KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today expressed deep sadness over the passing of Royal Laureate Professor Tan Sri Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, describing him as “one of the greatest minds of our age”.
“He was a philosopher who asked not just what we know, but what knowledge is for. Through his voluminous and seminal works including ‘Islam and Secularism’ and his magnum opus “Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam’, he challenged the secularisation of knowledge and set out the intellectual foundations of an Islamic worldview.
“Malaysia heard him. The Muslim world heard him,” he said in a Facebook post.
The Prime Minister, on behalf of the government and people of Malaysia, extended his deepest condolences to Syed Muhammad Naquib’s family and to all who sat at his feet.
“He leaves us on the 18th of Ramadan, at the age of 95. That is a life well lived and a departure well earned. May Allah grant him His mercy and the highest station among the righteous. Al-Fatihah,” he added.
Syed Muhammad Naquib, who was the founder and director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), died at 6.47 pm yesterday. – March 9, 2026