[ppiindia] THE FUTURISTIC THOUGHT OF ABUYA SYEIKH IMAM ASHAARI MUHAMMAD AT TAMIMI OF MALAYSIA (9)

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:32:48 -0700 

   COMPANION TO CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC THOUGHT (9)
The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought reflects the variety of 
trends, voices, and opinions in the contemporary Muslim intellectual scene. THE 
FUTURISTIC THOUGHT OF ABUYA SYEIKH IMAM ASHAARI MUHAMMAD AT TAMIMI OF MALAYSIA 
The Messianism of Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi Muhammad - 
7Notes and References:
1. For details on Darul Arqam’s material achievements, see Darul Arqam, 25 
Years of Darul Arqam: The Struggle of Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At 
Tamimi (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbitan Abuya, 1993), chapter 13;  Muhammad Syukri 
Salleh, “An Ethical Approach to Development: The Arqam Philosophy and 
Achievements,” Humanomics, 10/1(1994), 25–60; “Allah’s Bounty: Al-Arqam sect 
draws strength from business empire,” Far Eastern Economic Review, September 1, 
1994. 
2. Rufaqa’ Corporation Sdn. Bhd. (profile), Rawang, n.d.; “Former Al-Arqam 
redefines itself,” New Sunday Times, April 30, 2000; “Banned Al-Arqam cult 
thriving under business umbrella,” Straits Times, February 9, 2002;  Muhammad 
Syukri Salleh, “The Businesses of Islamic Movements in Malaysia” (Malay), 
Pemikir 31(2003), 142–8. 
3. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi’s enforced expulsion to Labuan 
made headline news in Berita Harian, February 7, 2002. On his success in 
Labuan, see: “Ashaari expands influence in Labuan” (Malay), Buletin Utama, 
April 21–24, 2002; “Residents plead that Asa’ari’s placing be revised” (Malay), 
Berita Harian, September 5, 2002;  “Al-Arqam followers’ lifestyles need to be 
monitored” (Malay), Berita Harian, November 28, 2002; “What is lost by 
Asyaari’s prosperity(Malay),http://www.harakahdaily.net/print.php?sid=3510. 
4. For related issues, see Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, “Political Dimensions of 
Religious Conflict in Malaysia: State Response to an Islamic Movement,” 
Indonesia and the Malay World 28/80(2000), 32–65;  Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, 
“Sufi Undercurrents in Islamic Revivalism: Traditional, Post-Traditional and 
Modern Images of Islamic Activism in Malaysia – Part 2,” The Islamic Quarterly 
LXV/3(2001), 177–98; Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, “Diverse Approaches to Rural 
Development in Malaysia: The FELDA and Darul Arqam Land Settlement Regimes,” 
Islamic Culture LXXV/2(2001), 57–92. 
5. ‘Millenarianism’ refers to the belief in an awaited utopia on earth founded 
upon the predicted coming of a messiah. In the Christian context, 
“millenarianism” refers to the belief in the 1000 years when Christ will reign 
on earth, as foretold in the Book of Revelation. See Mohamed Yusoff Ismail, 
“The Mahdist Phenomenon is Universal”’ (Malay), Utusan Malaysia, July 21, 2000; 
Justus M. van der Kroef, “The Messiah in Indonesia and Melanesia,” The 
Scientific Monthly, 75(1952), 161–5; Vittorio Lanternari, The Religions of the 
Oppressed: A Study of Modern Messianic Cults (New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1963); 
and Ed Dobson and Ed Hindson, “Apocalypse Now? What Fundamentalists Believe 
About the End of the World,” Policy Review, 38(1986), 16–22. For reports on 
Doomsday cults, see “Inside the Cult of Death,” Time, April 7, 1997, and 
“Nostradamus Predicted that the World Would End this Summer: Why are so Many 
Japanese Taking him Seriously,” Time, July 5, 1999. 
6. Literally, “al-Mahdi” means “the rightly guided one” and is also referred to 
as Al-Mahdi al-Muntazar, i.e. the Expected Mahdi. See Wilfred Madelung, 
“Al-Mahdi,” in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. V, Charles E. Bosworth et al. 
(eds.) (Leiden: E.J. Brill), 1230–8; and Zeki Saritoprak, “The Mahdi Tradition 
in Islam: A Social-Cognitive Approach,” Islamic Studies, 41/4(2002), 651. For 
hadiths on al-Mahdi, see Ibn Kathir, The Signs Before the Day of Judgement 
(London: Dar Al Taqwa, 1991), chapter 6; Abdullah ibn As-Siddiq, Jesus, Al 
Mahdi and the Anti-Christ (New York: As-Siddiquyah Publishers, 1985); and Amin 
Muhammad Jamaluddin, The Armageddon War and the Advent of the Mahdi (Malay) 
(Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Syuhada, 2001), chapter 3. 
