The call for an “Islamization of Knowledge”
The Islamization of Knowledge is a project developed by a group of thinkers declaring their awareness of the crisis experienced in the predominantly Muslim world. They seek to adopt methods conducive to taking a fresh look at Islam and integrating other methodological outlooks. This group aims to reframe “Islamic thought” drawing on Islam's universalist human values. Its members wish to reconcile in their work Islamic history and culture with contemporary sciences and cultures. In other words, faced with a crisis they ascribe to a “knowledge” issue, they wish to propose a new synthesis of all knowledge set in an Islamic epistemological framework. Their approach is motivated by a two-pronged phenomenon they analyse and denounce: a) the exclusion of scientific knowledge from Islam's frames of reference has resulted in the secularisation of the current scientific mind-set; b) thinkers subscribing to the secular trend reject both the Godhead and the Islamic reference.
We owe Palestinian Ismail al-Faruqi[1] the inception in the late fifties/ early sixties of the movement of Islamization of Knowledge. A US university graduate, he proposed the Islamization of existing Western knowledge, privileging “humanitarian values” and taking only a peripheral interest in the scientific outcomes proper. His object was to show that methods and methodologies can conceal very deep philosophical issues or problems. The reframing of Islamic thought stems from “Islamic and humanitarian beliefs” deemed universal and the Islamic civilisation's principles founded in the Tawhid[2] and a representation wherein reason must accord with “the divine laws of the universe”. They propose to achieve the aims of the Sharia, meant as advancing people's welfare by dint of preserving their faith (din), their soul (nafs), their intellect (al-aql), their offspring (nasl) and their property (mal). It hinges on knowledge, conciliation and welfare. The members of this group's early writings illustrate the fields they were interested in: The Scientific Approach to Islamic Economics: Philosophy, Theoretical Construction and Applicability .
For half a century now, this group and its followers have sought to provide the tools necessary to the “purifying” of “Islamic culture”, in order to make it more discerning and to eliminate the “distortions, superstitions, charlatanism, impurities and illusions” which have pervaded it. They propose to develop the educative and cultural tools best suited to reinforce the Muslim mental and psychological mind-set and to train upcoming generations endowed with strength, capability and productivity. They hope that the Islamization of Knowledge project will be a way for Muslims to break free from Western epistemological boundaries and to re-establish thereby the authenticity of their civilisation. Such are the conditions needed to reawaken the Umma[3], in order to set off its potential energy and place it in a position to make its civilisational project available to humanity.
Several organisations pursue this aim:
The Muslim Students Association created in the United States (1963)
The Association of Muslim Social Scientists in the USA and Canada
The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) (1991)
The Child Development Foundation (1999)
The IIIT whose headquarters are in Washington but who boasts agencies in diverse countries eased the creation of centres and institutions in several countries along with the organisation of symposiums, seminars (notably in Switzerland in 1977) and encounters, the publication of books and periodicals in Arabic, English and other languages. A review titled Islamization of Knowledge has been created. An experimental program has been initiated in Malaysia the success of which might open further avenues to the project.
