The Like — the Achehnese form of the Arabic dhikr — is the religious recitation by which, in common with the seulaweuet and the liha’i, an Achehnese kanduri is consecrated before the feasting begins. As C. Snouck Hurgronje records in his account of the Kanduri la’ot, before the company proceeds to attack the good cheer which is spread on the shore of the lho’s foreshore, the kanduri is consecrated by like (Arabic dhikr), the repetition of psalms of praise (seulaweuet) in honour of the Prophet, or the liha’i, the recitation in chorus of portions of the Quran by the teungkus and leubes present. The three forms are alternative rather than complementary, and the choice between them presumably depends on the character of the feast and the devotional complexion of the company.
The dhikr of which the like is the Achehnese representative is, of course, one of the most characteristic devotional exercises of Islamic mysticism. In its classical form it consists in the rhythmic repetition — often accompanied by bodily movements, by controlled breathing, and by the chanting of a single divine name or formula — of the name of Allah, of the confession of faith, or of some short litany drawn from the tradition of one or another of the ṭuruq (mystical orders). The Achehnese, like the Muslims of the Indian Archipelago generally, have inherited the practice from the Arabic and Indian mystical traditions, and the like is the local form in which the practice is observed at pious feasts.
The choice of the like as one of the three possible forms of consecration of a kanduri is significant of the place which mystical devotion has historically held in the Achehnese religious life. Hurgronje’s account of Acheh is, in many of its chapters, an account of a society in which the tarekat (mystical orders) and their devotional exercises have played a part second only to that of the strict observance of the law. The rateb saman and similar litanies, with their rhythmic movements and chanted formulae, are the public face of this mystical tradition; the like by which a kanduri is consecrated is its domestic and occasional form. A kanduri opened with the like is, in effect, a kanduri placed under the sign of the mystical devotion, just as one opened with the liha’i is placed under the sign of the recited Quran.
The mention of the like in connection with the kanduri la’ot of the fishermen is especially appropriate, since the pawangs of Acheh, like seafaring men in many parts of the archipelago, are particularly given to the mystical and magical practices by which the dangers of their craft are believed to be averted. The pawang of the pukat-net, as Hurgronje elsewhere explains, “must know all the influences that prevail beneath the sea, and be armed against them so far as may be necessary”; he is subject to a body of pantangs (taboos) which forbid him, among other things, to fish on a Friday, and his craft is surrounded by the same atmosphere of supernatural constraint which characterises the work of the hunter, the miner, and the smith in traditional societies. The consecration of his annual kanduri by the like — the devotional exercise of the mystical orders — is thus at once an act of religious piety and an act of magical prudence, by which the pawang commends himself and his crew to the supernatural powers on whom their livelihood depends.
See Also
Source
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.