Al-Sayyid Shaykh bin Ahmad al-Hadi (born on November 22 1867 in Kampung Hulu, Malacca, died on February 20 1934 in Jelutong on Penang), also spelled Syed Sheikh al-Hady, was a Malay-Arab Arab entrepreneur, publicist and writer in British Malaya, who was one of the pioneers of the Malay educational and nationalist movement and advocated rationalist-oriented reform of Islam in the Malay Archipelago. Sayyid Shaykh was strongly influenced by the Egyptian Modernists Muhammad ʿAbduh (1849-1905) and Qāsim Amīn (1863-1908) and promoted their ideas among the Malay Muslims, especially for a modern image of women. To this end, he founded several journals and schools and wrote a large number of articles and books. One feature that sets al-Hadi apart from other contemporary Islamic reform scholars is his use of novels as a means of propagating Islamic ideals.[1] Since his romance novel Hikayat Faridah Hanom ("The Story of Farida Hanom") is considered the first Malay novel par excellence, al-Hadi is also called the "father of the Malay novel" (Bapa novel Melayu).[2] As a modernist and Progressivist, Sayyid Shaykh also advocated British colonial rule over Malaya and called for the establishment of Anglo-Malay schools.