Kamal Hassan, the Pearl of the Malay World

By Mohd Abbas Abdul Razak and Mohd Mumtaz Ali

Among the many theories on how Islam came to the Malay world, the most famous one says that it was introduced to the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago by Arab and Indian spice traders in the early 15^th century. Many converted to Islam by witnessing the honesty and good character of Muslim traders and the dynamic teachings of the Qur’an. As a universal worldview and a way of life, Islam replaced all old animistic and superstitious beliefs of the Malays with a new philosophy of life which is centred around Oneness of God, the Qur’an, and the good character of the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW.

As time passed by, a small number of Malays managed to acquire a deeper understanding of Islam by venturing into other parts of the then-Muslim world. Upon returning as qualified scholars, they started to teach and write on the many disciplines of knowledge that come under the domain of Islamic Studies. One remarkable contribution of the Malay scholars was the invention of the Jawi script which mainly uses Arabic and a few Persian characters. Through the medium of Jawi, the Malays in Malaysia before their independence from the British in 1957, learned the fundamentals of Islam. Since Islam was disseminated peacefully, without any force or violence, the Malays in Malaysia grew with this psychological makeup of peaceful living. They until now believe in peace and co-existence living with fellow citizens of the followers of other faith groups. It is a well-known fact, that the Malays of the Nusantara, particularly Malaysian Muslims are well-respected elsewhere in the Muslim world, for the level of patience and tolerance they display wherever they go.  

Malay intellectuals who became known after independence of Malaysia were either critical to Western education or Westernized in every aspect of their life. Very few stood on neutral ground appreciating the goodness that comes from the West and East. Among the few, the late Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal Hassan (1942-2023) was one of them. He was born in Kelantan in the year 1942. From 1950-1960 he studied at Sultan Ismail School in Kota Bharu and later went to join Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur (1961-1962). He completed his undergraduate program in Islamic Studies at Universiti Malaya (1965). Upon completing his undergraduate studies, he travelled to the United States of America to undertake his postgraduate programs. As a student enrolled at Columbia University, New York, he managed to get his MA degree in 1970, his M. Phil in 1973 and Ph.D. in 1976, specialising in Contemporary Islamic Thought in Southeast Asia.     

As a Malay Muslim intellectual who was well exposed to the mindsets of the East and West, former Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal’s thought process was original, universal, moderate, comprehensive, and people-oriented. He was a well-read scholar in classical Arabic texts and modern philosophy. He liked many medieval Muslim scholars and read deeply into their ideas, particularly Imam Al-Ghazali (1058-1111). As a tribute to al-Ghazali’s oceanic knowledge and great humility, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal took every opportunity to share ideas taken from the many volumes of al-Ghazali’s Ihya Ulumuddin with students of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and others during public lectures. It has been commented by many who have encountered Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal in person, that he had followed many of the good qualities of a scholar highlighted by al-Ghazali in his writings. As a scholar deeply immersed in the writings of al-Ghazali, in 2011 he wrote a journal paper on al-Ghazali’s ideas on the spiritual diseases of the human heart (Amrad-al-Qulub) and published it under the title of “Diseases of the Spiritual Heart as Root Causes of Moral Decay and Corruption of Justice Based on Imam al-Ghazali’s Analysis”. When it comes to Muslim scholars of the modern era, he liked Allama Iqbal (1877-1938), Al-Mawdudi (1903-1979), Syed Qutb (1906-1966), and many more revivalist thinkers in Islam. As an intellectual who has read Iqbal’s Magnum Opus “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”, “Asrar-i-Khudi” and other works in poetry, he wrote a long poem on Iqbal. Written as a lamentation entitled “Complaining to Iqbal: Dialogue with the Dead” (2002). In this poem, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal reports on the state of affairs in the Muslim world. He complains to Iqbal that Muslim leaders of his time were after the pursuit of power by practising Machiavellian politics, hankering over a hedonistic lifestyle, demonstrating an immense love for worldly pleasure and at the same time closing an eye on corruption. The quote below is a few lines from his long poem address to Iqbal on the condition of the Muslim Ummah:

O Iqbal!

Don’t turn in your grave if I tell you

that the Muslim world is the champion

today in corruption and illiteracy.

Or, that our rulers are among the smartest in deceiving the masses,

Having mastered the art from Machiavelli’s Prince.

Or, that some of our elites

are the greatest drinkers of the wine of Kafirun,

Intoxicated, they try to sell cheap.

versions of it in their stores,

Beguiling the local youth as they deconstruct

the blessed Zam Zam to make it taste like beer and wine,

And succeeding in making the young worship celebrities as divine

Or, that the Malay Muslim community excels in fitnah memfitnah

where love once stood (Kamal Hasan, 2002).

