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Paper presented at the International Islamic
Conference for University Students under the theme ‘Islam: A solution towards
scientific, economic, and social progress’ organized by the Muslim Students
Association at the Moi University in Eldoret, Western Kenya on 18th
February 2012 by Professor Omar Hasan K Kasule MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard),
DrPH (Harvard) Professor of Epidemiology and Bioethics at the Faculty of
Medicine King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh
1.0 THE CHALLENGE OF VISION
1.1 The colonial era
Our education system requires
correcting, islah, renewal, tajdid, and quality infusion, tahsin.
All these three terms presuppose existence of a vision of what we aspire to and
this is the crux of the matter. About 130 decades ago we were living in tribal
societies each with a clear vision of the educational methodology and outcomes
for its youth. These visions were marginalized during the colonial era and a
new educational vision was introduced. The vision was not exactly a European
one, it was a modification of the European vision to facilitate colonial rule
by molding a cadre of young educated Africans with the world-view, knowledge,
and skills that the colonial government needed. Colonial rulers had learned
from previous experience that a liberal European-style education on human
rights and human equality led the colonized to question colonialism and demand
their independence.
1.2 The post colonial era
At independence it was these
‘educated’ people who took helm of the country and apparently continued with
the same vision with continuing guidance and instruction from Europe in the
form of educational aid, teachers, books and other teaching material. We
achieved political independence but no educational independence. To make it
worse we could not develop an ‘independent’ vision of education because the
leaders had only post colonial Eurocentric intellectual frameworks, paradigms,
knowledge, terminology, and experiences. It was also impossible to return to
the tribal visions because they had been marginalized or destroyed and would in
any case be irrelevant in a multi-tribal nation state.
1.3 The frame of educational
reform: within vs without
When we talk about educational
reform today we have to distinguish between two approaches: (a) reforms within
the post-colonial frame we inherited or (b) a new approach based on our own
independent thought. The first approach has not worked well from our experience
of the past 50 years as judged from various considerations: continuing
functional illiteracy, intellectual dependence, backwardness in science and
technology. The current system performed spectacularly bad for Muslims. They
are marginalized at all levels of education. They have the poorest performance
at the level of individuals and schools. Yet they did not also succeed in the
traditional madrasat school.
I am going to argue for the
second approach which is the harder path but there is no choice because the
first approach has not worked well. The main obstacle ahead of this approach is
that we are have lost intellectual originality, asaalat, and are
followers, muqalliduun, of any new idea that comes from outside; we
adopt and discard ideas and practices on cues from the outside. The Qur’an condemns
intellectual slavery of this kind in many verses. The Prophet in a hadith that
has come to be known as the ‘lizard hole phenomenon’ said that ‘you will follow
those before you foot by foot and inch by inch and if they entered a lizard
hole you would follow them’. The reference to the lizard hole is understandable
to many of us when a leading lizard runs into a hole all follow without
questioning.
When we talk about the Islamic
perspective of educational reform, we do not have in mind some religious formulas
that will magically transform education. We know we live in a plural society
with many cultures, religions, and philosophies. What we have in mind is the
originality of Islamic concepts and paradigms that will liberate educational
leaders from the blind copying described above so that they can think outside
the box.
2.0 THE CHALLENGE OF HISTORY
2.1 The start of knowledge
with terminology
Adam acquired knowledge actively
by first learning the names of all things i.e. the terminology and vocabulary
of substantive knowledge. All human knowledge is based on concepts and
terminology. The terminology used expands or restricts thought and learning.
Progress of human knowledge developed pari passu with development of a
sophisticated language. Writing and reading (literacy) extended the use of
language. Use of numbers (numeracy) made communication of facts and concepts
more exact.
2.2 Knowledge from revelation
Adam and prophets after him
acquired knowledge of the unseen, ‘ilm al ghaib, from revelation, wahy,
from the Creator who is ultimately the source of all knowledge. This
knowledge reaches humans passively by revelation or humans discover it by
active empirical research and observation.
2.3 Empirical knowledge of
ancient civilizations
Most human knowledge of the
physical world, ‘ilm al shahadat, was acquired empirically by random
observations and trial and error experiments by isolated tribal groups for
example the discovery of fire and the discovery of agriculture. Empirical
knowledge developed rapidly when humans were able to exchange experiences
(longitudinally in the time dimension and horizontally in the space dimension)
as they lived in big settled communities settled in big agricultural
communities along rivers: the Yangtze river in ancient China, the Furaat and
Dajla rivers in ancient Mesopotamia, the Nile river in ancient Egypt, and the
Indus river in India. Discovery of writing by these communities helped
dissemination of knowledge. This ancient knowledge reached Greece and later the
Roman Empire and was the foundation of European knowledge.
