Islām: The Covenants Fulfilled
al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, Islām: The Covenants Fulfilled, Kuala Lumpur, Ta’dib International, 2023, 98 p.
النص الكامل
1Islām: The Covenants Fulfilled is Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s (born 1931) latest work and represents the culmination of a lifetime of reflection on Revelation, the role of Islam, the nature of man, and his relationship with God. Al-Attas, a contemporary Malaysian scholar, philosopher, and Sufi, is arguably the most important Muslim thinker of his generation, if not beyond. His works deal primarily with metaphysics and build on the works of both classical and post-classical scholars of Islam, be they falāsifa (philosophers), Sufis, or theologians (mutakallimūn). His influence extends far beyond his native country and Southeast Asia, and he has written numerous works dealing with various aspects of Islamic epistemology, psychology, education, and history, to name just a few.
2As indicated by the title of this book, the author, deals with the two covenants (sing. miṯāq): (i) The Primordial Covenant which God made with the souls of mankind when they responded to His call and interrogation (Alastu birabbikum? Am I not your Lord?) and testified to His Lordship over them (Balā shahidnā, Yes, indeed! We do bear witness! – Q. al-Aʿrāf 7:172); (ii) The Covenant of the Prophets (miṯāq al-nabiyyīn), in which God announced the coming of a Prophet and asked them to aid and believe in him (Q. al-Aḥzāb 33:7 and 81). Al-Attas offers us his interpretation of these two momentous and transhistorical “events”, which constitute the central themes around which much of this work is structured. The Malaysian author’s approach is mainly exegetical, wherein the Qur’an serves as an inexhaustible reservoir of meanings, allowing him to lay out the conditions surrounding each of the covenants, their significance, and their implications.
3This is a work that al-Attas considers to be “inspired”, and in which he is guided by his desire to uncover new meanings hidden in the sacred pages of the Qur’an. This is because al-Attas is a scholar who is equally versed in the traditional Islamic exegetical tradition as well as modern linguistic theory. For example, in the analysis he provides of the term “Allāh,” he engages critically with the Qur’anic commentary of al-Bayḍawī (d. 1319) — whom he deems to be “the most authoritative grammarian about this matter of the name ‘Allāh’” (p. 87). For al-Attas, key terms of the Qur’an form a vast network of interconnected meanings that are woven together and that project a specific worldview. In his commentaries on the Qur’an, al-Attas meticulously groups certain key terms and analyzes their relationship to one other. In this latest work, while this approach is still very much at play, the Qur’an additionally serves him as a historical document that records the various manners in which God addresses mankind and His Prophets, the tongues and languages those Prophets spoke, and God’s own Speech about Himself.
4It has taken al-Attas five years to write this book which he describes as a “discourse”. Indeed, its format or structure makes this apparent from the start. Following the acknowledgements and a very brief preface, this monograph contains no table of contents, no footnotes and no bibliography. This format was chosen by al-Attas as he believes that “This way of drawing attention to the reader to pause and consult previous passages interrupts and distracts the reader’s trend of thought which is meant to be drawn by the discourse to reach its proper conclusion” (pp. xv–xvi). As a result, the author offers us a very dense, yet relatively short (just under one hundred pages) work, in which ideas are interwoven into an intricate pattern, making the reader feel at once in conversation with the author while also needing to repeatedly go over those technical passages in which al-Attas packs some of his more complex ideas. Because al-Attas is an eclectic yet very systematic thinker, if one were to pull a single thread or idea out of this complex structure, a subsequent unraveling of the rest of the system would become necessary for this idea to receive due treatment.
5Therefore, from one angle, this book should be considered a sort of compendium of previous works — not only because its full significance cannot be grasped without considering its place in al-Attas’s oeuvre in general, but also because he reprises and refines themes he explores more fully elsewhere. This work provides novel and fresh perspectives on topics al-Attas has treated in previous works and sometimes offers solutions to problems he has grappled with for several decades for example. This discourse, as he intended it, is therefore supposed to shed new light, or to consider a given idea or set of ideas from a renewed perspective, wherein their “meaning becomes enhanced in a new contextual perspective” (p. xvi). On the other hand, this book also deals with previously unexplored themes, which we would like to provide a general overview of in what follows.
