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INVENTING BALINESE MUSLIMSAINTHOODSyaifudin ZuhriPublished online: 10 Jan 2013.

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Syaifudin Zuhri

INVENTING BALINESE MUSLIM

SAINTHOOD∗

Recently, Balinese Muslims have developed images of sainthood by ‘inventing’ the graves ofseven Balinese Muslim saints (Wali Pitu). The inventive process includes the construction ofhistorical narratives, notions of sacredness, and sacred messages (hatif) deemed to have comefrom God. The article shows that hatif is the most significant element in this inventiveprocess. Toyib Zaen Arifin (1925–2000) played the most important role in the constructionof the Balinese Muslim saint cult because he had been the sole recipient of hatif.

Keywords: Balinese Muslim; sainthood; Wali Pitu; keramat; hatif

Introduction

Bali is almost exclusively identified with Hinduism rather than Islam (Geertz 1963;1980; 1983; Howe 2005). It is depicted in both popular and academic discourse as aJavanese Hindu ‘museum’ and contrasted with Islamised Java (Nordholt 1986; Wolf1982). However, the presence of Muslims in Bali has been recorded since the establish-ment of the Hindu kingdom of Gelgel in 1380. The above is obviously due to the factthat compared to Balinese Hindus who form 87% (2.7 million) of the total Balinesepopulation of more than three million people, Balinese Muslims today are a minorityreligious group at just over 10% (about 324,000) (Badan Pusat Statistik Provinsi Bali2010: 120). While Muslim communities are scattered throughout Bali, most arelocated on the northern coast. In addition, they are also concentrated in Singaraja,Denpasar, Buleleng, in the western parts of Jembrana, and Karangasem (Mulyonoet al. 1979–80; Ambary 1985: 39–41).

This article discusses contemporary Balinese Muslim discourse, focusing on theinvention and institutionalisation of a cult of saints based on the ideas of sainthood(wali) and keramat (miracles) (Salvatore 2008: 90). As Gellner (1969) argues, thisprocess involves the localisation of Muslim concepts of sainthood, endowing a particularwali with extraordinary faculties and imposing his authority on a social community. Inother words, sainthood is always localised in a specific context which makes ‘IndonesianIslam’ different from ‘Moroccan Islam’ (Geertz 1971). Therefore, the localisation of

∗The author thanks Rhomayda Alfa Aimah (Leiden University), Mark Woodward (Arizona State Uni-versity), Christopher Chaplin (University of Cambridge) and two anonymous IMW reviewers fortheir comments on parts of the earlier draft of this article.

Indonesia and the Malay World, 2013

Vol. 41, No. 119, pp. 1–13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2012.750106

# 2013 Editors, Indonesia and the Malay World

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Balinese Muslim concepts of sainthood makes Balinese Islam different from other Indo-nesian forms of Islam. As with their Javanese Muslim counterparts, Balinese Muslimscreated a particular form of sainthood congruent with local social conditions andsuggested a connection with Javanese Muslim tradition in which the Wali Songo (ninesaints) figure significantly.

There is an extensive literature on Muslim saints in Indonesia, which focuses primar-ily on Javanese examples, especially the Wali Songo and their importance in the Islamisationof Java (Rinkes 1996; Fox 1997; Gade 2009: 341–59). The role of saints in the process ofIslamisation and practice of Islam in other parts of the archipelago, has received less atten-tion however. Balinese Muslim sainthood, and Islam in Bali in a more general sense, haspassed almost unnoticed. This study will begin to fill these gaps by examining Muslimsaints located in the heartland of Hindu civilisation in contemporary Indonesia. It willalso examine the contestation of sainthood between proponents of traditionalist and refor-mist variants of Balinese Islam. The discussion is based on data collected through obser-vations and informal interviews with Balinese Muslims in 2007.

