World-COME2009_History of Islamization of Education Movement

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History of Islamization of Education Movement :

An Analysis of Dr. Syed Ali Ashraf’s Contrribution to

Six World Conferences on Muslim Education (1977-1996)

Associate Professor Isharaf Hossain,

Darul Ihsan University, Bangladesh,

Visiting Research Fellow,

International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies: IAIA Malaysia

During the first half of the last century, the reconstruction of Islamic Education was initiated

by a number of leading Islamic scholars. Among these scholars, Prof. Dr. Syed Ali Ashraf

played a very important role in this regard.In order to materialize their vision they organised anumber of conferences since 1977. The First World Conference on Muslim Education

(FWCME) in 1977 was organized by them which was held on 31-8th April 1977 at Mecca,

KSA, in the then King Abdul Aziz University.Dr. Syed Ali Ashraf was the Secretary General

of the conference(FWCME. About 400 world venerable Muslim scholars participated in the

conference from all over the world and have generated a common desire to Islamic education

in order to save the future generation from the onslaught of secular philosophy of life and

education that are at the root of the world view dominates and directs each branch of

knowledge. These scholars realized and stated that this Islamization is possible only by

accepting revealed knowledge as in the Quran and Sunnah as an effective reality and the

basic source of the life view. Western education system adopted as a short cut method to

reform which was the main cause of weakening the religious sensibility and of strengtheningthese secularist attitudes. This adoption, however, did not permeate all educational

institutions because it was resisted by the traditional Islamic Education system which the

traditional section of the Muslim society had not given up. Hence a cultural duality appeared

everywhere in the Muslim world, a duality in the society that resulted from the dual education

systems: the traditional Islamic education system (creating the tradition) of Islamic group,

and the modern secular education system creating the secularists. In many regions, the

secular education system gradually replaced all other forms of education. In other regions

both the systems are still in existence but the secular system has become the dominant. The

Muslim world has started realizing now that it will thus, lose its identity by losing its Islamic

character and thus suffer from moral disintegration. In this regard, the only safeguard is to

retain its Islamic identity through the preservation of its own spiritual, moral, intellectual andmaterial approaches, and through the solving of problems from an Islamic point of view. It is

out of this realization that a new attitude has emerged. It is strongly felt that it is necessary for

the Muslims to have a truly Islamic education, and education can be truly Islamic if Muslim

scholars can produce Islamic concepts for all branches of human knowledge and Muslim

scholars can disseminate these concepts among Muslim intellectuals and students by` getting

their minds purified and keeping them away from all un Islamic elements.Thus, the main aim

of the Conference was, therefore, to 'Islamize' education, which means, not only to set up

broad goals and ideals, but also to indicate the guidelines and the methodology towards

Islamization of knowledge. It is believed that the only way to save the Muslims from the

onslaught of anti-religious forces in political, economic and all other spheres, is to educate

them in such a way so that they grow up with faith in God, in the human Spirit and in

absolute values reflected in the human self, which needs disciplining in order to appreciate



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how faith in God, human spirit and the absolute values are integrated and reflected in political

thinking, economic planning, social disciplining and individual progress.

As a result of this conference, and according to the resolution and recommendation of this, five other world conference, many seminars, symposiums, workshops, national conferences were held in several

Muslim countries and places. In the FWCME in 1977, it was decided that the secularist concepts for

each branch of knowledge should be replaced by concepts formulated from the Islamic point of view.In the Second world conference (Islamabad 1980), principles for curriculum design were formulated,in the Third world conference (Dhaka 1981), principles for textbook preparation were announced. Inthe Forth world conference (Cairo 1987), a successful plan has been drawn up to prepare school text books each subject taught at schools and colleges up to HSC level. Sixth world conference held on1996 , Cafe Town in South Africa. Thus many educational and research institutes, centers,

universities were established, a large number of research oriented articles and books, journals, bulletins and Islamic education series were composed and published. The influence of the conferencesand other activities in the way from secular non-religious based on modernism towards tradition, faithand religious epistemology based postmodernism is very important in the present day’s reality.

The term of Islamization of education was developed based on above theme and concept and

Islamization of education movement was started in the end of seventieth decade of last centuryinitiated by Dr. Syed Ali Ashraf and other scholars. According to Dr. Syed Ali Ashraf :

a. Islamization of education means first of all the acceptance of four fundamental beliefs as facts which Islam shares incommon with other major religions of the world though at lower levels they may have become different througheditions, alterations and subtractions by followers of earlier religions. They are (1) Belief in One Unique Transcendentalreality (God, Allah) who alone is worthy of worship. Belief in the existence of Spirit (ruh) in every human being which provides ability to the humans to have intuitive cognition of that Reality and the establishment of good in the world.

