.jpg) |
| Hamid Fahmy Zarkasyi Ph.D |
Hamid Fahmy Zarkasyi Ph.D
Introduction
The modern and postmodern
era that are now become a dominant trend not only in cultural and social fields
but also in scientific discourse have more or less influenced directly or
indirectly religious studies, especially Islamic studies. Islam is not only
understood by Muslims through their intellectual tradition but also by foreign
researchers whose approaches and methodologies are at variance with that of
Muslim researchers. In this predicament Muslims, on the one hand, have to
develop Islamic thought as the continuation of their intellectual
tradition and on the other hand they have to be able to response
the modern challenge according to that tradition and even to adapt foreign
concept which are compatible with Islamic worldview by the process of
Islamization. This paper elaborate the development and the challenge of
Islamic studies and the necessary measure to response that challenge
conceptually and institutionally, by offering new organization of subject matter
in Islamic studies for every faculty or department.
Development and Challenge
There are different
framework and development of Islamic studies in the Muslim world or in
non-Muslim world. In the early period, during the prophet mission his concern
is to ignite men’s soul with the torch of knowledge, and it was from the Qur’an
that the Prophet imparts the knowledge to his companions. It is because Islam
is a religion based on knowledge, a knowledge in which the intellect (al-‘aql)
itself play a pivotal role in leading man to the God. Therefore, the aim of
those knowledge inculcation and other religious activities are for the sake of
worshiping God (Qur’an: al-Dhariyat, 51). Conceptually, various
knowledge and notion, that projected by the Qur’an are related closely to the
concept of God and even “All phrase of Islamic culture, whether art, science,
or philosophy reflect this predominance of the idea of Unity.”[2] However,
it does not necessarily mean that the Qur’an simply talk about theology, it
also teaches human being various aspects of human life.
The earliest intellectual
activity in Islam is, therefore, concerned with those Islamic sciences which
are properly speaking known as “transmitted” (al-‘ulum al-naqliyyah)
such as Qur’anic commentary, the tradition of the Prophet, sacred law of Islam
(fiqh), theology (kalam) as well as dealing with language of prosody etc. This
whole group of science is usually distinguished in the Islamic classification
of the sciences from “the intellectual sciences” (al-ulum al-‘aqliyyah).
The two have different method of learning; the former is learned through
authority, whereas the latter is by speculative reasoning. However,
conceptually the two cannot be separated.
Subsequently, having
conversant of fundamental Islamic knowledge transmitted from the Qur’an, the
Muslim encountered foreign ideas which are secular in nature. However, Muslims
accepted only those elements of foreign heritage which were deemed Islamic in
nature. In this process they relate those ideas to the central theme of Islamic
wisdom and unity, through which the sciences and religious doctrines were knit
together. Mathematic of the Greek and Hindu, for example were united in the
writing of the Muslim mathematician, thereby creating or giving algebra. But here
mathematic was considered not secular technique but more as the ladder.
Political, administrative and fiscal institution and laws of Persian and
Byzantine empires were also integrated into the structure of Muslim society so
that they lost their foreign attributes. The mutakallimun concept
of jawhar (atom) were also the result of assimilation, but one can hardly find
the similarity of this theory with that of Greek or Indian.
In fact, in Islamic
intellectual tradition, when the Muslims encounter foreign ideas they have
always integrated and Islamized into the ambit of Islamic thought. But there
are differences between the past and present scholar in facing this situation.
While in the past the Muslim scholars are the leaders in scientific inquiries,
the present Muslim scholars perceived themselves as the victimized follower and
subject of an ill-defined “Western Society”.[3] Consequently,
the Muslims today do not integrate the foreign ideas with the Islamic
traditional knowledge anymore. They simply receive knowledge from foreign
civilization without any epistemological process. Especially after the
nineteenth century onward the process of integration decreased and the
intrusion of secularism into the Islamic world more evident in the field of
education. Here schools on a European model and teaching European subject have
often been built by Muslim authorities. The original aim was to enable Muslim
to overcome Muslim backwardness and to achieve what had been achieved by
European intellectuals. As a result Islamic education institutions were divided
up into two parts: religious and secular education institution, both of which
belong to Muslims.