6Despite its form we can roughly divide this discourse into three main parts. Al-Attas takes as his starting point man, whom he defines, following the classical philosophical definition, as a ḥayawān nāṭiq, an expression he renders by “the living being that speaks” instead of “the animal that speaks” for al-Attas wishes to steer clear of any connotation of bestiality in man. The first part of his discourse (pp. 1–20) is therefore dedicated to man as an articulate being, whose rational soul is endowed with the power of speech. It is through this faculty of speech that the souls of mankind can answer God with whom they have sealed a Covenant. This “pre-historical” event is central to Sufi cosmology. Al-Attas also uses the very Ghazalian quadripartite distinction between the rūḥ (spirit), nafs (soul), ʿaql (intellect) and qalb (heart), (p. 2). In this first part, he details the various stages of creation that man underwent, following his interpretation of the Qur’anic narrative, which begins with that Primordial Covenant, prior to man’s descent into the world of sensible experience. It is the coming together of the two realities (the body and the soul) that constitutes man’s dual (yet non-composite) nature.
7Al-Attas utilizes what he calls the analogy of the “saturated sponge” to explain how these two realities became one. There is a long history of representing the relationship of the soul to the body using various analogies. For example, Aristotle’s nautical analogy of the sailor and the ship illustrates how the soul governs the body following his hylomorphic theory. Al-Attas’s conception of the relation between the two, however, is first and foremost rooted in the Qur’an. Its second point of origin is Akbarian — in reference to the great Andalusian Sufi Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) — which means that the hylomorphic theory is not adequate to explain the relationship between body and soul. It is rather the aʿyān ṯābita (permanent entities) that allow him to explain the creation of each reality. This approach is particularly significant, as it allows us to study how a contemporary Muslim scholar engages with Ibn ʿArabī’s ideas to develop his own anthropology and theory of the soul.
8For al-Attas man is a very special creation; he is a kingdom unto himself: “Man is a special creation because God breathes something of His spirit into him to indicate the completeness of God’s act of creation” (p. 16). The author castigates evolutionary theory precisely because he argues that it reduces man to the same level as the rest of creation (the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms). Al-Attas therefore allows us to follow this ontological descent, which introduces man into the physical realm and initiates his entry into history, so to speak.
9Al-Attas then deals with the definition of religion as dīn (a topic he has thoroughly explored in previous works) but focuses more on the meaning of the term islām (pp. 20-81), which he considers to be the name (ism) of the religion — a word which therefore cannot be reduced to the meaning of “submission” though submission may be one of its meanings, provided that the manner of that submission and the object to which one submits are clearly specified (p. 26). While in the first part of the discourse he wished to show the exalted status of man among creation, the second part is meant to highlight the special nature of Islam as the consummate and complete religion of God. For al-Attas, Islam only reaches completion with the arrival of Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of Prophets and prophecy. It is the religion (in the sense of dīn) par excellence and differs from the milal (sing. milla) or religions of previous prophets. The arrival of Prophet Muhammad marks the completion of the Covenant of the Prophets. However, it is not merely the arrival of the Prophet that fulfills this completion of the upright religion (dīnan qayyiman); the Prophet himself must also undergo a long and arduous journey before God decrees Islam as the name of this new and complete religion, according to the author. For al-Attas, Islam is a new religion, yet at its core, it encompasses the religions (understood as milal) of other prophets. It is as though a layer has been added atop the others. The arrival of the Prophet also marks the completion of the kalīmat al-šahāda (declaration of faith), according to al-Attas. Therefore, Islam, like man’s creation, holds a unique place and participates in the process of the unfolding of God’s divine plan.
