|
|
|
| |
| Name |
Host
-
|
| Profession |
|
| Answer |
Salam and thanks for hosting our dialog today. I'd like to welcome
everyone and also encourage today's participants to not only seek
answers from me but to also offer their own answers to "What is Islamic
education?" |
| |
| Name |
Karla
-
|
| Profession |
|
| Question |
What kind of Islamic education should a 4-year old know at that
age? What kind of Islam should I teach my 4-year old concerning Allah
and His Creation and Hadith that can help her to understand things? I
would really appreciate your answer.
|
| Answer |
Salam Karla, and thanks for the question.
Most 4-year olds are quite inquisitive, and so instead of focusing
on what you can teach them, it might be useful to listen to what they
want to learn, the questions they ask, and then frame your answers
according to your beliefs and what you think is important for them to
know intellectually. But that is only one aspect of learning.
At that age, much learning is implicit and out of awareness, it is
also important to pay attention to environmental factors, including the
behavior modelled by parents, siblings and other adults, which is a
form of teaching that is often neglected in favor of the intellectual
method. Children will often learn more from what they see and
experience than what they are told. This experiential learning also
comes from outside the home, in various ways and depending on the
society in which one lives, and can include things like TV and
shopping.
I also think children can benefit immensely from experiencing
nature, as the creation of Allah, not by looking at pictures or talking
about nature but by directly experiencing nature in whatever possible
ways where you live. Such learning will have a far deeper impact at
that age than anything we might teach children about doctrine.
|
| |
| Name |
Salwa
-
|
| Profession |
|
| Question |
You are focusing on education and especially Islamic education, but why is Islamic education so important?
|
| Answer |
Education is about a process of becoming, and so the education one seeks is a crucial factor in what one will become.
However, it is also important to broaden the definition of education
beyond formal schooling, to include all the informal ways we learn.
In this context, Islamic education is the process of becoming a Muslim, which can include learning a vocation or various forms of abstract knowledge, but first and foremost it is becoming a Muslim. In fact, all education is about becoming something,
and when we consciously seek an education, most often through
schooling, we are in a sense seeking to become some one else, and this
becoming often depends on the values embodied in the system from which
we seek an education.
On a more subtle level, we are educated daily by the media and
first and secondary experiences, so Islamic education is also a
function of living in an Islamic community or society. On a more
practical level, it seems from my experience, that such questions are
important to many Muslims, so that is another reason why we discuss
them.
|
| |
| Name |
Abdul Jaleel Othalur
- India
|
| Profession |
|
| Question |
As salamu `alaykum
Is it now relevent Islamisation of knowledge? What are the ways for it?
|
| Answer |
The
Islamization of knowledge, in my experience, has more often than not
meant accepting the norms of modern secular knowledge systems and then
trying to "Islamize" or even at times justify them by relating them to
selected verses of the Quran and sayings of Hadith. In other words, at
least in its dominant form, this way proceeds from an existing
knowledge system and attempts to reconcile or alter that knowledge
system with Islam. While it may be relevant to some extent, especially
living in a world that is increasingly dominated by the formal and
informal knowledges emanating from the West and other poles of
modernity, I think that the approach has limitations in that it does
not really look outside the dominant norms. So, without examining the
power and the politics of knowledge, the Islamization of knowledge agenda may end up serving colonialism.
Having said that, it is of course possible to take some selected
aspects of modern knoweldge and Islamize them, but in general, if we
are thoroughly inculcated to the norms of modernity, we may never see
beyond the alteration of the dominant modern knowledge. This may cause
us to overlook the real work of generating new knowledge or rediscovering lost knowedge that is grounded in Islam,
or, for that matter, any other non-Western or pre-modern way of life,
and which may be unintelligible to the modern system. Such a view, of
course, is only possible if one sees knowledge as a practical social
system, not just as an abstract intellectual system. Knowledge in
Islam, and in most other non-Western or pre-modern systems, is bound up
with both thought and action.
|
| |
| Name |
Mahmood
- Iran
|
| Profession |
Physician
|
| Question |
Is there any place in the world that a model of Islamic education
is running and please deliniate the main characteristics of this kind
of education.
|
| Answer |
It
depends on what we see as a model of Islamic education. I have seen
some institutions, if that is what we are referring to, which operate
in a way that is closer to how education was practiced in the
pre-modern world (e.g. some examples of the madrasa or Howzeh system).
