091202P - CRISIS IN MUSLIM EDUCATION: DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM

Paper presented at a meeting on Education at the Muslim Education Welfare Association Mombasa Kenya on 2^nd December 2009 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Professor of Medicine King Fahad Medical College Riyadh, Professor of Epidemiology and Islamic Medicine University of Brunei, and Visiting Professor of Epidemiology University of Malaya WEB: http://omarkasule.tropod.com

ABSTRACT

Manifestations of the education crisis: The crisis has both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Quantitatively there is pervasive ignorance of uluum al diin and uluum al dunia. Muslims are under-represented in the modern education sector and face the threat of educational marginalization in the near future. Besides quantitative problems, there many qualitative problems in Muslim education. There is little respect for scholarship. Wealth and power are considered more important than scholarship. There is a dichotomy in the education system: traditional Islamic vs. imported European, ulum al diin vs ulum al dunia. Integration of the 2 systems has failed or has been difficult because it has been mechanical and not conceptual. The process of secularization in education has removed the moral dimension from the education and violated the aim of Islamic education to produce an integrated and perfect individual, insan kaamil. The brain drain from Muslim communities has compounded the educational crisis.

Ummatic malaise due to the knowledge crisis: Knowledge deficiency and intellectual weakness are the most significant manifestation of ummat’s decadence. The intellectual crisis of the ummat is worsened by copying and using poorly digested alien ideas and concepts. The prophet warned the ummat about the lizard-hole phenomenon in which the ummat in later times would follow its enemies unquestionably like the lizard running into its hole. Among the manifestations of the ummatic malaise are deficient ibadat, action deficiency, political weakness, economic dependency, dependence in science and technology, and erosion of the Islamic identity in life-style.

Knowledge, a pre requisite for tajdid: Reform and revival of the ummat will occur through educational and knowledge reform. Tajdid is a recurring phenomenon in the ummat and is a sign of its health and dynamism. It is a basic characteristic of the ummat that periods of reform/revival alternate with periods of decay and return to jahiliyyat. Tajdid requires knowledge, ideas and action related by the following mathematical equation: tajdid = idea + action. Action without knowledge and guiding ideas will not lead to true change. Ideas without action are not change at all. Tajdid requires and is preceded by a reform in knowledge to provide ideas and motivation on which to build. All successful societal reform starts with change in knowledge. The ideal society cannot be created without a knowledge base. That knowledge base must be correct, relevant, and useful. Successful revival movements throughout Muslim history have always been led by scholars.

Knowledge: strategy, obligations, and etiquette: The contemporary tajdid movement has a lot of strengths but also has a basic deficiency in that the knowledge and intellectual crises are still a barrier. Reform movements unguided by correct knowledge and understanding will falter and fail or will be deviated from their paths. Social change requires change in attitudes, values, convictions and behavior of a critical mass of the population. Attitudes, values, convictions, and behaviors are determined by the knowledge base. The vision of the knowledge strategy is an upright balanced person who understands the creator, knows his place, his roles, his rights, and his responsibilities in the cosmic order. The mission of the knowledge strategy is conceptual transformation of the education system from kindergarten to post graduate studies to reflect tauhid, positive moral values, objectivity, universality, and serving the larger causes of humanity.

Examples of dealing with the knowledge crisis: Indonesia

The Muslims of Kenya can learn a lot from the self-reliance efforts of 250+ million Muslims in Indonesia. They have a total of 2000 private universities while the government has only 80. Four hundred (400) of the private universities are Islamic. These are well built and respectable and are at international standards for universities. Indonesia has 5000+  pesantran (modern Islamic schools). Both the Islamic universities and the pasantren have integrated curricula (modern subjects taught from an Islamic context). These institutions are set up by foundations called yayasan. They collect funds for the buildings but the operational costs are from tuition which is reasonable for ordinary farmers to afford. If we compare Indonesia to Kenya, 250m Indonesians have 400 universities so 10m Kenyan Muslims must have 5 universities. We need not start with fully fledged universities we can start with colleges offering courses under franchise from Muslim universities overseas.

ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CRISIS: QUANTITY & DUALITY

1. Describe ignorance of sciences of religion, ‘uluum al diin, in the ummat
2. Describe ignorance of sciences of the world, ‘uluum al dunia, in the ummat
3. Do you think that education in general is marginalized in Muslim society of today
4. How serious is the problem of neglecting science and technology
5. Define the problem of duality in the education system in Muslim communities
6. Describe attempts to integrate traditional Islamic and modern European education
7. Describe the impact of secularizing education in the Muslim world
8. Describe the impact divorcing the education system from morality
9. How serious is the problem of brain drain from Muslim world
10. Describe the education system in your community or country
11. Describe the general education level in your community
12. Define the meaning of the term illiteracy
13. What do you understand by the term ‘dichotomy of education systems’
14. Describe your personal experience of dichotomy as you were growing up
15. What are the main problems of the Islamic religious education in your community
16. Describe advantages and disadvantages of ‘transfer of technology’.

UMMATIC MALAISE DUE TO THE KNOWLEDGE CRISES

17. Explain ummatic malaise due to synergy of knowledge deficiency and intellectual failure
18. What have been the negative impacts on the ummat of blind copying from Europeans
19. List and describe at least 5 manifestations of thought failure in the ummat
20. List and descrfibe at least 5 unresolved thought issues persist up to today
21. List and describe at least 5 unresolved thought issues in the contemporary period
22. Describe the problem of bid’at in ‘ibadat in the contemporary period
23. Explain the problem of action deficiency in the ummat
24. How has the Islamic identity been eroded from the lifestyle of Muslim communities
25. Explain the problem of political and economic dependency in the muslim world
26. Describe military and technological weakness in the ummat
27. Describe aspects of the malaise of the ummat as they manifest in your community
28. What do you understand by the term tajdid
29. What phenomena in your community indicate that the process of tajdid is active
30. How does ‘Islamization of Knowledge’ relate to your professional training and work?
31. What un-resolved intellectual issues exist in your society today?
32. What are the main causes of differences and arguments among Muslims in your society?

0912-CRISIS IN MUSLIM EDUCATION: DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM

Paper presented at a meeting on Education at the Muslim Education Welfare Association Mombasa Kenya on 2^nd December 2009 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Professor of Medicine King Fahad Medical College Riyadh, Professor of Epidemiology and Islamic Medicine University of Brunei, and Visiting Professor of Epidemiology University of Malaya EM omarkasule@yahoo.com, WEB: http://omarkasule.tropod.com

1.0 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE CRISIS: QUANTITY & DUALITY

1.1 DEFICIENCY IN QUANTITY & QUALITY

IGNORANCE AND ILLITERACY: Knowledge of a preponderant majority of the ummat is inadequate, impaired, or distorted. There is pervasive ignorance of sciences of religion, ‘uluum al diin, and sciences of the world, ‘uluum al dunia. Religious illiteracy, ummiyyat diiniyyat, and alphabetical illiteracy are common in many countries. Illiteracy is felt more acutely as a problem in the Muslim world because Islam is a religion of knowledge and Muslims should have done better. The message of Muhammad was essentially to the illiterate to enlighten them[i].

MARGINALIZATION OF GENERAL EDUCATION: The intellectuals and the broadly-educated are marginalized in the material-driven industrial society in favor of people with narrow and specialiazed technical skills who are considered economically more productive. Technical education although vital does not cater for all needs of the society. The technically-educated without a broad education can be a danger when they work as a cog in machinery without the ability to understand or appreciate the consequences of their activities on the welfare of society and the environment. Marginalization has affected both the traditional Islamic and the modern systems. Institutions that teach the classical Islamic sciences usually have the poorest facilities. The teachers are poorly paid. Their graduates have few opportunities in the job market. The brightest students are advised by their parents and frinds not to enter these institutions because they will have no future. The formal modern sector has not fared much better in most Muslim communities. Teachers are no longer respected as important members of society; their leadership position has been taken by politicians, businessmen, and technicians. Teachers are despised and are among the lowest paid professions in the community. There is little respect for scholarship. Contempt and not prestige is the label of intellectuals. Wealth and power are considered more important that scholarship. The consequence has been migration of the brightest and most competent from educational institutions to politics and business where their efforts will be appreciated more.

