By Nur Najihah
GOMBAK, 17 March 2019 – A talk aimed at promoting the ideas and philosophies of prominent Muslim scholar, Syed Naquib Al-Attas, to IIUM students titled “The Life Story of Naquib Al-Attas” was conducted on Thursday night (14 March) in campus here.
Organised by the Al-Aqsa Friends’ Society, the talk was held at Main Auditorium attended by both local and international students, according to the event’s programme manager, Nor Haiza Zahari.
Nor Haiza said, “We chose Syed Naquib Al-Attas as our topic because there are many people who do not really know who he is. So we try to expose his life and ideas to the students.”
The talk was delivered by Prof. Mohamed El-Tahir El-Mesawi, a lecturer from the Department of Fiqh and Usul Fiqh, KIRKHS.
During the two-hour talk, Prof. Mohamed El-Tahir revealed the story of Syed Naquib Al-Attas from his family, his education, and most important, his ideas through the books written by him.
“ Syed Naquib Al-Attas wanted to present the views of Islamic tradition from the philosophical, theological and mystical angles, not just as frozen concepts, but to show their relevance to modern life, how his ideas can help us actually face the kind of secular thought that came into our life,” said Prof. Mohamed El-Tahir El-Mesawi.
To know more about Syed Naquib Al-Attas, the speaker also suggested one of the books written by Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud which highlighted Al-Attas’ ideas. ***