Islamization of Knowledge with Special Reference to Political Science

Abstract

Introduction
This paper discusses the crisis of thought prevailing in the Muslim world
today, and considers it a fundamental cause of the current degeneration,
decadence and backwardness of the “Ummah.” Hopefully, it also highlights
the role the International Institute of Islamic Thought will play in counteracting
and ultimately overcoming the crisis.
Such a theme inevitably brings the Islamic concept of knowledge to the
forefront. First of all it must be decided whether such an investigation is merely
an intellectual extravanganza or whether there is actually a real issue that
deserves investigating. No one possessing insight into the condition of the
Ummah can fail to realize that there exists a crisis involving a number of issues
and complex dimensions. These issues are:
1. The backwardness of the Ummah.
2. The weakness of the Ummah.
3. The intellectual stagnation of the Ummah.
4. The absence of Ijtihad in the Ummah.
5. The absence of cultural progress in the Ummah.
6. The Ummah’s losing touch with the basic norms of Islamic civilization.
All these issues indicate, in one way or the other, the intellectual crisis
prevailing in the Muslim World. There is no doubt that this crisis is the cause
and, at the same time, evidence of the decadence and impotence of the Ummah,
and prevents it from anything significant to the culture and civilization
of the modern world. This incapability is futher exacerbated by the frequency
of political, economic and military crises ...