10Navigating through the sinuous pathways afforded by revelation, whose verses are interlinked and engaged in conversation with one another, al-Attas attempts to extract those elements or key terms that crystallize the essence of Islam. Al-Attas provides an analysis and comparison of all the verses in which the terms aslama, islām, and muslim are used and explains how the term “islām” is the name (ism) of the religion. It is therefore no wonder that the concept of “transcendent unity of religions”, put forward by Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) and his followers, is rejected by him, as he argues that it operates a sort of “leveling” of religions and strips Islām of any special characteristics that may define it. This is an issue al-Attas had already addressed in the introduction to the Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islām (1995), but the focus of his analysis in this new work differs. Al-Attas dedicates a significant portion of his discourse to refuting the idea “that the word islām is old, ancient; that it has been in existence historically before being revealed in the Holy Qur’ān” (p. 45). He refers explicitly to The Study Qur’ān: A New Translation and Commentary (2015), edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (born 1933) who is a disciple of Schuon. According to al-Attas, in this new translation of the Qur’an all the verses containing the word “islām” were replaced by the word “submission” or, alternatively, “Submission”. This is intended, he argues, to promote the idea that “Submission is regarded as a universal concept common to all religions” (p. 44). By the same token, this reduces Islam to the ill-defined mere notion of submission, in his view. He therefore considers that the authors of the Study Qur’ān attribute Islam’s universality to the assumed universality of the notion of submission rather than to any intrinsic characteristic specific to Islam. He argues that they regard Islam as simply being the “verbal noun of aslama” (p. 46). This is one of several linguistic assumptions about the vocabulary of the Qur’an that he attempts to challenge in this work. As a scholar who upholds a traditional, though original and creative approach to Islam, it is natural that al-Attas should be concerned with the issue of Islam being equated with other religions. However, his arguments regarding the translation of the word islām as submission, as they stand, can also be valuable to specialists in Islamic Studies as a general commentary on Arabic grammar, translation and its limitations as well as its philosophical implications.
11Al-Attas’s arguments are far too elaborate to be given due treatment in our concise summary. The core of his argument is that “It is taken for granted that the Qur’ān refers to all Prophets of God earlier than the Prophet Muḥammad as being muslim, showing that the word islām must have existed in the past going back to antiquity…” (p. 50). Al-Attas endeavors to show that the word islām did not exist in pre-Islamic Arabia. He then proceeds to analyze all the verses in which God addresses the Arab prophets, such as Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, and Shūʿayb, because he maintains that the verses in which God addressed them must have been conveyed in revelation exactly as God originally addressed them. It is in this sense that al-Attas utilizes the Qur’an as a historical record and a repository of God’s Speech not only in the way He addresses mankind in the sacred pages of His Book, but also as a testament to how He actually communicates with man in a manner that is intelligible to his intellect, despite the different tongues (alsun sing. lisān) spoken by various peoples.
12In our estimation, al-Attas takes as his guiding principle verse 28 of Sūrat al-Zumar (Q. 39), where God declares that the Qur’an “is an Arabic Qur’an with no crookedness” (qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan ġayr ḏi ʿiwajin). The statement that the Qur’an contains no distortion nor deviation is constantly implied in this discourse. Beyond refuting the proponents of the “transcendent unity of religions” and their translation of the Qur’an, this work is also shaped by al-Attas’s simultaneous commitment to Ashʿarism and Akbarian thought and his desire to reconcile them within the limits afforded by these two strands of Sunni Islam.
13This is most apparent in the final part of the book, where al-Attas begins by challenging the idea that the word Allāh, is derived (muštaqq) from al-ilāh. The third part of the discourse (pp. 82-98) is dedicated to the affirmation of the idea that the word “Allāh” is the proper name (ism) of God, one He has reserved exclusively for Himself. Al-Attas explains how the idea that the aṣl of the word “Allāh” is al-ilāh means that it is the root of the word “Allāh” and not its origin that is derived from the term al-ilāh. Regarding the particular point concerning the word “Allāh” and its relation to “al-ilāh”, al-Attas is critical of Tafsīr al-Bayḍawī, despite acknowledging the author’s rich and extensive grammatical analyses.