On the origins of Balinese Islam

The origins and development of Islam in Bali are centred around the emergence ofMuslim communities or districts (kampung Islam/Muslim). It is difficult to reconstructthe early history of these communities for lack of sources other than oral tradition. Thefirst of these traditions points to the presence of Muslims in Bali at the time of the HinduJavanese kings of Majapahit, prior to the founding of Demak, the first Islamic kingdomin Java in 1478. Oral histories maintain that, sometime during the reign of HayamWuruk (1350–1389), 40 Muslims from Majapahit accompanied Dalem Ketut Nglesir(1380–1460) when the latter founded the capital of Gelgel in 1380. These JavaneseMuslim settlers are believed to be the ancestors of the present inhabitants of theMuslim district in Gelgel (Ambary 1985: 39–41).

There is another tradition included in the Balinese oral tradition Kidung Pemancah,that two Muslim missionaries from Mecca accompanied by some Javanese Muslimstried, but failed to convert the Balinese king, Baturenggong (1550s), and that their pres-ence on the island led to the establishment of a Javanese district (Kampung Jawa) atLebah in Klungkung and the community of Saren Jawa in Karangasem (Vickers 1987:38). In addition, the period after the fall of the Islamic kingdom in Makassar, Gowa(1667), coincided with the disintegration of Gelgel and the new kingdoms in Bali,which led to the establishment of communities of Muslim refugees from Makassar inLoloan, Jembrana. These oral histories maintain that this community was founded asa bajo [wajo] district (Kampung Wajo) by Daeng Nahkoda in 1669, with the permissionof I Gusti Ngurah Pancoran, the ruler of Jembrana (Mulyono et al. 1979–80: 23).Other oral histories maintain that a section of the Muslim community in Loloan wasfounded by Sharif Abdullah bin Yahya al-Qodry of Pontianak who was fleeing fromthe Dutch as they considered him to be a pirate (Suwitha 1979: 128 quoted inVickers 1987: 39). There are also disputes concerning the origins of the Muslim com-munity of the Bajo district in Buleleng however. Alternative traditions maintain the foun-ders of this community were either a group of Muslim settlers from Johor, Malaya, orfrom a Javanese community in Probolinggo (now part of East Java), whereas a Muslim

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community in the southern part of the island, Badung, traces their origins either to threeMuslim officials from the Mengwi kingdom or from Madurese settlers (Vickers 1987).

Nevertheless, contemporary Balinese Muslims trace their origins to a combinationof Bali-Hindu ancestors and settlers from Java, Madura, Bugis (Makassar) or Sasak(Lombok). Additionally, they also trace their origins to Hadrami-Arabs, who hadmigrated to Bali from the 1870s and married Balinese women who converted toIslam and mostly settled in Singaraja (Barth 1993: 178; Jacobsen 2009: chapter 3). Con-cerning contemporary discussion on Balinese Muslims, we are greatly indebted to theNorwegian anthropologist Fredrik Barth (1993) for his contributions to the literatureon Balinese Islam especially in Pagetapan. However, at the time of his fieldwork, Balinesetraditions of sainthood had not been firmly established, appearing only in 1992. Conse-quently, Barth did not have the opportunity to observe what has become one of the dis-tinctive features of Balinese Islam.

Creating narratives of the Balinese Muslim sainthood

It seems the reformist and traditionalist viewpoints in matters concerning the relationswith sainthood are irreconcilable, although this now rarely leads to open conflictsbetween neighbours. Traditionalists firmly hold the position that sainthood is an essentialelement of Islam, while reformists accuse them of mystical, polytheistic deviations (shirk)from true Islam and – among other things – call for the purification of Islam from localpractices (Noer 1973; Saleh 2001; van Bruinessen 1996). Disputes about sainthoodamong Balinese Muslims do not figure in public discourse to the same extent as theydo in Java and many other parts of Indonesia as Balinese Muslims, probably due totheir minority status, stress the unity of the umma (Muslim society), in spite of the exist-ence of internal divisions. However, this is not to say that disputes between traditionalistand reformist views pertaining to sainthood do not exist as the largest reformist organ-isation, Muhammadiyah, and the largest traditionalist organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama(NU) have both established Balinese branches. NU is the more popular of the two. Itis worth noting that the above two poles often overlap as Muhammadiyah, mainlysince the 1980s, has adopted many aspects of the Indonesian culture, re-interpretingits puritanical reformist tendency and NU has moved forward reforming the so-calledtraditional Islam and significantly contributed to the birth of many innovative Indonesianulama (van Bruinessen 1996; P. van Doorn-Harder 2006: 83). This means the boundarybetween reformism and traditionalism within santri circles has also blurred (Liddle1996: 613–34; van Bruinessen 2009: 187–207).

