Malay Language As A Vehicle of Preaching among Muallaf in Malaysia

Abstract

In Malaysia context, the term ‘muallaf’ is referring to a community that embraces Islam and is not from the Malay race. They also have their own mother tonguewhich is the language of communication in their families or relatives. Based on the literature, the Malay language is rich with Islamic terms from Arabic such as ‘fardu’, ‘wajib’, ‘halal’, ‘haram’ and the like. Therefore, the question of the Malay language as a means of preaching among the muallaf community needs to be given special attention and thoroughly studied. This study aims to identify the use of Malay language and the characteristics of Malay language used by new-becoming muallaf. The approach of this study is entirely qualitative by using interviews as the data collection method. To determine an inclusivity of the participants, four zones were involved namely the southern zone, west coast zone, northern zone and east coast zone with a total of 20 participants. All participants are from various races such as Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Orang Asli and Filipinos. The interview protocol was developed with a construct containing semi-structured question items that gave the participants the flexibility to understand and provide feedback. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and edited according to themes that could answer the questions and objectives of the study. The findings of the study show that the Malay language is used by muallafs with different levels of fluency. Even so, the choice of Malay language is a priority as a medium of oral and written communication. Most participants chose to study Islam by using Malay language such as listening to lectures, reading Islamic-related materials and translation of the Quran although they have the ability to obtain information about Islam in English or their mother tongues such as Mandarin and Tamil. Thus this study has proven the function of national language within muallaf community and further research might be carried out to understand sociolinguistic evolution among the community before implementation of any regulation and guidelines based on evident from empirical analysis.