Education, Leadership and Islam

Theories, discourses and practices from an Islamic perspective

Saeeda Shah

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781135052539
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Educational institutions are undergoing complex and sensitive changes in the context of immigration, international mobility, globalisation, and shifting economic scenarios, making highly challenging demands on educational leaders. Leadership is increasingly being perceived and theorised as pivotal to students' achievement and institutional performance. In this book, Saeeda Shah considers educational leadership from an Islamic perspective to debate theoretical positions underpinned by Islamic texts and teachings, and the resulting conceptualisations and interpretations.

While educational leadership literature and research have flourished in recent years, this is predominantly informed by Western ideologies, concepts, theories and practices. Education, Leadership and Islam focuses on contemporary educational settings and practices, drawing on research and empirical evidence from multicultural contexts in order to enrich theory and inform policy and practice in relevant frameworks, particularly in relation to the growing Muslim population in the West. Chapters also discuss gender in Islam, educational expectations and Islamic faith schools to comprehensively explore education in relation to Islamism. Situating Muslims within contemporary societies, this book extends debates regarding educational philosophy and leadership, endorsing diversity and plurality through an appreciation of difference.

Education, Leadership and Islam will appeal to education researchers as well as social and political scientists attempting to understand Muslim educational issues in contemporary life, both in the east and in the west. This book offers critical insight into educational theory and practice, and as such will be key reading for policy makers and educational leaders.

1 Islam, knowledge, education and ideological underpinnings

DOI: 10.4324/9780203502297-2

Ideas inform practice and in turn are grounded in practice. Critical engagement and reflection can help understand and clarify the underlying assumptions of value frameworks wherein ideas are embedded. Pring (2007) posits:

We do live in a world of ideas. These ideas shape our thinking about practice (whether that be the practice of the teacher or the practice of the researcher) in many unacknowledged ways [emphasis added]. One function of philosophy is to make those ideas explicit, to subject them to criticism, and to influence practice, not by providing alternative theories or bodies of knowledge for the guidance of practice, but by ensuring that the assumptions behind practice are tenable and coherent. (p. 319)

This chapter sets out to engage with the ‘ideas’ that have influenced the Muslim Ummah's thinking with regard to education, and to explore the underlying assumptions, discourses and value frameworks impacting on conceptualizations, expectations and practices in acknowledged or unacknowledged ways. It is important to briefly explain the concept of Ummah first to locate the debates about knowledge and leadership. Ummah is the all-embracing identity for a hugely and multiply diverse Muslim community, providing an exceptionally flexible concept for all believers with which to identify. Primarily, the belief in God as all-knowing and all-powerful, Mohammed as the last prophet of God and the Quran as the word of God connect the Muslim Ummah in spite of all types and levels of differences. There are 64 occurrences of the term in the Quran (Al-Ahsan, 1992), where it is used as an overarching concept for a wider faith community operative beyond geo-political bounds. Commonly, this term is used among Muslims to convey the fact that all Muslims the world over constitute one community irrespective of the differences of race, ethnicity, tribe, kinship, colour, gender, dress, language and others, and they accept the Quran as the guiding philosophy (the Quran; see also Geaves, 1996: chapters II and III; Iqbal, 1996).

Islam and its philosophy of knowledge

Islam is often referred to as one of the great world religions. The word ‘Islam’ means submission to God's will and command. In the Quran, Islam is referred to as a din or deen, which advocates its all-encompassing nature. The word ‘din’ is used in more than 75 verses in the Quran, conveying through examples and inferences that Islam is more than a belief. The word ‘religion’ has a primary association with the sacred or divine, thus signalling a lack of attention to everyday life, while Islam encompasses both the spiritual and the everyday life. Akhtar argues that ‘Islam defies classification as a Western monotheism or even as a religion rather than an ideology’ (2011, p. 4). The sociologist Durkheim defined religion as a ‘a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and surrounded by prohibitions … beliefs and practices that unite its adherents into a single moral community’ (2008, p. 46). A detailed study of Islam highlights that it is not a mere set of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things but ‘a way of life, a code of laws, a complete system encompassing and integrating the political, social, and economic, as well as personal, moral, and spiritual aspects of life’ (Dabashi, 1993, p. 439; see also Maududi, 1981; Nasr, 1985). It propounds a philosophy of life encompassing the spiritual and the material, the corporeal and the divine. With its claims to comprehensibility and universality, it seeks to encompass every aspect of human life and endeavour. It guides the followers how to live life in this world as individuals and as members of a collectivity with rights and responsibilities towards the self and the community as well as how to win God's favour in this life and for the life hereafter.

