In continuation of IRF Lecture Series, we would like to extend our warm invitation to a talk and dialogue session with a prolific academic and social activist, Dr Farish Noor.
Dr. Farish Noor is a Malaysian political historian and is presently a Senior Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Affiliated Professor at Universitas Muhamadiyah Surakarta (Solo) and Universitas Islam Sunan Kalijaga, Jogjakarta, Indonesia. He was formerly attached to Zentrum Moderner Orient (Centre for Modern Oriental Studies) in Berlin, Germany, Sciences-Po Paris, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Society (ISIMM, Ecole des Haute Etudes et Sciences Sociale, EHESS), Paris and the International Institute for the Study of the Muslim World (ISIM), Leiden, Netherlands.
Dr Farish Noor's research site The Other Malaysia articles comment upon the politics of history-writing and the marginalised aspects of Malaysian history, and attempts to interpret, and build bridges over the different social fabrics and diverging political terrains.
Syed Shaykh al-Hady, a reformer of Islam who has yet to be fully recognized nationally for his contribution to the liberation of Muslim consciousness. Syed Shaykh has yet to be recognized internationally for the part he played in this Malay extremity of the reformist movement started by the modernising theoreticians of the Islamic world, Imam Muhammad Abduh and ‘Allamah Rasyid Redha.
Syed Shaykh was one of the founders of al-Imam, in 1906, A Jawi-Malay journal published in Singapore and dedicated to reform, islah and tajdid. Together with Syakh Abdullah al-Maghribi, Syakh Muhammad Tahir Jalaluddin, Imam Abu Bakr Ash’ari and others, they courageously attacked abuses wrongly sanctified by a misinterpretation of what was the intrinsic direction and nature of Islam, which they contended was at all times progressive and enlightening. They adamantly stood against taqlid, the blind following of tradition, which would confine us to live within fossilized interpretations of yesteryears.
Reading the criticisms of this Kaum Muda vanguard of almost a century ago, one is struck by the realization that many are still valid today. That Malay society in its religious-culture still stands in need of courageous islah thinkers if the life force of the Malay Muslims mass is to be allowed to come out from under the remaining coconut shell where no sun can shine in.
“Life and time no longer leave the pure and innocent alone and friendless. Their life will defend them and time will justify them…” [‘Ali Syari’ati, On the Sociology of Islam]
Details? farouk939@yahoo.com
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