Islamic Connections: Muslim Societies in South and Southeast Asia

9. SHARI‘A-MINDEDNESS IN THE MALAY WORLD AND THE INDIAN CONNECTION: The Contributions of Nur al-Din al-Raniri and Nik Abdul Aziz Bin Haji Nik Mat

175 9 SHARI‘A-MINDEDNESS IN THE MALAY WORLD AND THE INDIAN CONNECTION The Contributions of Nur al-Din al-Raniri and Nik Abdul Aziz Bin Haji Nik Mat Peter G. Riddell In a 2006 article in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Muhammad Ali wrote that “the patterns of networking between… ulama in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in ‘Indonesia’ and those in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Kelantan seem to be similar. Surau, mosques, pondok, and later madrasah served as the major local centres for the transmission of Islamic knowledge.”1 While a general comparison of selected scholars from these two periods might seem random, it is worthwhile considering how different scholars from different periods and geographical locations have been connected to a particular theme. In the context of this volume’s focus on Islamic linkages between South and Southeast Asia, this chapter will give particular attention to two figures from very different time periods and contexts, who have made a powerful contribution to Islamic identity in the Malay world: Nur al-Din al-Raniri and Nik Abdul Aziz bin Haji Nik Mat. Particular attention will be especially devoted to examining how both scholars were driven by a sense of “Shari‘a-mindedness” in pursuing 176 Peter G. Riddell their respective goals, and the extent to which this mindset was rooted in events and experiences in South Asia.2 INTRODuCING THE TWO SCHOLARS Nur al-DiN al-raNiri (D. 1658) Very little is known about the early life of al-Raniri, and scholars depend on the form of his name to deduce something about his background and childhood. The large number of nisba elements in his full name — Nur alDin Muhammad b. Ali al-Hamid al-Shafi‘i al-Ash‘ari al-‘Aydarusi al-Raniri al-Surati — point to his origins lying in a diaspora family of the Hamid clan in Ranir (today’s Rander3 ) in Gujerat, India.4 There is some scholarly debate as to whether he was of Hadhrami extraction;5 what is clearer is that he claimed to be descended from the Quraysh. He was thus a member of an ethnic minority, and may well have been of mixed racial descent himself. Al-Raniri’s educational training drew on Hadhrami links, and was heavily influenced by Sufi thinking. His scholarly mentors included Sayyid Umar b. ‘Abd Allah Ba Shayban al-‘Aydarusi,6 a Hadhrami living in India who prepared al-Raniri for the ‘Aydarusiyya Sufi order.7 Al-Raniri himself was to become a key link in the chain between Hadhrami initiates of the ‘Aydarusiyya Order, and India.8 Al-Raniri frequently travelled beyond India, both to the West and the East. In 1620–21, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. During that visit he also may well have visited the Hadramaut, to maintain contact with the country of origin of either his family (if he was a Hadhrami), or his teacher, Sayyid Umar.9 However if part of al-Raniri’s education focused towards the Hadhramaut to the west of India, there also seems to have been an eastward looking element as well. Al-Raniri’s uncle, Muhammad Jilani Hamid, had initially visited the Sultanate of Aceh in the 1580s with the intention of teaching Islamic subjects there, and then spent some time in Mecca to study Sufism before returning to Aceh better equipped to provide instruction in the highly monistic Sufism that was popular in Aceh at that time.10 The dearth of sources on al-Raniri’s early life means that modern scholars are reduced to speculation on the nature of his initial contacts with the Malay world. It is probable that he had some mastery of the Malay language before his main stay in Aceh from 1637 to 1644. Iskandar postulates that he may have studied Malay with the significant Malay community resident in Gujerat.11 Naguib Al-Attas suggests further that al-Raniri’s own mother may have been Malay.12 Voorhoeve suggests that he may have practised his Malay with the Shari‘a-mindedness in the Malay World and the Indian Connection 177 Malay community resident in Mecca during his pilgrimage.13 Both Iskandar and Al-Attas point to a possibility that he spent time in Malaya, probably Pahang, sometime in the period 1621–37, on the basis of various factors: his evident familiarity with the Sejarah Melayu, which...