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At a scholarly gathering inside a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was not seeking a ceremonial photograph with religious figures. He was trying to explain a deeper idea about the state: Malaysia cannot enter the age of technology and artificial intelligence with a fast mind and an empty heart. On the surface, the gathering brought together scholars and religious teachers. At its core, it raised a political and moral question about governance, and about the role of knowledge in shaping people before institutions.
The event, known as Majlis Ilmu Madani, was attended by Anwar and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Religious Affairs Dr Zulkifli Hasan. It brought together scholars and religious figures from Gambia, Mauritania, Malaysia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Anwar said the pursuit of knowledge, and the practice of what one learns, is a responsibility carried by all Muslims. He added that confidence in knowledge within a Madani nation must rest on faith and character. That statement captured the heart of the gathering: a prime minister was not speaking of knowledge merely as a certificate, a technical skill or a tool of development, but as an ethical foundation for the state and society.
The significance of the gathering lies first in the names of those who took part. Sheikh Muhammad Hydara Al-Jilani, chairman of the Qadriyya organisation in Gambia, brought with him an African Sufi tradition that links knowledge with spiritual discipline, not argument alone. Habib Ali Zaenal Abidin Al Hamid, chairman of Yayasan Ar-Ri’ayah in Malaysia, represented a familiar religious voice close to Malaysian society, where scholars remain part of the daily religious life of Malay Muslims. Sheikh Abd Allah Muhammad Bilal, president of the Arab Manuscript Institute in Mauritania, carried the symbolism of manuscripts and traditional learning, a world where knowledge is memory, not a passing commodity.
Another side of the gathering reflected Islam in the West. Sheikh Dr Walead Mohammad, chairman of Sabeel Community, represented the experience of Muslims in the United States, where religious learning becomes an ethical language within a modern and complex society. Sheikh Mohammed Amin Kholwadia, president of Al-Amin Ethics Institute in Chicago, opened another question: how can Islamic values inform thinking on medicine, economics, institutions and public conduct? Sheikh Dr Ahmed Mohamed Saad Al-Azhari, director of Ihsan Institute in the United Kingdom, represented an Azhari tradition that seeks to speak to the West in a scholarly language without losing its religious roots.
This diversity was not accidental. Anwar, known for his love of reading and for keeping the company of scholars and thinkers, is using the Majlis Ilmu Madani series to create a platform that reflects his intellectual and political character. Since becoming prime minister in November 2022, he has made it clear that he does not want “Malaysia Madani” to remain an administrative slogan. He wants it to become a language of governance that connects economics with ethics, politics with knowledge, and religion with public responsibility. The gathering, therefore, is not spiritual decoration around power. It is an attempt to make power listen to voices outside the bureaucracy.
This wider path has also opened itself to international thinkers beyond the traditional religious sphere. In the broader Forum Ilmuwan Malaysia Madani, figures such as American economist Jeffrey Sachs have taken part in discussions on Malaysia, ASEAN and global instability. The message is that Anwar does not limit knowledge to religious law, nor politics to economic management. He is trying to place the religious scholar, the economist and the international affairs thinker inside one question: how can Malaysia build a modern state with both mind and conscience?
Politically, Anwar is speaking to two audiences at once. To Malay Muslims, he is saying that his coalition government has not separated the state from its Islamic moral reference. To non-Muslims, he is saying that this religious presence is institutional, intellectual, non-confrontational and non-partisan. This is a delicate balance in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, where religion can serve as a national bridge, but can also become a tool of division if left to harsh party politics.
The deeper point is that Anwar is trying to build a middle religious space between party Islam, conservative currents and the state bureaucracy. By bringing together Sufi, Azhari and Western-based traditional scholars, the gathering avoids narrow organisational alignment while keeping the symbolism of global Islam present in support of the government’s domestic and international legitimacy. It is an attempt to shape a religious language that is not afraid of modernity, and a modern political language that is not embarrassed by faith.
In the end, Majlis Ilmu Madani does not look like a passing meeting. It reflects a leader who believes politics dries up when it moves too far from scholars, but also stalls when it surrenders to them without reason. Between the scholar and the expert, between the mosque and the state, Anwar is trying to say that Malaysia’s future will not be built by technology alone, but by the human being who knows why he learns, why he governs and why he builds.
Abdullah Bugis (kualalumpur.abdullah@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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