2.4 The European medieval era
After the collapse of the Roman
Empire in the 5th century of the Gregorian calendar and the
ascendancy of the Church in the medieval ages, there was a decay of knowledge
because freedom of thought, research, and expression were restricted. These
came to be known as the European dark ages because they were a time of
ignorance after the disappearance of Greco-roman knowledge and scholarship.
During the European dark ages, a
new Islamic civilization arose in the Arabian Peninsula starting in the 8th
century of the Gregorian calendar. It was a civilization based on knowledge,
the first revelation of the Qur’an was the word iqra (read). Islam ushered
an epistemological and knowledge revolution that led to Muslims being leaders
of science and technology while Europe was in the medieval ages. This
revolution was spearheaded by the Qur’an a highly intellectual book that
encourages Muslims to think and research.
2.5 The renaissance
The European dark ages came to
close in the 13th century of the Gregorian calendar with the rebirth
or renaissance movement when Europeans rebelled against the authority of
the Church and returned to their Greco-roman roots. The renaissance movement
was instigated by Europeans who had come into contact with the educationally
advanced Muslim civilization in the Crusade Wars in Palestine and Spain
starting in the 11th century of the Gregorian calendar and lasting
about 2 centuries. The Europeans learned the empirical methodology from the
Muslims and launched and epistemological, scientific, and technological
revolutions in Europe. They learned systematic investigation of empirical
phenomena (science) and experienced and explosive growth of knowledge. While
Europeans went through successive agricultural and industrial revolutions and
later the science and technology revolutions, Muslim knowledge decayed with the
political corruption that engulfed the Muslim world.
2.6 The post renaissance
period
The European intellectual vigor
based on empiricism, rationality, and freedom of thought coupled to advances in
science and technology enabled people of European descent in to explore,
colonize, and eventually control the world either ad settlers (the Americas and
Australia) or as colonial rulers (Africa and Asia) or as neo-colonial control
using various tools economic, media, and education. Renaissance was not an
intellectual and cultural change confined to an elite. It affected all facets
of European life making Europeans rely on empirical knowledge and rationality.
They became systematic and organized as a result with consequent more efficient
social organization. All these contributed to making Western Europe powerful
and able to colonize, control, and exploit the world.
2.7 How did history leave us
behind?
Where do we stand in this
historical narrative? We are in the pre-scientific pre-renaissance frame of
mind. We have not learned to harness the power of the empirical method to
develop science and technology. Because we lack the systematic scientific
culture we have not been to develop efficient organizations with good planning,
implementation, and efficient time use.
As a consequence of lack of a
vision and our historical handicap, we are in the midst of a knowledge and
educational crisis. Islam can contribute to resolving this crisis by
introducing original concepts on epistemology, educational organizations, etc
that will take educational leaders out of the box.
3.0 THE 5 MANIFESTATIONS OF
THE KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATIONAL CRISIS
3.1 Deficiency in quantity & quality:
Knowledge of a preponderant majority of the community is inadequate, impaired, or distorted. The intellectuals and the broadly-educated are marginalized in the material-driven industrial society. The teachers are poorly paid. Teachers are no longer respected as important members of society; their leadership position has been taken by politicians, businessmen, and technicians. Teachers are despised and are among the lowest paid professions in the community. There is little respect for scholarship. There is neglect of the empirical sciences. In some cases these sciences are studied but not with the spirit of mastery, use and further development by research. The aim of the student is to get some facts, pass some examinations, and get a certificate that opens the door to lucrative employment. These students have skills but no vision or mission and they end up serving only their personal interests. There is no urge to research and extend the frontiers of knowledge. Home-grown technology is little and has little encouragement or prospects in the near future.
