Hamka and Islam: Cosmopolitan Reform in the Malay World by Khairudin Aljunied (review)

Amongst twentieth-century Southeast Asia's Muslim intelligentsia, Indonesian scholar Haji Abdul Malik bin Abdul Karim Amrullah (Hamka) (1908–81) looms large. A pioneer within the field of Islamic reformism, his work continues to shape the outlook of many Malay Muslims today, to a degree no other author has achieved. Perhaps surprisingly, therefore, outside the Malay Archipelago his impressive oeuvre, ranging from Qur'anic commentaries to treatises on social justice to novels, has received only scant attention. In the English language, for example, while comparable Middle Eastern or South Asian scholars have inspired a plethora of studies, Hamka forms the subject of only a handful of articles and one full-length treatment (John R. Rush's Hamka's Great Story, 2016).

While this unfortunate situation is no doubt symptomatic of Southeast Asia's general neglect within the broader field of Islamic Studies, it entails that the current volume by Khairudin Aljunied constitutes a more than welcome addition to the literature. With his admiration for Hamka suffusing each page, Aljunied sketches his subject's 'conceptualization and theorization of social problems in Muslim societies as well as the solutions he offered for dealing with these challenges' (p. 4), all the while underlining how Hamka's 'method of reconstructing Muslim minds was unique. It was a fresh variant of reform that manifested tolerance, moderation, positivity, and inclusiveness and embraced an array of influential ideas stemming from Islam and other intellectual traditions' (p. 119). Elsewhere, Aljunied has conceptualised Southeast Asian Islam as inherently flexible and tolerant—or, cosmopolitan. Reasserting that characterisation here, he frames Hamka as Southeast Asia's 'cosmopolitan reformer' par excellence, a bold and forward-thinking intellectual who rejected exclusivist interpretations in favour of placing 'radically different thought systems in tension and in a dialogue with one another' (p. 5).

The first of Aljunied's six chapters, 'Of Reason and Revelation', pursues Hamka's notion of 'guided reason' (akal yang berpedoman). Like many of his contemporaries, Hamka lamented Islam's intellectual stagnation, which he attributed to an over-reliance on taqlid (imitation), the practice of excessively ascetic forms of Sufism, and the intellectual insecurities that accompanied a colonial mind-set. But, as Aljunied explains, while Hamka favoured the restoration of reason in Muslim intellectual life, he remained wary of unbridled rationality. For Hamka, 'reason had its limits, particularly in matters of faith and belief. It therefore must be guided by revelation through the sacred sources of Islam—Qur'an and Hadith (Prophetic sayings)—by good character, and by changing contexts, as well as by new understandings of how Islam should be practiced and lived' (p. 19). Such 'guided reason' underpins much of Hamka's worldview; Aljunied's decision to foreground it here is judicious, establishing valuable intellectual context for those encountering Hamka for the first time.

In his second chapter, 'In Praise of Moderation', Aljunied discusses another central tenet within Hamka's work: 'moderation in all things' (kesederhanaan di dalam segala perkara). Although Hamka was cognisant of traditional Islamic notions of moderation (including wasat and i'tidal), Aljunied demonstrates how his inherent cosmopolitanism allowed him to combine these with the Platonic formulation of a balanced life rooted in actualised ethical behaviour. Such behaviour, Hamka argued, was essential for the production of a healthy and just society, and could only be attained by utilizing Islamic ethical norms to train the soul, intellect and body. By contrast, the opposite of moderation, 'extremism' (ghulat, berlebih-lebihan, extrim, fanatik), signalled excessive inflexibility, or the holding of one view at the expense of all others. Identifying both religious and secular manifestations of extremism (notably asceticism and nationalism respectively), Hamka framed each as anathema to Islam. They served merely to fracture society and should be eradicated.

In chapter three, 'Muslims and Social Justice', Aljunied outlines Hamka's innovative approach to a core Islamic reform issue: attaining social justice (mencapai keadilan sosial). Like other Muslim reformers, Hamka lived and wrote amidst...