NEGLECT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: There is neglect of the empirical sciences in some Muslim communities that consider empirical sciences not sacred and not worth learning. In some cases these sciences are studied but not with the spirit of mastery, use and further development by research. The aim of the student is to get some facts, pass some examinations, and get a certificate that opens the door to lucrative employment. These students have skills but no vision or mission for the ummat and they end up serving only their personal interests and those of industrially-developed countries but not those of the ummat. There is no urge to research and extend the frontiers of knowledge. Home-grown technology is little and has little encouragement or prospects in the near future.

 

1.2 DUALITY

DICHOTOMY: Muslim education is suffering from the impact of incoherent and contradictory sources of knowledge. There is a dichotomy in the education system: traditional Islamic vs. imported European and ulum al diin vs ulum al dunia. There are competing and contradictory world-views. Some Muslim students study at foreign schools in Muslim lands and others are sent overseas for studies. Other Muslim students study at traditional Islamic institutions in their countries or overseas. Graduates of the 2 systems speak different languages and use different terminologies. Graduates of the European system may not know Islam or its heritage and have little self-confidence in their Islamic identity. Graduates of the traditional system may not understand the contemporary world or the world of the next century. Dichtomy, being a cancerous disease that is unnatural and goes against the tauhidi-based Islamic civilization, does not end at dividing the ummat’s elite into two camps only; each of the two camps in dichotomised further. Graduates of the traditional system are divided between the conservative who live in isolation and do not engage or interact with the European  civilization and the activist who actively critique the European system and defend the Islamic alternative. The graduates of the European system are also dischotomized into two groups. One group is apologetic and accepts all what they learned from European sources as superior to whatever they have in their Muslim intellectual heritage. The activist Islamist group does not reject the positive aspects of European culture but is aware of its failures and refuses its wholesale importation into the Muslim world. They are advocating a contemporary Islamic approach, ‘asalat islamiyyat mu’asirat[ii], that builds on Islamic tenets in approaching contemporary problems and challenges. There is thus conflict between and among the different groups in political and social arenas.

The conservative traditional and the apologetic European educated groups have facilitated and helped europeanization of their Muslim societies in two ways. They have failed to understand the failures of the European societal model to be able to warn the ummat of the inherent dangers. They have innocently and in ignorance allied with europeanizing forces in both the colonial and post-colonial eras in the false  quest for material development and reform of their societies.  The conservative traditional group has also contriobuted to painting a negative image of Islam by appearing to be backward, living in the past and being narrow-minded. The consequence of these various forms of duality is confusion in the minds of students and intellectual schizophrenia of the elite and society’s leadership. The masses and the ummat in general has had to pay a heavy price for the confusion among the elite.

INTEGRATION EFFORTS: Integration of the 2 systems has failed or has been difficult in several countries because it has been mechanical and not conceptual. The attempt of integration of the 2 systems at university level by introduction of western disciplines at traditional universities like Azhar has been difficult. Integration of the 2 systems at university level by introduction of traditional disciplines at new universities like the International Islamic universities in Islamabad and Kuala Lumpur is being attempted with much difficulty and the results will be evaluated in due course. Integration of the 2 systems at the school level has many obstacles in front of it. The experience of Islamic schools in US and UK is so far of limited success because basic intellectual and conceptual issues were not worked out. It was therefore not possible to develop complete curricula and text books reflecting Islamic paradigms; these universities and schools are a continuing manifestation of duality occurring in the same building.

