Shaykh ar-Raniri's Sufism Controversy

 

Shaykh ar-Raniri's Sufism Controversy

Shaikh Nuruddin ar-Raniri, whose full name is Nuruddin Muhammad bin Ali bin Hasanji al-Hamid. He was born in Ranir, or commonly called Randir, an old port city on the coast of Gujarat, in the middle of the XVI century. Shaikh Nuruddin's mother is of Malay descent, while his father comes from a Hadramaut immigrant family.

Ar-Raniri is a type of traveler, seeker of knowledge. In 1621 AD, he traveled to Mecca and Medina to complete the pilgrimage and pilgrimage to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad. In the process of this pilgrimage, ar-Raniri met with pilgrims from the archipelago, and some of them who had long lived in Mecca to study religion.

Shaykh ar-Raniri is closer as a Sufi than a jurist. Ar-Raniri's thirty works, most of them discuss Sufism and aqeedah. Studies related to polemics with the concept of a-wujud wihdat, which Hamzah al-Fansuri and as-Sumatrani campaigned.

Ar-Raniri is also known as a follower of the Qadiriyah, Rifa'iyyah and al-Audarusiyyah orders. This makes his fiqh thinking nuanced Sufism, and conversely the works in Sufism have a fiqh dimension. His sharp criticisms of wihdat al-Manifestism are solely oriented towards harmonizing the dimensions of sharia and Sufism (Mahsun Fuad, 2005: 36-8).

In his book, Shirath al-Mustaqim , which was written in 1634 - 1644 AD, there are thoughts that show how much he encouraged the religious arrangement of the group that carried Pantheism. Among them, his opinion regarding the invalidity of the prayer of a person who is a makmum of the Wujudiyyah followers of the mulhid , that the slaughter of animals performed by the Wujudiyyah group is not valid as the slaughter of animals performed by apostates and polytheists.

Another thought, which caused controversy, is that istinja' should use items that are clearly not prohibited by the syar'a', such as bones and skins of animals that have not been tanned, and it is better to use the Torah and Injil books that have changed their contents for istinja' than to use something that forbidden by religion.

Of course, this fatwa later invited criticism from scholars who did not agree with ar-Raniri's thinking. Shaykh Ibrahim Hasan al-Kurani strongly condemned this fatwa, as well as reminded the wide-ranging dangers of this fatwa.

Shaikh Nuruddin ar-Raniri repeatedly visited Aceh. He first entered Aceh, on May 3, 1637, who then returned to his country in Ranir in 1644. After the death of Sultan Iskandar Tsani, Shaikh Nuruddin ar-Raniri decided to return to Ranir. Shaikh ar-Raniri returned to Aceh again, after Sultanah Tajul Alam ruled in place of her husband. While in Aceh, Sheikh ar-Raniri was involved in a heated debate with Hamzah Fansuri and as-Sumatrani.

When in Aceh, ar-Raniri had time to teach Shaykh Yusuf al-Makassari, by giving him a degree of the Qodiriyah order, as Shaykh Yusuf wrote in the treatise Safinat an-Najah. The treatise tells that Shaykh Yusuf received the Qadiriyah order from "our Shaykh who is pious, perfectly wise, and unites the knowledge of Sharia and the knowledge of Reality, our leader Shaykh Nuruddin Hasanji bin Muhammad Hamid al-Qurasyi ar-Raniri."

As noted by Abu Hamid (1994: 91), the genealogy of this order was obtained from his teacher, as Shaykh Nuruddin said he received from his shaykh, namely Maulana Sayed Umar bin Abdullah bin Abd. Rahman Ba' Syaebani al-Hadrami Burhan Nufuri in Hindi land. The names of Shaykhs from generation to generation amount to 29 people, who are connected to Sayyidina Rasulullah SAW.

Despite causing controversy in the long range of Sufism in the archipelago, Shaykh Nuruddin ar-Raniri cannot be forgotten in the long record of Sufi figures who had great influence in Aceh. Ar-Raniri's thoughts open wide doors for study and contextualization in the present.