220816P - INTEGRATION OF TRANSMISSION AND REASON

Presented at a workshop on IOK and Textbook Writing at Riphah International University Islamabad on 29 October 2022 by Omar Hasan K Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK). MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Professor of Epidemiology and Bioethics

1.0 RE-INTEGRATION OF WAHY INTO EPISTEMOLOGY - 1

• ‘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 empirical knowledge, ‘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.

2.0 RE-INTEGRATION OF WAHY INTO EPISTEMOLOGY - 2

• 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.
• There have been confusion about what source of knowledge to use. ‘Ilm naqli is used exclusively in matters of ethics and morality. ‘Ilm ‘aqli is used to answer questions of an empirical nature but requires the guidance of ‘ilm naqli regarding fundamentals like objectivity (istiqamat), ethics (akhlaq), and purposiveness (gha’iyyat).
• We are going to see next how this integrated epistemology solves the problem of duality in Muslim education.

3.0 CRISIS OF DUALITY IN MUSLIM KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION - 1

• 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.
• Surviving institutions of traditional education: Azhar in Cairo, Qarawiyin in Fez, Qairawan/Zeytouna in Tunis, Dar al Uloom in South Asia, Pondok/Pesantren in South East Asia, Madrasat in the Middle East.
• Institutions of traditional education that disappeared: Nizamiya of Baghdad, Nishapur, Balkh, Herat, and Isfahan; Timbuktu University in West Africa; the University of Cordoba in Andalusia; Ottoman Madrasahs, etc).

4.0 CRISIS OF DUALITY IN MUSLIM KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION - 2

• 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. It presented a worldview different from that of Muslim society.
• Crisis of duality in knowledge and thought: 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. Those who studied in both systems were even more confused.
• The consequence of the education crisis was intellectual schizophrenia, intellectual stagnation, intellectual dependence, lack of innovation, social decline, and weakness (political, economic, military, etc).

5.0 INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT INSTITUTIONAL LEVELS - 1

• World Muslim Education Conferences: The first World Conference on Muslim Education was 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, Cairo in 1985 M, and Cape Town in September 1996. The last conference focused on writing teaching materials for integrated curricula.
• Research Institutions on the 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.

6.0 INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT INSTITUTIONAL LEVELS - 2

• Public Islamic universities to teach integrated curricula were set up in Kuala Lumpur in 1983, Islamabad in 1980, Kushtia Bangladesh in 1986, Niger in 1986, and Uganda in 1988. These were followed by many private ones all over the World mostly in the 2000s.
• Private Islamic universities proliferated in Muslim majority and Muslim minority countries. They held the lofty goal of an integrated education system but could not achieve much in the short term because of a lack of suitable curricula and teaching materials.
• Integrated Muslim schools are found in South Africa, the UK, the USA, Australia, etc. They have been successful in creating an Islamic cultural and social environment in the school but they suffer from the same problem as Islamic universities due to lack of integrated curricula and teaching materials.

7.0 INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT DISCIPLINE LEVEL - 1

• 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 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.

8.0 INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT DISCIPLINE LEVEL - 2 Practical steps

• A short course on the essence of methodological sciences of usul al fiqh, ilm al tafsir, and ilm al hadith.
• Review books and articles written about IOK in the discipline or similar disciplines.
• In view of the above summarize and critique the main epistemological, methodological, and conceptual paradigms of the discipline.
• Review existing teaching materials from the i.epistemological point of view and identify what to remove, change, or add.
• Prepare a course outline if one does not exist making sure to include an i.epistemological dimension.

9.0 INTEGRATION OF KNOWLEDGE (IOK) AT DISCIPLINE LEVEL - 2: Practical steps, con’t.

• Prepare an extensive bibliography using both general and integrated sources.
• Submit a book proposal and a research grant application.
• Either singly or in a team (preferable) start writing the units of the teaching material.

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