1. The Origin

Ramadan is the blessed, holy, and honorable month. Therefore, when the month of fasting arrives, every Muslim becomes ecstatic. Muslims in many countries have different ways to express the arrival of the month. The diverse ways are influenced by social condition, culture, historical background of the community, and their understanding toward Ramadan. The process of this ritual has occurred throughout the years from one generation to the next generation, so that the formalization of these ways then becomes a tradition. 

The welcoming ceremony of Ramadan which is practiced by Sasakian of Wetu Telu Muslims in Lombok is one of the unique traditions. A month before Ramadan, the Wetu Telu Muslims usually perform Rowah Wulan and Sampek Jum‘at rituals as the expression of the exhilaration of Ramadan, even though they do not fast during this month. 

Rowah Wulan is performed at the first day of Sya‘ban, the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. While Sampek Jum‘at is presented at the last Jum‘at (Friday) of Sya‘ban which is called as “Jum‘at Penutup” (closing Friday). Although the Wetu Telu Muslims do not fast during Ramadan, they are expected to put more effort in refraining from forbidden acts in order to keep the purity of Ramadan.

They are also expected to delay all of individual transformations (begawe) such as nguringsang (cutting hair), nyunatang (circumcision), and ngawinang (marriage). The performance of these rituals will spoil the purity of Ramadan. Indeed, if there is one of the family members dies, the family members will perform the simple rite or will delay it till the end of Ramadan. 

The Wetu Telu Muslims use neptu (traditional computation) in timing the  ceremonial performance. The use of neptu to determine the ritual performance shows us that every community has logical reason into when the ceremony is performed.

2. The Equipments

The places used to perform the rituals are below:

• The house of the adat leader is the place for the performing of the Rowah Wulan and the Sampek Jum‘at rituals.
• Reak‘s graveyard (the oldest graveyard in the ancestor‘s burial plot) and other graveyards are determined as the places for the Mengosap and the Mas Do‘a rites.
• The ancient mosque is the place for the performing of the Pariapan Sampet Jum‘at ceremony.  

The equipments that are needed:

• Woven handkerchief (osap).
• Earthenware
• Pabuan contains lekesan and sembek
• A dish service and its side dishes.
• Sampak (earthenware plate)
• Incense 

3. The Way of Performing of the Ceremony

Although the Rowah Wulan and Sampek Jum‘at are the welcoming rituals of Ramadan, and will be ended by eating together, both have different ways in their performing. The Sampek Jumat rite is begun by doing Mengosap and Mas do‘a rituals in the ancient of the graveyard. While the Rowah Wulan rite is without the Mengusap and Mas Do‘a rituals. Indeed, in general, the core process of these rituals are similar.

Therefore, this writing will focus on the Sampek Jum‘at ritual which is preceded by the performing of the Mengosap dan Mas Do‘a rites. The ways of the ceremonial performance may be described as below: 

a. Mengosap

The Mengosap ritual is performed by Kiai Kagungan (Penghulu, Lebai, Ketip), and Kiai Santri at the night in the Reak‘s graveyard. This ritual is led by Penghulu.

The procedures are described as below:

1. The Penghulu squats down on the ladder-step, in front of the Reak‘s graveyard, while the Ketip, the Lebai, the Kiai Santri squat down behind him.
2. The Penghulu recites the prayer with local language, asking the permission of the ancestor‘s souls to enter the Reak‘s graveyard. 
3. He, together with the Ketip and the Lebai, opens the door and enters the Reak‘s graveyard, and all of the Kiai Santri remains in their positions; squat down on the lower ladder-step of the front door.
4. In the graveyard, they sweep the earthen-floor with woven handkerchief (osap).  
5. They then put the earthenware, pabuan containing the lekesan and the sembek.
6. The adat and religious leaders then go to the other graveyards to do same rituals like they did before. In each graveyard, all of the Kiai Santri will help the Penghulu, the Ketib, and the Lebai for cleaning the graveyard, bringing, and putting the earthenware and the lekesan. The offerings and the earthenware will be taken at the following night.

b. Mas Do‘a

At the following night, all of the adat leaders will come to the Reak‘s graveyard to collect the lekesans and the kendis (earthenware). This ritual is named as Mas Do‘a rituals, and the procedures are depicted as below:

