POSTCOLONIAL THOUGHT BEFORE POSTCOLONIALISM: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF MALAY MUSLIM SCHOLARS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37231/mjis.2026.10.1.321Abstract
Postcolonial philosophy is commonly associated with intellectual developments that emerged after the 1960s, particularly through the works of scholars such as Edward Said and Syed Hussein Alatas. This conventional periodisation, however, often overlooks earlier non‑Western intellectual responses to colonial domination. This study critically examines the claim advanced by Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied that Malay Muslim scholars had already articulated substantive forms of postcolonial philosophical thought prior to the formal emergence of postcolonial theory. Employing a qualitative research design based on historical and philosophical analysis of primary and secondary texts, this study analyses selected intellectual interventions by Malay Muslim scholars in British Malaya before the 1960s. The findings demonstrate that these scholars developed three interrelated philosophical orientations: (1) the application of Islamic civilisational principles as a critique of colonial epistemology, (2) the formulation of Islamic‑based Malay nationalism as an alternative to colonial political frameworks, and (3) ethical‑religious resistance to colonial rule grounded in Islamic moral consciousness. This study argues that these intellectual contributions constitute an early form of postcolonial philosophical reasoning rooted in Islamic worldview, thus challenging Eurocentric narratives of postcolonial thought and re‑situating Malay Muslim scholars within the broader history of global postcolonial philosophy.
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