What are the ingredients needed for the good life of the mind? A diligent mind, a willingness to learn, an intelligent and wise teacher, and a community of like-minded seekers of knowledge. On the night of the 26th of January 2025, at the Merdeka Hall, World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, these ingredients came together, providing an opportunity to scholars and students alike, as well as members of the public, and those who were entrusted to administer their affairs, to ponder on the questions of man, religion and God. It is the night of the third extempore lecture by the distinguished Royal Laureate Professor Tan Sri Dr Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, expounding his thoughts on these topics which he has written in his most recent book, Islam: The Covenants Fulfilled.
Those who have read and followed the thoughts of the Professor would know that among his main contribution to contemporary Islamic discourse is the elaboration on the components of the worldview of Islam, and the use of this worldview to deal with the challenges posed by secularism to the Muslims of today. One of those challenges came in the form of reducing the reality of Islam as the dῑn al-haqq into just as one form of submission among the many other forms of submission to God. Another important challenge posed by secularism is the study of history which excludes the sacred and the event surrounding revelation and the Prophets, rendering religion as simply a curiosity formed by culture and society. In the study of his own self too, the force of secularism transformed the understanding of man. Man, seeing himself as one among the many living things in the natural world, disregards the true capacity of his self which is not only physical and intellectual, but also spiritual in nature. And it is in this spiritual aspect of his that reminds him that he is not abandoned to his own existence, he has a Lord, Who reveals His Name, and His chosen religion, to the best among them all, the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
On Islam as the name of religion not revealed to earlier prophets
The Professor began his lecture by emphasising what it means by saying that Islam is a dῑn al-haqq. Haqq brings two meanings, truth and the true, thus, dῑn al-haqq can mean the religion of Truth and the True Religion. As in his previous Extempore Lectures, Professor al-Attas again underlines that Islam is unlike other religions, other religions being considered a millah, which is a system of beliefs that is formed culturally and sociologically around chieftain/s and over time developed its own religious practices and rituals. Islam, on the other hand, is a dῑn which, although underwent a period of preparation and evolvement, is developed by Allah s.w.t. Himself who sent revelations and messages to His chosen Prophets. Millah, when seen in the history of civilization, develops as men form tribes, which further develops into nations while the religious rituals and practices evolved into laws. Millah and dῑn are two synonymous terms, but they do not mean the same thing, says the Professor, for millah could be a prelude to dῑn, yet not all millah will be a dῑn.
Like millah, dῑn also has its chieftains/leaders, those who are intelligent and righteous who led their people to the right and ethical way of life and to worship the Divine. But unlike millah, the God which they call upon their people to worship is a Universal God, not a national God. Nor is it a tribal God, or the philosophical God (one can’t help but to think of the aloof Aristotelian Unmoved Mover) or a mythological God (the scheming Greek and Roman pantheon of gods came to mind). The Professor then moves into the topic of the plural form of dῑn, which is adyān, and explains to the audience that originally, there are no plural form for dῑn but that the Arab lexicologists created the plural to give a term to the many different millah they encountered, to fulfil a linguistic need. However, all forms of kufr or disbelief is the same since rejection of the truth is the same. Since Islam is the dῑn al-haqq, therefore,it is not suitable for it to be included into this plurality of religions, i.e., it is not one dῑn among the many adyān. Instead, it should be regarded as the only dῑn, singularly bearing the message of truth or the true message.
