HAMKA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE

  1. Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah or prominently known as HAMKA (1908-1981) is an Indonesian scholar, thinker, religious activist, and novelist who is well known in Nusantara. HAMKA is an eminent scholarly figure who had made a remarkable contribution to the development of Muslims through his knowledge dissemination and relevantisation activities. He had made significant impacts on the ways knowledge should be sourced and approached, systematizing the knowledge, and indigenizing them to the local context.
  2. One of the greatest contributions of HAMKA is his Tafsir al-Azhar, an exegetical work of the Qur’an. It is a masterpiece that was first ever written by a Malay scholar in the twentieth century. The tafsir which is written in the Indonesian language offers interpretations on the meaning of the Qur’anic verses by addressing the Nusantara context which brought the tafsir closer to the heart and mind of its readers.
  3. Today, even after forty years of HAMKA’s departure, his works, thought and discourse, continue to inspire Muslim scholars in Nusantara particularly the Malay speaking intellectuals, thinkers and even the public. HAMKA’s thought is relevant and pertinent because he lived in the period of colonization that exposed Muslims in Nusantara to western values, philosophies, plurality, and modern lifestyle. The challenges faced by Muslims at present are the extensions of challenges that were faced by HAMKA and his contemporaries.