Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in the “Lands Below the Wind” 249
lar literature on Sufism but also in the academic works dealing with
theology and law. The continuous reprinting of his translated works in
the Malay-speaking world is indeed one of many signs of an unfading
attention to his thought. Besides the impact of the reform movements
such as the Muhammadiyah, Nahḍat al-ʿUlamāʾ and Persatuan Islam,
it was the young people returning from the Middle East that have been
playing a crucial role in popularizing Ibn al-Qayyim’s works on spiri-
tuality, ethics, law and theology. Although the translation is generally
quite legible and faithful to the original, the fact that numerous mis-
takes abound and no effort was made to collate the text and annotate it
is a clear indication that these were in most cases done for commercial
rather than scholarly aims.
Coming back to the issue of radicalism touched upon at the out-
set, we have seen that historical evidence points out to the fact that
Salafi ideas were brought to the Malay world long before the works of
Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and others were made avail-
able to the Malay-Indonesian speakers. If there were any link between
Salafism and radicalism as some have suggested, it is more likely to
be chronological than causal. That is to say, it would be post hoc, ergo
propter hoc to attribute the booming of radicalism to the plethora of
such authors. One should look into a bundle of factors which are pri-
marily political, economic or psychological in nature to better explain
such annoying phenomenon.
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