Sufistic Semiotics
The Analysis Method of Sufistic Poetry
Ma’mur Saadie, Syihabuddin Syihabuddin and Sumiyadi Sumiyadi
Department of Indonesia Language Education and Literature, Faculty of Language Education and Literature, Universitas
Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Sufistic Poetry, Sufistic Semiotics, Symbol Tracing, Structural Analysis, Retreat Politeness.
Abstract: Sufistic poetry is included into specialized poetry genre. Therefore, its analysis ought to use particular
analysis method. The present article proposes the analysis by sufistic poetry method. This method is realized
in form of analysis stages which is modified from semiotic method developed by Riffaterre (1998). The
analysis is conducted in three stages, namely: symbol tracing, structural analysis, and sufistic element
analysis. At the first stage, the analysis was applied to two sides: symbol quality and originality. At the
second stage, the analysis was applied to 8 sides: imaginary, figure of speech, rhyme, rhythm, typography,
theme, tone, and unity. At the third stage, the analysis is applied to three sides: retreat politeness, sufi
maqam attainment, and the level of sufism in which its analysis bases refers to classic book sufi concept.
1 INTRODUCTION
A roman scholar, Horatius, in his book Ars Poetica
mentions the term dulce et utile, which means
literature has double benefit, entertaining and
beneficial for its readers (Budiman, 2001). The first
function is realized by aesthetic elements and the
second function is by wisdom elements. In literary
works, especially poetry, those elements (dulce et
utile) should be attractive. Therefore, Abd al-Karim
al-Jili mentions those elements as outer beauty
(jamal) and inner beauty (husn). For Melayu writers,
those two concepts are well known as indah
(beautiful) and elok (attractive) (Braginsky, 1994).
Pradopo (2002) argues that those two elements are
called aesthetic and extra-aesthetic elements. In
relation with this, it can be said that good poetry
should provide its readers with beauty (al jamal) and
wisdom (al husn) elements in the way which
calming down souls.
Actually, the element of entertaining (dulce)
psychologically has low values seen from the
element of benefit, except when it is related to high
values (Rustom, 2005). In sufistic poetry, the
entertaining element is connected with high benefit.
Therefore, sufistic poetry place a high position in the
list of benefit and soul contentedness (Viitamäki,
2015).
2 RESEARCH METHODS
Poetry is a text containing ungrammaticality seen
from linguistics use, but they are grammatical once
connected with literature code (Riffaterre, 1998).
This requires two analysis stage, namely heuristic
and hermeneutic.
2.1 Heuristic Analysis
The most popular statement from Riffaterre (1998)
about poetry is that “a poem says one thing and
means another”. However, poetry still involve
language elements similar to daily language.
Therefore, the poetry analysis should be initiated by
symbol tracing of conventional language in mimesis
level.
In the heuristic analysis, analysts find poetry
meaning in the relation with mimesis world. In the
analysis, the researchers find unmatched language in
the poetry with daily language use. Riffaterre (1998)
calls it ungrammaticality. Ungrammaticality in
poetry is caused by three things: displacing, creating,
and distorting of daily language. Therefore, in the
level of mimesis relation, the analysts find
referential fallacy.
834
Saadie, M., Syihabuddin, S. and Sumiyadi, S.
Sufistic Semiotics - The Analysis Method of Sufistic Poetry.
DOI: 10.5220/0007176108340838
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 834-838
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

In this sufistic semiotics, the stage is modified to
be symbol tracing which analyses two things:
symbol quality and originality.
2.2 Hermeneutic Analysis
In this stage, with all stylistics power, poetry is
revealed as deep as possible so that the power of
analysis methods is uncovered: meaning nuance,
sound, imaginary, figure of speech, rhyme, rhythm,
and typography of the read poetry. At this stage,
analysers can find the meaning of poetry represented
in the words and phrases. In this stage, readers can
reveal poetry significance represented in the whole
text. Therefore, at this stage, the relation among
poetry elements should be described well. Thus, it is
expected that the analysis can totally reveal the
aesthetic and wisdom elements of poetry in which
the two elements should walk in harmony.