14In the final pages of the work, al-Attas begins by stating that “Allāh” is a Name of God “comprising all the Divine Names” (p. 82). This corresponds to the concept of the name Allāh being al-ism al-jāmiʿ (All-Comprehensive Name), which we find in Ibn ʿArabī. He then addresses the problem of divine attributes and their relation to God’s Essence navigating between the Ashʿarī position on the Essential Attributes and Ibn ‘Arabī answer to that same problem. Beyond the technicalities involved here, what seems to be at stake is the idea that the term “Allāh”, though it can be treated as a lafẓ (uttered word) and already existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, was endowed with a new meaning with the arrival of the Prophet: “the holy Prophet brought a new and different conception of ilāh among the Arabs, a conception of ilāh that owes its origin from the name Allāh considered in His aspect as the sum of the attributes of Divinity” (p. 87). While words are symbolic by nature and point to objects other than themselves, the name “Allāh”, for al-Attas, “is ever-pointing to a single object only and is inseparable from its objects” (p. 91). This aligns with al-Attas’s overall purpose in this book, where he wishes to demonstrate that man is a special creation, that Islam is a special religion, and that “Allāh” is a special Name God has chosen for Himself.
15For al-Attas, the unfolding of all these terms and their associated meanings occurs according to God’s plan, which, in our view, constitutes another central theme of this book. Indeed, al-Attas emphasizes throughout this discourse that everything takes place according to a divine plan. Just as the First Covenant is meant to reach completion on Judgment Day — when man’s soul will be rendered mute and his body will speak in its stead– so too is every event in man’s journey meant to carry him through various steps and stages, on a predetermined path, following a specific timeline. There is therefore an “evolution” — if one may use that term — in the sense of a progressive unfolding of events that follow a course divinely preordained. Prophet Ibrāhīm’s journey, for example (which is detailed in the second part of the discourse, according to our division), represents an important focal point of this work because of the various trials and tribulations he went through. This allows al-Attas to demonstrate that, despite being “unaware that his journey indicated the unfolding of God’s plan” (p. 73), Prophet Ibrāhīm remained steadfast, submitted to God’s will and placed his trust in Him. Every step in his journey is also significant because it prepares the arrival of Muḥammad, the Seal of Prophets (ḫātim al-anbiyāʾ). Thus, this journey is both personal and universal.
16The universality of Islam is also a key distinguishing factor, according to al-Attas, that sets it apart from other world religions, since its understanding of submission is that all things submit to God– that is, the entire cosmos and everything within it. We believe that al-Attas intends to illustrate to his fellow Muslims the immediate and practical relevance of the Covenant their souls have made with God in their daily lives. Furthermore, this discourse is for al-Attas the result of a spiritual journey that was “prompted by God” and which he invites his readers to partake in. He describes how he journeyed “along the lowlands, across the foothills, and over the mountain peaks of thought, discovering astonishing events that occurred in the past effecting the present without altering the future in that which has already been recognized and acknowledged by the Muslim ummah as the truth” (p. xvi). This discourse is somewhat reminiscent of Sufi manuals in which a master addresses his disciples and instructs them on various matters. Al-Attas asserts that his “intelligent and discerning readers” (p. xvi) should be able to grasp and confirm the teachings he presents in this work. This suggests that the form of the discourse transforms the very practice of reading — beyond being a simple exercise, reading can also take on a spiritual dimension.
17Following his Prolegomena to the Metaphysic of Islam, this work stands as one of al-Attas’s most significant contributions to date. However, outside the Malaysian-Indonesian archipelago, it has not received the attention it deserves. Al-Attas’s works (with some exceptions) have generally been met with indifference in Western academia, which is in the habit of ignoring the contributions of contemporary Muslim scholars who adopt a “denominational” approach to the study of Islam. This is unfortunate, as it deprives students of Islam (regardless of their affiliations) of significant linguistic, grammatical and exegetical contributions such as this one — contributions that may help illuminate problems that have long plagued the academic study of Islam. It is therefore our hope that this book gains the recognition it deserves as a lasting contribution to Islamic thought.
18N.B. We would like to point to a couple of typographical errors (the most relevant ones to us at least): p. 85 where Hūd is written as Ḥūd several times and p. 97 where the word waḥy is rendered as wahy a few times (despite being transliterated as waḥy in previous pages).
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بحث إلكتروني
Fadila Ezzat, «Islām: The Covenants Fulfilled», MIDÉO [على الإنترنت], 40 | 2025, نشر في الإنترنت 10 février 2025, تاريخ الاطلاع 11 novembre 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/mideo/10658
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