Al‑Attas, Sufism, and Malay‑Islamic spirituality

 The West has its usual probable habit of interference well in the historic narration of Islam's spread in the Southeast Asia. As in the "Gold age" & histories of several Muslim inhabited states of the region, they have had their own favourite narration of those sprouts of Islamic flower buds.

Likewise, the Malaysian history is also under a black rod that is to be removed steadfastly as fast as possible. Those who sacrificed their lives for this purpose are now retreating to their hereafter. Among those extra dedicated was the Naquib al Attas from Malaysian Geopolitical provinces, who is suffocated under the Eurocentric narrations of oriental islamic approach.

He had his own challenging views on those Eurocentric products. He clearly sheds light on the real reasons behind the spread of the Islam in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia.

1. Islamization & Dewesternisation of Malaysian provinces

Naquib Al Attas argues that the Sufis didn't just bring "magic" or "syncretism" but also replaced the old aesthetic (mythological/regional) histories by sophisticated philosophical frameworks. He also brings the evidence of derived words from Arabic, like Aql, adab, wujud, that revolutionised the Malay and prepared it for complex and theological thoughts.

In addition, He cunningly had corrected what were mistakenly misinterpretated as he taught the pantheistic description of the word wahdat al wujud as the unity of being. He also went forth by highlighting Sufi poets and like Hamzah Fansuri, whose works were a highly sophisticated expression of orthodox Sufism metaphysics rather than "heresy".

Furthermore, Attas never differentiated education from Sufism. He defined the Adab as "recognition and acknowledgement of the right and proper place of things". In his point of approach, Sufism is the internal dimension of 'Adab'. Adab of the creator makes one on a straight path. So, he became the founder of International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), headquartered in Malaysia, whose aim was for reflecting "sufi-philosophical" atmosphere, emphasising beauty, order and the integration of spiritual and rational knowledge.

Accordingly, when the loss of Adab and de-westernisation came, Attas suggested the only cure of returning to the Tasawwuf (Sufism), which will purify the soul itself. Coupled with his works for this purpose, "The Definitive Study on Malay Sufism: The Mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri" became his magnum opus. Before him, most Western scholars had a view of "deceased" or "confused" version of Middle Eastern thought about Malay Sufism.

Moreover, in his magnum opus, he proved that Hamzah Fansuri was not just a poet but a first-rate philosopher and metaphysician. He displayed Fansuri's use of the Malay language as technically precise, capable of conveying the most complex aspects of the wahadat al-wujud doctrine. Attas successfully made the attempt of rehabilitating the image of early Malay Muslims and presenting them as an intellectually sophisticated civilisation rather than a primitive one that merely "absorbed" Islam by translating the poetry of the Fansuri.

Alternatively, he also managed well to denote the "tragedy of the modern world" through his works like "Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam". Thus, he coined the terminology of 'The concept of Change'. Unlike Western philosophy, which has an absolute idea of the change, he also describes the term of some permanent spiritual realities through his terminology of "A'yan al Thabitha". He also argues that the infusion of Western secular values in the modern education knowledge. So, the Islamization must take place, which is very meaningful. He also has a need of replacement of 'Tarbiya' with another like 'Ta'dib', which is deep-rooted in Sufism, whose derivation is from Adab (to know the proper position for one to be). He posts that the loss of adab is a present problem caused.

He also emphasised the role of Arabic in Malay by the words like Wujud (Existence), Ruh (Spirit) and ikhlas (sincerity), a lot of contribution to Malay Sufist literature, which was like a toolkit for Malays. On the other hand, some of the contemporary scholars, including Shaharu Mohammand Zin, have their critique of Attas as his method of approach to the Malay world, focusing on "Islamization" of it, which might eventually display genuine scientific and social achievements of the pre-Islamic Malay era. To which the Modern Malay intellectual remains untouched for being "rationalising" Sufism.

Equally important is his prominence in forming his own discipline of the Sufist-epistemologist component. He himself combined the sufipsychology of Al Imam Gazali and his own epistemological framework. As for him, the combination of spiritual being and physical being is a human firstborn as (Bashar, Insan). He has firsthand experience in developing Malay Sufism as a well-disciplined and structured, rather than being a folk-mysticism, but also an intellectual collection of spiritualism. This way he focused on "seeking ecstasy" to reach the certainty (Yaqin) as he interprets the Sufi goal as removing the "veils of ignorance", so that intellects can function very easily.

Moreover, his works cover a lot about "de-mythologising" of the Malay language, which was laden with Hindu-Buddhist concept substances. These all had resulted in the injection of Sufis the sole concept of wujud (the real existence) into the language, which changed the view from the "Ayath" (world) concept to "of God", which came to be a profound Sufi concept. Attas made the core part of the reply to oriental scholarly view of Malay Sufism as a thing mixed with heavy animism, this beated on their head.

At last, Attas has an education path of civilising mankind, so his core concepts like producing "Good man" (insan adabi), whereas seculars think of a "Good citizen" only in itself. The two categories of knowledge included in his edu-method are i) Fard Ayn (individual obligation): essential for living a righteous life for the individual, ii) Secondly, Fard Kifayah (collective obligation): specialisations as sciences.

He teaches a teacher as an exemplar rather than a conveyor, and this is most possible through the companionship/observation of (suhbah) of the student. He also laid a couple of laws for the student under such a teacher as to be more sensitive than learning merely along with the concepts like "freedom", "justice" or "happiness", which would be then a corrupted education of Islamic life-lessons.

In conclusion, Attas was like a solid stone wall against orientalist and Eurocentric Western views and narrations about the Southeast Asian Sufism, especially that of Malaysia. Throughout his life, he contributed to traversing each milestone couples of terminological contributions and even written boundless of books for the sake of saving Malay sufism.