The system of education
imposed in the Muslim world brought with it an important factor in the
introduction of secularism. It is not because of subject matter taught but
because of point of view from which the subject are taught. The schools of
Muslims in its golden era also taught mathematic, natural sciences, language,
and letter, besides theology, jurisprudence and philosophy, but the modern
subjects bearing the same name are at variance with Islamic science in the
past. Nasr, clearly asserts that modern sciences have borrowed many techniques
and ideas from the ancient and medieval science including Muslim’s science, “but
the point of view in the two cases in completely different. The Islamic science
breathed in a Universe in which God was everywhere. They were based upon
certainty and searched after the principle of Unity in things which is reached
through synthesis and integration. The modern sciences on the contrary, live in
a world in which God is nowhere or even if there, is irrelevant to the
sciences.”[4]
By teaching the various
modern European art and sciences which are for the most part alien to the
Islamic perspective the curriculum of the schools and universities in the
Muslim countries has injected an element of secularism into the mind of Muslims
and in turn into Muslim society. The most apparent factor that has great impact
on Muslims’ mind is the doctrine of dualism or dichotomy. This is the factor
which is responsible for the intellectual stagnation and confusion.[5] They are usually become unproductive because the
education they received is not relevant to their value system and ideological
orientation. For a person to be productive he has to be educated in the context
of this values system and ideology. Education will be useless if it does not
represent the belief and values of the community in which it is operated.
Another consequence of this predicament for the majority of Muslim student is
growing disenchantment with the secular approach to knowledge which has
predominance in the Muslim world and dislocation of Muslim intellectual with
regard to the Islamic tradition.
Another consequences is
that social sciences and humanity in Islamic universities are of Western legacy
and thus studied from Western methodology or framework which is value laden. In
turn the Muslim scholars and intellectuals sought to fulfill their need in
solving the problem of ummah from the Western social sciences, without
realizing that the West had established these sciences in accordance with its
own worldview. Western science brought values, concepts and belief upon which
all Western aspects of behavior, activity and social institution are
established. Therefore, when they are adopted by Muslims other two negative
impacts would arise. First, the Muslims would be suffered by
intellectual confusion, and second¸ Muslims could either
overlook Islamic thought and legacy in negative manner or simply study it and
treat it as ancient phenomenon, and it is neither needed by nor relevant to
contemporary life.[6] In addition, the Western
dichotomic system of Muslim education had resulted in two models of
universities one is offering only traditional Islamic sciences (al-ulum
al-naqliyyah) and another one offer only Western sciences.[7] The
outcome of such dichotomic system of education are graduates who are conversant
of religious knowledge and are called Ulama and gained high
respect for their piety, and Muslim intellectual who are knowledgeable of
rational knowledge but have no religious knowledge and therefore they are
called scientist and are not deserved to be called ulama in the real sense of
the words.
Apart from the intrusion
of foreign ideas as well as the system of education, the Muslims face another
challenge. While in the early period of Islam the main source of understanding
Islam for Muslim is the Qur’an and Hadith which were understood and practiced
by the Muslim scholars (ulama), in the modern era the source of understanding
Islam is mixed up with the “works produced by Western orientalist, many of whom
have been hostile to Islam, and in fact have written on Islam not because of
their love of the subject but in order to refute it”.[8] The
study of Islam by orientalist has produced a large number of works, which are
studied by all interested in Islamic studies not only in the West and in
non-Muslim countries of Asia but also in those Muslim countries. Unfortunately,
in comparison with other religion of Asia such as Hinduism and Buddhism, Islam
has not been studied properly in most of these works. The bias and value-laden
approach of the orientalist in the study of Islam is well inferred by Edward
Said that orientalism is more about the experience of Western people rather
than Eastern people and therefore it became erroneous conception about Arab and
Islamic civilization. Moreover, although the researches carried out by the
orientalist were looked objective and without interest, it become tool for
political interest.[9]
Within the Orientalist
community Islamic studies in the West underwent specific developent. In 1960s
there was an attempt to relate Islamic studies with the study of the history of
religions, although at the outset it was very difficult. However, in 1980s
scholars on history of religion started to cite the work of scholars who have
been trained in Islamic studies with strong religious background. However, this
way of looking into the Muslim belief and thought is subject to further
evaluation, since according to Said “orientalist survey the Orient from above,
with the aim of getting hold the whole panorama before him – culture, religion,
mind, history and society.”[10] Looking Islam from
above could imply that Islam is seen from beyond Islam and not Islam as it is,
and it could depends on the background of scholars who work within the broadly
defined scope of Islamic studies. The orientalist could have background of
areal studies, religious studies, social and human sciences which are secular
in nature.
