The document discusses the concept of Islamization of knowledge. It begins by explaining how Western secular thought has influenced education systems around the world, including in Muslim countries. It then defines knowledge from both secular and Islamic perspectives. The sources of knowledge in Islam are identified as sense experience, reasoning, innate instinct, intuitive knowledge, and revelation. Islamization of knowledge is defined as reconceiving disciplines based on Islamic principles. The failure of the modern Western education system is analyzed and the aims of Islamizing knowledge are outlined as abolishing secular systems and fostering a deeper Islamic worldview.

1. Islamization of
Knowledge
Iqbal Saujan
Temp. Assist. Lecturer
Islamic Law & Legislation
savjaniqbal@seu.ac.lk

2. Introduction
❖ Today secular philosophical thought seized not only the Western education system but also
seized the education system of the entire Muslim world.
❖ The philosophical thought of the Western world based on empiricism, rationalism and
secularism. The philosophers of the Western world denied the divine guidance guessing that
without any attachment of religion they are determined to change the destiny of their lives.
❖ They think that man has rights to fulfill all kinds of desires for the sake of happiness with
certain values such as democracy, equality, human rights, social justice and others.
❖ This speculation distanced them from the guidance of God, as a result, all kinds of rebellious
activities prevailed their thinking as well as the policies of societies and states.
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3. Definition of Knowledge (From the secular
perspective)
❖ Knowledge means facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the
theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, or awareness or familiarity gained by
experience of a fact or situation (Oxford Dictionaries Language Matters).
❖ Knowledge means understanding of or ​information about a ​subject that you get by ​experience
or ​study, either ​known by one ​person or by ​people ​generally. Or Knowledge means the state of
knowing about or being familiar with something (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)
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4. Definition of Knowledge (From the Islamic
perspective)
❖ In Islam, knowledge comes from Allah’s revelation to His Prophets, and from reasoning and
perception or empiricism. The following verses of the Holy Qur’an show this:
“Read! In the name of your Lord who creates, creates man from a clot (of congealed blood).
Read: and your Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who teaches by the pen, teaches man that which
he knew not”. (Sura Al-alaq, Verse no: 1-5).”
“And Allah has brought you out of the wombs of your mothers while you know nothing. And He
gave you hearing, sight, and hearts that you might give thanks (to Allah)”. (Surah An-nahl,
Verse no: 78).”
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5. Definition of Knowledge to the Islamic
Scholars
❖ Imam Ghazali said: Information that leads to successful attainment of the true goal of life.
❖ Al-Jurjani said: Attaining the description of something in the mind.
❖ Al Attas says: the arrival of the right meaning and descriptions of a thing into the soul.
❖ Al Raghib al Isfahani : Understanding over something in corresponding with its true nature.
❖ Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad said: Knowledge is the meaning that makes the soul of the learned
feeling contended after having acquired it.
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6. The sources of knowledge in Islam
❖ There are five sources of knowledge acknowledged in Islam.
1. Sense Experience: observation and experience
2. Reasoning: the action of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way.
3. Innate & Instinct: Instinct is a feeling or ability for doing something which we have from
birth and have not learnt, that is, an innate ability -- the adjective innate means
'inborn/natural. An innate instinct amounts to saying ‘an innate ability/quality’.
4. Intuitive Knowledge: This style has to do with the insight and inspiration that Allah
bestows on the Muslims. It is only those who use their reason and intellect in the right
manner, enlightened and inspired by Allah’s revelation that can have this insight, and
inspiration.
5. Revelation: the Knowledge of God that has been sent down to the prophets.
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7. What is the Islamization of knowledge ?
❖ Ismail Raji al-Faruqi said: As disciplines, the humanities, the social sciences and the natural
sciences must be reconceived and rebuilt, given a new Islamic base and assigned new purposes
consistent with Islam. Every discipline must be recast so as to embody the principles of Islam in its
strategy, in what it regards as its data, its problems, its objectives, its aspirations.
❖ Dr. Imad al Din Khalil said: Islamization of knowledge means involvement in intellectual pursuits,
by examination, summarization, correlation, and publication, from the perspective of an Islamic
outlook on life, man and the universe.
❖ Abu al Qasim Hajj Hammad said: Islamization of Knowledge is the breaking of the connection
between the scientific achievements of human civilization and the transmutations of postulative
philosophy, so that science may be employed by means of a methodological order which is
religious rather than speculative in nature.
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8. Continue….
❖ Taha Jabir al’Alwani: IOK is primarily a methodological issue which is prepositioned on the
Identification and articulation of the relationship between revelation and the real-existential.