In Islam, one of the primary responsibilities towards God is seeking knowledge. An understanding of the nature of knowledge in Islam, its sources and its ideological underpinnings from an Islamic perspective is essential in understanding education and expectations of education and educational leaders within an Islamic framework. Islamic philosophy of knowledge is embedded in an Islamic worldview. The Quran and the Sunnah of the prophet Muhammad are the primary sources of knowledge and guidance for all Muslims, and also determine the Islamic worldview. Nasr argues that ‘In the Islamic perspective, religion … is the matrix and the worldview within which these and all other human activities, efforts, creations, and thoughts take place or should take place. … Islam is religion as a total way of life’ (2003, p. 26). The Islamic worldview is defined by ‘the acceptance of God as the One (al-Ahad) and all-knowing (Alim), commanding submission to Him (taslim), which results in peace (salaam), hence the name of Islam, which means “surrender to the Will of the One God”’ (Nasr, 2003, p. 3). Seeking knowledge is a command, a duty imposed by God and defined as the path to ‘taqwa’ (right path/God-fearing) and God's favour (Al-Attas, 1979; Ashraf, 1995; Tibawi, 1972). ‘The essence of taqwa lies in an attitude of heart and mind rather than in an outward form’ (Maududi, 1991, p. 116). It is a state embedded in knowledge and conditioned by knowledge. The Quran repeatedly emphasizes the importance of knowledge with frequent injunctions to seek knowledge and associates it with the highest status.

According to the Quran, God is Alim, the ultimate knower (2:32) and ‘above every one possessed of knowledge is the All-knowing One’ (the Quran 12:76). Adam, the first human being in Islamic theology was made vicegerent on earth because God had ‘taught Adam the nature of things’ (the Quran 2:31). To this Adam the angels were asked to perform ‘sajda’ (the Quran 2:34), which is the ultimate act of prostration and submission. The ensuing argument between God and the Archangel as to the cause of Adam's superiority (the Quran 2:30–33) evidences the status of knowledge in Islam, explicitly signifying that Adam's high status is because of the knowledge given to him. The question is forcefully and clearly raised in the Quran:

Are those who possess knowledge and those who do not on equal footing? (the Quran 39:9)

The implied answer is that human beings are the best of creation because they are bestowed with knowledge. They share the Godly attribute of knowledge, although there are limits to what they know, as confirmed by the Quran: ‘You have been given a very little part of knowledge’ (the Quran 17:85). This view of knowledge and God as the source of knowledge form the basis of the Islamic philosophy of knowledge. Knowledge is unlimited and an endless continuity. The prophet Mohammed is advised to say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge’ (20:114), which is suggestive of the significance of knowledge and also of its infiniteness.

Knowledge occupies a central position in Islam and is a distinctive feature of Islamic philosophy and Muslim civilization. The word used for knowledge in the Quran is ‘ilm,’ which embraces meanings and messages that are beyond the scope of the English translation as knowledge. The word ilm emerges as a very powerful concept in Islam with unparalleled depth of meaning, exercising a defining influence over all aspects of the Muslim civilization. Rosenthal (1970) explains it as

one of those concepts that have dominated Islam, and given Islamic civilisation its distinctive shape and complexion. … There is no branch of Muslim intellectual life, of Muslim religious or political life, and of the daily life of average Muslim that remained untouched by the all-pervasive attitude towards ‘knowledge’ as something of supreme value for Muslim being. (p. 2)

In the Quran, ‘the total number of verses in which ilm or its derivatives and associated words are used is 704’ (Akhtar, 1997, p. 1); the word alim has occurred in 140 places, while al-ilm in 27. Scholars have argued that the scope, content and the meanings of the Islamic concept of ilm cannot be fully conveyed by any other word or term. The Arabic word ilm embraces knowledge (content) and knowledge-informed action (amal). This relationship is emphasized by Al-Ghazali (1989) for whom knowledge is a form of action. Rahman (2002) also emphasizes the action or amal aspect, maintaining that ‘Islam is not the religion of mere dogmatic belief or ritualistic demonstration of piety. It is the religion which is most comprehensive as guidance for human beings in every walk of life. It is something that has to be practised’ (p. 251).