However, if we look at the notion of a model from a different
perspective, then we can also say that Muslim individuals, communities
and societies are also, in a way, models of Islamic education, for
better or worse. This approach allows us to ask realistic questions
about the meaning and purpose of education, and not just fixate on
ideas, although ideals are of course important.
So, is the purpose of education to find a job and make money? Or is
it to feel patriotic and adulate the state? Or is it some other
purpose? It is my feeling that at this juncture, rather than seeking a
single model system to emulate, which in my opinion may never move
beyond the theoretical stage, we can in the mean time develop multiple
ways of learning, to expand the idea of what it means to be educated,
which has to include, at least for Muslims, a discussion of what it
means to be a Muslim and embody the life of Islam. I have addressed
some of these issues in Challenges Facing Islamic Education
paired with this dialog, drawing upon some of the wisdom of the Prophet
and 4th caliph/Islamic scholar Imam `Ali, so rather than repeating that
discussion here, let me move on to some other questions and then if
time come back to this one.
|
| |
| Name |
Ghada
-
|
| Profession |
Educationalist
|
| Question |
As-salamu `alaykum Professor Progler. I have been following your
3 sessions including the current one and I must say that you have
placed many questions in my mind that have revived my own questions
which I have stopped questioning.
Yet still, I am faced with a fait a compli. Most students and
teachers around me are only interested in opening the tops of their
heads like a cooking pot and pouring as much in formation as possible,
then creating a stew which come exmaination day will be ready for
serving onto the examination paper. What on earth can anyone do about
that?
|
| Answer |
This is what Paolo Freire referred to as the "banking system" of
education, which is a formal process of schooling that "deposits"
knowledge in the student that can be later "spent" on exams. It is a
purely utilitarian system, in many ways, and is more wrapped up with
status than anything else. I agree with you, that this system is
dominant, and even where people are concerned about Islamic education
or diversifying learning or any number of other programs, the
imperative for education to be a marker of social status remains.
I think this indicates, in some way, the priorities of communities,
that many expect schooling to provide status and wealth more than
anything else. Both of these goals of education are carry overs form
the colonial systems imposed on the Third World. It might seem that
such a system is in some ways only about status, but there is a more
subtle dimension as well.
The type of schooling that you describe has a hidden curriculum as
well, which is never tested on the exams, the outcomes of which are:
Competition
Individualism
Intellectual dependency
Confusion and a host of other unexpected points that are made by John Taylor Gatto in his in interested article The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher
(available in many places online). I think to escape this system we
have to rethink why we are going to school at all, and the best way to
rethink this question is to walk out of school, at least temporarilty,
to take stock of what it means and what we expect to get out of it,
either for ourselves or our children.
The dominant banking system is only powerful over us if we give it
power, but in reality we have most of the power if we use it by walking
out. On a more practical level, there have been many community based
ways to escape or replace the banking system. One, proposed by Freire,
was to use the lived experiences of people as a basis for their
education. Others may proceed from different cosmological or
epistemogical systems, or even create multiple learning opportunities
depending on what people want to do in life, what they think is
important to learn and how they wish to achieve it.
|
| |
| Name |
kareem
- United States
|
| Profession |
student
|
| Question |
Praise be to Allah the Lord, Cherisher, Sustainer of all things,
and peace and blessing of Allah be upon his Messenger Muhammad. Salam
brother!
When I think of Islamic education, I think of giving meaning to our studies. "Read, in the name of your lord who created, created man from a clot of congealed blood"
This miracle revealed from God, glorified and praised is He, draws our
attention to read, to read from his book, which is creation. When you
read something you do not just look at it, but you ponder and you
absorb meaning. This verse informs us to read into things and absorb
meaning.
I think it is sad to say,but materialism and disbelief have entered
the education at least here in the west. You may learn something, for
example about the laws of physics and perfection in all which the
Almighty created, but not read into these facts and tie them into faith
and think about God's favors he granted us and how truly All Wise he is
in calculating and creating everything in such a perfect manner. Here
they teach facts, but they do not really teach. Just like hearing something but not listening.
When you hear something you only acknowledge there is sound, but when
you listen you try to derive meaning by putting the words together to
understand the big picture.
I think it is important for every Muslim to apply religion to their
education as a means of gaining religious knowledge to enhance our
faith and to read into the meaning of things. The beauty of Islam is
that it is not like other religions. There is no separation between
church and state, or education, etc. Islam should be applied at home,
at school, at work, at gatherings, in speech, in writing, when you wake
up, when you go to bed,etc.. How perfectly did The Perfector make our
religion, so that we may always remember Him in all that we do. And
truly ONLY in remembrence of God to hearts find rest! He has surely
made religion easy and anything outside of religion is just that. There
is no inbetween.