Simply put, the following discussion of the invention of the Balinese Muslim saint-hood suggests that the efforts of traditionalists, rather than their reformist opponents,have contributed most significantly to the construction of Islam and Muslim identity inBali. As a religious tradition, sainthood is not born out of nothing as it invites ‘modes ofauthentication’ – ways of imagining, to argue for historical and normative foundationsof religion and culture – by which people identify themselves, and relate to the norma-tive source and history (Schielke and Stauth 2008: 8). Traditionalist Balinese Muslimshave used the imagination and invention of saints and their graves as a strategy forthe construction of a Muslim identity and to establish connections with larger nationaland trans-national Muslim communities. In addition, Wali Pitu (Ar. Sab‘a al-‘Auliya), the

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seven Balinese Muslim saints can be understood as a sacred genealogy through whichtraditionalist Muslims in Bali locate their Islamic roots, constructing a Muslim identitydefined by sainthood but located in the context of the dominant Hindu civilisation. It isalso important to note that the number seven as attached to the concept of Wali Pitu isone of the most significant numbers in many religious traditions. Seven was often con-nected with the development of human life, completion and perfection (Schimmel2004). In Balinese Hindu worldviews, the number seven (sapta) represents the sevengrades of the universe (Soebandi 1981: 94–5), whereas in Sufi tradition, the numberseven points to the mystical hierarchy, as the seven grades of being (martabat tujuh)exemplifies. Success in achieving all these grades makes the Sufi seeker a ‘perfectman’ (Ar. al-insan al-kamil) (Johns 2009: 148–63; Riddell 2001: 113–14).

The social imagination and construction of sainthood narratives by Balinese Muslimsbegan in 1992 when the leader of Jamaah Manaqib, Toyib Zaen Arifin (1925–2000),claimed to have heard hatif (an Arabic term literally meaning ‘whisper’ and in Sufi tra-dition it is supposed to be whispered messages believed to be from God without thephysical appearance) telling him to find the graves of seven Balinese Muslim saints.Arifin is a graduate of Madrasah Arobithotul Arabiyah and Madrasah NahdlatulUlama in Semarang, Central Java. Between 1945 and 1950 he served in the Indonesianmilitary and began a business career in Sidoarjo, East Java, in 1963. In 1987, Arifinestablished a female boarding school (pesantren putri), al-Khoiriyah in Sidoarjo. Hisacquaintance with Bali began when a Muslim merchant from Bali, Zaenul Musabbihin,visited his house sometime in 1991. During his visit, Musabbihin told Arifin the story ofan old Balinese convert, Saja’i. He converted to Islam in 1991, but his children remainedHindus. The story interested Arifin so much that he wanted to meet Saja’i in person, ifonly he had money to travel to Bali.

Arifin explained that he was blessed, that his wish was granted and that he was ableto travel to Bali and to meet Saja’i sometime later. During his visit, Arifin spent hisnights at Musabbihin’s house. He was warmly welcomed not only by Musabbihin’sfamily members, but also by his acquaintances who came to the house as they knewthat a kyai (religious scholar) from Java was staying there. As many people gathered,Arifin invited the guests to recite the manaqib of Abdul Qadir Jilani, the founder ofQadiriya Sufi order.1 Since that time the manaqib has been conducted on a monthlybasis and Arifin frequently visited Bali to participate in it. The number of participantsin the manaqib grew and in 1991 it was agreed to name the Jamaah Manaqib Jamali,an acronym for Jawa-Madura-Bali referring to the origins of the participants (Arifin2001: 4).

The first hatif he heard was sometime in 1992, one year after he established theJamaah. The hatif was in Javanese and instructed the figure to uncover the existenceof Balinese Muslim sainthood. It continued for three nights over the course of whichhe claimed to have heard the following three hatif while performing night prayers(Ar. sholat al-lail) (Arifin 2001: 51–2). These four hatif and their translations are asfollows:

1Manaqib is a recital linked to the autobiography of wali and the manaqib of Syekh Abdul Qadir Jilanithat the Jamaah recites is the most prominent one. Martin van Bruinessen (2000) has discussed thecentrality of this manaqib within the Qadiriyah Sufi order in Indonesia.