 

1.3 IRRELEVANCE: Knowledge dispensed at great expense in many educational institutions is not relevant to the contemporary needs of the ummat and can play no role in meeting the challenges. This runs counter to the teachings of the prophet to avoid knowledge that is not useful, al ta’awudh min ‘ilm la yanfau. The irrelevance is seen in both the traditional and modern systems. An example of irrelevance in the traditional system are the ancient manuals of fiqh that are used in teaching without explaining the spatio-temporal changes that have occurred and which call for new ijtihad to deal with modern problems. Students are given solutions to problems that no longer exist while they have no guidance on how to deal with the pressing problems of the day. The modern system uses western models and textbooks that are not relevant to the local problems. Sometimes we witness the intellectual pervasity of imagining or inventing western-type problems in the local situation in order to proffer western-like solutions for them especially in the area of women and sexual rights.

 

1.4 SECULARIZATION and DIVORCE FROM MORALITY

The process of secularization in education has succeeded in removing the moral dimension from the education. It has violated the aim of Islamic education to produce an integrated and perfect individual, insan kaamil. Instead the education sytstem aims at producing a technically-competent person who is not educated in the full sense of the word. Secularization has affected both the traditional Muslim education system and modern formal education system. The technical person may be an expert in Islamic Law, shar’at, or a factory worker. Both carry out work in narrow and specialized areas and need not relate their activity to an integrated whole system.

Secularization of classical Islamic sciences occurred by studying and teaching them as academic subjects without the spiritual context with the result that people get knowledge that does not change their behavior or reform society. Such knowledge has no impact on the general public who hear it from scholars. This in turn has led to another type of duality between word and deed. What is said is not put into practice because of lack of conviction. With time the general public loses interest in the word and becomes susceptible to external non-Islamic influences.

The modern formal education system, modelled on the Euro-american secular paradigm, has removed morality and religion from education both in the curricular and the extra-curricular activities. The teachers and administrators, brought up and educated in a secular ambience, can not understand and implement the integrated tauhidi-based education that islam requires. They are also incapable of being an Islamic model for their students. De-emphasis of morality in the secular education system is responsible for the increasing mis-bahavior of youths in school that has in turn affected academic achievement negatively. The youths are taught the European concept that values are relative and that there is no absolute evil. The criterion of judgment is anthropometric ie what the human likes, prefers, enjoys, or finds more confortable of convenient. It is an intellectual pervasity that while the students are taught to question every moral value and everything sacred, they are not taught to question the evils of sexual promiscuity and hedonistic life-styles. Secularization is driven by economic forces because it creates good consumers who will have no moral qualms about buying European goods and services.

 

1.5 BRAIN DRAIN

There are two types of brain drain in the Muslim world. Some educated people move to Europe and America where they can get better facilities for their work and where they enjoy physical amenities and feel secure from the political and security instability in their home countries. Such people become very productive in their adopted countries and are a net loss to the ummat. Some migrate away from their academic pursuits but stay within the country being engaged in business or politics. There are no attempts to reverse the brain drain by understanding the push and pull factors and doing something to reudce their effects. The main push factors are: lack of freedom, no respect for human rights, no recognition of scientific work, being isolated from interaction with other scientists, poor or inadequate research facilities, and a poor socio-economic environment. The pull factors are largely the same as the push factors but working in the opposite direction.

2.0 UMMATIC MALAISE DUE TO THE KNOWLEDGE CRISES

2.1 ROLE OF THE INTELLECT and KNOWLEDGE

IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE and INTELLECT: Knowledge deficiency and intellectual weakness are the most significant manifestation of ummat’s decadence. Human history started with knowledge when Allah taught Adam names of things. The Islamic civilisation started with the instruction to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to read ‘iqra’ and was essentially a revolution in knowledge and ideas. Knowledge enables understanding and resolution of existing problems. Knowledge enables anticipation and solution of future problems. The intellect must be able to analyse and solve problems. It must have a correct knowledge base if it is to produce useful ideas and thoughts. Intellectual failure follows knowledge deficiency. Intellectual failure either results into new problems in society or renders the society incapable of solving its existing problems

