BROCHURE # 1 of 3
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful
TOWARDS ISLAMIZATION OF STUDIES AND RESEARCH IN NORTH AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS
(Similar
Opportunities to be Sought and Utilized World Wide)
By: Prof. S. Waqar Ahmed Husaini, President, IISTD
IISTD Goals in the U.S. and International Contexts:
A primary goal of IISTD is to promote Islamic EVIST ( Ethics and Values in
Science and Technology ) through Islamic socio-humanistic sciences. The former
is impossible without the latter. Islamic EVIST is similar generically to U.S.
secular EVIST. The latter was first documented in: American Association for the
Advancement of Science, EVIST Resource Directory: A directory of
programs and courses in the field of Ethics and Values in Science and Technology,
1978. Such courses are offered even in 2-year colleges; universities may
offer groups of such courses called “programs” in various faculties in their
specializations.
The main function of IISTD Action Plans, called Islamization, is promoting undergraduate and graduate education and research in the Islamic “two cultures”, the ideological and technological. This would motivate the faculty also to pursue and promote them through teaching, research, publications, and consultancy for the private and public sectors. The pursuit of this objective promotes the welfare of Muslim citizens of U.S.A. from their Islamic “cultural relativist” perspective; however, this is open for non-Muslims to participate in all possible ways. This will empower Muslims to enhance the best national and international interests of U.S.A. Self-realization of Islam by Muslims conforms with U.S. laws and values. Its academic institutions do have courses, programs and centers based on race, color, language, ethnicity, philosophy, gender, and sexual orientation.
Historically, as a basic principle of Islamic Law and public policy, Islamic states have promoted the self-realization by non-Muslim communities of their cultural aspirations; each was an ummah ( community, nationality ) like the Islamic ummah. Arnold J. Toynbee, the historian of civilizations, often wrote that Muslim world-states provided freedoms and autonomy in civil affairs to each non-Muslim ummah to live as a state within the Islamic state ( A Study of History, 12 vols.; Change and Habit: The Challenge of Our Times; etc. ).
IISTD's Islamization Plans must be adopted by other U.S. specialized associations. These include: International Institute of Islamic Thought; Islamic Circle of North America; Islamic Society of North America, and its family of organizations: Muslim Students' Association; Islamic Medical Association; Association of Muslim Scientists & Engineers; Association of Muslim Social Scientists; Muslim Communities' Association; Muslim Youth of N. America; etc. The goal of their cooperation and coordination must be to utilize the secular U.S. colleges and universities so that Islamic ethics and values play their proper and necessary role. They must share these ideas and experiences with other countries through their own network of communication, United Nations organizations and agencies, and the U.S. secular system. The latter include U.S. Information Agency, Agency for International Development, Fullbright Exchange Program, and the universities.
The North American Muslim
Predicament:
Muslim students and scholars in U.S. colleges and universities must utilize the
structural flexibility of their curricula, principles and policies. They promote
ethnic studies, diversity, multi-culturalism, and even ideological freedom. For
example, some High School Districts and 2-year colleges teach even Chinese and
Vietnamese, besides European languages, on demand of ethnic communities. Arabic
and other Afro-Asian languages are not taught because there is no demand for
them from Muslims. Hence the de-Islamization of Muslims through secularization
has given rise to Muslim xenophobia and Sufi anti-worldism as well as violence
and militarism. Therefore, Muslims are self-condemned to mediocrity and chronic
backwardness in recent centuries. The solution is Islamic self-acculturation of
Muslims through Islamization of all knowledge and education through U.S. secular
colleges and universities. We do not need, and must not have, the so-called
"Islamic" colleges and universities; they perpetuate "reductionist"
pseudo-Islam, create Muslim backwardness and marginalization, and produce
graduates whose education makes them incapable of providing Islamic solutions to
problems of civilization.
