REVITALIZING HIGHER EDUCATION
IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
A Case Study of the
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
ABDULHAMID A. ABUSULAYMAN
© The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1428 AH/2007 CE
THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT
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This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory
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reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the
publishers.
ISBN 978–1–56564–430–4
Cover and Typesetting by Saddiq Ali
Series Editors
DR. ANAS S. AL SHAIKH-ALI
SHIRAZ KHAN
CONTENTS
Foreword
… v
The
Problem … 1
Education
… 4
Where
to Begin … 5
The
Place of Higher Education within Islamic Cultural Reform … 9
Afflictions
of Higher Education in Muslim Countries … 10
The
Islamization of Knowledge: A Living Experiment in Revitalizing Higher Education
… 13
The
Islamization of Knowledge Experiment at the International Islamic University of
Malaysia (IIUM) … 16
Body
and Soul … 17
Disciplines
of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and the Human Sciences … 18
Languages
and Arabization … 23
Language
Simplification: Grammar and Spelling … 26
Cultivation
of Knowledge and Encouragement of Research … 29
The
Integration of Academic and Educational Performance … 32
Promising
Results … 35
Resources
and Funding … 37
The
Future … 39
FOREWORD
EDUCATION
IN THE MUSLIM WORLD IS FACING A CRISIS. What
we see today is the cumulative effect of an absence of visionary leadership. This
is compounded by a neglect of real investment in educational resources, lack of
motivation on the part of educators, and a wide-spread loss of self-identity.
Some of these issues have been addressed by Muslim
educators but in a piece-meal fashion. Little attention however, has been paid
to a comprehensive probe into the decline of educational standards across the
Muslim world. Consequently, the combined scholastic productivity of Muslims
remains at the lowest rung.
Education is one of the major building blocks of any
nation. Economic progress and societal evolution are unthinkable without a
functioning educational system. Similarly, national development policies cannot
expect to be successful unless inextricably tied to a meaningful growth in the
educational sector.
Education itself thrives in a free, democratic, and
just society. However, the political landscape in the Muslim world is marred by
repression. Unless we commit ourselves to remove bars to free inquiry there is
little hope for an educational renaissance in our midst. Any initiative,
therefore, to change the educational dyna-mics in the Muslim world and to bring
it on par with world standards is commendable.
The establishment of the International Islamic
University in Malaysia is one such ongoing experiment that shows signs of
success. In this respect, AbdulHamid AbuSulayman is well suited to write on the
topic of education, and specifically on the IIUM.
(pg.v)
His distinguished service to the University and his
eminent contributions to development of the intellectual capital in the Muslim
world are commendable and make him an expert in this field.
The conceptual matrix of this institution of higher
learning offers an arena for a critical reevaluation of Muslim approaches to
education. On the other hand the intellectual incentives offered by the
International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and material assistance from
the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) have
played a pivotal role in the life of this institution. This stands to show that
intra-Muslim cooperation, free of political interference, can produce tangible
results.
Muslim scholarship constitutes an asset. We must
therefore, devote ourselves to continually enhance its value not only for the
Ummah but for the entire world to the ideals of a free, democratic, and just
society.
ANWAR IBRAHIM
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
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REVITALIZING HIGHER EDUCATION
IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman*
THE PROBLEM
The
remedy prescribed for a given problem is often inappropriate or insufficient
for a complete resolution of a situation owing to an erroneous diagnosis or a
defective analysis of the underlying causes.
This applies in a real sense to the deficient diagnosis made for the
underdevelopment of the Ummah (the Muslim nation), an ailment from which it has
been suffering for several centuries. The ailment does not seem to have
responded to any treatment since Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s (d.111) cry of alarm in
Tahafut al-Falasifah [The Inconsistency of Philosophers] and an appeal
for a cure in Ihya’ Ulum al-Din [Revival of Religious Disciplines]. One
major reason for the failure of both diagnosis and treatment has been that the
focus has hitherto concentrated on symptoms rather than underlying causes. As a
result appearances alone have been targeted in addition to the distortion of
the dominant concept of civilization and the inability of the approach used,
limited as it is, to explore fundamental causes.
The Ummah has been suffering from a number of maladies
that include underdevelopment, division, tyranny, and oppression, as well as
injustice, poverty, ignorance, and disease. At the same time however, the Ummah
yearns for power, unity, and justice. None of its hopes for political,
economic, scientific, and technological
---------------------------------------
*
President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), President
of the Child Development Foundation (USA), former Rector of the International
Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), and former Secretary General of the World
Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY).
Page 2
development
have been realized. Furthermore they still remain an elusive ideal, a mirage
that always seems just out of reach over the horizon.
The Ummah and its people’s desire to catch up with the
developed world and enjoy high and truly human standards of living, education,
and health is an aspiration that continues to be unfulfilled. There is
agreement among major reformers that all these reforms are required. However,
neither the awakening of the Muslim nation from its current lethargy can take
place, nor its mission accomplished, without these reforms, particularly educational
reform. It is also believed that these are reforms which address only the
symptoms of deeper and more extensive causes. Unless Muslims adopt a bold and
critical perspective to equip themselves with the appropriate tools of
knowledge to identify these causes, the Ummah’s failure to detect them will
persist. It will continue to lack the ability to confront and overcome them, or
to realize its legitimate cultural aims and demands and the practical reforms
which it urgently needs.
All aspects of backwardness in the Ummah’s history are
but an expression of an inadequacy of performance. It is a disease caused by
poor psychological motivation, stemming from a distorted vision and a defective
approach. It results from distortions in the Ummah’s cognitive and
psychological makeup, which can be treated only when their true nature is
discovered and they become the focus of the reform efforts by Muslims. Only
then can the Muslim nation rid itself of hazy vision, poor motivation, and inadequate
performance, which underlie its failure and backwardness in all aspects of life
including politics, economics, science, and technology.
How
could the Ummah have fallen seemingly irrevocably behind all others given the
fact that it accounts for one-fifth of the human race, and covers an area
extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific? The combined gross national product
(GNP) of all Muslim countries is approximately US$1,100 billion, less than the
GNP of France and about half that of Germany! It is also less than a quarter of
the GNP of Japan, with a population of no more than
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million,
living in small scattered islands, poor in natural resources, with mountains
covering more than three-fourths of the total area, and earthquakes and
volcanoes plaguing both the land and the population.
One of the possible explanations for this tragic
phenomenon is that Muslims seem to have lost their vision, the setting up of
the highest objectives and the ethic of striving their utmost to achieve them.
The current aspiration of the Ummah and its peoples seems to be no less than to
survive with the least possible effort expended, envisaging no real future and
no real ambition. They seem content to either simply produce basic materials
using primitive methods or depend on foreign expertise and consumer-oriented
assembly industries. Tons of metals and raw materials that are exported for a
handful of dollars come back in the form of electronic and technological
products worth millions of dollars. Why? Because the achievements of human
beings are qualified by their performance, ability, and quality of thinking.
The Muslim side seems seriously lacking in these virtues.
Today’s Muslims are the descendants of the early
Muslims (the Mission generation) and inheritors of Islamic civilization. The
Muslim world has no shortage of natural resources. Its land is expansive and
rich. Similarly, Muslims do not lack noble principles, values, and aims, for
Islam has the lion’s share of these qualities. Nevertheless, until Muslims
delve deep into themselves and their history and scrutinize the cognitive and
psychological distortion of their minds and souls, they will not be able to
understand their backwardness and weakness. The ailment, in the final analysis,
lies in the foundation of the Muslim intellectual structure with its attendant
psychological effects that have led Muslims to the worst malady: performance
inadequacy. It is an ailment that afflicts the patients wherever they go. It
afflicts the Ummah in its public order, production, education, technology,
protection of rights, and defense of the homeland. The only cure is to affect
real and lasting change in oneself, that is, to change and reform one’s very
mind and soul, for: “God does not change the fortune of people unless they
change inside” (13:11).
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Reformers are right when they mobilize themselves to
improve education, regarding it as one of the most important and the strongest
building blocks of a nation. Unfortunately, due to their quantitative
orientation, as in all other things, reformative action has remained
superficial. It addresses appearances and is based on duplication and the
imitation of all types of capable people. Thus, it blindly follows others in
darkness, stumbling as it goes and where the road forks out, it does not know
where to turn.
Undoubtedly, appropriate education and learning are
the right foundations on which to build, for they are the two bases of dynamic
human energy. Without them, neither power, production, nor achievement is
possible. It is unfortunate, however, that reform movements in education and
learning have essentially imitated the buildings and methods of others,
including quantity and teaching aids. This is true even in the establishment of
branches of foreign schools and universities. Thus, an examination of the
prevailing conditions of education and learning in the Muslim world reveals a
high concentration of what is termed “urban and technological,” going too far
in imitating all the latest fads of developed countries. The main interest of
these reform efforts is in the importation of new machines, equipment, and
systems. These efforts soon turn into “confusion and fabrication,” guided only
by “duplication and imitation.” In its ideological essence, this approach is no
different from the indulgence given to historical imitation and futile
duplication that are perpetuated only by repetition and memorization.
