By Danial Yusof
KUALA LUMPUR, 13 August 2020: The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) has produced numerous scholars and intellectuals throughout its establishment, therefore ISTAC could bring back this task and portray its uniqueness to the world, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said during his session with ISTAC at IIUM Kuala Lumpur campus yesterday (12 August).
The Rector was delighted to see ISTAC’s vision has been very much in line with the new additional vision of IIUM in which to improve and upgrade human life and civilisation in the Muslim world.
“ISTAC is built on a very different intellectual plane, they go deep into the knowledge, they research on it and bring new ideas and they in fact influence the knowledge around the world.”
The Rector commented that ISTAC and the kulliyyah in IIUM must work together in terms of knowledge and expertise in producing more influential scholars which can benefit the community.
œI think it will be a waste if you have got ISTAC and we have not been using it and ISTAC is also not working together with the kulliyyah.
“I hope today we are able to bridge the gap and to know what is important for the university as a whole and it doesnt matter whether ISTAC or IIUM but we need to nurture the knowledge together so that we can influence the world,” he added.
Meanwhile, according to the Dean of ISTAC, Prof. Dr. Thameem Ushama, the Institute is committed to engage with scholars regardless of their field of studies in developing the Islamic tolerance civilisation and the institute will open discussions with relevant kulliyyah to come out with ideas for the betterment of the society.
“We have only eight academic staffs and we are strongly convinced that we will be able to move as a team along with scholars and intellectuals from the main campus in order to uphold the mission and vision of IIUM,” the professor said. ***