In 1998, I presented a paper on Shaykh Abdul Muhyi’s teaching in a symposium held by the Masyarakat Naskah, the Indonesian Manuscript Society, in Jakarta. I mentioned in a simple way a specimen of a manuscript of the Shattariyyah order found in Pamijahan. After my presentation, a man approached me. He suggested in all seriousness that it was better not to discuss the subject of the teaching in public. Two years later, in 2000, the Masyarakat Naskah held another symposium, this time in Padang, West Sumatra. On this occasion I presented a paper titled ‘The function of manuscripts in West Java: the case of Shattariyyah’. Again, I was warned by the same person, who apparently was a member of Masyarakat Naskah and a follower of the Shattariyyah. He advised me that the manuscripts being studied had a spiritual energy that would cause difficulties for those who touch and read them without a master’s guidance. Because all Shattariyyah manuscripts are passed on through a chain of linkages to the past (silsilah) and initiation (baiah), an unauthorised person is unlikely to be able to access their true meaning. This Sufi even advised me not to physically touch the manuscript for six months, until I had completed a series of monthly rituals suggested by him.

The ritual looked simple enough. After magrib prayers at 6 p.m., I had to recite a particular prayer, doa, and remain sitting quietly for about an hour until the isya prayer at 7 p.m. I had to do this without being disturbed, so I had to lock myself in my bedroom, he said. The same suggestion, but in a more moderate form, was given by a senior lecturer in my faculty at the University of Indonesia, who also is evidently a follower of Shattariyyah. She holds a PhD in Javanese philology and works on mystical manuscripts. Unlike the first person, my colleague gave me a simple warning not to talk about any particular letter or character in the manuscripts. The point was that the Shattariyyah theorises Being by using various iconic signs: characters, images, and schemas.

In order to find further guidance, I went to the pesantren of Cipasung which is near my hometown of Tasikmalaya and which is the largest in West Java. There I consulted a prominent ‘mystical scholar’, an ahli hikmah. He has family links with Ajengan Ruhiyat, the leader of the pesantren and one of the most prominent legal scholars of the Nahdatul Ulama in Java. The Nahdatul Ulama has declared a fatwa listing the ‘accepted tarekats’ or tarekat mutabarak, in NU circles. The Shattariyyah is one of these. I asked various questions regarding my experiences with the Shattariyyah manuscripts and reporting my encounters with the Shattariyyah adherents in Jakarta and Padang. He explained to me that I had an opportunity to neplak or to make a close description of the manuscript material, but not to make any public interpretation, or ngahartosan, of it.

Beben Muhammad Dabas of Pamijahan (see Chapter 8) was of the same opinion. However, he did not agree with the man who had ordered me to make ritual preparations before reading the manuscripts. Beben invited me to his assembly, zawiya, and narrated all the basic teachings of Shattariyyah. He read the mansucripts aloud while I made notes, and later he allowed me to make a complete set of photocopies of his manuscripts. He said that anyone with a general knowledge of the teachings of Ibn Arabi would easily comprehend the Shattariyyah’s teaching.

Pak Undang, one of Beben’s best friends, a young scholar who had graduated from the Bandung branch of the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) gave me a more scholarly explanation. He said that what had been described to me by Beben was a sophisticated mystical explanation of the relation between Creator and creation. It was a view of via causalitatis, via eminentiae, and via negationis (cf. Schimmel 1994: 21). According to Pak Undang, for the non-Sufi, it is easier normatively to comprehend the basic doctrine of Islam, or the syahada, “there is no God but Allah”. He states that in a non-Sufi or legalistic or syari’a view, the word ‘God’ designates a general domain of meanings. It can be applied to any conceptualisation of The Divine. God, by definition, should be Unique and his Uniqueness is found in His name. In fact, while there might be more than one conceptualisation of The Divine, all are only Allah, the God of the Muslims. The expression “He is Allah” should then be differentiated from other teleological concepts. He is The Most Powerful who creates everything from nothing, teu aya janten aya. Because Allah is The Most Powerful, He is everywhere and cannot be conceptualised in terms of human spatial concepts. He cannot be comprehended by our intellect, yet He is also closer to us than our jugular veins (Qur’an 50:16). According to Pak Undang, the Shattariyyah provides a moderate interpretation of that mystery. In a simple way, the teaching tries to illustrate that everything is He (Schimmel 1994; 1986); everything is from the Light; but the world is a created light.

After giving me this short course in the Shattariyyah, Beben then explained that there is room to comprehend this relationship beyond the terms of the syari’a. The Sufi tries to do this under guidance. I had, he said, to be initiated first in order to receive the true teachings of the Shattariyyah.