Classical Foundations Of Islamic Educational Thought A Compendium Of Para

Education has always been an important pursuit in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad enjoined his followers to “seek knowledge, even unto China.” Within the religion, educational theory and practice were founded on the work of itinerant teachers who taught the fundamental tenets of the faith in exchange for lodging and other services; Qur’anic schools where masters of the Qur’an tutored pupils; and centers of higher learning in Baghdad, Damascus, Alexandria and elsewhere, where Islamic theology and jurisprudence were developed and taught. In this volume, Bradley J. Cook, with assistance from Fathi H. Malkawi, has drawn together and introduced selections from the writings of eminent Islamic thinkers on the subject of Islamic educational efforts, presenting the original Arabic texts alongside their annotated English translations.

The study of Islamic education has hitherto remained a tangential inquiry in the broader focus of Islamic Studies. In the wake of this neglect, a renaissance of sorts has occurred in recent years, reconfiguring the importance of Islam’s attitudes to knowledge, learning and education as paramount in the study and appreciation of Islamic civilization. Philosophies of Islamic Education, stands in tandem to this call and takes a pioneering step in establishing the importance of its study for the educationalist, academic and student alike. Broken into four sections, it deals with theological, pedagogic, institutional and contemporary issues reflecting the diverse and often competing notions and practices of Islamic education. As a unique international collaboration bringing into conversation theologians, historians, philosophers, teachers and sociologists of education Philosophies of Islamic Education intends to provide fresh means for conversing with contemporary debates in ethics, secularization theory, child psychology, multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue and moral education. In doing so, it hopes to offer an important and timely contribution to educational studies as well as give new insight for academia in terms of conceiving learning and education.

This Handbook traces and presents the fundamentals of Islam and their history and background, and provides a global and holistic, yet, detailed picture of Islamic education around the world. It introduces the reader to the roots and foundations of Islamic education; the responses of Islamic educational institutions to different changes from precolonial times, through the colonial era up to the contemporary situation. It discusses interactions between the state, state-run education and Islamic education, and explores the Islamic educational arrangements existing around the world. The book provides in-depth descriptions and analyses, as well as country case studies representing some 25 countries. The work reflects the recent series of changes and events with respect to Islam and Muslims that have occurred during the past decades. The globalization of Islam as a religion and an ideology, the migration of Muslims into new areas of the globe, and the increasing contacts between Muslims and non-Muslims reinforce the need for mutual understanding. By presenting Islamic education around the world in a comprehensive work, this Handbook contributes to a deeper international understanding of its varieties.

The relation between Islam and the West is the topic of an ongoing debate. The debate often leaves us with a choice between two mutually exclusive worlds: the modern West with its enlightenment and science and accompanying secular education, or else Islam and Islamic education, characterised by orthodoxy and tradition. In the hope of promoting dialogue instead of polarisation, the author, a philosopher of education trained in the West, searches for the ideas and ideals of education, schooling and learning within Islam. Wherever knowledge and learning have blossomed, education, schooling and teaching must have flourished, too. Which educational culture was part of the highly developed intellectual culture of classical Islam? Current-day modernist Muslim intellectuals take inspiration from this rich intellectual tradition of Islam. The perspective on the future of Islamic education in the modern context, in which the book results, utilizes their ideas. Hermeneutics, the theory of interpretation, is applied to the rereading and reinterpretation of the source texts of Islam. Hermeneutics also offers an inspiring perspective on an education that strikes the balance between tradition and enlightenment.

This book, originally presented as a paper to the Second World Conference on Muslim Education in 1980, for the first time in contemporary Islamic thinking and in a clear and coherent manner, elaborates new and originally conceived ideas and definitions. Key concepts such as religion (din), man (insan), knowledge (ma'rifah and `ilm), wisdom (hikmah), justice (`adl), right action (`amal and adab) are discussed, elaborated and formulated into a framework for an Islamic philosophy of education. The concept of methodology of scientific research and the study of nature along the lines of Quranic interpretation (tafsir and ta'wil), the islamization of languages and its relation to the Muslim mind and worldview, and the differences between tarbiyyah, ta'dib and ta'lim are all discussed. This is a book of definitions relating to the essential elements in the concept of education and the educational process as envisaged in Islam. Essential reading for Muslim educators and all those interested in Islamic philosophy and islamization of knowledge Syed Muhammad Naquib Al Attas is a world renowned scholar with over twenty books to his name, as well as many articles in both English and Malay on Islam in various fields - Islamic philosophy, theology and metaphysics, history, literature, art and civilization, religion and education. Some of his works have been translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, French, German, Russian, Bosnian, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Malayalam and Indonesian. Professor Al-Attas is Founder Director of the International Institute of Islamic thought and Civilization (ISTAC) which was founded in Kuala Lumpur in 1987 and which began operation officially in 1991. As a research and post graduate institution of higher learning, ISTAC was conceived by Professor al-Attas as a way to realisze this seminal ideas for the creation of true Islamic University providing proper Islamic education through the incoporation of his original ideas and methods for the Islamization of knowledge.

Education has been held in high esteem throughout the history of Islamic civilisation. This book discusses classical Islamic approaches to education from philosophical, Sufi, and traditional viewpoints. A discussion of the classical subjects of scholarly study – such as Arabic grammar, theology, logic, and medicine – forms the basis of this book. Additionally, attention is given to ideals about teachers, students, methods of education, and higher education. This book is part of a series of translations from the Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (EWI) which was originally compiled in Persian. Other entries from this encyclopaedia which are available in English include Hawza-yi ‘Ilmiyya, Hadith, Periodicals of the Muslim World, Muslim Organisations, Political Parties, Qur’anic Exegeses, Qur’anic Exegesis, Sufism, and Muslim Organisations.