Religion Rationality of Islam Like
Muhammad ʿAbduh, al-Hadi addressed his writings less to convinced Muslims than to those educated Malays who doubted that Islam could still serve as a guide in modern life. He himself, on the other hand, was firmly convinced that Islamic religion and rationality were compatible. This was also the main theme of his book "Islam and Reason", published in 1930. In it, he went through the five pillars of Islam one by one and attempted to demonstrate their rationality. The purpose of the
Confession of Faith, for example, was to give people a firm belief in God. This, explains al-Hadi, frees people from the fear of powers or energies beyond the causality created by God, because the believer knows that God's power transcends all other powers. He therefore no longer fears powers and energies that are attributed to wood, stones, idols, graves, spirits or demons. As Islam was still strongly mixed with
animist and
Hinduism elements among the Malay Muslims at the time, this statement had a strong impact. elements, this statement had a particular relevance. In his discussion of the daily
prayers, Sayyid Shaykh emphasized their social and moral benefits in the sense that if a Muslim wholeheartedly performs this duty, he will not commit any misdeeds forbidden by God. Al-Hadi emphasized that the five daily prayers did not take up much time and did not distract Muslims from their work and efforts to achieve worldly success. Although they make an important contribution to peace, agility and enthusiasm at work and securing the necessities of life in the competitive world, the performance of these prayers takes less than two hours. Although Al-Hadi believed that one could perform the obligatory prayers alone, he recognized that praying in a group had an additional social significance. Participation in
Friday prayer was, in his view, obligatory because it established a good social relationship between Muslims and gave them a good opportunity to hear the sermons that urged them to do good and avoid bad actions. However, al-Hadi was skeptical about achieving the social goals of the sermons that were read out at the Friday service. He wrote in December 1927 that 99 percent of Muslims who attended Friday prayers in Malaya did not understand the
Friday sermon because it was delivered in an incomprehensible language. According to al-Hadi, the
Zakāt also has social functions: It is a means to show love, and brotherhood, and to provide help. Al-Hadi criticized the Malay Muslims for not managing the collected zakāt properly and not giving it to the rightful recipients, and recommended that it be used for the development of socio-economic projects such as the establishment of Islamic
colleges, universities and Muslim factories where unemployed Muslims could work. He interpreted this as a contemporary interpretation for the Quranic instruction in Sura 9:60 that one should use the alms
in the way of God. The
Hajj was seen by al-Hadi as a ritual that served to establish social and business contacts between Muslims from all over the world. He argued that the great modern nations also had various facilities and opportunities for socializing.
Polemics against traditional scholarship Although Sayyid Shaykh was certain that Islam was a rational religion, he believed that it had deviated from its original aims in the present. He blamed "the majority of
ʿUlamā' and
Fiqh students" for this. They had exploited Islam for their own purposes to such an extent that it had "become a joke". This thesis was also the subject of a separate article for
al-Ikhwān in November 1930. In it, al-Hadi wrote that Islam itself was not responsible for the decline of Muslims, but the "greedy religious leaders"
(angkara ketua-ketua agama). In his book "Islam and Reason", al-Hadi recommended that Malay Muslims should not give their Zakāt to these "religious men in white caps and large turbans", but only to those recipients who were entitled to it.