In addition, in the
Western intellectual tradition religion or theology used to be subservient to
philosophy. Sartre, Heidegger, Jung, Ludwig Feurbach, William James, Nietzsche,
Kant are philosophers and exponent of religious study. The sociologist,
psychologis and anthropologist like Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Herbert Spencer
(1820-1904) Friedrich Max Muller (1794-1827), Emile Durkheim (1858-1917),
Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) and others depicted religion from their respective theory
and tried to relate religion with social reality and even posited that religion
can undergo change and modification. The discourse of religion, subsequently
enter into new phase, that is philosophy of religion which originally
comparative religion. Certainly, philosophy of religion developed in the West
has its own method and theory which are of Western approach. Since its object
is all religion, the matrix employed for this purpose can hardly from any
religion. Further development of religious study in the West is marked by the
emergence of new discipline named “Cross-cultural Philosophy of
Religion”. Now religion is regarded as similar to culture and the method
for its study is Western philosophy, sociology and anthropology. As a result,
religion is considered as the product of human creativity and will always
changing like living organism. It is in this domain that Islam is studied in
the West and placed within the discourse of religious pluralism which is
nothing more than relativity of theology.
It is true that the
researches done by orientalist on Islamic studies contained scientific and
historical values, but there are many elements in their works which are
unacceptable from the worldview of Islam, since in many cases their
understanding and interpretation of Islam are distorted. However, they cannot
be refuted nor can their influence be annulled by simply denouncing
orientalism. What have been done by the orientalist is to study Islam for their
own needs and ends or in other words they study Islam from their own framework
and worldview.
In short, Islamic studies
in the Muslim world began from understanding of the Qur’an and Sunnah, and then
it grew into various discipline of traditional science, after which the Muslims
encountered foreign sciences and borrowed it. It was due to sophisticated
worldview of Islam projected by al-Qur’an that Muslim could master and
assimilated all foreign sciences to become part of Islamic thought, and even
produce better achievement than their Greek, Persian or Indian predecessors.
However, after the decline of Islamic civilization the Muslims encountered
another challenge from secular modern Western sciences and as the result of
which is the emergence of dichotomic system of education and dualistic approach
in studies. In response to this challenge Muslims must develop their framework
of Islamic studies.
Proposed Model of Islamic Studies
One may infer that the
problem of Muslims ummah is more about political instability,
economic backwardness and cultural erosion.[11] However,
thorough examination would suggest that such an inference is erroneous. The
fact is that in the field of education we are witnessing the stagnation of
Muslim scientific and intellectual tradition. Never before have Muslims both
traditional and secularist education institution been more daring in advocating
their un-Islamic subjects matter. Islamic education institutions in the Muslim
world generate and perpetuate that self-estrangement from Islam, from its
intellectual heritage and its culture. The Muslim’s link with his past is
severed. Examining minutely on this situation al-Attas inferred that the
greatest challenge of the Muslim ummah is the challenge of knowledge. The
socio-economic and political aspects are by no mean insignificant, but they are
subservient and instrumental to the spiritual ones. Therefore, he suggests that
right conception of knowledge should be developed and disseminated starting
from university level all the way down to the secondary and primary level.[12] In a nutshell, there are two duties that should
be carried out by the Muslim intellectual. First duty is to
develop Islamic studies, by developing right conception of knowledge, and second task
is to get rid of foreign element in the Muslim thought by process of
Islamization.
a) Developing Islamic Studies
To develop Islamic studies
is to work out first on right conception of knowledge that is to understand
Islam as religion that has close relationship philosophy and sciences by
referring to the Qur’an. This steps has been formulated well by al-Attas in the
following statement:
An analysis of the meaning of religion in
Islam based on the Holy Qur’an and the hadith, and semantic interpretation of
the linguistic symbol. Interpretation of the salient doctrine of the creed (aqa’id).
The affirmation of knowledge and realities. The meaning of religion will be
explained in a comprehensive manner relating to its essentials in the fields of
theology, philosophy, metaphysics, psychology and epistemology. The position of
the Holy Prophet in the religion of Islam and his role in Muslim life. The
position of other religion. Critical analysis of modern interpretation.[13]
In the foregoing quotation
the Qur’an is already connected to theology, philosophy, psychology and other
field of knowledge by using semantic interpretation of the linguistic symbol.
