ISLAMIC STUDIES-THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE (original) (raw)

From the very early days of Islām, Muslims have keenly maintained their focus on acquiring the knowledge of Qur'ān and Sunnah. The early scholars and the noble Imāms facilitated this study by compiling, teaching, and transmitting the exegesis of the noble Qur'ān and the prophetic traditions, explaining the principles that underlie the interpretation of the canonical texts (also called, 'Ilm al Usūl), and deriving the jurisprudential rulings (also called, 'Ilm Al-Fiqh). However, our noble predecessors did not restrict themselves to the study of these branches of knowledge alone. The study of the Qur'ān and Sunnah intrigued them to explore many other sciences, including mathematics (inspired by 'Ilm Al-Farāidh-a branch of Fiqh), Astronomy (for calculating the duration of months and movements of moon for Islamic calendar), Medicine (inspired by the clues present in the Qur'ān and Sunnah regarding the human body and treatment for illnesses), and so on. However, over the centuries, the more formal Islamic education confined its focus on the core Islamic sciences such as Qur'ān, Hadīth, Fiqh, Aqīdah, Arabic Language, and Usūl. This is what we currently observe, though with a slight variation, in the curriculum of most of the Islamic studies higher education courses taught in the Muslim-majority countries. It is interesting to note, on the other hand, that the teaching of Islām in Western countries is significantly different from this. For centuries, the Western study of Islām was conducted from an orientalist perspective which saw Islām and Muslims as an 'external' object of study and demonstrated an 'us' against 'them' mentality. Though the orientalist approach has evolved into a more open and balanced method of study, the study of Islām in the West is still more focused on the social interactions, historical perspectives, political thought, and current affairs in relation to Islām and Muslims. If consider Islām to be a building, the study of Islām in the West can be considered to be the study of Islām while looking at it from the 'outside'. While the study of Islām in the Muslim-majority countries is the study from the 'inside' focusing on how each brick is laid and what function does it serve with limited attention towards what's happening outside and how others are interacting with it. In this article, we have examined these two systems of Islamic education and presented a critical analysis of their underlying perspectives.