Education

In 1918, Hamka left the Village School after three years, because he wanted to emphasize religious education, and his father registered him in a Thawalib. The school required its students to memorize classical books, rules regarding nahwu, and neuroscience. After studying at Diniyah School every morning, Malik attended Thawalib classes in the afternoon and returned to the surau in the evening. Most of the Thawalib's students were teenagers who were older than Hamka because of the heavy material that was needed to be memorized. From the lessons he attended, he was only interested in the arudh lessons which discussed poetry in Arabic. Although his activities from morning to evening were filled with learning, he was known to be a troublemaker, annoying his friends and cutting class to watch movies at a theater.^[3]

When he was 12 years old, Hamka's parents divorced, because although his father is a devout religious Muslim, his mother's relatives still practiced traditional practices that did not comply with Islamic teachings. The first few days after his parents divorced, Hamka did not go to school. He instead spent time traveling around Padang Panjang. Hamka had been absent for fifteen days in a row until a teacher at the Thawalib came to the house to check up on him. Finding out Hamka was absent, his father got angry and hit him.^[5]

Because of fear of his father, Hamka returned to the class as usual. After he discovered that his teacher, Zainuddin Labay El Yunusy, had opened a book rental library, Hamka spent most of his time reading through borrowed books. He read literary works published by Balai Pustaka, Chinese stories, and Arabic translations. After reading, Malik copied his own version. Running out of money to rent the books, Hamka offered to work for a printing house owned by Bagindo Sinaro, where the book collection were covered with protective cardboard. He helped cut cardboard, make glue dough as a glue for books, and make coffee, but as a reward, he asks to be allowed to read the collection of books that were to be rented out. Within three hours of returning from Diniyah before leaving for Thawalib, Hamka arranged his time to have time to read. Because of his neat work, he was allowed to bring a new book that had not been cardboard to work on at home. However, since Malik was often caught reading story books, his father reprimanded him, so every time he noticed his father was watching, Hamka would put down the story book he was reading, took a religious book while pretending to read it. Family problems caused Hamka to often travel long distances alone. He would leave his classes at Diniyah and Thawalib, and travels to Maninjau to visit his mother. Hamka was conflicted about choosing to live with his mother or father. Hamka sought association with the young people of Maninjau. He studied silat and randai, as well as listening to kaba, stories sung with traditional Minangkabau musical instruments. He walked further to Bukittinggi and Payakumbuh, briefly hanging out at cockfights and horse racing jockeys. He was neglected for almost a year until when he was 14 years old, his father felt restless and took him to go recite the Koran to the cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Musa in Parabek, about five kilometers from Bukittinggi. In Parabek, for the first time Hamka lived independently.^[5]

In Parabek, young Hamka learnt to fulfill his daily needs as a santri. During his stay at the pesantren, Hamka took advantage of the freed Saturday to go out to the surrounding the villages near Parabek. Interested in hearing traditional speeches, Hamka often attended the inauguration of the penghulu, when the traditional elders gathered. He noted down while memorizing rhymes and dictated passages in the traditional speeches he heard.^[5]

Moving to Java

Hamka travelled all over Minangkabau as a teenager, gaining the nickname Si Bujang Jauh, (the Boy from Afar) from his father.^[5]

Hamka decided to leave for Java at the age of 15, when he learnt that the Islam taught there was far more advanced in terms of structure and organisation. He ran away from home, unnoticed by his father and only said goodbye to his grandmother in Maninjau. From Maninjau, Malik started his journey with the money his grandmother gave him, In Bengkulu, he planned to meet a relative from his mother's tribe to ask for additional fees, however, he contracted smallpox. He tried to continue but was forced to go back to Meninjau where he spent two-months bedridden. He departed to Java again in July 1924, after spending two months bedridden.^[5]

After arriving in Java he went to Yogyakarta and studied under: Bagoes Hadikoesoemo, Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto, Abdul Rozak Fachruddin, and Suryopranoto; under Bagoes Hadikoesoemo, Hamka joined Serekat Islam. Before returning to Minangkabau, he visited Bandung and met with Masjumi leaders Ahmad Hassan and Mohammad Natsir, which gave him the opportunity to write in the magazine Pembela Islam ("Defenders of Islam"). Subsequently, in 1925, he went to Pekalongan, Central Java to meet Sutan Mansur Ahmad Rashid, who was the chairman of Muhammadiyah's Pekalongan branch, and learnt more about Islam from him. While in Pekalongan, he stayed at his brother's house and started giving religious talks for Muhammadiyah.^[5]

In Pekalongan, Hamka met his father who failed to leave for Egypt after the postponement of the International Caliphate Congress. Muhammadiyah activities attracted Haji Rasul's attention so that when he returned to Minangkabau with Jafar Amrullah and Marah Intan, Haji Rasul initiated the establishment of a Muhammadiyah branch at Batang River. The association that was founded earlier called Sendi Aman changed its name to Muhammadiyah to be recognized as a branch by Muhammadiyah in Yogyakarta. From there, Muhammadiyah spread throughout the Minangkabau area with the help of its former students. In order to prepare Muhammadiyah preachers and teachers, Haji Rasul encouraged Thawalib students to open a Muhammadiyah Tablighi in Sungai Batang. Malik led the speech practice held by the course once a week. He made speeches for those who were not good at composing. His speeches were published in the magazine, Khatibul Ummah, which started with a circulation of 500 copies. Malik completed and edited portions of the speech he received before publication. His teacher Zainuddin and the owner of the printing press, Bagindo Sinaro, helped produce and distribute the magazine. From writing and editing speeches, Malik began to learn and express his writing skills. However, due to financial reasons, the printing of Khatibul Ummah only lasted three issues.^[5]

