Al Haj T. B. Jayah An inspiration to Muslim youth

by Dr. M.A.M. Shukri

The following is an abridged version of the Dr. T.B. Jayah Oration delivered on the occasion of his 123rd birth anniversary held last year.

This year's birth anniversary Commemoration Meeting also organised by Conference of Sri Lankan Malays [COSLAM] will be held on Sunday, January 12 at 9.30 a.m. at the New Town Hall, Nelum Pokuna Mawatha, Colombo 7.

"I consider it as a great honour and privilege to have been invited to deliver this oration on the 123rd birth anniversary of Al Haj - Dr. Tuan Burhanudeen Jayah. I wish to convey my sincere thanks to COSLAM, the Conference of Sri Lankan Malays and its President Al - Haj T. K. Azoor for this kind invitation and providing me this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on Al Haj Dr. T. B Jayah whose life and personality is a great source of inspiration to all of us.

Al Haj Dr. T. B. Jayah was an eminent personality who made a deep impact on the life of the community and the country. He was an educationist, a diplomat and above all a national leader who earned the respect and admiration of the wider section of the Sri Lankan nation. His life was a many faceted gem, each facet shedding its light and lustre. His life was intimately interwoven with the community and the nation.

It is extremely difficult to do justice to his life and personality in a single discourse or presentation, besides I have been asked to speak about his life and personality as a model for Muslim youth providing inspiration to encounter life in its different situations, to meet its challenges and also to lead a life based on Islamic values with the sense of love and patriotic feeling towards one's country. I do not wish to present here a narrative account of the life of Dr. Jayah about which much has been written from different perspectives, but I wish to identify and elaborate some fascinating features and admirable qualities of his life and his personality as a model for Muslim youth.

Today we are living in an age in which religious and moral values are fast eroding and the education imparted in the schools and colleges has failed to provide the youth with a broader vision and noble objectives for their life. The youth today are engulfed by the ever rising tide of materialism and their Islamic personality and vision are being increasingly exposed to western secularist values promoted by the media. In this context, it is absolutely essential for Muslim youth to draw their inspiration from the lives of great men like Dr. Jayah whose personality and life provides many valuable lessons to them to shape their values and outlook, maintain their Islamic identity in a multi - ethnic and pluralistic society like Sri Lanka while integrating themselves with other communities forging national unity.

Dr. Tuan Burhanudeen Jayah hailed from a respectable Malay family. He was born in January 1890. His father Casim Jayah, in spite of the poor financial situation of his life, was a committed and devoted Muslim with a strong personality and will. He was very keen to provide a very sound religious education to his son Burhanudeen during the formative period of his childhood, because he believed that Quranic learning must form the basic foundation for a Muslim child.

With this objective, he entrusted teaching of Quran for his child to Capt. A. T Morseth, a pious personality. This was followed by two others Noorudeen Raleen and Omer Deen Lebbe. Dr. Jayah describes at a later stage of his life, to what extent these teachers of the Quran provided him with strong religious background. He says as follows:

'My early education was purely Quranic, first under a retired captain of the Malay Rifle Regiment and later in the Quranic school where I received a good grounding in the basic principles of Islam. 'This Quranic foundation created in Jayah in his childhood period, a love for religion which found its fullest manifestation in his later life as a great admirer of Islamic tradition, culture and civilization.'

His father with all the financial hardship he faced in his life, was very keen to provide a sound education to his son. Jayah was admitted S.P.G. School at Kotahena at the age of eleven. The fact he was too old for his class naturally caused him a lot of embarrassment among his fellow students who were younger than him but Jayah never got disheartened or discouraged and through sheer hard work and perseverance gained a double promotion. He gained admission to S. Thomas' College on a scholarship in 1903 and in 1908 Jayah through hard work, determination; strong resolution and commitment completed the course of studies in seven years which generally takes eleven years.

His father's financial circumstances compelled him to seek employment before his graduation. He entered the teaching profession at Dharmaraja College, Kandy in 1910 and also as a classics teacher at Prince of Wales. While engaging in teaching he obtained his degree from the University of London in 1917. Jayah was a versatile scholar of classics. In recognition of his knowledge, he was able to join Ananda College in 1917. It was then a leading Buddhist school and he remained as a teacher in Ananda till he assumed duties as Principal of Zahira College in September 1921.

