|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Tradition Versus Modernity in the Islamic World
| Article
# : |
19331 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1991 |
5,351 Words |
| Author
: |
Baharuddin Ahmad
Baharuddin Ahmad is assistant professor at the School of
Humanities at the Science University of Malaysia. His
publications in English include: "Sufism in Malay Literature"
in the Encyclopedia of World Spirituality, Vol. 20, 1990,
and "Truth and Reality in Traditional and Modern Sciences" in
Islamic Philosophy and Science. He also has produced numerous
translations and books in Malay. |
When the Portuguese armada first moored their vessels at the Malay port of Malacca on the southwest coast of the peninsula of Malaysia, the king and his subjects in this tiny kingdom had no notion that within two weeks the city of Malacca would fall into the hands of the Portuguese. The sultan or king of Malacca, Sultan Mahmud, refused the advice of his prime minister, a man of Indian origin, who asked Mahmud to declare war on the Portuguese. Not long after that Mahmud had to vacate his palace, flee to Riau, and spend the rest of his life in sorrow without ever returning to his empire again. So the Portuguese captured Malacca by force in 1511 for economic and religious interests, and the course of both the Malay Empire and Indonesia was irreversibly changed.
With the fall of Malacca to the Portuguese, the coming of the Dutch and the British in the sixteenth and the early eighteenth centuries, and later the Spaniards to the Philippines, the Islamic lands of Southeast Asia fell, one after the other, into the hands of Western powers. When Malaysia and Indonesia gained their independence in 1957 and 1949, the cultural, educational, and psychological damage left by the colonial powers was almost irreversible. The colonial powers had managed to cultivate the seeds of disparity in the minds of their former local "subjects," especially among the intelligentsia of these lands, who had become half-breed men culturally and educationally, half Muslim and half secularist in their manner of thinking, acting and evaluating life.
The new worldview brought by the West managed to dilute Islamic culture, not only economically and politically but also psychologically and epistemologically. The result was a new culture that belongs neither to the East nor to the West.
Traditional Islam
Traditional Muslims have always considered Islam to be a complete religion. Islam covers all aspects of human life, from the way one eats to the method of ruling a state and the structuring of a society. Since the Koran and the Sunna, or the way of the prophet, consist of teachings that concern every aspect of one's life, they are the source of reference for the life of the Muslim, spiritually, economically, and materially. The Koran and the Sunna formed the traditional Islamic society, created its aesthetic expressions, its concept of history, and its idea of culture, and established a framework for its scientific endeavors. This civilization continued to prosper down to the seventeenth or early eighteenth century, so long as the madrasah (Muslim university)
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