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1. Wus kaporo nyoto ing telata Bali iku kawengku dining pitu piro-piro wali cubo wujudno [It isindubitable that Seven Muslim saints had lived in Bali. Try to find them!]

2. Ono sawijining pepunden dumunung ono ing telatah susunaning siti sasandingan pamujaanagung kang manggon sak duwuring tirto kang kadarbeni dining suwitaning pandito ojosumelang [there is a pepunden – an object of veneration – located somewherearound a mound above water next to a Hindu temple which is guarded by adevoted priest. Do not hesitate!]2

3. Waspadakno pitu iku keparang dadi papat [Just be aware, that those seven are dividedinto four]

4. Pitu keparang dadi papat iku pangertenane, kapisan wus kaporo nyoto, kapindo istidrojwujude kembar, kaping telu wus lair ning durung wujud, kaping papat lio bongso[‘those seven are divided into four,’ implying that the first ones have existed, thesecond ones were honoured and twins, the third one has already been born buthas not existed yet, the fourth one was foreign-born]

Messages from God have always been of central importance in Islam and to Muslimsocieties. The Qur’an is the paradigmatic example. Muslims maintain that it wasrevealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the agency of the angel Jibril. Thereare, however, messages from God that are external to the Qur’an. Muslim theologians(mutakallimun) developed concepts to establish hierarchies of messages and recipients. Atthe top is wahy (revelation), which was only sent to the prophets. The Qur’an is the wahysent to the Prophet Muhammad. In theological discourse, wahy was only delivered to theprophets and Muhammad is the seal of the prophet (Ar. khatam al-anbiya’), therefore anyclaims to have received wahy after Muhammad are considered heretical (Wensinck andRippin 2004). Below wahy are ilham and hatif and are sent by God to saints, not pro-phets. However, ilham and hatif differ in how messages are received. Whereas ilhamis mainly obtained through dreams or thoughts unintentionally coming up to someone’smind (MacDonald 2004), hatif is acquired when someone is in a conscious condition as asoft whispering sound from an invisible source (Fahd 2004). To determine if one hasreceived ilham or hatif – let alone wahy – from God is not an easy task. Here, weare not concerned with this question, but rather with the ways in which traditionalistand reformist Muslims interpret such claims. Traditionalists accept ilham and hatif assacred messages that God sends to saints. Reformists are sceptical of claims thatpeople have received them, often discounting them as irrational and mystical. Further-more, reformists attack traditionalists for being trapped in un-Islamic influences anddenounce the special position of saints as mediators of divine power.

In addition to hatif, the process of imagining of sainthood also involves the construc-tion of keramat (Ar. karama) or miracles. Because wali are considered as ‘holy men’ withesoteric powers, it is believed that they are able to send baraka (blessing) to their devo-tees. The term keramat can also refer to a place endowed with power (tempat keramat)that pilgrims may visit to request assistance, blessing and spiritual guidance. It canalso be used as an adjective to describe people and objects believed to possess spiritualpower (orang/benda keramat) Wali are seen as possessing esoteric and mystical forms ofIslamic knowledge and their graves are maintained as tempat keramat or kuburan keramat

2As with other Balinese, Arifin translates that a mound above water refers to Tanah Lot where one ofthe most sacred Hindu temples, Pura Agung, is located (Arifin 2001: 54).

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(holy graves). Reformists strongly oppose the concepts of both keramat and barakaespecially when they are attributed to people or places. They also consider belief inthem to be key factors contributing to the backwardness of the Muslim communityand as factors leading Muslims to fall into superstition and polytheism (shirk). Tradition-alist Muslims are committed to the belief that God has blessed some people and siteswith special spiritual qualities and powers. They venerate them not as God, as reformistsclaim, but to honour them as wasila (intercessors) between ordinary humans and God.

