Reorienting Sufism: Hamka and Islamic Mysticism in the Malay World pdf

This article examines the ideas of a prominent Southeast Asian thinker on Sufism in the Malay World. Haji Abdul Malik bin Abdul Karim Amrullah (1908–81), better known by his penname “Hamka,â€‌ is still regarded today as one the most influential Muslim public figures in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. He wrote more than a hundred books that covered a wide variety of topics, including Islamic philosophy, theology, history, jurisprudence, ethics, literature, and culture. More than three decades after his death, his books are still read and referred to by many Muslim scholars across the Southeast Asian region. Many of his writings are assigned as essential texts for university courses in Malaysia and Indonesia, and his writings on Sufism still attract a wide readership.1 Born in Minangkabau, in Sumatra, in the early twentieth century, Hamka hailed from a family of scholars and reformers who held different views about Sufism. His great-grandfather and grandfather were both proponents of Sufi practices and subscribed to the Naqshbandiyyah Sufi order, which had a strong following in island Sumatra as well as in other parts of the Malay World. By comparison, Hamka’s father, Abdul Karim Amrullah, was an ardent opponent of Sufistic tendencies and one of the