Reflection 8: Islamisation of Knowledge

Islamization of knowledge has been debated among the scholars as if forcing Islam in knowledge. Therefore, it is replaced with the new term “Integration of Islam” which is more suitable in all fields of knowledge. There is a crisis in education whereby it associates Islam with English literature and according to colonial origin, this subject is introduced after World War I in order to “civilize” the working class and black people. A few reasons on why the subject is needed in the field of education, first one is Islamization of ‘self’. This is to enhance purifying the character of oneself to be a better Muslim for the ummah. The next point is analyzing the contents of books. For instance, the text of “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell that delivers the message of committing zina is not wrong and that is why the role of Muslim educators is important to highlight the poem in the view of Islamic perspective. Despite of delivering the text of English literature, according to Assoc. Prof Dr. Mahmudul Hasan, an expert in this subject, suggested to choose another appropriate text that is much proper other than secular-based or Islamophobia-based text in order to acquire some moral values in learning the text. Another reason is the syllabus of the colonizers that are applied in most universities of Muslim world. The text used in teaching has no relevance for Muslim society. Dr. Mahmudul has advised so that Muslim educators include Muslim writers in their syllabus before they are totally vanished from the history of literature. In most cases, they are being neglected and also, rejected in literature such as Marmaduke Pickthall, and many other names that did not be recognized by the world. Apart from that, Dr. Mahmud has emphasized the connection of knowledge and computer where practically, people tend to use English language as it has become the premium language for cyber world. There are two distortions regarding Islam and English language. One of them is transliteration that distorts of how we write Islamic names. For instance, Avisenna stands for Ibn Sina, Mosque for Masjid, Cairo for Kaherah and many more. The second one is translation in which the Arabic terms are translated into English words wholly like solah is pray, jihad is considered as holy war and many other Arabic words. Thus, what we can conclude on how to connect IOK with technology is by uploading more texts and research done by Muslim scholars and writers so that their works will be published and recognized by world. Another point is, we, as Muslims should ensure we are well-mastered enough in technology as we can preserve all Arabic terms and words