Criticism of traditional customs and Sufism Just as Sayyid Shaykh repeatedly emphasized the rationality of Islam, he was conversely fiercely critical of traditional Malay practices. In 1930, he expressed his disappointment in an article about the fact that marriage, "an act that is so honorable in Islam", had become a heavy financial burden for the Malays, especially for the
Walī and the bride's relatives. Sayyid Shaykh said that it was not very difficult for rich people to fulfill the requirements of this custom. The problem, in his opinion, was mainly for the middle class and the poor: In order to fulfill this custom in the same way that the nobles
(datuk datuk) and the rich
(orang kaya) did, some of them had to borrow money or take out a
mortgage on their land. Therefore, Sayyid Shaykh urged the rich to take the first step towards change so that the poor would follow them. He also sharply criticized the many inconveniences that the bride and groom had to endure, especially the bride in preparing for the wedding. He particularly criticized the Malaccan
adat, in which a particularly elaborate way of dressing up the bride was cultivated. Al-Hadi also criticized traditional religious practices such as the counting of prayer formulas with the
prayer chain and the making of
amulets, citing the
Koran. In June 1933, he spoke out against the holding of the
Mandi Safar, a joyous festival of ritual bathing in rivers and the sea celebrated by the Malays on the last Wednesday of the month of
Safar. In December 1929, in an article for
al-Ikhwān, he made fun of the way the
Friday sermon is delivered in Malay mosques: A man who had veiled himself like a woman would climb the
minbar and deliver his sermon in a language that no one, including himself, could understand. In addition, al-Hadi opposed Sufi practices. He rejected the Sufi meeting houses known as Rumah Suluk and disapproved of women and men performing spiritual exercises there together. He regarded meditation
(murāqabat Allāh), as practiced by some Muslim groups in Malaya, as a religious practice that had no basis in Islam because, in his view, the Prophet
Muhammad had not taught it. His dispute with the Sufis reached a climax in 1933, when the head of the
Tarīqa Taslīm visited him with some of his followers and asked him to confirm that the doctrines of his group were correct. Sayyid Shaykh al-Hadi agreed to this request on the condition that the followers of the movement would accept his findings based on the
Qur'an and
hadiths. He then undertook research on the group together with ʿAbdallāh al-Maghribī and Tāhir Jalāl ad-Dīn. After the investigation was completed, a gathering of 10,000 Muslims was convened in the
Friday mosque of Jelutong, where al-Hadi gave a three-hour lecture informing those present of the results of the investigation. The deputy leader, eight leading members and numerous supporters of Taslīm were also present at the meeting. Based on al-Hadi's statements, it was unanimously declared at the meeting that all the rulings in the Taslīm group's book were wrong and contradicted the teachings of Islam because they constituted
shirk. In order not to segregate and expose the followers of the group who attended the meeting, all those present were asked to perform the
Tauba and say the
Shahāda. Sayyid Shaykh reported on the incident in detail in his newspaper
Saudara in October 1933, but without mentioning how the Taslīm group reacted to the assembly's decisions.
Politics Assessment of the Malay ruling elites Although Sayyid Sheikh had had much contact with the traditional Malay ruling elites in his youth, especially in Riau, and had also been patronized by them, he frequently expressed his displeasure with them in his writings and blamed them for the weakness of the Malays. Thus, in 1906 in
al-Imām, he accused the Malay rulers of spending their time gambling and satisfying lustful desires and neglecting their duties. According to al-Hadi, they spent their money on useless and extravagant things that benefited neither the state nor the nation. One of the few Malay rulers who was viewed favorably by al-Hadi was Sultan
Abu Bakar of
Johor (r. 1862–1895). In his article
Ash-Sharaf: Kemuliaan atau Kehormatan (
Sharaf: Pomp or Honor?) of February 1908, al-Hadi cites him as a particularly positive example of a native ruler, but emphasizes that this sultan is not remembered for his fine shirts, imposing palace and medals, but for his glorious and honorable efforts to save an Islamic state that had fallen "into the jaws of a ferocious tiger". He had founded a government for his community and his descendants and had kept this government independent throughout his life, while many others had sold their states cheaply in crowded markets. Later, in the context of criticizing Malay wedding customs, al-Hadi praised the sultans of Johor and