In this step the Qur’an could be placed as a primary source of scientific
theorizing. In other words, the Qur’an should be used as the basis of the
formula for developing both natural and social sciences. Therefore the point of
departure for developing Islamic studies is clarifying seminal concepts
available in the Qur’an, where huge number of verses deal with the
concepts of knowledge (‘ilm), life, values, humanity, social service,
leadership, etc. Since the Qur’an does not convey detailed exposition of
disciplines of science (It does not provide clear theory, subject matter and
methodology) refering simply to the seminal concept in the Qur’an is
scientifically insufficient, one has to find detail explanation from Hadith and
the explanation of the Ulama who had authoritatively developed the concept into
scientific discipline.
In addition to the study
of the Qur’an and Hadith in such scientific way, al-Attas also proposed that
Muslim scholars should 1) conceptualize, clarify, elaborate, and
define key concepts in Islamic intellectual tradition and civilization relevant
to the cultural, educational, scientific and epistemological problem
encountered by Muslim in the present age. 2) Provide an Islamic
response to the intellectual and cultural challenge of the modern world and
various schools of thought, religion and ideology. 3) Formulate the
Islamic philosophy of education, science, art and architecture. 4) Conduct
research on Islamic civilization. 5) Formulate the method and content of the
various discipline and courses that will integrate the science in all faculties
at the university level.[14]
More specific step is to
outline unified methodological approach for analyzing both revealed texts and
natural or social phenomena.[15] The fundamental
issue is how to understand and interpret divine revelation for the guidance of
political, economic, sociological, philosophical and historical studies.
From the verses of the Qur’an Muslims can derive the principles, basic values,
presumption by the help of the science of Arabic grammar, Tafsir and Ta’wil to
delve into various scientific issue in the contemporary world. Good example of
understanding and interpreting divine revelation for the guidance of Islamic
phiolosophy is to be found in an article written by Alparslan. Here he proposed
the method of interpreting philosophy by examining the real meaning of
philosophy which is distinct from Greek definition and then develop concept of
philosophy within the Qur’anic context. It starts from elucidating the term Hikmah by
deriving the conception of philosophy from the Qur’an.[16] However,
he underlines that this conceptual derivation shoul be regarded as secondary
conception of philosophy within Qur’anic perspective. One of the most importatn
issue is about reality of visible world and invisible world which are related
closely to abstract problem as what is knowledge, being, freedom, truth and
ethic. Since various seminal concepts in the Qur’an are interrelated those
phlosophical issues would include ethic and attitude of natural scientist in
regarding science as such and the intention of studying the universe.
This step is considerably
important especially as a response to the question of incongruity between
Western sciences and Islamic teaching. The former exluded divine revelation
from the realm of science. Revelation was equated with ungrounded metaphysics
and established as a rival body of knowledge, contradistinguished to the body
of knowledge deemed to be true.[17] Kant, for
example, in the same tone also asserts that scientific activities should be
confined to empirical reality, since human reason cannot ascertain
transcendental reality.[18] However, in the
Islamic scientific tradition revelation and science were never perceived to be
mutually exclusive. Yet the Muslim can hardly ignore the fact that the divine
revelation is out of place in modern scientific activities. Not only is the
knowledge of the physical roote in the metaphysical, but also the latter not
altogether divorced from the former.
The interconnectedness of
the two kinds of knowledge can be proven from the theory of worldview. The fact
is that all human conduct - including scientific and technological
activities - is the result of the worldview or ultimately traceable to its worldview,[19] the most central of which is the concept of God.
From philosophical viewpoint Thomas F Wall asserts that if one believes in the
existence of God “he will have to believe that knowledge can be of more than
what is observable and that there is a higher reality – the supernatural
world”.[20] It means that scientific knowledge is
not always empirical as is assumed by Kant; it is related to knowledge of God
or theology. In fact, in the Western intellectual tradition the transcendental
principle which gave rise to science continued to form the metaphysical
foundation for all scientific activities, a foundation which was widely
presumed but rarely acknowledged.[21] However, the
dependence of empirical and transcendental knowledge is not one-sided, whereby
the empirical is always dependent on the transcendental. Rather the state of
dependency is a reciprocal one in which the truth of the transcendental
principle is empirically substantiated through their manifestation. In other
words, although the transcendental principles of a postulated universal order
are rooted in religious belief, the truth of these principles is manifested in
the empirically observable behavior of objects.[22]
An important step to place
revelation as major source of knowledge or to integrate religious and non
religious sciences had been done by al-Ghazali. According to him to integrate
religious and non-religious knowledge is not by bringing two classes of science
together into one, but rather by positing one science inherent in another. This
is discernible from the point where on the one hand he places theology as a
sub-division of speculative knowledge, which is a division of intellectual
knowledge, and on the other hand, he puts it as a subdivision of fundamental
religious knowledge. This implies that theology is the meeting point of
intellectual and religious sciences. All the other sciences and their various
branches serve as introductory material to theology.[23] The
integration of two different kinds of knowledge is lucidly shown when he
attempts to correlate the intellectual and the revealed or religious knowledge.
