180219P - INTELLECTUAL PRODUCTION AND NOT CONSUMPTION: RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ON THOUGHT AND KNOWLEDGE

Paper presented at a workshop on held in Mombasa, Kenya, March 10, 2018 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard)

 

 

1.0  THREE ALTERNATIVES:

• We have many crises (knowledge and thought) responsible for ummatic weakness in the social, political, economic, technological dimensions. requiring intellectual solutions and we need to select the right one among 3 approaches
• The first approach is bringing back and blindly following historical solutions from Islamic history, hall islami taqliidi
• The second approach is to import and blindly copy contemporary European solutions, hall ajnabi
• The third approach is original thinking and solving problems from Islamic principles that  trascend time and space, the contemporary Islamic solution, hall islami mu’asir

 

2.0  CRISIS OF KNOWLEDGE: DEFINITION:

• The most important manifestation of the knowledge crisis is dichotomy in the education system: traditional Islamic vs. imported European.
• Dichotomy of the education system results in intellectual schizophrenia at the level of the individual and the society
• The dichotomy among the society’s elites (traditionally-educated vs modern educated) leads to disharmony
• Modern education systems have eliminated the moral dimension and violated the aim of producing an integrated and perfect individual.

 

3.0  CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC SOLUTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE CRISIS:

• The knowledge crisis can be resolved by Integration of Knowledge (IOK) starting with epistemological integration through integration of the disciplines of knowledge and ending with integration of the education system.
• Integration essentially means research and teaching of empirical knowledge within the context of the tauhidi world-view as well as acknowledging wahy as a source of knowledge.
• The integration process should start with social sciences and humanities. Disciplines to be covered in the reform process are: education (pedagogy and andragogy), social sciences and humanities (sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, historiography, literature etc), natural sciences and technology (medical and health disciplines, engineering, architecture, economics, etc).

 

4.0  CRISIS OF KNOWLEDGE: THE NEED FOR A NEW STRATEGY BASED ON INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE:

• Educational and knowledge reform are a pre requisite for tajdid because tajdiid = idea + action. 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.
• 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.

 

5.0  CRISIS OF THOUGHT: THOUGHT FAILURE - 1:

• Thought failure in the ummah could manifests as intellectual stagnation, syncretism, lack of vision, superficiality, rituality, esoterism, sterile argumentation, and use of un-Islamic intellectual tools.
• Intellectual stagnation is suppression of the freedom of thought, closure of ijtihad, blind following, taqlid, and fanaticism for a madh’hab.
• Syncretism, talfiq, is juxtaposition of ideas that are incompatible without attempting to analyse them critically to arrive at a synthesis or favor one of them, tarjiih.

 

6.0  CRISIS OF THOUGHT: THOUGHT FAILURE - 2:

• There is lack of vision as a guide vision for the present and the future, ru'uyat mustaqbaliyyat.
• Superficiality, satahiyyat, is concern with minor inconsequential issues.
• False outward manifestations, shakliyaat, with a dead core is common.
• Sterile arguments, jadal, lead to no purpose or goal of practical utility.
• Intellectual analysis using un-islamic terminology and concepts compounds the intellectual confusion.

 

7.0  THOUGHT CRISIS: UNRESOLVED ISSUES:

• The woman; her nature, role, rights, and responsibilities; are still being debated.
• Plurality of opinion and practice is a cause of unnecessary controversy.
• Leadership, imamat, its qualifications, selection, roles, and scope of responsibility are not fully defined.
• Shura is presented as theoretical concept but its practical application is not properly worked out.
• Application of Islamic teachings to today’s realities: economy, education, politics, and international relations is still being discussed.

