The peuleukat — the Achehnese form of the Arabic talqīn, “instruction” — is the formula recited over the newly buried corpse, by which the deceased is once more reminded of the confession of faith and of the answers he must give to the angels of the grave. As C. Snouck Hurgronje explains, the formula is recited twice in Achehnese practice: first at the deathbed, where it forms part of the peu’èt or peu’èt-èt (properly “to conduct,” “show the way to”), and again at the grave, where the teuleukin proper is recited by the teungku after the body has been laid in the earth. The two recitations together constitute the dying and the dead person’s last instruction in the faith by which he is to face the inquisition of Munkar and Nakir.
The Mohammedans believe that it is during the very last moments of man’s life that the Devil makes especial efforts to lead him astray from his belief; and thus “the dying when embarking on their journey to eternity are continually put in mind of that confession of faith, which is regarded as containing an epitome of all religious truth. This last service rendered to man on the boundary between life and death is called peu’èt or peu’èt-èt.” There must be no weeping in the presence of the dying, but the Achehnese adat requires that when death supervenes, “all present should wail aloud in chorus. Like the Arabian widād, this cry of lamentation also serves as an announcement of the death to the neighbours.”
The talqin at the grave has a different object. “We have seen above that the dying are fortified by the peu’èt against the inquisition of the angels of the tomb. The law, which in this respect is universally observed, requires that the deceased should be once more reminded when laid in the grave of what he needs for that enquiry. The object of the talqin formula (Ach. teuleukin) is chiefly to let the newly buried hear the confession of faith once more before taking leave of him.” Fearful indeed are the punishments dealt out, in the Achehnese belief, even in the narrow limits of the grave, to the unhappy wight whose answers — which always harmonize with his manner of life on earth — are deemed unsatisfactory by his dread inquisitors. “Those who have sharp ears sometimes hear the tormented wretches shrieking in their graves, so that it is considered undesirable to live in the neighbourhood of the tombs of great evildoers or tyrants.”
The teungku usually reads the teuleukin from a book, together with the proper prayer for the repose of the departed soul. All those present then perform ratib, i. e. repeat a hundred times or more Lā ilāha illā ‘llāh — “there is no God but Allah” — and the teungku repeats another prayer, the du’a kubūr or funeral prayer. After partaking of the plantains brought for their refreshment, the company returns to the house of mourning, where there awaits them a kanduri of rice and its accessories, called the “kanduri of those returning from the grave.” As a fee for his teuleukin the teungku receives by fixed custom samaih, i. e. ¼ of a dollar, “but the growing demands of the time have gradually increased the amount of this gift to nearly a dollar. Most people lay by during their lifetime the money destined for this purpose (ha teuleukin), and do not touch it under any circumstances; hence the proverbial saying when some one has lost his all by theft or accident, ‘they have taken away with them even my teuleukin-money.’”
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.