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Islamic Pedagogy: Potential and Perspective

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Islamic Schooling in the West

Abstract

Religious traditions embody inherent pedagogical perspectives—a way of teaching religion. Among Muslim scholarship, conceptual aspects of a philosophy of education rooted in Islam have been articulated but often piecemeal, making it inaccessible to Islamic schools today. The challenge has been in synthesising philosophies of Islamic education, or better termed Islamic pedagogy, in a way that is relevant and applicable to contemporary schools. This chapter aims to establish some semblance of an Islamic pedagogical framework. The concepts and perspectives identified may serve as a rubric for Islamic schools to renew their conceptions of Islamic education for a deeper connection between religious education as a subject and pedagogy rooted in a religious tradition.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    William Hare and John P. Portelli (eds.), Philosophy of Education: Introductory Readings 4th Edition (Calgary, Alberta: Brush Education Inc., 2013).

  2. 2.

    Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Traditional Islam in the Modern World (USA: Kegan Paul International, 1990).

  3. 3.

    Islamic schools are of many varieties and depending on the context (e.g., Muslim-majority countries versus Western societies where Muslims are a minority) the term Islamic school can refer to a very distinct type of schooling. For a detailed typology of Islamic schooling refer to: Nadeem Memon, “Between Immigrating and Integrating: The Challenge of Defining an Islamic Pedagogy in Canadian Islamic Schools,” in Graham McDonough, Nadeem Memon, and Avi Mintz (eds.), Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic Schooling in Canada (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013).

  4. 4.

    Naquib Al-Attas , The Concept of Education in Islam: A Framework for an Islamic Philosophy of Education (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1999); Mohammed Al-Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge (Kuala Lumpur: House of Revelation, 2013), 166.

  5. 5.

    Naquib al-Attas , The Concept of Education in Islam. First World Conference on Muslim Education (Mecca: Saudi Arabia, 1980), 22.

  6. 6.

    Abd al-Aziz Al-Qabisi. “A Treatise Detailing the Circumstances of Students and the Rules Governing Teachers and Students,” in Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 38–74.

  7. 7.

    Muhammad bin Ahmed al-Ramli, Educating Children: Classical Advice for Modern Times (Riyadatul Sibyan), (United Kingdom: Kitaba—Islamic Texts for the Blind, 2013).

  8. 8.

    Seyyed Hossein Nasr, A Young Muslim’s Guide to the Modern World (Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2010).

  9. 9.

    Nasr, Man and Nature.

  10. 10.

    Nasr, Man and Nature; Bradley Cook, “Islamic versus Western Conceptions of Education: Reflections on Egypt,” International Review of Education (1999): 346.

  11. 11.

    Ikhwan al-Safa. “The Seventh Epistle of the Propaedeutical Part on the Scientific Arts and What They Aim At,” in Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 20–37; Zahra Al Zeera, Wholeness and Holiness in Education: An Islamic Perspective (Virginia: The International Institute on Islamic Thought, 2001).

  12. 12.

    Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, “O Son!,” in Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 88–107.

  13. 13.

    Abdullah Sahin, New Directions in Islamic Education: Pedagogy and Identity Formation (Turkey: KUBE, 2013), 194–198.

  14. 14.

    Allan Ornstein and Francis Hunkins, Curriculum: Foundations, Principles, and Issues (Boston, MA: Pearson, 2009).

  15. 15.

    al-Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, 178.

  16. 16.

    Qur’an 57:20.

  17. 17.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children, 16.

  18. 18.

    Mohammed Al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din, Book III (Revival of Religious Sciences) (Beirut: Al-Maktabah Al-Asriyah, 2004), 95.

  19. 19.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children, 52.

  20. 20.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children, 52.

  21. 21.

    Narrated by Ahmed 11/369 number 6689 and 6756.

  22. 22.

    al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din, Book III, 97–98.

  23. 23.

    al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din, Book III, 95–97.

  24. 24.

    ▪.

  25. 25.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children.

  26. 26.

    See Sarfaroz Niyozov and Nadeem Memon, “Islamic Education and Islamization: Evolution of Themes, Continuities and New Directions,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 31 (2011): 12–13.

  27. 27.

    al Zeera, Wholeness and Holiness in Education: An Islamic Perspective, 84.

  28. 28.

    ▪.

  29. 29.

    Miskawayh. “From the Second Discourse of The Refinement of Character.” In Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook, 75–87 (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010).

  30. 30.

    Miskawayh. “From the Second Discourse of The Refinement of Character.” In Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook, 75–87 (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 83.

  31. 31.

    Amr Abdalla et al., Improving the Quality of Islamic Education in Developing Countries: Innovative Approaches (Washington, DC: Creative Associates International, 2006), vii.

  32. 32.

    See Ibn Sahnun. Ibn Khaldun, and others in Bradley Cook (ed.), Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010).

  33. 33.

    William Chittick, “The Goal of Islamic Education.” In Education in the Light of Tradition, ed. Jane Casewit (Indiana, USA: World Wisdom, 2011), 90.

  34. 34.

    This applies to the period of madrassas establishment up to the sixteenth century before colonialism. See Niyozov and Memon, Islamic Education and Islamization: Evolution of Themes, Continuities and New Directions.

  35. 35.

    Titus Burckhardt, “Traditional Sciences in Fez.” In Education in the Light of Tradition, ed. Jane Casewit (Indiana, USA: World Wisdom, 2011), 18.

  36. 36.