Kedah, who had held only very simple ceremonies at the marriages of their children. He admonished the readers of his journal
al-Ikhwān that they should not be deceived by the pomp and titles of their authorities, as they were the real cause of all evil and the greatest helper of the nations they oppressed. In an article he published in July 1927, he accused the Muslim elites of being uncritical of the rulers, glorifying their deeds and courting them with
titles of honor, while conversely forgetting the needs of their societies and showing no interest in improving their situation. In an earlier article for
al-Imām, al-Hadi had already polemicized against the sultans' theological advisors called
Penghulu and the traditional Malay leaders. There he exclaimed:
Changing attitudes towards British colonial rule In the articles that Sayyid Shaykh published in the journal
al-Imām, he was predominantly critical of the European colonial powers. In the very first issue of this journal, dated September 16, 1906, he described in an article entitled
Angan-angan Berbetulan dengan Hakikat (
Fantasies that are in tune with reality) how he was carried high into the sky in a dream and looked down with tears in his eyes on Sumatra, Java, the
Philippines and Malaya, all of which were in the hands of foreign powers. In the same article, he accused the British of not doing enough to educate the inhabitants in their colonies. In December of the same year, he accused the Europeans of leading Oriental peoples into slavery, of being duplicitous and disrespectful towards Oriental rulers, and of closing the doors to knowledge. Ismail Fajrie Alatas says that the story of Rocambole with the Indian treasure also contains indirect criticism of the British colonial power, because it tells that the British bring the local Muslim population under their control by making them dependent on
opium and also by making treaties with local rulers. Sayyid Shaykh expressed a more positive view of the British in his journal
al-Ikhwān. In the second issue of the magazine, which appeared on October 16, 1926, he praised the prosperity in British Malaya, which was "the result of the good government of the British", but at the same time he advised the Malays that the British only wanted to attract European capital and open banks "to enable other people to buy saddles to put on your backs so that you work your land for their profit". The various buildings and fertile gardens did not belong to them, but to another people. Za'ba questioned the sincerity of al-Hadi's praise for British colonial rule in Malaya, characterizing it with the Malay phrase
tanam tebu di bibir mulut (literally "to grow sugarcane on the lip") as "grating sweet wood". Sayyid Shaykh then rejected this accusation in another article and repeated his praise for the colonial power. He went so far as to compare the British to God's army, whose arrival in Malaya brought blessings to the population: The Quranic statement in Sura 21:105 that God's righteous servants would one day inherit the earth, Sayyid Shaykh thought he could refer to the English. The Malay Muslims should use the benefits of justice, freedom and peace for their own betterment and then support the British government in its administration, which would ultimately benefit themselves. Sayyid Shaykh considered the very idea of asking the British to leave the country a sin, because the moment they left the country, in his view, there was a danger that other nations would invade. This was because, firstly, the Malays were not yet able to control their own country and, secondly, they did not have the power to prevent an enemy from invading. If the Malays under the rule of the British, who themselves ate meat, did not get to eat the same meat, they could at least suck the bones. Al-Hadi was very positive about British rule in the last years of his life and expressed in his novels his admiration for their ability to organize
(peraturan) the state. As can be seen from an article he published in March 1929 in response to the impending ban on
al-Ikhwān and
Saudara in Kelantan, he even regarded the British as a protecting power for his reform project. In the article, al-Hadi stated that Kelantan had only entered the modern world from a state of barbarism with the implementation of British jurisprudence, but that there were still people there who believed in the words of religious authorities who had never opened their eyes to modernity and free thought, as he had done under the protection of British rule. Al-Hadi expressed confidence at the end of the article that the government "under the flag of His Royal Highness
Georg V" would preserve
freedom of thought and remove anything that stood in the way of its exercise, "even if these obstructions came under the guise of religion".
