By, Anis Zaharah Abdul Kahir
On Thursday, 13 March, 2025, the event, Al-Liqa Al-Jamaie, involving the Rector of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar, addressing the university’s community of staff took place at IIUM Gombak.
The focus on the Rector’s address was on tawhidic epistemology which he had been reiterating several times before this in many seminars. “We are moving forward towards ummatic excellence guided by tawhidic epistemology,” said Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman. “And we are now in the same boat, and the name of the boat is IIUM,” he continued.
The Rector also emphasized that life is a journey that is defined by Islam which means that everything goes back to Allah. He also mentioned about the university’s anthem, ‘Leading the way’ that can be changed to ‘Leading the world’ but the things that will sustain the university in leading the way is through tawhidic epistemology. As tawhidic epistemology is the vision that contains all other visions and the One that guides the light is Allah SWT.
“With tawhidic epistemology as our guiding light, the path will be illuminated and enlightened, inshaAllah,” said the Rector. He also acknowledged that there may be dark corners and difficulties, but the most important thing is to face the challenges with confidence. “It’s clear for us that we want to move together towards ummatic excellence by providing examples to the rest of the world but in order to do that, first of all we need to show a good example,” he said.
The Rector also explained about his way forward using the concentric circle. It consists of four main elements which are the tawhidic epistemology as the foundation of knowledge, tawhidic mind representing individual awareness and application, ummatic mind as the collective consciousness and societal well-being and ummatic excellence as the final product.
The Rector mentioned that the concentric circle is inspired by a Qur’anic verse from Surah Ali Imran, “You are the best community ever raised for humanity—you encourage good, forbid evil and believe in Allah. Had the People of the Book believed it would have been better for them. Some of them are faithful, but most are rebellious” (Ali Imran, 3:110).
The Rector ended his speech by presenting the strategy in moving towards ummatic excellence and he mentioned about visibility of the university. “We must make ourselves more visible in the world,” he added. Another strategy that was also been mentioned by Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman is to develop and implement sustainable campus initiatives.
The program continued with the Townhall Session moderated by the Director of IIUM’s Office for Strategy and Institutional Change, Prof. Ar. Dr. Abdul Razak Sapian, that saw questions being asked and suggestions made by IIUM staff.
IIUM’s Deputy Rector (Student Development and Community Engagement), Prof. Dato’ Dr. Fauzan Noordin mentioned about the alignment of tawhidic and ummatic visions with Madani when he quoted the Rector who explained earlier in his speech on the journey of insan that is to achieve ihsan, one of the pillars in Madani. “And when Datuk Dr. (Rector) mentioned about ummatic excellence, this is what we want to achieve in the civilization of Madani. So, we eventually go into the same direction, but sometimes the terminology needs to be tweaked here and there. So, am I having the right understanding?”
The Rector responded by mentioning that Madani society is one that is civilized as the origin of the word means city. Going back to the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW, who changed Madinah’s original name from Yathrib to Madinah that means city of the prophet. The reason behind this was because the prophet had spread a new religion, Islam, that brought a new way of life, found a new civilization, society and community guided by principles that were both ancient, new and modern. “The concept of Madani also means the concept of modernity with religion, knowledge and change in the economy within the framework of tawhid,” the Rector added.
The second question was asked by IIUM academic, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Irwan Ariffin, who asked the Rector to explain more on the concept of tawhidic epistemology that included collective consciousness.
The Rector clarified that collective consciousness needs to start from the consciousness of the individual in a way that is rational in accordance with tawhidic epistemology but in this regard, we are now addressing the consciousness of the academic and the administrator.
He also explained that Islam is a collective religion that emphasis collectivity like no other religion. So, the uniqueness of Islam is as a revealed knowledge that combines both individuality and collectivity. The Rector uses the month of Ramadhan as an example where the tarawih prayer is performed together showcasing collectivity in Islam.
The Rector answered a few more questions before the moderator ended the Townhall Session. The program ended with the singing of IIUM anthem, ‘Leading the Way’ and dua recitation. The full live stream video of this Al-Liqa Al-Jamaie can be found on the Official IIUM YouTube channel.***
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