By Nurliana Zulkifli
GOMBAK, 6 March 2018: An IIUM scholar on inter-religious study, Dr. Haslina Ibrahim, will be among prominent presenters at the Kuala Lumpur International Kalam Symposium (KLIKS 3) to be held from 19 to 22 March at Main Auditorium and Senate Hall, Gombak campus.
KLIKS 3 will be the third series of the Kalam Symposium under the Islamic Strategy Study Institute (ISSI), Kalam Research & Media and Emerald with the aim to gather academicians and researchers to deal with current needs through Islamic theology.
As Muslims today need an appropriate theoretical approach, the symposium would attempt to revive the intellectual tradition for use in contemporary context with the theme ‘Unifying Knowledge and Bridging Sciences through Kalam’.
“Most Muslims just rely on credibility of past scholars without doing anything which led to criticisms from modern scholars on the coherence of this religion,” Dr. Haslina explained touching on the issues of Kalam.
She said, “We must be aware of the tools and thinking styles used to address the inter-religious problem such as LGBT and pluralism, similarly we cannot simplify by judging halal and haram only.”
Dr. Haslina, who is also the advisor of the Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah, claimed that “Kalam is our Ijtihad for Islamisation of knowledge”.
This symposium will focus on convincing western scientists as the true challenge came from them and to prove Islam as a way of life rather than just following past tradition.
Dr. Haslina who is the author of ‘Exploring Religious Pluralism (Christian and Muslims Responses)’, is interested to study the religion in the current context and to imitate previous Muslim scholars such as Imam Hassan Al-Asy’ari.
Asked about its benefits to the Kulliyyah’s community, she said that it is an “important aspect of professionalism due to it answering the fundamental question of being human beings, hence, an added value to them to help build their personality”.
Dr. Haslina will be completing her term soon as Head of Department of Usuluddin (HOD) and she will be replaced by Dr. Amilah Abdul Rahman.
“I love working with students and in nurturing them and I want to focus on my passion as an academician,” she told IIUMToday on her last day as HOD.***
