Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world

The eighteenth century scholar of Malay–Arab descent Shaykh Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani wrote a seminal Malay-Jawi text entitled Siyar al-Salikin ila Ibadat Rabb al-Alamin, being a translation-cum-commentary on the Mukhtasar Ihya Ulum al-Din of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Abd al-Samad’s Siyar exercised a gr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Moris, Megawati
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia (IAIS) 2013
Subjects:	BL Religion BP1 Islam
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/1/Megawati_Moris.pdf

id	iium-35506
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-355062017-08-14T07:45:29Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/ Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world Moris, Megawati BL Religion BP1 Islam The eighteenth century scholar of Malay–Arab descent Shaykh Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani wrote a seminal Malay-Jawi text entitled Siyar al-Salikin ila Ibadat Rabb al-Alamin, being a translation-cum-commentary on the Mukhtasar Ihya Ulum al-Din of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Abd al-Samad’s Siyar exercised a great impact on Malay religious life and thought, by applying al-Ghazali’s teachings to solve the intellectual and religious problems faced by the Malay community during his era. Abd al-Samad discerned two main crises: first, the lack of knowledge among the Malays on the essential teachings of Sufism or tasawwuf; secondly, scholars who suffered from self-delusion and misled their students. He creatively applied encyclopaedic scholarship by providing an extensive bibliography of over one hundred titles of works on Sufism, categorised for each stage of study to ensure qualified access to esoteric knowledge as well as to avoiding misunderstanding of doctrines. Thereby Abd al-Samad made al-Ghazali’s spiritual teachings relevant and useful to the Malays in their attempt to discern truth from falsehood when dealing with competing currents of thought and beliefs prevailing at the time. The problems faced by Malay Muslims three hundred years ago are instructive for us today. Muslims may respond creatively as did Shaykh Abd al-Samad by drawing upon the higher Islamic intellectual tradition for solutions to their present predicament. International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia (IAIS) 2013-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/1/Megawati_Moris.pdf Moris, Megawati (2013) Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world. Islam and Civilisational Renewal (ICR), 4 (1). pp. 31-44. ISSN 2041-8728 (O), 2041-871X (P) http://www.iais.org.my/icr/index.php/icr/article/view/128
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	BL Religion BP1 Islam
spellingShingle	BL Religion BP1 Islam Moris, Megawati Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world
description	The eighteenth century scholar of Malay–Arab descent Shaykh Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani wrote a seminal Malay-Jawi text entitled Siyar al-Salikin ila Ibadat Rabb al-Alamin, being a translation-cum-commentary on the Mukhtasar Ihya Ulum al-Din of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Abd al-Samad’s Siyar exercised a great impact on Malay religious life and thought, by applying al-Ghazali’s teachings to solve the intellectual and religious problems faced by the Malay community during his era. Abd al-Samad discerned two main crises: first, the lack of knowledge among the Malays on the essential teachings of Sufism or tasawwuf; secondly, scholars who suffered from self-delusion and misled their students. He creatively applied encyclopaedic scholarship by providing an extensive bibliography of over one hundred titles of works on Sufism, categorised for each stage of study to ensure qualified access to esoteric knowledge as well as to avoiding misunderstanding of doctrines. Thereby Abd al-Samad made al-Ghazali’s spiritual teachings relevant and useful to the Malays in their attempt to discern truth from falsehood when dealing with competing currents of thought and beliefs prevailing at the time. The problems faced by Malay Muslims three hundred years ago are instructive for us today. Muslims may respond creatively as did Shaykh Abd al-Samad by drawing upon the higher Islamic intellectual tradition for solutions to their present predicament.
format	Article
author	Moris, Megawati
author_facet	Moris, Megawati
author_sort	Moris, Megawati
title	Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world
title_short	Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world
title_full	Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world
title_fullStr	Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world
title_full_unstemmed	Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world
title_sort	making knowledge useful: applying al-ghazali’s teachings in the malay world
publisher	International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia (IAIS)
publishDate	2013
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/35506/1/Megawati_Moris.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:50:52Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:50:52Z
_version_	1777409985611825152

Making knowledge useful: applying al-Ghazali’s teachings in the Malay world

Similar Items