Islamization Of Knowledge

Islamization of Knowledge

Islamization of Knowledge

Islamization of Knowledge is a process aimed at regaining the Ummah's intellectual and civilizational identity after centuries of intellectual stagnation, which led to an unfortunate discrepancy between the Islamic worldview and its thought.The onslaught on the Muslim world has contributed to magnifying this discrepancy, leading to a duality that governs much of the Muslim intellectual activity today. A consensus however exists that the major area to start Islamizing is that of the social sciences. But for the Ummah to regain intellectual originality, Islamization must be carried out at the crucial theoretical level before moving on to the equally important but more complex practical one.Dr. Khalil argues that Islamization of Knowledge should not start from a vacuum but must pay due attention to Islam's wealth of intellectual legacy, which, he points out, even Western scholars have come to consider as intrinsic to the history of modern intellectual thought.

The Islamization of Knowledge

This paper offers a number of valuable insights gained from a long engagement with Islamic as well as global issues, with traditional as well as contemporary concerns. It not only surveys the field along with the powers and challenges at work, but also charts a way out of the present impasse. More immediately, it offers an updated review of the progress of the Islamization of Knowledge project and a timely clarification of the very concept itself. Clearly, that concept, though responsible for generating worldwide debate and action, has been so often misinterpreted and/or inflated. The gradational nature of the Islamizing project is all too obvious, and was never far from the minds of the authors of the 1892 declaration. It would certainly have been juvenile to think otherwise. And yet there is a need now to stress, as the present paper does, the ambitious (but also imperative) nature of the enterprise. For, despite the highly commendable effort invested in further elaboration and, in some brave instances, attempted implementation of the concept, the process of the Islamization of Knowledge remains at an initial, some might even say, prenatal stage. Much work needs to be done, many talents galvanized and resources pooled, institutions set up or reorganized, etc., before a truly genuine and sustainable realization of the concept can be said to have begun. Such a realistic vision needs to accompany and inform every stage of the way. To be lulled into a false or premature sense of achievement is a costly setback at a time when standing idly by for a day may have serious consequences for decades to come.