Abdul Kadir Riyadi
It has been agreed upon
that education can play such an important role in the process of
character-building. Education is not only the means to enhance one’s
religious beliefs and faiths. It is also the foundation on the basis of which sanctification
of all realms of being and all professions and wisdom can be advanced.
That is why our forfathers busied themselves to write works on education by
stressing the importance of tahzibul
akhlaq as the core of the
educational process.
It is not surprising on
further note, that some of Islamic educational institutions were established in
the past and at the present not only to produce men who excel in talent and
intellectual brilliance, but also to ameliorate the individual human being and
their personal qualities and to improve them as part of society. In some of our
universities, education has been understood first and foremost as a medium to
make man honest and good and to prepare him for spiritual amendment and
perfection. Skills and intellectual acumen come only second. Hence,
education (tarbiyah) is much more important than instruction (ta’lim).
This purpose of
education in character-building and the role of such educational institutions
such as Islamic university in this process becomes even more relevant as the
world is now undergoing a process of moral and spiritual deterioration, one in
which humanity is forfeiting itself to technology. Only education can
counteract this rapid decline, and prevent hundreds of students from descending
into a life of crime and disgrace. By its nature, education is the prime
means for softening hearts and for awakening the love of the individuals.
Technology –the direct
infrastructural product of modernity- has caused our world to shrink,
negatively speaking. It becomes our collective challege therefore to take
this as a serious threat. Those who think that any radical changes in a
particular nation will be determined by that nation alone are in for a rude
awakening. We are totally interdependent, and should work together hand in hand
to address this issue, by means of education of course. What this means
is that there is no single university that can work alone to tackle this
serious problem imposed by modernity. Our world has a plethora of
problems that can only be solved together by all elements of our society in
unison.
Thanks to advances in
technology, more specifically electronic technology, both the acquisition and
exchange of information is gradually growing. The Internet had connected people
worldwide. Through it people all over the world can be linked
together. This is modernity which implies integration of technologies,
nations, and markets to an unprecedented degree. All this implies that
problems instigated by modernity will much be multiplied, which in turn
requires double-efforts to address them. Consequently, collaboration at
all levels among Muslims of different culture, nation and professional
backgrounds is desperately needed.
Our modern situation is
worsened by the fact that the so-called Western civilization often views
modernity in terms of economic and political hegemony. The modern world
means that the powerful over-rules the powerless economically and
politically. Hence, modernity for the Westerners is basically the free
and untrammeled movement of capital, goods, labor, and services across borders.
Others would see
modernity in ideological terms according which different things in various
cultures and geographical regions must be subdued by the dominant ideology so
that the so-called new world order can be maintained. This is also the Western
view of modernity which is oriented toward marginalizing the periphery and
consolidating the centre.
Still for others,
modernity is the process by which the experience of everyday living is becoming
standardized according to the “modern” values.
For us however,
modernity is a more encompassing term. It refers to modes of living in modern
contexts and methods of dealing with problems arising from the modern way of
live. By modes of living, we particularly refer to the facts of life that
we find on daily basis on the ground as far as people’s behaviours in modern
age are concerned. By methods of dealing with problems arising from
modern life we simply mean education.
Nonetheless, apart from
our above understanding of modernity we cannot turn a blind eye on the fact
that modernity also implies connectivity and interdependence in all areas of
life, cultural, ecological, economic, political, religious, social,
technological and certainly educational. Our modern world is clearly and
unmistakably an inseparable whole.
Every being on every level is interrelated to every other being. Our
interrelatedness caused by modernity is like the unity of the unbroken whole of
universe in which there exists an interdependence of all beings. Whatever
causes a flower to exist must be responsible for a tree, and whatever causes a
tree to exist must be responsible for the forest. Such interrelatedness and
interconnectedness means that all beings in the universe should help each other
and work together for the common purpose, survival.
But the new world is
also divided. This is fact of our modern life. The modes that
is. There is East and West, South and North, the developed, developing
and underdeveloped. The Muslims are equally divided along the cultural,
political, ideological and even “theological” line. Speaking globally,
this division or rather “bordering” is to be found not only within a single
society, but also among various countries or cultures.
The Muslim societies
across the world has long been divided. Bordering is there, like it or
not. The notion of a universal ummah is hard to come by. Every
Muslim country has its own national identity and “religious” stamp.
Within a single Muslim country may also be found a division politically and
culturally. In Indonesia for instance, there are
many “Islams” rather than a single Islam. Or to put it more fairly, there
are many representantions of Islam in this country; representations that often
oppose to each other. The visions of these representations are also
consequently different in all realms; politics, culture and certainly
education. Hence, the many Islamic universities that have existed in this
country have respectively a quite different or rather unique character in their
visions, objectives, approach to science, ideological affiliation and so on.
