THE ACHEHNESE - Acehbooks.org

mentions no less than 15 masters at whose feet he sat, 27 distinguished
pandits whom he knew, and 15 celebrated mystics with whom he came
in contact.
Ahmad Above all others he esteems and praises the mystic teacher Shaikh
Ahmad QushashI at Medina. He calls him his spiritual guide and teacher
in the way of God, and tells how after his death he (Abdurra'uf)
obtained from his successor Molla Ibrahim permission to found a school
himself. Thus after 1661 Abdurra'uf taught in Acheh, and won so many
adherents that after he died his tomb was regarded as the holiest place
in all the land, till that of the sayyid called Teungku Anjong somewhat
eclipsed it after 1782.
We noticed above (footnote to p. 10) that the mysticism of Ahmad
QushashI was disseminated in the E. Indian Archipelago by a great
number of khalifahs (substitutes), who generally obtained the necessary
permission on the occasion of their pilgrimage to Mekka. In Java we
find innumerable salasilahs or spiritual genealogical trees of this tarlqah
or school of mystics. In Sumatra some even give their tariqah the
special name of Qushashite'); and it is only of late years that this
Satariah, as it is usually called, has begun to be regarded as an old-
fashioned and much-corrupted form of mysticism and to make place
for the tarlqahs now most popular in Mekka, such as the Naqshibendite
and Qadirite.
Satariah. I have called this school of QushashI corrupt for two reasons. In the
first place its Indonesian adherents have been so long left to them­
selves, 2 ) that this alone is enough to account for the creeping in of
all manner of impurities in the tradition. But besides this, both Javanese
and Malays have made use of the universal popularity enjoyed by the
name Satariah as a hall-mark with which to authenticate various kinds
of village philosophy to a large extent of pagan origin. We find for
instance certain formulas and tapa-rules which in spite of unmistakcablc
indications of Hindu influence may be called peculiarly Indonesian,
1) Ahmad QushashI himself calls his tarlqah the Shatlarite (after the well-known mystic
school founded by as-Shattarl) and points out that some of his spiritual ancestors also
represent the Qadirite tariqah. In the E. Indian Archipelago also, Satariah is the name
most in use to designate this old-fashioned mysticism.
2) In Arabia the Shattarite mysticism seems long to have fallen out of fashion; in Mekka
and Medina the very name is forgotten. In British India it still prevails here and there,
but as far as I am aware it does not enjoy anywhere a popularity which even approaches
that which it has attained in Indonesia.