Theft Prevention With Rahat as an Effort to Protect Property in Pasaman, West Sumatera, Indonesia

Abstract

This article aims to explore about rahat as an effort to protect property in Pasaman, West Sumatera, Indonesia. Stealing was a criminal act which threatened the perpetrator with severe punishment, imprisonment in Indonesia or hand-amputation in Islamic law. The punishment was not only to deter and punish the perpetrator but also to educate society not to make the same mistake. However, when the national and religious laws did not function efficiently, the people in Pasaman, West Sumatera, Indonesia protected their properties with rahat, the magical fence consisting of tayyibah (noble words) which prepared by the leader of Islamic traditional boarding school (pesantren). When a thief broke the fence, he may forget his initial intention to steal, feel being locked, or even sickened in to an unrecoverable illness. Rahat and its effects were announced in public, delivered mouth to mouth, and obeyed by the community. As the result, the people were prevented from taking other people’s possessions; the treasures of society were also well preserved. The type of the study was field research with a qualitative approach. The data was gathered by observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation study. The analysis was done descriptively by data reduction, display, and verification (drawing conclusion).<br /><br />