The Islamization Of Knowledge: Yesterday And Today

by Taha Jabir Al-Alwani, Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo (Translator)

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 Islamizaiton 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.

51 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Dr. Taha Jabir al Alwani was born in Iraq in 1354/1935. He received his primary and secondary education in his native land and then graduated with an Honors Degree from the College of Shariah and Law at Al Azhar University in Cairo in 1378/1959. From the same university he was awarded his Master's Degree in 1388/1968, and a Doctorate in Usul al Fiqh in 1392/1973. For ten years (from 1395/1975 to 1405/1985) Dr al 'Alwani was a Professor of Fiqh and Usul al Fiqh at Imam Muhammad b. Sa'ud University in Riyadh. Dr. al 'Alwani participated in the founding of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in the USA in 1401/1981, and is now the Institute's President and a member of its Board of Trustees. He is a founder-member of the Council of the Muslim World League in Makkah. A member of the OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah since 1407/1987. President of the Fiqh Council of North America 1408/1988.

Reviews

[Hijaz Jamal · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, Taha Jabir Al-Alwani has reiterated the phenomenal concept of Islamization of Knowledge (IoK) in a condensed manner whereby he explains six discourses that should be taken into consideration in ensuring the progress of the idea as well as the three goals that should be the aim of IoK.

It is a refreshing outlook on the concept and it is interesting that one of the discourses mentioned is the methodology for dealing with the Quran in which he accentuated the importance of treating the Quran as "a methodological source of knowledge for the natural and social sciences". Indeed, he has repeatedly stated that IoK is supposed to be an endeavor to outline methodology of knowledge through the Islamic worldview. It is not, as often the case in IIUM, only the writing down of Islamic perspectives on the subject at the very end of assigned papers.

IoK is meant to be the foundation of the building, not merely annexes.