Political Thought of Malay Thinkers (Part 2)

The Political Thought of Syed Sheikh al-Hadi

He was born in Malacca in 1867, which at that time was under British colonial administration. When he was young, he was raised and educated at Riau and was adopted by the Sultan half-brother. His activism journey started when he went to Singapore in 1901 and together with several others Arab-Malay writers, created the first Malay newspaper which is called al-Imam. It was influenced by al-Manar newspaper from Cairo that was headed by Sheikh Muhammad Abduh and M. Rashid Rida, the two prominent reformist thinkers from Middle East. Although he was not prominently a religious scholar, his ideas had helped forward the reformist thinking and movement in Malaya in the early 20^th century.

Apart from journalism, he was also an educator by establishing madrasah (Islamic school) at Singapore (1907), Malacca (1915) and Penang (1919). His idea of Islamic schools at that time was different from traditional school where he tried to infuse it with modern thinking. One of his most successful schools is Madrasah al-Mashoor in Penang. It was one of the first madrasah to teach English language. Several other young intellectuals such as Sheikh Muhammad Tahir Jalaluddin and Syeikh Abdullah Maghribi supported his idea and played an important in realizing his mission.

One of the biggest criticism of Syed Sheikh towards Muslims at the time was the misunderstanding of qada’ and qadar concept. The thinking had infected the Muslims mind by believing in fatalism and determinism. We as a Muslims should return to divine decree which acknowledge the importance of human effort. This radicals thinking is important at that time to free Malays mind from always relying to the British for economics and politics.

Syed Sheikh also writes Kitab Alam Perempuan and Hikayat Faridah Hanum. Kitab Alam Perempuan was a book that focusing on women issues such as the importance of education for girls. He also elaborates on the appropriate relationship between boys and girls and the position of hijab/purdah for women. Hikayat Faridah Hanum is a fictional novel published on 1925 and focusing on a story of a woman who is being pushed to marry a man she did not want and resulted into unhappy marriages. This novel also shows that a woman and man can fall in love because of intellectual and spiritual connection. It is not just a matter of lust. It is interesting to see why Syed Sheikh writes about women either as a guidance to society or creates a fictional character for inspiration. His work might be earlier than any feminist writings in the Malay world, especially in the time when Victorian values still very much strong in British society and its colonies.

His role in becoming publisher and editor of al-Ikhwan, al-Imam and Saudara shows that apart from becoming a writers and educator, he also sees the importance of publishing in disseminating ideas to the Malays. His publication writings had become influential in learning the standard Malay. His publication helped introduced ideas from the Middle East and influenced the Malays on the importance of collaboration for the Muslim ummah. They realized that Muslims around the world was colonized by the West and not just a phenomenon in the Malay world. The usage of publication machine also shows that the Malays had adopted Western technology early on if it was beneficial.

The trend of publishing newspaper, pamphlet and periodicals was only booming in the Islamic world at the end of 19^th century. It is also interesting to see that the Ottomans did not encourage the usage of publication machine because of the protest from calligraphy artist who afraid that they will lose their job. The elites also only prefer books written by hands for aesthetic reasons. They also wanted book to only belong to the upper class and not available to the masses, which attitude that was rejected by Muslim reformer around the world.

Syed Sheikh believes that British government was fair and helped created Malaya that advanced in economy. British managed to take over Chinese monopoly of rubber and tin. Malaya famously becomes the source of rubber and tin for the British Empire. British government had also established banks and several other modern institutions that eventually bring foreign investment into Malaya. He also sees that most British who come to Malaya was among the professionals such as lawyers, doctors, businessmen and the entrepreneur.  

One of the reasons Syed Sheikh was more grateful to the British was because he believes that the Malay rulers and feudal lords cannot manage the country and bring about the modernization. He sees that many Malay rulers were preoccupied with entertainment and dance. They also neglecting their position as the leader of the Muslims and continue to perform things that is forbidden in Islam such as drinking alcohols. These rulers were supported by traditional Muslim scholars and come under heavy criticism from Syed Sheikh. They refuse to reform the education and their way of thinking. These scholars also close their to the Malay rulers’ bad behaviors. For him, Malaya is better off ruled by the non-Muslims such as British who fair and promote justice instead of fall into the hand of those who injustice.

We could say that in this regard, Syed Sheikh may have influence by the ideas and the hegemony of the West. Although he promoted the idea of Abduh’s pan-Islamism, he never sees it contradict with British imperialism. He was quick on blaming the local rulers instead of understanding that the British colonialism in Malaya and the Muslim world in general had created the structural corruption either in politics, economics, education or even the understanding of Islam. The opinion of Syed Sheikh actually is similar to Syed Ahmad Khan in India where he believes that British rule in India is necessary. He even rejected the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and sided with British. But Syed Ahmad Khan rejected Abduh’s pan-Islamism and considered it radicals. In this regard Syed Sheikh agrees that antagonizing British government could result in chaos. Maybe the violence of Indian Rebellion had put a warning to Syed Sheikh and he did not something like that ever happened in Malaya.

Syed Sheikh even uses Quranic verses to justify the continuing existence of British in Malaya. This method makes him the target of Islamic authority under Malay rulers such as Kelantan. His writings was originally forbidden in the state, but overturned by the British governor order.