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Presentation at a seminar in Nigeria via online on Saturday, 27 June 2020; by: Professor Omar Hasan Kasule, Professor of Epidemiology and Bioethics at the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City and Chairman of the Institutional Review Board and the Human and Medical Ethics Committee.
WHY AUTHOR OUR OWN BOOKS?
• Psychological: Self-dependence, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-reliance, intellectual self-determination, and intellectual independence.
• Economic: Import substitution, cheaper books, wider availability/access for students, encourage local publishing industry.
• Educational: Integrated education, value-added education. §Societal: social improvement following epistemological, knowledge, and educational transformation.
• Common sense: Simply because we have our own epistemology.
DEFINITIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
• European definition of Knowledge: justified belief in a fact (wrong or right).
• Islamic definition of knowledge: Knowledge (‘ilm) is true in contrast to lack of knowledge (jahl).
• Degrees of knowledge based on certainty: ‘ayn al yaqeen (based on human observation), haqq al yaqeen (truth behind observed reality). ‘ilm al yaqeen (knowledge of the highest grade).
• Progression in knowledge: (a) linguistic: French connaitre (acquaintance) to savoir (knowledge). (b) information science: raw data then information then knowledge then wisdom (hikmat) (c) deduction to induction and induction to theory.
• Humans can have knowledge: The Qur’an asserted existence of knowledge of divine source (Surat al Rahman:1-4). This debunks the epistemic skepticism about human knowledge.
DEFINITION OF EPISTEMOLOGY (‘ILM AL ‘ILM OR THE SCIENCE OF KNOWLEDGE)
• European secular epistemology: Epistemology (derived from Greek epistēmē, meaning 'knowledge', and logos meaning discourse) is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge: nature, justification, rationality or belief, sources and related matters. It generally denies revelation as a source of knowledge. Its schools are empiricism (knowledge from sensory experience), rationalism (knowledge from reason), skepticism (questions the possibility of human knowledge), idealism (everything we know can be reduced to mental phenomena) etc.
• Islamic divine epistemology (nadhariayyat al ma’arifat al islamiyat): study of the sources of knowledge to reach the truth; the sources determine all other aspects of knowledge. Knowledge can be innate or acquired, useful or harmful, a priori or posteriori. Human knowledge is limited (cannot know the unseen or the future with certainty). Integrated epistemology re-integrates wahy as a source of knowledge.
SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE
• Primary sources of knowledge. Revelation (wahy) and empirical experience (tajribat) are primary sources of knowledge. Reason (‘aql) is a secondary source that envelopes empirical knowledge because it provides the hypotheses and the interpretation of experimentation. As will be argued later in the paper the term ‘aql can cover both rational and empirical knowledge. In Muslim experience reason as free philosophical speculation not related to empirical reality became jadal caused a lot of confusion.
• Doubtful sources of knowledge with no unanimity about their independent standing: ‘ilm laduniy, inspiration (ilham), intuition (hadas), instinct (jabillat), geomancy (firasat), dreams (ru’uyat), and illumination (kashf).
• Invalid sources of knowledge: magic & sorcery (sihr); astrology (tanjiim); foretelling (kahanat & tatayur) and other forms of superstition.
ORIGINS OF GREEK EPISTEMOLOGY
• Socrates سقراط (d.399 BC) the father of European philosophy asked a lot of questions, provided few answers and wrote nothing down. He inspired the thinking of philosophers who came after him.
• Plato افلاطون (d. 347 BC) called the first teacher (al mu’allim al awwal) by Muslim philosophers, was Socrate’s student. He denied the reality of the material world and taught that the apparent and constantly changing world of concrete objects grasped by the senses was different from the unseen world of abstract objects that was grasped by pure reason.
• Aristotle ارسطو (d. 322 BC) Plato’s student synthesized previous philosophies to create the lexicon and methods of inquiry of today’s European philosophy. His interests were empirical study of physical and biological sciences, logic, and ethics. He had an impact on Christian and Muslim theologians.
