"FENCING UP" A PLACE FROM SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

Placing the rice to seal off the place from evil beings

My seven boys reciting their prayers with the rice and rock salt placed in the middle of the table. 

There were some strange happenings in my school library these few days.  On Monday, my library assistant, her daughter and I who had stayed back until 5.45 p.m. heard the sound of a big book falling from one of the racks in the library but when we all looked, all the books were on the shelves.  Then on Tuesday, while the library assistant and the ustazah were sitting at the counter, they saw the door of my room closing by itself.  When I came back I found that it was locked from inside when I did not even push the knob.  There was also a type of smell resembling that of faeces or wet mud when I was working in my room.  I hadn't gone to the toilet at all and neither was there anyone in the room with me. 
I decided to do something about it and asked 7 of my boys to come to the library to help me in the afternoon.  I had asked my head librarian to choose the boys based on a few criteria: they should be well-versed in the Quranic verses, are religious, healthy and strong-willed.
The boys came at around 4.00 p.m. after they had gone back to their hostels to change, eat lunch and perform their Zohor prayers.  After that the library assistant briefed them on what prayers to recite.  They were told to do so in a serious and solemn manner. 
After the briefing, I placed a container of rice mixed with ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, red beans, black beans, turmeric powder, gandarussa leaves, etc. which are believed to chase away evil beings from a place.  I also bought a lot of rock salt as this too would be used to "fence up" or seal up  the place.  The Malays believe that a residence or a place can be protected from evil spirits, demons and ghosts by performing a certain ritual called "pagarkan rumah/tempat" which translates to mean to fence up a house or place.  Some people just recite "the ayat Kursi" (holy verses from the Quran to chase away demons) and sprinkle holy water around the house but the ritual my boys and I performed was more elaborate. 
After reciting the prayers, the specially blended rice was thrown all around the place.  A few of the boys went outside the library and started throwing the rock salt around the place to 'fence it up' so that evil spirits cannot enter.  The same ritual is performed inside but this time, the boys spread the rice along the perimeters of the room.  Those places they cannot reach, they threw the rice in that direction.  They repeated this by placing the rock salt along the perimeters of the room.  They were told to leave the front door for last.  One of my boys who has experience carrying out the 'pagarkan rumah' ritual took a handful of rock salt and sternly asked our unwanted "guest" to leave the place to mark the end of the ritual. However, there was a hitch during this last step as my boy suddenly started to struggle and the 6 boys and I stared in amazement as he performed silat (Malay martial arts) as if he was fighting with an invicible force.  I was ready to get all the six boys to grab hold of him if he were to pass out or become possessed but then we were all relieved to see that he managed to take control and then he uttered the words, "Wahai Makhluk Allah pergilah dari tempat ini", "Hey Allah's creation, be gone with you from this place" and threw the rock salt he was holding out the door.  Foof ... I was so relieved.  If my boy had lost the struggle, I would have gotten the 6 others to hold on to him and start reciting prayers to help him.  Hopefully, I can work in peace after this without hearing sounds of books falling from shelves, without doors closing and locking by themselves and without the ends of the table cloth standing up when there is no wind.
By the way, I know what to do if my boy had lost the struggle with the supernatural being and so that would not have been so scary after all.  My godmother had taught me how to handle such cases as she has conducted numerous exorcisms before.  Actually I could have conducted the whole ritual myself using the Taoist incantations and prayers but out of respect for the Muslim teachers, staff and students who comprise more than 95% of the school population, I used their 'pagarkan' method instead.