In this sufistic semiotics, the stage is modified as
structural analysis which focuses on: imaginary,
figure of speech, rhyme, rhythm, theme, tone, and
unity. Then all of them are investigated in relation
with diction and typography.
2.3 Inter-textual Relation Tracing
(Sufism Element Analysis)
In relation with intertextuality concept, a number of
scholars are involved in a long debatable discussion.
As the analysis reference of the article, the writers
directly refer to the culture book concept (Al
Ghazali). To analyse sufistic poetry, the culture book
is narrowed into classic sufi book containing sufism
concept.
The analysis of sufism elements are applied
towards three things: expression politeness, sufistic
maqam attainment and the level of sufism behaviour.
Sufistic maqam attainment is analysed in a reference
to maqamat al-Yaqin concept, while the level of
sufistic behavior is analysed by three concepts of
soul attendance in sufism behaviour, namely al-Uns,
sakr and fana.
The concept of maqămăt al-Yaqîn consists of 9
paths to pass: taubat, syukur, sabar, raja’, khauf,
zuhud, tawakal, rido, and mahabbah as proposed by
Abu Thalib Al-Makky. To complete the discussion,
the opinion from Al-Ghazali and al-Qusyairi are also
presented.
Taubat (repentance) means regretting to do sins
by promising wholeheartedly not to do them any
longer and be back to the right path blessed by Allah
‘Azza wajalla.
Sabar (being patient) covers 5 things: (1) being
patient to control the soul of a servant for not
granting his lust to make violation towards Allah;
(2) being patient to control his soul to be sincere
doing good deeds in order to have His blessing; (3)
being patient to face every temptation he bears;
being patient to control bad behaviour causing bad
characters that He hates; (5) being patient to behave
well when interacting with people and doing
activities.
Syukur (being grateful) comprises of three
domains: ilmu (knowledge), hal (things) and amal
(good deeds). The art of being grateful is to
understand that a blessing is given only by Allah.
The bliss emerged for getting the blessing is called
hal. Istiqomah or somebody’s consistency in his love
to Allah and behave well as directed by Him is
called amal syukur.
Raja (hope) is waiting for something pleasing,
blissful, and satisfying. Raja is fully expecting
Allah’s blessing. At the basic level, a sufi person has
a hope to meet enjoyment from Allah both in today’s
world and in the hereafter. At the higher level, he
has a bunch of hope to uncover screen between he
and Him (Alghazali).
Khauf (being afraid) is an uneasy feeling for
being afraid of the future disaster. There are three
level of khauf. First, being afraid of doing something
haram (forbidden) as a cause of sins (khauf).
Second, being afraid of something syubhat or
doubting (taqwa). Third, being afraid of losing time
to remember Allah (shidiq) (Alghazali, p. 294).
Zuhud (being ascetic) is keeping aside secular
things. It is a noble maqam of asufi. To Sufyan al-
Tsauri, it narrows somebody’s hope, not to eat
something hard, and not to wear tangled coat as
well.
Tawakal (surrender only to Allah) is the high
maqam of those who believe in Him (al-Ghazali, p.
294). Sahal bin Abdullah says that tawakal is
releasing what is expected by leaning on Him (al-
Qusyairi, p. 36).
Rido, according to Abdullah bin Khafif, is
divided into two: rido with Him in the meaning of
thinking and reflecting on Him; and rido with Him
in the context of accepting His decision (al-Qusyairi,
p. 36).
Mahabbah (love) to Allah is the last and the
highest maqam to reach by a sufi. There is no other
maqam after it but the effect related to mahabbah,
such as longing, uns and rido. There is no maqam
before it but as beginnings, such as taubat, sabar
and zuhud (Alghazali, p. 294).
Sufistic Semiotics - The Analysis Method of Sufistic Poetry
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Among those maqamat aqamat al-Yaqin,
mahabbah gives effects with its more delicate
different description, so it is formulated the
following terms: al-uns, sakar, and fana. Al-Uns
basically the top step of maqam raja’ and has come
to the core of the maqam mahabbah. If love has
loaded somebody, he will be mad (sakar) when a
sufi experiences fana or annihilation of himself or all
creatures, then his awareness about himself and
those creatures is lost (fana). He does not sense the
present of himself and other creatures for his
business perfection with The Perfect Ones (Al-
Qusyairi, p. 36).