Ilm or knowledge is not confined to the acquisition of information or content. It requires the believers to act upon their ilm and commit themselves to the goals that Islam aims at attaining, thus combining knowledge, insight and social action as its ingredients. This notion of knowledge informing practice is a part of the Islamic worldview, and underpins the Islamic philosophy of education as well as the expectations of educational leaders. Those who possess knowledge share the Godly attribute of alim and there are responsibilities with it:

God has bestowed on [human beings], and [human beings] alone among all the created things, ability to recognise, understand, and emulate the attributes of God, and realise them in practice in this life. (Hussain and Ashraf, 1979, p. 10)

Ilm in Islam is expected to develop insight, leading to informed social action; therefore, its meaning encompasses social, political, moral and spiritual aspects. Collecting information or certification is not the end in itself; the expectation of the believers is to act upon their beliefs and lead a life informed by ilm. From an Islamic perspective, ‘While knowledge is needed to fulfil religious and spiritual responsibilities, it is also highly important for achieving social and economic development, for the wellbeing of the community, and for ensuring social harmony, freedom and human rights’ (Abuarqub, 2009, pp. 8–9). Waghid (2014) refers to this as ‘cultivation of cosmopolitanism’ (p. 334), and of ta‘dib (goodness) that ‘considers every individual irrespective of linguistic, cultural, religious, socio-economic, political and ethnic differences as worthy of respect as persons’ (p. 337), arguing that it is about ‘achieving justice for all’ (p. 341). Knowledge is to create a society of good human beings and good citizens.

Islam rejects any dichotomy between spirit and matter. The highest spiritual, intellectual and moral values are to be practised in this world of matter. This conceptualization of knowledge or ilm gives it a unique status in Islam, and the religious texts prioritize seeking knowledge to even acts of worship. The nature of knowledge and its contribution towards an individual's holistic development are significant elements that shape this concept and determine its role in human life. Al-Kindi (1974) explains three stages or steps in knowledge building: The first is acquiring knowledge, the second is unifying knowledge by drawing on different sources, and the third is seeking the progress of future knowledge and facilitating learning of younger generations. He conceptualizes knowledge as an on-going endeavour towards perfection, always aimed at or striven for, and never a finished product (1974, pp. 57–58). He also propounds the argument that knowledge of reality leads to the knowledge of the divinity and unity of God, thus linking the physical to the metaphysical and the material to the spiritual. It was this fusion of the binaries that makes Douglass and Shaikh acknowledge that ‘The dynamics of knowledge acquisition in early Muslim civilization provided for a concept of Islamic education that placed no barrier between “religious” and “secular” learning’ (2004, p. 13).

Muslim scholars have emphasized the inseparable nature of knowledge and the sacred (Nasr, 1989) where the spiritual and the material, the sacred and the secular, the revealed and the acquired all form a whole, defying fragmentation. ‘From an Islamic view of tawhid (divine unity), knowledge is holistic and there is no categorization of knowledge into religious and secular spheres. Both types of knowledge contribute to the strengthening of faith, the former through a careful study of what is viewed as the revealed “word of God” and the latter through a study of the “world of people” and nature’ (Sabki and Hardaker, 2012, pp. 344–5). The Islamic worldview is not purely a religious one in the generally accepted sense. Al Zeera (2001) argues that ‘The uniqueness of Islam is this profound and challenging belief in both the material and the religious worlds. Muslims should live this life and enjoy God's gifts in moderation, yet believe in the hereafter and consider this life as a purposeful journey that should be cultivated from knowledge and good deeds’ (p. xxv). This ontological wholeness, rooted in the Islamic worldview of tawhid, underpins the Islamic concept of knowledge and its role in human life.

The Islamic philosophy of knowledge derives from the Quranic concepts (Abdullah, 1982, p. 43) in which seeking knowledge has been regarded as a religious activity because of the underpinning belief that knowledge should lead to God. Hussain (2010) observes that ‘seeking any kind of knowledge was seen as worship by Muslims since it meant to understand and achieve consciousness of God’ (p. 239). Halstead (2004) claims that this concept of knowledge where ‘knowledge is not to be accumulated for its own sake but must be put to use … to live in accordance with Islamic law and to fulfil the purposes of God's creation … is very different from dominant western concepts’ (p. 520).

The Western concepts of knowledge may disagree with the Islamic concept of achieving ‘the purposes of God's creation’, but they acknowledge the role of knowledge in achieving full human potential, which is a purpose of God's creation. Many Western philosophers such as Freire, Arendt, Dewey and others emphasize learning and knowledge to achieve full human potential. Freire (1972, 1973) explains knowledge as liberating, and refutes the ‘banking model’ of education where the role of the knowledge-giver is to give information, and learners are like containers to be ‘filled’. He argues that knowledge is not a commodity to be passed on but a dialogic engagement to realize the f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Islam, knowledge, education and ideological underpinnings
• 2 Educational leadership: An Islamic perspective
• 3 Gender, educational leadership and Islam
• 4 Muslims’ expectations of education and educational leaders in contemporary societies: Case of the UK
• 5 Islamic faith schools: Dynamics of debates
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index