I think that education, no matter what the area of study, should be
tought in an Islamic manner with reference to the Sunnah of our beloved
prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, and to the Noble
Qur`an. And if we are not able to in the west, we Muslims should always
keep God in our minds and think about the connection between what we
are studying and its relation to our beautiful religion. I think that,
God willing, this may lead not only to an enhancement of religious
knowledge by deriving meaning from many diverse fields, but also an
interest among youths and a will and way of making education not
boring, but fun and adventurous.
I wonder, are there Islamic schools that use this approach
in teaching ? May the peace and blessings of our Lord be upon you
brother.
|
| Answer |
Salam
Kareem, and thanks for sharing your views. It seems to me that most
Islamic schools, at least to some extent, attempt to do what you have
suggested. I don't think the problem is in conceptualizing the general
points that you mention. The problem is in recognizing two things:
1) How modern knowledge has radically altered our ability to understand religion, and
2) how most religious views are radically at odds with the modern system.
So, while we may desire in our hearts to relate everything to
Islam, in the way you suggested, what often ends up happening is either
a feeling of despair that it is not possible to do so or a
reconciliation of Islam with whatever happens to be the dominant system
of thought and action in any given time and place. In seeing the
problem this way, we can make distinction not only on the basis of
ascribed identities (e.g. Muslims vs the West) but on the basis of
belief and the behavior engendered by belief. So, in other words, it
might be possible to find kindred spirits from other religions, or to
learn from people who are walking out of or developing alternatives to
the dominant system of knowledge.
Of course, as you say, Islam gives meaning to our studies, but one
can also say that about any cultural system. They all provide meaning,
which is the purpose of culture, to give meaning. So the question is
what kind of meaning does Islam give to the modern world in which we
live, and how do we proceed based on that meaning?
|
| |
| Name |
Zainab
- United Kingdom
|
| Profession |
|
| Question |
As salamu `alaykum. I came to the U.K. for my studies and al hamdu Lillah
I got married. My husband works here in the U.K. Fortunately for us we
grew up back home where we had to go to Islamic Schools in the
afternoon, five days a week and people around us were Muslims.
I am expecting our first child soon and I am really confused on how
to bring my baby up with what I had. This country is so different from
ours. How can I show my baby the teachings of Islam? I am not a scholar
and neither is my husband. I feel so sorry for my baby because he or
she will miss that sense of Islam that I had as a child which i grew up
with. I am willing to send my baby back home to where he or she grows
up to learn the values and teachings of Islam, but my husband isn't too
keen on that. What should I do? How do I go about it with this society?
Thank you very much.
|
| Answer |
On
some level, Zainab, this question will have to be worked out between
you and your husband, as you evidently have different views. So, rather
than advising you personally, let me reflect on the general issue you
raise. You have identified an important but often neglected aspect of
any discussion on education, that education is largely a social function.
What we see as useful or useless knowledge is determined by the society
in which we choose to live, and our behavior is informed by those
around us. Now, we should be wary of assuming that sending children
back home will necessarily be better, since that depends on where is
back home, but in general, even in the most astray of Islamic
societies, one can find certain elements of daily life that are missing
in the modern West, and which may never be possible there. True, many
Muslims flee their homelands for economic or political reasons, but
beyond the issues of politics and economics, there are qualities of
societies and the people who live there, and these qualities have a far
greater impact on the raising of children than any economic or
political issues. I find it somewhat distressing that those who leave
the Muslim world seeking refuge in the West will often take a
self-righteous attitude and position themselves as superior to those
who stay "back home." This is not constructive at all, and will only
lead to obsessions with status that are anaethema to Islam.
I think raising children today is subject to a variety of factors,
including school, society, media, nature and family, and all of these
can be healthy or sick depending on where one lives. I guess in the end
it matters what kind of life you want to live and pass on to your
children, and what sorts of trade offs may need to be made in adopting
that lifestyle.
|
| |
| Name |
Hwaa-matu
-
|
| Profession |
|
| Question |
As-salamau `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Professor Progler.
In your last session entitled: 'Islamic Schools and Education in
the West' we named 3 absic features that define Islamic education as:
Cosmology (What is reality?)
Epistemology (What is knowledge?) and
Methodology (How do we learn?.
