970712L - ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

Lecture delivered to 1^st year medical students at Kuantan, Pahang on July 12th 1997 by Prof Dr Omar Hasan Kasule, Sr. Deputy Dean for Research and Post-graduate Affairs, Kulliyah of Medicine IIUM

OUTLINE

1.0 THE CONCEPT AND HISTORY OF ISLAMISATION

• Definition of Islamisation: recasting knowledge to conform to aqidat al tauhid
• Islamisation in the early period: learning and improving Greek sciences
• Islamisation in the recent period: solving the problem of duality in education
• Islamic Education Movement: 6 conferences: Makka, Islamabad, Dhakka, Jakarta, Cairo, Capetown
• Islamic universities: Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Mbale, Niger
• Specialised institutions: IIIT, Islamic Academy, Iqra
• IIIT Experience: Islamisation is a complicated long-term project

2.0 REFORM OF DISCIPLINES

• Nature of the reform process: academic, objective, practical
• Vision: objective universal knowledge for all humanity
• Mission: conceptual transformation of paradigms, methodologies, and uses
• Goals: de-westernisation, reconstruction, reclassify, research, and use
• Areas of reform: classification, methodology, epistemology

3.0 MIS-UNDERSTANDING OF THE REFORM PROCESS

• Throwing away the baby with dirty water
• Re-inventing the wheel
• Theologizing knowledge
• Parochialise knowledge
• Change of content
• Insertion of Qur’anic verses and hadith
• Searching for scientific facts in the Qur’an
• Qur’anic proof of scientific facts
• Parallels between Islamic and western concepts
• Islamise terminology
• Islamise the scientist

4.0 PRACTICAL STEPS/TASKS OF THE REFORM PROCESS

• Basics of Islamic methodological sciences
• New reading of the Qur’an and sunnat
• Clarification of basic epistemological concepts
• Islamic critique of basic paradigms of diciplines
• Review of existing books and teaching materials
• Cumulation of research
• Publication and testing of new books

5.0 THE CHALLENGE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL

• Commitment to reform
• Master your discipline/subject
• Master basics of Islamic methodological sciences
• Critique your discipline
• Orient research and work to Islamisation
• Write and publish your ideas and experiences
• Net-work with others
• Teach and inspire others

1.0 THE CONCEPT AND HISTORY OF ISLAMIZATION:

Islamization of knowledge has become a very popular term and has taken on an identity of its own such that the semantics are debated without dealing with the underlying concepts. Islamization is a process of recasting the corpus of human knowledge to conform with the basic tenets of aqidat al tauhid. When we talk about Islamic or Islamized knowledge we should be careful not to imply that there is knowledge that is not Islamic. All true knowledge whatever its kind and source is Islamic. Islamic knowledge has no time or space constraints because Islam is universal being suitable for every place and time. Islamized knowledge will be for the benefit of all humanity and not monopolized by Muslims. The process of Islamization does not call for re-invention of the wheel of knowledge but calls for reform, correction, and re-orientation. Islamization is an evolutionary and not revolutionary movement. To avoid any further semantic confusion the term ‘reform of disciplines’ will be used subsequently.

The concept of Islamization of knowledge is not new in Islam. The 3^rd century AH witnessed a process of Islamising Greek knowledge with much enthusiasm. The process was not without its pitfalls that have been recorded in history. Modern scholars working on Islamisation of their disciplines will benefit from the previous experience to avoid repeating many of the mistakes.

The early Islamisation process started with astronomical, physical, biological, and mathematical sciences. It later led to development of the disciplines of theology (kalam) and Islamic philosophy as counterparts to Greek concepts. The early Muslim scientists like us today felt the problem of dichotomy of knowledge keenly and tried to bridge the gap with varying success. They not only tried to Islamise foreign knowledge but also embarked on developing new knowledge through research.

The recent Islamisation movement had its earliest beginnings in the 14^th century when several Muslim thinkers wrote about the cultural and intellectual invasion of the ummat promoted by an imposed and foreign education system. The responses to this invasion varied. Some just rejected the European education system and European sciences altogether. Some accepted them whole-heartedly. Some others accepted them with reservations their argument being that they could be de-Europeanised.