It is interesting to get a glimpse into how the mind of a great intellectual thinks. The Professor explains the questions that came to his mind that set him on the quest to investigate when the name ‘Islam’ was revealed. Returning to the discussion of millah and dῑn, Professor al-Attas asks a question which has not been asked before; has the Prophet Ibrahim a.s. ever referred to himself as a Muslim? The first question begets the second; does there exist the term Muslim, and by extension Islam, and aslama (the verb form), in the Arabic language before Prophet Muhammad s.a.w? Professor al-Attas mentions how he searched in the Quran to find the messages from Allah to His earlier prophets, which can be found in 167 verses that appear in 12 chapters of the Quran, and this he came to by working manually without the aid of computers. He lists down the earlier Arab prophets which are Hud, Salih, and Shu’ayb (peace be upon them all) and says that they did not seem to ever refer to themselves as Muslims, in the sense that the religion of Islam is implied therein. Where the previous Prophets refer to themselves as muslims, i.e. by the Prophet Ya’qub, Yusuf, Ayyub or the Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them all), it is in the sense of them being a submitter to the One God, for Islam as a chosen name for the religion that they propagate have not yet been revealed (more discussion on this can be found in Islam: The Covenants Fulfilled, pp. 54-57, 60-67). Neither do the name ‘Islam’ or the verb ‘aslama’ appear before the time of the Last Prophet. Prophet Ibrahim a.s. was only referred to using the term millata Ibrahima hanifan. When the word musliman appear to describe Prophet Ibrahim a.s, the Professor points out that this was in fact in the voice of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w, not in the instance in which the Quran describes the time of the Prophet Ibrahim a.s. Indeed, in Surah Ali Imran, verse 67, where Prophet Ibrahim a.s. was described as hanifan musliman, it was when Allah s.w.t asks the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w to answer the false claims of the People of the Book. The professor concludes that this shows that the word Muslim, and the name Islam itself, have not yet been revealed. The term muslim used by the earlier prophets is interpreted by Professor al-Attas as implying that they are submitters to God, not indicating the substantial name of the dῑn, Islam. That we thought the name Islam or Muslim existed before Prophet Muhammad s.a.w, that is only a conjecture.
The covenant of the Prophets
Here, the Professor brings the audience to recall the Mithaq an-Nabiyyin, or the Covenant of the Prophets, an event told in the Quran in which the earlier prophets was asked by Allah to await the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and to support him, to which all the Prophets answer that they do acknowledge this covenant (Ali Imran: 81). He also reminds the audience of the famous tradition, in which on the night of Isrā’ wa Mi‘rāj, the Prophet s.a.w. was brought to Palestine where he led a prayer in front of the earlier prophets, signifying the fulfilment of their covenant and their wishes to be made Muslims.
How does the covenant of the Prophets relate to the earlier discussion on the nonexistence of the name ‘Islam’ and ‘aslama’ before Prophet Muhammad s.a.w? It shows the significance of Islam as the dῑn al-haqq and the preparation involved in planting the seeds of faith in Allah throughout the history of civilization. Professor al-Attas notes that while there is no mention of the name Islam as this dῑn al-haqq before the time of the Prophet s.a.w, there does exist the word imān and its verb, amana, which he finds in the dialogues between the earlier Prophets and the people that they were sent to. In their defiance to their prophets and in the prophets’ patient teaching of it, imān, or having faith in Allah is emphasised, rather than islam or aslama. The message to nudge mankind to have imān is that definitive task given to the earlier Prophets to prepare for the coming of Islam.
Professor al-Attas mentioned in the book as well as in the first extempore lecture on the 21st of October 2023, that his research brought him to study old pre-Islamic Arabic text, the mu’allaqat, to see whether there has been any mention of the terms Islam, aslama or Muslim. This writer also recalls another earlier lecture in February 2020 where the Professor listed in detail the earlier Prophets and the geographical area and historical people they were sent to, those in Ancient Arabia, Mesopotamia and Babylonia, showing his familiarity with the history of ancient civilizations as well as the languages spoken by them. All these are in addition to his research into the Quran to study what Allah s.w.t. has recorded them as saying in their arguments with their Prophets, and he came to the realization that belief (imān) or āmana is what was emphasised, not Islam or aslama. That would only be revealed later to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
All Muslims who have learned the sīrah of the Last Prophet would know that the religion of Islam is not revealed all at once. But perhaps for most of us, our conception of the time period involved is only the duration between the time of the first chapter being revealed to the last sermon of the Prophet s.a.w when he was nearing the end of his time in this world. In Professor al-Attas’s view however, the fact that Islam was not revealed all at once has a wider historical and civilizational significance. Allah s.w.t. has prepared mankind for the coming of this religion for generations, with the earlier prophets sent to gradually introduce mankind to it. In fact, the earlier Prophets themselves undergo personal events which allow for the transformation to their own cognition to fully grasp the reality of the One True God, as in the story of Prophet Musa a.s. and Prophet Ibrahim a.s. This is very much in relation to what Professor al-Attas tries to show in his book and throughout the extempore lectures, that there is some futurity and anticipation on the part of the earlier prophets, as well as planning involved on the part of God (for Allah indeed plans all things and He is the best of Planners), to prepare mankind to receive the true religion and the arrival of the Seal of the Prophets.