ORIGINS OF GREEK EPISTEMOLOGY, CON’T. - 1 (PLATO) افلاطون
ORIGINS OF GREEK EPISTEMOLOGY, CON’T. - 2 (PLATO) افلاطون
MUSLIM THINKERS WERE INFLUENCED BY GREEK LOGIC AND EPISTEMOLOGY
• Al Farabi, Abu Nasr Muhammad bin Muhammad Al-Farabi (d. 950 CE) was known as the second teacher (al mu’allim al thaani) following Aristotle. He preserved original texts of Greek philosophy and wrote comments and treatises about them. His epistemology was near that of Plato inclined to rational knowledge.
• Ibn Sina, Abu Ali al Husain Ibn Abdullah Ibn al Hasan ibn Ali (d. 1037 CE) was a physician and a philosopher influenced by Aristotelian philosophy. He was midway between the rationalism of Plato and the empiricism of Aristotle.
MUSLIM THINKERS WERE INFLUENCED BY GREEK LOGIC AND EPISTEMOLOGY, CON’T.
• Ibn Rushd, Abū l-Walīd Muḥammad Ibn ʾAḥmad Ibn Rušd. (d. 1198CE) wrote commentaries on Aristotle and became famous in Europe. He was closer to the empiricism of Aristotle. Ibn Rushd responded to Al Ghazali’s attack on Greek philosophy in a book Tahatuf al Tahatuf (incoherence of the incoherence) arguing that reason cannot contradict wahy because they are two different methods of reaching the truth and ‘truth cannot contradict truth’. Ibn Rushd argued that if wahy and ‘aql contradict wahy must be interpreted allegorically (ta’awil) by ulu al albaab (3:7).
• Fakhruddin AlRazi, Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Umar Ibn al Husayn al Bakri al Tabaristani (d. 1210CE) was a polymath, a philosopher, a pioneer of inductive logic, and a mufassir. In his book Asas al taqdiis fi ilm al kalam listed 4 alternatives when evidences from aql and naql are apparently contradictory: (a) accept the contradiction, (b) reject both, (c) accept naql and reject aql, (d) accept aql and interpret naql (t’awill). The 4th alternative caused much controversy.
GREEK IMPACT ON MUSLIM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
• Greek thought, logic, and epistemology impacted the ummat in 2 episodes (a) in the first 3 centuries of hijra when Muslims translated Greek knowledge into Arabic (b) in the colonial and episodes (a) in the first 3 centuries of hijra when Muslims translated Greek knowledge into Arabic (b) in the colonial and post-colonial era when European education systems influenced by Greek epistemology were imposed on the ummat. Greek rationality had negative impact on the ‘aqidat and science of Muslims.
• The Qur’an and empirical observation: Driven by the Qur’anic motivation to observe the environment (signs in people (anfus) and the cosmic horizons (aafaaq) fussilat:53 early Muslims observed and experimented correcting wrong Greek scientific facts. Improved Muslim science passed to Europe during the crusades triggered the European renaissance that led to the scientific, agricultural, and industrial revolutions that made Europe a World power.
• Decline of Muslim science: Muslims learned and benefitted from Greek empirical science and technology. Muslim scientific knowledge declined by the end of the first Abbasid era due to political instability and Greek philosophy, epistemology, and logic that were more deductive than inductive and despised experimentation. early by their acquisition of Greek logic and epistemology that were more deductive.
MUSLIM SCHOLARS’ REJECTION OF GREEK EPISTEMOLOGY
• Al-Ghazali, Hujjat al Islam Al Mujaddid Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsiyy al-Ġaz(z)ālīy; (d. 1111 CE) wrote The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa) rejecting the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and attacking Muslim philosophers like Ibn Sina and Al Farabi etc. He disproved their arguments using logical arguments and texts from the wahy. Al Ghazali’s writings impacted European scholars like Thomas Aquinas (who knew Arabic), David Hume, Dante, Moses Ben Maimon.
• Ibn Taymiyah, Sheikh al Islam Taqī ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328 CE). His name is from the female side of his family named after Taymiyah famous for her scholarship and piety. He refuted Aristotelian philosophy. He authored Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa al-naql (Removing Conflict between Reason and Revelation) also called Al-Muwāfaqa (Harmony). He used logical arguments and textual evidence to prove that clear ‘aqli (sariih al ma ‘aquul) agrees with correctly transmitted naqli (sahih al manquul).
