On Islamization of Knowledge: The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

By, Md Maruf Hasan

Professor Dr. Mumtaz Ali is teaching Islamization of Knowledge for few decades at International Islamic University Malaysia. I was fortunate to work under his supervision for my PhD journey. A close friend of mine from Maldives complained about Islamization of knowledge saying these professors are old people and they can not understand the contemporary problems when we were doing Islamization class . These mindsets are referred in the Quran as thus :

And when it is said to them, “What has your Lord revealed?” They say, “Ancient fables!” (Al Quran, 16:24)

I had opportunity to read most of the works of Professor Mumtaz Ali during my research journey as he was my supervisor. I think Islamization of knowledge must be the most important agenda within Muslim community across the world. Why so? During my defense of PhD thesis, I got two constructive criticisms for my thesis. By the way, my thesis title is “ Scientific Worldview and Pessimism : An Islamic Critique”. First criticism was the lack of empirical justification. I actually provided some quotations with evidences related pessimistic trends and apostacy among Muslim youths due to the influence of the scientific worldview. Later , when I came out from Viva room, I realized that the spiritual crisis that actually exists within Muslim minds are very subtle and only the scholars of Islamization of knowledge realized this deep rooted problem. In undergraduate level, we did Islamic creative thinking class. I did with Professor Abdelaziz Berghout  and Professor Jamal Ahmed Bashier Badi got a book on this particular topic, “Creative Thinking an Islamic Perspective” . There are more than 15 thinking skills in the Quran. Now the issue of methodology comes in . The Quran is not confined with only empirical, rational, logical method that scholars and academics are fond of to award Degrees in higher educational institutions across the world. The methodology leads to stubbornness among academics by negating the real crisis that Muslim youths are really going to face in upcoming centuries due to the advancement of science and technology. 

Simon Cottee (2015, p.9) in his book, “ The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam” states:

It does not address empirical questions like ‘how many ex-Muslims are there in the UK or Canada?’, ‘What is the median age at which ex Muslims apostatize?’, ‘Are Shia Muslims more or less likely to apostatize from Islam than Sunni Muslims?’, ‘Are women more or less likely to apostatize than men?’, ‘Do ex-Muslims share certain characterological traits and drives?’ It does not address these issues because empirically, right now, they are intractable. Apostasy from Islam is a potent stigma. Few people are willing to discuss it openly and honestly. Conducting large social surveys on apostasy would thus be deeply problematic from a practical point of view.

I had to refer to this in my PhD thesis. While apostasy is a growing problem, because there is stigma in Muslim communities, it is difficult to do accurate sociological studies on the rates of apostasy. 

Some Muslim academics are trained with the mindset to follow only the Secular methodology by negating the actual crisis that Muslim youths are internally facing. Numan Ali Khan came to IIUM few months ago and he pointed that Muslim scholars and leaders are not capable of addressing the problems that Muslim youths are facing and these Muslim youths do not argue or complain to these leaders and scholars in society, rather they blame to Islam in their minds. This is really alarming problem that Muslim academics should take into consideration. I remember in ISTAC conference, an Asian audience asked a question to a Malaysian Professor who has degree from Cambridge University. The audience during QnA utters “ Pardon me for my British accent”. I noticed during the answer the Professor changed the English accent to Malay accent. It is not that the Professor can not pronounce English accent , but I appreciate the answer style by appreciating our natural heritage. We do not have to mimicry to the West in everything, rather we can take knowledge which is beneficial to uphold our Islamic heritage. My point is Muslim academicians do not need to follow Western Methodology exactly, rather they must understand the problem and need to consider how the Muslim students are formulating the answer in their research papers and assignments. Students’ voices are matter and teachers should pay attention to their scribbles. It is because of the new books these students have read , maybe teachers have no knowledge. In the learning Institutions , we all are learners and teachers and students should have comprehensive mutual understanding among each other, then there is high possibility to come up with the best solution for Muslim community. My supervisor, Mumtaz Ali, wrote a book, “Islamic Research: Theory, Methodology and Thesis Writing”, I did not understand the importance of the book initially, but after the PhD defense, it appears in my mind that understanding Islamic research and Islamization agenda for Muslim students and academics are necessary. It will help to reduce the gap and misunderstanding between teachers and students for Islamization agenda in the higher learning institutions across Muslim community.

Hence, even though Islamization of Knowledge seems like the utterance of Old teachers , it is not right thinking pattern in reality as the Quran also answers similar pattern of thought during the time of prophet Muhammad (PBUH). If students are trained with Islamization of knowledge, there will come some points of their life when they will realize Islamization of knowledge is to bring back spirituality of Islam that the leaders or Youths of Arabian Peninsula refused as Old sayings during the time of Prophet. The similar mindset or trends do exist among Muslim students and academics due to the influence of the secular Western Methodologies in Academia. On Islamization of Knowledge, the Allah SWT is the Eternal, and there is no need to utter for Muslim Students and Academics, “Long Live the King!”. This is just a Delusion from Western Influence. I will conclude this essay with one famous hadith. It was narrated by Abu Huraira:

A Bedouin came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, “Tell me of such a deed as will make me enter Paradise, if I do it.” The Prophet (p.b.u.h) said, “Worship Allah, and worship none along with Him, offer the (five) prescribed compulsory prayers perfectly, pay the compulsory Zakat, and fast the month of Ramadan.” The Bedouin said, “By Him, in Whose Hands my life is, I will not do more than this.” When he (the Bedouin) left, the Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Whoever likes to see a man of Paradise, then he may look at this man.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 1397).***