Inventing Wali Pitu and their graves

As discussed earlier, modes of authentication are integral parts of the social imaginationof sainthood as these involve the construction of sacredness and trustful guidance. TheBalinese Wali Pitu are an example of this process. The hatif that God reputedly sent toArifin enabled Balinese Muslims to construct local conceptions and forms of sainthood,physically manifested in the newly discovered sacred graves identified as tombs of sevenBalinese Muslim saints.

The grave identified as the first Wali Pitu’s tomb, that of Mas Sepuh also known asKeramat Pantai Seseh or Amangkuningrat, was found in 1992 when one of Jamaah Man-aqib’s members, Zaenul, unintentionally met an unknown elderly man at the UkhuwahMosque in Denpasar who told him about the existence of a sacred Muslim grave near theHindu temple at Tanah Lot. Afterwards, Zaenul informed other members of the story ata manaqib ceremony. The members of Jamaah Manaqib responded by asking their col-leagues, Zaenul and Sulkan, to find it. They eventually discovered the tomb nearSeseh beach. Members of the Jamaah also found two other graves, that of Dewi Khodijahalias Ratu Ayu Anak Agung Rai and of Sosrodiningrat.3 However the discovery of gravesdoes not necessarily imply that they are those of saints. This required further divine affir-mation from Arifin, who was the sole recipient of the hatif. Arifin told the Jamaah that,according to the second hatif, Mas Sepuh is a saint, but that Ratu Ayu Anak Agung Raiand Sosrodiningrat are not, as indicated by the fourth hatif mentioned earlier.

According to Mangku, the gatekeeper ( juru kunci) of the grave, Mas Sepuh was aprince of Mengwi kingdom, Ida Cokorda I, and reigned as king of Blambangan in1711. He was of Javanese descent on his mother’s side and raised in a Muslim familyin Banyuwangi. During his childhood, Sepuh did not know that his father was king ofMengwi. After learning that he was a prince of Mengwi, he rode a Klepu (lionfish)and travelled to Bali to meet his father. When he went back to Banyuwangi, anumber of people attacked him. Defending himself, Sepuh pointed his kris to the skyand suddenly the attacking people lost their power and were wounded by his magicalpower. These extraordinary powers are believed to be keramat, which God hadgranted him (Arifin 2001: 57–8).

3Khodijah is believed to be the daughter of the Pamecutan king, Cokorda III who reigned in 1653. Shemarried a high official of Mataram, Sosrodiningrat, and converted to Islam.The king and noblesopposed her conversion. She was attacked by an aristocrat and stabbed in the back with a spearwhile performing her prayers. Along with blood, an overwhelming blue light that illuminated theentire palace flowed from her body. Balinese Muslims believe that Khodijah was blessed withkeramat, even though she is not counted as Wali Pitu.

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The grave believed to be the second wali’s tomb, that of Yusuf al-Maghribi, wasfound on the basis of information from a kyai leading Pesantren Khuffadil Qur’an (pesant-ren; Islamic boarding school) of Tabanan, Nur Hadi. When visiting the pesantren in 1993,Nur Hadi told Arifin about the existence of Yusuf al-Maghribi’s tomb and informed himabout the keramat of the grave, instead of an historical description about the figure.Unlike the Pantai Seseh’s keramat, the keramat of Maghribi is attached to the tomb. Itis believed that people around the grave of Maghribi wanted to build a tomb. Thehead of the nature reserve (cagar alam) would not allow them however. He subsequentlyfell ill, which Muslims believed was a consequence of his refusal to approve plans for theconstruction of the tomb. After asking for forgiveness and allowing the people to buildit, his health was restored, which Muslims attribute to the power of the saint (Arifin2001: 61–4). The tomb of Yusuf al-Maghribi later became known as MakamKeramat Bedugul.