3.2 Duality:
All communities had their traditional education systems that still persist in one way or another alongside the European system. We will here describe the traditional Muslim education system as an example. Education in Muslim communities was private with no government controls. It took place in mosque study circles, halaqas; elementary schools, kuttaab, masjid, and madarasat. Education was most often attached to mosques. There were several teachers in a mosque each leading a study circle. Students were free to choose their teacher. The system remained in all the various historical epochs free of official government control so the teachers enjoyed almost complete academic freedom. It formed the bedrock of the traditional Muslim education that exists until today. The educational crisis of Muslims today is the crisis of duality/dichotomy resulting into incoherent and contradictory sources of knowledge. There is a dichotomy in the education system: traditional Islamic vs. imported European and ulum al diin vs ulum al dunia. There are competing and contradictory world-views. Some Muslim students study at foreign schools in Muslim lands and others are sent overseas for studies. Other Muslim students study at traditional Islamic institutions in their countries or overseas. Graduates of the 2 systems speak different languages and use different terminologies. Integration of the 2 systems has failed or has been difficult in several countries because it has been mechanical and not conceptual.
3.3 Irrelevance:
Knowledge dispensed at great expense in many modern educational institutions is not relevant to the contemporary needs of the community. The modern system uses European models and textbooks that are not relevant to the local problems. Sometimes we witness the intellectual perversity of imagining or inventing European-type problems in the local situation in order to proffer European-like solutions for them especially. Examples: protection of wild life before protection of children, animal rights before human rights, sexual rights before the right to life.
3.4 Divorce from morality:
The process of secularization in education has succeeded in removing the moral dimension from the education. It has violated the aim of traditional education to produce an integrated and perfect individual, insan kaamil. Instead the education system aims at producing a technically-competent person who is not educated in the full sense of the word. It is nit surprising that we have a lot of corruption in government. Nobody at school taught today’s public officials when they were students that corruption and nepotism were immoral because these matters are not in the syllabus. De-emphasis of morality in the secular education system is responsible for the increasing mis-behavior of youths in school that has in turn affected academic achievement negatively. The youths are taught the European concept that values are relative and that there is no absolute right or wrong. They are taught that their individual freedom of choice is sacred and they can do whatever they like with no moral constraints. The criterion of judgment is anthropometric i.e. what the human likes, prefers, enjoys, or finds more comfortable of convenient. It is an intellectual perversity that while the students are taught to question every moral value and everything sacred, they are not taught to question the evils of sexual promiscuity and hedonistic life-styles. This is because the contemporary socio-economic system is driven by economic forces whose prime objective is to create good consumers who will have no moral qualms about buying any imported goods and services.
3.5 Brain drain:
Our education system is running after shifting goals. We can never produce enough educated people because the more we produce the more we lose as brain drain. There are two types of brain drain. Some educated people move to Europe and America where they can get better facilities for their work and where they enjoy physical amenities and feel secure from the political and security instability in their home countries. Such people become very productive in their adopted countries and are a net loss. Some migrate away from their academic pursuits but stay within the country being engaged in business or politics. There are no attempts to reverse the brain drain by understanding the push and pull factors and doing something to reduce their effects. The main push factors are: lack of freedom, no respect for human rights, no recognition of scientific work, being isolated from interaction with other scientists, poor or inadequate research facilities, and a poor socio-economic environment. The pull factors are largely the same as the push factors but working in the opposite direction.
4.0 MALAISE DUE TO THE
KNOWLEDGE and EDUCATIONAL CRISIS
4.1 Thought malaise
Knowledge deficiency and
intellectual weakness are the most significant manifestation of our
decadence. Knowledge enables understanding and resolution of existing problems.
Knowledge enables anticipation and solution of future problems. The intellect
must be able to analyze and solve problems. It must have a correct knowledge
base if it is to produce useful ideas and thoughts. Intellectual failure
follows knowledge deficiency. Intellectual failure either results into new
problems in society or renders the society incapable of solving its existing
problems. The knowledge and intellectual crises interact in a synergistic way
to lead to social malaise. As a result of the thought malaise we do not
generate our own ideas but import ideas. This blind copying, taqliid a ‘ma, worsens
the intellectual crisis because we end up copying and using poorly digested
alien ideas and concepts as well as use of analytic tools that are not relevant
or suitable to our heritage or contemporary social realities.
