10/10/2024
THE ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE -By Rofiu Ibrahim Adebayo.
Description and Definitions:
An attempts to give a uniform description of the term Islamization of Knowledge could be likened to the attempts by four blind men to give a vivid description of an Elephant. The part touched by each of them undoubtedly reflects their descriptions.
In the same vein, the physiognomy of the Islamization of knowledge is defined or described by various Scholars as it appealed to them. Some refer to it as “Faith- based Education “ while others is “Islamization of Education”
The usage of the phrase” Faith base Education shows the relationship between faith and education. Education without faith is regarded as the easiest means of training clever devils. Mutahheri(1977:29) aptly described it thus:
Knowledge without faith is a sharp sword in the hand of a drunken brute. It is a lamp in the hands of a thief to help him pick up the best articles at Midnight. That is why there is not the least difference in the nature and conduct of the faithless man of today who has knowledge and the faithless man of yesterday who had no knowledge. After all, wht is the difference between the Churchill, the Johnsons, the Nixon and the Stalins of today and the Pharaohs, the Genghis khans and the Attilas of yore.
Opinions differ among scholars concerning the accepted definition of the term “ ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE”. According to Khalil(1991) it is an attempt to practice intellectual activities based on the Islamic concept of the universe,life and man. Kasule 1997 defines it as a process of recasting the corpus of human knowledge to conform to the basic tenets of ‘Aqidatu Tawheed’. This definition is acceptable to Shehu 1998 who sees the Islamization of knowledge program as an attempt to reorientate and reinforce knowledge to conform to the Islamic beliefs system and worldview.
A comprehensive of the term is given by Sulayman who says:
“ The Islamization of knowledge simply refers to an attempt through which aspects of the body and purpose of knowledge and of the process and methodologies of discovering, validating,imparting and applying it, which oppose Islam are identified and made subservient to the Islamic worldview.
~ Owolabi Abdulhameed El- Qowaareery