The message to believe in Tawhid, the Oneness of God and the religion that calls to the knowledge of the Reality of this Being has many times throughout the history of mankind suffers corruption. This is obvious if one looks at the history of religions before Islam. The millah that the prophets brought was confused by their own followers which brings it away from the true message. Students of philosophy would also know this very well too. Reason can bring us to understand that there is a Divine Something, but what exactly is this Being, philosophers could not give a definite answer. Plato could not decide which is the real conception of God, between the Demiurge or the World Soul, and neither can Aristotle definitively answer how many Prime Movers or Uncaused Causes there are. Spinoza’s God is too abstract, and Kierkegaard’s God too fragile (and Nietzsche’s God is, well, dead). The ultimate truth cannot be arrived at by reason alone, but through Divine guidance, or huda (Islam: The Covenants Fulfilled, p. 26), which the Professor reminds us many times throughout his lecture series. His undertaking and findings are also a result of pursuing such guidance and inspiration. Allah s.w.t. in his Wisdom and Judiciousness, plans for mankind to be gradually instilled with the concepts and ethical views needed to fully comprehend Islam, by sending Messengers upon Messengers who preached the belief in the One True God. This realisation is crucial to help us de-secularise history of civilisations. History is not simply about dead emperors and fallen kingdoms, or duplicitous and backstabbing senators/advisors, or a tragic outlook on the mechanical rise and eventual fall of tribes and nations. There is purpose, hopefulness, and anticipation (or in the words of Professor al-Attas, futurity) in history of mankind’s yearning for God. And there is mercy, great mercy, in the sending of the Seal of the Prophets, which allows the earlier prophets to fulfil their covenants, and allow us to fulfil our individual covenant with God, one which we all took in the Day of Alastu. Being a Muslim (or being within the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w) is then a great privilege not accorded to the people of the previous prophets. With the name of the religion revealed, the earlier prophets are then authenticated as Muslims.
On the name of Allah and the Reality the Name conveys
Professor al-Attas reminds the audience that Islam and the name of Allah were revealed by Him, as no human mind or human language can come up with it. Allah s.w.t. says in the Quran that He is the one who calls us by the name Muslims (Surah al-Hajj: 78), which lays weight to the Professor’s emphasis that we do not by ourselves become Muslims, it is He that makes us Muslims. Indeed, the religion in God’s sight is Islam (Ali Imran: 19).
The Professor then turns to the topic of the name, Allah. In contradiction to those who say that the name Allah is obtained via the conjunction of Al (The) and Illah (God), Prof al-Attas maintained that the name ‘Allah’ does not arise from a human language, which brings the discussion to the nature of language. Language can be thought of in three aspects, that of lughah, lisan and kalam. Lughah is the general term for language, whereas lisan conveys a more profound concept of language that encapsulates meaning, texture, and taste to the study of language. An example of this is Ibn Manzur’s Lisān al-Arab. Kalam is that aspect of language that relates to speech that must be logical, and it is from this aspect of language that we have the term mutakallim (theologians). The name ‘Allah’ does not belong to any of these aspects, as it is beyond human reason and language to come up with the Reality of the Name.
