For a long time, Muslim scholars the world over have struggled in formulating a formidable and balanced response to the modern Western mode of thought which seeks to impose its hegemony to the rest of the world, while simultaneously and creatively retaining the perennial spiritual, ethical and legal principles of Islam.
(Tan Sri Prof. Dr.) Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas towers like a shining beacon with a multi-dimensional body of theoretical and practical work that cogently addresses these issues which can serve as a blueprint for the rejuvenation of the Muslims’ thinking, as well as a redirection of the purpose of contemporary sciences and Muslim nations towards a more compelling trajectory rather than one which imitates the shifting slogans and fleeting promises of Western modernity.
He is able to do this possibly due to his unique life experiences, the fact that he has always been inspired and guided by those great Muslim luminaries of the past, whose basic teachings he has been exposed to at a younger age, and his personal and professional courage and integrity to defend, explain and realize his ideas.
He recognizes the strength and virtues of Western culture and civilization, and of great religions of the world, but he sees that the secularizing mode of thinking of one dominant civilization has imposed its hegemony over the rest with greater persistence including the Muslims worldwide.
He has also profoundly observed the inner weakening of the Muslim intellectual, spiritual, moral and social discipline for the last few centuries. This inner weakening leads to the loss of ability to properly recognize and acknowledge realities in their proper order of existence—ultimately, the Creator Himself.
Such inner weakening is what he meant when referring to the root cause of the crisis of the Muslims globally as the “loss of adab”. This phenomenon also leads to the rise of extremism and injustice of various kinds.
It is against this backdrop that he felt it is his duty to educate primarily the Muslim audience who are consciously and unconsciously losing this comprehensive discipline through an approach centered in the restoration of adab, or in nurturing good human beings.
His scholarly project especially in his Islam and Secularism (1978), A Commentary on the Hujjat al-Siddiq of Nur al-Din al-Raniri (1986) and culminating in the Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam (1995)—which addresses a problem of unprecedented proportions in the realm of thought which affects all disciplines of knowledge and lies at the root of the multiple crises the world is currently facing: fragmentation of vision of reality due to the modern but reductionistic scientific mode of thought.
By embarking on the arduous task of re-examining and restating the thought systems and metaphysical insights of Muslim luminaries of the past, he was able to make a compelling and robust case on how Sufi metaphysics offers an integrated or unified vision of reality that can inform the contemporary Muslim’s basis for the philosophy of science and philosophy of education—hence tackling problems at its root and breaking new grounds in Muslim scholarship.
Thus according to Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, holder of the SMN Al-Attas Chair of Islamic Thought at the Raja Zarith Sofiah Centre for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilisation (RZS-CASIS, UTM), two of Al-Attas’s many original contributions lies firstly in rediscovering several master ideas that have long been forgotten, ignored, or misunderstood which offer novel solutions to age-old problems that have vexed human minds, including contemporary scientific and intellectual problems, and secondly in founding, designing and comprehensively directing the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) (between 1987-2002).
While Prof. al-Attas is unflinching in his analysis on the fundamental limitations of Western philosophical and scientific mode of thinking in the spirit of scholarly engagement, he is appreciative of the positive scholarly contributions from the Western civilization, and espouses a dialogue between the civilization of Islam and the West—decades before the United Nations decided to call for dialogue between civilizations in the year 2001.
It is also known that he advocates since the 1970s, that Malaysia draws from the common ethical wisdom of the great religions which sprang from Asia, that is to say, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, to guide our collective future for he believes that a multicultural Asian nation like Malaysia would be able to thrive far better instead of adopting Western ideologies as our points of departure.
It is in such context that the likes of Hamza Yusuf, President of Zaytuna College (USA), regards Professor al-Attas’s Islam and Secularism as one of the most important books to emerge in the Muslim world in the last 100 years, and he is also of the opinion that Professor al-Attas is the reason for Malaysia’s being significant intellectually, for the global Muslim community.
The Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, once said that one does not thank God who does not thank man.
It is thus incumbent upon us to show gratitude to God by showing gratitude to a scholar who made it his lifelong mission to show us the way to a brighter future at the personal and collective level in times of great confusion.
He turns ninety (90) on 5th September and is still writing another seminal book for the benefit of the global Muslim community without any institutional position or support. Happy 90th birthday Tan Sri Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas.