After his first trip in Java, he claimed to have a new spirit in studying Islam. He also saw no difference between Islamic reformation missions in both the Minangkabau and Javan regions: the reformation in Minangkabau aimed at purifying Islam off regressive practices of imitation and superstition, while the Javan movement was more focused to the efforts of combating "backwardness", ignorance and poverty.^[5]

Performing the Hajj

Hamka's trip to Mecca in 1927 inspired him to write Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah.

In February 1927, he made the decision to go to Mecca to expand his religious knowledge, including learning the Arabic language and performing his first hajj pilgrimage. He left without saying goodbye to his father, using his own money he departed from Belawan Harbor for Jeddah. While in Mecca, he became correspondent for the daily "Andalas Light" (Pelita Andalas) and also worked at a printing company owned by Mr. Hamid, son of Majid Kurdish, Ahmad Al-Khatib Minangkabawi's father-in-law. His mastery of Arabic enabled him to read classic Islamic kitab, books, and Islamic newsletters.

During the pilgrimage, Hamka and several other pilgrims candidate founded the East Indian Association (Persatuan Hindia Timur), an organisation giving lessons to Dutch Indies pilgrims-to-be. He lived in Mecca for some time after the pilgrimage, where he met Agus Salim and had expressed his desire to settle in Mecca, but Agus Salim instead advised him to go home reasoning: "You can do a lot more work with your study and movements that you are fighting for. Therefore, it would be better to develop yourself in your own homeland". Hamka soon returned home after seven months of living in Mecca. However, instead of going back to Padang Panjang, Hamka settled in the city of Medan, where his returning ship had anchored.

Career in Medan

While in Medan, he wrote many articles for various magazines and had become a religion teacher for several months in Tebing Tinggi. He sent his writings to the newspaper Pembela Islam in Bandung and Voice of Muhammadiyah, which was led by Abdul Rozak Fachruddin, in Yogyakarta. In addition, he also worked as a correspondent for the daily paper Pelita Andalas and wrote trip reports, especially about his journey to Mecca in 1927. In 1928, he wrote the first story in Minangkabau titled Sabariyah. In the same year, he was appointed as editor of the "Progress Era" (Kemajuan Zaman) magazine, which was based on the results of the Muhammadiyah conference in Padang Panjang. The next year, he wrote several books, However, some of his writings were confiscated because they were considered as seditious by the Dutch colonial government.

On 28 June 1926, earthquake measuring 7.6 RS destroyed most of Padang Panjang, including houses in Gatangan Hamka's father's

When in the field, the people in the village had repeatedly asked him to send some letters home, yet he declined. This worried his father, who asked Sutan Mansur Ahmad Rashid to pick him up and persuade him to go home. Sutan's plea finally convinced Malik to return to his hometown in Maninjau, which at the time was in ruins due to the 1926 earthquake, including his father's home in Padang Panjang Lantah. Arriving at his hometown, he finally met his father and was overcome with emotions. His father was shocked to learn that he journeyed to Hajj on his own and paid with his own money, saying "Why don't you let me know about this noble and sacred mean? I was poor and on hard times at the time." His realization of his father's honest concern for him changed his view of his father.

After about a year settling in Sungai Batang, Abdul Malik left his hometown again to go to Medan in 1936. During his time in Medan, he worked as an editor and became editor-in-chief of a magazine Pedoman Masyarakat, which he founded with Islamic cleric M. Yunan Nasution. Through Pedoman Masyarakat, he used the penname "Hamka" for the first time. While in Medan, he wrote Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah, which was inspired by his trip to Mecca in 1927. After the novel was published in 1938, he wrote Sinking of the van der Wijck, which was written as a serialised story in Pedoman Masyarakat. In addition, he also published several novels and books such as: Merantau ke Deli ("Going Away to Deli"), Kedudukan Perempuan dalam Islam ("Women's Position in Islam"), Tuan Direktur ("The Director"), New Forces, Driven, In The Valley of Life, Father, Modern Mysticism, and Falsafah Hidup ("Life Philosophy"). The parent magazine for Pedoman was shut down in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.

During the Japanese occupation, Hamka was appointed as a religious adviser to the Japanese. He was also a member of a makeshift assembly that handled government and Islamic matters in 1944. He accepted this position believing the Japanese promise to grant independence to Indonesia. But after occupying this position, he was regarded as a collaborator with the Japanese by his friends. He was subjected to endless criticism as the Japanese were defeated and surrendered to the Allies, which drove him back to the Minangkabau after the Indonesian Revolution broke out in 1945, joining Indonesian guerrillas to fight against the return of the Dutch in the jungles of Medan.