Reflection.......Prof Sayyid Muhammad Naguib al-Attas : The Loss Of Adab......

" The sparrow, my dear friend, is not equal to the eagle....."





Malaysia is famous for abundance of oil palm trees and rubber trees. Not philosophers and thinkers....

More so of the Islamic kind.Yet when we do have one, we dump him out like as if philosopher/thinker of that calibre do grow on trees in abundance. In this hot humid weather here, it is not amenable to serious 'independent thinking', let alone 'thinking aloud'.

That was what happened to Prof Sayyid Muhammad Naguib al-Attas some 10-12 years back. The good professor was expounding in 1978, about the ailment beseeching the Muslims globally, ie ' the loss of adab', the inherent failure within the ummah to recognize true scholarship and wisdom  and to put them in the rightful place.

This ailment within the ummah, ironically came to haunt him some 20 years later, when he was deemed to be lukewarm in 'fanning and glorifying' the political bosses of the day', and his tenure as the foundation dean of Institute of Islamic Thought and Culture [ ISTAC ] was prematurely terminated by UIAM chancelor, a political appointee.

I do not want to name names but in Malaysia when you leave the leadership of universities to politicians , that is what happened. We do get professors promoted not because they 'produce' and 'write' independently but on the basis of 'technical know who', and whether one is deemed 'safe and benign politically' and who 'fans' the best. From these groups we  get  half baked VC's who specialize in the knowledge and wisdom of  'which is the best side of the apple' that need to be polished!....and very little  to contribute in term of vision.

Over the years the result is obvious.....mediocrity of the Malaysian kind in all spheres. Mediocre heads chose mediocre teachers and promote them. Mediocre teachers produce mediocre students and  graduates. Mediocre graduates go on in life to become mediocre leaders.

On a more global scale, now let us reflect on what Prof Naguib had said on this state of "loss of adab" which seem to beseech us as an ummah, and this was in a paper presented way back in 1978 :


http://leedsmuslim.blogspot.com/2012/11/knowledge-and-adab-by-syed-muhammad-al.html





Shaykh Hamzah Yusuf's interview with Prof Sayyid Naguib al Attas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5pyXqZq4E0