Among manifestations of the
thought malaise are: (a) intellectual stagnation (no innovation, no
creativity, and fanaticism), (b) syncretism, talfiq (juxtaposition of
ideas that are incompatible without attempting to analyse them critically to
arrive at a synthesis or favor one of them, tarjiih,
(c) lack of vision as a guide
vision for the present and the future (d) superficiality, satahiyyat (concern with minor inconsequential issues. (e) Sterile
arguments, jadal, lead to no
purpose or goal of practical utility. As a result of the thought malaise we
have not been able to resolve many of our problems and have imported foreign
ideas: (a) gender: the nature, role, rights, and responsibilities of the woman
(b) Plurality of opinion and practice (c) leadership: qualifications,
selection, roles, and scope of responsibility (d) Public mutual consultation, shura, in public decision making (e) our
visions of the economy, education, politics, and international relations. (f) definition of
and pride in our cultural identity with the result that our lifestyles are
dictated by European norms.
4.2 Action malaise:
A stagnant education system is in
my opinion the cause of action malaise. The graduates of the system in general lack
of dynamism and activity. They lack resolve and a sense of direction. Knowledge
and intellect do not automatically lead to action. There must be an inner drive
to change society in a practical way. Our education system has not imbued that
drive into our youths. As a result there is no sense of urgency in tackling the
problems of the community. Major disasters and catastrophes do not elicit a determined
response or even concern; they pass as if they are routine events. Many public
and private institutions are weak. Administration is ineffective and
inefficient. Poor planning, execution, and follow up are common. There is
leadership and managerial anarchy.
4.3 Political dependency:
There is political disunity at
the micro and macro levels. We are divided along ethnic, tribal, linguistic,
and sectarian lines. Our education system did not teach us values of tolerance
and mutual interdependence. Our political institutions are immature and
unstable. Political suppression and human rights abuse are common. We lack a
united credible and forceful voice at international, national, and local
forums. Most of our political agendas are dictated from outside by dealing with
our leaders using carrots (bribes) or sticks (threats)
4.4 Economic dependency
There is dependency and weakness
in our macro and micro economies despite immense natural resources. We have
relatively little control over resources in their land. We sell raw materials
cheaply and buy expensive finished goods. A consumer society that does not
produce its basic necessities has developed.
There is no security of basic necessities: food, water, and energy. We lack
a future economic vision. Our economy is characterized by underemployment,
unemployment, high inflation, social injustice, inefficient production and inefficient
distribution.
4.5 Military weakness
We have little control over
military technology. We use technology that they do not produce. Access to the
more advanced forms is in the hands of others who guard its secrets closely. Colossal sums of money are spent
on ineffective weaponry that has not increased military effectiveness. Planning
and organization are underdeveloped. There is no overall strategy and no sense
of mission. Military resources are wasted in unnecessary internal conflicts
planned or abetted by enemies. Even the advantage in numbers that translate
into military manpower is also being eroded by effective birth control programs
and systematic programs to weaken and destroy the family.
4.6 Dependency in science and
technology
There are few practical minds
that work effectively and efficiently in research and development. The few who
exist do not find sufficient encouragement. The situation is worsened by brain
drain to Europe and America due to lack of local encouragement and support. We have
become users and not producers of technology. There is low understanding and
appreciation of technology among the masses. There is no adequate infra
structure for future development of S&T.
5.0 REFORM OF THE EDUCATION
SYSTEM: A STRATEGICAL FORMULATION
5.1 Vision:
The vision of the knowledge
strategy is an upright balanced person who understands the creator, knows his
place, his roles, his rights, and his responsibilities in the cosmic order. He
participates actively and positively in building society (socially, culturally,
and technologically). He understands that development activities must find a
just equilibrium between material and spiritual, control of nature and
preservation of the environment, technology and humanity.
5.2 Mission:
The mission of the knowledge
strategy is conceptual transformation of the education system from kindergarten
to post graduate studies to reflect positive moral values, objectivity,
universality, and serving the larger causes of humanity.
5.3 Goals:
The goals of conceptual transformation
of knowledge are: to identify and eliminate parochial aspects of the basic
paradigms of the disciplines of knowledge and reconstruct paradigms on basis of
objectivity and universality, to define objective research methodology for
development of new knowledge, and to guide use of knowledge for the good of
humanity and the environment. The goals of practical reform of the education
system are to: abolish duality of education systems; to develop school
curricula; to develop, test and publish teaching material; and to expand access
of masses to knowledge through formal and informal institutions.
5.5 Characteristics of a
reformed education system:
The desired system of knowledge
will have the following characteristics. Everybody must have access to knowledge
without discrimination based on gender or social class. Learning must be free/affordable and
continuous. Personal relations must
exist between teacher and student so that morals are transmitted at the same
time as knowledge. Privately or community-owned schools are the ideal;
government should play only a facilitatory and / or regulatory role. Quality
will come from quantity. The aim is mass education in the start; improvements
in quality are achieved with time.
