Abstract

While it is true that the intellectual relationship established through multipurpose pilgrimage to the heartland of Islam has never lost its significance, the political implications of this connection seem to be overestimated. In this article I attempt to show that, although the number of writings by and on Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in the Malay-Indonesian language is strikingly considerable, the nature and extent of their impact in the religious life and thought of people have yet to be seen. Hence, to construe a link between them and the emergence of radicalism in the "Lands below the Wind" would be too hasty a conclusion. I begin with a historical overview on the coming of Islam and the intellectual role it plays in this region to provide a general framework for the discussion that follows.