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Islam arrived in the Malay world through “good word” and quickly established itself though various kingdoms that would later become centres of learning. Zain al-Haddad speaks to Syed Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās about the major Muslim figures in the Malay world and the development of an indigenous Islamic scholarship which was nevertheless rooted in networks of authenticated scholarly chains across the centuries.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE
- Malay peoples before the nation state
- Languages in the region; Islamisation of languages
- Arrival of Islam in the Malaysian archipelago through “good word” and not military conquest
- Theories on how and why Islam spread in the region
- What did the Prophet ﷺ say about this region of the world?
- The “land below the wind”
- Major key historical figures of Islam in the Malay world
- Islamic kingdoms established as centres of learning, including Pasai
- Development of the Islamic intellectual tradition; report of Ibn Battuta
- Descendants of Prophet ﷺ in the Malay world
- Wali Songo, the nine saints of Java
- Oldest known Malay manuscript
- Ba’Alawi’s in the Malay world
- The “Rumi of the East” – Shaykh Ḥamzah Fanṣūrī
- Indigenous scholarship as part of Isnad, chains of learning
- European colonisation
- Influence of Imām Al-Ghazālī
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- YM Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Syed Muḥammad Naquīb al-ʿAṭṭās
- Shaykh Ḥamzah Fanṣūrī, a ṣūfi reformer, introduces metaphysical concepts and discussion in the Malay World.
- Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Masʿūdī, authoritative historian.
- Shaykh ‘Abdu’Llāh ‘Ārif (601H / 1204)
- Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī
- ʾAbū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Lawātī al- Ṭanghī (Ibn Baṭūṭah)
- Imām Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā Al-Muhājir, descendant of ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn al-Ḥusaynī
- Muḥammad Sāḥib Mirbāth
- Mawlānā ʾIsḥāq of Pasai, the earliest of the Wali Songo of Java (Nine Saints of Java). The rest are related to him except for Sunan Kalijaga.
- Ibn ʻArabī (Abū ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʻArabī al-Ṭāʼī al-Ḥātimī)
- ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī
- Bā’Alawī
- Sayyidī’l-Habīb ’Alwī bin Ṭāhir Al-Ḥaddād
- Sunan Bonang
- Imām Al-Ghazālī (Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsiyy Al-Ghazālī)
- Shaykh Ḥamzah Fanṣūrī, his poetries and prose works on highly abstracts concepts in philosophy.
- Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī, Shaykh al-Islām of Aceh is of Ḥaḍramī descent.
- Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī
- Prof. Dr. Muḥammad Zainiy Uthman
- Fazlur Raḥmān
- Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī
- Khaṭīb al-Shirbīniy
- Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar Bā Shaybān
- Sayyid Muḥammad bin ʿAbdullāh al-ʿAydarūs
- Shaykh ‘Abd al-Ra’ūf ibn ‘Alī al-Fanṣūrī al-Sinkilī
- Shaykh Yūsuf al-Makassarī, links the Malay World to the Arabia (Hijāz) and also to Imām Al-Ḥaddād, who he met.
- Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī (Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥasan al-Kūrānī)
- Shaykh Aḥmad al-Qushashī (Ṣafiyy al-Dīn al-Imām Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Yūnus al-Ḥusaynī al-Anṣārī al-Dajānī al- Madanī al-Qushashī)
- Shaykh ‘Abd As-Ṣamad al-Falimbānī (1704–1789)
- Raja ‘Alī Haji
BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Preliminary Statement On A General Theory of The Islamization of The Malay-Indonesian Archipelago (1969), Prof. Al-ʿAṭṭās
- Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai (Chronicle of the Kings of Pasai)
- Prof. Al-ʿAṭṭās, Historical Fact and Fiction (2011)
- Chronicles the Court life of Malaccan Sultanate: Sulālatus– Salāṭīn, sometimes mistranslated as The Malay Annals, which properly is Malay History.
- Kitāb Baḥr Al-Lahūt, Shaykh ‘Abdu’Llāh ‘Ārif
- The Oldest Known Malay Manuscript: A 16th Century Malay Translation of the ‘Aqā’īd al-Nasafī, Prof. Al-ʿAṭṭās (1988)
- ‘Aqā’īd al-Nasafī by Imām Najm al-Dīn Abu Ḥafṣ ‘Umar b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Nasafī
- Qūt Al-Qulūb, Abū Tālib al-Makkī
- Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, Bidāyat al-Hidāyah, Imām Al-Ghazālī
- Bustān al-Salāṭīn, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī, perhaps the biggest work in Jāwī manuscript.
