Kampung Serada, The Tomb of the Famous Religious Figure,Tok Pulau Manis

Kampung Serada got its name from a tree. The Serada tree is very rare. According to the story, in the midst of clearing the new land, the people were attracted to a tall tree that has no branches and had never been seen by any of them. They then agreed to name the place after the tree to commemorate the finding of the rare tree.

Kampung Serada is located in the district of Kuala Terengganu and is about 20 kilometres from the town of Kuala Terengganu. To get there, one could use the road from Kuala Terengganu to Kuala Berang and there are also signages along the road to guide visitors to the entrance to Kampung Serada.

Serada Clinic is located besides the main road that link the village with other areas. Opposite of the clinic is the primary school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Serada which is an important education centre for the residents.

Mukim Serada has a population of 2000. Most of them are scattered throughout the village and live quite near to farming areas and fruit orchards that are the villagers’ main source of income. Majority of the residents are Malay muslims who had been living in Kampung Serada for generations.

The River at Kampung Tiruk, Serada

Kampong Serada is located near to a stream that also functions as water treatment reservoir. A long time ago, the stream was the villagers bloodline and they depended on for their link to outside world and as their source of income. Due to this most of the houses were built along the stream. However due to the frequent flooding, most of the villagers had moved away from the riverbank. Now the riverbanks had become almost non existent due to the sand mining activities.

Fish rearing activities can now be found through the long strech the River at Kg Tiruk and Whole Mukim Serada

As part of the effort in upgrading the vilalge economy, a project in clearwater fish farming in cages is being run in the village river. The project sponsored by the deaprtment of Fishery is run by two villagers, Jusoh Hamzah and Ismail Ali. Both of them started this venture since 2007. They received financial aid and guidance from the department which enabled them to build two cages that could breed 3,000 fish at any one time.

There is not much problems faced in the farming of clearwater fish and the visits from the Department of Fishery help to ensure the quality of the fish.

Banana Plantation in Kg Serada

Most of the villagers work as labourers, farmers or are self employed either opening up their own business or breed livestock. Due to this they lead a humble life and many of them live in wooden houses which are surrounded with fruit trees and greeneries which contribute to the slow pace way of life. Such environment would have a calming effect to those who visit the village.

Why Kampung Serada play an Important Landmark in Malaysia? and the Reason Behind it.

Kampung Serada is a settlement that had been in existence for a long time. This was proven by the old tomb of a learned religious man, Syeikh Abdul Malik Abdullah (famously known as Tok Pulau Manis) who was one of the founders of the village. He was born in 1650 and died in 1730. it is believed that he came from Baghdad, Iraq.

Surau Tok Guru Cik Embung, Keturunan Tokku Pulau Manis

Tok Pulau Manis also play and important role in the development of Quranic Exegesis in Malay Archipelago.

It is argued that the study of tafsir (Quranic Exegesis) and its writing may not be clearly found as early as the arrival of Islam in the Malay ArchipelagoNevertheless, as a core subject of the Islamic teaching Quran might have been indirectly introduced since the advance of Islam in the region.

 Moreover, it was the task of Muslim mubaligh to deliver the message of the holy book soon after they managed to convert the Malays into Islam. Hence, they had gradually introduced the Quran in the sense of Quranic exegesis that in the mean time would have also acellerated its writing in the Malay perspectives.

The process of Islamisation and Muslim propagation began in the city of Makah al Mukarramah where the Arabs were the first to accept the propagation of Islam.The Arabs spreaded Islam to the world inclusive of the Malay archepelago. The relationship between the Arabs and the Malay archepelago became an important factor as the foundation of the expansion of Islam in that region.

The Malay archepelago comprises of Indonesia, the Philipines, Brunei, Patani and Malaysia. These
countries are situated in between the Hindi ocean and South China Sea. It is considered a narrow gateway that has to be cruised through by ships going to and from both seas.There are several theories with regard to the arrival of Islam in the Malay archepelago. Some say that it advent straight from the Arab land while others believe that it was brought in by the Indian missionaries as well as China.

The Arab history showed that the Arab traders who arrived in the Malay archepelago sailed through various routes beginning from the Jeddah beach across the Red Sea to Aden, the south of the Arab peninsular than reaching to Gujerat (India). The journey finally continued to the Malay archepelago. Others have the opinion that the odyssey began from land which included Syria, or Iraq to Khurasan, the north of Persia to Afghanistan before arriving in China and continued the journey form there to the Malay archepelago.(Mahyuddin Haji Yahya.2001; 6)

The expansion of Islam in the Malay archepelago went through two phases. The first phase witnessed the arrival and expansion. There existed several views on the exact arrival date of Islam to the said region. Some believed that Islam was brought in in the 9th AD while a remaining few considered that it arrived as early as the 8th AD. Mahyuddin Haji Yahya. 2001; 3).

The writing of the exegesis int the Malay archepalago began in the 17th century with the emergence of the first book of tafsirin the Malay language published by a Syeikh Abdul Rauf Fanshuri who wrote a book entitlled “Turjuman al-Mustafid”. The book was later recopied by a Tuan Sheikh 'Abdul Malik bin Abdullah or better known as Tok Pulau Manis in the 1730s.

As a continuation to Syeikh Abdul Rauf writings in Indonesia, a book of tafsirnamed “Nur al-Ihsan” written by a Haji Muhammad Sa’id bin Omar was published for the first time in 1936 in Tanah Melayu (Malaysia).

Makam Tok Pulau Manis

Tok Pulau Manis was an advisor to the ruler of Terengganu, Sultan Zainal Abidin. When retired, he migrated to Serada. He founded a madrasah (religious centre) that follow the system of Masjidil Haram in Makkah. Now his tomb is often visited by people all over the country to acknowledge his contributions and to offer prayers for him.


Please refer to http://qulamirulhakim.blogspot.com/2011/01/makam-tokku-pulau-manis.html for more info on Tok Pulau Manis

Was also feature in TV9 in January
http://ms-my.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=331955393503857&oid=266823240171

Reference:

http://artmelayu.blogspot.com/2008/11/makam-tomb-of-tok-pulau-manis.html

http://www.aensiweb.com/anas/2011/452-455.pdf

http://books.google.com.my/books?id=RNxMSWhSP70C&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=Syeikh+Abdul+Malik+%2B+Tok+Pulau+Manis&source=bl&ots=zQbh6pG-OD&sig=lADz3WMaCzxcC1AfzhI7nGaQ388&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0jruUIOtEMfvlAXK6IBI&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=Syeikh%20Abdul%20Malik%20%2B%20Tok%20Pulau%20Manis&f=false

Manuskrip Kitab-kitab Melayu milik Sheikh Abdul Malik @ Tokku Pulau Manis