    Ibn Khaldun, “Selections from The Muqaddimah.” In Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook, 208–242 (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 231.

  37. 37.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning, trans. G.E. Von Grunebaum and Theodora M. Abel (USA: Starlatch Press, 2003).

  38. 38.

    al-Ghazali, “O Son!”.

  39. 39.

    Quoted in Sebastian Gunther, “‘Your Educational Achievements Shall Not Stop Your Efforts to Seek Beyond’: Principles of Teaching and Learning in Classical Arabic Writings.” In Philosophies of Islamic Education : Historical Perspectives and Emerging Discourses, ed. Nadeem A. Memon and Mujadad Zaman, 72–93 (New York, USA: Routledge, 2016), 73.

  40. 40.

    Discussed in Boyle, Memorization and Learning in Islamic Schools, 479–480; Eickelman, The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and Its Social Reproduction.

  41. 41.

    Glenn Hardaker and A’ishah Sabki, “Islamic Pedagogy and Embodiment: An Anthropological Study of a British Madrasah.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2012.

  42. 42.

    See Cook, “Islamic versus Western Conceptions of Education: Reflections on Egypt,” 342; Niyozov and Memon, Islamic Education and Islamization: Evolution of Themes, Continuities and New Directions, 14.

  43. 43.

    Wan Mohd Wan Daud, Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the Role of the University in the Context of De-Westernization and De-Colonization (Kuala Lumpur: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2013); Wan Mohd Wan Daud, The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas: An Exposition of the Original Concept of Islamization (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1998); al Zeera, Wholeness and Holiness in Education, 55.

  44. 44.

    See al-Zeera, Wholeness and Holiness in Education; Yusef Waghid, “Islamic Education Institutions: Can the Heritage Be Sustained?” The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 14 (1997): 35–49; al-Attas , The Concept of Education in Islam: A Framework for an Islamic Philosophy of Education.

  45. 45.

    Chittick, The Goal of Islamic Education, 85.

  46. 46.

    Fardh ‘ain can also be referred to as ‘personal obligation’. It is that which every single Muslim should acquire, obligatory knowledge that corresponds to the status and needs of the learner and is determined to be what a person may need in a certain situation.

  47. 47.

    Fardh kifayah can be referred to as ‘collective obligation’. It is knowledge which doesn’t become a requirement if a sufficient number of Muslims acquire it to an aptitude that suffices the needs of the community.

  48. 48.

    Omar Anwar Qureshi, “Disciplinarity and Islamic Education.” In Philosophies of Islamic Education : Historical Perspectives and Emerging Discourses, ed. Nadeem A. Memon and Mujadad Zaman, 94–111 (New York: Routledge, 2016), 101.

  49. 49.

    Cited in Omar Anwar Qureshi, “Disciplinarity and Islamic Education,” 106.

  50. 50.

    Cited in Omar Anwar Qureshi, “Disciplinarity and Islamic Education,” 95.

  51. 51.

    Ibn Khaldun, “Selections from The Muqaddimah.”

  52. 52.

    Ibn Khaldun, “Selections from The Muqaddimah,” 231.

  53. 53.

    Jean-Louis Michon, Introduction to Traditional Islam: Foundations, Art, and Spirituality (Indiana, USA: World Wisdom Inc. 2008), 144.

  54. 54.

    Cited in Ramzy Ajem and Nadeem Memon, Principles of Islamic Pedagogy, 45.

  55. 55.

    Jean-Louis Michon, Introduction to Traditional Islam.

  56. 56.

    Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, On Vigilance and Self-Examination (Kitab al muraqaba wa’l muhasaba) Book XXXVIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya ulum al-din). Translated with introduction and notes by Anthony Shaker (United Kingdom: Islamic Texts Society, 2015).

  57. 57.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers: Rules of Conduct for the Learned and the Learning.” In Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought, ed. Bradley Cook, 156–207 (Utah, USA: Brigham Young University Press, 2010), 193.

  58. 58.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 13.

  59. 59.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 16.

  60. 60.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 192–198.

  61. 61.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 168.

  62. 62.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 168.

  63. 63.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 168.

  64. 64.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 170.

  65. 65.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 171.

  66. 66.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 160.

  67. 67.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children, 93.

  68. 68.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 168–169.

  69. 69.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children, 76.

  70. 70.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children, 76.

  71. 71.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 163.

  72. 72.

    Miskawayh, The Refinement of Character, 83.

  73. 73.

    al-Ramli, Educating Children.

  74. 74.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 172.

  75. 75.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 6.

  76. 76.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 30.

  77. 77.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 32.

  78. 78.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 177.

  79. 79.

    Ibn Jama’ah, “A Memorandum for Listeners and Lecturers,” 179–181.

  80. 80.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 13.

  81. 81.

    al-Zarnuji , Instruction of the Student, 13.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CITE-School of Education – University of South Australia, Magill-Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Nadeem A. Memon

  2. College of Education – Zayed University, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Mariam Alhashmi

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  1. Nadeem A. Memon
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  2. Mariam Alhashmi
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Correspondence to Nadeem A. Memon .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Mohamad Abdalla

  2. University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Dylan Chown

  3. University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Muhammad Abdullah

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Memon, N.A., Alhashmi, M. (2018). Islamic Pedagogy: Potential and Perspective. In: Abdalla, M., Chown, D., Abdullah, M. (eds) Islamic Schooling in the West. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73612-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73612-9_9

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