The Theology of Islamic Education from Salafi and Liberal Perspectives

Abstract

This article examines the tenets of today's two contemporary traditions in Islam, neo-traditional Salafism and liberal or progressive Islam and analyzes how they cultivate a typology of Islamic religious education. The typology under study clarifies the meaning of tarbi yya and ta`dib in Islamic educational philosophy and demonstrates the place of these goals within a continuum of critical versus noncritical talim (teaching) in Islamic religious education. The purpose of this typology is to provide both scholars and practitioners a theoretical framework for thought and reflection about their pedagogic methods and scholarly work.

Notes

1 The Quran is considered the Word of God and the “Holy Scripture of Muslims and the most important text on which Islam is based” (Saeed 2006, 8).

2 It is believed that these people “are the sources of legitimate knowledge and the methodology of accessing this knowledge” (Duderija 2014a, 134).

3 The first four Rashidun righteous caliphs (632–60) are Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.

4 The legal hermeneutics of the major schools of thought or madhahib are the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi‘i.

5 Sunnah means life experiences and narrations of the prophet Muhammad (Waghid, 2016, 3).

6 There are fewer verses, only 200, about personal matters and moral teachings, than the 500 verses concerned with forms of worship and ritual (Saeed 2006).

7 The five pillars of Islam are: the performance of prayer five times a day; fasting in the month of Ramadan; zakat, or giving alms to the poor; belief in the one God Allah and that the Prophet Muhammad was his messenger; and performing the hajj or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca once in a lifetime (Waghid, 2011).

8 The focus on tarbiyya and tadib is not mutually exclusive and that teachers may apply maximal and minimal doses of tarbiyya and tadib in the same classroom based on their religious orientations, the schools' curriculum, and the larger community.

9 This perception is convincingly clarified and criticized in the work by Westheimer and Kahne (2004).

10 Such as Imam Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa, Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, and Imam Malik.

11 Islamization of knowledge means “to subject all rationale and religious sciences to an epistemology consistent with principles of Islam” (Waghid 2016) or recasting all existing forms of knowledge within an Islamic paradigm.

12 Ijtihad refers to interpreting the Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah in such a way that they reflect the intellectual, political, economic, legal technological, and moral developments of society (Tan 2014, 333). It is a methodological tool used by Muslim scholars to respond to the challenges and questions of present time.

13 “The ability and willingness to justify one's beliefs based on internal as well as external questions” (Tan 2014, 330).

14 Jabris is a political philosophy in Islam that holds that human beings do not have control over their actions, as they are all predetermined by God (Saeed 2006, 8).

15 Jihad means to struggle or exert oneself and the Quran often uses the phrase exerting oneself in the path of God (Leaman and Ali 2008, 65).

16 The caliph is a successor to the Prophet Muhammad in governing the Muslim community (Leaman and Ali 2008, 18).

17 Kufr means disbelief or unbelief—it is one of the most important concepts in the Quran (Leaman and Ali 2008, 71).

18 Hakimiyya is a term used by Salafi Muslims in order to justify the necessity of Islamic caliphate and the implementation of Islamic law (Belkeziz 2009).

19 Hikmah means wisdom and it refers to understanding the world that God has created (Leaman and Ali 2008).

20 Some scholars view the hadith, or the prophet's sayings, as unrecited revelation and therefore consider it as valid and binding as the Quran. According to such scholars, the hadith must be followed regardless of time, place, and circumstances (Saeed 2006).

21 It is argued that this kind of interpretation reflects the social and historical conditions of people who lived in seventh-century Hijaz.

22 Not relying on alim, the authoritative religion scholars, for interpretation is considered the democratizing of understanding the Scripture (Saeed 2006).

23 The meaning and nature of Islamic law (sharia) as it is applies to Muslims living in liberal secular democracies (Hassan 2013, xii).

24 Such as Al Qaeda (the base) and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

25 This approach requires educators and students to go beyond the grammatical, linguistic, and legal strategies in interpreting the Quran.

26 Taqlid refers to the imitation and blind following of early scholars, the medieval Sunni jurists, and their juridical theology (Leaman and Ali 2008).

27 It is argued that Muslims in the West are either attracted by discourses of defensive faith (such as the dichotomized constructions of Islam versus the West, science versus religion, Islam versus modernity, and Islam versus democracy). Or they abandon their faith, arguing that there is a “mismatch between the practice of [Muslims'] professional lives in nonreligious contexts and the articulation of their religious beliefs” (Wilkinson 2015, 34).

28 This may include, for instance, learning about the theological schools of Asha`riya, Maturidis, Sufism, Shi'i, and Mu`tazila as well as the legal contributions of the four mainstream madhahib.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Najwan Saada

Najwan Saada is assistant professor and lecturer of multicultural, religious and citizenship education at the Department of Education at Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, Israel. His research focuses on the intersection of Islam, democracy and liberal education in western and Muslim-majority societies. Saada's research has been published in Theory and Research in Social Education, International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, and Journal of Religious Education. E-mail: [email protected]