Paradigm of Bordering
Students of
contemporary philosophy can quickly realize that the idea of bordering is the
necessary ingredient of the modern society, as if to be modern is to be
divided. They would equally know that this bordering is also the product
of not only the political or economic powers, but also the very consequence of
the dominant discourse set up by the likes of Descartes and Bacon. Our
modern situations in other words are orchestrated by –and the “biological son”
of- our modern episteme. To address them therefore and to get rid of
their negative impacts would mean to enter the world of knowledge through
education and as such through such institution as universities.
One aspect of the
modern episteme that must be hold responsible for the bordering of our modern
society is that which was developed in Cartesian theory of science where an
object could only have one essence, a cause only for one effect. The burning of
coal, for example, created heat and energy. That was the essential outcome. Other
effects could only be interpreted as side effects, pollution was thus not
essential. But in the long term we might see that pollution will kill everyone
that the coal could warm and produce energy for. From that perspective the
energy effect can be seen as only a temporal gain from a deeply destructive
process. This very simplified example serves to show that matters are more
complicated than the border building, either-or thinking modernists could see.
The over-confident belief in science dominant in positivistic modernity is
something that we can classify as belonging to materialism. Enlightenment
movements beginning in the eighteenth century saw human beings as mind only.
Following that, positivist and materialist movements saw them as material and corporeal
entities only.
Indeed, modernity as
multi-faceted. And we cannot take only one side of modernity for in doing
that we would run the risk of simplifying life lived in the modern
society. But if we understand modernity as a practice of the modernists,
we would quickly find out that the borderland of modernity is a place of
division, conflict, tension, and abuse. Therefore in the Gramscian
perspective, modernity is almost identical to hegemony, and from a more
philosophical perspective modernity is as a marker for the ideology and
practice of Western expansionism.
The wave of modernity
with it materialistic and dualistic vision of the world has certainly come to
the lands of Islam. Islam or rather Muslims have in one way or another
encountered with modernity and become perhaps its victims. This is to say
that Muslims are also divided among others due to the influence of
modernity. The power of modernity is so mighty that no single Muslim in
this world live in isolation from modernity. Our worldview has certainly
been shaped by modernity and the way we look upon the universe –our mentality
that is- has been dictated and orchestrated by its episteme. To say the
worse, we are being enslaved by modernity. We see ourselves in a very ind ividualistic
terms because of which we feel as if we are the sole inhabitants of the world
apart from others.
That is why, one of the
most striking characteristic of our Muslim society is ind ividualism
and egoism. We look at things simply in terms of “I” and “you” ignoring
the “we”. This is the aphorism of our modern live. Muslim countries
are likewise characterized by such norms as regionalism by which they live
their live.
In stressing this
unfortunate point, we do not intend to recommend Muslims to return to the idea
of unity politically or culturally, for that would be impossible and is bizarre
to expect such a thing to happen. This only means that to design a
program of coorperation between Muslim countries, and more specifically between
Islamic universities would be of our foremost priotity.
What is more important
is to keep in mind that no single university in this entire world is immune
from the onslaught of modernity. Hence, we are forced to design
collectively a far-reaching vision in light of which Islamic universities are
saved and can survive.
At no phase in our
entire human history do we see worse state of division among human being than
in our own history, where bordering has influenced all section of our life
including university. Hence, in universities, as in other form of
institutions, borders are being set up. We see for example different
classes, groups, and even sciences in our universities. This is the
bordering-mentality of our modern age. And like other members of modern
society, our academics and scientists are often creating barriers –and hence
dichotomies and trenches- between various sciences and theories. Things
are understood by them scientifically and epistemologically in terms of
binary-opposition. Fiqh is understood in opposition to Sufism,
Sufism to philosophy and so on. Hence we see a border as a dividing line,
a narrow strip along a steep edge.
In light of this, it is
not surprising that one would ask if we can have an upbeat, hope-filled view of
the good and well-structured coorperation between various Islamic universities
in the future. Or should we just leave each university to work on its own while
still trying to learn from others’ experiences.
Coorperation between
Islamic universities in Indonesia has not yet realized
fully, the main reason of which being that each has its own goals and
objectives not shared by others, goals that prevent it from sharing common
ground with others. Hence we have the impression that each and every
university in this country stands on its own feet. Efforts to build a
collaboration between various universities were indeed made. But this
kind of effort was thus far fruitless simply because some universities were
reluctant to share their experience. Monopoly of knowledge thus still
represents a daily practice in the world of education in this country.
This is not to say that
coorperation between Islamic universities is not possible. This is rather
to say that that coorperation needs a double efforts. First, the intended
collaboration needs a bridge that would connect one university with
others. We can call this bridge a borderland where various universities
–locally and internationally- can meet and intermingle.
