Convergences and Divergences in Understanding a Malay Sufi Text of the17th Century

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This paper investigates the seventeenth-century Acehnese Sufi text known as Ḥaqq al-yaqīn fī ‘aqīdat al-muḥaqqiqīn (The Certified Faith of the Belief of the Verifiers). Written by the Malay Sufi, Shams al-Dīn Sumatra’ī (d.1630), the paper shows that this text contains aspects of Persian mysticism – although it should not be merely read as a rehash of that brand of mysticism. Persian mystical texts became well-known in Southeast Asia beginning with the famous Ḥamzah al-Fanṣūrī (d.ca.1602). Shams al-Dīn Sumatra’ī was one of Ḥamzah’s most important students and, similar to Ḥamzah, was wellversed in Persian. In the Ḥaqq al-yaqīn, Shams al-Dīn quotes from two main Persian writers, i.e. Maḥmūd Shabistarī and ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Jāmī. In this paper, however, we will focus on his usage of Shabistarī’s Gulshan-i Raz and its commentary, the Sharh Gulshan-i Raz by Muhammad Lahiji Gilani. The main question driving this paper is whether Shams al-Dīn’s usage of these quotations converges with Shabistarī’s own understanding of them. In other words, did Shams al-Dīn merely follow Shabistarī, thereby constituting little more than an imitator of Persian mystical writings and commentaries? Answering this question is crucial for an understanding of how early Muslim scholars viewed text and interpretation as part of their individual identities as scholars. Such findings will also be useful for demonstrating the successful dialogue between the Persian Islamic world and the Malay Islamic world via taṣawwuf or ‘irfān.