Hamzah Fansuri

Who was Hamzah Fansuri?

Hamzah Fansuri was a famous Sumatran Sufi writer, the first known to pen mystical panentheistic ideas in the Malay language. He wrote both prose and poetry, and worked at the court of the Aceh Sultanate.

Fansuri's panentheism derived from the writings of the medieval Islamic scholars. He perceived God as immanent within all things, including the individual, and sought to unite one's self with the indwelling spirit of God. He employed the doctrine of seven stages of emanation in which God manifests Himself in this world, ending in the Perfect Man, a doctrine widespread in Indonesia at the time. However, his works were later deemed heretical by Nuruddin ar-Raniri, for upsetting the Islamic belief that God remained unchanged by his creation.

Hamzah was one of the first Southeast Asians to complete the hajj.