Islamization Of Knowledge

This paper offers a number of valuable insights gained from a long engagement with Islamic as well as global issues, with traditional as well as contemporary concerns. It not only surveys the field along with the powers and challenges at work, but also charts a way out of the present impasse. More immediately, it offers an updated review of the progress of the Islamization of Knowledge project and a timely clarification of the very concept itself. Clearly, that concept, though responsible for generating worldwide debate and action, has been so often misinterpreted and/or inflated. The gradational nature of the Islamizing project is all too obvious, and was never far from the minds of the authors of the 1982 declaration. It would certainly have been juvenile to think otherwise. And yet there is a need now to stress, as the present paper does, the ambitious (but also imperative) nature of the enterprise. For, despite the highly commendable effort invested in further elaboration and, in some brave instances, attempted implementation of the concept, the process of the Islamization of Knowledge remains at an intial, some might even say, prenatal stage. Much work needs to be done, many talents galvanized and resources pooled, institutions set up or reorganized, etc., before a truly genuine and sustainable realization of the concept can be said to have begun. Such a realistic vision needs to accompany and inform every stage of the way. To be lulled into a false or premature sense of achievement is a costly setback at a time when standing idly by for a day may have serious consequences for decades to come.

In 1977 (1397 A.H.) some of the most committed and concerned Muslim scholars from around the world were invited to attend a major seminar in Switzerland to address the crisis of thought faced by the Muslim Ummah. The seminar reflected a general consensus about the need to reform contemporary Islamic thought and to redefine the intellectual and academic basis for the Islamization of knowledge At the beginning of the new Hijrah century 1981 (1401 A.H.) the International Institute of Islamic Thought was incorporated in the U.S. as an Islamic academic and research Institute committed towards working for the reconstruction of Muslim thought and the Islamization of Knowledge. As one of its first undertakings, the IIIT, in cooperation with the National Hijrah Centenary Celebration Committee and the International Islamic University of Islamabad, Pakistan, sponsored the Second International Conference on the Islamization of Knowledge ín 1982 (1402 A.H.). Held in Pakistan, the conference provided a world-wide forum for Muslim scholars and thinkers to report developments in Islamic thought and exchange ideas. This book focuses upon 17 selected papers presented at this conference by the distinguished scholars. They embrace the critical topics of the "Perspective on Islamization of Knowledge," the "Perspective on the Islamization of Disciplines” and "Islamizing Individual Disciplines."

This book represents the perspective of a number of concerned and dedicated Muslim scholars. It is a “vision” which embodies the basic principles of Islamic methodology, coupled with an action plan to realize the reconstruction of Muslim thought and the Islamization of the humanities and the social sciences. The International Institute of Islamic Thought presents this book to the Muslim ummah as an action plan. It is meant as a guide to be adopted thereby to foster the awareness of ummah of its worth and potential, of the real causes of its civilizational crisis and of the ways and means to overcome malaise.

The concept of the Islamization of knowledge was introduced by Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas in the late 1970s. It aimed to detach knowledge from Western culture and civilization in order to replace it with Islamic concepts, frameworks and values. The Islamization of knowledge was to occur in the fields of education and culture, manifesting in changes to the syllabus in institutions of higher learning and niche areas of interest in selected research institutes. In the field of culture, however, it resulted in an unintended consequence of Malay literature being heavily characterized by Islamic elements. Over the years, proponents of the Islamization of knowledge in Malaysia have moved beyond the fields of education and culture. They have entered the mainstream and become part of the state machinery, thus possibly impacting national policies. The concept has also evolved and arguably led to the strengthening of Islamic conservatism among Malaysian intellectual and cultural elites. More specifically, its exclusivist thinking does not augur well for intra- and intercommunal relations in the country.

The Reform in Higher Education in Muslim Societies is in sum a paradigm shift in perspective driven by important considerations including the aims of education itself. It may require reforming existing disciplines, inventing new ones, as well as working in conjunction with current knowledge(s) and discourses by taking effective account of the ethical, spiritual norms of Muslim society, the guiding principles that it operates under, which in turn mark the underlying basis of its makeup and spiritual identity. Rather than creating divisions, reform of Higher Education in Muslim Societies recognizes the plurality and diversity of the modern networked world, and seeks to replace sterile and uniform approaches to knowledge with a broader and more creative understanding of reality as lived on different soils and different cultures. Moderation, balance and effective communication are paramount features of the underlying philosophy.

This book is an invaluable manual for researchers, authors, scholars, and others interests in Islamic literature, culture, and civilization. it is an attempt to clarify terms, phrases, words, and concepts who means have become distorted due to faulty translations and transliterations. Dr. Al-Faruqi states that, "in modern times, the English language stands in need of the precepts and values of Islam which only the Qur'anic language can provide. constant use of the arabic form will help shiled the English-speaking muslims from the onslought of materialism, utilitarianism, skepticism...and hedonism, that in the last two hundred years, have become firmly established in the english consciousess."