From Islamization of
Knowledge
to Islamization of Education
AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman
Editor-in-Chief
Any Muslim intellectual who has a serious concern for the relatively deteriorating
condition of the Muslim Ummah with respect to the Western World would be depressed and
confused. However, the recent history of the Muslim World shows how many determined
reformist movements played a positive role in changing the Muslim condition. But these
movements met with partial or limited success.
It was in the late seventeenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth
centuries, an ascendant Europe undermined and overran much of the Uthmani Dawlah
(Ottoman Empire) and finally put an end to it, much to the shock and dismay of the Muslim
World. The powerful European challenge and this drastic event elicited two contrasting
responses from the Muslim elite and the masses. While many of them resorted to superficial
imitation and initiated capricious copycat reform movements, some harnessed the rising
awareness and the attendant spirit of resistance to launch more genuine efforts and reform
movements. Understandably, these efforts were conflicting, emotional, and limited in their
scope but they eventually helped Muslim societies to gain political independence in the
post-World War II era. At the heart of these reforms and political liberation was the
Muslim peoples’ desire to realize their Islamic, national, and cultural aspirations
along with the hope of enjoying a standard of living comparable to that of the West.
Unfortunately, these hopes were not achieved and the cultural reforms
continued to be emotional, arbitrary, and patchwork (talfiq). The condition of
the Muslim people continued to deteriorate and the gap between the Western world and the
Muslim world continued to widen. The former continued to dominate and exploit that latter.
All this proved that arbitrary, emotional, superficial, and limited patchwork reforms
would not have a serious impact on the conditions of the Muslim people and will fail to
realize their national or Islamic aspirations.
The repeated lessons over three centuries have proved that there is no
alternative to genuine reforms. Planning genuine reform is the first necessary step
towards genuine development. Planning reforms should start with a deep understanding of
the history of the people. Serious and sincere Muslim planning should first identify the
underlying causes for the existing conditions, such as defects and shortcomings of the
people’s mentality and psychological structure, which precludes the Muslim
peoples’ ability to qualitatively and successfully face up to adversity. Muslim
reforms should honestly address these fundamental problems and avoid advancing futile and
superficial solutions. A strategy that deals only with the symptoms rather than the causes
will only compound the problem and undermine all efforts. The planned reforms should
reflect the spirit and the aspirations of the people and the Ummah and address real
cultural and psychological problems. This is the only strategy that will motivate the
Ummah to act and pursue effectively the desired reforms. It should be always remembered
that nations and peoples do not have the same ideals, aspirations, and psychological
structures. Effective ways and means to motivate different peoples should be in many
different ways. To elevate peoples’ conditions and achieve effective and everlasting
reforms, cultural reform is the foundation for everything else. Cultural reform is a
necessary condition for restructuring and rebuilding the moral, physical, and social life
and system of peoples.
Cultural reform in Muslim societies has come a long way with prominent
contributions from reformers like Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, Kwakibi, Afghani,
Abduh, Tahtawi, Rida, al-Banna and Maududi. Finally, the initiative of Islamization of knowledge
resolved some fundamental methodological issues and put the project of cultural reform on
firm and genuine foundations to provide the right healthy and effective ideas and plans
for a contemporary ummatic life system. The project of "Islamization of
knowledge" has identified and distinguished Islamic sources of knowledge and
established a comprehensive, analytical and systematic methodology, free of time-space
problems in dealing with historical and contemporary challenges. Islamization of knowledge
as a methodological foundation for cultural and social reform brings the Muslim world and
Muslim intellectuals and political leaders to the step of second-stage of effective and
comprehensive reforms to rebuild the Ummah’s life and institutions. At this stage,
the central question is where to begin rebuilding — in the economic, political,
scientific, or military sectors? In order that the Ummah face the challenges confronting
it, it is important that the Ummah and its leaders make the right choices.
It is clear that the heart of the Western challenge to the Ummah is
scientific and technological, while the crux of the Muslim challenge to the West is
spiritual, moral, and social. The West has no reliable, holistic, and authentic source to
know and draw the boundaries of human freedom and social life. Only Islam has a revealed,
authentic, and sound source of holistic comprehensive knowledge of the cause and nature of
human life on earth. The Muslim dilemma lies in the fact the West and the rest of the
world will not heed Islam’s moral and spiritual message until Muslims respond
adequately to their scientific and material challenge.
From the point of view of Islam, the Western challenge of science and
technology poses no problems. In terms of material resources, Muslims have all the
necessary resources to develop science, technology ,and build their economies and
industries. The problem lies in the fact that Muslims lack of an istikhlaf
attitude and mentality to pursue creative scientific knowledge and development. They have
given up the pursuit of knowledge and civilization (imran) as important Islamic
lifelong duties. Therefore, if mentality and attitude is the underlying problem then
reform of education is the answer. Education is the important means to change the
psychology of children who will be the future members of society.
