The Hakikah (‘Aqiqah) in Aceh is the Achehnese observance of the Islamic sacrifice for a newborn child — two sheep or goats for a male and one for a female, prescribed by preference on the seventh day after birth — together with a body of pre-Islamic preparatory ceremonies attached in Achehnese practice both to this hakikah (Arabic ‘aqīqah) sacrifice and to the Koeroebeuën (Arabic Qurbān) sacrifice at Id al-Adha (the “great feast” that concludes the pilgrimage to Mecca). The canonical rite is treated by Snouck Hurgronje in *The Achehnese* (Vol. I, 1906) as one of the rites of early childhood; the pre-Islamic accretions are documented by Snouck Hurgronje in *De Atjehers* (Vol. I, 1893-94, pp. 263 vg.) and re-cited in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* (1956, pp. 118-119).
The Sacrifice
The Mohammedan law recommends an offering of two sheep or goats for a male child and one for a female, by preference on the seventh day after birth — but if this be impossible, then at some later date, even when the child is quite grown up. This sacrifice is called ‘aqīqah in Arabic, and is not only known but actually practised in Acheh under the name of hakikah. The seventh day after birth is also the day recommended by the law of Islam for the peuchichab (the “giving to taste”), which is generally accompanied by the first shaving of the child’s head; the hakikah sacrifice may thus form part of a single ceremony, though it is more often postponed to a later occasion.
The Achehnese animal of choice for the hakikah is a sheep or a cow, but never a buffalo — a prohibition shared with the Koeroebeuën sacrifice at Id al-Adha and recorded by Kreemer: the sacrifice is “een schaap of rund, maar nooit een buffel” (a sheep or cow, but never a buffalo). The sacrifice is also frequently neglected or postponed: “wordt veelal verzuimd of uitgesteld.”
The Sacrifice at Home and in Mecca
The choice of some later occasion for the hakikah, rather than the seventh day after birth, is also common in Acheh. Where the sacrifice is offered at home, the meat is distributed among the poor and the kindred according to the rules of the Mohammedan law; where the parents are devotees of the Meccan school, however, the sacrifice may be offered in the holy city itself. In Acheh, no less than in other parts of the East Indian Archipelago, the people of Mecca have done their best to foster the doctrine that it is an extremely meritorious act to offer the hakikah sacrifice for the child in the holy city. The Mecca folk thus reap the profits on the sale of the goats, and at the same time enjoy their share of the meat. Many Achehnese are, however, aware that the hakikah is more properly offered at home, and the home observance accordingly continues to be the rule.
Relation to the Peuchichab and the Naming
The hakikah is one of a complex of ceremonies that surround the birth and early days of an Achehnese child. On the seventh day after birth, the ceremony of the peuchichab (“giving to taste”) takes place, generally accompanied by the first shaving of the child’s head. The midwife, after shaving the head, lays the child on a small mattress covered with costly cloths, and brings it to the teungku (religious teacher). The teungku takes a small piece of date, mixes it with cocoanut milk, and rubs it on the child’s lips after invoking the name of Allah. Both the teungku and after him the relatives of the infant also “give him to taste” a sort of pap made of pounded raw fruits. From this compulsory introduction to human customs the whole ceremony takes its name of peuchichab.
The giving of the name, for which the seventh day is also recommended by the law of Islam, generally takes place in Acheh at the end of the period of convalescence, and is not attended by much ceremony. The teungku consults a Malay manual which gives the names most suitable for a child born on a given day of the week and month throughout the year. Before the name is fixed, the child is usually called Si Chut or Nya’ Chut (“the little one”), or Si Chu’eng or Si Kheb (both of which have a somewhat unsavoury significance), or, if a boy, Si Gam (“mannikin”), or, if a girl, Si Inong (“little woman”). Such names, universal and indistinctive as they are, remain in many cases the only ones by which those that bear them are known all their life long.
The Pre-Islamic Preparation Ceremonies
To the canonical hakikah sacrifice (and to the Koeroebeuën sacrifice at Id al-Adha) the Achehnese attach a body of pre-Islamic preparatory ceremonies which Snouck Hurgronje judges to be of pre-Islamic origin. These ceremonies involve the presentation to the slaughterer of a tray of objects — two raw eggs, “cooling” (luck-bringing) items, a bottle of perfume oil, a little black eye-powder, some tooth-blackener, a small mirror, a comb, a razor, a sunshade, and 4 el of white cotton — which the slaughterer applies to the slaughter-animal before performing the cut. The same inventory is found in Java for koerban sacrifices among old-fashioned practitioners, and Islamic law knows nothing of the kind.
The passage in *De Karbouw* (pp. 118-119) reads:
“Het evengenoemde hakikah- (Arab. aqiqah-) slachtoffer voor jonggeborenen, liefst op de 7e dag na de geboorte, wordt veelal verzuimd of uitgesteld en bestaat in een schaap of rund, maar nooit een buffel. Aan het slachten van zulk een dier knopen zich allerlei zonderlinge oud-heidense voorbereidingsceremoniën vast, welke geheel overeenkomen met die, welke Prof. Snouck Hurgronje voor de Koeroebeuën- (Arab. Qoerbān-) offers beschrijft, welke laatste offers worden gebracht bij gelegenheid van het in de wetboeken zo genoemde ‘grote feest’ als besluit der bedevaart naar Mekka. Bij elk hierbij geofferd dier behoorden nl. een aantal zaken, die men de slachter op een presenteerblad aanbood, te weten: twee rauwe eieren, allerlei verkoeling (d.i. geluk) aanbrengende dingen, een flesje reukolie, een weinig zwart poeder, waarmede vooral vrouwen zich de wimpers en de randen der oogleden plegen zwart te maken, wat zwartsel voor de tanden, een spiegeltje, een kam, een scheermes, een zonnescherm en een stuk wit katoen van 4 el. ‘Al die zaken werden door den slachter aangebracht, waar zij behoorden: de toiletartikelen appliceerde hij op de lichaamsdeelen, waarvoor zij bestemd zijn; de “verkoeling” van alle heete, rampzalige invloeden bewerkte hij op de gewone wijze, schoor met het scheermes een weinig haar van het rund af, hield het spiegeltje even voor de oogen van het beest en bedekte het dan, als met een lijkkleed, met de 4 ellen wit katoen. Eerst daarna had de slachting plaats.’”