Could you expand upon these features in this session?
|
| Answer |
Salam
Hwaa, and thanks for reminding of us points raised in the last session.
When we look at the three questions of reality, knowledge and learning,
it is a way of evaluating an educational system.
What is its view of reality?
What is its definition of knowledge?
What is its preferred methodology?
The way one answers these questions can indicate the basic
assumptions that one holds true, and these assumptions can be writ
large by way of formal institutions such as the state and universities.
Another way to discuss this question is to think about it as what might
be called the "structure of knowledge." We all live within structures of knowledge, without which we would not be able to make sense of the world.
Structures of knowledge provide the assumptions and habits of
thought and action, at every level of life, that enable us to function
efficiently. If we had to search for the meaning or purpose of every
single word we utter, every single gesture we make, every single
phenomenon we encounter, we would be paralyzed. Now, mind you, I think
the modern world is moving too fast, that a little more time to ponder
over words, gestures and phenomena is necessary, but the point I am
making here is that we all need a structure through which to understand
that world and our experiences. This structure is sometimes called
"culture," where the structure of knowledge is somewhat liquid, but it
must also include institutions, which tend to solidify the structure of
knowlege. So, with this explanation, one can and should ponder for
themselves the three interlinked question you pose: What is reality?
What is knowledge? What is the best way to do things? All education has
its own answer to these questions, though it sometimes takes some work
to find those answers, since the structure of knowledge proceeds from
assumptions that are largely not examined, but which allow us to move
forward.
So, rather than solidifying these questions with whatever answer I
might be able to muster in this short session, I think it would be much
more fruitful for all of us to take stock of ourselves and think about
how the educations we seek define reality, how they include or exclude
certain forms of knowledge, and how they say we should do things. And
one can also go into the Islamic tradition, which has some very
specific points about all of these questions, and then ask, "In what kind of world do I wish to live?"
|
| |
| Name |
Mashitoh
-
|
| Profession |
student of IIUM
|
| Question |
As salamu `alaykum,
Recently, I was doing my assignment on the topic of 'Hadrat-ul Islamiyyah and the concept of Islamic hadari that was produce by the state of Malaysia.
What are the meaning and concepts of these two and is there any difference between them?
|
| Answer |
Salam and thanks for the question.
I guess if you did research on that topic, then you might perhaps
be able to enlighten us yourself. But since you asked me, let me
venture a little.
First of all, we have to consider what is meant in this context by "hadarah"
which is often rendered in English as "civilization," but which I think
is not fully captured by that term. What is usually called
"civilization" is equally bound up with "tamaddun," which can mean "urbanization." Hadarah,
on the other hand, is more wrapped up with values and beliefs and the
lifestyle the emerges from those values and beliefs. A related term is "umran,"
which is also sometimes rendered as "civilization," but which in the
original has connotations of settled community and shared heritage. So, what we have is one word in English and three words in Arabic,
which presents us with a problem of translation and understanding. In
addition to that problem, which can be partly solved by taking care of
the words one uses and examining their underlying assumptions, what
this difference means is that we have a way of talking about
"civilization" in Islam that is more nuanced and qualitative than
denoted by that single English word. So, for example, we could speak of
societies that have have advanced and complicated forms of "tamaddun", but which are retarded or backwards in terms of "hadharah," or we could evaluate civilizations that valorize "umran" at the expense of "hadarah" or "tamaddun."
As for the specific way that any modern state, such as your example of
Malaysia, may understand or put into practice these concepts, that
would be best taken on a case by case basis, and so perhaps you could
share the results of your research.
For Islamic education, which is our topic here, I would add that how we understand the intersection of hadarah, tamaddun and umran
and how these three together create what might be called a
"civilization," seems to have useful implications for the way we
understand and evaluate the discipline of history. But discussion on
specific academic disciplines will perhaps have to wait for another
day, as our time here has ended, so let me thank everyone for their
participation.
From the Moderator:
I would like to thank the visitors, readers, participants and most
of all the guest, professor Yusuf Progler for this insightful session
and we would like to invite visitors to continue with us onto the next
debate: Education for Change' June 21st. 2005.
Read also:
◊ Decolonizing Contemporary Education
◊ The Westernization of Islamic Education
◊ Challenges Facing Islamic Education
◊ The Failures and Limitations of Modern Schooling
Join the discussion forum ◊ Education for What?
|
For your Comments and Suggestions contact :
EngLivedialogue@islam-online.net
|
|
|
|
|
In the Site:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
