The Progress of Islamization of Knowledge

The idea for Islamization of knowledge had started in the 1970-s and start spreading among Muslim intellectuals and activists around 1980-s. It was a shift in identity for Muslims especially after the rise of Muslim states such as Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia and decolonization by British, Dutch and French Empires in Asia and Africa continent. It is also an evidence of the increasing young and upcoming Muslims studied in the West and start going back to their home countries to help develop it, especially in the education sector. They don’t want to copy exactly what the schools and universities in the West because they see that values in the West is contradictory with Islamic values.

One of the first proponents of Islamization of Knowledge is Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, who presented paper on Islamization and Desecularization at Makkah Educational Conference 1977. Islamization was defines by al-Attas as the liberation of man first from from magical, mythological, animistic, national-cultural tradition, and then from secular control over his reason and his language. Al-Attas emphasize heavily on language especially the Arabic language because it was the language that the Holy Quran was revealed to human through Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. He said that language, thought and reason are closely interconnected and are indeed independent in projecting to man his worldview or vision of reality. 

Another proponent of Islamization of knowledge is Ismail Raji’ al-Faruqi. He sees that the most important aspect in Islamization is Tawheed which is the basic and unifying principle of Islam. Through Tawheed, a Muslims man views the reality, truth, the world, space and time, human history and destiny. Allah as the Creator of Nature and knowledge, gives man His knowledge which is absolute and universal. Several fundamental principles of Islamizing modern knowledge are the Unity of Allah, the Unity of Creation, the Unity of Knowledge, the Unity of Life and the Unity of Humanity.

An Iranian scholar, Seyyed Hussein Nasr also touches on the issue of Islamization of knowledge. He talks about scientia sacra, which is science as knowledge must not be devoid from the sacred. It is the application of metaphysical principles to the macrocosm as well as microcosm, the natural as well as human world. Knowledge is sacred and is from God, and can only be understood through revelation and intellectual reasoning. 

Muhammad Kamal Hassan in 2014 talks about Islamicisation of Human Knowledge. It was to provide an alternative to the secular knowledge and modern civilization. The secular environment in education had created a bias toward any religion or faith. To Islamicize knowledge, a critical analysis should be done on the concept of Tawheed and ethics in Islam. The word Islamicize means that it was to conform and being in harmony with religion instead of being understood as converting people to Islam. It was also can be construed as a larger concept that anything could be connected to Islam and complies with the teaching and principles of Islam.

The method of Islamization practiced by al-Attas is that first, we must separate all Western elements (Desecularization) in the current existing knowledge that had been learns by Muslims for decades. Secondly, the knowledge then infused with Islamic elements and key concepts were redefined according to Islamic worldview. Several concept in our knowledge that had been corrupted by Western such as the nature of man (insan), religion (din), knowledge (‘ilm and ma’rifah), wisdom (hikmah), justice (‘adl), right action (adab) and university (kuliyyah).

One of the institutions created by al-Attas to further the project of Islamization of Knowledge is International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC). Al-Attas was not only the first director and chair of Al-Ghazali, he also regularly teaches at the main hall especially on the religion of Islam. His understanding of the world is different from others, where he sees that this world is not a dichotomy against the religion of Islam and the hereafter. The world is merely a stage and preparation for eternal life later. The universe is like a book and needed to be read. But only looking at words is not enough, we need to understand the meaning behind it. This is the same with all the creation that we see in this world. Every creation has purpose and meaning. This kind of teaching elevates the understanding of Islam teaches in this institute. It goes beyond the usual studies on fiqh and tafsir.

Al-Faruqi methods also involves learning both the Western and Islamic tradition. But for al-Faruqi, Muslim scholars that learned the knowledge needed to be detecting the Islamic legacy in each discipline. This method opens for discovery of Islamic scholars contribution in the past to the rise of enlightenment in the West. Meanwhile, the Islamic tradition itself needed to be re-examined their shortcomings. Some aspect of the knowledge needed to be updated in accordance to the reality of the world today. In the future, a Muslim that was trained in both the West and Islamic tradition,  understands their criticism will create a new discipline that have strong Islamic values in it.

Al-Faruqi also created International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) with prominent scholars such as Taha Jabir al-Alwani and Ahmad Totonji. They have more practical method by becoming a network of Muslim scholars around the world that agree to disseminate the Islamize knowledge to Muslim ummah. IIIT published a lot of intellectual books and textbook for students to be used in the university. This books is not only used by Islamic studies students, but it was also widely used by students is sciences courses. This is because they wanted lecturers and students to infuse the Islamic values in any knowledge they teach and learned. 

The efforts of IIIT members such as Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman and Anwar Ibrahim help formed International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in 1983. This university is unique in a sense that the Islamic studies course was taken as a double major course with Human Sciences. This is an attempt to develop new scholars that has strong Islamic tradition and understanding of the modern sciences. This duality provide students with a wide scope of knowledge and mastery in contemporary tool.

Nasr also writes about the importance of mastering the Western thought and try to understand their philosophical contradiction. There is no problem with the knowledge itself, but their philosophical roots. Only by mastering the sciences, the West will heed the Muslim voice and we can start infusing the Islamic values. The scholars also need to have strong spiritual and Islamic worldview. This is to prevent the Muslims themselves to become too involved in the Western tradition and deviated from Islamic teachings. 

Nasr also have the same idea with al-Attas which is that language plays main role in knowledge dissemination. He regrets that most Muslim countries was colonized in their mind through using the European language and abandoning the native language that had strong Islamic roots. The usage of this native language is also important in learning about modern sciences to free Muslim from relying to Western technologies. This is why Muslims in the earlier centuries rigorously translate all Greek intellectual works to Arabic because they understand the effect of language to the mind of Muslims.

The biggest criticism of Islamization of knowledge is that certain scholars argue that the body of knowledge itself is not wrong, but it becomes wrong when it is misused. So it was the question of ethics. The word Islamization itself could distance non-Muslims, and can be seen as denying them to the knowledge itself. This is why some scholars argue that the most important things to is to integrate both knowledge of the West, Islamic and other Eastern traditions so that the knowledge itself will become more inclusive and globalize.

References

Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman, Revitalizing Higher Education in the Muslim World, 2007.

Febri Priyoyudanto, Model of Islamization of Knowledge; Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Ismael Raji al-Faruqi, And Fazlur Rahman, 2013.

Mohd Asham Ahmad, How Islam was Taught at ISTAC, 2016.

Muhammad Shawal bin Abdul Rashid, Islamization of Human Knowledge: A Critical Analysis, 2014.

Yahaya Musa Yusuf, Seyyed Hussein Nasr on Islamisation of Knowledge.