Does it not seem odd that the reforms have failed to
bear fruit? In fact throughout recent history they have not led the Ummah to
the realization of a single objective, or a single goal. The lack of success
and the loss of soul persist because of an enormous gap between the actual and
the ideal, the assertions and the results. It should be understood that the
implementation of reform of education and learning is not limited to tools,
quantity, imported plans, blue-prints, mechanisms, instruments, and equipment.
Rather it involves
Page 5
a
deep understanding of the essence of building blocks of humanity and humankind,
a process that is a cultural, doctrine-based vision and a cognitive,
intellectual, and scientific approach. This in-depth effort requires a
particular ability such that appropriate tools are utilized, suitable quantity
achieved, skills are developed to achieve goals, solve problems, and achieve
reform and progress in political, economic, and technological arenas. The aim
is triumph in the cultural race and delivery of the message.
WHERE TO BEGIN
The most important question facing Muslims at this
point in time and on this particular issue is: Where does one begin? The answer
is with self-reform. The beginning of Islamic reform lies in the reforming of
every Muslim soul remedying the distortions in their ideological vision,
cultural motivation, intellectual approach, and educational discourse. The
tempestuous events that accompanied the Ummah’s progression through the
centuries and the cultural accretions of folk heritage left by various other
nations are largely responsible for these distortions. They are akin to pebbles
thrown at the cogwheels of Islam’s cultural progress since its inception during
the th Century. These impediments continually slowed its progress and reduced
its impetus until eventually they stopped its motion altogether. It is a
tragedy that the total number of trades and industries developed by the Ummah
over many centuries has been of no avail. Today, it is a lifeless corpse, a
neglected entity in the development of nations and civilizations suffering
severe pain and continually lamenting its misfortune. More ominously, the Ummah
has turned into a prey for its enemies.
How have things reached such a sorry state? How did it
all begin? When did these distortions and impediments become such a serious
impetus? It began in the century of conflict under the Umayyad rule, following
the end of the era of the Prophet and the orthodox caliphate. During this
period the performance of Islamic education and training slackened, favoritism
and sectarianism
Page 6
flourished,
and vestiges from the dark pre-Islamic cultures resurfaced in the midst of
events which took place in rapid succession and posed formidable challenges. As
a result, scholars who were striving to preserve the model embodied in the era
of the Prophet were eventually isolated from government, politics, and public
life.
They were forced into a scholarly isolation, employed
in issuing fatwas, handling individual affairs and matters of personal status,
leading the prayers at the mosques, and urging worshippers, on Fridays and in
mosque seminars, to observe high moral standards.
The exclusion and isolation of active scholars,
upholders of the Islamic ideal, who are, in the final analysis, the Ummah’s
driving force, suffered from terrible consequences: the distortion of the
comprehensive, cultural, ideological vision; the destruction of national
leadership institutions and of the Ummah’s educational future.
The comprehensive, civilized, doctrine-based Islamic
vision is the creed of tawhid (monotheism), of deputation, of belief in
God and the Hereafter. It is a serious and positive creed that takes charity
and reform as its purpose in this world (“Work for your life on earth as if you
were to live forever, and work for your life in the Hereafter as if you were to
die tomorrow!”). It turns a Muslim’s life, in all its dimensions, into worship,
subjugating it to the One True God. This vision serves as the conscience
of the Ummah, stimulating it to righteous action that is useful in both this
life and the Hereafter. It requires it to divide its time between invocation
(of God’s name) and jihad1. The invocation serves as an
incentive to do righteous work useful for the Hereafter, that is, an incentive
to spend all kinds of effort (jihad) in learning and in action. Thus, it is an
incentive for the jihad for self-purification, seeking sustenance, pursuit of
learning, endeavors at reconciliation, efforts to meet the needs of the
deprived, advocacy in defense of faith, self-protection, defense of family and
homeland, and defending the weak and the oppressed. This implies that a
Muslim’s life is a life of constant effort (jihad), whether in its private or
public aspect, and whether it strives to meet individual or social needs. In
all this, a
------------------------------------------
1 Jihad:
Literally, striving. Any earnest striving in the way of God, involving either
earnest personal effort, material resources, or arms for righteousness and against
evil, wrongdoing and oppression. Where it involves armed struggle, it must be
for the defence of the Muslim community or a just war to protect even
non-Muslims from evil, oppression and tyranny. [ed.]
Page 7
Muslim
seeks support by invoking God’s Name, glorifying Him, reciting the Qur’an,
praying, fasting, giving alms, performing Hajj, undertaking additional
religious rites, and privately and publicly observing God’s instructions.
وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ مِنكُمۡ
وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَيَسۡتَخۡلِفَنَّهُمۡ فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ ڪَمَا
ٱسۡتَخۡلَفَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِهِمۡ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمۡ دِينَہُمُ ٱلَّذِى
ٱرۡتَضَىٰ لَهُمۡ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّہُم مِّنۢ بَعۡدِ خَوۡفِهِمۡ أَمۡنً۬اۚ
يَعۡبُدُونَنِى لَا يُشۡرِكُونَ بِى شَيۡـًٔ۬اۚ وَمَن ڪَفَرَ بَعۡدَ ذَٲلِكَ
فَأُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ هُمُ ٱلۡفَـٰسِقُونَ (٥٥) سُوۡرَةُ النُّور
God has promised those of you who believe and do good
that they will be His deputies on earth, the same as their predecessors were...
(24:55)
قُلۡ إِنَّ صَلَاتِى وَنُسُكِى وَمَحۡيَاىَ
وَمَمَاتِى لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ (١٦٢) سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنعَام
Say, “My prayer, devotion, life, and death are to God,
the Lord of all creatures.” (6:162)
وَٱلَّذِينَ جَـٰهَدُواْ فِينَا
لَنَہۡدِيَنَّہُمۡ سُبُلَنَاۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلۡمُحۡسِنِينَ (٦٩) سُوۡرَةُ العَنکبوت
Those who strive for Our sake We will guide to Our
right paths. God supports the righteous. (29:69)
ٱتۡلُ مَآ أُوحِىَ إِلَيۡكَ مِنَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبِ
وَأَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَۖ إِنَّ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ تَنۡهَىٰ عَنِ ٱلۡفَحۡشَآءِ
وَٱلۡمُنكَرِۗ وَلَذِكۡرُ ٱللَّهِ أَڪۡبَرُۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعۡلَمُ مَا تَصۡنَعُونَ
(٤٥) سُوۡرَةُ العَنکبوت
Perform prayers, for prayers prevent lewdness and
abomination. Invo-cation of God’s Name is a greater duty. God knows what you
do. (29:45)
Meanwhile, the isolationist vision that came to be a
prevailing feature of the elite Muslim scholars, was bound to have negative
consequences that marginalized political governance, economic equity, social
solidarity, performance of public office duties, and public institutions in
general. It was bound to focus on the invocation of God’s Name and religious
ceremonies, as defined in Qur’anic terminology, calling them acts of worship
and excluding other things although, from the Qur’an’s perspective, a Muslim’s
whole life is a worship,2 whether it is the invocation
of God’s Name or the pursuit of knowledge. The isolationist scholarly vision
was thus a passive one giving little importance to the kind of jihad that took
the form of action, activity, effort and earthly pursuits reducing it to mere
procedures and contract rulings meant to regulate the transactions of people
and affairs relating to their interests and means of livelihood.
This
distortion of the comprehensive view, affected by the isolation of the elite
scholars, was psychologically responsible, more than anything else, for the
passivity that dominated the identity, goals, and collective functions of the
Ummah in its
----------------------------------------------
2 While
the Arabic words for worship, slavery, subjugation, and enslavement are derived
from the same root, the concept of worship is derived from subjugation rather
than enslavement, with the implication that by their free will, Muslims accept
what is true and right. This for them is a source of pride and strength.
(“Power belongs to God, to His Messenger, and to believers.” – (63:8))
Page 8
attitude
toward life and its cultural and reformative purposes. It was no longer a
positive, cultural vision that encouraged cultivation and labor, such that,
even with the end of life approaching, the cultivator continued working when he
had no expectation of living long enough to harvest the crop. This distortion
of vision was certainly responsible for the death of consciousness and for the
serious decline in important and creative endeavors in the life of the Ummah.
It also bore principal responsibility for the corruption and division which
seeped into public life; its passivity and poor psychological stimulation, and
its defective cultural performance.
The scholarly isolation which men of learning and
wisdom seemed mired in, produced in later days a one-dimensional vision,
causing human knowledge and experience, as well as social changes, to retreat
into a remote corner. Consequently knowledge became limited to textual and
linguistic comprehension only. In the end, potential for renovation and
interpretive judgment was ultimately stifled, with imitation and memorization
becoming the dominant factors. Intellectual failure shielded itself with the
sacredness of the text to overpower the will of the Ummah and subjected it,
whatever the original intention, to the practices of dark ignorance and the
clutches of promoters of self-interest.
