Philosophies Of Islamic Education

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 book provides an understanding of pedagogy rooted in the developments of Islamic Education. It is the first book to explore this in the Madrasah context. The focus on Islamic pedagogy provides a way to explore knowledge, spirituality and education that is shaped by a universal approach to personalised learning.

In light of the growing phenomenon of Islamic schools in the United States and Europe, this compelling study outlines whether these schools share similar traits with other religious schools, while posing new challenges to education policy. Merry elaborates an ideal type of islamic philosophy of education in order to examine the specific challenges that Islamic schools face, comparing the different educational realities facing Muslim Populations in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States.

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.

This book examines how democratic education is conceptualised by exploring understandings of emotions in learning. The authors argue that emotion is both an embodiment and enhancement of democratic education: that rationality and emotion are not separate entities, but exist on a continuum. While democratic education would not exist if it were incommensurate with reason, making judgements about the human condition could not happen without invoking emotion. Synthesising Muslim scholarship with the perspectives of the Western world, the book draws on scholars such as Ibn al-Arabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Fazlur Rahman to offer an enriched and expanded notion of democratic education. This engaging and reflective work will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational philosophy and cultural studies.

In this book, Yusef Waghid constitutes his argument in defence of ta’arruf (associational knowing) as an expanded conception of ta’dib (good education). In the first part of the book he elucidates Abu Bakr Effendi’s position on a Muslim educational philosophy which can be couched as rational, pragmatic and critical. As a backdrop to this, in the second part of the book, he argues for a notion of Muslim educational philosophy according to ta’arruf (associational knowing) on the basis that it enhances the notion of an autonomous self and its capabilities; summons different people to engage in deliberative encounters; and provokes the self to be reflectively open towards that which remains in becoming. This leads him to posit that ta’arruf (associational knowing) has the potential to cultivate humanity. His notion of ta’arruf extends practices of tarbiyyah (rearing), ta’lim (learning), and ta’dib (good education) associated with Muslim educational philosophy.