Malay nationalism Although Sayyid Shaykh himself was of Arab-Hadramite descent on his father's side, he clearly considered Malaya to be his homeland and regarded the Malays as his ethnic group. His journal al-Ikhwān was addressed to "all his brothers in the Malay world"
(sekalian ikhwannya di dalam alam Melayu). When he spoke of the land of the Malays, he meant the whole
Malay Peninsula and the surrounding islands that make up the
Malay Archipelago. In
Saudara, al-Hadi reproached the "eminent personalities of Islam"
(orang besar-besar Islam) in Malaya for sitting idly in the assemblies and having their hands kissed instead of working to improve the situation of their countrymen. Sayyid Shaykh repeatedly expressed his concern for the continued existence of the Malay people. In September 1906, for example, he expressed his fear that the Malays could suffer the same fate as the indigenous peoples of America and Australia. Only God could save them from this. In an article entitled
Teriak Sa-benar ("The real cry") In October 1926, he appealed to the Malays to "finally awake from their slumber". It was necessary to shout out as if one had been beaten up with the greatest violence. Screaming and shouting, he wrote, were better than laughing and applauding, for how could one allow another people to become the guardian of one's own people in the territory of the Homeland Homeland, Watan, was a very important political concept for Sayyid Shaykh, which also played a significant role in his novels. Thus, in the preface to
Hikayat Anak Dara Ghassan, he explains that this narrative contains symbolic allusions that make readers love the fatherland
(waṭan) and the nation.
Chinese as a danger and role model Sayyid Shaykh saw the Malays as threatened above all by the
Chinese. In his article published in
al-Imām in July 1907, he warned the Malays that they had taken over almost all economic functions in their society. Addressing his readers, he wrote: In his article "The True Outcry" of October 1926, Sayyid Shaykh warned the Malays that it was a mistake to allow themselves to be so sheltered that they would die of hunger without clothing if "a foreign people" did not provide food, clothing, utensils, and housing. They would never have provided the Malays with all these valuables if it had not been their intention "to fatten us up so that they could make use of us as they do of machinery and factories". As he clarified in a subsequent article, by the "foreign people" he also meant the Chinese. Sayyid Shaykh was very concerned that the strong Chinese presence could become a threat to the Malays. He wrote in an article in October 1928: In February 1931, al-Hadi took issue with and rejected the statement of a Chinese who had claimed that the Malay Peninsula was not the land of the Malays, but his land. Since the Muslims had already failed to follow the commandments of their religion with regard to the dissemination of knowledge and had also not successfully followed either the European or the Japanese model, the time had now come to at least follow the example of the Chinese with regard to the education and rearing of children.
Work ethic and social Darwinism In the second half of the 1920s, al-Hadi repeatedly emphasized the necessity of education
(pengetahuan) and work
(bekerja) in his writings, whereby this was partly followed by
Social Darwinism considerations followed. In September 1926, in his opening article in the journal
al-Ikhwān, he characterized the present as a "time of education and work": every nation that takes care of education and works will hold a dominant position, but every nation that is stupid and lazy will perish. It was necessary to take care of these two things oneself and then to teach one's own children to love them from an early age. At the end of 1926, in his response to az-Za'ba, he said: "This worldly life is a battlefield that promises superiority and victory to anyone who works hard and possesses knowledge." In an article he published in June 1930, he tried to prove that Islam encourages people to exert themselves and work, citing several Qur'anic verses. Laziness, he claimed in the article, is harmful to health and defiles the soul. al-Hadi's social Darwinist orientation is particularly evident in the article
Will the Malays be wiped out? (Adakah Kaum Melayu ini Akan Hapus?), which he published in
al-Ikhwān in October 1930. In it, he stated that in exploiting their colonies, the Europeans were ultimately only following their natural disposition, the
Fitra given by God, as described in Sura 30:30. This natural instinct led them to strive for superiority. According to Sayyid Shaykh, this behavior corresponds to the principle of
survival of the fittest described by
Charles Darwin:
God had instilled in all human beings the will to progress and achieve perfection. Those who were too weak in this competition for superiority would perish. With such statements, with which he attempted to reconcile Darwinian theory and Islam, Sayyid Shaykh simultaneously provided a justification for colonial
capitalism.