Legacy of Medieval Islamic
Ideological and Technological Cultures. Modern Relevance:
The Quran was revealed in nearly 22 years ( 13 BH-10 AH/ 610-32 AD ). The
history of Islamic civilization, comprising its ideological and technological
cultures, is divided into the pre-Quranic and post-Quranic periods. The former
is associated with the earlier Prophets of Islam, like Moses and Jesus, and
innumerable others sent by God all over the world. Islamization of the "two
cultures" in the early centuries of the post-Quranic period meant retrieving
"truth", or the Islamic elements, from the heritage of pre-Quranic
civilizations: Arabian, Persian, Roman, Alexandrian, Greek, Indian and Chinese,
or the pagan, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. The history
of mankind after Prophet Muhammad shows the birth, development and world-wide
dissemination of the Islamic cultures in the Middle Ages. This was accomplished
through the (a) Islamization of pre-Quranic legacies by selective borrowing,
and (b) innovative developments based on the Quran and Sunnah (Traditions) of
Prophet Muhammad. The latter were presented in the series of books, now either
lost or forgotten by Muslims, under titles such as Kitab al-Kharaj ( Book
of Taxation ) and Kitab al-Amwaal ( Book of Economics ). This occurred
initially in the 1st-3rd AH/ 7th-9th AD centuries when Muslims were true to the
Quran and Sunnah as the total system of thought and action comprising both the
ideological and technological cultures. The major and minor schools of fiqh (
"understanding" of Islam ), and the Islamic "rationalist" scholars like the
Mu'tazilah, with their books and applied Islam, had triumphed over the non-lslamic
religious, philosophical, and scientific systems of the times. According to
George Sarton (Introduction to the History of Science, 3 vols. in 5,
1927-48), Islamic sciences and learning attained "world intellectual supremacy"
and "world intellectual hegemony" as early as the middle of the second AH/eighth
AD century. Muslims then were less than about 15% of the population in Persia,
10% in Iraq, 5% in Syria and Egypt, much less in other countries, and a majority
in only in the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula ( Richard Bulliet,
Conversion to Islam in the Middle Ages, 1979). Sarton's data is
superceded by the publications of Fuat Sezgin and his team, Institute for the
History of Arabic-Islamic Science, Frankfurt University. Islamic civilization of
the Ist-7th AH/ 7th-13th AD centuries permanently changed the history of mankind
in two ways: 1) partial Islamization of all civilizations through world-wide
dissemination of the medieval Islamic ideological and technological cultures;
and 2) through the most powerful forces they let loose which created our modern
world.
Modernity is characterized by three facts:
1) the defeat of all pagan and religious systems, except Islam, by secularized
cultures of the West and East;
2) contemporary confrontation between the Islamic and secularized cultures; and
3) civilizational passivity of Muslims who are mostly drowned in their
reductionist ( takhsisiyyah ) versions of pseudo-Islam, ritualism,
ignorance of true Islam and its legacy, and intellectual lethargy. Modern
Muslims are mediocre and half-hearted imitators of secular cultures which they
know are incompatible with holistic Islam. Even in N. America and Western
Europe, Islam has been reduced to hijab/veil, beard, halal/ kosher
meats, and superficial rituals of "the five pillars".
In the early Hijrah centuries, the spread of Islam beyond Arabia was truly a movement for the adoption of the two Islamic cultures by the peoples in the East and West. The Medieval Europeans who did not become Muslims were nonetheless thoroughly Islamicized through adoption and adaption of the two Islamic cultures. The lines of transmission of Islamic cultures to medieval Europe are now partly preserved and well-documented, and partly erased and lost. This occurred in Christian theology too. The relegation of all other religions today to civilizational irrelevance by their ready acceptance of secularism, is a proof of the triumph of the forces unleashed by the Islamic cultures in the Middle Ages.
