Resurrecting the Malay Classics for Contemporary Resistance in Nirnama: The Nameless Warrior

Hilal Asyraf’s Nirnama: The Nameless Warrior (2023) revisits the legends and lore rooted in the classical Malay literary tradition, offering a fictional reclamation that seeks to reframe dominant historical and literary discourses. This is explored through close textual analysis to address three research objectives: to examine the portrayal of Islam and Muslim identities, to explore the adaptation of Malay folklore, and to analyse the reconstruction of the Malay hero in the novel. Drawing from Ida Baizura Bahar’s paradigm of Malayness, Jacques Derrida’s concept of deconstruction, and Shaharuddin Maaruf’s concept of a hero in Malay society, the novel introduces a distinct shift by placing strong emphasis on the teaching and embodiment of Islamic values and practices, thereby offering a fresh and spiritually anchored reimagining of traditional lore as a vehicle for ethical reflection and collective awakening. In resurrecting Malay folktales and archetypes within this framework, Hilal Asyraf’s narrative transcends historical fiction to emerge as a literary and moral guide, one that recenters Islamic values as the enduring core of character, culture, and justice in the Malay world.