SYNERGY BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE and INTELLECTUAL CRISES: The knowledge and intellectual crises interact in a synergistic way to lead to ummatic malaise. Intellectual failure is a direct result of the crisis in knowledge. The starting point everything is knowledge. Knowledge is the basis for research,  ijtihad, thought, and the rest of intellectual operations. Knowledge leads to thoughts. Thoughts lead to action. If the knowledge is wrong or deficient, the actions will be defective. Knowledge deficiency leads to intellectual failure. Intellectual crisis leads to ummatic failure. The crisis in thought worsens the crisis in knowledge. Clear thought of leaders leads to successful research that generates correct knowledge. Confused thought leads to wrong or misleading knowledge. Lack of clarity of ideas leads to failure even in using available knowledge correctly. Thus knowledge and intellectual failure end up as a vicious cycle that is difficult to interrupt.

BLIND COPYING, taqliid a ‘ma: The intellectual crisis of the ummat is worsened by copying and using poorly digested alien ideas and concepts as well as use of analytic tools that are not relevant or suitable to the Islamic intellectual heritage or contemporary social realities. The prophet warned the ummat about the lizard-hole phenomenon in which the ummat in later times would follow its enemies unquestionably like the lizard running into its hole.

 

2.2 MANIFESTATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL FAILURE

THOUGHT FAILURE: Thought failure in the ummah could manifests as intellectual stagnation, syncretism, lack of vision, superficiality, rituality, esoterism, sterile argumentation, and use of un-Islamic intellectual tools. Intellectual stagnation is suppression of the freedom of thought, closure of ijtihad, blind following, taqlid, and fanaticism for a madh’hab. Syncretism, talfiq, is juxtaposition of ideas that are incompatible without attempting to analyse them critically to arrive at a synthesis or favor one of them, tarjiih. There is lack of vision as a guide vision for the present and the future, ru'uyat mustaqbaliyyat. Superficiality, satahiyyat, is concern with minor inconsequential issues. False outward manifestations of religious rituals, shakliyaat, with a dead core is common. Esoteric sects, al firaq al batiniyyat, claim to have secret agendas or knowledge exposed to a select few and are a cause of social disruption. Sterile arguments, jadal, lead to no purpose or goal of practical utility.  Intellectual analysis using un-islamic terminology and concepts compounds the intellectual confusion.

UNRESOLVED ISSUES FROM THE PAST: Thought failure is responsible for the following issues that started in the past and are not yet resolved up to today. These issues are still causes of controversy when they should not be. The role of human free will, qadriyyat, versus that of pre-determination, al jabriyah, in human actions is still bot fully understood. Acceptance of repentance, taubah, or faith, iman,  for persons who commit major sins is still being debated when the texts are clear on it. Discussions of the essence of Allah, dhaat al llaah, and attributes of Allah, sifaat al llaah, are still leading mant astray when it is clear that human intellect can not grasp the nature of Allah and should not be engaged in such an endeavor. Many still do not understand the scope of knowledge through reason, ‘aql, and that of transmitted knowledge, naql, as well as the relation between the two. There are still many who do not understand pre-determination , qadar, and causality, sababiyyat, and how they interact in human actions.

UNRESOLVED CONTEMPORARY ISSUES: Thought failure is also responsible for the following major contemporary intellectual issues still unresolved. The woman; her nature, role, rights, and responsibilities; are still being debated. Plurality of opinion and practice is a cause of unnecessary controversy. Leadership, imamat, its qualifications, selection, roles, and scope of responsibility are not fully defined. Shura is presented as theoretical concept but its practical application is not properly worked out. Application of Islamic teachings to today’s realities: economy, education, politics, and  international relations is still being discussed.