The grave identified as that of the third wali was found in 1994 when Arifin receivedanother hatif telling him about a keramat tomb located in a public cemetery (perkuburanumum) on the street heading to the Lawa cave in Karangasem. Based upon this hatif, theJamaah found out that the tomb of Habib Ali bin Abu Bakar al Hamid, known as MakamKeramat Kusambeh. Habib (Ar. lit.,‘beloved’) is an honorific epithet generally appliedto those of Sayyid descent, indicating descent from al-Husayn, the grandson of theProphet. He is believed to have been a Malay language teacher at the court of Klungkungduring the reign of Dewa Agung Jambe I (1686–1722). Sometime during his service as ateacher, a prince of the kingdom felt offended when he met the figure sitting steadily onhis horse’s back, indicating a disrespectful attitude towards the royal family. The princetold his father about the incident and asked the king to punish Hamid for his attitude.The king refused to do so but furtively asked Hamid to leave the palace. Hamidobeyed the order and left the palace, walking along the southern beach. When hearrived in Kusamba, he was killed in an attack by a group of unknown people andburied there. It is believed that the night after the murder, fire emerged fromHamid’s grave, injuring or killing the murderers. People living around the graveyardstill believe that Hamid continues to be capable of delivering punishment to people inKusamba if they commit misdeeds (Arifin 2001: 66).

In 1995, Arifin received another hatif instructing him to find other keramat tombs ofBalinese Muslim saints by asking an elderly paralysed man somewhere in the vicinity ofKarangasem about the location of the wali’s graves. This man was said to have been paral-ysed because of his old age, not due to an accident or calamity. Arifin and his Jamaahwere not able to find him. Nevertheless, Arifin’s unexpected encounter withGhufron, a Balinese Muslim living around Karangasem, in the Subagan Mosque afterFriday prayers, brought optimism to the Jamaah because this man told Arifin aboutthe grave of Habib Ali bin Zainal Abidin al-Idrus (d. 1982) who had become paralysedin his old age. Ghufron then took the Jamaah to meet a son of Habib Ali, Habib Muhdor.Through Muhdor, Arifin obtained information that next to Habib Ali’s grave there wasan anonymous grave which was estimated to be more than 400 years old. When theyvisited the grave, the Jamaah were impressed by the bricks surrounding the tomb. Itis thought that the bricks are endowed with magical power because they protectedthe tomb from being covered with dust and stone when the Gunung Agung eruptedin 1963. Even though the eruption could be felt as far away as the eastern part ofJava, it did not ruin the grave, which was located near the mountain. However, no

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one knew who was buried there at the time. Arifin then tried to look for information,including through spiritual ways, to name the tomb. Six months after the grave was dis-covered, Arifin declared that the tomb belongs to an Iraqi descendant wali namelyMaulana Yusuf al-Baghdi.4 Ever since, these two tombs, those of Habib Ali andMaulana Yusuf, have been maintained as the fourth and the fifth of Wali Pitu and alsoknown as Makam Keramat Kembar. However, there are no stories about the keramatof Habib Ali similar to those concerning the other wali. His saintly authority is notbased upon keramat, but attributed to his lineage and his devotion as a gatekeeper ofMaulana Yusuf’s grave (Arifin 2001: 68–72).

The tomb believed to be that of the sixth wali’s grave is based on the second hatif thatArifin received telling him about a tomb located somewhere around Singaraja, near tothe beach and next to one of the most important Balinese Hindu temples, Pura Agung.With Habib Muhdor’s, and his brother, Habib Muhammad’s assistance, Arifin and hisJamaah found the grave in 1995. However, Arifin was doubtful at first because itappeared to be a Chinese grave. Not long after the grave was discovered, Arifin receivedanother hatif, telling him that it is the grave of The Kwan Lie, later known as AbdulQodir Muhammad. The Kwan Lie is said to have been one of the three guardianswhom a ruler from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Hong Zhi (1470–1505),charged with accompanying his daughter, Ong Tien, on her journey to Java. Thepurpose of this journey was to see Sharief Hidayatullah with whom Tien had fallen inlove when the former visited China.

Sharief Hidayatullah, later commonly known as Sunan Gunung Jati, is one of theJavanese Wali Songo. As the oral story goes, sometime in 1479 during the Ming era,he travelled to China where he met a Ming admiral, Zheng He, who converted toIslam and travelled to Java. During his stay, he was well known as a tabib (practitionerof alternative healing) whose speciality was admired by local Chinese (Djajadiningrat1913). Having heard about his popularity, Hong Zhi invited Hidayatullah to thepalace to test his ability. Hong Zhi asked Hidayatullah to determine which of twowomen was pregnant. One of the two was Ong Tien who pretended to be pregnant.Hidayatullah was capable of selecting the pregnant woman. Furthermore, Hidayatullahasked God that Ong Tien become pregnant and suddenly she conceived, although it isstill unknown what ‘pregnancy’ means in the story. It could possibly refer to fallingpregnant without sexual intercourse, which reminds us of the story of Mariah, themother of the Prophet Isa (Jesus).