This is articulated by al-Ghazali in Ihya’ as
follows:
… the intellect cannot dispense with
revealed knowledge, nor can revealed knowledge dispense with the intellect…therefore,
a person who advocates sheer taqlid without the use of the
intellectual science is ignorant, and he who is satisfied with these sciences
alone without the light of the Qur’an and the Sunnah is conceited.[24]
There is mutual symbiosis
between the intellect as an instrument of knowledge and revealed knowledge as
guiding source for the truth. Moreover, various disciplines of religious
sciences cannot dispense with the intellect, for some of their truths are inferred
or deduced by it from the fundamental truth of the revelation. Other
disciplines are the result of analogical reasoning based upon similarly
established belief and conviction. To bring the intellectual and religious
knowledge together in a unified whole he pronounced, “Most of the religious
knowledge is intellectuals, and most of the intellectual knowledge is
religious.”[25] The outcome of this symbiosis,
according to al-Ghazali, is wisdom.
From the perspective of
the theory of worldview, the integration is back to the thesis that believing
in the existence of God is a basic element of theistic worldview, and this
element will coherently encroach on the other concepts, including that of
knowledge.[26] It is obviously justifiable to
infer that theistic worldview is the basis of epistemology. In other words the
belief in the unity of God and the concept that follows such belief permeates
the concept of knowledge.
Looking at the foregoing
exposition of scientific understanding of the revelation and integration of
religious and rational knowledge, it is imperative that we should arrange them
in the form of courses and place in accordance with the syllabus for the
subject matter of Islamic studies.
Now in most of Western
universities as well as universities of the Muslim countries, Islamic study is
placed in one faculty or department parallel to other faculties or department.
The drawback of this organization is alienation of Islam from other science,
for there is no relation at all with other discipline of science in other
department, such as departments of economic, education, political sciences,
sociology and the likes. Recent development suggests that more students in
Islamic universities are interested to choose department of natural or social
sciences, while there are less student choose Islamic studies faculty or
department. This is the problem that brought about the failure of Muslim to
understand their religion.
To resolve this problem
institutional measure should be taken. The arrangement of courses in Islamic
university should be modified in such a way that students of certain department
in Islamic universities should take a subject of Islamic studies which are
relevant to their discipline. The course of Islamic studies for the student of
International law should be in the form of material that deals with the same
subject or something related to that. Student of Economic and business
management in Islamic universities should be offered the subject of Islamic
studies which are relevant to his discipline; student of psychology should be
taught, for example, the Qur’an concept of man and ilm al-nafs and
other necessary material.
However, to implement this
institutional measure, Muslim intellectuals would face methodological problem
of approaching the source of Islamic knowledge especially when it is connected
with modern methodology. So, there is simultaneous steps should be taken
by Muslim intellectual in facing this problem, on the one hand they have to
develop Islamic studies according to scientific discipline and on the other
hand they have to criticize, modify, refine, remolded various concept that come
from other civilization in order to take the benefit of it form building
Islamic concept. This is what we call now Islamization of contemporary knowledge.
b) Islamizing Contemporary knowledge
As the matter fact, that
contemporary Western knowledge is not truly neutral, because knowledge came
from different culture, each of which have their own conception of knowledge.
