Speculative Verses of Islam in Singapore Malay Literature

Abstract

The discourse of Islamic thought should not be confined to the normative fields of fiqh, usuluddin, shari’ah laws and tafsir. It can also be seen in literature, even though this discipline has been marginal to Islamic studies. This chapter aims to address this gap. It begins from the acknowledgment that literary fiction channels and shapes Islamic thought if we consider the well-known cases of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and Naguib Mahfouz’s Awlad Haritna. Like their peers in Muslim cultures elsewhere, Malay/Muslim writers in Singapore, too, have engaged deeply with Islamic thought in their works. What are their sensibilities? This article will explore their works as aspiration and critique of the state of Islamic practices in the Republic. It considers Malay literature produced in both Bahasa and English. First, it will situate Singapore Malay literature within the region of Muslim Southeast Asia by tracing its responses to ideas such as Sastera Islam in Malaysia and Sastera Profetik in Indonesia. Then, it will consider selected contemporary works from Malay writers in Singapore in order to arrive at a sense of the evolution and trajectory of Islamic thought in contemporary literature.