Prospect of Islamic Education

PROSPECT OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION
IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION
by Machnun Husein

Islamic education may mean either (1) every activity done by someone or a certain institution to teach and preach Islamic va­lues to a number of students, or (2) every educational institu­tion which base its programs as well as its activities upon Is­lamic points of view and values. In other words, we may treat the problem of Islamic education from two approaches: practical as well as institutional.
To every Muslim, education is not only an obligation but al­so a must. This is true not only because it has something to do with the practice of Islamic teachings but also with the exist­ence of Islam itself in the future. Practically as well as insti­tutionally speaking, we know that Islamic education has many problems but, as Khurshid Ahmad told us,
of all the problems that confront the Muslim World today, the educational problem is the most challenging. The future of the Muslim World will depend upon the way it responds to this challenge.
The problem we have been facing, of course, had existed long before the era of globalization begins. But it has now been greater and greater so that we cannot do the same thing as that we did before.
As we all know that the era of globalization, beginning in 1990's, is marked by the establishment of a new world view. The cold war between the capitalist West and the socialist East ended in last years of 1980's and the arm race has been slowed, perhaps even halted. The postwar period of nationalism and ideological cold war is over, and there is an international call to environ­talism. Among nations, the desire for economic [as well as cul­tural] cooperation is stronger than the urge for military adven­ture with its huge human and financial costs.[1] All parts of the world are united as a unity and all the na­tions in the globe are not only united as a universal family but also mutual influencing. Consequently, value systems are to be united, or even unified. The question is, which value system that will be the world-wide one, by which every nation in the world will make use to govern the above-mentioned universal family.
As a Muslim, I should say that Islam, for whatever reason, is capable of becoming a global value system. But it will be so if its followers are able to let the world community know its su­periority. And this, I am sure, is the greatest problem of Islam­ic education. Because, not only should Islam be taught to the na­tions all over the world but also to be practised by them as their way of life.
If we are of the same opinion as mine, cognitive orientation we have been adopting so far on our education must be shifted in such a way to and combined with practical one. It is not time to teach and preach Islam just to let humanity know much about Islam but let them realize that Islam is practicable in their day-to-day life. Along with this, of course, we have to show them how Islam is practised by us ourselves. We have to show them how Is­lam can solve problems of human life: poverty, unemployment, fa­mily life, etc. etc.
In order to understand the real problems of Islamic educa­tion, I think I have to sum up as follows. Practically speaking, we know that Islamic education is generally oriented to cognitive interest, although such an orientation is incomprehensive or even uncritical. Not only are the subject matters taught to the stu­dents partially but they must also be in accordance with the opi­nion of the educators. As a result, it paves the way to the es­tablishment of what is called dependent thinking. I am of the opinion that such an orientation should be transformed in such a way that the students might think of their subjects independent­ly, not only upon their educators but also upon any kind of trends or mazhab.
In addition, the application of the instruction in the day-to-day life should be directed to both (1) the performance of Is­lamic teaching regarding to God, and (2) the preparation of the students for their future life. As such, every graduate of the Islamic education can make use of their knowledge to promote both their religious and mundane life. This is why, Islamic education not only should be oriented to the mastering of sciences and knowledges, including religious sciences, but also technological skills as well as applied sciences.
In this case, however, there is another problem dealing with the formal regulation decided by each country, whether or not an Islamic education could give such a multipurpose instruction. We know, at least from the Indonesian experience, that Islamic edu­cational institution (or madrasah) is, in many cases, different from general education. Although each madrasah has the same or about the same instructions as those of general education, the former's output is almost invariably quite different. I do not know why such a case occures, but I think, if we are of the same opinion as Gibb when he thought of the Azhar University in the 1950's, that "no university can rise above the level of its teachers,"[2] the teacher is the most dominant factor in increasing or decreasing the quality of any educational institution. What kind of teacher we need and what qualification he or she should have, is another problem we have to face. Since we are adopting Islamic system of education, what we mean with the teacher in this case is, of course, he or she who is well-versed in Islam and is prepared to do anything for Islam by way of Islamic educa­tional institutions.
Speaking on the Islamic system of education, we have to keep in mind, that almost all Islamic countries have, from time to time, been and are still adopting non-Islamic concept of educa­tion, especially the Western one. This is, of course, a more fun­damental problem that any Muslim educator should face. It is evi­dent that we cannot have a philosophy or an educational policy which is based on a concept not identical with the Islamic. So if we are now applying either British, French, American or Rusian policies of education it will, in the long run, conflict with and contradict the Islamic concept. The problem is whether we have to remain in the alien system or concept of education, to adopt ano­ther system, i.e. Islamic system, or to synthesize both of them in another form.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (O.I.C.) has initiat­ed to apply an Islamic system of education generally based upon the epistemology of Ibnu Khaldūn in the expense of any non-Islam­ic system of education.[3]
It seems unlikely, however, that such an experiment will succeed, since, as far as education is concerned, any country, Muslim or non-Muslim, is bond to her own system of education. That is why, not only does the prospect of Islamic education depend on the quality of its teachers and institutions, but also on the system by which each country bases her education policy.

Jakarta, March 18, 1999*

[1]John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2000 (New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1990), pp. 14-5.]

[2]H. A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947, reprint New York: Octagon Books, 3rd printing, 1978), p. 40.

[3]The following books, published on behalf of the Organiza­tion, are dealing with this experiment and are of great use to read: Syed Muhammad al-Naquib al-Attas, Ed., Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education, Syed Sajjad Husain & Syed Ali Ashraf, Cri­sis in Muslim Education, Syed Ali Ashraf, New Horizons in Muslim Education, and Hameed Hasan Bilgrami & Syed Ali Ashraf, The Con­cept of an Islamic University.

*This is the revised edition of my paper discussed by Post-Graduate Students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta in 1999. The original was discussed by members of Walisongo English Club (WEC), IAIN Walisongo Semarang, in 1990s.