7. The Dajjal represents the Islamic version of the Antichrist: the epitome of 
evil who will tyrannically rule the world for 40 days before being slain by 
Jesus Christ. Unlike Christians, Muslims have never believed that Jesus was 
crucified. Instead, he was said to have been raised by God to the heavens at 
the same time that Judas, Jesus’ betrayer, was made to assume Jesus’ physical 
characteristics and ultimately died on the cross. The Dajjal will exert 
influence over the whole world, causing pandemonium for 40 days, entering every 
city except Mecca and Medina, tempting the world’s population to follow the 
false religion by performing miracles akin to magic, and leading the Jews into 
war against al-Mahdi. During this fifth of al-Mahdi’s wars, Jesus Christ will 
descend onto earth, join al-Mahdi in battle and eventually kill the Dajjal. 
Death of the Dajjal will be the apogee of al-Mahdi’s feat. After al-Mahdi’s 
seven wars, Gog and Magog appear. Gog and Magog are two Turkic tribes currently 
restrained behind a barrier built by Zulqarnain, the popular Islamic equivalent 
of Alexander the Great. Upon collapse of the barrier, Gog and Magog will 
disperse, spread corruption, destroy plants, and commit atrocities. God, in 
response to prayers said by Jesus, kills them by sending a kind of worm in the 
napes of their necks. For a chronicle of these eschatological events, see 
As-Siddiq, op. cit., chapter 3; Ibn Kathir, op. cit., 41ff; and Jamaluddin, op. 
cit., chapter 4, 184–206. 
8. Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi, A Short History of the Revivalist Movement in 
Islam (Lahore: Islamic Publications, fifth edition, 1981), 33–4; Yohanan 
Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and its 
Medieval Background (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), chapter 
4. 
9. Derek Hopwood, “A Pattern of Revival Movements in Islam?,” Islamic 
Quarterly, 15/4(1971), 151. Beliefs concerning the Expected Mahdi never became 
an essential part of the Sunni creed, unlike in the Shi’ite sect, whose 
historiography contains strong arguments and beliefs pertaining to various 
aspects of al-Mahdi.The subject matter on al-Mahdi is absent from the two most 
authentic hadith collections of Bukhari (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875), such that 
medieval systematic theologians scrupulously avoided discussion on al-Mahdi. 
See H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramers, Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: E.J. 
Brill, 1974), 310–11; Maududi, op. cit., 45–51; Madelung, op. cit., 1231, 1235; 
K.H. Sirajuddin Abbas, The Sunni Creed (Malay) (Kota Bharu: Pustaka Aman Press, 
sixth edition, 1991), 128; Saritoprak, op. cit., 673–4. 
10. On Sufi conceptions of al-Mahdi, see Muhammad Labib Ahmad, Who is Imam 
Mahdi? (Malay) (Singapore: Pustaka Nasional, 1980), 29–31; and Saritoprak, op. 
cit., 659–60. For accounts of anti-colonial movements in peripheral Muslim 
lands, see Justus M. van der Kroef, “Javanese Messianic Expectations: Their 
Origin and Cultural Context,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 
1(1959): 309; Lanternari, op. cit., 213–14; Edward Mortimer, Faith and Power: 
The Politics of Islam (London: Faber and Faber, 1982), 73–9. On the arbitrary 
division of Muslim lands into a center and periphery, see Ahmad Fauzi Abdul 
Hamid, “Islamic Resurgence: An Overview of Causal Factors, A Review of 
‘Ummahtic’ Linkages,” IKIM Journal, 9/1(2001), 30–8. 
11. Al-Maududi, op. cit., 43–4, 147–9; Muhammad Labib Ahmad, op. cit., 32–45. 
12. Aurad Muhammadiah refers to a tariqah (Sufi order) founded in Mecca in the 
early twentieth century by Shaykh Muhammad Abdullah Al-Suhaimi (b. 1259 AH), a 
scholar of Javanese-Arabic descent who moved to Singapore and eventually 
settled down in Kelang, Malaya. See Mohd Taha Suhaimi, The History of Syeikh 
Muhammad Suhaimi’s Life (Malay) (Singapore: Peripensis, 1990). Tariqah involves 
systematic chanting of dhikr (remembrances of God) as practiced by Sufis: 
practitioners of tasawwuf, i.e. the branch of knowledge in Islam enjoining the 
purification of the soul (tazkiyah al-nafs) in attaining the true meaning of 
God and the self. See Ashaari Muhammad, Aurad Muhammadiah: The Conviction of 
Darul Arqam (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Penerangan Al-Arqam, 1986), 10. 