6.0 REFORM OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: the process of education
6.1 The learning obligation:
Essential knowledge is what each
individual adult must know in order to live as a citizen. This minimum of
education must be mandatory, fardh ‘ain, and guaranteed for each citizen
regardless of socio-economic status. Citizens who choose to engage in a
specific profession is obliged to get knowledge and skills in that profession.
This type of knowledge, fardh kifayat, is not an individual but is a
community obligation. Each community must make sure it has enough people
skilled in each profession to serve the needs of the community. In our situation we will make very rapid
progress if we professionalize all jobs and services such that nobody is
employed without specific training.
6.2 The teaching obligation:
Those who have knowledge are
obliged to teach and disseminate it. Hiding useful knowledge, , kitman al ‘ilm, is a major transgression. Harmful knowledge should not be
suppressed but should be known only to those able to handle it and not become
confused. If it is completely suppressed and in unknown by anyone of the good
people it may come into the community secretly and confuse the less educated.
Some useful and correct knowledge should not be taught to the less educated who
may be confused by it.
6.3 Etiquettes of searching for knowledge, adab talab al ‘ilm:
The student must have as
intention learning so that he may serve. If the intention is glory or personal
gain, there is no blessing in the learning. The story of Musa and Khidhr is
very educative about the etiquette of looking for knowledge. The student must
try to seek to understand first. Unnecessary and sterile argument, jadal,
is not part of the educational process.
6.4 Etiquettes of teaching, adab
al mu’allim: The teacher must transmit both knowledge and character. In
the earlier history teachers were models of character. With the secularisation
of education, morals became separated from knowledge and teaching. It should be
the aim of the new education strategy to close this gap.
6.5 Restoring the prestige of
the teaching profession:
Teaching is the numerically the
largest profession. Teachers teach at schools (elementary and secondary) as
well as universities. Before modern times there was no special professional
preparation for teachers with the result that teaching had low professional
prestige. With the growth of universal education teaching has become a
profession with training and certification requirements and has seen its social
prestige rise. A teacher is challenged by many roles: facilitating learning,
discipline and control, surrogate parent, emotional and psychological
development, moral guidance. Elementary school teachers teach the three R’s
(reading, arithmetic, abd writing) in addition to civil education that moulds
the pupils to be successful members of society. University teachers have more
autonomy in their teaching. Besides teaching they undertake research and
consultation.
6.6 Academic freedom:
Knowledge can not grow and
develop in an atmosphere that lacks freedom of expression. Assuring freedom of
expression for everybody implies among other things that even the ignorant who
can mislead others must have their freedom. This risk is worth taking because
there is no humanly possible method of knowing in advance what someone will
say. If they say something wrong it can be countered with argument and
evidence. On balance when both truth and falsehood are given equal chances for
expression, the truth in the final analysis predominates. The Qur’anic
educational method, tarbiyat qur’aniyyat,
is a guidance in this matter. The Qur’an has preserved for eternity the words
and opinions of the worst people in human history like Pharaoh, Nimrod, and the
polytheists. Their opinions are reported honestly as they were said sometimes
in direct speech using their actual words. These bad people had freedom of
expression even in the Qur’an. They were countered by Qur’anic arguments and
evidence to the ultimate benefit of knowledge growth.
7.0 REFORM OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: Reforming the school
7.1 Goals of the school:
The school (kindergarten to 12th
year of education) is passing through a moral as well as an academic crisis
both locally and internationally. The moral and social behavior of children is
worsening. Academic achievement is falling. What is needed is to redefine a
school that should set itself the objective of imparting education and
producing a complete individual, insan
kamil,. The school sets itself the goal of guiding a child to an ideal
personality, character, and behavior. Children are born pure in fitra. The way they are educated and
brought up determines whether they will be good or bad. The scope of the school
is wide and includes faith, intellectual, moral, social, and practical skills
or attributes. Learning in such a school should be based on a moral vision.
This means teaching everything to inculcate morals, understanding, and
practice. The teaching should emphasize critical thinking, tafakkur;
reasoning; substantiation; observation of the world, tadabbur, and
critical analysis. It should discourage blind following, taqliid, and
rote learning.