• Lack of contradiction between ‘aql and naql underlies the movement of integration of epistemology (i.epistemology) and integration of knowledge (IOK).
IBN TAYMIYAH 1
IBN TAYMIYAH 2
IBN TAYMIYAH 3
IBN TAYMIYAH 4
IBN TAYMIYAH 5
IBN TAYMIYAH 6
RE-INTEGRATION OF WAHY INTO EPISTEMOLOGY
• ‘Ilm naqli is revealed and transmitted knowledge whose recognized source is the Qur’an and sunnat; other alleged sources are not unanimously accepted.
• ‘Ilm ‘aqli is rational knowledge based on human intellect, human observation, and experimentation. Historically There was a time when ilm aqli was based on logical reasoning without empirical observation and experimentation. This has now reversed and ‘ilm aqli is mostly the same as ‘ilm tajriibi. The question is why reason out phenomena deductively when you can observe them inductively. In practice deduction makes hypotheses that are tested experimentally and the intellect is necessary to interpret experimental findings.
• There is no essential contradiction between transmitted knowledge (‘ilm naqli) and rational empirical knowledge (‘ilm ‘aqli). Any apparent contradictions are either due to incorrect empirical observations or due to human intellectual deficiency in understanding ‘ilm naqli. We are going to see next how this integrated epistemology solves the problem of duality in Muslim education.
CRISIS OF DUALITY IN MUSLIM KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION
• Traditional Muslim Education: Sciences (natural and social) declined with the general decline after the early Abbasid era. A traditional education system based on ‘ilm naqli (Qur’an, sunnat, fiqh, siirat, language) continued unchanged in its curricula to our day with some institutions surviving (Azhar in Cairo, Qarawiyin in Fez, Qairawan/Zeytouna in Tunis, Dar al Uloom in South Asia, Pondok/Pesantren in South East Asia, Masdrasah in the Middle East) and others disappearing (Nizamiya of Baghdad, Nishapur, Balkh, Herat, and Isfahan; Timbuktu University in West Africa; East) and others disappearing (Nizamiya of Baghdad, Nishapur, Balkh, Herat, and Isfahan; Timbuktu University in West Africa; University of Cordoba in Andalusia; Ottoman Madrasahs etc).
• Modern secular European education: was introduced by colonial rulers who marginalized/neglected the traditional Muslim education system as well as its graduates and set up a European system. This became the second encounter between Muslims and Greek epistemology.
• Negative impact of the crisis of duality: The crisis was due to 2 systems of education with different and contradictory world views and epistemologies. The educated elite of the ummah was bifurcated by education systems. Neither group had the integrated knowledge needed to solve the complex problems of the ummat. The consequence is intellectual stagnation, social decline, and weakness.
INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT INSTITUTIONAL LEVELS
• World Muslim Education Conferences: The first World Conference on Muslim Education held in Makka in 1977 and a meeting of intellectuals in Logano in 1979 recognized duality as the main problem of Muslim education. Follow-up conferences expanded the theme: Islamabad 1400 H/1980 M, Dhakka in 1401 H/1981 M, Jakarta in 1402 H/1982 MD, and Cairo in 1985 M and Cape town in September 1996. The last conference focused on writing teaching materials for integrated curricula.
• Research Institutions on integration of knowledge were set up: (a) IIIT in Virginia USA pioneered by Dr Ismail Faruqi, Dr Abdulhamid AbuSulayman, Dr Taha Jabir Alwani, Dr Ahmad Totonji, Dr Jamal Barzanji, Dr Hisham AlTalib and others. (b) Islamic Education Academy in Cambridge pioneered by Prof Ali Ashraf and many others.
• Public Islamic universities to teach integrated curricula were set up Kuala Lumpur 1983, Islamabad, Kushtia Bangladesh, Niger., Uganda. These were followed by many private ones all over the World mostly in the 2000s.
• Integrated Muslim schools are found in South Africa, UK, USA, Australia, etc.
INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT DISCIPLINE LEVEL
• The effort to produce integrated curricula and teaching materials lagged 20-30 years behind the establishment of integrated institutions.
• IOK has to start with existing disciplines and cannot succeed if lagged 20-30 years behind the establishment of integrated institutions. §IOK has to start with existing disciplines and cannot succeed if started from tabula rasa. Each discipline has developed its unique basic concepts, epistemology, paradigms, methodology, and corpus of knowledge.
• Each professor or lecturer must start with his own discipline and within that discipline the course that he/she teaches.
• Practical steps towards IOK are: (a) a short course on the essence of methodological sciences of usul al fiqh, ilm al tafsir, and ilm al hadith (b) Review books and articles written about IOK in your discipline or similar disciplines (c) in view of the above summarize and critique the main epistemological, methodological, and conceptual paradigms of your discipline (d) review existing teaching materials from the i.epistemological point of view and identify what to remove, change, or add (e) prepare a course outline if you do not have one making sure include an i.epistemological dimension (f) prepare an extensive bibliography using both general and IOK sources (g) submit a book proposal and a research grant application (h) Now you are ready either alone and preferably in cooperation with others to start writing units.
RECENT EFFORTS TO WRITE TEACHING MATERIALS IN BANGLADESH
RECENT EFFORTS TO WRITE TEACHING MATERIALS IN MALAYSIA
PREPARATORY STEPS TO WRITING INTEGRATED TEACHING MATERIALS
• Set up 2 national project coordination offices one for schools and one for higher education.
• Obtain official approval/sponsorship (if possible) at the level of the university, faculty, or department for developing and using teaching materials in class.
• Obtain official approval of including writing teaching material in academic promotion of professors and lecturers.
• Seek additional material incentives for writers in the form of research grants.
• Prepare a comprehensive data base of professors/lecturers interested in writing or reviewing teaching materials because they will be peer reviewers of whatever is written.
PREPARATORY STEPS TO WRITING INTEGRATED TEACHING MATERIALS, CON’T.
• Domesticate two forms (a) Research grant to write IOK teaching materials (b) Book proposal (c) Peer reviewer guidelines and form.
• Set up an internet portal and upload (a) all IOK books available locally and (b) links to data bases of IOK books, journals, and articles (c) Links to free electronic books on all academic disciplines such as the Library of Congress at www.b-ok.org.
WRITING A UNIT OR CHAPTER
• Identify the discipline and the specific course (an officially approved course outline/description).
• Collect source material (books and journal articles) from online academic data sources (general and Islamic).
• Plan each unit or chapter to be one class period. Identify learning objectives, learning outcomes. unit outline, keywords, epistemological overview and paradigmatic concepts.
WRITING A UNIT OR CHAPTER, CON’T.
• The contents must fulfill all the items in the approved course outline/description with the addition of i.epistemology as is required or as is relevant. The epistemological input can be an over-view at the start or end of the unit as an epistemological introduction (muqaddimat) or can be related directly to relevant sections of the unit.
• Prepare your PowerPoint for teaching as usual. Then transform that into a unit or chapter.
• Different professors or lecturers under the guidance of one of them as editor to ensure uniformity can agree to share the work with each writing assigned units.
PEER REVIEWING A UNIT/CHAPTER
• Each unit can be shared with other professors/lecturers teaching the same or similar course outline for peer review. The peer review can also be postponed until all the units are written.
• The reviewers shall use a uniform review checklist.
• The reviews shall be anonymous and will be coordinated directly by the project director.
• Where feasible some small incentive shall be provided to peer reviewers.
• The author(s) shall use their own classroom experience of teaching the units + the comments from peer reviewers to improve/enhance the draft of the unit.
• Since this is a new endeavor we will need 3-4 cycles of writing and review before reaching the stage of publication either electronic or paper.
PUBLICATION, DISSEMINATION, AND COPYRIGHT
• The National coordination office will be responsible for language editing, typesetting, and publication.
• We want to encourage e-book publication as much as possible but paper copies will also be printed as needed.
• Details of copyright and royalties will be discussed later.
APPENDICES
• Course outline form.
• Book plan.
• Reviewer guidelines and forms.