Tuhfah al-Mursalah ila Ruh al-Nabiy as the Source of the Doctrine Seven Grades of Being in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago

Abstract

The doctrine of seven grades of Being (Martabat Tujuh) has been widely known to be a sufi interpretation of God’s Oneness (al-Tawhid). It originated in the subcontinent of India in the early seventeenth century. The doctrine was later introduced in Aceh and gained popularity among the Malay sufi authors and practitioners until the present day. Amid its wide acceptance, the teaching has long been considered by many scholars to be incompatible with the Islamic principle teachings of God’s Unity. The purpose of this article is to give an insight into the background of the writing of the Tuhfah al-Mursalah Ila Ruh al-Nabiyy and to establish its credibility as an authentic Islamic work by a recognized Muslim sufi scholar. To achieve its objectives, data of this writing was gathered through the usage of document analysis and then described using deducted and inducted analysis. This article found that the Tuhfah al-Mursalah was originally written to combatting misinterpretation of the teaching of wahdat al-wujud in the subcontinent India. It was later exported to the Aceh in the early sixteenth century. The work was written by a knowledgeable and important Indian Muslim sufi scholar. His credentials as a Muslim scholar were testified with few commentaries on the Tuhfah al-Mursalah by famous and well-known Muslim scholars in the Muslim world. Therefore, this work occupies an important place in providing a true comprehension of the doctrine of seven grades of Being.