Education and school system Shortcomings of traditional religious education Until the early 20th century, traditional religious education among the Malays mainly took place in pondoks. A pondok usually consisted of a
surau, the teacher's house and several wooden huts in which the students lived. Al-Hadi was very critical of this institution. In an article he published in
al-Ikhwān in February 1928, he expressed that while it was gratifying to see young men striving for religious knowledge, he judged that the pondok students were being taught by Muslim scholars to behave in a manner that was in stark contradiction to the teachings of Islam. He expressed his disapproval of the fact that in
Kedah the Pondok students were taken by their teachers to the villages for funerals and celebrations on the occasion of the
prophet's birthday so that they could recite prayers there and then be rewarded with
alms payments and participation in the feast. Sayyid Shaykh expressed doubts in the article that such gatherings, where the pondok disciples appeared like mosque servants
(lebai)' in white caps, were of any benefit to the Muslim community or the country, and called on the
Shaykh al-Islām of Kedah to combat "these dangerous gatherings". In connection with his remarks on the meaning of the
ritual prayer, al-Hadi complained that Muslim children were brought up by teachers who had a good command of the complicated movements and postures of the prayer and could also recite the invocation formulae, but had not learned its real meaning. Prayer, he believed, could only change a person's personality for the better if what was read and the purpose of the prayer were understood. In this context, he criticized the fact that 90 percent of Malay Muslims or more did not understand the meaning of the readings they recited five times a day in their prayers. To overcome the problem, al-Hadi recommended that those who imparted Islamic knowledge to Muslim children should also explain to them the meaning of the readings so that Muslims would not remain "in backwardness and shame".
The call for the establishment of Anglo-Malay schools Al-Hadi was of the opinion that if Muslims did not adhere to the European education system, they would remain backward forever. The article "The Real Cry" from October 1926 already contained the call for the Malays to quickly establish schools for their children. Recognizing the difficulties Malays faced when admitted to English schools, he called on Malays to establish Anglo-Malay schools in his newspaper
Saudara in December 1929. In February 1930, he repeated this call in
al-Ikhwān In Anglo-Malay schools, both Malay, "the language of the country's children", and English, the language of the colonial rulers and administration, were to be taught. Above all, religious doctrines were to be taught in Malay, initially translated from Arabic sources into Malay. As far as English was concerned, the school was to follow the government's regulations for private schools so that the certificates issued in the school would be recognized by the government. Al-Hadi made his proposal against the backdrop of the failure of the many private Arab schools founded in Malaya during his time: despite the large amount of time and money that the students had spent on them, they had not fulfilled the objectives of their foundation. He himself had two madrasas in Singapore and Malacca, which had to close again. Sayyid Shaykh also saw this educational project as a necessity for the success of the Malay "struggle for survival". In October 1930, he wrote: Sayyid Shaykh quoted the traditional
prophet's words as evidence that Islam calls on the believers to acquire the knowledge of foreign nations: "Seek knowledge, even if it is in China". Sayyid Shaykh considered it absurd to restrict education to
fiqh, as was customary among Islamic religious scholars. He demanded in the article that students should receive "every kind of knowledge that enables Muslims to keep up with other people in life". One could only benefit from
Tauhīd and
Fiqh if one also understood and appreciated the various other types of knowledge. In February 1931, Sayyid Shaykh reiterated his position and justified the necessity of learning English by saying that it was the key to knowledge and progress. Sayyid Shaykh also rejected the written fixation of the Qur'an in Latin script on the grounds that the Latin script could not accurately reproduce the Arabic sounds and the meaning of the words could be completely distorted when read by persons who were not proficient in Arabic.
Emancipation of women Al-Hadi also strongly advocated the improvement of the status of women in Malaya in his writings.