Therefore, it is natural that knowledge of one civilization contradicts with
others and cannot be reconciled. The only possible way to take the benefit of
knowledge from other civilization is by process of assimilation or in term of
Islam is Islamization. The concept of Islamization of contemporary knowledge
according to al-Attas is:
Liberation of man first
from magical, mythological, animistic, national-cultural tradition (opposed to
Islam) and then from secular control over his reason and his language…. It is
also liberation from subservience to his physical demands which inclines
towards the secular and injustice towards forgetfulness of his true manner,
becoming ignorant of his true purpose and unjust to it. Islamization is a
process not so much of evolution as that of devolution to original nature[27]
What is meant by
liberation is to do away any concept or belief, which is against Islam
such as the concept of dualism, which encompass the vision or reality and
truth, the concept of mind and body that subsequently leads to the doctrine of
humanism and the concept of tragedy. Having liberated foreign concepts
incompatible with Islam, al-Attas proposed the next step which is to infuse
Islamic element and key concept into all branch of knowledge. It seems that
al-Attas is not of the opinion that the problem of knowledge should be resolved
through integration, since it would be useless to accept present day knowledge
and expect to Islamize later, because the body of knowledge in the Muslims
world is already hegemonized by Western element.[28]
Such a kind of
Islamization process had been carried out by Muslim scholars in the past, yet
they did not employ the term Islamization. The best depiction about that is to
be found in the statement of Michael Marmura, commenting on the achievement of
Muslim peripatetic philosopher (falasifah):
....the falasifah did not simply accept
ideas they received through the translations. They criticized, selected, and
rejected; they made distinction, refined and remoulded concepts to formulate
their own philosophies.[29]
The foregoing statements
suggest that the Muslims in the past had already attempted to Islamize foreign
ideas in the form of criticizing, selecting, rejecting, making distinction,
refining and remoulding foreign concepts, in order to formulate their own ideas and concept. In
this way Muslims could enrich Islamic intellectual heritage with foreign
concepts without jeopardizing their own concept.
Another view point of how to deal with
secular Western knowledge Ibrahim Abu Rajab proposes a new paradigm of research
in social sciences. The steps proposed by Rajab are
I. Surveying and studying social sciences
that give contribution to Islamic sciences that would be developed. For this
there are at least three steps: a) to identify all conceptual framework and
research outcome related to the field of science under the consideration. b) To
criticize seriously against the field of knowledge under consideration from
Islamic perspective epistemologically or ontologically, especially in relation
to God, man and universe c) To alternate concepts, empirical generalization and
observation which are irrelevant to Islam.[30]
II. Surveying and studying revealed
knowledge of Islam which is related to the field of knowledge. This is by a)
identification of all verses in the Qur’an and Sunnah, related to the field
under studying, including standard of interpretation for having acceptable
meaning. b) Finding out the works of Muslim intellectual in the past and
present that discuss the issue under consideration. The work should be assessed
in order to determine its values for the present needs. c) Combining the ideas
from the Qur’an and Hadith, as well as that of Muslim intellectuals in one
compatible theoretical framework.
III. Developing integral theoretical
framework that combine the ideas from revelation and intellectual. This is by
a) Compiling all research result and valid concepts. in social sciences as the
continuation of the step I and II. b) Exposition of the result of synthesis in
the form of clear and formal proposition.
IV. Validating integral theoretical
framework through the practice of research, if the hypothesis is rejected it
might be due to a) inaccurate research method and practical procedure or b)
invalid understanding or interpretation of revelation in the first step and
thus require further [31]
So, Islamization is not the matter of
conversion parallel to Christianization, but epistemological process that
naturally had been carried out by other civilization. The epistemological
process is an inner process involving mental process and therefore it deal with
concepts and not physical object. This is not about external objects and
therefore would result in Islamic car, Islamic bomb or Islamic
technology.
Conclusion
Islamic studies in Islamic education
institution require new approach, especially in response to modern scientific
development and as rejoinder of distorted exposition of the Western orientalist
tradition. The proposed model for the development of Islamic studies in Islamic
universities where social and natural sciences are offered requires more
serious collaboration between Muslim intellectual in the field of social and
natural science with those who are conversant in traditional religious
sciences.
Gontor, 9 January 2011
[1] A paper presented at International
Conference on Islamic Universities, Building Scientific Tradition with Asian
Universities, Darussalam Institute of Islamic Studies, Gontor, 9-11 January,
2011.
[2] Nasr, SH, Islamic Life and
Thought, Suhail Academy, Lahore Pakistan, 1981, p.92
[3] Umar A Hasan, Islamization of
Knowledge: A response, The American Journal of Islamic and Social Sciences,
vol. 5, No. 2, 1988, 327-38
[4] S.H.Nasr, Islamic Life and Thought,
Suhail Academy, Lahore, Pakistan, 1981, 13
[5] For detailed exposition of this
confusion see SMN Naquib al-Attas, Islam and Secularism, Kuala
Lumpur, :ABIM (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia), 1978.
