period for Hamzah whose[thinking] wasright, and whose al-Salatin, a travel journal written by
Fansuri and Shamsuddin al-Sumatra’i’s was wrong; thence they discussed Peter Mundy illustrates what took place Fath al-Mubin and Tibyan fi
followers, along with the power change with us several times in [King] during thissocio-religioustragic event. Ma’rifat al-Adyan: Judgment of
43
from Sultan Iskandar Muda to Sultan Marhum’s presence...” Mundy was a British traveler who visited Mystic-Philosophical Thought
Iskandar Thani, who granted al-Raniri the 42. See Oman Fathurrahman, Tanbih al-Mashi: Aceh in 1638 and thus he arrived only In a dialogue between al-Raniri and
religious authorization to denounce the Menyoal Wahdatul Wujud, Jakarta: Mizan in several months after the penalization Iskandar Thani on one side and the
cooperation with the EFEO, 1999.
41. See Azra, Jaringan Ulama…, p. 182; Simuh, 43. Nuruddin al-Raniri, Fath al-Mubin ‘ala al- of the wujudiyyahhad taken place. It followers of the wujudiyyah, on the other
Tasawuf dan Perkembangannya dalam Islam, Mulhidin, manuscript no. 179/TS/4/YPAH/2005 seems that Mundy based his report on
(Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada, 1996), pp. from the collection of Yayasan Ali Hasjmy 45. Peter Mundy, The Travel of Peter Mundy vol. III
53-54; C. Snouck Hurgronje, Aceh, Rakyat dan Aceh, folio 2. About this collection see Oman Naskah…, especially pp. 146-7. part 2 (London: no publisher, 1999), p. 330.
AdatIstiadatnya II (Jakarta: INIS, 1997), p. 12. Fathurrahman and Munawwar Holil, Katalog 44. Nuruddin al-Raniri, Fath al-Mubin…, p. 3. 46. Nuruddin al-Raniri, Fath al-Mubin…, p. 3-4.

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