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Jawi Script and the Malay Society: Historical Background and Development International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 11, Issue 7, July 2020, pp. 68-78, Article ID: IJM_11_07_008 Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=7 ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510 DOI: 10.34218/IJM.11.7.2020.008 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed JAWI SCRIPT AND THE MALAY SOCIETY: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT Farhanah Abdullah, Asyraf Hj Ab Rahman*, Abdul Manan Ali, Firdaus Khairi Abdul Kadir Centre for Fundamental and Continuing Education, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia Fadzli Adam Centre for Islamic Product and Malay Civilization (INSPIRE), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin Terengganu, Malaysia *Corresponding Author Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Jawi script is always associated with the identity of the Malay community. Since decades, Jawi script has been growing rapidly among the Malay community and is associated with the mastery of the Quranic recitation. This is because most of the Jawi script uses Arabic letters in the Quran with some modification to suit the Malay pronunciation to some extents. Lately, there are some issues related to Jawi script and writing. The disadvantages of writing and reading Jawi writings amongst new generation of Malay Muslims are quite significant. This also affects the reading of the Qur'an either among the young or old generations. Several studies conducted confirm the issue. This paper will therefore discuss the development of Jawi script and its association with the Malay community. Some of the research findings related to the study on Jawi writings will be analyzed, besides looking at the future prospects of the Jawi script in Malaysian context. The study uses secondary data related to Jawi scripts and writings coupled with a survey on selected secondary school students‟ mastery of writing and reading Jawi script. All the data are analyzed and presented according to specific themes. Results of the study show that there are still positive prospects for Jawi writing in Malaysia. Several studies conducted found that student achievement in reading Jawi is good. While the aspect of writing Jawi letters, they face problems with relatively low achievement. Therefore, new approaches need to be done to preserve this Malay heritage related to Jawi script which has long considered part of the identity of the Malays. Key words: Jawi Script, Malay Identity, Islamic Heritage http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 68 [email protected] Jawi Script and the Malay Society: Historical Background and Development Cite this Article: Farhanah Abdullah, Asyraf Hj Ab Rahman, Abdul Manan Ali, Firdaus Khairi Abdul Kadir and Fadzli Adam, Jawi Script and the Malay Society: Historical Background and Development, International Journal of Management, 11(7), 2020, pp. 68-78. http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=7 1. INTRODUCTION Before describing the nature and contribution of Jawi script, it is important to understand the meaning of the word Jawi. According to Sejarah Bahasa Melayu (Young Seok, 1990), the word “Jawi” derived from the Arabic language “Jawah”. The word Jawi also associated with the races in Southeast Asia encompassing the Malay race, Champa, Patani, Aceh, Java, Minangkabau, Mandailing, Sundanese, Bugis, Banjar, Lombok, Philippines, and other states. According to Winstedt (1958) and Yusoff (2005), the Jawi script was not directly descended from the Arabs, but the Malays adopted it from the Perso-Arabic script. However, Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas (2011) was on a view that, the Jawi script is directly descended from the Arabic script brought by the Arab missionaries and contained 28 Arabic letters and 5 letters representing the Malay phenome which are absent in the Arabic. The five letters are “cha”, “pa”, “nga”, “ga”, and “nya”. The examples of the Jawi script is illustrated in the table as below: Table 1 Table of Jawi script Unlike other races, the Malay is one of the few races that has familiar background with the Jawi script. When the Malay language written using Arabic characters, it was known as the Jawi script. However, Jawi script and Jawi language are designed to write the Malay language only. Other languages of ethnicities are not applicable for the Arabic language. This shows that the Jawi script is specifically created to accommodate the Malay language. Severing the Malay language from the Jawi script would have extremely great damages for the Malay language in that the generation raised to read only the Latin language. This leads to the lack of access within Malays themselves to traditional Malay literature, intellectual, scientific and religious teachings which had been contributed by the Malay civilization. Islam has grown in the Malay Archipelago through the Jawi script for a long time ago. Malay language and literature also flourished through the use of Jawi script amongst the scholars. Thus, Jawi script played an important role when it