Learning, science, and nearly all fields of human
knowledge witnessed a decline in the centuries that followed the practice of
imitation and decadence. The general education of the Ummah at large, and young
people in particular became limited to modest elementary schools offering a
simple and insignificant amount of education, parts of the Qur’an, basic
principles of arithmetic, and just enough information for the common needs of
daily life. The educational and instructional approaches used were defective,
based on authoritarianism and punishment. This education was financed by
parents with the little that they could afford to pay the unfortunate teacher
who could find no better employment than the teaching profession. It was an
educational system using methods and practices that became the target of
criticism, censure, and of derision by many intellectuals and enlightened
people when com-pared with the educational system offered to the children of
the
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upper
classes. Indeed, theirs was education of a different level, wider in scope than
their poorer counterparts, and which included religious and literary studies.
Students were well treated and not subjected to any abuse. This type of
education included also the training given by government officials and upper
class dignitaries to the tutors of their children at home. Nothing was added to
these opposite poles of the educational system other than the existence of a
few schools designed to train students to serve as a corps of prayer leaders,
preachers, judges, and muftis.
With the distortion of the comprehensive ideological
vision, the one-sidedness of knowledge, the barrenness of the cognitive
app-roach, the setback of the religious discourse, and the tyranny of the
political elite, the progress of the cultural spirit of Islam slowed down and
the Ummah and its institutions experienced decline and decadence. People became
afflicted with passivity and subservience, and the performance of individuals
tended toward deficiency. All energy waned, and with it psychological
incentives for excellent workmanship. It is those who are sympathetic and
willing to work who devote themselves to and accept the burden of earnest and
diligent work, whereas those who are fearful and reluctant are usually passive
and content themselves with doing the minimum.
Performance inadequacy and poor motivation are still
insurmountable obstacles to all efforts at reform. The Ummah has first of all
to free itself from these shackles so that Islamic reform schemes can succeed,
yield the desired results, and allow the Ummah to participate actively in
modern civilization and the age of science and technology.
THE PLACE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
WITHIN ISLAMIC CULTURAL REFORM
Where
does higher education stand within the Islamic cultural reform project? How do
we revitalize and allow it to play the assigned roles: dissemination of
knowledge and education, generation of new branches of learning, and the
training of the personnel
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needed
to meet the Ummah’s present and future requirements? Since these are among the
most important tasks and purposes of higher education, they go beyond the
efforts to secure material equipment, administrative procedures, and the
academic structures of schools that depend on the importation and imitation of
cognitive patterns and educational and learning systems. Every cultural
identity has its own starting point, objectives, values, and keys that release
its latent potential. Any efforts that ignore these particular characteristics
and do not address the potential energies of the Ummah’s cultural identity will
fail to awaken its conscience toward the necessary response and workmanship.
Therefore, the Ummah will not be able to progress and take its proper place
among nations unless higher education is revitalized and reformed, and the
blights that have dominated it are removed.
AFFLICTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION
IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES
The First Affliction is that
of imitation and replication. The majority of higher education systems and
philosophies in Muslim countries are Western in character, alien to the Ummah’s
conscience and cultural goals. Based on imitation and duplication, these
systems fail to take into consideration the nature of Islamic civilization, as
well as its special characteristics and values. These values are based on the
principles of tawhid and deputation, the purposefulness and moral
dimensions of existence, the unity of its foundations, and the complementarity
of its material, spiritual, and moral – as well as its secular and eternal –
dimensions. In Islamic civilization, gain, achievement, efficiency, and
urbanization are not ends in them-selves, but rather tools for living and a spiritual
means to something beyond, something more important. It lies in making the soul
eligible for the immortality of the Hereafter with competence and charity,
which express love of and subjugation to the One, the Most Just and Merciful.
Page 11
The Second Affliction is the distortion of the comprehensive Islamic
vision, together with the blights, superstition, and charlatanism that have
crept into the culture of Muslims bringing their development to a stop, and
distorting their mentality, spoiling their knowledge, daily life practices, and
educational methods. More-over, it has drawn them away from the power derived
from dependence on God and observance of divine examples in all their endeavors
and life pursuits.
For these reasons and because of these afflictions,
higher education in the Muslim World has failed to perform its role
successfully, whether in religious or secular studies, humanities, or in
science and technology. For the same reasons, higher education has not managed
to disseminate knowledge, generate new disciplines of learning, and train
creative and efficient personnel. The Ummah continues to be lost in its
division and to live in the darkness of superstition, at the margins of human
civilizational progress.
Reform and revitalization in higher education are
essential elements for the Ummah’s awakening and for the realization of its
civilizational aspirations and the success of its global mission. Therefore,
higher education reform has to begin at the roots by removing all the
distortions afflicting it. One of the areas the reform must begin with is the
Islamization of Knowledge, based on sound foundations.
Islamization of Knowledge calls for reforming our
approach to education in a manner such that both divine and human sources are
integrated into a powerful whole with Revealed knowledge providing a
comprehensive spiritual and moral guidance in the sphere of human action and
universal laws, and the scientific and technological knowledge as tools for
that action. Thus, a complete mastery and proficiency of subject matter will
result. This would remove the prevailing helplessness and lethargy, harness the
dynamic faculties of thought, study, and research to focus on temperaments and
occurrences, in applying the principles of reason and natural laws, and the
guidance of revealed knowledge.
The Islamization of Knowledge – with its sound
universal vision, integrated sources of knowledge, and observance of natural
laws – will enlighten Muslim minds and enable them to explore the
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vast
fields of science and knowledge, liberating them from superstitions and
charlatan influences, as well as from the obstacles represented by
inconsistencies, illusions, and perversities. In liberating minds, the
Islamization of Knowledge will endow them with the ability to venture into the
realms of science and knowledge with strength, confidence, and inventiveness.
It will provide them with the equipment to seek reform, competence, and
creativity. Thus, Muslims will acquire the capacity for serious ethical performance,
and the ability to meet challenges, solve problems, reach desired ends, and
achieve objectives.
A reformed Islamic vision and a sound intellectual
approach are prerequisites for the refinement of culture and educational curricula.
These in turn, are prerequisites for the affective structure of the soul,
providing it with guidance for its movement and incentive for its performance.
When this guidance and incentive become operative, there would be a wise and
effective utilization of available tools and equipment, leading to the
fulfillment of tasks and provision of needed materials, setting the Ummah’s
wheels back into motion, and stimulating its potential for ethical and creative
production.
Therefore, if, after centuries of deviation and
wandering, the Muslim world wishes to set the reform agenda on the right track,
its priorities have to be reflected in an educational reform plan. It must put
quality before quantity, content before facilities, and curricula before
instruments. However, each of these items must be given its due place in both
function and purpose, without any conflict or failure.
A balance in quality and quantity, content and
facilities, is characteristic of nations with performance skills. With culture,
education, and learning, these nations express their identities and their
civilizational foundations. This balance originates in their innate energy and
the performance incentives within their structures. They place cultural and
educational affairs, and the skilled training of human beings, at the top of
their lists of priorities, providing their citizens with all the available
resources required to ensure that they become the instruments to achieve the
Page 13
goals
and objectives of those nations. Backward nations, on the other hand, are wont
to imitate and replicate. Their educational systems fail to express their basic
principles, features, and civilizational particularity; and they are rather an
artificial combination, both in vision and orientation. Educational needs and
requirements are placed at the bottom of their lists of concerns, and these are
the first to suffer the effects of scarcity when a crisis occurs and
helplessness and failure are compounded. Yet, it is a known fact that energy
renewal and improvement of performance depend mainly on the quality of the
culture and on the improvement of educational curricula.
THE ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE: A LIVING
EXPERIMENT IN REVITALIZING HIGHER EDUCATION
The
Islamization of Knowledge is a project that concerns know-ledge, learning, and
education. It originated and developed in the minds and conscience of a group
of Muslims who were aware of the spirit and cultural power that lay behind the
greatness of Islamic civilization, and knowing the role they themselves could
play in elevating human civilization as a whole to new horizons.
Characterized by a high measure of sophistication,
wisdom, and proficiency from the scholarly and professional experience of its
members, the group knew how effective Islamic values were in securing the Ummah
an eminent position in human history and how this served as a starting point
for other nations that later developed their cultures and achieved their aims.
Advocating and strongly believing in the Islamization
of Know-ledge, the group envisioned the combining of the disciplines of Islamic
history and culture with both contemporary culture and science, in other words,
a remarkably intellectual integration of knowledge fusing the disciplines of
revealed knowledge and those of human and technological sciences.
The integration of knowledge advocated by the group is
reflected in the early writings of some of its members, in works
Page 14
such
as The Islamic Theory of Economics: Philosophy and Contemporary Means (1960
), and in the group’s efforts to establish a major Islamic cultural society,
the Muslim Students Association in the USA, in . This particular association
grew and became a nucleus for important Islamic institutions sponsored by the
Islamization of Knowledge movement, the most important (from an intellectual
perspective), being the Association of Muslim Social Scientists in the United
States and Canada (established in ), the Inter-national Institute of Islamic
Thought (IIIT, ), and the Child
Development
Foundation (1999).
