MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, MALAYSIA – The Special Branch Board of Muhammadiyah (PCIM) Malaysia facilitated Buya Hamka’s great-grandson, Farrel A. Wijaksana, in launching his book HAMKA and the Westernization of Indonesia.
The book launch event was held on (16/11) at Ruhama (Rumah Hamka) in Selangor, Malaysia, one of the Muhammadiyah Social Enterprises (AUM) under PCIM Malaysia.
Chairperson of PCIM Malaysia, Fauzi Fatkhur, welcomed and appreciated the event, saying that the establishment of Rumah Hamka was intended to bring benefit to the ummah.
Fauzi Fatkhur also stated that Buya Hamka is a figure belonging to the wider Muslim community, thus the choice of the name “Rumah Hamka” is fitting and easily recognized in Malaysia.
Additionally, he expressed pride in the achievement of Farrel A. Wijaksana for producing such a remarkable work at a young age, while hoping that all attendees would gain insight and take valuable lessons from it.
He noted that during the Prophet’s era, a 15-year-old was considered an adult, as childhood was deemed to end at that age. Buya Hamka himself at 16 had already traveled to Yogyakarta to study and apply his knowledge in the path of Allah.
What Farrel has written is not merely for his own pleasure, but a body of thought that offers solutions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Farrel shared that he came to know Buya Hamka not through photographs but through radio broadcasts of his sermons when he was still in elementary school.
“Even though I couldn’t fully understand the sermons, I felt so much peace. I asked my mother (Irma Fakhri), ‘Mom, who is this?’ She said, ‘that is your great-grandfather.’ That was how I first came to know Buya Hamka,” he recounted.
Farrel also told the story of how he became interested in Buya Hamka’s intellectual legacy. It began three years ago, when he was in 9th grade, during a stop in Yogyakarta to buy souvenirs.
He ended up separating from his group because his supervising ustaz brought him to the Suara Muhammadiyah Bookstore. There, Farrel became drawn to a book by Khairudin Aljunied titled Hamka and Islam: Cosmopolitan Reform in the Malay World.
“Even someone from outside Indonesia can study Buya Hamka’s thoughts so profoundly,” said Farrel. (Bintang Adrian)