Rebuilding the life and the social system of the Ummah has manifolds.
It includes political, social, economic, scientific, technology, and military aspects
besides the field of education. But the rebuilding process has to go simultaneously on all
these fronts. The important thing is that Muslims should coordinate their efforts and
establish their priorities, where education comes at the top. The more Muslims give to the
cause of education and development at this stage to create sound Muslim mentality and
psychology, the more Muslims acquire higher capabilities in all other fields.
Muslims perhaps need the next forty years (a generation), very much
like the Prophet Moses (pbuh), who dealt with people of distorted slave mentality, to
raise and develop a new generation of strong, creative, courageous, and cooperative
individuals and consolidated society. In ten years from now Muslim intellectuals should be
able to transform the Muslim culture from one that is oppressive and individualistic to
one that is generative and creative, a culture that will recapture the essence of
prophetic style of tarbiyah, in which love, care and encouragement are the
important means and methods.
The immediate duty for Muslim intellectuals and educationists is to
sift the Muslim culture and heritage from all wrong suppressive, and negative aspects of
the culture. It is unwise to ignore the power of these shortcomings in our Muslim dominant
culture. The oppressive and superstitious elements in the culture are seriously destroying
the istikhlaf spirit of Islam and Muslim civilization. The cultural and
educational reforms and efforts should no more stop at general and vague remarks and
advices. Muslim educational reforms should produce educational literature, tarbiyah
directions and school textbooks to help and guide parents and teachers in their successful
efforts to raise the new psychologically and mentally healthy Muslim generations.
Muslim intellectuals and educationists, through Islamization of
knowledge and the right Islamic methodology of thinking should sift successfully the
Muslim culture and liberate, recapture, and reassert the Muslim identity. Thinkers and
educationists should seriously start the next stage of the rebuilding of the Ummah’s
life and social system. The next natural stage after the Islamization of knowledge is the
Islamization of the Muslim peoples and their minds. Islamization of the Muslim child and
the coming Muslim generations is basically liberating them from a culture of fear and
superstition to recapture and reestablish the Muslim spirit of tawheed and istikhlaf.
It is the spirit of righteously and selflessly pursuing noble goals (islah),
right knowledge (ma’rifah), and good and useful development (taskhir
and imran).
Globalization left no false hopes of rebuilding behind artificial walls
of protection. Global free trade and communication forced by the strong dominating
materialist secular West on the Muslims and the rest of the world, left Muslims and their
universal ummatic tawhidi message to nothing but their inner strength and the
ability to revive and bring inner Islamic change and inner Islamic development. Aqidah
(basic believes and values), tarbiyah and education are the only means for
Muslims to renew their civilizational Islamic tawhidi moral contribution in the
global village.
Muslim leaders and educators should abandon all old false hopes of
isolation and protection. They have to get truly ready to compete and prove their worth.
The tawhidi (unifying) universal message of Islam is the only universal message
worthy and suitable for the man of the global village. Muslims should sift the Islamic
universal message from all racial, nationalistic, and historical elements. Muslims should
use suitable ways and means to communicate this great noble message to all kinds of human
beings and to all parts of the world. Muslims should develop the right psychological
discourses, communicate successfully the message to all kinds of people, being young or
old, man or woman and Muslim or non-Muslim. Muslims should remember and make no mistake
that the strong Quranic discourse was directed to adults to force them to carry their
responsibilities. The Prophet (saw) educational and tarbiyah discourse
to children and youth was very much different, it was a discourse of love, care, and
development of proper character and attitude. Though he was a successful father and
grandfather he never beat a child in his life.
The International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Association of
Muslim Social Scientists and the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, welcome all
kinds of help in the effort to Islamize education. The Institute, the Association and the
Journal will provide all kinds of help in this regard. They will serve as an effective
platform for the intellectual efforts to sift the Muslim culture and develop methods,
principles, strategies, and texts to help parents and educators to raise the new Muslim
generation. As of now it is only the sincere efforts, desires, and sacrifices of parents
and devoted attention of teachers that are available ways to counter the wrong influences
of media and other negative aspects of general education and popular culture.
Enlightened families and parents who shoulder and perform their
responsibilities are the real safeguards and contemporary alternative to the Sinai of the
Prophet Musa (as). It is not important in many ways what a child sees or hears.
The most important thing is in which way the child understands what the child sees or
hears. Families and parents can only legitimize any kind of effect of information and
knowledge reaches the child. Effective parents and peers, whom parents should help select,
work as colored glasses on the eyes and mind of the child. Parents’ influence and
their ways of tarbiyah would determine in many ways the quality of the
child’s character and mentality.
Together we should start this tremendous civilizational mission for the
sake of the future generation of a peaceful global village.
This Article was taken from "The
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences", Summer 1999 issue.
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