 

2.3 RELIGIOUS and SOCIO-CULTURAL FAILURE

OVERVIEW: Among practical manifestations of the ummatic malaise in the 15^th century are: deficient ibadat, action deficiency, political weakness, economic dependency, military weakness, dependence in science and technology, and erosion of the Islamic identity in life-style.

DEFICIENT IBADAH: Acts of ibadat are carried as outward rituals with a dead core. There is little understanding of wahy in all its comprehensive ramifications. There is limited understanding of the wide scope of ‘ibadat that includes all human activities if done with a god intention and according to the Law. Deviations and excesses lead to quarrels and divisions. Superstitions and  bid’a  in ‘ibadat take over where there is little knowledge or understanding. Behavior of individuals and communities is not in comformity with the image expected of a nation that observes its acts of ibadat rigorously. Ibadat is supposed to lead to good social behavior.

ACTION DEFICIENCY: There is lack of dynamism and activity. There is lack of resolve and a sense of direction. Thinkers abandon practical work and live in an ivory tower of surreal isolation and abandon. Knowledge and intellect do not automatically lead to action. There must be an inner drive to change society in a practical way.  There must be a sense of urgency in tackling the problems of the ummat. Major disasters and catastrophes in the ummat do not elicit a determined response or even concern; they pass as if they are routine events. Many public and private institutions are weak. Administration is ineffective and inefficient. Poor planning, execution, and follow up are common. There is leadership and managerial anarchy.

EROSION OF ISLAMIC IDENTITY IN LIFESTYLE: Many youths today are losing contact with the origins of Islamic culture and civilisation. This has been achieved by secularisation of education systems, changing alphabets from Arabic to Roman or Cyrillic, physically destroying ancient written material to deny access to the heritage left by the ancestors. The Islamic identity is being threatened by European culture being imposed and maintained by powerful media and economic forces. In some cases Muslims who try holding on to a few Islamic cultural mores are prevented by regulations and constraints; for example young pre-pubertal girls are prevented from wearing a small scarf over their head in schools where teachers and administrators are scantily dressed. The European culture is not a common heritage of all humanity but it has become the standard cultural expression almost everywhere. Media, arts, and literature in the Muslim world reflect more Euro-centric than Islamic values. The political and economic environment imposed on the Muslim world discourages growth of an Islamic social identity. People are left in suspension: they have lost the Islamic roots yet they have not fully pick up the western culture. In the end they gravitate towards the worst of the two worlds.

 

2.4 POLITICAL and ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY

POLITICAL WEAKNESS: There is political disunity. The ummat is divided into more than 50 unstable and artificial nation states. Each so-called nation state is divided along ethnic, tribal and sectarian lines. Even small remote communities do not escape the malaise of disunity on basis of sectarian, ta’ifiyat, schools of fiqh, madh’hab, ethnic or linguistic differences. Muslims lack a united credible and forceful voice at international forums. Political institutions are immature. Political suppression and human rights abuse are common.

ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY: There is dependency and weakness in the ummat despite immense natural resources. Muslims have relatively little control over resources in their land. They sell raw materials cheaply and buy expensive finished goods. A consumer society that does not produce its basic necessities has developed.  There is no security of basic necessities: food, water, and energy. Many Muslim societies lack a future economic vision. Many current economic policies are not a reflection of the teachings of Islam. There is little intra-Muslim co-operation and economic exchange. Many of the national economies are weak being characterised by underemployment, unemployment, high inflation, social injustice, inefficient production and distribution.

E. TECHNOLOGICAL WEAKNESS

DEPENDENCY IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

There are few practical minds that work effectively and efficiently in research and development. The few who exist do not find sufficient encouragement. The situation is worsened by brain drain to Europe and America due to lack of local encouragement and support. Muslims have become users and not producers of technology. There is low understanding and appreciation of technology among the masses. There is no adequate infra structure for future development of S&T.

NOTES

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[i] (p158 2:78, 3:21, 3:75, 7:157-158, 62:2)

[ii] Dr Abdulhamid Abusulaiman – personal communication