The International Seminar on Malik Bennabi Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Safar 22-25, 1412/September 1-4, 1991

Abstract

This conference was the first international seminar in the Muslim world
to focus on the thought of Malik Bennabi (1905-1973), an Algerian thinker
known to English readers for his book The Quranic Phenomenon. It was
organized by the University of Malaya, the Institute of Policy Research, and
several other academic institutions. The seminar's patron was Datuk Seri
Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian minister of finance, a political activist and
intellectual who has a great interest in Malik Bennabi's thought. The seminar's
objectives were to generate a greater interest in Bennabi's ideas among
Malaysian intellectuals and to highlight his impact on contemporary Muslim
society.
The keynote and official address was given by Anwar Ibrahim. In his
speech, he emphasized that while Muslims are faced with economic, political,
and technological challenges, the most important challenge is the intellectual
one, as this penetrates the deepest and has the strongest impact. Ideas which
examine this challenge and investigate the static temperaments of our thinking
process are urgently needed. Within this framework, 'time has vindicated
Bennabi's avowal that ideas are the catalysts behind the growth of civilization,"
for civilization is not an accumulation, as Bennabi maintains, but rather a
construction and an architecture. In his concise speech, Anwar Ibrahim
presented and elaborated on some of Bennabi's insights found in his Islam
in History and Sociology, translated from the French Vocation de l'lslam by
Asma Rashid of Pakistan. The second printing of his book, containing a forward
by Anwar Ibrahim and published by Berita, was released during the seminar
along with its translation into Bahasa Malayu, the Malaysian national language.
The afternoon session consisted of a special address by Abdullah Na if,
the secretary general of Rabitah. Nasif, who had met Bennabi in Cairo very
briefly and became acquainted with his ideas later on, stated that these ideas
as just as relevant to the condition of Muslims today as they were decades
ago. He then highlighted some of Bennabi's speculations by addressing
questions such a : Have we identified our dilemma? Are we making use of
the trends interacting within the ummah such as those of the last twenty years
of the Islamic awakening (sahwah)? Are we making plans for the future?
Have we become capable of conducting research and moving from individual ...