13. BAHEIS, An Explanation to the book ‘Aurad Muhammadiah: The Conviction of 
Darul Arqam’ (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur, 1986); BAHEIS, The Deviation of Darul 
Arqam’s Theology (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur, 1993); Ashaari Muhammad 1986, op. cit.; 
Ashaari Muhammad, Be Careful in Making Allegations (Malay), (Kuala Lumpur: 
Penerangan Al-Arqam, 1989); Berita Harian, July 16, 1994; The Star, August 6, 
1994. 
14. Sufis regard yaqazah with the late Prophet Muhammad as a karamah (miracle) 
accorded to the awliya’ (saints) (Ashaari Muhammad 1986, op.cit., chapter 6). 
In the Aurad Muhammadiah, the practitioner acknowledges, after the conventional 
kalimah shahadah, the additional figures of the righteous caliphs viz. Abu Bakr 
(d. 635), Umar (d.6 44), Uthman (d. 656), and Ali (d.661), and of the future 
al-Mahdi (ibid., chapter 9). Tawassul refers to the practice of invoking 
intermediaries, usually saints, when making do’a (supplication) to God. The 
issue of the permissibility of tawassul has long been a source of contention 
between Islamic traditionalists, who allow it,and Islamic modernists, who 
forbid it; see Sirajuddin Abbas, op. cit., 284–301, 316–26. Tahlil refers to 
religious chantings that testify that Allah is the One and Only God. The tahlil 
of Aurad Muhammadiah refers to specific chantings recited rhythmically in 
congregation by practitioners of the Aurad Muhammadiah on Thursday and Sunday 
nights, and include the controversial phrases: “O Saints of God, do listen, 
help us for the sake of God, do listen” (Ashaari Muhammad 1986, op. cit., 
119–27, 143–51). 
15. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi, Who is the Mujaddid of the 
Fifteenth Century? (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Penerangan Al-Arqam, 1987), 648–54; 
Ashaari Muhammad, My Contemplations (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Penerangan Al-Arqam, 
1988), 257. 
16. Mohd. Taha Suhaimi, op. cit., 67, Ashaari Muhammad 1986, op. cit., 178; 
Ashaari Muhammad 1989, op. cit., 48–9, 84. 
17. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi 1986, op. cit., 179–80; 
Ashaari Muhammad 1989, op. cit., 50–1. The People of the Cave refer to seven 
unitarian Christian youths who fled from the persecution of the Roman Emperor 
Decius (reigned 249–51 AD), ending up in a cave in Asia Minor where they were 
put to sleep for 309 years. Their story is told in the Qur’an (Al-Kahf 18: 
9–26). In a hadith narrated by Ibnu Abbas, the People of the Cave are said to 
be the assistants of al-Mahdi, such that they must now be in occultation 
waiting for the realization of their eschatological role. On the contrasting 
Twelver Shi’ite view of al-Mahdi’s occultation, see Sirajuddin Abbas, op. cit. 
127–8. 
18. On Tamim al-Dari’s encounter with the Dajjal, see Ibn Kathir, op. cit., 
48–51, and David J. Halperin, “The Ibn Sayyad Traditions and the Legend of 
Al-Dajjal,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 96(1976), 223. On Shaykh 
Hasan al-Iraqi’s encounter with al-Mahdi, see Ashaari Muhammad 1986, op. cit., 
171–3; and Madelung, op. cit., 1236–37. 
19. Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, The Malaysian State of the Youth of Bani Tamim: 
Secrets of the Glorious Ummah (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Abuku Hebat, 1999), 115; 
Ashaari Muhammad, Exploring the Islamic Administrative System (Malay) (Kuala 
Lumpur: Penerbitan Hikmah, 1993), 188, 200. 
20. The previous two quotations are from Ashaari Muhammad, Allah’s Schedule for 
the Muslim Ummah (Kuala Lumpur: Bahagian Pengeluaran Minda Syeikhul Arqam, 
1993), 38–40. 
21. Ibid., 41–3; Darul Arqam, Message from the East, 18–20; Ahmad Fauzi Abdul 
Hamid, The Malaysian State of the Youth of Bani Tamim, 124–6. In support, often 
quoted is the hadith, “A people will come out of the East who will pave the way 
for the Mahdi” (Ibn Kathir, op. cit., 22). 
22. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi, The Implementation of Hudud 
Law in Society (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbitan Hikmah, 1992), 88–97; Ahmad 
Fauzi Abdul Hamid, The Malaysian State of the Youth of Bani Tamim, chapter 4. 
23. Abyuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi, Thoughts to Change Attitudes 
(Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Penerangan Al-Arqam, 1990), 249–55; Ashaari Muhammad, 
Allah’s Schedule, 30–1; Ashaari Muhammad, President Soeharto Follows the 
Schedule of Allah (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbitan Abuya, 1993), 11–12. 
24. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi, Allah’s Schedule, 42–3; cf. 
Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, “The Malay-Islamic World in the Thought of Abuya 
Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi Muhammad,” in Proceedings of The Second 
International Malay Studies Conference, Volume 1 (Malay), Abdullah Hassan 
(ed.), (Kuala Lumpur: DBP, 2002), 10–12. 
25. Darul Arqam, 25 Years of Darul Arqam, 175–7. Overall, Abuya Syeikh Imam 
Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi’s theory concurs with the hadith, “Islam will return 
to its place of origin like a snake returning to its hole,” as quoted in Darul 
Arqam 1992, op. cit., 4. 
26. Ashaari Muhammad 1987, op. cit., xiv, 43. 
27. Darul Arqam, Al-Arqam in the International Media (Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: 
Penerangan Al-Arqam, 1989). For details on Darul Arqam’s expenditure, human 
capital, and assets in Southeast Asia, see Darul Arqam, 25 Years of Darul 
Arqam, 184, 186, 198; and Muhammad Syukri Salleh 1994, op. cit., 36, 44–5, 
48–50. 
28. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi, Strides of the Struggle 
(Malay) (Kuala Lumpur: Jabatan Syeikhul Arqam, 1991), chapter 12; Ashaari 
Muhammad, Presiden Soeharto Follows Allah’s Schedule. 
29. On the Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi-Abdurrahman Wahid 
meeting, see Kebenaran, 7/1 (1999), quoting from the magazines Tempo, October 
24, 1999, and DR, 11/XXXI/25, October 1999. For Rufaqa’ Indonesia’s success 
stories, see the five-page report in the Jakarta-based magazine, Gatra, 2–3/10, 
December 2003. Two Indonesian books promoting Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari 
Muhammad At Tamimi’s thought are Abu Muhammad Atta’, The Youth of Bani Tamim: 
The Precursor of Imam Al-Mahdi (Malay-Indonesian) (Jakarta: Penerbit Giliran 
Timur, 1998) and Abdurrahman R.Effendi and Gina Puspita, Abuya Syeikh Imam 
Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi: Is He the Mujaddid of This Century? 
(Malay-Indonesian) (Jakarta: Penerbit Giliran Timur, 2003). 
30. Abuya Syeikh Imam Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi believes that Ghafar Baba has 
a significant role to play in “Allah’s Schedule”. See Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, 
“Reforming PAS?,” Aliran Monthly 23/6(2003), 13. On the USA’s weakening from 
within, see Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid 2002, op. cit., 13. On Abuya Syeikh Imam 
Ashaari Muhammad At Tamimi’s predictions pertaining to Anwar Ibrahim, see Shuib 
Sulaiman, PM Dr. Mahathir on the Brink of Downfall (Malay) (n.p.: Merbok 
Enterprise, 1994), 40, 70, 84–92; and Zabidi Mohamed, Tersungkur di Pintu 
‘Syurga’: The Untold Truth and Inside Story of Al-Arqam and I.S.A. (Detention 
Without Trial) (Kuala Lumpur: Zabidi Publication, 1998), 151. 
31. Greg Barton, “Neo-Modernism: A Vital Synthesis of Traditionalist and 
Modernist Islamic Thought in Indonesia,” Studia Islamika 2/3(1995), 1–75; Greg 
Barton, “Indonesia’s Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid as Intellectual 
ulama: The Meeting of Islamic Traditionalism and Modernism in neo-Modernist 
Thought,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 8/3(1997), 323–50. 
32. Quoted in Ashaari Muhammad 1987, op. cit., 3; and Ashaari Muhammad, Allah’s 
Schedule, 31; cf.Saritoprak, op. cit., 659. 
33. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi, “Towards Regeneration: Shifting Priorities in 
Islamic Movements,” Encounters: Journal of Inter-Cultural Perspectives 
1/2(1995),24. The End
 
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