Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah

Hamka
Hamka in 1954
Born	Abdul Malik (1908-02-17)17 February 1908 Batang River, Tanjung Raya, Agam Regency, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies
Died	24 July 1981(1981-07-24) (aged 73) Jakarta, Indonesia
Nationality	Indonesia
Notable work	Al-Azhar Exegesis Tenggelamnya Kapal van der Wijck Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah
Main interests	Al-Qur'an Exegesis, Islamic law, Islamic history, tasawuf, and literature
Influences Priests, Ahmad Khatib, and others
Influenced Muhammadiyah dan Indonesian Ulema Council
Signature

Prof. Dr. Haji Abdul Malik bin Dr. Syekh Haji Abdul Karim Amrullah, is better known by the nickname Hamka. He was born in Batang River, Tanjung Raya, Agam Regency, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies on 17 February 1908 and died in Jakarta, Indonesia on 24 July 1981 at the age of 73 years. He was an Indonesian ulama, novelist, philosopher and political activist.

Hamka was born on 17 February 1908 (Hijri Calendar: 13th of Muharram 1362AH) in Minangkabau, West Sumatra, as the first child of seven brothers. He was raised in a family of devout Muslims. His father was Abdul Karim Amrullah, a clerical reformer of Islam in Minangkabau who was known as Haji Rasul. His mother, Sitti Shafiyah, came from artists of Minangkabau descent. The father of Abdul Karim, Hamka's grandfather, namely Muhammad Amrullah was known as a follower of cleric Congregation Naqsyabandiyah.

Before his education in formal schools, Hamka lived with his grandmother in a house south of Maninjau. When he was six years old he moved with his father to Padang Panjang, West Sumatera. Following common tradition in Minang, as a child he studied the Quran and slept in a mosque near the place where he lived because Minang boys did not have a place to sleep in the family house. In the mosque he studied the Quran and silek. Outside he liked to listen to kaba, the stories which are sung along with traditional Minangkabau music. Interaction with these storyteller artists gave him knowledge of the art of storytelling. Later, through his novels, Hamka often drew on Minang terms. Minang rhymes and proverbs adorn his works.

In 1915, even after the age of seven, he enrolled in a village school (Sekolah SMKA Sultan Muhammad) and studied general science such as numeracy and literacy. Those times, as considered by Hamka himself, were one of the beautiful eras in his life. In the morning, he rushed off to school so that he can play before class started. Then after school, he would go play again with his friends, such as hide and seek, wrestling, chasing after one another, like the other kids his age played. Two years later, while still learning every morning at the village school, he also studied in Diniyah School every afternoon. But since his father enrolled him in Sumatera Thawalib in 1918, he could no longer attend classes at the village school. He quit after graduating two classes. After that, he studied at the Diniyah School every morning, while in the afternoon and evening studying in Thawalib back at the mosque. Those are young Hamka's activities everyday, something which, as he admitted, was not fun and curbed the freedom of his childhood.