The rationale of the Islamization of Knowledge is the
conviction that the Ummah’s crisis and performance deficiencies lie first and
foremost in the distortions that have plagued Islamic thought, disrupting its
unity of knowledge, and transforming it into a stagnant textual body of
knowledge. These distortions in turn also marginalized the role of human
knowledge within the structure and performance of Islamic thought. They
destroyed the seeds of human disciplines, which had started to sprout in the
secondary origins of the principles and concepts of Islamic jurisprudence. The result
was the decline of the Ummah’s institutions, unity, and ruling regimes.
Moreover, religious discourse came to develop an intimidating character, which,
with the widespread phenomenon of intellectual impotence and political
despotism, pushed the Ummah into a passive role, causing it to lose its
creative, cultural energy, and suffer humiliation and backwardness. We know a
reluctant and scared person does not make any effort beyond the minimum
required, whereas generosity, dedication, and creativity are characteristics of
a willing and warm-hearted person.
The Islamization of Knowledge is a plan to reformulate
Islamic thought, using as its starting point Islamic beliefs and Islam’s
humanitarian, global, and civilizational principles based on tawhid and
deputation. The plan aims at recapturing the positive, comprehensive Islamic
vision, with a view to reforming the approach to education, built on an
indissoluble integration of divine and human knowledge. The plan addresses the
reality of human life on earth with the aim of realizing the purposes of
Islamic Law –
Page 15
namely,
conciliation and welfare – and observes the principles of reason and the divine
laws of the universe. It thus, provides the necessary tools to purify and
refine Islamic culture and remove the distortions, and the superstition,
charlatanism, impurities, and illusions that have infiltrated it. Ultimately,
it will provide sound educational and cultural inputs to reform the mental and
psychological constitution of Muslim individuals and of the Ummah and raise
generations endowed with strength, ability, and productivity.
The IIIT regards its basic task to alert intellectuals
and educators, regardless of their specializations and orientations, to the
nature of the crisis and aspects of educational reform. This will consequently
allow them to also shoulder their responsibility in cultural reforms and
development, work towards the improvement and validation of educational
curricula, and the stimulation of the Ummah’s potential energy so that its
progress may be improved.
Towards this end the IIIT has cooperated with the
Muslim intellectual elites throughout the world in joint efforts that have
provided Muslim thinkers and scholars with platforms for dialog and significant
scholastic contribution. The Institute’s efforts have led to the establishment
of centers and institutions, organisation of conferences and symposia, and the
publication of books and periodicals in Arabic, English, and other languages
spoken both in the Muslim world and elsewhere. It has also sponsored joint
activities with all concerned with the question of intellectual and educational
reform.
All this represents a hope, a promise, and a serious
issue of great significance, offered for academic and scholarly discussion, to
explore and apply in the reconstruction of the Ummah’s thought and its
civilizational foundations. This is one of the most important foundations for
the creation of conditions necessary for the awakening of the Ummah, to
activate its potential energy, and to carry out its civilizational enterprise
in the service of humanity.
Page 16
THE ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE EXPERIMENT AT THE
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA (IIUM)
In
1957, Malaysia became an independent country and started to feel its way toward
building itself as a new state. The Malaysian leadership recognized the role
Islam could play in stimulating the energy potential of its Muslim population
and, influenced by the First Conference on Islamic Education, held in Makkah in
1977, founded the International Islamic University (IIUM) in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia in 1984 after an international agreement with the Organization of the
Islamic Conference (OIC). The IIUM, which has since grown from strength to
strength, was meant to be part of a system of international Islamic
universities, as envisioned by the OIC, to focus, within their overall
curricula, on Islamic culture.
Malaysia’s leaders recognized the nature of the
constructive, civilizational, and reformative thought contributed by the IIIT
which held one of its international conferences, on the Islamization of Knowledge
and Reform of the Cognitive System, in Kuala Lumpur in 1984. Anwar Ibrahim, the
Malaysian Minister of Education at the time, had had a close relationship with
the Institute since the time he served as a member of the General Secretariat
of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Riyadh. Therefore, in 1988, he invited
the IIIT to support the fledgling university, with a 1,000, number student
population. The Ministry requested the Institute to second one of its members
to put the concepts of the Islamization of Knowledge into a university
educational plan that would serve Islam and support the reform and development
efforts in Malaysia.
The Institute, represented by one of its thinkers with
experience in organization and university education, took charge of the University
between 1988 - 1999, during which time both its physical and academic
construction were completed. The curricula of its colleges covered all the
disciplines of Islamic studies and human sciences, in addition to architecture,
engineering, and medicine. The university had two campuses, as well as an
Page 17
additional
campus for preparatory courses in Arabic and English. It also offered
complementary courses for those students whose educational systems failed in
some aspects to meet their needs and the University’s requirements, such as
students from the former Soviet Union and students of general education who had
only had eleven years of pre-college schooling.
BODY AND SOUL
The
planning of the two campuses – the main in Kuala Lumpur and the medical campus
in Kuantan, consisting of the School of Medicine and the Faculty of Science –
was carefully thought out and designed to express, both ideologically and
physically, concepts of the Islamization of Knowledge and its premises. These
concepts and foundations are particularly embodied in the Kuala Lumpur campus,
the construction of which was completed in 2006, excluding certain affiliate
facilities and services.
The University today has an enrolment of some 15,000,
students, and its achievements are not merely a matter of creation and
innovation in curricula and programs. It is, in its own right, one of the most
elegant campuses in the world, expressed in the structure and beauty of its
Islamic architecture and efficiency of performance in the best of Islamic
values.
The mosque is situated in the middle of the campus and
represents its spiritual center, with student and staff traffic continuously
flowing around its walls in all directions. It is an important arena for
cultural and spiritual activities. The grounds of the campus and the way its
facilities have been designed to connect with each other, provide a spirit of
cultural and social intimacy. Moreover, the locations of the student hostels
and recreational and sports facilities carefully observe Islamic criteria,
ensuring, in addition to performance efficiency, the privacy and freedom of
each of the two sexes. The objective has always been to uphold
Islamic standards of morality in the relations between
the sexes and to respond to all their psychological, social, cultural,
recreational, and sports needs in the best manner.
Page 18
Disciplines of Islamic Revealed Knowledge
and the Human
Sciences
The
core of the IIUM system has always been its academic and educational
curriculum. The syllabus embodies the goals of the Islamization of Knowledge,
having been developed to remedy intellectual and methodological distortions, to
build a mechanism for cultural refinement, and rebuilding the new generations
of this Ummah, both psychologically and educationally.
The most important task on the agenda of the IIUM
administration was to confront the distortion of knowledge and methodology and
to recruit alternative, educated work groups, characterized by unity of
thought, knowledge and thoroughness of approach. The most important field for
this alternative academic approach was that of Islamic studies and the
humanities.
To achieve this, the Faculty of Islamic Revealed
Knowledge and the Human Sciences was established. The largest college, it comprised
all specializations in Islamic studies and the social and human sciences. For
professional reasons, the disciplines of economics, administrative studies, and
law were excluded, although their syllabi were to have the same purpose and
objectives.
The cornerstone of the academic system of this college
– aspiring to realize the goal of the unity of Islamic knowledge, reform of
methods of thought, and the training of alternative educated groups of leaders
and professionals – was the development of a double-major, credit-hour system.
Under this double-major system, every student
specializing in Islamic studies had to choose a cognate major in one of the
human sciences. Likewise, any student majoring in the humanities had to have
Islamic studies as a cognate major. Students who were willing to study for one
additional year could fulfill the requirements of a second bachelor’s degree in
the cognate major. The university encouraged this option. These students would
finally have two university degrees, one in Islamic studies and the other in
the social science subject that they had originally chosen as a cognate major.
Page 19
This duality of knowledge and specialization is a
system which provides students with not only a wide scope of knowledge,
complementary in orientation and tools, and a superior comprehension of the
dimensions of spiritual, ethical, and social life. It also trains them in
particular (the analogy method in Islamic study) and general (the methods of
the social sciences) methodological complementarity with various study tools of
these methods. This is a very important methodological element in the
integrated cultivation of student mentality and of future performance skills.
This system of study serves to expand the students’
intellectual capabilities to include the general, social aspects (social
studies) in addition to the personal and spiritual aspect (religious and
ethical studies). With these expanded capabilities, students acquire the
intellectual tools to interact with the soul and the psychological and
cognitive spirit of the Ummah. In addition, the dual system opens the door to a
wider range of employment for students. Consequently, the skills of these young
people are utilized and their dignity is safeguarded, particularly in countries
which have Muslim minorities. Or, in poor Muslim countries, where employment
opportunities are scarce, especially in religious services.
