Life–Human–Cosmos in Imam: Translational Ecology and Social Ethics within Najīb al-Kīlānī’s Islamic Literary Framework

This article reinterprets Abdullah Hussain’s Imam (1995) through Najīb al-Kīlānī’s Islamic literary framework, focusing on the triadic principle of life–human–cosmos. Rather than treating ethics as message, the study offers a form-sensitive account of how setting, focalisation, rhythm, and recurring motifs translate Malay Muslim lifeworlds, human agency, and a sign-bearing cosmos into social ethics. We propose translational ecology—a relay from form → symbol → ethic → action—and apply it to key sequences in Imam: predawn worship rhythms, mosque-centred public space, kampung mutuality under modern pressure, waqf deliberations, and wartime memory. Findings show that patterned lifeworld routines act as moral pedagogy that habituates adab; the mosque–kampung geography works as ethical cartography that recentres obligations; and a symbolic ecology—light (guidance), water (purification), earth (limit)—functions as ethical mnemonics coupling aesthetic recognition to communal responsibility. The contribution clarifies the mediating role of life–human– cosmos within Kīlānī’s system and offers a portable, classroom-ready sequence aligning literary study with value-centred humanities in Southeast Asia.

Imam; Malay-Islamic literature; life–human

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