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Islamization of the Natural Sciences and Technology:

An Action Plan for Islamization Through Discipline-Oriented First or
Second Majors, Through Secular Colleges & Universities in N. America
and World Wide (Proposed for IISTD in N. America, and others World Wide)

by: Prof. S. Waqar Ahmed Husaini, President, IISTD

Islamization of knowledge and the "two cultures" ( ideological and technological ) is their Islamic development through contemporary ijtihad ( expert opinions ). Islamization is a foremost Islamic duty, fard, an urgent Muslim necessity, and the destiny of mankind. This can not be achieved by "traditionalism": blind imitation of forefathers condemned in the Quran. Islamization is modern ijtihadiyyah uses of the following sources:

     1)      the Quran, and conforming with it
2)      the Sunnah/Traditions of Prophet Muhammad, particularly their forgotten collections like the series of books with the titles: Kitab al-Kharaj / Book of Taxation, and Kitab al-Amwaal / Book of Economics;
3)      Islamic intellectual heritage; and
4)      non-Muslim contemporary rational knowledge & their legacies ( Islam-compatible ).

Islam is the system of truth ( din al-haqq, Quran ). Hence Islamization is also assimilation of all that is true in the modern West or East. Using the Quranic criteria and Sunnah, Muslims had similarly assimilated the truths of the jahiliyyah or pre-Quranic cultures: pagan Arabian, Sassanid, Byzantine, Babylonian, Alexandrian, Greek, Hindu, Chinese, etc. The modern 'two cultures' developed through assimilation of medieval Islamic ' cultures'.

Secularism, and takhsis ( reductionism ), are kufr ( "rejection" of holistic Islam, Quran 5:44, 45, 47 ). They exclude Islam, and the "Shari`ah and fiqh" of all disciplines, from the "two cultures" except some medieval humanistic studies, rituals, and Islamic personal law. ( Takhsis was diagnosed by Imam al-Ghazali, d. 505 AH/ 1111 AD ). Muslims, as never before, are kafirizing themselves through the two higher and lower education systems:

1) "modern" schools and universities which are blatantly secular though students may be drilled in takhsisiyyah "religious" studies to produce mediocre secularized imitators; and

2) takhsisiyyah education systems whose curriculums exclude Islamic natural and social sciences, Islamic technology, etc.; they produce 'traditionalist pseudo-Islamic 'scholars' and cultures, and frustrated and demoralized Muslims, incapable of protecting and promoting Islam, life, reason, posterity, wealth, and honor ( al-din, hayaat, `aql, nasal, maal, `ird ).

Modern Islamic movements and organizations, and Islamic scholars, with some exceptions, have surrendered to both secularism and a worsening millennial takhsis. They have no vision and action plans for Islamization which must begin with the two higher education systems: the secular, and takhsisiyyah pseudo-Islamic. This will also Islamize the lower education systems. A most important pre-requisite for Islamization is freedom of many kinds which is missing in almost all the Arab and many other Muslim-majority countries of the old world. In contrast, Western "political" democracies, despite their "fundamentalist secularism", offer some of the best opportunities for Islamization. IISTD Action Plans are given on its web sites ( www.islamicscience.org; etc. ). Their focus is on Courses in the North American context for "Islamic Discipline-Oriented" Second Majors when the First Majors are a secularized discipline in the natural and applied sciences, and technology.

2. IISTD Action Plan for an Islamic Discipline-Oriented Second Major or Minor in Science/Technology Disciplines at Secular Colleges & Universities: (See on the primary IISTD web site --- www.islamicscience.org --- the brochures:

#1: Towards Islamization of Studies & Research in N. American ( Secular ) Universities …

#2: Towards Development of Islamic Science & Technology: Guide to Universities in USA..

#3: Towards Development of Islamic Medical & Health Sciences through N. American …

MUSLIM STUDENTS, LECTURERS, AND PROFESSORS --- IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THEIR OWN CONTEXTS --- SHOULD PURSUE ON THEIR OWN INITIATIVE THE ISLAMIZATION OF THEIR DISCIPLINES THROUGH QURAN-SUNNAH "SELF-STUDY" METHODOLOGY.

"Islamic" states must have a Plan to Islamize every discipline through the secularized Departments of every college and university in their countries. Their goal must be Islamic First Major in every discipline, and its "secular comparative studies" as a Second Major or Minor. They must dissolve their takhsisiyyah "Departments of Islamic Studies", and distribute their faculty and courses among the relevant discipline-oriented secularized Departments. The "traditional" Islamic scholars, who are often the best available resource persons for the first three sources of Islamic thought ( Section 1 ), and the secularized scholars, must work together to Islamize all disciplines.

Even in anti-Islamic states, IISTD Action Plans must be adapted by every individual for self-study and professional applications. Every individual is responsible for kafirization or Islamization. God's laws ( aayaat, sunnah, like His laws of physics or chemistry ) do not exempt one from His laws of causality in this world & He will judge them in the Hereafter.

IISTD's Quran-Sunnah Education Method of Self-Study or Independent Study. Prophet Muhammad explained it: al-`ilm bit-t`allum, education/knowledge is by self-learning. It was implemented by his Companions and their Followers to Islamize all knowledge and "the two cultures"; they did not have even high school diplomas! Thereby they achieved "world intellectual supremacy" and "hegemony" within a hundred years after the Quran; they also conquered the two world powers of the times when Muslims were small minorities in a few countries ( George Sarton, Intro. to History of Science; Richard Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period; and, from IISTD web site, Waqar Husaini, Islamic Thought in the Rise and Supremacy of Islamic Technological Culture ). U.S. academic and research institutions have institutionalized Self-Study; they promote "ethnicity", "diversity", "multi-culturalism", "minority rights", etc. Such provisions of U.S. institutions should be utilized in Islamization of knowledge, education, and for the Call to Islam ( da`wah ).