With a degree in social sciences – coupled with a
mastery of the English language (the language of instruction of technical
courses), and Arabic, (the language of instruction in religious subjects) –
graduates have the ability to work in any appropriate civil field they wish.
They are qualified for employment in the civil service, in the teaching
profession, or in private business. They do not have to enter, as often is the
case with Islamic studies graduates from some Islamic universities, a
profession which does not suit their abilities and training. Graduates
qualified in both Islamic and social studies have, by any standard, a more
thorough knowledge and a wider range of thinking, comprehension, performance,
and efficiency than others.
Under this system, the University admits graduates
from one of the major universities into its postgraduate programs if they meet
its requirements, which call for a good background in the subjects of revealed
knowledge, as well as any field of human science in which the student has
majored.
Page 20
For example, students who want to study any of the
disciplines of Islamic Law at M.A. or Ph.D. level have the chance to do so
after completing the requirements of that discipline. These include mastering
Arabic and completing the required number of basic courses in Islamic studies.
On the other hand, if the applicants are graduates of a department of Islamic
studies, they have to meet the basic requirements of a social studies subject
and English, in addition to Arabic, which they are supposed to have already
mastered.
Although the International Institute of Islamic
Thought had offered this idea to some universities in the Muslim world, they
later abandoned the system and reverted to the single-major system in their
postgraduate Islamic studies. The reason was that these universities could not
develop a good program of social studies or effective courses of Arabic for
non-native speakers. However, by reducing the period of study, they gave
quantity a greater importance over quality.
The system at IIUM has been successful for several
reasons. Most important is the large number of graduates of the University
itself, with Islamic and social studies majors, who seek admission into
postgraduate studies at the University.
In addition, the IIUM has developed its program of
Arabic for non-native speakers into a series of courses that ranks as the best
in that field. Moreover, graduates of other universities are highly interested
in being admitted to the IIUM’s postgraduate program. The fact that mastering
Arabic and English is a prerequisite for their admission makes those who know
only one or neither of the two languages work hard in their home countries to
catch up with or join the University preparatory program at their own expense.
Thus, the IIUM does not have a shortage of applicants for its postgraduate
programs. In fact, the demand is higher than it can accommodate. This allows
those programs, with the integration of knowledge and the methods of
investigation and research they offer, to fill the intellectual arena with
people who have experience and knowledge covering the various disciplines of
natural and human sciences from an Islamic perspective based on the principles,
values, and purposes of Islam.
Page 21
The development of course assignments in each
discipline, taught from an Islamic perspective, has been regularly monitored.
These courses cover the whole syllabus that students of the same level study at
secular universities, with the addition of a critical Islamic evaluation and a
survey of any Islamic viewpoints that have materialized in the field in
question. With this approach, the Islamic perspective suddenly has a voice, is
elevated in its own right, and provides a considerable academic contribution
which enriches the educational disciplines. It is envisaged that with time,
this enrichment will prove its validity and credibility. It will grow in
various fields to make a real contribution, serving the Ummah’s interests in
cognitive development. The quality of graduates that would emerge, whether in
their performance levels or their achievement, will also offer Islamic
perspectives in intellectual and scientific spheres.
Several academic courses and fields of study that
relate to the Ummah’s concerns, needs, and perspective have been designed. These
are courses in religion, philosophy, law, the humanities, economics, and
administration. They are listed in the University Bulletin for undergraduate
and postgraduate studies as part of the curricula of various colleges and
departments.
In this context, one can mention Western Studies, in
particular, which began as a part specialization and gradually developed into a
major subject. It is now a department that offers a conceptually accurate and
perceptive study of Western history, thought, and culture. The graduates of
this department are specialists that help the Muslim mentality to understand
the West itself, as well as its cultural and human contributions and
transgressions. This can be useful in dialog and interaction with the West. It
contributes to the fulfillment of Islamic reform aspirations and to the
development of relations with the West. These ought to be based on active and
constructive cooperation that overcomes grievances, grudges, and acts of
aggression that are encouraged by the backwardness, weak-ness, and division of
the Muslim World. The Ummah’s interaction with the achievements of modern
civilization and societies can thus be based on objective understanding and
methodological
Page 22
foundations.
The Muslim mind can then confront this civilization as a system that has its
own characteristics, foundations, and own purposes, with the understanding that
interaction with it is aimed at positive, mutual, and fertile cooperation, for
the good of the human race and its global civilization.
In physics, engineering, and similar fields, the
Islamization of Knowledge does not deal with scientific facts per se but as to
how these are put to use for the service of humanity. Differences and
variations, however, come from the methods used in dealing with, utilizing, and
benefiting from, these facts and laws. This includes the ethical standards
observed in using them, whether for progress or destruction, for seeking
benefit or causing harm. All these things are concerns of the Islamic faith,
covered by its culture, science philosophy, and ethics of research and
professional practice. In this regard, there are different schools of thought,
attitudes, purposes, and cultures. The Islamic perspective functions to
ameliorate and guide, distinguishing good from evil, benefit from harm, and
humanitarian concerns from barbaric actions, and restoring the spirituality and
nobility of life and its purposes.
Another aspect that relates to natural sciences and
their study is an awareness of the history and contributions of the Ummah. This
is in order to establish historical justice and free it from the Western bias,
and to enhance self-confidence among Muslims with scientific knowledge. This
can serve as a stimulation to resume the process and as a means to learn the
lessons of how the progress in the past was impeded, how the way was lost, and
how the Muslim mind deviated from its seriousness and objectivity into a world
of illusion, superstition, and backwardness.
What is important
in formulating the
mechanism of the Islamization of Knowledge approach is the
concept of program development. This means continuity and persistant
application of effort to achieve civilizational ends. It is a continuing
process of development and urgency that enriches thought and culture and meets
the needs and conditions of live, developing societies. This process starts
from firm ethical points and leads to benign and explicit ends and
achievements.
Page 23
The development of the content and quality of study
courses, based on the principles of the Islamization of Knowledge, never stops.
It gains momentum with continual revision in light of the experience gained and
the interaction with the needs of the
Ummah and of society. By supporting the ever renewing
cognitive store of students and expanding their horizons, the University equips
them with potential educational and psychological abilities that make many
corporations and government agencies seek to employ only IIUM graduates. These
graduates are characterized by competence, high moral standards, seriousness,
education, skills, and potential. Many officials and visitors from other Muslim
countries request the IIUM to help them train students in order to acquire
graduates of equally outstanding quality and high competence, both
educationally and professionally.
LANGUAGES AND ARABIZATION
Languages
play a vital role in efficient performance. While thought and curricula are the
content, languages are the performance tools. Thus,
the more efficient the tools of performance are, the greater is the likelihood
of success.
IIUM has given considerable attention to the language
question to guarantee excellent and efficient performance of graduates and to
provide opportunities for learning, productivity, and communication between
them and their working environments. Therefore, in addition to their mother
tongues, students are trained in two international languages: Arabic and
English. This, under the prevailing conditions in the Muslim World, gives them
access to source materials, whether Islamic, educational, or technological.
In teaching Arabic and English, the IIUM provides
teaching aids, following the most up-to-date international methods and using
Islamic content and guidance. Arabic serves as the language of Islamic religious
learning and for effective communication between Muslims. English serves – in
the early twenty-first century when scientific and technological resources in
Arabic and other
Page 24
languages
of the Muslim World are still scarce and inadequate – as the language of
instruction in modern scientific and technological courses. Thus, the students
are in a position to communicate and interact with the intellectual, cultural,
scientific, and political elite in most Muslim countries at this stage. With the
two languages, Arabic and English, IIUM graduates are qualified to play an
active role in their countries. With their combined intellectual, educational,
and effective abilities, they can contribute to the development of thought and
areas of study in their societies and their spheres of action.
It is hoped that educational and scientific Islamic
institutions, both regional and international, will address the language
dilemma of the Ummah to find a radical solution. This predicament has been
contributing to the cultural failing and political division of the Ummah.
Unless scientific and educational activities are carried out in the native
language of a nation, its culture and education are bound to suffer. Education
will be limited to an inadequate acquisition by a minority that masters
foreign, international languages in which resources are available. The most
important of these now is English, which is most often a second language for
students and, consequently, does not allow them to be creative, for creativity
can only occur in the mother tongue.
The Ummah can acquire a significant position in
learning and culture only by using a widespread international language, rich in
scientific terminology, particularly in physics and technology. This
requirement can only be met by using the language of the Qur’an, which serves
as an effective bond for all Muslim peoples. Even an illiterate Muslim has a
reasonable knowledge of Arabic from the Qur’an. If this knowledge is
systematically nurtured, those people will have a cherished international first
language, common to all of them, which gives them access to scientific and
technological materials and enriches their culture and their conscience at the
lowest cost.
Owing to their love for the Qur’an, Muslim peoples
will not hesitate to adopt Arabic language as their religious, educational, and
scientific first language, in addition to their local tongues and
Page 25
colloquial
dialects, as long as it is available to them and they feel no need to learn any
other language. What Arabs and Muslims have to do is to contemplate their own
experience in Arabization and that of the advanced nations with their diligent
and prompt translation of every new scientific addition, particularly in
physics and technology. Such is the case in Japan, Russia, China, Germany, the
United States, and other countries.