The First World Conference on Islamic Education held in Makka in 1397 AH/1977 AD was a major event in the Islamisation movement. The Conference succeeded in defining the problem of dichotomy or duality of knowledge and recommended several general approaches to its solution. Follow-up conferences that elaborated practical approaches to solve the problem were held at Islamabad in 1400 AH/1980 AD, Dhakka in 1401 AH/1981 AD, Jakarta in 1402 AH/1982 AD, and Cairo in 1985. The movement thereafter appeared to lose momentum and a sense of direction until a fifth conference was held in and a 6^th one in Capetown in 1996.

Practical steps to Islamise knowledge were undertaken in this period. Many Islamic elementary and secondary schools were established with the aim of making their curricula reflect the teachings of Islam. Islamic universities were also established in Malaysia in 1983, Niger in ….., Uganda in…., Islamabad in….. These were essentially modern universities modeled on the European model within an Islamic context.

Specialised institutions were set up to spear-head the Islamisation process: The International Institute of Islamic Thought in Virginia, USA,  the Islamic Academcy in Cambridge, UK, the Muslim Education Trust of Nigeria, The Muslim Education Trust in UK, Iqea International Education Foundation in Chicago, USA.

IIIT was registered in the US in 1981. It has held many conferences and published many books to publicise the concept of Islamisation. The experience of  IIIT illustrates the difficulties and challenges of Islamisation. From its inception, IIIT set itself the task of producing textbooks for the various disciplines of knowledge that would present the Islamic perspective. The process required mastery of both the European disciplines of knowledge and the traditional Islamic sciences. This would be followed by a critical analysis of both. The results of the analysis would be applied to the practical realities in the ummat in order to produce a new synthesis that would be in text-books used in schools and universities. It was expected that the student who would use the new text-books would develop a new mind-frame in an intellectual-cultural context that would facilitate solving the ummat’s outstanding problems and to contribute to growth of human knowledge. This simplified schemata could not be executed easily because there was a lot of preparatory work that needed to be done. IIIT therefore started by producing books on background material needed to prepare the ground for the Islamisation project. It held seminars and colloquia to discuss specific issues. A major problem encountered was lack of  intellectual manpower capable of contributing to the project. There are few scholars in the ummat who have enough grasp of both the classical Islamic and modern European disciplines to be able to make an original contribution. The few who are available are so busy in day-to-day political and social problems of their countries that they have little time or energy for scholarly work. The summary of the IIIT’s experience over the period 1981-1997 is that the process of Islamisation is larger and more complicated than had been anticipated.

2.0 REFORM OF DISCIPLINES:

Discipline reform is the most important item on the agenda of the contemporary Islamization movement. Successful reform must have the following characteristics: pro-active intellectual effort, academically and methodologically rigorous, objective, and has practical consequences. 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 tauhid. The immediate goals are to de-Europeanize basic paradigms of existing disciplines and thus change them from being parochial to being objective and universal, reconstruct paradigms of disciplines using Islamic universal guidelines, reclassify disciplines of knowledge, reform the methodology of research, encourage growth of knowledge through research, and inculcate morally correct application of knowledge

The following are the main areas in which discipline reform will be undertaken: classification of disciplines, epistemology, and methodology. Islamisation will succeed in an ambiance that emphasizes revival of ijtihad and research, motivates researchers and scientists to excel in knowledge, and inculcates correct attitudes to the use of knowledge especially science and technology.

Classification of disciplines in most universities reflects the European world-view and epistemological assumptions. Some form of re-classification will be needed to reflect tauhidi assumptions.

An Islamic epistemological thought must be developed from the Qur’an, the sunnat, and the ummatic intellectual experience over the past 14 centuries. This can incorporate experiences of other communities even if non-Muslim.

The methodology of research must be reformed to remove all sources of bias in the selection of fields of investigation, hypothesis formulation, data management and analysis.