Belief in the endowment of that ruh with inner but latent consciousness of the eternal qualities if God which alone arethe sources of values with whose help the ruh in human beings light with selfishness in different forms such as pride,greed, etc. Belief in the need for Divine guidance from the source that transcend the self.

b- … idea was further developed by me in designing the curriculum for all stages of education by stating that all

knowledge can be divided as knowledge out of three relationship- (1) Ahuman being’s relationship with God (2) his/her relationship with other human beings and (3) his/her relationship with the rest of the creation (or natural of external

world). I went back to traditional classification and termed them as (a) Religious Sciences (Ulum al-din); (b) HumanSciences (Ulum al-Insaniyyah); and (c) Natural Sciences (Ulum al- tabuiyyah). It is from the first branch that we get the

life-view and basic concepts about human life and human nature which are necessary to prepare lessons for all branches

of the other two kinds of knowledge. I did not therefore overthrow all the classifications of knowledge made bysecularist thinkers. I only re-organized them into proper disciplines with a connecting link. It is this connecting that ismissing in the secularist classification. Most of them have gone ahead and spoken about the almost total autonomy of

each branch of knowledge. Revealed knowledge as Ulum al-din provided us with this link integrating all branches of knowledge into a unity.

According to Dr Abdullah Omar Nasseef (the then Vice-chancellor of, K.A.A.U and Vice-chairmanof the conference steering committee): I came to know prof. Syed Ali Ashraf since 1975 when we recruited him in

the Enlish department in the king Abdul Aziz University in its Mecca Branch. It has two branches; one is in holy Mecca nowit is an independence University name Umm-Ul-Kara University. As soon as he came, may be in the first or second week hecame to me and spoke to me about islamization of knowledge. Although I had some impressions, it was for the first time that

somebody proposed it. He proposed that we should come forward to discuss about how we should proceed for theislamization of knowledge and education system in education has to be changed. If you repair the education system

everything will be repaired. He continued to meet me, may be, weekly so that we could sponsor a conference. And finally wesucceeded. We worked together and planned and got budget from the government to organize the conference in Mecca 1977.

There were about 450 Intellectual people including 50 ministers from Muslim countries. W were successful in gathering the people. .......Dr. syed Ali Ashraf was a pioneer of the isalmization of knowledge and education movement. He told the peoplewhat to do to Islamize knowledge and education. We have to make required philosophy of education, the system of education, the curriculum, and the books everything related to education. And this is not an easy process he said that we

should try to Islamize education in practice. And I think al-Hamdulillah; we have succeeded at least in initiating the process.

Because islamization of knowledge is not an easy process. It takes generations. But this initiative-this process will continue.It is something unique and creative. We have to remember that professor Syed Ali Ashraf was the pioneer to pave the way.And for this- we have to pay respect to his contribution and follow up his activities and plan.

According to Professor Syed Hosen Nasr;

. As one who has had much responsibility for the planning of the first World Conference on Muslim Education and those

which followed, Dr Ashraf pursues the issues that arose from discussion in these conferences and the obstacles which existupon the path of implementing the resolutions of these meetings. The present monograph is an honest and scholarly

reflection upon these issues, existing obstacles and means of removing the impediments on the way to the realization of the

goals which the World Congress had set before itself. .. .Dr Ashraf begins by contrasting with vigour and honesty the Islamic



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and modern concepts of education for he realizes fully that no Islamic education is possible without this fundamental

discernment between what is authentically Islamic and what is modern even if the latter be now covered by a veneer of Islamicity or be propagated by Muslims. Dr Ashraf then turns to the basic issues of the development of an Islamic

curriculum with the question of the relation between a liberal and religious education as well as a traditional and a modernone occupying the centre of his concern. He then turns to other major aspects of education namely the question of textbook development and the training of teachers. In both issues he emphasizes the significance of actually writing texts and training

teachers in the Islamic manner rather than simply talking in a general sense about Islamic education… Simply claiming that

all science is Islamic because the Qur'an and Hadith emphasize the importance of knowledge (al-Wm) nor evenby accentuating the ethical use of the applications of science which is in itself necessary but which does not byitself Islamicize a science based upon the secular view of existence and of knowledge. Muslim thinkers must

integrate various forms of knowledge with-in themselves by not only accepting but also often criticizing and rejecting prevalent structures and premises of many of the sciences, and then write textbooks in which a particular subject whether it be anthropology or astronomy is treated from the Islamic point of view as wasdone by an Ibn Sind or Ibn Khaldun centuries ago. Present day Muslim thinkers, who are at the forefront of the

intellectual jihad needed so desperately by the Islamic ummah, must also train those who will become theteachers in the Islamic educational system to whose creation so much attention and energy are being devoted today. Without such basic steps, all the Islamic universities and institutes now being established through the

length and breadth of the Islamic world will become halls of learning with a name but devoid of the spirit and the intellectual vision necessary to train the educated Muslims of the next generation. The monograph of Dr Syed Ali Ashraf, who has already done so much to further the cause of Islamic education, draws the attendon of

the intelligentsia of the Islamic world and especially those in a position of responsibility from an educational and also political point of view to the real issues involved and the questions which must be solved. He points tothe basic tasks of creating a curriculum, providing texts and training teachers in the matrix of the educational philosophy of Islam instead of dispersing funds Cand human energy in endless external activities which rotate

around the problem of Islamic education without ever reaching its heart. All those interested in the future of education in Islamic countries, which means the future of those countries themselves, should be grateful to Dr Ashraf for this monograph fallowing upon the wake of so many other works from his pen in the area of

education. Let us pray and hope that concrete steps will be taken to implement the proposals, to remove theobstacles and to provide solutions for the problems discussed with such forthrightness and openness by Dr Ashraf in this valuable

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World-COME2009_History of Islamization of Education Movement