One of the most important areas of priority for
translation into Arabic is the scientific and technological periodicals, which
are the channel through which new contributions in all fields make their first
appearance. The translated version should be readily available at educational
and scientific institutions and public libraries, because technology moves fast
in those countries that have reached scientific superiority.
The cost of establishing institutions for the
translation, publication, and efficient distribution of new editions appearing
in the periodicals of science and other disciplines would be less than the cost
of major universities in many Muslim capitals. When scientific knowledge
becomes available in Arabic, there will be much more demand for its learning
and studying the religious, cultural, scientific, and technological materials
available in it. Translation will become a business and assignments will be
completed in record time. Using Arabic as the language of school and university
instruction will be easy and effective, and will repudiate all objections
against its usage. Usually, these arguments are advanced not against the
language, which has a remarkable ability of expression in all its forms, but
against the failure to reinforce it with new scientific materials, as is done
with international languages and the languages of active contemporary nations.
With the flow of scientific translations, the problem
of terminology will automatically disappear. Standard terminology will be
promoted by publication and usage. This promotion can be supported by
establishing a language academy with contributions from all the current
academies, making a unified effort to keep up with the activities of
translation, Arabization and standard terminology, free from local bias and
isolationist tendencies, which have destructive motives and which reflect, or
respond to, foreign and colonial interests.
Page 26
LANGUAGE SIMPLIFICATION:
GRAMMAR AND SPELLING
It
is high time for Arabic academies to make greater efforts to simplify Arabic
spelling and grammar, making the maintenance of sound and accurate
comprehension of the Qur’an a working criterion, which allows also for the
comprehension and preservation of the Arab/Muslim heritage. With that
guaranteed, proper learning and using the language can be made easier in an age
in which the scope of knowledge has greatly expanded and education is the right
of everyone, not only that of privileged groups and specialists.
Because of the greater ability one gains from
electronic devices in dealing with a language, discovering its mysteries, and
surmounting its difficulties, it is possible now to acquire an analytical
under-standing of all cases and issues of the language that has not been so
feasible in the past. Therefore, it is hoped that the efforts of linguists will
solve many complexities of the language, particularly those of spelling that
have no benefit and add nothing significant.
One example of spelling difficulty which, in this
education-for-all age, seems unnecessary is the various and complicated methods
of writing a glottal stop (hamzah), depending on its type, position3,
and the vowel preceding it. No other sound has such complex rules for spelling,
which, difficult and complex as they are, cause many people to make mistakes in
writing, even when they are able to figure out its type. Rather than help
people spell correctly when they write, the rules seem to have no other purpose
than to prove people’s ignorance of them.
A similar case is that of the soft alif at the
end of three-letter words, which has two methods of writing depending on the
root from which the word is derived, where the letter is originally either wāw
or yā, and this determines how the alif is written. When one is
----------------------------------------------
3 By type is meant whether it is /a/, /u/, or /i/. By
position is meant whether it occurs at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.
Page 27
unaware
of the origin of the alif, one is likely to make a mistake in writing
it, or, at best, may write it correctly by imitation, without knowing the
reason for the spelling. Whatever the case, this is an example of rules that
bring no special benefit, and there is no need to burden the language learners
with them. They only make spelling difficult and exhaust the memory of
students.
These are only examples, and there are many other
cases that need to be simplified or standardized, such as a past tense verb
ending with an alif and different cases of present tense verbs and verbs
in the imperative mood ending with vowels. In some of these cases, a silent alif
is added after a wāw with which the verb ends, while no such silent alif
is added at the end of plural nouns ending with wāw. A third example is
the omission of the long alif sound in certain words (demonstrative
pronouns in particular). There are many other cases.
It is important to reconsider Arabic grammar formulae
and methods of teaching. Admittedly, it is important to distinguish bet-ween
the subject and the object of a verb, particularly when the object precedes the
subject, because failure to distinguish them may affect one’s understanding of
the intended meaning. Distinction by the final inflection is not possible with
names that end with long vowels (such as Munā and Lailā), and only sentence
order and/or context can serve to distinguish between subject and object.
Inflections, however, do not serve to distinguish between an adjective and an
adverb. No inflection tells us whether a noun has a certain quality or is in a
certain condition; after all, both cases are matters of description. Therefore,
these problems call for a thorough reconsideration of many grammatical rules.
The linguistic reform movement should pay special attention to sentence
structure and to context, both of which influence comprehension, without
becoming involved in formalities, traditions, and professionalism related to
meaning in formulating and teaching Arabic grammar. It is imperative to
simplify classical Arabic and facilitate its appropriate and effective usage by
Muslim learners wherein education is no longer a privilege for the upper
classes or for specialists. Linguists in our age must make the effort to
simplify the
Page 28
language
and promote a more effective language performance, without affecting the basics
necessary for understanding the Glorious Qur’an and comprehending its meaning,
implications, and style. They should take into consideration that the various
methods of language usage by Arabs, past and present, has neither affected their
ability to communicate with one another, nor reduced their eloquence.
Although both the International Institute of Islamic
Thought and IIUM are aware of the need to enrich Arabic and to put effort in
giving it its proper place, this undertaking is beyond the capabilities of
either. The most they have been able to achieve is making Arabic the language
of instruction at the IIUM and to make source materials available for the
Ummah’s scholars and intellectual elite. The two institutions have also focused
on the publication of journals and other periodicals in Arabic, as well as in
English. The publication of intellectual and educational works and research
papers in Arabic enriches the Ummah’s knowledge and thought, and their
publication in English serves as a global contemporary vehicle for
communication with many nations and with the intellectual elite in many
countries of the modern world.
It is important for concerned parties, official and
non-official, charitable and commercial, local and international, to give
special attention to scholarly and scientific translation, particularly the
translation of major academic and scientific periodicals, into the language of
the Qur’an, to enrich that language, and to make it eligible to be the
scientific and educational first language of all Muslim peoples. The Islamic
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the Arab League
Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), governments of
Muslim countries, and educational and research institutions throughout the Islamic
World must cooperate and coordinate their efforts to bring this plan into
existence and to ensure success for both the Ummah’s civilizational goals and
its aspirations for unity for the good of humanity.
Page 29
We deceive ourselves when we dream that others will
transfer science and technology to us because science and technology continue
to develop with astounding speed. They can be mastered only by a person
qualified to be productive and endowed with a scientific mentality, a creative
ability, and a rich background. Therefore, the beginning must include better
intellectual training for the Ummah’s new generations and future personnel.
With every new work published in science and technology, this, in turn will
revitalize their energy, trigger their enthusiasm, reform approaches and
methods of thought and education, and enrich their culture, especially the
Arabic culture. Initially, this has to be done in the native languages of the
various Muslim peoples, and later, according to a carefully drawn up plan, they
can be unified culturally through the medium of the language of the Qur’an.
It is a very easy aim to achieve if the Ummah has the
resolve and insight and she develops and utilizes all the tools that will allow
her to be capable and productive and to revitalize her scientific and
technological institutions and workers, with God’s help.
CULTIVATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND
ENCOURAGEMENT OF RESEARCH
The
cultivation of knowledge and encouragement of research undertakings are the
other side of the coin in terms of actions required in the Islamization of
Knowledge at IIUM.
It is true that undergraduate education at the
University and its complementarity in all departments are crucial for training
a work force with integrated knowledge and methodological skills and for
creating a full range of inter-disciplinary and comparative studies. On the
other hand, postgraduate studies, research by faculty mem-bers and graduate
students, research center projects, the interaction of these projects with life
and society, publication of scholarly and scientific writings and international
periodicals, hosting academic seminars and meetings of faculty members, holding
dialogs, discussing academic and scientific issues and concerns, exchange of
views and expertise, co-sponsorship of symposia and conferences with academic
and international institutions – all these matters
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have
received utmost attention and backing at the IIUM. For this reason, and within
a relatively short space of time, the University has become an academic and
scientific platform and a beacon in religion, human sciences, medicine, and
engineering education. Many symposia and conferences have been held there,
covering various subjects of study.
From the very beginning, IIUM has offered an extensive
post-graduate program offering M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in a number of areas of
Islamic studies, human sciences, education, economics, law, and engineering.
Library and laboratory facilities are provided, and channels of cooperation
with various educational, scientific, and industrial institutions have been
established. This policy and the willingness to provide all kinds of services,
as well as cooperation and exchange with various parties with similar
interests, have been productive and have yielded numerous research works by
faculty members and graduate students. The University has been working at
constantly improving the standard of these works and their orientation toward
contributing to Islamic thought in meeting the Ummah’s needs.