The need for this kind
of borderland-university cannot be avoided as we live in the global border
village where we cannot live a life separated from others. The nature of
the modern world forces us to work together and address the same problems that
we are facing. We therefore need to engage in an active
collaboration. The difference that does exist and separate us culturally
should make the collaboration even possible. For collaboration to be
possible, there must be difference as well as belief in our ability to work
together despite difference. The ‘Bordering’ mentality that separated us should
not make us think that we are for ever divided. Within this bordering, we
are all fundamentally of the same make, singing different harmonies on the same
song; describing different parts of the same elephant.
The concept of
borderland-university transcends the notion of racial and geographical
distinction between one Islamic university and another. It is not racial
and geographical boundaries that define us, but the common goals and objectives
that we all want to achieve. This concept is probably synonymous with the
idea of ummah. But
the former differs from the latter in that the former looks at the task of
uniting the Muslim societies as lying in the hand of the
university-practicioners which include the educators, professors and
scientists. The notion of the “ummah” is no longer referring to the
social, cultural –let alone- political entity of the Muslims. It refers
to the educational, or to be more precise, scientific unity of the society. We
hence understand the idea of ummah mainly in educational and scientific terms, for
historically speaking Islamic civilization has always been to do with knowledge
rather than with politics or economics. That is why, in our estimation of the
possible collaboration between various Islamic universities in the future,
scientific purposes must be at the forefront.
The
borderland-university is furthermore a place to have a full scientific
identity, not accepting all insigthst that have nothing to do with the fate of
the Muslim societies scientifically speaking. It is a place for a new
understanding of sciences, traditions, heritage and identity, a place for new
era of collaboration among various Islamic universities with confidence and
comfort.
Under such scenario,
there should not be any Islamic university that remains in a vague and
undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary.
Nor should there be an Islamic university which is in a constant state of
transition not knowing what to do.
There should equally be
a commitment for the borderland-university to develop a kind of science needed
by our Muslim societies in this modern era, a science that would in turn be
shared to other universities. The nature of our modern era necessitates
that we develop a new science that can both address our modern challenges and
guide our Muslim societies toward a better live religiously. Some
universities – due to the symptom of the bordering mentality- are trapped in a
pure scienticism ignoring in that process that we do need spirituality,
metaphysics, and eternal and invariable values. Others ignore science partly or
completely ignoring in that process the fact that science does represent the
important part of our life. Hence, the last centuries of this millennium
have witnessed espitemological disasters that are hard to believe due to the
way we look at things and the way we provide their solutions.
The concept of science
that should be developed for the sake of our ummah is that which takes us
beyond the partial distinction of pure science and spirituality. The two
must be intergrated and intermingled in a way that a kind of border-knowledge
can come about.
The border-knowledge
reconciles opposites that seem to be mutually exclusive: religious and secular
science, religion and science, this world-the next world, nature-Divine Books,
the material-the spiritual, and spirit-body. The border-knowledge should erect
a defence against the destruction caused by scientific materialism, put science
in its proper place, and purports collaboration among scientists and
scholars. The border-knowledge believes in establishing a community of
science for the sake of science. The goal of border-knowledge is not
simply to destroy scientific materialism and the destructive materialistic
worldview; rather, to build a new science in accordance with the very
epistemological vision of Islam.
Border-knowledge in a
Borderland-University
The vision of Islam as
a religion of spirit and body, of mind and heart, of rationalism and
spirituality is perfectly represented by border-knowledge. Hence, within
the premises of border-knowledge a Muslim can comfortably sit down with the
various modes of knowing such as westernistic rationalism and religious
intuitionism. The concept of border-knowledge tries to accommodate the
double vision of Islam, which has one side in common with ratonalism and one
side in common with expressions of spirituality. This double belonging is
a kind of vehicle by which border-knowledge can perfect the lack of intellect
and science in the Eastern traditions and brush off the materialistic denial of
the spiritual in the Western tradition.
During the last couple
hundred of years, the Western tradition has succeeded in developing
science. By its very nature science is always beneficial. It is the hikmah of the Muslims too. But its
compartmentalised and materialistic conceptions of reality need to be revised
within the spiritual and moral frame of Islam. There is no reason to fear
science indeed. But there is also danger, which does not lie with science
itself and the founding of the new world it will usher in, but rather with
ignorance and irresponsible scientists and others who exploit it for their own
selfish interests.
The concept of
border-knowledge is meant to be both the alternative to –and a revision of- the
Western episteme which has developed one-sided vision of reality. In the modern
academic language Western episteme is often connected solely to the rational
knowledge revered by modernity’s big philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and
Husserl. That kind of episteme was made not only in the interest of philosophy
and science, it also excluded a lot of local, non-Western knowledge that was
articulated in different, maybe non-textual, ways and therefore were not
recognised as epistemic knowledge by modernity. A lot of important local
knowledge was eradicated or rather marginalized, but some it is still possible
to reactivate.