Despite the wrong things happening in many Muslim countries, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal ends his lamentation on a positive note by highlighting that people in the West are coming into Islam in great numbers.

0 Iqbal!

Behind this veil of melancholy,

I see a ray of hope,

In the palaces of today’s Pharaohs

many Moses are being born,

out of the gospel of Trinity into the glad tidings of tawhid,

Among the ruins of Cordoba, I met Sister Tamara,

a blend of the tulip of the Occident

and the rose of the Orient.

Many more Tamaras are blossoming.

in the wasteland of modernity and postmodernism,

lighting candles in the dungeons of hedonism.

Many more Bilals are growing up in Harlem.

to proclaim the rise of Isa, son of Maryam.

From the minarets of New York, London, and Paris,

He will preach the true meaning of La ilaha illa Allah.

Muhammad Rasul Allah.

Yes, O Iqbal, the sun will rise in the West!

As Musa (alaihi al-salam) rose in the palace of Fir’aun. (Kamal Hassan, 2002).

As a scholar who showed great zeal and zest for the revival of the true spirit of Islam, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal worked tirelessly in giving lectures and writing on matters related to the Muslim Ummah. For many decades, the matter that was close to his heart was the “Islamization of Human Knowledge (IOHK) and Education”. He spoke on the importance of Islamization locally and internationally to Muslims and non-Muslims. Through IOHK, he called for the revivial of Islamic epistemology, an ongoing process that detoxes all colonial values infused through education when Muslim countries were under colonial rule. Apart from Islamization, his work entitled “Natural Science from the World View of the Qur’an” (2018) available in three volumes can be useful references for students and teachers who intend to explore the relationship between Islam and the natural sciences.

As a Malay Muslim intellectual, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal wrote books like “Voice of Islamic Moderation for the Malay World” (2011) and “The Malay Concept of Sejahtera from an Islamic Perspective” (2011) to explain how tolerance, moderation, and human well-being in terms of body, mind and spirit are all observed in the Malay world. As much as he praised the Malay world, particularly his own beloved country Malaysia, he also had a fair deal of criticism on his fellow countrymen when wrote “Corruption and Hypocrisy in Malay Muslim Politics” (2021). We believe that if Muslims in Malaysia and elsewhere in the Muslim world read his ideas on the need to eradicate corruption, can achieve the past but lost glory. For this they need to go back to the pristine teachings of the Qur’an that call for fairness, justice, and the equal distribution of national wealth.  

One of Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal’s greatest achievements was the presentation of the working paper for the establishment of the IIUM in 1983. Looking into his academic background and as a scholar who could integrate the good parts of Islamic system of education and heritage with the positive aspects of Western dynamism, the then government of Malaysia handpicked Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Kamal to be put in charge of this maiden project of establishing an Islamic university of world repute in Malaysia. It has been four decades since the birth of IIUM and Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal had lived to witness the fruits of his labour. Presently, IIUM exists as a symbol of Islam and Islamic education which stands to show the Right Path of cultural and civilizational development which promotes peace and harmony in the world in general and in the Muslim world at large. IIUM has always maintained its unique position and an exemplary model of higher education. Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal would always be remembered for his dedicated life to the establishment, development, evolution, maintenance, and progression of the IIUM with the spiritual and moral foundation for it.    

Lastly, as a recognition of Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal Hassan’s steadfast contribution to the cause of the Muslim Ummah and humanity, the authors would like to dedicate the following elegy:

O Kamal Hassan!

You are ……

A pearl from the depth of the ocean of knowledge.

A beacon of light that brightens the corridors of knowledge.

A towering personality that mesmerized students and academics alike.

An unapologetic scholar who spoke his mind in defence of Islam and its heritage.

A visionary leader in academia who paved the path for the next echelon of Muslim intelligentsia to come.

A man who was persistent and consistent in the course of Islamization of knowledge, right from its inception to the very last day of his life.

A scholar who did not use militancy in getting across his ideas but used persuasion and convincing arguments.

A classic personification of a humble scholar in Islam.

As your mortal body is enshrined in the belly of the earth, your spirit and knowledge will illuminate a large section of the Muslim Ummah. ***

* This short article on Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Kamal Hassan is a prelude to a journal paper entitled “Kamal Hassan and the Birth of IIUM: A Retrospective Survey of His Ideas” that will be published very soon as 2023 ends.

(Prof. Dr. Muhammad Mumtaz Ali is an academic in Department of Usuluddin and Comparative Religion, AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences.)