(Translation: “The above-mentioned hakikah (Arabic aqiqah) sacrifice for newborns, preferably on the 7th day after birth, is mostly neglected or postponed, and consists of a sheep or cow, but never a buffalo. To the slaughter of such an animal are attached all sorts of strange old-heathen preparatory ceremonies, which correspond exactly to those which Prof. Snouck Hurgronje describes for the Koeroebeuën (Arabic Qurbān) sacrifices, the latter sacrifices being offered on the occasion of the so-called ‘great feast’ of the law-books, as the conclusion of the pilgrimage to Mecca. For each animal sacrificed on this occasion there belonged a number of objects, which one presented to the slaughterer on a tray, namely: two raw eggs, various things producing ‘cooling’ (i.e. luck), a bottle of perfume oil, a little black powder with which women in particular blacken their eyelashes and the edges of their eyelids, some tooth-blackener, a small mirror, a comb, a razor, a sunshade, and a piece of white cotton of 4 el. ‘All these objects were applied by the slaughterer where they belonged: the toilet-articles he applied to the body-parts for which they are intended; the “cooling” of all hot, disastrous influences he performed in the customary way, shaved a little hair off the cow with the razor, held the mirror briefly before the animal’s eyes, and then covered it, as with a shroud, with the 4 el of white cotton. Only after that did the slaughter take place.’”)
The Tray of Objects and Their Application
The inventory of objects presented to the slaughterer on the tray, and their application to the slaughter-animal, are:
- Two raw eggs — eggs being a “cooling” (luck-bringing) substance in the wider Indonesian magical system.
- Allerlei verkoeling (cooling, i.e. luck-bringing) items — various “cooling” things, deployed against “hot” (i.e. disastrous) influences.
- A bottle of perfume oil (reukolie) — applied as a “toilet article.”
- A little black powder (zwart poeder) — the eye-powder with which women blacken their eyelashes and eyelids.
- Some tooth-blackener (zwartsel voor de tanden).
- A small mirror (spiegeltje) — held briefly before the animal’s eyes.
- A comb (kam).
- A razor (scheermes) — used to shave a little hair off the animal.
- A sunshade (zonnescherm).
- A piece of white cotton, 4 el long — used to cover the animal “as with a shroud” (als met een lijkkleed).
The application of these objects to the animal follows a sympathetic-magical logic: the toilet-articles are applied to the body-parts for which they are intended; the “cooling” of all hot, disastrous influences is performed in the customary way; a little hair is shaved off the animal with the razor; the mirror is held briefly before its eyes; and finally the animal is covered with the 4-el white cotton, “as with a shroud.” Only after this preparation does the slaughter take place.
The Java Parallel and Snouck’s Judgement
Kreemer adds that the same inventory of objects is found on Java for koerban sacrifices among those who still adhere to old-fashioned customs, and that Islamic law knows nothing of the kind. Snouck Hurgronje is quoted:
“‘Zeker liggen vóór-mohammedaansche denkbeelden ten grondslag aan die zonderlinge voorbereiding van het slachtoffer’, schrijft Dr. Snouck Hurgronje.”
(“‘Pre-Mohammedan ideas certainly underlie this strange preparation of the sacrifice,’ writes Dr. Snouck Hurgronje.”)
The judgement — that pre-Islamic ideas underlie the strange preparation of the sacrifice — is significant because it documents the layering of pre-Islamic magical practice onto the canonical Islamic sacrificial rite. The “cooling” of “hot” disastrous influences, the application of toilet-articles to the slaughter-animal, the shaving of a little hair, the brief mirror-display, and the shroud-like covering with white cotton are all elements of a pre-Islamic magical complex that the Achehnese (and the Javanese) had absorbed into their Islamic sacrificial practice.
Significance
The hakikah in Aceh is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history on two complementary grounds. As the canonical ‘aqīqah, it is one of the principal rites of early childhood in Achehnese Islam, bound up with the peuchichab (the “giving to taste”) and with the wider Mohammedan law of the newborn child — and one in which the pull of the Meccan school, with its doctrine that the sacrifice is “extremely meritorious” when offered in the holy city, is documented as a continuous pressure on Achehnese home observance. As the locus of the pre-Islamic “cooling” and “toilet-of-the-animal” complex, it is the principal documented instance of the syncretism of pre-Islamic magical practice with the canonical Islamic sacrificial rite in Acheh — a layering attested also on Java and judged by Snouck Hurgronje to be of pre-Islamic origin, and one which the Achehnese share, in identical inventory, with the Koeroebeuën (Qurbān) sacrifice at Id al-Adha.
See Also
- Peuchichab
- Peusunat
- Kanduri
- Teungku
- Hajj
- Childhood Rites in Acheh
- Koeroebeuën
- Atjehse Id al-Adha cow-not-buffalo choice
- Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjehers (1893-94)
- Kreemer’s De Karbouw (1956)
- Poephon blang
- verkoeling (cooling) as magical concept
- teungkoe meunasah
- maq meugang
Sources
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
De Atjehers, by C. Snouck Hurgronje, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1893-94), vol. I, pp. 263-264.
De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), pp. 118-119.