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(DAY 1) The Royal Conference - Royal & Keynote Address
Royal Address by Her Majesty Raja Zarith Sofiah
Welcoming Speech by Vice-Chancellor of UTM
Opening Address by Prof. Dr. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud
Keynote Address by Prof. Dr. Alparslan Açıkgenç
THE ROYAL CONFERENCE
on Islam & Humanity
In this secular and postmodern age, justice as a concept and reality has become elusive and contested. The relativisation of truth and values has led society to embrace conflicting claims as part of a pluralistic reality without any possibility of reconciliation. Meaning collapses. Universal notions such as truth, wisdom, and justice are rendered into awkward obsolescence displaced by vague notions of facts, artificial intelligence, equity, etc., notions more malleable to the vicissitudes of whims and fancies of the unspeakable “god” called society. The destruction of meaningful boundaries and limits only results in the construction of artificial insulated bubbles where the “anarchy of truths” holds sway over individual’s perceptions and actions disregarding authoritative and universal truths and guidance.
In this conference, we intend to reaffirm justice as one of the four principles of, as a matter of fact, the very principle of virtue. Justice, according to Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, is a reflection of wisdom. Right action (adab), which is an act of justice, is also a reflection of wisdom. Justice as a condition requires adab, which is the discipline of body, mind, and soul that assures the recognition and acknowledgment of one’s proper place in relation one’s selves and others. Justice has been the characteristic of the civilization of Islam whose light has illuminated humanity on this planet, whose effects are witnessed by all including the animal and the environment. Justice is never a mere utopian ideal. Justice is a reality that could be verified, experienced, and witnessed. The absence of a proper understanding of justice leads to the proliferation of injustices, extremism, and violence. Preservation and flourishing of civilization depends on the restoration of the proper understanding of justice, its concept, practice, and manifestation, as the principle of virtue.
THE ROYAL CONFERENCE
Opening Address
Professor Dr. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud is the Inaugural Holder of the Distinguished Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Chair of Islamic Thought at the Raja Zarith Sofiah Centre for Advanced Studies on islam, Science and Civilisation (RZS-CASIS), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He was the Deputy Director at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) under the directorship of its founder, Royal Laureate Professor Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas until 2002. He is the founder and the first Director of RZS-CASIS from 2011 until 2014. He has been an Advisory Board Member of the Istanbul Circle since 2021. An author and editor of more than 17 books, His most influential book is The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: An Exposition of the Original Concept of Islamization (1998). Among the most recent ones are: Selected Works (2024), Himpunan Karya Pilihan (2022), Rihlah Ilmiah: Dari Neomodernisme ke Islamisasi Ilmu Kontemporer (2021), Mutiara Taman Adabi & Dalam Terang (2021), Commemorative Volume on the Conferment of the Distinguished Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Chair of Islamic Thought (2020), Jalan Pulang (2020), Budaya Ilmu: Makna dan Manifestasi Dalam Sejarah dan Masa Kini (2018), and (ed.) Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: His Philosophical System and Conceptions of Humanity, History, and Civilization (2022).
THE ROYAL CONFERENCE
Keynote Address
Prof. Dr. Alparslan Açıkgenç is a professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Philosophy, İbn Haldun University. He completed his undergraduate education at Ankara University (1974). He received his MA from the University of Wisconsin (1978) and his PhD from the University of Chicago (1983). In 1983, he started to work at METU Department of Philosophy. He became Assistant Professor in 1984, Associate Professor in 1987 and Professor in 1993. He worked at the University of Chicago in 1985 and at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization in Malaysia between 1995-99. Afterwards, he served as Vice Rector and faculty member at Fatih University between 2006-2009, and then held administrative and academic positions at Yıldız Technical University. Since 2017, he has been continuing his academic studies at Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, Turkiye. His main interest of research is the history of scientific traditions of diverse civilizations, primarily Islamic and Western. In addition to numerous articles and books on religion and science, particularly on epistemology and sociology of science, he is the author of Being and Existence in Sadrā and Heidegger: A Comparative Ontology (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), 1992); and Scientific Thought and Its Burdens (Istanbul, 2000). His work, Islamic Scientific Tradition in History (Kuala Lumpur, 2014) won the national science book award of Malaysia for the year 2014.