Royal Laureate Professor
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

Born in Bogor in 1931, he received his early Islamic education in Sukabumi and Johor Bahru. Upon completion, he studied at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and later served in the military before deciding to further his learnings at University of Malaya, Singapore and, subsequently, at McGill University, Canada (M.A) and University of London, England (PhD). 

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Upon returning to Malaysia in 1964, he would be made the head of Division of Literature in the Department of Malay Studies at University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and in 1970 became one of the founders of the National University Malaysia (UKM).

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In 1987, ISTAC (International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation) was founded and directed by the Professor al-Attas where he taught for ten years, collecting forty thousand volumes of manuscripts from all over the Islamic world.

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His many powerful ideas have been a basis to revive, sustain, and connect with the Islamic intellectual tradition and immensely contribute to various fields of Islamic thought and civilisation, which are rich resources for scholars and conscientious people to study and consider.

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A number of his works have shown to be groundbreaking, not only for the fields of Islamic studies and Islamic thought, but in the ongoing civilizational confrontation between Islam and the West on major questions concerning contemporary global challenges such as human existence in relation to the environment, ethics, the purpose of the various sciences, and philosophy of the future, all of which have profound bearings for the practical realms of education, economics, politics, and international relations.

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For his outstanding creative and effective contributions in the various fields of Islamic thought and civilization, as well as his contributions to contemporary thought on education and epistemology, he received many distinguished awards of recognition and acknowledgement from learned and scientific institutions and societies in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.