- Tibyān Fī Ma’rifāt al-Adyān, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī
- Laṭā’if Al-Asrār Li-Ahl Allāh Al-Aṭyār, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī
- Ḥall al-Ẓill, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī, studied by Prof. Dr. Muḥammad Zainiy Uthman, on scientific nature of shadows.
- Al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm, Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn al-Rānīrī
- Īḍāḥ Asrār Ulūm al-Muqarrabīn, Sayyid Muḥammad bin ʿAbdullāh al-ʿAydarūs
- Shaykh ‘Abd al-Ra’ūf ibn ‘Alī al-Fanṣūrī al-Sinkilī wrote a complete tafsīr (Tarjumān al-Mustafīd, 17th Century), of the Qur’ān in the Malay languages, modelled on Imām al- Bayḍawi, Imām al-Baghawī, and Tafsīr al-Jalālayn.
- Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, Kitāb Al-‘Ilm, Imām Al-Ghazālī
- Sayr al-Sālikīn, Shaykh ‘Abd As-Ṣamad al-Falimbānī
- Iqtisād fī al-Iʿtiqad, Tahāfut al-Falāsifa, Misykāt Al-Anwār, Imām Al-Ghazālī
- Gurindam Dua Belas, Raja ‘Alī Haji
DYNASTIES / CONCEPTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Malay World as a concept and historical reality refers to Malay speaking peoples; today, they are spread over a larger region, and make up the majority population in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, and minority in Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, as well as South Africa particularly Cape Town. Referring to how the Malays understood themselves prior to the colonial experience and modern nation states, primarily discovered through manuscripts written by scholars; they used to refer to their language as Bahasa Jāwī.
- Bahasa Jāwī, an Islāmic language according to YM Tan Sri Prof. Dr. Syed Muḥammad Naquīb al-ʿAṭṭās
- Jāwī script: a script that looks like Arabic but is sounded according to the Malay language.
- Malay Archipelago: referred to as ‘land below the wind’ in Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai. Malay people as a race; what binds them together is Bahasa Jāwī.
- The Qur’ān: came first and foremost to Islāmise the Arabic language.
- Islāmisation = changing of certain key terms and concepts reflecting a new way of looking at the world.
- Mentions of Hijaz, Persia, Egypt, North Africa, Byzantine Empire: on Islāmisation that came together with military presence.
- Islāmisation of the Malay World: Islām came solely via good words and beauty of character, logical reasonings.
- Sumatera, camphor – so identified with the region, even the Qur’ān mentions.
- Historical Canton: a Muslim village consisting of Arabs and Persian.
- Kedah, the establishment of the Kingdom of Pasai as an Islāmic Kingdom and centre of learning.
- Ḥaḍramawt
- Perlak, Samudera Pasai
- Melaka Sultanate, a major centre of learning. Hosted scholars and debates
- Parameswara, a Hindu Prince who converted in Sumatera and he either fled Palembang or came to conquered Temasek (present day Singapore), and moved upwards to established the first Muslim Kingdom of the peninsula (The Great Melaka).
- Portuguese conquered Melaka in 1511
- 16th Century Aceh, ‘Aqā’īd al-Nasafī translated into Bahasa Jāwī. 1590; atomism was discussed in the Malay World.
- The Bā’Alawī Islāmisation of Malay Archipelago
- Cape of Good Hope, South Africa: linked with Shaykh Yūsuf al-Makassarī
Syed Muḥammad Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās holds several regular series of talks in and around KL and Johor, on the Malay-Islamic intellectual heritage. He has taught Islamic Philosophy at the International Islamic College-University of Selangor, and lectured at ADNI Pre-University (KL) on the worldview of Islam, and Map of Knowledge. He holds a Master of Philosophy from CASIS (thesis titled ‘Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s Conception of the West’). He previously studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Presently, he is based in Ḥadhramawt, Tarim, continuing his studies in the science of the soul with scholars and spiritual masters of the blessed valley.
Zain al-Haddad read law in Malaysia. He then concurrently ran a bizarre participatory arts collective, a communications agency and Peace Meal Mukha Cafe (Kuala Lumpur’s ‘Rumi’s Cave’). In 2014 he moved to Tareem, Hadhramout for 5 years to study sacred sciences. After living in London, Glasgow and Granada, he’s back in Tareem where he also runs Ahlaha Studio and Co-Working Space.
