New Horizons in Muslim Education

New Horizons in Muslim EducationS. A. AshrafThe Concept of an Islamic UniversityH. H. Bilgrami and S. A. AshrafIslamic Sociology: An IntroductionI. Ba-Yunus and F Ahmad The three small -average 100 pages -introductory books under review forma piece and are the first volley from the Islamic Academy at Cambridge. TheAcademy’s Islamic Monograph Series is attractively produced and easy to read.The guiding genius of the Academy is Professor S. A. Ashraf. He was alsoone of the key figures, as organizing secretary, of the First World Conferenceon Muslim Education in Makkah in 1977. That Conference greatly acceleratedthe present trend in Islamic scholarship. Today we hear of Islamic Economics,Islamic Sociology and so on as one result (see my Towards Islamic Anthropology:definition, dogma and directions published by the InternationalInstitute of Islamic Thought and Defining Islamic Anthropology in the RoyalAnthropological Institute News, London.)The two books on education are linked by the authorship and ideas of ProfessorAshraf. In the one on education he clearly plans out an Islamic syllabi,training courses (for both students and teachers) and conferences.Islamic scholarship rests on the following assumptions: “Firstly, the Islamicconcept of Man has the width and range no other concept of Man has. AsMan can become Khalifatullah by cultivating or realizing within himself theattributes of God [strictly at the human level] and as these attributes havea limitless dimension, Man’s moral, spiritual and intellectual progress is potentiallylimitless. Secondly, as knowledge is the source of this progress anddevelopment, Islam does not put any bar to the acquisition of knowledge.Thirdly, the range of this acquisition must be all by acquiring intellectual expertisebecause in isolation a person cannot maintain a baland growth. Fourthly,the spiritual, moral, intellectual, imaginative, emotional and physicalaspects of man’s personality are kept in view in establishing the interrelationshipamong the disciplines., Fifthly, the development of personality is seenin the context of Man’s relationship with God, Man and Nature. Thereforethe organization of disciplines and arrangement of subjects are planned withreference to Man as an individual, Man as a social being and Man as a beingwho has to live in harmony with Nature.” (Ashraf, page 5) ...