Although Hamka (Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah, 1908-1981) embraced modernist ideas of purity, he also embraced the idea that Islam manifested itself differently in different places and times. Indeed, this was natural and necessary. As a Indonesian writer of great popularity and authority, and also as an influential public actor, Hamka attempted to formulate Islam for his own country’s place and time. In his lifetime, history moved with lightning speed through eras of colonialism, foreign occupation, revolution, and nation-state building. An astounding flood of new ideas and experiences flooded Indonesia’s “estuary,” as he put it. This seminar talk will take up how Hamka attempted to reconcile Islam with some of these new ideas and experiences, including revolution, democracy, communism, and the nation.