Summary of CASIS’s Saturday Night Lecture Series with
Tan Sri Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas on
9TH June- 22nd December 2012
by
the graduate students of CASIS
June 9, 2012 Saturday night marked a beginning of a special and rare intellectual event at Dewan Jumuah, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). After a decade-long hiatus, Tan Sri Professor Dr. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas continues his deliberation on the fundamental aspects of the Religion of Islam, on knowledge, the meaning and experience of happiness in Islam. As part of UTM Centre for Advanced Studies in Islam, Science and Technology (CASIS) contribution to the intellectual vista of the university and the nation, the Saturday Night Lecture Series that was chaired by the director of CASIS, Prof. Dr. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud features discourses by Tan Sri Al-Attas every fortnight, with cross-generational audience from different nationalities , many were Indonesians and Singaporeans and some of the leaders of foreign universities who wanted to visit CASIS scheduled their visits to coincide with the CASIS Sat Night Lectures, such as the top leaders of Institute Agama Islam Sulthan Thaha Salahuddin, Jambi, Universiti Islam Ibn Khaldun, Bogor also in attendance. Not to mention The Vice-Chancellor of UTM, Datuk Ir. Dr. Zaini Ujang, Dato Raja Arif Raja Ali, and Dato Idris Jusoh and Datuk Dr. Mohd. Ghazali b. Mohd Nor from the Board of Trustees of Yayasan Iqra, the Rector of IIUM , Prof. Dato’ Dr Zaleha Kamaruddin along with other notable policy makers, academicians, students and members of the public are among the regulars at this ongoing discourse.
Tan Sri Al-Attas began his Saturday Night Lecture series probing the origin of civilizations. He stressed the fundamental role of religion in the establishment of civilization. Fittingly, the audience were transported back in time, at least in their intellectual imagination, to sample a kind of snapshots in history about the great flood of Gilgamesh which in all likelihood, is the same epic as that of the Prophet Nuh. Tan Sri Al-Attas boldly challenged contemporary scientists’ assumptions about pre-modern man, lumping them all and referring to them as “homo” when in fact, they lacked key attributes of the thinking human – the homo sapiens. The human intellect gave rise to a systemic order – what we call “law” and consequentially forming “madāni” or cities that are run efficiently, the highlight of a civilization. This Arabic term originated from the word “dīn” meaning religion, signifying the important role that religion plays in a civilization.
He then proceeded to examine the importance of language in human life in relation to the religion of Islām in the second lecture. With this in mind, in the 3rd and 8th lectures, he clarifies the crucial difference between Islām and Imān. The former, viewed as a verb gives a meaning of the act of willing submission and the consciousness of doing so to Allah, the Creator, while the later is one’s acceptance and act of verification in accordance to what is known to be the truth (tahqiq) – to be true to the truth and confident in it.
In the fourth lecture, Tan Sri Al-Attas put the question of language into practice and began with a discussion on the word Allah. This discussion serves as a preface to his exposition on other concepts pertaining to the meaning of the religion (dn) of Islam. Tan Sri Al-Attas raised concern over the rising number of people who wants to equate Islam with other religions leading to the idea of pluralism of religion where all religions are true in their own right. These groups say that all such beliefs are lights pointing to the one true reality. Tan Sri Al-Attas replied saying that not all of these lights are equal and the same, some are dim like the stars which illumine the night, but when the sun rises, the stars disappear. That sun is the Religion of Islam.
The 6th lecture deals with man as a form of a self governing state. He said that “Man is like a Kingdom i.e a state. He governs his soul, heart and his intellect acts as an agent. The senses are their departments. But if the soul is perverse, the government is corrupt”. But this doesn’t mean that we should revolt against our corrupted governments. In this regard he is of the opinion that it is better to suffer inequality from corrupt governments than to take over power and in turn commiting the same corruption or worse.
In the 7th lecture, he began by bringing to attention the day we made our Covenant (al-Mthq) with God. The covenant thus made is based on recognition and acknowledgement of Rabb by the servant – that is knowledge supreme. Tan Sri Al-Attas defined knowledge as “the arrival of meaning in the soul as well as the arrival of soul at meaning”. He then elaborated that `ilm is knowing a thing in relation to other things, while ma`rifah is knowing a thing as it is in itself, and that the root word `urf means limit. Knowing the limits will then lead us to both freedom and happiness where freedom (ikhtiyar) as espoused by Islam is to choose for the better. Happiness(sa‘ādah) is not just the state of mind or bodily pleasure–true happiness does not change once it is attained. Consequently, when imān is absent then we cannot grasp the meaning of happiness because it is ever changing. Further, the concept of happiness, he said, is best understood by examining its opposite shaqāwah (great misfortune and misery). A concept that has been sophisticated by the West with their outlook of life depicted as a ‘tragedy’. In his last lecture, Tan Sri Al-Attas mentioned how Aristotle developed his conception of a tragic spirit based on his partial understanding of the Story of Adam as the ‘fall of men’ .
The climax of the series was when in the 10th ,11th and 12th lecture, Tan Sri Al-Attas alluded the fact that nowadays, values has taken over virtues. Both are not the same as value is speculative. On the other hand, virtue is a certain quality given by God and must be put into practice. Four major virtues, collectively known as the ‘mother of virtues,’ are Wisdom, Courage and Temperance which culminate in a condition of Justice. Wisdom is to know the right place of a thing and to act in accordance to that knowledge of the right place of the thing requires courage and temperance, hence we have done justice to that thing and ourselves. By practicing all these four virtues would in itself become religious virtues.There are two aspects of religious virtues, one is external (zahir) which consists of the principles of Islam; and internal(batin) aspect that deals with the soul. Though the two should not be treated seperately due to its interrelated nature.
He ended the twelve sessions with an elaborate and clear meaning of what it means for us to be free, our capability of using language, having practiced religion in adab to achieve a state of happiness. The lecture series elaborates the worldview of Islam as described by Tan Sri Al-Attas is his many works where he gave practical examples as oppose to mere theories as it deals with our understanding of the very nature and our purpose of existence.