During the journey, Ong Tien was protected by three high ranking Muslim officials:Pai Lie Bang, Lie Guan Gang and Lie Guan Hien. She arrived in Java and married SunanGunung Jati in 1481. Four years later, she passed away and was buried in the cemeterynext to Gunung Jati’s grave. Her legacy can be seen from the Chinese ceramics sur-rounding the palace of Cirebon Sultanate. However, we cannot determine whom thetitle The Kwan Lie refers to because Arifin seemed to be confused and failed toclearly resolve the story of The Kwan Lie. Arifin mentioned that The Kwan Lie, anabbreviation for Lie Guan Pai Lie, refers to those three Chinese officials, but at timeshe has stated that The Kwan Lie was one of Sunan Gunung Jati’s pupils (Arifin 2001:77–9). However, as in the case of the other wali, the determination of whether or

4However, it is unusual as many Iraqi descendants use al-Baghdadi rather than al-Baghdi as their nisbaname.

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not a certain tomb is actually that of a saint does not simply depend only on the historicalexplanation or similarity of names. Mystical properties attributed to it are more signifi-cant. The Kwan Lie is a name that Arifin received through a spiritual technique or hatifand which he later announced was the sixth wali and attributed the so-called MakamKeramat Rupit to the tomb.

The grave identified as that of the seventh wali is the tomb of an Hadrami descen-dant, Ali bin Umar bin Abubakar Bafaqih (1890–1999). His grave is also known asMakam Keramat Loloan. Nevertheless, as the concept of Wali Pitu had been knownsince 1992 and firmly established in 1995 when Arifin indentified the sixth wali’stomb, that of The Kwan Lie, he had mentioned the seventh wali as qobla al-wujud(prior to the appearance). This means that the supposed seventh wali’s grave did notyet exist because he was still alive. However, Arifin indicated that he had receivedhatif telling him that the last wali’s tomb would be located somewhere around Jembranaand the Jamaah should wait for the appearance of the last wali (see the fourth hatif above)(Arifin 2001: 81). Arifin argued that they would come to know who would be deemed asthe seventh wali when the seventh principal figure passed away.

On 29 March 1999, Ali bin Umar bin Abubakar Bafaqih passed away. Arifin pro-claimed the figure as the seventh wali later in the same year. Ali bin Umar was bornin Banyuwangi. In 1910, he went to Mecca to study Islam for seven years. After return-ing to his homeland, Ali studied at pesantren Tambakberas in Jombang, East Java. Thepesantren was founded by Wahab Abdullah (1888–1971), one of the founders ofNahdlatul Ulama. In 1935, Ali established his own pesantren named PesantrenSyamsul Huda, in Loloan, Jembrana. Unlike his Wali Pitu counterparts, Ali wasrenowned for his Islamic knowledge, not for his keramat. However, like the fourthwali, Habib Ali bin Zainal Abidin al-Idrus, he was a descendant of the Prophet Muham-mad. It is still not known how the title seventh wali was initially attributed to AbubakarBafaqih, but we can assume that the determination of his sainthood is based upon a hatif,as in the cases of the other wali.

With the finding of the seventh wali’s tomb, the company of the seven Balinese Muslimsaints was complete. Arifin, together with his Jamaah, finally fulfilled their duty to find thedeemed graves of Balinese Muslim saints as the hatif instructed. The fourth hatif is signifi-cant as it completes the formula of the Balinese Muslim saints (see the fourth hatif above).The first formula (the first ones who have existed) refers to three saints: Amangkuningrat,Yusuf al-Maghribi and Habib Ali bin Abu Bakar al Hamid. The second formula (the secondones who were honoured and twins) refers to Dewi Khodijah alias Ratu Ayu Anak AgungRai and Sosrodiningrat, who are not included as wali, but their graves are honoured, whilethe twins are considered to be Habib Ali bin Zainal Abidin al-Idrus and Maulana Yusuf al-Baghdi. The third formula (the third one who has already been born but has not existedyet) refers to Ali bin Umar bin Abubakar Bafaqih, whereas the foreign-born means TheKwan Lie (Arifin 2001: 82).