was widely used to write religious books, stories, laws, and other official documents. The Malay language has been enriched with the words and originated term from Arabic language in the process of http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 69 [email protected] Farhanah Abdullah, Asyraf Hj Ab Rahman, Abdul Manan Ali, Firdaus Khairi Abdul Kadir and Fadzli Adam knowledge transfer. This development can be seen in books and literary works of previous scholar in their field and expertise. There are some Muslim scholars who travel to the Middle East to enhance their religious knowledge. This led to the emergence of many Islamic leaders and Islamic scholars who later, contributed to the development of scientific works within Muslim communities. As a result, many scholars from the Malay Archipelago who managed to produce Jawi-written books to spread knowledge and other God's commandments. The abilities of Muslim scholars in the past to write on ʿAqīdah (Islamic Belief) and Tawḥīd (Oneness of God) are admirable. Among those works are (Abdullah, 2014): Faridat al-Fara'id (1895 M) written by Sheikh Ahmad bin Muhammad Zain al- Fathani 'Aqidatun Najin (1890 M) written by Sheikh Zainal Abidin bin Muhammad al-Fathani Ilmu tawḥīd (1622 M) written by Ahmad bin Aminuddin Qadhi (Kedah) Durarul Fara‟id bisyarhil „Aqaid (1635 M) written by Sheikh Nuruddin ar-Raniri Bidayatul Hidayah (1757 M) written by Syeikh Muhammad Zain bin Faqih Jalaluddin Aceh Zahratul Murid fi Bayani Kalimatit Tauhid (1764 M) written by Sheikh Abdus Shamad al-Falimbani Tuhfatur Raghibin fi Bayani Haqiqati Imanil Mukminin wa Yufsiduhu min Riddatil Murtaddin (1774 M) written by Sheikh Muhammad Arsyad bin Abdullah al-Banjari. Iqdatul Jawahir (1831 M) written by Sheikh Daud bin Abdullah al-Fathani Iqdul Juman fi 'Aqaidil Iman (1888 M) written by Sheikh Ahmad al-Fathani From the lists mentioned above, it was clear that Jawi script and its role in producing many Jawi works contributed to the Islamic knowledge and learning foundation. However, status of Jawi script is no longer outstanding as before. This can be seen from the current scenario where many Jawi books cannot compete for its‟ publications and have little support from the related agencies. Many Jawi books have shut down their publishing operations due to the competition with contemporary magazines. It is very disappointing for the publication of Jawi to be disengaged by the Malay Muslims themselves which lead to deterioration among the general public‟s interest to explore and learn Jawi for Islamic knowledge and exploring traditional Malay cultures mostly written in Jawi. In addition, the lack of interest in Jawi scripts amongst younger generations also contributes to the negative perception of Jawi scripts and the lack of Jawi books in market. This paper will therefore discuss the development of Jawi script and its association with the Malay community. Some of the findings related to the study on Jawi writings will be analyzed, besides looking at the future prospect of Jawi script and writing in the Malaysian context based on the recent research conducted on the subject. 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE As mentioned earlier, Jawi is an Arabic alphabet for writing Malay and several other languages in Southeast Asia. Jawi used to be the standard script for the Malay language but has since been replaced by roman alphabet called Rumi. Jawi has since been relegated to a script used for religious, cultural and some administrative purposes amongst the Malay since decades ago. The emergence of many Jawi books has been widely recorded throughout the history of the Malay Archipelago. Some of them are specific to certain areas such as aqidah, fiqh, hadith, history, and other Malay literatures. To certain extents, traditional Jawi works known http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 70 [email protected] Jawi Script and the Malay Society: Historical Background and Development as Kitab-kitab Jawi also contributed to science and technology. The spread of Islam and the teachings of Islam to the local community is greatly played by Muslim scholars through Jawi writing as their main tool. Other than science and technology, Jawi also contributes to religious aspects (Sulaiman, A., & Al-Edrus, S. M. D., 2012). Jawi script also plays a vital role in the spread of knowledge and Islamic civilization especially in the ASEAN region (Ibrahim, 2015). As Malay Muslims do not understand the Arabic language, Jawi books have become the main source of reference for them to understand the knowledge of faith, religious laws, morals, and many more (Bruinessen, 1990). The changes in the lives of the Malay community in terms of religiosity and view of life are primarily due to Jawi writings‟ roles as an important catalyst (Badaruddin, 2012). Apart from Jawi books, there are also Jawi magazines and newspapers that show concern about religious and non-religious knowledge. Abdullah, A. R. T., & Salleh, A. R. (2015) investigated the economic issues of the Malay community in Malay newspapers such as Saudara, Majalah Guru, Majlis, Al-Ikhwan, and Utusan Melayu.
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