The
IIUM Research Center, the Academic Council, and the latter’s committees in
various colleges have provided researchers with support and encouragement and
sponsored their projects, in cooperation with educational, scientific, and
industrial institutions, firms, and concerns. The University has implemented
care-fully prepared research plans to meet urgent needs. The teaching load of
anyone demonstrating outstanding research skills in areas that meet the
research priorities of IIUM and the Ummah is usually reduced. Sometimes, in
case of certain research projects, it is waived altogether to allow the faculty
members concerned to devote all their time to research. In order to serve
integrated know-ledge and the complementarity of curricula in student training,
IIUM opens its doors, within the limits of research plans, to experts and
specialists (outstanding judges and lawyers, successful business people, and
experienced scientists). They are welcome for a full or part-time contribution,
by participating in its teaching and research programs, offering consultations
and advice, or serving on boards and committees that guide the University and
upgrade its curricula and syllabi.
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One of the research projects to which academicians
were fully committed was the preparation of syllabi and textbooks and the
construction of an educational organization plan for a model inter-national
Islamic school. This school was meant to be the nucleus of an Islamic school
system covering all stages of general education from nursery school to
secondary education. The system would be guided by Islamic concepts and vision
and aim at providing children with wholesome, positive, and enlightened Islamic
education. It would also develop in them a sound scientific and methodological
mentality that was not tainted by deviations and distortions of superstition,
charlatanism, and the residue of traditions inherited from ancient cultures.
This school system would endeavor to reconstruct the concepts of family and the
school education of students so that they would grow into honorable human
beings with the creativity, initiative, and a constructive and reformative
spirit that reflect the Islamic concept of deputation. At the culmination of
the project, an all-level school was established, with a student body composed
of the children of faculty members and any children from the general public
that the school could accommodate. Although the project is still at an initial
stage, the early projections of the system and curricula indicate a degree of
success that encourages continued efforts toward the desired end.
One of the tasks of the research center and the office
of its dean is to organize consultations and research projects by faculty
members on behalf of, or in collaboration with, companies and establishments.
Moreover, IIUM has developed a program for the publication of outstanding works
written by faculty members. It also publishes a number of journals in English,
some of which are specialized and published by various colleges and specialized
research centers. An academic journal in Arabic called al-Tajdid
[Innovation] is also published. It observes the highest academic standards of
objectivity and free intellectual expression, as always advocated by the
University, as long as research and expression stem from a scholarly spirit and
aim to serve Islam.
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These efforts are complemented by the academic
activities of all colleges and departments, such as, academic programs that
include seminars, lectures, panel discussions, and conferences – domestic,
regional, and international. A number of these conferences and meetings are
organized annually in Islamic studies, the humanities, and physical science.
The Islamization of Knowledge is the guiding principle for these activities
devoted to the discussion of issues that concern the Ummah and development of
knowledge from an Islamic perspective. Because of the seriousness and
efficiency of IIUM activities, various universities and research centers inside
and outside the country, as well as international institutions, have cooperated
with the University. These include the International Institute of Islamic
Thought, the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(ISESCO), and the Islamic Development Bank. The cooperation has positively
augmented research efforts expanding research horizons and experience. IIUM
publishes an annual book of completed and continuing research work by faculty
members. Thus, IIUM’s academic programs have proved their ability to encompass
all the positive aspects of the contemporary spheres of science, with an
Islamic spirit, vision, and cultural purpose. All this raises hopes for a
prosperous civilizational future.
THE INTEGRATION OF ACADEMIC AND
EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE
It
is established that the reform of curricula achieves an integration of
knowledge and equips students with the cognitive bases that form the content of
their minds and their methods of study. Meanwhile, related cultural pursuits
and campus activities are of great importance in shaping the students’ psyche
and their future interaction with society.
The first resource that should be available to
students within the university environment is sound general knowledge,
remedying deficiencies in any areas that are needed to correct the distortions
pervading Muslim societies. The courses and programs designed
Page 33
for
this purpose are included in the general requirements program offered to
students. This includes academic programs at university level and student
affairs programs. They are intended to fill the gaps in students’ background;
enhance their spiritual, religious, cultural, and educational development; and
to equip them with cultural aptitude, social and physical skills, and
constructive energy. In spite of the intensive curriculum, the productivity of
students is doubled and their comprehension capacity increases in an
extraordinary manner.
The University requirements program is included in the
curricula to provide students with an ideological, ethical, and cultural
foundation, and thus to upgrade their education and knowledge. The program also
aims at preparing students to play their social, leadership and professional
roles. With this in mind, IIUM offers – in addition to courses in religious
doctrine, ethics, and general education – a course on Family and Parenthood,
which provides male and female students with the scientific, social,
educational, and Islamic perspectives of the subject. The purpose is to lay the
cornerstones of the basic social structure, the family, on a sound
psycho-sociological Islamic foundation, and to equip young parents with the tools
to follow educational methods and achieve the desired ends. This is an effort
to produce citizens with spiritual and moral strength, objective mental
capabilities, creative psycho-logical potential, and feelings of dignity and
self-confidence. Thus, future generations may have the necessary courage and
initiative as human beings to succeed in their role of vicegerents and their
mission of construction.
To serve the same purpose, IIUM offers a course in
Creative Thinking and Problem Solving. The course promotes awareness of the
nature of creative thinking, its psychological and educational foundations, and
its scientific tools. Young people can thus be guided in developing their
thought and performance and in raising their children on bases that allow the Ummah
and its young generations to take part in the race for civilization building.
Page 34
A
course is entitled the Rise and the Fall of Civilizations. It is a University
requirement because this Ummah was the heir to a number of ancient
civilizations and is now in a close race with other civilizations. Young people
need therefore to be equipped with an encompassing civilizational and
scientific perspective that helps in the rationalization of programs for the
desired civilizational Islamic reform.
The University has introduced two postgraduate
diplomas for teacher training in Family and Parenthood and Creative Thinking
and Problem Solving. This allows the University to include courses on these
subjects in its basic requirements. For the same purpose, a Student Affairs
Office has been opened. It is one of the largest and most important of the
IIUM’s offices. It has the task of releasing the potential of students,
fostering in them a brotherly and group spirit and a sense of belonging to the
Ummah. The Office provides a wide range of activities and experience, cultural
programs, free education, and training in various skills. These programs bring
all the students and faculty members together as one big family. The students
comprise more than ninety-six nationalities and faculty members more than
forty. All of them are driven by a sense of having a mission, a spirit of
brotherhood, a feeling of true belonging, a sublime objective, and an awareness
of the challenge.
The administration of IIUM, the management of services
and admissions, and all the staff of the administrative departments at every
level, from the lowest ranking official to the highest, including, leadership,
are, according to the IIUM policy, considered part of the University family and
share in the educational responsibility. In fact, the educational role of the
administrative staff may be more influential since they serve as an example to
the students, who deal directly with them and feel their influence in their
daily study routine. They base their concepts and style of dealing with others
and with the society in general on the model and quality of that interaction.
Therefore, driven by an Islamic sense of mission, IIUM makes every effort to
maintain the dignity of its staff members and meet their needs and those of
their dependents. It extends easy loans to them to help them build their future
and provides them and their family members with medical services and children’s
nurseries. That is how the IIUM looks after its staff
Page 35
members.
By the same token, staff members are expected to treat students well, respect
their dignity and the human nature with which God has honored every human
being, take care of their needs, be always ready to help them and smoothly process
any applications they submit, provide them with all possible services and
counseling without complicating matters and disregarding their ethnic,
linguistic, or religious identity. Muslims and non-Muslims are treated equally.
Experience tells us that with a sense of
responsibility, solidarity, and joint interest based on justice, equity,
equality, appreciation, encouragement, and respect, and with the provision of
training and experience, as well as guidance and counseling, positive energy
can produce a vast output of work smoothly and easily. The cost and energy
needed for this work are much lower than that required by negative, wasted
efforts spent in overcoming obstacles and in the conflict that prevails in
organizations that have no clear objective, sense of mission, group interest,
or sense of belonging. It is true, as demonstrated by experience, that
achievement, progress, and success require great efforts, but impediments,
conflict, and backwardness require in fact greater effort and toil. It is also
clear that real poverty and want reside in the lack of vitality and the spirit
rather than in resources.
PROMISING RESULTS
The
Islamic spirit and mission common to all work approaches, together with the
building of team spirit, are behind the great success achieved, within only one
decade, by this remarkable academic edifice. These achievements are due to the
Islamization of Knowledge plan and concepts and the creative curricula of the IIUM
as well as the Islamic-style backing of the most cost-effective creative
academic programs, installations, and facilities.
It
is, therefore, not surprising that this outstanding edifice, based on the
Islamization of Knowledge project and its civilizational foundations, is
providing the Ummah with an outstanding work
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force
in all fields. Nor is it surprising that its academic programs, systems,
regulations, and cultural, social, and educational arrangements are a
qualitative and quantitative step forward in higher education. It is a step
that covers the range of experience and talents and the fields, concerns, and
issues of research. It is a step forward in the scheme to revitalize higher
education to serve the Ummah’s civilizational aspirations, release the
potential of scholars, activate latent capabilities and productivity, and meet
the Ummah’s spiritual, intellectual, and functional needs.
