Muslim Sultanates in Peninsular Malaysia

From:www.islam-world.net

Before Islam spread throughout Malaysia, Hindu and Budhis has been introduced by the indian traders to the malay settlers in Peninsula Malaysia. The indigenous Malays also embraced an ancient religion with various forms of belief with some of the population belonging to the Hindu, Buddha religion and some with the animism.Islam like its predecessor also brought by the Muslim traders who expand through trading and inter marriage.

Growing demand for eastern spicesby a prosperous Renaissance Europe and the cessation from the 8th/14th century of direct Chinese trade to India broughtthe Gudjarati merchants into great prominence as intermediaries in the spice trade. Their great numbers in Malacca, the major emporium in the Malay- Indonesian archipelago in the 9th/15th and 10th/16th centuries, facilitated the work of Muslim missionaries in spreading the ideas of Islam in the region. As good impression shown by the traders to the local people many of them attracted to convert to Islam.

The spread of Islam was greatly enhanced partly by social contact as a consequence of trade, but more important still, by marriages. In a few decades, the Javanese, Sumatran, Malay and other aristocracies of the coastal districts had gone over to the new faith. The common people followed in gradual stages down the social scale. Diplomatic marriages between aristocracies of different kingdoms spread the faith even further. A notable example was the marriage of the first Muslim Sultan of Pasai on the North-Western coast of Sumatra (Aceh ) who died in 1297 A.D., to daughter of the ruler of Perlak, also on the northern coast of Sumatra. The powerful Sultanate of Malacca too, arranged many such diplomatic marriages with Borneo, Pahang and Kedah and with the Sumatran river ports of Siak, Kampar, Inderagiri and Jambi.

In the Malay Peninsula, the first physical evidence of the arrival of Islam was found at a spot twenty miles up the Trengganu river. There, a stone inscribed with Arabic letters has been found, dating as far back as 1386 or probably 1326 A.D. This evidence of the existence of Islam in Malaysia's east coast perhaps initiated the theory that Islam came to Malaysia through China.

Another source of information about the beginning of the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago is provided by Marco Polo. He visited the port of Perlak, which he called "Felech", on the Northern coast of Sumatra in 1292 A.D. on his return voyage to Europe through the Straits of Malacca Marco Polo remarked in his later writings that many of the inhabitants of Perlak had at that time been converted to Islam by the foreign merchants who frequently called there. Pasai on the north-western coast of Sumatra whose first Muslim ruler died in 1297, five years after Marco Polo's visit to Perak, provided probably the first foothold for Islam in Sumatra.

The coming of Islam has changed the mind and perspective of the local peopleThey were no longer imprisoned within a religious caste system and the notion of living in "classes". In Islam there was no discrimination, or division on the basis of colour, class tribal affiliation, race, homeland and birthplace, all of which gave rise to problems. Equal rights seemed the right human solution, which in practice meant the acceptance of rights and obligation as a member of the Islamic Community. The pious person achieved sublimity and nearness to God.
The local population saw that Islam could save them from this bondage and provide the means for the extirpation of socialevils. The new religion gave the small man a sense of this individual worth - the dignity of man - as a member of an Islamic community.

Malaysia also is not safe from any colonisation by western countries who destroy the development of islamic teaching and social life. The first colonizer was the Portuguese who were followed in succession by the Spanish, the Dutch and the Britishwho took land in these places and altered all the laws and ways of living by one means or another, based on the 'divide and rule policy' so well known throughout the third world. The coming of the West could normally be considered under three categories: trade, conquest and Christianisation of the colonial subjects.

The fall of the Malacca sultanate to the Portuguese in 1511 was the beginning of colonisation on the Peninsula, that is, the breakdown of Malay political authority in this part of the world and the beginning of a setback to the spread of Islam. From Malacca the colonisers seized all administrative functions that were typically Islamic. The people had to endure a number of disturbing experiences, and to witness some of their number cooperating with the colonisers for their own personal gain.

The colonisers started to make or establishing theReligious Councilson the pretext of preserving Malay customs and the Islamic religion.In fact, their main function was to limit the role of Islam to purely personal matters. For their part the British promised they would not intervene in matters pertaining to Islam or Malay traditional practices. However, the separation of religion from the practical affairs of government and law was, in itself, an interference in matters pertaining toIslam. The ulama' whose previous function had been to advise and attend to state requirements were now replaced by a British Advisor or British Resident and the role of the ulama' became purely "religious" in the narrow sense.