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Doa
By Amir Hamzah
Dengan apakah kubandingkan pertemuan kita,
kekasihku?
Dengan senja samar sepoi, pada masa purnama
meningkat naik,
setelah menghalaukan panas payah terik.
Angin malam menghembus lemah, menyejuk badan,
melambung rasa menayang pikir, membawa angan
ke bawah kursimu.
Hatiku terang menerima katamu, bagai bintang
memasang lilinnya.
Kalbuku terbuka menunggu kasihmu, bagai sedap
malam
menyirak kelopak.
Aduh, kekasihku, isi hatiku dengan katamu, penuhi
dadaku
dengan cahayamu, biar bersinar mataku sendu, biar
berbinar
gelakku rayu!
3.1 The Analysis of Symbol
The poem entitled “Doa” written by Amir Hamzah
(1998) was analysed based on its quality and
originality of the symbol. This poem has a good
quality since all symbols bring meanings which
describe intended feelings and nuances that can be
seen in the first stanza below:
//Dengan apakah kubandingkan pertemuan kita,
kekasihku?/ Dengan senja samar sepoi, pada
masa purnama meningkat naik,/ setelah
menghalaukan panas payah terik.//
Morover, the use of symbol in the following
stanzas show a good quality of sysmbol which is
arranged appropriately.
//Angin malam menghembus lemah, menyejuk
badan,/ melambung rasa menayang pikir, membawa
angan ke bawah kursimu.//
//Hatiku terang menerima katamu, bagai bintang
memasang lilinnya./Kalbuku terbuka menunggu
kasihmu, bagai sedap malam menyirak kelopak.//
In terms of its originality, “private” symbol is
originally used in this poem which is never found in
other poems.
3.2 The Analysis of Structure
Some structures in the poem are analysed as follow:
3.2.1 The Beauty of Poetry
The beauty of poetry was found in the stanza “How
should I compare our meeting, my beloved?”. It tells
some dialogues between the writer of the poem and
the God. It can be seen from a meeting described in
this poem is not a real meeting between human
which has a dimension, space, form, and direction.
In this case, prayer is a dimension which describes
the meeting of the first and the second person or the
human and his/her God. To some extents of this
relationship, the word “my beloved” is used as an
intimate address from a creature who deeply loves
his/her creator (The God). This row has a specific
rhetorical style showing the pure and beautiful
meeting between the lover and the beloved one as
can be seen in the following stanzas.
Dengan senja samar sepoi, pada masa purnama
meningkat naik,
setelah menghalaukan panas payah terik.
The lover compares that lovely momment to the
beauty of natural paint which gives a nuance of
freshness and replaces a hot athmosphere as can be
found in the following stanzas:
Angin malam menghembus lemah, menyejuk badan,
melambung rasa menayang pikir, membawa angan
ke bawah kursimu.
In addition, the pure and romantic condition in
that meeting is like as a night breeze which slowly
blows, touching body, bringing the feelings,
thoughts, and wishes into a place of the creator’s
throne and stay under the creator’s throne or “kursi”.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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The word “kursi” in this case does not literally refer
to a real object but it deals with a divine nature as
stated in the verse Q.S. 2: 255, known as “ayat
kursi”. According to al-Alusi in the Tafsir on page
317, the word “kursi” represent a great throne which
covers the seventh heaven. He said, if seven layers
of the sky and seven layers of the earth are put
together and interlocked each other, will not reach
the extent of the throne. Furthermore, it is said that
the throne is a symbol of power and the regulation of
Almighty God.
Hatiku terang menerima katamu, bagai bintang
memasang lilinnya.
Kalbuku terbuka menunggu kasihmu, bagai sedap
malam
menyirak kelopak.
Menerima firman Allah, kalbu aku (lirik) terang
seperti bintang menyala; menunggu cinta sang
Kekasih, hati aku (lirik) terbuka seperti kelopak
bunga sedap malam yang merekah.