1. The Mas Do‘a ritual is started by the Reak‘s graveyard, and led by the Penghulu together with the Ketip, the Lebai, and the Kiai Santri.
2. The Penghulu enters the bamboo house sheltering the Reak‘s graveyard, while the Kiais sit (with the legs crossed) waiting for them on the ladder-step of the graveyard.
3. The Penghulu burns the incense in the graveyard.
4. He then recites short Arabic prayer with mother language dialect.
5. After praying, the Penghulu will up his hands, in front of his mouth. This ritual is followed by the Kiais by saying Amin. 
6. The Penghulu then collects the lekesan and the kendi (earthenware) before leaving the Reak‘s graveyard.
7. After leaving the Reak‘s graveyard, the Kiai Kagungan (Penghulu, Lebai, dan Ketip), together with all of the Kiai Santri, will perform the similar ritual in other graveyards.

After completing the Mas Do‘a ritual, the following step is eating together (meriap or pariapan) in the ancient mosque. Its procession is described as below:

1. Some couriers will represent every kampu (village) and its surroundings, and gubung. Each of them will send the sampak to the ancient mosque, although the food of the rituals has been prepared by the members of the community in every house of adat leader.  
2. During preparing the dish service, all of the religious leaders are expected to wait in the ancient mosque.
3. The religious leaders sit down nearby the wooden-rostrum. The rostrum then placed in the middle of the ancient mosque as the separator between the Kiai Raden and the Kiai Kagungan.
4. All of the Kiai Kagungans and Kiai Radens sit (with the legs crossed) by facing the east while the Kiai Santris sit down by facing the west.
5. After preparing the dish service, the Pembekel (master of ceremony) will describe the aims of the performing of the Pariapan Sampek Jum‘at rituals.
6. The Penghulu will lead the ceremony and recite the short Arabic prayer for the prosperity of the village, and the Kiais will up their hand by saying Amin.
7. After praying, the following step is eating together.
8. After eating, the Penghulu will lead the reciting the second short Arabic prayer.
9. After completing the meriap (eating together) ceremony in the ancient mosque, they will perform the same rituals in each kampu. It will be started from the Penghulu‘s kampu and followed by other kampus.
10. After completing these rituals, the Pemangku and the Kiai will spread the sembek on the forehead of the participants.

Thus, the descriptions mentioned above are the steps of the welcoming ceremony of Ramadan which is conducted by Wetu Telu Muslims in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.  

4. The Prayers and Mantras

The prayers which recited in the Rowah Wulan and Sampek Jum‘at rituals are:

• The short Arabic prayer which is recited in the Mengosap dan Mas Do‘a ceremonies.
• The Arabic prayer for the prosperity of the participants which is recited in  Pariapan Sampek Jum‘at (the text of the prayers and mantras is still in the process of collecting data).

5. The Cultural Values

There are three main goals of Rowah Wulan and Sampek Jum‘at ceremonies. The first is self purification. Ramadan is believed as the holy and blessed month, therefore, human has to purify themselves before the coming of fasting days.

The second is to worship the ancestors. The Mengosap and Mas Do‘a rituals are the important parts of the Sampet Jumat ceremony. This ritual is done by means to tell the ancestors that Wetu Telu Muslims will come into the fasting month. They beg to their ancestors to give them the blessings with power, peace, and tolerance to practice the fasting. This can be seen from the sembek‘s spreading which is practiced by the Kiai or the Pemangku. This sembek will be spread on the forehead of the participants as a symbol that every participant will get the ancestor‘s blessings. It is believed that who leaves the ceremony without acquiring ancestor‘s blessing, they will get the supernatural sanctions (ketemuk). Therefore, everybody will follow the ceremony to the end of the sembek spreading procession.

The third is local culture preservation. The Rowah Wulan and the Sampek Jum‘at rituals which practiced by Sasakian community are the efforts to preserve the local culture. As a tradition, every ritual forms has been found by previous generation, and will be inherited to the following generations.  (TN/18/trj/10-07).

References :

• Erni Budiwanti, 2000, Islam Sasak, Wetu Telu versus Waktu Lima, LKIS, Yogyakarta.
• Ramadhan Wetu Telu, from http://terune-sasaq.blogspot.com/2007/08/ramadhan.html, retrieved at September 14, 2007.
• Ziarah Jelang Ramadhan, from http://terune-sasaq.blogspot.com/2007/09/ziarah-jelang-ramadhan_10.html, retrieved at September 14, 2007.

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