Jayah's life as a student in midst of many challenges has a number of lessons for present day youth. Knowledge must be sought with sincerity, commitment and dedication and poverty or lack of means is no obstacle in the path of knowledge. This is indeed a great lesson and inspiration for youth who are facing financial constraints in the path of seeking knowledge. While he was serving as a teacher at Prince of Wales College, he obtained his degree from the University of London in 1917.

Jayah's quest for knowledge and desire for continuous learning is a great inspiration to present day youth to emulate, because this noble quality of Jayah was indeed a glorious tradition of Islamic scholars who were engaged in learning until the last breath of their lives.

Dr. Jayah gave expression to a wider concept of education that brings out inner potentiality of a student, develop in him an enlightened mind, creativity and leadership quality.

Dr. Jayah in his lecture on 'Education and National Progress' delivered in 1914 emphasised the need for Muslim students to achieve a good command of English.

A sense of history and historical consciousness is absolutely important for a community. We must understand the past in order to know the present and prepare for the future. Dr. Jayah had an avid interest history and next to classics, Islamic history was his passion. He had a rich library consisting of all important works on Islamic history.

Dr. Jayah became the principal of the Zahira College in 1921, and in the following year in 1922 the College magazine 'the Crescent' was published.

These words of Dr. Jayah on Islamic history are a great source of inspiration to the Muslims of today especially the youth. We are living at a time the world of Islam is facing serious challenges. There are insidious attempts made all over the world to arrest the worldwide resurgence of Islam, but Islamic resurgence is a reality and the youth of Islam must draw inspiration from our historical past as Dr. Jayah puts it 'the Darkest hour of Islam is also the precursor of the brightest day'.

When we speak about the importance of history to make reference to the historical traditions of Sri Lankan Malays, there is a need to study the cultural contributions made by the Malays of Sri Lanka and also the life of eminent Malay personalities. This is a wide and interesting subject, but I wish to make here only a passing reference to a great Malay scholar who was exiled to Sri Lanka and played an important role by his intellectual contributions.

The largest number of Malays brought to Sri Lanka by the Dutch from the Indonesian islands, were Mujahidoon, many of whom were of noble birth and scholarly orientation. One of the most prominent of these Mujahidoon was the noble scholar and warrior Sheikh Yusuf Al - Makasari. He was a great scholar who studied under eminent Ulama in Hadramauth, Yemen, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. He fought against the Dutch on the side of Sulthan of Banten. In 1683 when the Dutch managed to defeat the Sulthan, Sheikh Yusuf was later captured and banished to Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka Sheikh Yusuf engaged in educational and Da'wa activities.

He wrote at least seven of his twenty three known works, some of which clearly bear the name Sri Lanka. Two of these works are Al - Barakath As Sylaniya (Sri Lankan's Blessings) and another work is 'Al - Nafahath Al - Sylaniya' (Breezes from Sri Lanka).

Many of the manuscripts written by Sheikh Yusuf are lying in archives of Indonesia and I'm confident that there would have been many Malay scholars who made their contributions in Sri Lanka. The youth of the Malay community of Sri Lanka must take serious interest in studying their intellectual and cultural traditions and preserve the memories of great Malay scholars and saints like Al Makasari.

I am very happy to note the serious interest taken by the Sri Lankan Malay community through COSLAM - Conference of Sri Lankan Malays - for the promotion of 'BAHASA MELAYU'. The preservation of Malay language with its literary legacy is absolutely essential for the preservation of the Sri Lankan Malay identity.

Dr. Jayah was a very pious personality who had deep faith in Islam and its way of life, but this did not create in him a sense of exclusiveness. His exposure at Prince of Wales, Dharmaraja College and Ananda College provided him an opportunity to interact with members of the other communities and created in him a broad outlook and nationalistic vision. Dr, Jayah as a patriotic Sri Lankan who along with the other leaders made his great contribution for the attainment of independence and to work towards attaining national integration.

The life and contribution of Dr. Jayah is a great source of inspiration to all of us to work towards his ideal of national integration and make our humble contribution towards building a united Sri Lanka.

The writer obtained his First Class (Honours) degree from the University of Sri Lanka in 1965 and the Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Edinburgh, UK in 1976.

He functioned as Head of the Dept. of Arabic & Islamic Studies at Universities of Kelaniya and Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. At present he is holding the position of Director Jamiah Naleemiah International Islamic University, Beruwala, Sri Lanka since 1981.

He has authored of 17 books and contributed numerous research papers to learned journals and many international conferences.