View article

Shaykh Yusuf Makasar is a prominent sufi, intellectual and statesman who devoted his entire life to struggling for the fate of his nation. He was born in kingdom of Gowa, Makasar, known today as Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi. He was brought up in the palace of Sultan Alauddin and received religious education, including memorizing the Qur'an, when he was still very young. He pursued his education in A ceh, Yemen, Mecca, Medina and Syria. He was baptized into almost all sufi orders directly by their Masters. Having finished his 'Wandering, he went back to his home area, Gowa, to transfer his experiences to his fellow people. Unfortunately, he saw that Gowa was not as it used to be. People mainly engaged in immoral acts, such as drinking, cock-fighting, gambling and so forth. He failed to convince the Sultan to use his authority to ban immoral acts, which contradicted Islamic teachings. Shaykh YusufMakasar then left Gowa for Banten, West Java, which was ruled by Sultan Tirtayasa {1651 · 1695). This Sultan, who was a devout Muslim, appointed him as the Mufd of the kingdom and married him to his daughter. They worked hand-in-hand in the struggle to maintain the kingdom's independence from the interference of the Dutch company, V. 0. C. Having carried out a guerrilla war for three years, the Sultan was arrested and Shaykh Yusuf was exiled to Ceylon and then to Cape Town, South Africa in 1694 where he remained until his death in 1699. Shaykh Yusuf Makasar wrote 22 manuscripts in Arabic, not to men· tion his works in the Bugis-Makasar and Ban ten languages. All these writings deal with mysticism, mystical orders and ethics …