Social and intellectual equality of women In his book on the nature of women, published in 1930, al-Hadi rejected the widespread traditional view that women were inferior to men in status and intellect. He argued that Sura 49:13 shows that people, regardless of their gender, have the same ability to recognize God and are equally accountable under His law. The equality of men and women is also proven by the hadith "Women are the second halves of men"
(innamā n-nisāʾ šaqāʾiq ar-riǧāl). In his view, the Qur'anic statement in Sura 2:228 that men are one step above women does not mean that men are superior to women. Rather, the statement must be understood in the sense of superiority, just as the head is higher than the stomach; but even if the head is higher than other parts of the body, it cannot live without the stomach. Al-Hadi regarded the degradation of Muslim women in the present as a consequence of social and political developments within the Muslim community from the
Abbasid period onwards. As proof, he referred to the early Islamic period, in which, in his view, women enjoyed great respect and played an important role in public life in both peacetime and wartime. The theme of women's emancipation also plays an important role in the novel Faridah Hanum. In it, Al-Hadi tells how Faridah's father was filled with the belief that women were inferior according to Islam because he was under the influence of unqualified and ignorant religious teachers who taught Muslims such things. Al-Hadi rejects this teaching and emphasizes that the true Islamic teaching on women is completely contrary to what these unfortunate religious teachers had spread. The novel ends with a reference to the speeches of
Hudā Shaʿrāwī and with a condemnation of such misogynistic traditions that contradict Islam: In his romance novels, al-Hadi generally portrayed the heroines as educated intellectual women fighting for their rights and position in society and also proficient in European foreign languages. Nūr ul-ʿAin is described as a princess who "possesses every kind of inner adornment, from the various sciences to all kinds of entertainment arts, highly celebrated
pantun poems and the forms of Arab sociability that were common at the time". The modern image of women that al-Hadi propagated also included women being allowed to smoke. The romance novel
Hikayat Taman Cinta Berahi contains an illustration of Iqbal Hanum smoking a
cigarette. He also pointed out that the West had only achieved progress and development because education there was imparted equally to men and women. Al-Hadi also called for Muslims in general and Malays in particular to stop glorifying uneducated and ignorant women because "dull and ignorant mothers whose knowledge is limited to the bedroom and kitchen cannot produce good and victorious children." In October 1930, al-Hadi again emphasized in an article in his magazine
al-Ikhwān that a change in the upbringing of girls in Malaya was absolutely necessary. This had to be geared more towards the development of their mental abilities. He argued that the progress of a community depends essentially on the progress of the women in that community. In March 1930, when al-Hadi learned that a young Malay woman named Zainun bint Sulaiman, who had received an education in both Malay and English and had been entrusted with the supervision of girls' schools in the state of Johor, was about to start a women's magazine entitled
Bulan Melayu, he wrote an enthusiastic welcome note in
al-Ikhwān, exclaiming: In a letter to al-Hadi, Zainun binti Sulaiman expressed her hope that his book
Alam Perempuan would open the eyes of those Muslims who did not grant Muslim women the rights to which they were entitled according to Islamic doctrine.
Better status of women in marriage law Al-Hadi also dealt with issues of marriage law. The aim of the novel Faridah Hanum was to show that women should be given the right to choose their future husband, and that
forced marriages are unacceptable from an Islamic perspective.
Limits of emancipation One point that al-Hadi did not discuss was the permission of
polygamy. Ibrahim bin Abu Bakr attributes this to the fact that he himself lived a polygamous life for a time. During his time in Singapore, he was probably married to three women at the same time. One area in which al-Hadi clearly advocated the superiority of men over women was the household and family life. Sayyid Shaykh also considered the unequal treatment of women in Islamic inheritance law to be justified. In the
Hikayat Faridah Hanum, he has the father of Shafik Efendi, who appears as an Islamic modernist, give a long speech in defense of Islamic inheritance law, in which he explains that male heirs receive twice as much as women according to Islamic rules because they are obliged to financially support their wives and female relatives. == Sayyid Shaykh's house in Jelutong ==