[6] AbdulHamid Abu Sulayman (editor) Islamization
of Knowledge, General Principle and Work Plan, International Institute of
Islamic Thought, Herndon, Virginia, USA, second edition, see Introduction,
p.xiv, 1989
[7] However, in 1980s International
Islamic university was established in Islamabad, Pakistan and Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia, where religious and rational sciences are taught. Recently in
Indonesia five State Institutes of Islamic Studies (IAIN) were converted into
Islamic universities, where natural sciences are taught.
[8] S.H.Nasr, Islamic Life and
Thought, Suhail Academy, Lahore, Pakistan, 1981,31
[9] Keith Windschuttle “Edward Said’s
Orientalism revisited” The New Criterion Vol. 17, No. 5,
January 1999, hal. 5.
[10] Edward W Said, Orientalism,
(New York: Pantheon, 1978), p 239
[11] AbdulHamid Abu Sulaiman (ed), Islamization
of Knowledge, General Principles and Work Plan, IIIT, Herndon,
USA, 1989, pp.2-5
[12] Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, The
Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Mohammad Naquib al-Attas,
ISTAC, Kuala Lumpur, 1998, p.71
[13] Ibid, p.29
[14] Program of Graduate Studies,
International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), 1993-1195,
p.9.
[15] Louay Safi, The Foundation of
Knowledge, A Comparative Study in Islamic and Western Method of Inquiry,
International Islamic University Press Malaysia, International Institute of
Islamic Thought, 1996, 171
[16] Alpasrlan,Acikgence, A Concept
of Philosophy in The Qur’anic Context, The American Journal of Islamic
Social Sciences, vol. 11:2, p.160
[17] John Lock,”An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding”, in Edwin A. Burt (ed) in The English Philosopher
From Bacon To Mill (New York, Random Haous, 1939) pp. 392-5
[18] Emmanual Kant, Critique of
Pure Reason, Kemp Smith (New Yor: Marten’s Press), p.265.
[19] Alparslan Acikgence, "The
Framework for A history of Islamic Philosophy", Al-Shajarah,
Journal of The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civlization,
(ISTAC, 1996, vol.1. Nos. 1&2, 6.
[20] Thomas F Wall, Thinking
About Philosophical Problem, p. 60
[21] The work that acknowledge these
principle are Chavee Nachmais and David Nachmias, Research Method in
the Social Science (London: Endward Arnold, 1990), pp. 7-9; and E
Burtt, Metaphysical Foundation of Modern Science (Atlantic
Highlands) N.J. Humanities Press, 1980
[22] Louay Safi, The Foundation of
knowledge, p. 174.
[23] Al-Ghazali, al-Risalah,
65; English transl. JRAS, Part III, 357
[24] Al-Ghazali, Ihya’, vol.
IV, 250.
[25] Al-Ghazali, al-Risalah , 63;
English JRAS. Part III, July, 23.
[26] Thomas F Wall, Thinking
Critically About Philosophical Problems, (Australia : Thomson
Learning, Wadsworth, 2001), 16.
[27] Al-Attas, Islam and
Secularism, ABIM, Kuala Lumpur, 1978, 42-43; al-Attas, The
Concept of Education in Islam, A Framework for Philosophy of Education,
ISTAC, Kuala Lumpur, 1991, pp.45-46. Cf al-Faruqi’s step is to
recast knowledge as Islam relates to it.. i.e. to redefine and reorder the
data, to rethink the reasoning and relating of the data, to reevaluate the
conclusions, to reproject the goals - and to do so in such a way as to make the
disciplines enrich the vision and serve the cause of Islam". Ismail R
al-Faruqi, Islamization of Knowledge: The Problem, Principle and the Workplan,
Herndon: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1982, 15.
[28] Al-Attas, Islam and Secularism, ibid,
156.
[29] Michael Marmura, dalam The
Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, MacMillan Publishing
Company, New York, Collier Macmillan Publisher, London, p. 268, s.v.
“Falsafah”
[30] Ibrahim A. Ragab, Towards a
New Paradigm for Social Science Research, paper presented at the Fourth
International Social Science Methodology Conference, at the University of
Essex, Colchester, UK, 1-5 July 1996.
[31] Ibrahim A. Ragab, Towards a
New Paradigm, Ibid