The above judgment of
the Western episteme might be a simplification of the multi-dimensioned system
of thought, but a simplification that we hope will be productive in time, in
the sense that it might resurrect the new concept of knowledge with a meaning
covering both episteme and doxa. Knowledge is not only about episteme,
but also about wisdom. Episteme without wisdom will not suit different
times and different places, and will soon become frozen in boxes and
hierarchies as soon as it is invented.
It might become clear
from here that what we mean by border-knowledge is simply knowledge produced
from the spiritual, moral and epistemological borders of Islam as opposed to
the borders of modernity. Border-knowledge –while willing to learn from
other sources- sees religion as representing the true sources of
episteme. This is to say that, border-knowledge cannot be separated from
the very heart of Islam –namely the Qur’an, the Sunnah and the living
tradition- nor entangled in a “foreign” tradition.
And since the very
source of the border-knowledge is Islam, this form of episteme –like its
source- is universal in its nature; universal in its meaning and truth.
But it is also local, because –again like its source- it is tied to the time
and place dimension. It is in other words, coloured by its loci of
enunciation. So, we can imagine border-knowledge as upholding double vision;
while springing from universal values, it is adaptable to the locality.
We can equally imagine
that border-knowledge –when developed properly- constitutes an important
element of renewal in Islamic thought and civilization as long as the ulama are
serious in playing their crucial role. We can speak of border-knowledge
as a means to rediscover the lost-wisdom as well as human values and morals in
a new manner. It is a mode of searching an awakening of reason, as well
as of heart, spirit and mind. In a whole, it is the beginning where a movement
toward the Islamic renaissance in modern world should start and where
intellectual rebirth can depart.
In the past, Islamic
renaissance was possible because of the correct vision of our ulama concerning
reality. Theirs –like the one we try to promulgate- is the vision that
promotes enlightenment of the Muslims and reconstructs Islamic knowledge based
on a positive and constructive posture which relies on a fine comprehension of
Islam’s wisdom, and a clear understanding of what is valuable and what is not.
The need to rediscover
this kind of knowledge has become ugent as we live in an era where true
knowledge is apparently lacking. This we can see from our unfortunate
inability to both produce knowledge and control it. To some degree,
production of knowledge might still be possible indeed. But its control
has become a formidable challenge so much so that knowledge has becomes a sheer
commodity of the greedy modernity. As our modern history has shown,
excessive greed and ambition of modern men have slashed our world into a deep
crisis –morally, socially, environmentally and so on- and brought about causes
of impediment into our society.
And as members of this
modern society, we cannot turn a blind eye on this impediment. As our
life becomes more and more complicated, our challenge is not only to transform
populations of illiterate, unemployed, and starving masses into populations of
literate individuals seething with resentment, but also to create a new
generation capable of exacerbating world problems, as environmental, social,
and political while not leaving aside the adequate spirituality and
morality. To be more precise, our real task is preparing a new generation
capable of coming to terms with the onslaught of modernity and turning them to
the moral and spiritual reservoir of Islam. And nothing is more noble
that doing that, for that will foster both the mentality and confidence of our
generation and make sure that Islam has a lot to say for the modern history and
civilization.
Many of us have
realized that morality -more than any others- is the most essential aspect of
being human. It is morality that will have the greater say when one
experiences great difficulties and has to cope with true uncertainty. Morality
is the jewel by which a man retains value as a man. Immorality on the
other hand, is a poison which will bring destruction and malaises.
That is why, many
Islamic universities in Indonesia like the one in Gontor for
instance, seeks to empower and enable people morally through education.
Having studied in Gontor for 6 years, I understand that this institution seeks
to mobilise the individual and society towards achieving and becoming insan kamil. But Gontor cannot
certainly work on its own in designing the far-reaching goals that we need in
this present situation. For the proposed goals to happen, we must work
together hand in hand to produce people of this kind who can think in both
religious and modern way, people who will put their trust in both mind and
heart.
What we need now is a
man who radiates ethical values and intellectual wisdom, and can realize inside
himself a kind of knowledge that composes of rationalism and religiosity, of
feeling and logic, exoteric and esoteric dimension of reality.
So,
as we gather here we have to be committed to deploy ourselves using all that we
have to put both theoretical and practical programs in such a way that the
"imagined" man can be born. Whatever programs we design should
furthermore prepare our generation in becoming men of reflection and worship;
men who would address their society with a greater sense of understanding and
honesty. Our task at the end, is inventing a man of
border-knowledge. And a man of border-knowledge can only be produced
through what we have called a borderland-university, namely an Islamic
university that embraces fully the spiritual and epistemological vision of
Islam. If a borderland-university is there, a man of border-knowledge can
emerge, and prosperous society will be realized. Wallahu a'lam.