 

8.0  THOUGHT CRISIS: REFORM OF METHODOLOGY OF THOUGHT:

• Knowledge is one unity (wahdat al ma’arifat)
• Causality (sababiyah) is the basis for human action
• Human knowledge is limited (mahdudiyat al ma’arifat al insnaiyyat)
• There are constant and fixed natural laws (sunan)
• There is harmony the seen (shahadah) and the unseen (ghaib)
• There are 3 sources of knowledge: wahy, aql, & kaun (empirical)
• The duty of khilafat requires moral accountability
• Creation and existence have a purpose (ghaiyat al khalq)
• Truth is both absolute and relative (nisbiyat al haqiiqat)
• Human free will is the basis of accountability

 

9.0  THOUGHT CRISIS: FIQH AS A PROBLEM AND AS A SOLUTION:

• Muslim mind is fragmented by the fiqh of the parts, fiqh al juz’iyaat. Too much concern with the branches while the tree is rotting
• Complex problems of today require complex solutions.
• The thought crisis will be resolved by research that identifies and defines problems of the society and then proposed solutions based on the bird-eye view frame-work of the higher purposes of the Law, maqasid al shari’at.

• Religion, hifdh al ddiin;
• life, hifdh al nafs;
• progeny, hifdh al nasl;
• intellect, hifdh al ‘aql;
• resources, hifdh al maal.

 

10.0    THE TASKS:

• Collecting bibliographic resources
• Electronic republication of books:
• Translations/adaptations of books:
• Seminars and workshops on epistemological, educational, and thought/intellectual issues:
• Writing academic textbooks or teaching material:

 

11.0    COLLECTING BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES:

• A preliminary step to text book writing will be a compilation of an annotated bibliography of all what has been published on knowledge and thought from an Islamic perspective.
• The resources should be made available on line

 

12.0    ELECTRONIC REPUBLICATION OF BOOKS:

• There is a need to get 400+ books on epistemological, curricular, educational, and thought issues into the hands of thinkers, researchers, teachers, and post graduate students.
• This can be done by digitizing all the books and distributing them for free as CDs or by downloading from websites.

 

13.0    TRANSLATIONS/ADAPTATIONS OF BOOKS:

• We need to translate all 400+ books from Arabic to French and local languages.
• The translation will not literal and the books will be adapted by an African translator to be suitable to the African reader

 

14.0    SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS ON EPISTEMOLOGICAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND THOUGHT/INTELLECTUAL ISSUES:

• On the practical level, academic seminars need to be held in many places and involving all intellectuals to discuss the 2 crises: thought and knowledge.
• General seminars 1-day will introduce the problem and motivate the intellectuals to make contributions.
• Specialized 1-day seminars will bring together 3-5 specialists in each discipline at a time to present fully written papers on given topics followed by deep and serious discussion after which the authors can revise the papers and have them published online for wide and immediate access with printed versions being made available later.
• Books and articles written on epistemology and thought in other parts of the world can be made accessible by local intellectuals writing reviews that incorporate commentaries that reflect local problems.
• These reviews can also be published online for wider access.
• A measure of success will be the number of seminars held and the total number of online publications.

 

15.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: OBJECTIVES and TARGETS:

• Our main objective is to resolve the crisis of duality in education which has severe adverse intellectual and practical consequences for individuals and communities in our community.
• Integrating values and concepts in all disciplines of learning is the best approach to resolving the crisis of duality on knowledge and education.
• Epistemology and curriculum reform is a necessary step towards integrating moral values in education. This will lead to a knowledge renaissance that will eventually lead to an overall renaissance and revival of the community. Education reform is the necessary condition for social reform and rebuilding the ummatic civilization.
• Textbooks and reading material must be available to teachers and students in order to move this program ahead. We have no pretentions about the quality of the initial product. We have to start and improve as we go along. The aim will be producing a text book, reference book, or supplementary reading for each course.

 

16.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: HOW TO START:

• The first task will be assembling teams of discipline experts, making a list of school/college/university level courses for which books can be written, and assigning 5-10 writers to each book.
• The second task is to prepare draft course outlines and course descriptions with care taken not to depart too much to the structure and content currently used in India.
• The third task will be drawing up a list of references, general and Islamic, available on that course.
• The fourth task will be using the internet to compile relevant references not available in India so that they can be ordered from overseas.