Practice of ziarah

Ziarah is a pilgrimage to holy places or sites. In Java, places for ziarah include the gravesof wali and Muslim kings or nobles (Chambert-Loir 2002: 132–243; Chambert-Loirand Guillot 2007; van Doorn-Harder and Jong 2006: 483–506). Ziarah sites in

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Indonesia are economic and political as well as religious sites. The large number of pil-grims led people in areas surrounding the sites to develop their economic activities.Government officials and politicians underscore the importance of religious tourismand use patronage of religious sites to establish or maintain their authority. However,the graves of Wali Pitu do not generate massive attention in the way that those of theJavanese Wali Songo do. Unlike the graves of Wali Songo that draw tens and even hundredsof thousands of visitors from all over the Indonesia and neighbouring countries, thegraves of Wali Pitu are visited by only a few hundred traditionalist Muslims from Baliand other areas, mainly from East Java. When I visited some of the graves of theWali Pitu in February 2007, I found that they were not well tended and not all weremarked with permanent structures. Some are marked only by cairn, while those ofthe Wali Songo are elaborate structures. Furthermore, unlike the graves of the WaliSongo many of which are located on the top of a hill or a mountain, the graves ofWali Pitu are located in central Muslim districts, surrounded by Hindu neighbourhoods,and even in the centre of Denpasar, Bali’s capital.

However, there is no distinction between the practices of ziarah at the Wali Songograves and those of the Wali Pitu. Visitors usually come at specific times determined bythe intersection of cycles according to the Javanese calendar to recite prayers andperform acts of veneration. The most important time is jumat-kliwon5 and satu suro,the first day of the month of Muharram or Islamic New Year. The most commonrecital for ziarah is tahlil (special recitation mentioning la-ilahailla-Alla, there is nogod, but God) led by the juru kunci who plays a significant role in pilgrimagerituals. Not only does he leads the religious ceremony, but he also knows the silsilaor genealogical chains from the Prophet Muhammad, leading to the wali. Duringthe ceremony, the juru kunci sits beside the wali’s grave. The religious ceremonystarts when the juru kunci recites al-Fatihah (the first sura of al-Qur’an) severaltimes. Each recital of al-Fatihah is accompanied by mentioning the name of acertain figure, which is followed by the recitation of al-Fatihah, continued by othernames, according to the silsila, and starting from the Prophet Muhammad. Followingthe al-Fatihah recital, the juru kunci will start to recite tahlil and the ceremony is closedwith du’a (prayer) intended to ask for the well being of the deceased and the pilgrims.

Conclusion

In the Muslim world, sainthood is a pivotal religious tradition through which honour isbestowed on principal religious figures of the past and chains of religious knowledgeconnecting them with the Prophet Muhammad. Saints are revered not only as piouspredecessors, but also as holy men God has blessed with esoteric power and baraka.The invention of the Balinese Wali Pitu can be understood as an effort of minorityMuslims in the heartland of Hindu civilisation in Indonesia to maintain this tradition.Despite, and perhaps because of their minority status, Balinese Muslims have con-structed images of sainthood connecting them to the larger Southeast Asian Muslimcommunity by discovering graves of the Balinese Muslim saints. The process of

5Jumat-kliwon (Friday-kliwon) refers to Friday in the Gregorian calendar combined with the fifth day ofthe Javanese calendar.

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invention involved the creation of historical narratives such as tracing the genealogicalroots of certain figures to Javanese Wali Songo, Balinese nobles as the descendants ofthe Prophet Muhammad, the construction of keramat attached to the figures identifiedas Balinese Muslim saints, as well as hatif which is the most important element in theinventive process. Toyib Zaen Arifin played the key role in the construction of thesenarratives and sacredness as the sole recipient of hatif and as the inventor of Balinesesainthood.

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Author biography

Syaifudin Zuhri is a lecturer at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta,Indonesia and managing editor of Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies. Email:syaifudinzuhri@yahoo.com

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