The triumph of Islamic cultures since the 1st AH/ 7th AD century brings out the most prominent aspects of their content and social dynamics. Islamic philosophical sciences such as Islamic law and Islamic economics, and Islamic science and technology, were made by Muslims a universal concern. They were an anathema and a challenge for all existing world-views, and a blessing for all peoples, Muslim and non-Muslim, who lived in the Muslim world-states. Islamic civilization was in the vanguard of the intellectual movements in the West and the East. Muslims were not consumed by their thoughtless ritualism and insulation; they took upon their shoulders the burdens of civilization. Islamic cultures were the raging controversy among the intellectuals of medieval Europe, and the sources of systematic borrowing in their seminaries and universities before and during the 6th to 10th AH/ 12th to 16th AD centuries. Islamic scholars and students must revive this glorious intellectual jihad/ struggle today in North America and all over the world.
Islamization of Knowledge: A Duty
of Muslims, and the Right of Non-Muslims
God said: "O believers! Enter into the Peace/Surrender ( fis-silm,
Islam ) wholly, and follow not the foot-steps of satan [ "a person, force, or
influence remote from, and opposed to, all that is true and good" ]; verily, he
is your open foe." "... They who do not ordain what God has revealed are,
indeed, the wrong-doers, ... the evil-doers, ... the Rejecters ( of Islam )". (
Quran 2: 208; and 5: 45, 47, 44 ). God has manifested ( shara`a ) His
laws and principles of various sciences, whether physics or economics, in His
"two books": Quran, and the universe. Among the 6226 Quranic verses, over 900
deal with water sciences and engineering, and 1400 with economics ( S. Waqar
Ahmed Husaini, Water Resources Sciences and Engineering in the Quran;
and Economics in the Quran ). Thus Islam encompasses ALL
knowledge, socio-humanistic and natural sciences, and technology; laws of
"nature" are the laws of God. Submission to God, al-Islam, requires the
understanding ( lit. fiqh ) and application of all knowledge as ordained
in the Quran and nature. Rational knowledge ( al-ulum al-'aqliyyah ) must
be integrated with the Islamic ideological or philosophical sciences ( al-ulum
al-shar'iyyah ): Islamic metaphysics, logic, epistemology, ethics and law,
aesthetics, etc. The separation of knowledge from God's will which is manifest (
shara'a ) in the Quran, through secularization, is "rejection" of God and
Islam ( kufr ). A system of thought and action which mixes the Islamic
and un-Islamic world-views, such as secularized science and capitalist or
Marxist economics, is shirk: association with God. The penalty which
individuals and societies pay for partial, whole, or an isolated idea and act of
kufr or shirk is a proportional retribution according to God's
immutable laws of causality in physics, sociology, or any discipline (Quran
17:77; 33:62; 35:43; 48:23).
Why Non-Muslims Should
Pursue Islamic Studies:
The discussion above on the Islamic ideological and technological roots of
modern cultures makes it necessary for all persons to study them as a link in
the history of mankind. They will discover that the best in the West and the
East today, hence global modernity, is a product of the borrowing from and
assimilation of the medieval Islamic civilization. All persons who value truth
and human responsibility must investigate Islam's claims like those of any other
system. The need to communicate and develop relations with their Muslim
neighbors, and the nearly sixty Muslim states, also requires that U.S.
non-Muslims study the historical Islamic ideological and technological cultures,
and their contemporary re-development and utilization to solve the problems of
modern civilization.
IISTD Plans of Action:
A General Over View
Islamization of education at U.S. undergraduate level comprises "General" and
"Discipline-Oriented Islamic Studies" as a First or Second Major, or Minor
specialization.
(i) General Islamic Studies must include: Quranic Arabic; general and
discipline-oriented studies of the whole Quran; the Sunnah/ Traditions on
disciplines and not the rituals; history and contemporary studies of Islamic
humanities, social and natural sciences, and technology relevant for
civilization. Such studies are comparable to U.S. secular undergraduate General
Education programs; they must meet their "breadth and depth" criteria from the
Islamic and comparative perspectives.