Professor al-Attas also disagrees with the 13th century jurist, grammarian, and theologian, al-Bayḍāwῑ, which equates the name of Allah as lafẓ and here, the Professor reveals only a glimpse of the metaphysical discussion which he elaborates more in the final part of his book (pp. 88-93). In brief, Professor al-Attas emphasises the uniqueness of the name of Allah which, in the metaphysics of Islam, conveys the meaning of the Essence of the Most Exalted Self. The name ‘Allah’ also is understood to contain within it all the Divine Names and implies the perfection inherent in the Essence. In other words, the name ‘Allah’ points to a Reality, a Being, therefore, it cannot be designated as simply a lafẓ, which means sounds or utterances denoting the arrangement of letters, not pointing to any ontological reality. Professor al-Attas, however, is in accord with the judgment of al-Bayḍāwῑ, which says that the alif, lam, mῑm refer to Allah, lisan, and Muhammad, respectively. Lisan here is the profound concept of language that includes taste and meaning. One is brought to the realization that of course, language has that dimension of ‘taste’ to it, as the one speaking and thinking of language is the soul, not a non-feeling machine. One cannot help but to think that an investigation into this concept of language and ontology would benefit us in analysing the proper place of Large Language Models (LLMs), those artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are capable of generating or ‘understanding’ human-like texts, for surely these texts are incapable of having deeper layers which can convey taste, texture and the true meaning of things.
Professor al-Attas ends the lecture with a brief discussion on Isra’ wa Mi‘raj, a topic which he goes into much more detail in the first and second extempore lectures. He emphasises that the event of the Night Journey and the Ascent is made by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. physically, not just a spiritual journey which does not involve his body. The arguments for this can be found in his book, which the Professor mentioned only briefly in this third lecture. The fact that the Prophet s.a.w. requires a steed, the Buraq, indicates that it is him, spiritually and physically, that was taken to the heavens. Professor al-Attas also summarise the mechanism of how the prophets receive spiritual revelation, by showing that the body is endowed with a faculty that is able to receive it. The heart (qalb) receives the revelation without changing the physical body and in turn impacts the intellect (‘aql) which then transfers it to the internal senses, and then external sensory organs, to finally appear as a sound to the Prophet’s ears (a ringing of the bell or in the human language). This part of the lecture ties to the significant discussion on the soul and the body in the beginning section of the book, which the Professor spoke about in more detail during the Inaugural Lecture of July 2023. How the prophets receive revelations requires us to reevaluate the status of man within the natural world. Man does not undergo evolution from an organic, natural ancestor common to all other animals, but man is a special entity, constituted out of the soul and body, which allows one to carry the trust and responsibility that comes with recognizing and acknowledging the One True God, Allah. The Professor earlier also asks why do they assign the common ancestor to nature, when indeed the common ancestor (cause of existence) ought to be Allah Himself.
Conclusion
In the lecture, the Professor mentions that the kind of research that he did, is unlike today’s academic research. It is obvious that Professor al-Attas’ preparation for his latest book is a meticulous and painstaking scholarly research. Studying the geography and the history of ancient civilizations, poring over the mu’allaqat and the Quran to look for the relevant key terms, using his understanding and familiarity with the history of the Arabic language and lexicology, and finally, to link all these to culminate in the elaboration of the significance of the name of the religion, Islam, and the role of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w in the history of mankind; this requires not only ample time, but also, the sagacity of the mind. But always, the Professor credits his findings to the One who gives Guidance and emphasises that to arrive at the research questions themselves requires a kind of inspiration and guidance.
There is also the discussion on metaphysics and psychology (the study of the soul) within the book, and he himself says that it took him years to study for the book. The book then, can well be said to be truly multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary in nature, buzzwords well-loved by university administrators today. It is our hope that those endowed with trust and responsibility to manage the affairs of the public who were among the audience to take wisely consider what it takes to produce the kind of original and quality thought as the one espoused by the Professor that night. A scholar needs time, independence, financial support, excellent resources and library, and not the constant threat of “publish or perish” or the superficial metric to evaluate research using quantitative indices. Young Muslim students need to be endowed with logical and analytical skills, be supported when they explore and study languages or different fields of study without the worry of its marketability or utility, and most importantly, instilled with the confidence and the courage to use the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet s.a.w., as well as the studies of our previous scholars, as foundation to knowledge. Then perhaps, we would ensure that there will be more pearls of wisdom within our midst, and the Professor is not the last great scholar to come from among our community.
Prepared by Hazieqa, 3 February 2025