Abd al-Rauf al-Fansuri

Abd al-Rauf ibn Ali al-Fansuri al-Sinkili (spelling variation Abdurrauf Singkil, 1615–1693 CE) was a renowned Islamic scholar, spiritual leader of the Shattariyya tariqa and mufti of the Aceh Sultanate.

[8] Al-Sinkili departed to Arabia around 1642, studying Islamic teachings for about twenty years in Doha, Yemen, Jeddah, Mecca, and mostly Madina.

[12] He listed 19 teachers and 27 other scholars with whom he had personal contacts in his book Umdat al-Muhtajin ila Suluk Maslak al-Mufridin.

Some of his notable students included Burhan al-Din Ulakan (from Pariaman, West Sumatera), Abd al-Muhyi Pamijahan (from Tasikmalaya, West Java), Abd al-Malik ibn Abdullah (from Trengganu, Malay Peninsula), and Baba Dawud al Jawi al-Rumi (from Aceh).

[12] Based on Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas,[14] after Al-Sinkili received an ijaza (permission to teach) from Al-Qushashi in Medina,[15] he then became the first person to introduce Shattariyya tariqa to the Indonesian archipelago.

His name is also connected with the translation and interpretation of the Quran in Malay on Al-Baydawi's work Anwar al-Tanzil wa-Asrar al-Ta'wil, which was first published in Istanbul in 1884.

[16] Al-Sinkili wrote in Malay and Arabic, covering topics such as Qur'anic interpretation (tafsir), scholastic theology (kalam), Sufism (tasawwuf), and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).