The Qur’an is very central to the discipline reform process but must be used correctly. The Qur’an is not a text-book of any discipline although it has data and facts on various disciplines. The Qur’an gives general principles that establish objectivity and protect against biased research methodology. The Qur’an creates a world-view that encourages research to extend the frontiers of knowledge and its use for the benefit of the whole universe.

3.0 MISUNDERSTANDING THE REFORM PROCESS

The process of discipline reform is wont to be mis-understood and mis-represented. Reform does not imply that all what was in the discipline was un-Islamic. There are many good and true things accepted by Islam in many of the modern disciplines. Reform is not theologizing knowledge since Islam is universal and all-embracing. Reform does not seek to parochialise knowledge and tailor it to a particular culture or place. The reform we have in mind is of paradigms, methodology and uses of knowledge and not its contents. Content is changing so rapidly that reforming it is clearly futile; by the time one aspect of content is reformed, the discipline has already moved ahead and the reform is already outdated.

Wrong approaches to discipline reform have occurred and these have given the whole process a bad reputation. The following approaches have been used and have not succeeded because they did not address the core issues of the paradigms and methodology of disciplines: ‘Insertion’ of Qur’anic verses and hadiths in an otherwise European piece of writing, searching for scientific facts in the Qur’an, searching for Qur’anic proof of scientific facts, searching for Qur’anic scientific miracles, searching for parallels between Islamic and European concepts, using Islamic in place of European terminologies, adding supplementary ideas to the European corpus of knowledge, and adding Islamic subjects to European school or university curricula.

The possibility of discipline reform by spiritual reform of the student, scholar, or researcher has also been suggested at one time or another. Whereas it is possible for a scientist to be good, it is difficult for him to change his discipline and turn it around on his or her own. A major change involves a system and not an individual.

4.0 PRACTICAL STEPS / TASKS OF THE REFORM PROCESS:

The following steps must be followed by anyone, individual or teams, involved in the reform process: (a) grounding in Islamic methodological sciences: basics of usul al fiqh,  ulum al Qur’an and ulum al hadith, (b) reading Qur’an and sunnat with understanding of the changing time-space dimensions while at the same time knowing limitations of literal reading and interpretations (c) clarification of basic epistemological issues and relations: wahy and aql, ghaib and shahada, ‘ilm and iman (d) Islamic critique of basic paradigms of various disciplines (e) Islamic reviews of existing text-books and teaching materials to identify deviations from the tauhidi episteme (f) cumulation of published research (g) publication and testing of new text-books and other teaching materials (h) establishment of specialized research institutions and (i) developing applied knowledge in science and technology from basic knowledge.

The priorities among disciplines: The following is the order of priority for discipline reform: basic natural sciences, applied sciences and technology,  social sciences, humanities, and Islamic sciences. Natural sciences are trend-setters both in the field of methodology and social change. Social sciences will be easier to reform because they have now largely adopted the empirical methodology of the natural sciences. Humanities need to be recast using the Qur’anic methodology of analyzing the growth and decline of human civilizations and societies. Islamic sciences became fossilized over the centuries when ijthad was limited; they need a major revival. They will have to be purged of hellenic, judeo-christian and other influences and will have to be rebuilt directly on the basis of the Qur’an and authentic sunnat. These important sciences will have to be approached taking the time-space dimension into consideration. Since they represent eternally-valid revelation, they must have relevance for each period and each place.

5.0 THE CHALLENGE

What can you do as an individual?: You must develop commitment to the discipline reform process. You must master your discipline well; you can not reform or improve what you do not know. If you did not get a traditional Islamic education endeavor to get the minimum essential knowledge of usul al fiqh, Qur’an and hadith methodology. Critique the basic paradigms of your discipline on the basis of tauhid and the universal and perennial values of Islam. Orient your research and teaching to Islamization priorities. Write and publish your ideas and experiences. Net-work with others who hold similar views and are engaged in similar endeavours. Teach and inspire others to take up the challenge of educational reform.