The above Stanzas tells the readers a holly and
romantic athmosphere in a prayer. However, those
prayers are also indicated as a request whichs is
commonly presented in the form of Imperative
sentences. Therefore, the following stanzas show a
request made by a creature to his/her God:
Aduh, kekasihku, isi hatiku dengan katamu, penuhi
dadaku
dengan cahayamu, biar bersinar mataku sendu,
biar berbinar gelakku rayu!
Andai hati telah berisi firman Allah yang berfaidah
memberi petunjuk dan dada telah penuh dengan
cahaya-Nya yang berfungsi menerangi alam ruhani,
maka kemurungan sang pencinta di dalam situasi
redup merindu menjadi bersinar dan berbinar.
In contrast, if this poem has another title- not
“Doa”, it may potentially lead the readers to get
misinterpretation because they think that the
relationship is not between a creature and his/her
creator (God). In this case, the readers would think
as what they thought that it represents a moment
when two lovers who fall in love meet each other.
Consequently, in the last stanza the writer literally
exposes that it is a prayer of creature toward his/her
creator.
3.3 The Beauty of Poetry "Doa" by
Amir Hamzah
Typographically, this poem is almost similar to
prose. Most of the poems mainly pay attention to the
use of dominant rhymes while in this poem the use
of rhyme is almost neglected. Rima is usually
intertwined with the rhythm to construct a musical
poem. Nevertheless, the musicality in this poem is
arranged through applying rhythm and a little rhyme
which make it beautiful. The selection of dictions
with suggestive meanings is used to create a
beautiful poem which reveals a very beautiful
image. Those nuances of meaning, concrete
suggestive words, and imagery are dominant and
powerful elements to arrange the beauty of the poem
image.
3.4 Assessing Sufism and Wisdom
Values
Assessment of sufistic level and height of wisdom
value are constructed through inter-textual steps
modified from Riffaterre semiotic method. The
search of inter-textual leads to the poetic relationship
with the "Sufi cultural book", especially in the
concept of tasawuf inscribed in the text of the classic
book of Tasawwuf. The search for harmony with the
book of Tasawuf will result in an assessment of the
level of the poetry sophisticated study. The stronger-
the harmony, the stronger-the tasawuf level. Thus,
this poem can be categorized as a Sufi poem.
Moreover, in searching the harmony in Sufism
concept, this inter-textual search also attempts to
find the height of the attainment of its tasawuf
maqam. Whether in tune with the initial maqam or
has reached the highest rank in the order in
accordance with what is written in the theoretical
study section on the front page. The maqam in this
concept of maqmatmat al-Yaqîn consist of: (1)
repentance, (2) patience, (3) thankful, (4), khauf, (5)
king, (6) zuhud, (7) tawakkal, (8) rido, and (9)
mahabbah (love). Maqam love is the highest maqam
with fruits of love such as: alhaibah, al-uns, sakar,
and mortal.
Comparing to the concept of Sufism, Amir
Hamzah's poem of "Doa", according to the
researchers’ perception, this poem is considered to
have a strong alignment because it can be
categorized as a poetry with a strong tasawuf level.
Furthermore, the process of reaching the highest
level of maqam can be obtained through the level of
Yaqin as tasawuf maqam, whereas the highest
maqam is love maqam (mahabbah) which is
Sufistic Semiotics - The Analysis Method of Sufistic Poetry
837

supported by some feelings such as longing,
intimacy or intimacy -Uns). Thus, this poem shows
the attainment of a high degree of wisdom.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the result of analysis and discussion
relating to the analysis method of sufistic poetry, it is
revealed that the analysis method is a modification
result from Riffaterre semiotic study. It is done
through three steps namely: the analysis of symbol,
structure and tasawuf. However, the third stage was
executed referring to sufi classical concept book
particularly the concept of maqom al-yaqin which is
found in a classic book. Therefore, this paper
investigates values of beauty and wisdoms in “Doa”,
a poem written by Amir Hamzah. There are some
points that can be highlighted as follow:
 The poem of “Doa” consist of the quality of
symbols and originality;
 The poem of “Doa” has a high aesthetic value;
 The poem of “Doa” has a high level of
tasawuf and show the highest level of maqam
tasawuf.
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Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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