(ii) Discipline-Oriented Islamic Studies, under-graduate and graduate, must
build upon (i) for specializations in disciplines and inter-disciplinary
studies. Examples are: Islamic Economics; Islamic Psychology; Islamic History (
e.g., of Islamic social and natural sciences, Islamic Medical and health
sciences, Islamic engineering and technology, general and by disciplines );
Islamic Law ( e.g., of Agriculture; Banking; Human Rights; Water; Environment;
Intellectual Property Rights ); Islamic Bio-Medical Ethics ( concerning Public
Health; Medical Economics; Family Planning; Aging and Dying; Psychiatry; etc ).
A guide on this are the Discipline Groups in socio-humanistic sciences developed
by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists and the International Institute
of Islamic Thought.
All students --- Muslim undergraduates in particular --- must be encouraged and guided to have a First or Second "double major", or a "Minor", in a "discipline-oriented Islamic studies program". The First and Second majors would be in any discipline in the Islamic and secular contexts. Typically, U.S. citizens might make secular the First major, and one from a Muslim country would make the Islamic the First major. This may make them better adopted to their job markets. However, the duty to Islamize the discipline and establish its "truth" and superiority over the non-Islamic is uncompromisable.
No college or university in N. America ( or any Muslim state ) has a full array of modern Islamized courses readily available in a discipline. A student's Islamization strategy would be to adopt and adapt a secularized course through selective borrowing and changing it to make its content fully compatible with Islamic ideology. For example, he must make the topics and issues of a secularized course on "Public Finance" or "Engineering Management" the subject of term papers from Islamic ideological perspectives. He should design and take "self-study" or "independent study" courses on "Islamic Public Finance" and "Islamic Engineering Management". He could make these the topic of a thesis for a Master's degree and doctoral dissertation. As a member of secularized Departments of Economics or Mechanical Engineering, he or she could then spend a life-time in Islamizing the discipline through teaching, publications, consultancy, and other activities.
We must illustrate the principles and strategies for Islamization by preparing model courses and syllabuses, case studies of students and instructors, and Guides for them for Islamization of disciplines through intellectual and professional activities.
Other landmarks in Islamization of education may be:
l) Institutional and individual "Focal Points"
must be identified. Any 2-year college or a university is suitable for
Islamization. We only need a student with a vision and will. However, we must
identify the universities with the best potentials to serve as models. They
would have Departments or Centers for Near East, Middle East, or Islamic
Studies; for Philosophy and History of Science and Technology; and on EVIST.
Their faculty members and graduate students could be ideal Focal Points to
pursue and promote Islamization by various means, including the organization of
seminars and conferences. 2) Funds must come from U.S. sources: the college and
university itself; foundations; business firms; government agencies; and
individuals. (3) Islamization must be pursued under the highest standards of
professionalism with participation of non-Muslim and Muslim students and
scholars in an atmosphere of free and cooperative inquiry.
*** * ***
IISTD Board of Directors,
February 2003
* Prof. S. Waqar Ahmed Husaini,
Chairman, and IlSTD
President ( Visiting Scholar, Stanford University, CA, USA )
* Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, Member
( General Secretary, Islamic Society of North America, Plainfield, IN, USA
* Dr. Hashim M. Mahdi, Member
( Director, Islamic World League, Makkah, Saudi Arabia )
Members, Council of Advisors and Patrons, February 2003
* Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ( University Professor of Islamic
Studies,
George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA )
* Prof. Abdulla Omar Naseef ( President, Islamic World Congress,
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia )
* Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Awadi (Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences,
Kuwait)
* Prof. Taha Jabir al-Alwani (President, School of Islamic and Social
Sciences, VA, USA )
* Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, Mosque Project, Chicago, IL, USA
* International Institute of Islamic Thought, Herndon, VA, USA
* Islamic Society of North America, Plainfield, IN, USA
* Islamic Circle of North America, New York, NY, USA
* World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
*** * ***