From the thirteenth century, intrepid Chinese voyagers had an almost complete map of Southeast Asia. Invariably, the names they gave to places were direct transliterations. Thus, Singapore, which was once known as Pulau Ujong, was called Puluozhong. The long, jungle-covered island of Sumatra, which was once known as Samudra, became Su-mu-ta.
Islam had arrived to the Malay Peninsula and archipelago from very early on, through trade routes and the tireless missionary activities of Sufi teachers, but did not gain a foothold until the latter part of the thirteenth century 1. Even then, the Malay heartlands were still populated by Hindus, Buddhists and a formidable array of animists. Muslim communities coalesced at coastal areas, where trade- and more importantly the free exchange of ideas- were carried out with foreign and neighbouring countries. The first Muslim kingdom was therefore formed on the northern tip of the large island of Sumatra (where Aceh now is). It was called Samudra-Pasai, and its first king was Malik al-Salih.
From the Malay Annals we come to know that this king, named Merah Silau, was a man of humble origin- a fisherman who became rich and powerful and carved out a kingdom for himself at Samudra. Having ascended the throne he assumed the title of Malik al-Salih, and married the princess of the neighboring kingdom of Perlak, which had already adopted Islam 2.
It was reported that Malik al-Salih had converted to Islam because the Prophet Muhammad had appeared to him in a dream. This might sound mystical today, but it is easy to forget that experiential aptitudes are shaped by the challenges we face in our environment. Our physical desires are sated to such excess that there seems little need to exercise our potential for spiritual insight. In any case, many early Muslim figures, like Imam al-Bukhari 3 (d. 870 AD) and Imam al-Ashari 4(d. 936 AD) had described similar dreams, from which they had drawn the strength and inspiration to accomplish their tremendous works for Islam.
Historians glean much information about Samudra-Pasai from a document Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai, but the existence of the first king of Sumatra is further established by the discovery of his gravestone in Aceh, which lies today on lands once ruled by Samudra-Pasai.
The gravestone marks the date of Malik al-Salih’s death as having occurred in the year 1296 AD. In the Muslim calendar, this was 696 AH, or 696 years after the “moving” of the Prophet Muhammad. Most Orientalists automatically assume that the “moving” refers to the Prophet’s Muhammad emigration from Mecca to Medina, known as the hijra. After all, most Muslim calendars mark their dates this way, and are called hijri calendars.
On Malik al-Salih’s gravestone, however, the usual word hijra is not used, but instead intiqal. Intiqal is an Arabic word that is derived from intaqala, which means to emigrate or to pass over. The mystery deepens when one sees that the same word intiqal is also used to refer to the death of Malik al-Salih.
Though the Malay world borrowed enthusiastically and extensively from Arabic traditions and language since its adoption of Islam, this never meant that specifically Malay customs and linguistic peculiarities were completely submerged. In fact, a large number of pre-Islamic words, like shurga (paradise) and agama (religion) were retained and incorporated into the new religion and script. The Malay language, oriented primarily toward trade, was inherently flexible.
Thus, it seems plausible that when the word intiqala is used on the gravestones of early princes, it referred to the Malay manner of referring to death. To move, or berpindah, was a refined way of saying that someone has died. It is, in fact, an abbreviation of the longer of phrase: “berpindah ke negeri yang baka”, or to move house to the abode of eternity 5.
Nonetheless, the main confusion is over the word intiqal, or the both instances it is used on Malik al-Salih’s gravestone. Had the stone craftsman intended for intiqal to be interpreted in two different ways in the same sentence? Could the intiqal of Prophet Muhammad have referred to the hijra, or more intriguingly, to his death?
To me, the last question is the most important mystery to solve. We already know that Sufism had an incalculable role to play in the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia. Amongst Sufis, the birth of Prophet Muhammad has a special meaning, as evidenced by the annual celebrations known as mawlid. Could the death of Prophet Muhammad also have held some special meaning for the early Muslims of Southeast Asia?
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