EDITORIAL

Abstract

Ftom the papets presented at the twenty-first annual conference of the
AMSS in 1992, we have chosen here Sirajul Hussain's short article on
"Islamic Science: Making of a Formal Intellectual Discipline." The other
papets presented at the conference are being published sepamtely in the
form of conference proceedings and should be available in one volume
at the twenty-second mual conference. This will be held at the headquarters
of the IIIT on 15-17 October 1993.
In this paper, Sirajul Hussain discusses some epistemological issues
related to the foundation of "Islamic science" as a formal intellectual discipline.
He stresses the need for establishing an ontological necessity for
the uniquely monotheistic concept of tawbiii in Islam in terms of recent
developments in neuropsychology. This would show that the tuwltidi
episteme proceeds essentially in a purely non-Euclidean space. In this
way, we can show that the tuwh7liepisteme is amenable to scientific
corroboration. He also emphasizes the need to structure Islamic science
as a formal academic course to be taught at the undergraduate and gtaduate
levels.
Dilnawaz Siddiqui discusses selected major issues in instrUCti0~1-
communication technology from an Islamic perspective. He tries to lay
the groundwork by identifying major issues from a broad Islamic view.
In addition, he outlines theoretical assumptions behind the identification
and analysis of instructional technology and develops six sets of relevant
issues classified under the categories of humanity, message, medium,
methods, milieu, and measurement.
Mumtaz Jafari examines critically the objectives, the evolutionary
context, and the value system in which counseling flourishes. Right at the
outset, he makes it clear that he is not providing an alternative framework
based on Islamic teachings. Rather, he is making a modest attempt to
examine critically the parameters of western counseling in order to illustrate
the contrast between fundamental premises of Islamic ideology and
practice. The framework used is the Islamic outlook on life and the associated
objectives and values that Islam regards as determinants of human ...