Lately I was blessed opportunity to visit the Islamic
traditional school (dayah) of Darussa'adah situated in Sukon Mesjid village,
Teupin Raya, in Pidie district. Being established in 1968, the dayah has
already had 120 branches in and outside Aceh. An overt impression of this
religious institution is the charisma of its founder, Teungku Muhammad Ali
Irsyad – commonly recognised with the title Abu Falaky – which has been
retaining currency in the people's memory.
His expertise in astronomy has been widely known in
Aceh. One thing rarely discussed is the horiso of his knowledge which is much
broader than that. In the dayah the students have to study Abu's works as
mandatory instructional materials besides other kitabs that have been widely
used in other dayahs across Aceh. As an enthusiast of Malay and Acehnese
Islamic manuscripts, I was completely amazed to see the works of his own handwriting
– produced during the time where electronical printing press was still not as
accessible as it is these days. His hand was extremely calligraphic,
immediately suggesting a high artistic taste of someone with deep chirographic
experience.
His knack of swiftly combining various khats – be for
the main texts of a kitab or other decorative parts like the cover – is a rare
phenomenon to find in other ulama. Lamentable is that most of his original
handwritten works are very much under-the-radar; it is told that they were
carried away by the enermous tsunami that hit Aceh on December 2004. The
remnants are the photocopies of them fortunately saved and multiplied for the
use in the dayah and all its branches.
There is a unique trait observable in the Abu's works.
The texts were written with fontsize that is relatively bigger that those of
other kitabs commonly circulated in Acehnese traditonal schools. The
interlinear space is broad enough, allowing the students or common readers to
pencil notes therein. It also works for translation added if the texts are in
Arabic. Based on information from one of Abu's students, the writing process of
each kitab went quite carefuly. Before writing, he usually cut a manila paper
himself, formed the size he wanted, and made subtle pencil lines on it as
guideline to hold the text in even position.
The Abu student told me that there were 'unusual'
occasions during the writing. Sometimes Abu got awake at midnight because of
being surprised by 'inspiration' of what he had to include in his text. Every
time such moment came, he never postponed to write. Occassionally, he could leave
a draft for a quite long hiatus until such a magical moment came again. As a
text is finished, Abu usually requested his students to do proofreading on it.
He would make corrections for any errors found by the proofreaders so that the
text become worth reading, thus ready for printing.
His intention to write is explicitly stated in the
mukadimah (openings) of his works. He mainly aimed to help learners understand
the contents of difficult kitabs faster. He selected important parts of the
kitabs to elaborate them with concise and easy-understood commentaries. For
example, he simplified the contents of several basic manuals for Arabic grammar
like Taḥrīrulaqwāl dan Al-Ajurūmiyyah. He often used
tables to accelerate readers' understanding of grammar formulas.
Moreover, his commentaries of some other works are in
Acehnese language – the language spoken by the majority of his students and
readers. Citing an example, in the opening of Badruddujā (the
translation of Safīnatunnajā) he stated the reason why he used the
language: " . . . li tashīli fahmihim wa naili ma’āribihim wa
tazwīdihim yaqīnan fī ta‘allumihim . . ." ("to accelerate their understanding and
achive various objectives as well as equp them with certainty in learning.:).
Preference to use local tongue with the same aim is also found in the opening
of Irsyādulghabī (translation of Matnul Ghāyah wat-Taqrīb). He
said: " . . . wa mā urīdu bihā illā tashīlan lil-mubtadī al-asyī fī
ta‘allumil-fiqh . . ." ( . . . there is nothing I want with it but to make
it easy for beginners among Acehnese people in learning Islamic law . .
.")
These statements overtly indicate his insight about
the signifinace of using first language someone speaks to speed up the way he
understand materials in foreign languages. In the cloasing of Abul-‘ulūm
(a guideline of Arabic grammar) he emphasised: "dan adalah kitab ini
sengaja saya karang khusus untuk murid-murid bangsa Aceh yang minat belajar
ilmu Nahwu karena terkandung di dalamnya cara-cara mengartikan kitab Arab dan
cara-cara meng-i'rabnya seperti yang telah dipergunakan oleh ulama-ulama di
Aceh yang dahulu" (and I composed this kitab especially for students
of the Aceh nation who are enthusiast in learning grammar because it contains
strategies to translate Arabic kitabs and unravel their structures as
exemplified by Acehnese scholars in the past"). Regardless of today's
debate on who is actually the Aceh nation, it seems that Abu believed that
linguistic bondings is one the most
essential elements.
Tens of Abu Falaky's works constitue a concrete
evident of how melodic the scholarship 'orchestra' was in the Dayah
Darussa'adah. Some suggest the Abu's kitabs be retyped with computer so they
could look more tidily. Nonetheless there are more people who choose to
maintain the photocopies of the works. Because this is the way through which
they can directly look into his pen scratches. More importantly, this is how
they show respect and retain 'blessing' (berkat) of the works.
Indeed, most of Abu's writings are meant to be
textbooks in his dayah. Among some of them that I read, I found a stunning literary
feature. That is, the writing adopted the style of oral delivery as practiced
by numerous teachers in traditional schools. This is what I recognised as
orality, which is a process a text being communicated to the listeners when
chirographic phase was still quite limited. This feature is also embedded in
texts of entertainment genre such as hikayat which is usually performed before
the crowd.
Perhaps, for some people, such a style of writing
seems to ignore the standard of good, acceptable writing and violate the
appropriate punctuation. That is why we heard offer for editing I mentioned
above. As a matter of fact, this style constitutes adaptation of oral
interaction between teachers and students in an instructional setting. Reading
his writings makes it feels as if we directly attend Abu's class in flesh and
listen to the typical Acehnese tone of his speech.
Abu clearly stated why he intended to write with this
style. In the opening of Farādisuljinān (translation of Al-‘Awāmil
al-Jurnānī) Abu clarified: ". . . dengan bahasan (cara) yang
dipergunakan oleh kebanyakan ulama-ulama Aceh yang muktabar dahulu demi untuk mempercepat
paham kitab-kitab Arab . . ." ( ". . . with discussion style as
used by most of reliable Acehnese scholars in order to accelerate the
understanding of Arabic books . . .").
Fortunately, day by day, the Dayah Darussa'adah
becomes more famed and the number of its students rises. This means that
traditional Acehnese education mode – despite some adjustments to fit modern
dynamics – is still wanted by the society. It is hoped that scholarly
activities to trace legacies of Acehnese ulama could enjoy more attention. So,
more titles of their works become known to the public and not foreign in the
land of their production.
Banda Aceh, March 03, 2022.