7.2 Socialization:
The school is a socializing
agent. It is a laboratory for reform of the total society. It should exemplify
the etiquette, adab, of the teacher
which consists of: kindness, sincere advice to the student, humility, being a
good example and role model, knowing the characteristics of each student and
dealing with him or her as an individual. It should also inculcate the adab of the student: commitment, ikhlas; humility, tawadhu’u;
respect for teacher, and applying what is learned.
7.3 Emphasis of the curriculum:
The school curriculum must be
designed with care. It should emphasize belief, action, relations,
complementality, social change, continuity, appropriateness, equilibrium and
harmony. The components of the curriculum are systems of belief, language,
social skills, and practical skills. The students are then taught the various
relations that bind the society together: relation with the Creator, relation
with other humans, and relations with the environment. The curriculum should
emphasize complementality of body and soul, spirit and matter, individual and
society, practical and applied. The student should be taught to understand that
successful social change is knowledge-based. Continuity of education and
learning outside the class-room should be emphasized. The curriculum should be
appropriateness to the growth and development needs of the child. It should
reflect the Islamic concepts of balance, tawazun, moderation, wasatiyyat,
and equilibrium, i’itidaal.
7.4 Methodology of the
curriculum:
The methodology of instruction
must have the following characteristics: gradualism, tadarruj; reality/realism,
waqi’iyyat; positive attitude to
human nature, fitra; and balance, tawazun.
7.5 Content of the curriculum:
Curricular subjects to be
included in the school curriculum are: morality, languages, social studies and
social etiquette, adab, & seerah);
science; mathematics; history; geography; arts and crafts, and liberal arts
(music, drama, painting). The liberal arts should be reformed to reflect
positive moral values. The teaching of arts should also convey positive moral
and social values.
7.6 Extra-curricular
activities
Extra-curricular activities
should be encouraged such as: essay competitions, art competitions, drama,
trips, excursions, camps, songs, sports, practical social experiences, enjoning
good, amr bi al maruf, and forbidding evil, & nahy ‘an al munkar,
8.0 REFORM OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: Reforming higher education
8.1 Definition of higher education:
Higher education is
post-secondary education followed in most cases by award of a certificate, a
degree, or a diploma. It is offered at universities, colleges, and other
institutions. It may be academic or theoretical or may be practical and
vocational. Modern industrialized societies have designed their higher
education systems to respond to their economic manpower needs.
8.2 Objectives of higher education:
The objectives of the university
should be to produce leaders of educational reform. It should extend the
frontiers of knowledge by research. Universities must be active partners in
societal development by researching and involvement in science and technology.
Universities must have the following attributes in order to fulfill their
responsibilities: academic freedom to teach and research without political
interference or pressure, an integrated approach to research and knowledge that
does not preclude deep specialization in the various disciplines, being part of
the society and not an ivory tower, and teachers who are a model of moral
behavior so that they can impart positive influences on the students.
9.0 EPISTEMOLOGICAL REFORM
9.1 Definition
Epistemology is the philosophy of knowledge that defines its main paradigms, asumptiomns, and methods. The core of the reform is reform of the various disciplines of knowledge. Each discipline has developed its own unique epistemology, methodology, and corpus of knowledge. All what we have discussed above is reforming the shell.
9.2 Vision and mission of epistemological reform
The long-term vision is accelerated growth of objective, universal knowledge that is beneficial to all humanity and allows a harmonious interaction of humans with their physical, social, and spiritual environment.
The practical mission is conceptual transformation of the paradigms, methodologies, and uses of disciplines of knowledge to conform to a universal monotheistic world view.
9.3 Goals of epistemological reform
The immediate goals are (a) de-constructing basic paradigms of existing disciplines and thus changing them from being parochial to being objective and universal. (b) Reconstructing paradigms of disciplines using universal guidelines. (c) Re-classifying the various disciplines of knowledge to reflect universal values and the monotheistic perspective. (d) Reforming the methodology of research to become objective, purposeful, and comprehensive, (e) Encouraging growth of knowledge through research, and (f) inculcating morally correct application of knowledge.
9.4 The scope of epistemological reform
The scope of reform will cover three areas: (a) classification of disciplines, tasniif al ‘uluum; (b) epistemology, nadhariyat al ma’arifat; and (c) methodology, mahajiyat al ma’arifat.
