Islamic Education Reform Top Priority in Intellectual Islamic Work

Abstract

The earliest ijtihad, in the face of societal changes, can be traced back
to the period of Khalifah Umar bin al-Khattab. The methodology of
juristic preference (istihsan) was developed later as one way of instituting
Islamic reform. It emerged as a response to the inadequacy of the
method of mere deduction. Other forms of intellectual reform can be
seen in the works of Al-Ghazali in Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din and Tahafat al-
Falsifah, and in Ibn Rushd’s response, Tahafat al-Tahafat.
Many of these early efforts toward intellectual reform were individual
and accidental in nature and did not reflect any methodological school or
institution. Reformers and creative thinkers seemed as flashes in the history
of Islamic thought. As the European challenge to the Ummah
mounted, and the cultural and scientific imitation failed, many Muslim
reformers surrendered themselves to culturally copying Europe while
continuing to praise the heritage of the Ummah and the sublime values
and concepts embedded in its legacy.
The movement for Islamization of knowledge tried to dig deep into
Islamic intellectual tradition in order to provide Muslim thinkers with the
capabilities and potential for the reform of contemporary Islamic thought
and methodology. The genesis of the movement can be traced to the birth
of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists in the United States and -
Canada (AMSS) in 1972, the establishment of the International Institute
of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981, and the development of the
Islamization of Knowledge program of the International Islamic
University of Malaysia (IIUM) in 1989.
As a result of these efforts, the ideas of Islamization of knowledge and
Islamic methodological reform have become central themes in the works
of Muslim scholars, who find that these concepts give direction and purpose
to their work. If we use the metaphor of a seed to describe the role
of intellectual and methodological reform in developing and reforming
societies, then political, economic, technological and all other contributions
and reforms can be seen as the fruits of civilization. The question
that presents itself is, if the seed is there-meaning proper thinking ...