❖ Prof. Kamal Hasan says: Islamization of Human Knowledge is an alternative paradigm for
pursuing, teaching, organizing, disseminating, utilizing and evaluating contemporary human
knowledge-as distinct from Divinely revealed knowledge-in accordance with the worldview,
fundamental principles, ethical values and norms of Islam.
❖ Naqib al-Attas says: liberation of man first from magical, mythological, animistic, national-
cultural tradition (opposed to Islam), and then from secular control over his reason and language.
❖ Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman says: The purpose of IOK is to achieve mastery of Islamic thought in
various branches of human knowledge…in order to build a sound contemporary Islamic base for
dynamic action in all spheres of life and civilization.
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9. Why knowledge is necessary to be Islamized?
They are some reasons which extremely necessitate Islamization of Knowledge, theses are:
1. To build a strong bridge between Islamic and worldly knowledge.
2. To guide the humanity to the pathway of welfare and prosperity as well as their salvation.
3. To bring back the Islamic own worldview to the Muslims.
4. To unite the entire Muslim Ummah under the one education system.
5. To turn the Muslim Ummah to the Islamic world view rescuing from the secular world
view.
6. To awaken and strengthen the spirit of Islam within the Muslim Ummah.
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10. The aim of Islamization of knowledge
1. To abolish secular education system from the Islamic world.
2. To set up the vision and mission of Islam in the mindset of Muslim Ummah .
3. To produce Ijtehadic and dynamic leadership.
4. To bring empirical and rational approach in the mindset of Muslims
5. To create awareness in the Ummah of the crisis of ideas.
6. To foster a deeper understanding of the nature of the crisis of ideas in contemporary Islamic
thought, its causes, and its solutions.
7. To revive the ideologies of the Ummah, and to invigorate and redevelop its methodology and to
elucidate its viewpoints and intimate relationship with original Islamic goals.
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11. The concept of Islamization of Knowledge
❖ There have been several phrases used to interpret this concept such as “Islamization of
knowledge” and “Islamization of contemporary or present-day knowledge.”
❖ Naqib al-Attas said: For instance, he consistently emphasizes and uses the phrase “Islamization of
contemporary knowledge” or the “Islamization of present-day knowledge” rather than just
“Islamization of modern knowledge”.
❖ Al-faruqi also used the phrase of “Islamization of modern knowledge for his project although later,
he tended to use the phrase “Islamization of disciplines”.
❖ Prof. Kamal Hasan says: Relevantization of human knowledge.
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12. The failure of modern Western education
and its causes
❖ Prof. Mumtaz Ali explored aspects of western education system and divided into two stages.
❖ First Stage…..
1. It was an unjust system.
2. It was an irrational system.
3. People were oppressed.
4. The masses wanted to bring about a change in their condition of life.
5. In their quest for a better life, thinking minds started thinking and developing new forms
of philosophical thought.
6. Their sole aim was material development
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13. Continue….
❖ Second Stage….
1. Man has come into being by chance, though endowed with the faculties of reason and
sense perception.
2. Man himself determines his purpose and direction in life.
3. Man is a rational being and master of his own destiny.
4. Man has the right to the fulfillment of his desires for the sake of happiness with certain
values such as democracy, equality, human rights, social justice and others.
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14. Conclusion
It is said that education is the back bone of a nation. As long as one person’s backbone is strong and
upright he can do whatever he likes but when his backbone is disabled and sick, he is unfit for his
family as well as for the state. So for reviving the Ummah, its education system must be reshuffled
and developed, otherwise, the Ummah will never be able to stand up raising its head on the surface of
this earth.
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15. References
Adebayo, R. I. . (2018). THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE: A
Preliminary Study of Pioneers’ Thought. Indonesian Journal of Interdisciplinary Islamic
Studies, 2(1), 125–130. https://doi.org/10.20885/ijiis/vol2.iss1.art6
Kamal Hasan, Muhammad, Islamization of Human Knowledge, retrieved 24 January 2017 from
epistemology.net/v1/attachments/1207_econ-profkamal
islamization%20oh%20human%20knowle.
Hayatullah, L., & Tahir, I.N. (2018). An overview of Islamization of Knowledge from the Perspective of
international institute of Islamic thought’s (IIT). Scholars Journal of Economics, Business
and Management (SJEBM). IDO: 10.21276/sjebm.2018.5.11.11.
Al-Alwani, Taha Jabir, Islamization of Knowledge: Yesterday and Today, Translated by Yusuf Talal
Delorenzo, Published by International Islamic Thought, London office,UK.
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16. Thank you