 

17.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: WHAT FIELDS?:

• The books envisaged are all course introductions (called 101 in the US). The lists below are neither exhaustive but are examples of what can be written.
• The first group will be Islamic studies: Islam, Hadith sciences, Qur’an Sciences, Aqidat, Fiqh, Usul al Fiqh, History, Civilization and Culture, Ethics, Management, Social and Family System, Economic system, political system.
• The second group will be on courses taught in the country. They will look as much as possible as other books on the market in style and content except they will present Islamic concepts alongside or instead of the secular ones. They will in addition have a special section called ‘Islamic Input’ into the discipline.

 

 

18.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: WHAT DISCIPLINES 1?:

• Law: criminal law, civil law, jurisprudence, law of evidence, commercial law, law of banking, the legal system etc
• Business: business, management, auditing, accounting, finance, human resource management, economics, marketing, banking, finance, micro economics, macroeconomics, investment and risk management, organizational management, strategic management, total quality management, trade finance, tax accounting, zakat accounting etc. 

 

19.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: WHAT DISCIPLINES 2?:

• Political science: political thought, political systems, government systems, international politics, political economy.
• Education: Education, educational psychology, educational sociology, educational philosophy, educational technology, educational research, curriculum, educational organization and management,
• Other social sciences: sociology, art, historiography, public administration.
• Islamic thought: in the initial stage we shall rely on local commentaries of books published overseas. As the debate on local issues increases special books shall be produced on issues of gender, plurality, human rights, minority rights, freedom of expression, social control and social engineering etc.

  

20.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: STRUCTURE:

• The actual process of preparing the book will be more intense. Each book will have to be planned in detail (title, units / sections, and chapters (a chapter is one classroom session).
• Each chapter will have to be structured as: learning objectives, detailed outlines (headings and sub-headings), key words, Islamic input, glossary, index, case studies, texts from Islamic sources (Qur’an, sunnat, other books), illustrations (pictures and drawings), chapter summary, review (questions, tests, exercises), and assignments.

 

21.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: MANAGEMENT:

• A seminar to which lecturers and postgraduate students in each field will have to be called to a one-day seminar to discuss the book and clarify ideas and terminologies.
• An editorial board will be designated for each book (chief editor and co-editors), chapter writers, reviewers (local and overseas), advisors (local and overseas), and consultants (local and overseas). A data base will be set up for all persons working on each book: full names, addresses, emails, and brief CV.
• The editors and writers of each book will meet at least once every 2 months to review work produced. The chapters written can be tested in classroom notes for university students and getting feedback. The editors of each book and its writers will make an evaluation of the completed manuscript before handing it over to IOS for review.

 

22.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: REVIEW:

• IOS will undertake to find university lecturers who are experts in each discipline to review and make comments on the academic content of the book. These comments will be sent back to the writers who will however have the final decision on what to change in their book.
• Editing, proof reading, and type setting will be undertaken by the publications department.  The IIIT style sheet will be used for transliteration and other editorial aspects.
• The book will be published electronically. Paper versions will be produced only if there is a viable commercial demand for them.

 

23.0    PRODUCING TEXTBOOKS: REVIEW:

• All books will follow uniform technical specifications. 1-4 text book(s) can be produced for each course to allow for variations in approaches.
• The book shall be 100-300 pages. Attractive fonts and colors shall be used.
• The copyright of the book shall be held by xxx which shall also cover the editing, reviewing, printing, and distribution costs.
• A royalty of 12% will be paid for each book to be divided among the authors: 50% on submission of the manuscript and 50% on completion of all corrections prior to printing.
• For purposes of royalty collection each book shall be assumed to have a cover price of USD10 and to sell 3000 copies in its first edition.
• The editors and writers shall undertake to produce a new edition of the book every 2-3 years.