9.5 Practical steps
/ tasks of the reform process:
Mastery of our intellectual heritage
The experience of newly
industrialized Asian countries of Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore,
and Korea) has been that they first looked inwards in their culture and
heritage for the guiding philosophy of their scientific and technological
development. They built on what they had
and were therefore able to achieve a harmonious absorption of science and
technology. The heritage must be understood with understanding of the changing
time-space dimensions. This is then followed by clarification of basic
epistemological issues and relations as they relate to the present and the
past.
Critique of the disciplines
Critique of basic paradigms of various disciplines involves a
critical review of the basic assumptions and concepts in the methodology of
each discipline. The critique should be balanced pointing out the strengths and
weaknesses. It should address the core conceptual issues and avoid being
trapped into detailed and sometimes peripheral issues. The critique should not
be undertaken in a cultural or civilizational vacuum. It should be appreciated
that modern disciplines developed in a Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman European
environment which is the source of many background unstated assumptions in each
discipline.
Review of teaching materials
Islamic reviews of existing
text-books and teaching materials is undertaken to identify deviations from the
universal episteme and the Islamic methodology. This will guide the process of
reform by focussing only on areas in the discipline that are not in conformity
with the universal paradigms. The review is useful in assessing the scale of
the task ahead. Many enthusiasts of reform were discouraged as soon as they saw
that textbooks and other teaching materials were so many and so voluminous that
the task of educational reform can not be achieved in a short time.
Preparing introductions to disciplines, muqaddimat al ‘uluum
The first and logical step in the reform of a
discipline is to write a new introduction to it. This should establish basic
principles and paradigms that determine and regulate the methodology, content,
and teaching of a particular discipline. The introduction should set out the
major epistemological and methodological issues of the discipline to guide
research, teaching, and practical application. Students of the discipline will
study the introduction first before embarking on studying the discipline. The
student will in this way have a new orientation to the discipline that will
enable him or her to deal with the discipline in a critical way. He will be
able to recognise aspects of the discipline that agree with the universal
frame-work and separate them from those that do not. This sets him on the road
to new creative thinking that helps him make original contributions to the
discipline from the Islamic perspective. The Introduction to the discipline can
therefore be looked at as a tool to transform a student from an uncritical
consumer of knowledge to one who is critically selective. A parallel can be drawn with the Ibn
Khaldun’s Introduction to History, muqaddimat, which was the first book
of his universal History, kitaab al ‘Ibar.
Ibn Khaldun’s work is rightfully called the
philosophy of History because it presents generalizing and methodological
concepts that make sense out of the narration of historical events. We can, in
other words, say that the muqaddimat enables a student to understand the
study of History. Ibn Khaldun presented a rational/logical, analytical, and
encyclopaedic approach to History. He was original in his thinking and
developed new terminology to convey his ideas. He explained how the physical
environment affects the growth of human society from the most primitive to the
most sophisticated urban centers. He explained the determinants of leadership
and the political system. He explained the relation between group feeling, ‘asabiyyat,
on one hand and the rise and fall of political dynasties on the other. He
explained the rise and fall of civilizations and the factors that regulate
economic and social conditions. The conclusions presented in the muqaddimat
was based on Ibn Khaldun’s wide experience in practical politics as well as his
extensive travels in the then known Muslim world. Ibn Khaldun was a Muslim
scholar and many of his ideas were influenced by Islamic precepts. The debate
is however still open whether the muqaddimat can be considered an Islamic
Introduction to History or is just an introduction.
Research
Discipline reform is not an
administrative effort. It is academic and will progress well if there is
accumulation of published research. The research will generate more interest
and will engage academicians and educators in serious debate about the issues
of reform.
Teaching material
Publication and testing of new
text-books and other teaching materials is a necessary step towards reform by
putting into the hands of teachers and students reformed material. The process
of reform will not achieve its ultimate goal of social reform and societal
change unless it becomes part of the curricula at schools and universities.
There are several education institutions that complain of the major handicap of
not finding enough material to use in the class-room. Any material produced
will find a ready audience. It is not necessary to wait until such material is
perfected. What is available can be used and can be improved based on feed-back
from field experience. Graduates of schools and universities who have used the
teaching material will be a different product from those who went through other
curricula and will be the true pioneers of Islamization when they in turn start
researching and teaching.
Applied knowledge
Developing applied knowledge in
science and technology from basic knowledge will be the last stage of the
reform process. This is because in the end it is science and technology that
actually lead to changes in society.