The traweh (Achehnese; Arabic tarāwīḥ) is the voluntary but recommended prayer of twenty rak’ahs performed nightly during the fasting month, after the ‘Isya or evening prayer. Most seumayangs, whatever their special appellations may be, differ from one another only in the number of their subdivisions (rak’ats) and some trifling distinctions in the form of the ritual; the traweh are composed of twenty such subdivisions, separated into ten pairs by an interlude in which a blessing is invoked on the Prophet. The traweh may be held only in the fasting month, on every evening and night between the ‘Isya and the morning — that is, from about 7.30 P.M. to 3 A.M. — the usual time being immediately after the ‘Isya, or about 8 P.M.
Throughout the Mohammedan world many persons take part with extreme zeal in the traweh service who unblushingly neglect daily religious duties which they are under a strict obligation to perform. This popular over-estimation of the traweh is explained by its connection with the fasting month, which has a higher place in the popular estimation than in the law itself — it is regarded as one of the main pillars of the faith, and any religious act connected with it, whether obligatory or merely meritorious, is eagerly carried out in the fullest possible manner. In Java also, people partake in the traweh who never think of attending a Friday service, to say nothing of performing the daily seumayangs in mosque or langgar.
In Acheh, however, the traweh service as celebrated in the meunasah savours much of a caricature. Of all the assembled company one or two at most — generally not even one — take an active part in the prayers; they allow them to be performed by the teungku alone, who properly speaking should only act as leader. Without the slightest token of respect, all the others sit smoking or chewing sirih. At the Amin with which the teungku closes the recitation of the Quran appertaining to each rak’ah of the seumayang, all those present join in with a yell. In like manner they take part with loud vociferation in the invocation of blessing on the Prophet which as an interlude separates the ten pairs of rak’ahs of the traweh from one another. They do not properly repeat the formulas whereby such invocations of blessing should be confirmed, but corrupt them by absurd imitations. Ulamas and other devout persons take no share in these follies and find the excessive noise unendurable.
So says the law; but the actual practice in Acheh is that the traweh is a religious exercise which the teungku has to perform for all, and the pitrah — which has not properly speaking the smallest connection with it — is a contribution for the benefit of the teungku, regarded as his recompense for the performance of the traweh throughout the month. The connexion between the two institutions is openly acknowledged: when one ulama, exasperated by the noise of the traweh, threatened to cease his ministrations, the boldest of the young householders present replied that if he did so he would receive no pitrah from them on the feast-day at the end of the fasting month. The traweh farce is succeeded by the meudaroih or Quran recitation, in which experts volunteer to recite passages from the holy book and endeavour, if possible, to bring to a conclusion (tamat) once or oftener during the month the thirty subdivisions of the Book; the conclusion is marked by the peutamat daroh feast, on whose night the traweh is succeeded by the clamorous rateb meuse or kuluhut.
Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Traweh Recitations
The traweh recitations are the night-long sessions of voluntary prayer and Quran-reading held in the meunasah during the fasting month, of which the noisy character became proverbial in Acheh and is repeatedly noted by Snouck Hurgronje. The full institution of the traweh — the recommended prayer of twenty rakʾahs performed nightly after the ʿIsya — is described above; the present entry records a particular reference, occurring in a footnote at p. 326 of The Achehnese, Vol. I, where the noisy traweh-recitations in the meunasah during the fasting month are cited as one of the standard occasions on which the Achehnese technical expression keunong teuh (“he has obtained filth”) was applied.
The keunong teuh usage
The expression keunong teuh is the technical Achehnese formula for a certain punishment, and is also applied in other cases, as for instance where a young man neglects constantly to attend the noisy traweh-recitations in the meunasah during the fasting month. The reference is significant in two respects. First, it shows that regular attendance at the traweh was, in the popular view, so far obligatory on the young men of the gampong that persistent absence could be punished under a recognized adat category. Second, the epithet “noisy” (ramai-like) recurs throughout Snouck Hurgronje’s descriptions of the traweh service as celebrated in the meunasah: of all the assembled company one or two at most — generally not even one — take an active part in the prayers, while all the others sit smoking or chewing sirih, and at the Amin with which the teungku closes the recitation of the Quran, all those present join in with a yell.