Undergraduate Courses for Self-Study for Islamic Discipline-Oriented Majors or Minors in Secular Colleges and Universities. ("Detailed Descriptions": www.islamicscience.org ): The above web site
(and possibly other Link web sites ) give detailed description of my books and their translations; they give principles and methods of Islamization, and content of Islamized disciplines. The courses below ( in North American context ) are for undergraduates in science and technology specializations:

a ) to meet the General Education and (b) Electives Requirements; and
c ) to have a Second Major, or even a Minor, in "Discipline-Oriented Islamic Studies".

This List gives Core and General courses, and some Specialized ones ( PR & HS series ) in Islamic philosophy, history, and sociology of science and technology. Every course must be an example of tawhid: 'integration' of Islamic metaphysics and values, and Islamic rational knowledge; this includes every course in HS series, normative history, which must deal also with its Islamic philosophical aspects: "Indeed in their histories, qisas, there is a lesson, `ibrah, for those with insight …" ( Quran 12:111; also 24:41-44; 79: 26-33; etc. ).

* PR2. Quran ( The Message of the Quran: Translated. and Explained by Muhammad Asad )

* PR3. Sunnah ( Kitab al-Kharaj and Kitab al-Amwaal series of books, particularly )

* PR4. Islamic Civilization ( Textbook: Ismail al Faruqi, et al. Cultural Atlas of Islam)

* PR5. Natural Sciences and Technology in the Quran: Introduction

* HS1. History of Islamic Astronomy

* HS2. History of Islamic Civil Engineering

* HS3. Hist. of Islamic Mechanical Engineering *HS4. Hist. of Islamic Chemical Technology

IIIT and AMSS, IMA and IIIM, and others, must Islamize other disciplines for U.S. systems. Professional societies like those below must develop the Series of Courses on the philosophy, history, sociology, and professional applications of:

Islamic medical and health sciences (International Institute of Islamic Medicine, of the Islamic Medical Association of North America: www.iiim.org and www.imana.org); and

Islamic social sciences and humanities (International Institute of Islamic Thought, and Association of Muslim Social Scientists: www.iiit.org and www.amss.net).

Advanced or Graduate Courses & Research in "Discipline-Oriented Islamic Studies":

These must lead also to publications, and professional and social applications of Islamic "EVIST", Ethics and Values in Science and Technology. In U.S.A. even 2-year colleges have EVIST Courses; universities have larger institutions called "Programs", "Centers", and "Institutes" ( see IISTD Brochures on web sites ). Islamic EVIST in USA must cover all the concerns of secular EVIST, and go beyond them.

"General Islamic Studies" as the First Major, with masters and doctoral degrees, is also urgently needed for various careers. These include teaching, research, journalism, public policy, informal public education, community guidance and development, etc. Qualified persons must get positions in colleges and universities, to guide students for higher "Discipline-Oriented Islamic Studies", and to prepare such teachers for lower education.

Improvements in this Discipline-Oriented Islamic Studies plan. Examples of these are:

i) The most important requirement for such Plans is its vision and determined pursuit by undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members, and also "independent scholars" who are not affiliated with any institution. The greatest Islamic scholars of the Early Centuries were "independent scholars" who pursued self-study. Doctoral dissertations in "Islamic studies" in various disciplines at U.S. universities are our contemporary precedents. ( My Islamic Environmental Systems Engineering, was originally a doctoral dissertation for the Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, 1971. I had no personal contacts with "Islamic" scholars, or any formal education in "Islamic studies" ).

ii) Besides "Detailed Descriptions", there should be "Coordinators" and "Advisors" available by e-mail as specialist lecturers, professors, and independent scholars.

iii) A 10- or 20-year goal for North America should be to have instructors in colleges and professors in universities, in every Department, who specialize in "Islamic and comparative secular" studies. To start with, courses should be offered in selected colleges and universities for students as "transferable credits". With funding from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Institute of Health, etc., "Summer Institutes" should also be conducted.

Efforts are being made to establish IISTD national branches. Islamization must include the lower education systems too.

1) Private & public education institutions, secular & takhsisiyyah, professional & religious organizations, of any country must adapt IISTD Plans to suit their institutional settings.

2) U.S. examples of curriculum structure and flexibility, principles of academic freedom (through ethnicity, diversity, multi-culturalism, etc.), which are very much Islamic, should be vigorously used in the education systems of Muslim-minority and Muslim-majority countries; their curriculums in technical studies ( sciences, engineering, medicine, etc. ) should offer courses in Islamic socio-humanistic sciences ( and non-Islamic on demand ).

3) Islamization must be pursued in cooperation with the educationists, developmentalists, environmentalists, and various hierarchies of each institution and the country and region.

3) Existing and new Departments in colleges must use their existing and new Courses, and

preferably locally available textbooks and journals. Islamic organizations must also use informal methods of self-learning and teaching, the media, mosques, their publications, etc.

IISTD: non-Profit organization, California-registered (U.S. tax-exempt I.D. #77-0173934)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم