By Atiqah Ismail
GOMBAK, 5 February 2016: Spirituality and intellectual aspects need to see equivalence in Islamic studies, a great Islamic scholar from Cambridge University, Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad said today.
This British Muslim thinker also well known as Tim Winter shared his thought with the audiences that came from different backgrounds on how Islamic education teaches reasoning, critical thinking and love.
Why have these qualities been missing in our community, what went wrong and how to fix it? These were some of the questions examined by the speaker.
Held at Lecturer Theatre 2, Kulliyyah of Education, the talk was organised by Crescent Collective with support from Iman Club and IIUM itself.
He said universities and institutions need to revise our Islamic studies; either we are really stressed on rationality and reasoning or vice versa. Are we really using rationality in our learning system? Understanding Islam solely in a sense of spirituality (ritualistic) is insufficient.
He added, “In the context of Saudi Arabia, they couldn’t expose themselves with reasoning and rationality as they must obey the instruction of Shariah such as halal, haram, makruh and others. In this modern era, when Arab scholars are talking about racism in YouTube, the listeners feel like they are very intelligent and their followers get enchanted and followed what the scholars said. This is because they thought Islam is not a religion of reasoning and rationality.”
Shaykh Abdul Hakim stressed that we have to bring back this rationality in our Islamic studies.
In response to a question from the audience who wanted to know why children inculcated by their parents from young with Islamic teaching but growing up as teenagers with western lifestyle, Syakh Abdul Hakim said: “The educator is most important. I live in England and studied in secular English education. I remembered certain things, events and the teachers who inspired me until today. If you can’t give a revival, hope is not lost.”
A member of the audience who identified herself as Mariam from Germany said: “I believe education is good for the people. It has an impact on the people. It is true. If we focus too much on technology and the system, either it should be this way or that way, actually it does not matter.”
Shaykh Abdul Hakim advised young Muslim students to give attention to bring back the quality in Islamic education.
“Islamic education is about cultivation of Islamic soul which is the existence of characteristics of the Islamic way and a balance with reasoning and body nature that integrates with intelligence. Intelligence is a strength to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong. Traditional Islamic model describes the practice of the Sunnah in creating holistic human beings. To recover Islamic education is not just to be Islamising the disciplines but also about creating a complete model for the preservation and flourishing of young Muslims.” ***