Context: biaya and the seventh evening
The footnote occurs in the course of a discussion of the wedding customs of Acheh, where the husband’s first gift of biaya (support) to his wife is regulated by the adat. The custom requires that he should give her no biaya until the seventh evening after marriage. This first biaya may be in kind — fish, plantains and other fruits, sirih, pinang, tobacco and gambir — or, more usually, in money. The discussion then turns to the marriage-gift (bungkays of gold), the seunalén or reciprocal suit of clothing, the “cooling” ceremony on the seventh day, and the lesser-known obligations that bind the householders of a gampong to its religious life. It is in this connection that the example of the truant young man, who neglects the traweh-recitations, is adduced as a parallel instance of keunong teuh: a punishment inflicted not by the courts but by the public opinion of the gampong upon those who fail in their communal religious duties.
Connection with the teungku and the pitrah
The reference also throws light on the position of the teungku. The popular idea of the Achehnese is that the pitrah which the teungku receives from all at the end of the fasting month is a sort of payment for his performance of the traweh throughout the month. When one ulama, exasperated by the noise of the traweh, threatened to cease his ministrations, the boldest of the young householders present replied that if he did so he would receive no pitrah from them on the feast-day at the end of the fasting month. The traweh-recitations thus stand at the centre of an intricate web of reciprocal obligations — religious, communal, and financial — which bind the teungku, the householders, and the gampong together during the month of Ramadhan.
Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Traweh Service
The traweh service (Achehnese; Arabic tarāwīḥ) is the voluntary but recommended night prayer of twenty rakʾahs performed in the meunasah during the fasting month, after the ʿIsya or evening prayer. The full institution is described above; the present entry records the specific reference to the service which occurs at p. 73 of The Achehnese, Vol. I, in the chapter on the teungku of the gampong.
The reference in Vol. I
In describing the duties of the teungku, Snouck Hurgronje remarks that it is only in the fasting month (Puasa) that the teungku is noticeably the man of the meunasah. During the nights of this month there is a great deal of vitality in the meunasah, and the presence of the teungku is indispensable for various matters, but especially for the performance of the traweh service. The popular idea of the Achehnese is that the pitrah which the teungku receives from all at the end of the fasting month is a sort of payment for this traweh. If the teungku is more or less malhé (skilled in booklore), this will tend greatly to increase his revenues, as he will then be called in to give his help in all kinds of sickness or other misfortune, and receive payment for his ministrations. Sick children will be brought to him that he may blow on their heads after muttering a tangkay (prayer or charm).
The teungku’s year and the fasting month
For the rest of the year the position of the teungku is much less conspicuous. Not every teungku is able — and few indeed have even the inclination — to appear in the meunasah and lead the service at the times appointed for the five daily prayers; it is much if he does so fairly regularly at sunset. As regards the furniture of the meunasah he need take little trouble, since it is exceedingly sparse and most of it is private property. The task of sweeping the floor and keeping the kulam (water-tank) full devolves on the younger occupants of the meunasah. The traweh service is thus the high point of the teungku’s year, the time at which his office as leader of worship, instructor of the young, and recognised recipient of the pitrah, all converge upon the meunasah.
Popular estimation of the traweh
The popular over-estimation of the traweh is explained by its connection with the fasting month, which has a higher place in the popular estimation than in the law itself — it is regarded as one of the main pillars of the faith, and any religious act connected with it, whether obligatory or merely meritorious, is eagerly carried out in the fullest possible manner. In Java also, people partake in the traweh who never think of attending a Friday service, to say nothing of performing the daily seumayangs in mosque or langgar. In Acheh, however, the traweh service as celebrated in the meunasah savours much of a caricature, and the traweh recitations are repeatedly described as “noisy”. The traweh service is nonetheless the centre of the religious life of the gampong in Ramadhan, and the principal occasion on which the teungku’s office is realised in its fullness.
See Also
- Puasa (Ramadhan fasting month)
- Pitrah (zakat fitrah)
- Eid al-Fitr)
- Rateb Saman
- Kanduri Mo’lot
- Traweh Service
- Keunong
- Traweh Recitations
- Friday service
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.