In their performance during this short period, IIUM
students have proved that they have better capabilities than their
counter-parts who have graduated from other, well-established universities, and
that they are often the winners in cultural and sports competitions, not only
in Malaysia, but also in East Asian and Asian–African tournaments. They always
hold leading positions at the Australasian level and in international cultural
contests. In the international debate contest of college students, the IIUM
team managed to be amongst the top ten teams, a first for a
non-English-speaking country. In fact the team ranked seventh among hundreds of
teams from major English-speaking universities around the world. Moreover, the
IIUM male and female taekwondo teams are the champions of this sport in
Malaysia. When the soccer team at the University had its own field at the new
campus in 1988, it managed to win the Malaysian soccer tournament from a former
team that had held the championship for three successive years. In the
tournament, none of the university teams managed to score a single goal against
the IIUM team.
Reports of the achievements of the graduates of this
young university and of the high leadership positions they hold in their
countries, which are closely followed by the administration and alumni society,
are concrete evidence that its foundational logic is sound. It is the logic of
the Islamization of Knowledge to revitalize higher education and serve the
Ummah’s civilizational aspirations. It is also apparent that the foundations of
this logic are capable of stimulating civilizational energy latent in the Ummah
with the least effort and at the lowest cost. Quantity then would turn into
Page 37
quality,
scarcity into abundance, and cheap into precious and expensive. This has been
the experience of live, alert nations and their active systems whose culture
and educational programs activate the potential energy and productivity of
their citizens. The IIUM experiment is, therefore, a pioneering endeavor that
is worthy of consideration and contemplation. Many would benefit from the
lessons that it teaches in developing and revitalizing higher education in the
Muslim world to serve the Ummah’s interests and civilizational aspirations.
RESOURCES AND FUNDING
The
seriousness of the agenda, the steps it has taken, the ends and aims sought by
the IIUM project, as well as the methodological reforms it has achieved, and
the academic and educational policies it has drawn – all these have enabled the
University to appeal to the conscience of activists and revive hopes in many
hearts. Its founders have witnessed their hopes and ideals as embodied in the
project come to life and witnessed success take shape in the form of strong,
intelligent Muslims as models of human progress at both academic and
civilizational level. Consequently, the necessity and validity to contribute
financially and in other ways has been awakened. Individuals representing all
strata of society – ordinary people, activists, officials from all over the
Muslim world – have been visiting the University to see for themselves first
hand its modus operandi, to learn as much as they can about it, and to offer
advice, encouragement, and contributions.
Although
the Malaysian government has undertaken to finance IIUM programs,
establishments, and buildings, many international Islamic institutions and
organizations have extended their contributions in financing campus buildings,
scholarship funds, and international conferences in an unprecedented manner.
Likewise, charities, business people, and other philanthropists have extended
their financial assistance to the University and its scholarship fund. Thus,
thousands of outstanding students of more than ninety-six nationalities,
representing all the ethnic groups and cultures in the Muslim world and
reflecting its future unity, are supported in their studies.
Page 38
Contributions do not take a financial form only;
interaction with the IIUM mission is also represented by the excellence of its
human resources, individuals who have made sacrifices to join the faculty. They
offer their knowledge and experience to students, thus supporting IIUM’s
academic and educational programs. The sacrifices have been made not only by
many individuals, but also by universities and other educational and scientific
institutions, which have released some of their outstanding faculty and staff
members to help the University with its new programs and to contribute to its
teaching and research efforts.
The financial and human resource support received by
IIUM from the host country, the Malaysian people, and academic and scientific
Islamic institutions and individuals from both within and outside Malaysia is
an expression of the impact that this project has produced. It has touched the
souls and consciences of all the people concerned, awakening in them the urge
to give, activating charitable inclinations to serve the Ummah, and
revitalizing the educational establishment through this University and its
future promise to help reform Islamic thought, culture, and education through
the Islamization
of Knowledge.
This experiment teaches us important lessons about the
stimulation of latent energies, the propensity to make liberal contributions,
and the revitalization of the educational establishment as a basis to release
the forces of the Islamic, civilizational reform initiative. These lessons
should be applied, not wasted.
The experiment should be well comprehended, benefits
should be reaped from it, and it should be developed, and utilized in other
experiments to revitalize higher education institutions to serve the Ummah’s
future and its civilizational aspirations. It is hoped that ISESCO will finance
research into this experiment and the IIUM campus as a creative Islamic model.
This research should be made available to universities and other higher
education institutions in Muslim countries.
Page 39
THE FUTURE
An
awareness of the dimensions of the Islamization of Knowledge project and its
role in reforming the higher education establishment is an imperative. This, in
turn, can reform the Ummah’s intellectual and educational life. It is possible
to upgrade the quality of education and research, and that of leaders and
professional work forces on the premise that activates the Ummah’s potential,
touch the conscience of Muslims, set them in motion, rectify the distortion and
damage done to the bulk of their culture and minds, and build a positive
psyche.
Without an awareness about those in charge of higher
education institutions and the administration of intellectual and educational
policies, the revitalization of education and the consequent stimulation would
not be possible. Otherwise, the higher education establishment will, for
generations to come, continue to be a suffering invalid, as it is today and in
the past. Against the international criteria and standards set by modern
civilization, the education system will remain helpless. The work forces that
graduate for employment will continue to have hazy thinking, a polluted culture,
distorted programs, and limited ambition. They will aspire for nothing more
than earning a livelihood, driven by their instinct for survival. They will be
indifferent, regardless of how many imported devices and machines are made
available to them. Although additions can be made to these most up-to-date
machines, nothing better than what has been seen so far can be expected. After
all, future conditions can be divined from past experience.
The hope entertained by the Islamization of Knowledge
school is to be able to reach out and alert elite intellectuals, thinkers,
educators, and all groups with Islamic thinking and perspective. These people
have to bear their responsibility in intellectual and methodological reform in
general, and the reform of higher education in particular, since that is the
field from which emerge the elite and the academic, scholarly and professional
work forces of the Ummah. The elite in question must undertake the necessary
Page 40
intellectual
effort to purify and refine the Muslim culture removing all superstition,
charlatanism, and outmoded forms of thought, and all else that is in conflict
with objective thinking not based on rationalization and divine laws of nature.
This process is an important requirement for success.
Since Muslims are expected to do their best and then depend on God, the elite
must ground all matters in faith and belief, combined with their dependence on
God’s Will. They should fortify everything that supports and strengthens the
inclusive Islamic outlook, the moral concept of deputation, and the
constructive, civilized mentality. The Islamic literature needed for reforming
educational curricula and for training parents and equipping them with an
educational background should be made available. This is needed in order to
raise a generation fit for the responsibilities of deputation and free from the
dangers of a slave mentality; a generation characterized by purity and humility
and the spirit of initiative and creativity. It is only parents, with the
influence they have on the minds and consciences of young people, who can start
the process of change. This makes parents – with their instinctive concern for
their children’s well-being and their willingness to sacrifice everything to
serve their children’s interests – the key to reform and change, based on the
convictions nurtured in them by intellectuals and educators.
If we compare the scholarly, scientific, and
educational studies by advanced nations and their thinkers and educators to
educate parents, teachers, and community leaders with that of the Islamic
thinkers, we will unearth one of the secrets underlying the Ummah’s
backwardness. After all, its civilizational aspiration has been lacking to the
extent that Muslim children are neglected, and so is the literature needed to
raise and educate them. In addition, the training of the Ummah’s intellectual
and professional work forces, by using the little that is available in Islamic
culture and education, too is neglected. This is due to the lack of concern in
the higher education establishment for an effective Islamic culture. It is
their failure to play a role in revitalizing learning and knowledge and in
training leaders and professional work forces to meet the
Page 41
Ummah’s
needs. They must remove the distortions afflicting its thought, culture, and
educational programs that prevent the Muslim mind from being effective, thus
failing to stimulate its potential.
To have scientific and technological work forces in
great numbers should not be an aim in itself. Instead, we should prepare these
forces to serve the Ummah, meet its needs, and help fulfill its reformative and
civilizational aspirations. This includes mastering their specializations with
great proficiency, being productive and serious, and having the sense of
responsibility that encourages better performance. The reform of education, the
refinement of culture, and the pedagogical education of parents are some of the
most important areas of the Islamic civilizational reform. The International
Institute of Islamic Thought has been working to offer a model and an
experiment that embodies its concepts and principles and which proves its
validity through a successful release of the potential for young Muslims, the
activation of their latent abilities, and proving the excellence of their
performance. The International Islamic University in Malaysia has served as an
experiment for the revitalization of higher education in the service of the
Ummah. It is hoped that under the current conditions in South-East Asia, the
University will thrive in its mission and serve as a model for other efforts to
serve the Ummah with the revitalization of higher education and the reform of
its foundations.
When this is achieved, higher education can, with
God’s permission, exploit the potentials of the Ummah and stimulate its
leadership and educational and professional work forces to serve human
civilization and guide its progress.
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