asSalaamu Alaikum,

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Book: The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas: An Exposition on the Original Concept of Islamization

Author: Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud.

Publisher: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1998.

Pages:  507

ISBN: 983-9379-09-7 (PB)

Description from the publisher:

The topic of Islamization of contemporary knowledge and education of the Muslims has been debated since the First World Conference on Muslim Education in Mecca in 1977, but no serious attempt has been made to trace the history of the ideas and to study and evaluate some of these matters in practice.

This book is an exposition of the educational ideas and practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, who is one of the most prominent, multifaceted and creative Muslim thinkers in contemporary times, and one of the key speakers at the first and second World Conferences on Muslim Education. The author puts forward that al-Attas is the original conceptualizer of the notion of Islamization of present day knowledge and education, and that he has consistently applied it in his lifelong endeavors at Muslim higher learning institutions, particularly at ISTAC. Possibly the first work of this nature in contemporary Islamic discourse on the subject, the author uses both written and many unpublished documents, recording personal discussions and the daily practices of al-Attar as an educator, and tracing and comparing some of alAttas’ ideas and practices to those of earlier scholars and contemporary Muslim and non-Muslim thinkers. Among the important topics discussed are the metaphysical worldview of Islam; knowledge and knowing; the meaning, content and method of education; the concept and reality of the Islamic university, and the history of and the issues concerning the Islamization of present-day knowledge. Modern Muslim scholars discussed are ‘Abduh, Iqbal, al-Farugi, Fazlur Rahman, S. H. Nasr, and others. This work is useful for specialists, policy-makers as well as the general reader interested in the Islamization and substantive reform of Muslim education, especially at the higher levels.