DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Development of truly Islamic educational
resources is one of the most important tasks for Muslim communities around
the world. Each community needs to accomplish this task in a manner that
fulfills local requirements, but certain “foundational texts” based upon the
Qur'anic view of the cosmos, history and the human condition must come into
existence before specific textbooks fulfilling local requirements can be
produced. Muslim Education Foundation is currently focusing on the
production of these foundational texts which can be used as source material
for the production of specific textbooks for Islamic schools in various
parts of the world with the hope that this approach will simultaneously
provide a global and a local solution to the problem of Islamic curricula.
This effort is informed by guidelines gleaned from the principle of
transformative learning.
The process of transformative learning is built upon
the recognition that the inner resources given to each learner by the
Creator are the greatest asset in the process of learning. It is through the
creative utilization of `aql (intellect), qalb (heart), and
the senses which process received data that the learners develop a real
understanding of the nature of things as they really are. “O Allah, grant me
the knowledge of things as they really are” was an oft-repeated supplication
of the Prophet of Islam—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—and it
is to this end that the process of transformative learning is directed: to
instill in the hearts and minds of learners a vision of life and the cosmos
that transforms them in the very process of learning.
This approach to learning recognizes and honors the
knowledge already possessed by each child at the time of his or her birth.
This innate knowledge, which is sadly and often quickly veiled by the
environment in which the child is raised, is God-given knowledge built into
the fitrah (the innate nature) of every human being. This knowledge not only
informs and guides numerous initial actions of the newly-born, such as
locomotion and suckling; it is one of the inner resources through which
humankind has been honored by the Creator.
Recognizing this innate knowledge as the most important initial resource
possessed by every child, MEF is developing curricula using an approach
based on Hikmah (Wisdom) which places a very high emphasis on using
the God-given faculty of `aql (intellect) to link curriculum with
innate knowledge. Human intellect, essentially a spiritual substance quite
distinct from reason, is guided by knowledge given to human beings through
wahy (revelation) which comes by way of risalah (Prophethood);
this guidance leads to an active recognition of tawhid (the Unicity
of Allah), operative throughout the cosmos and in the human nafs. This
recognition clarifies primary concepts, assigns to all things their proper
place within the order of nature, and utilizes the child’s natural curiosity
to train and guide his or her faculties.
MEF curriculum is thus informed by three primary
concepts: Unicity of God (tawhid), which runs through the whole
curricula like a vertical axis; Prophecy (risalah), that serves as a
link between humanity and the Creator; and an awareness of the Return (ma`ad),
that all that has come into existence belongs to the Creator unto Whom it
will return. These three primary concepts are not merely theoretical
considerations; these are foundational principles upon which the Qur'anic
message is based and which have informed the Islamic tradition of learning
throughout the last fourteen hundred years.
In practical terms, the curriculum informed by these
three guiding principles eliminates duality of knowledge as well as its
compartmentalization. These principles inform the material dealing with
languages and arts as much as it infuses a spiritual element in the teaching
of primary concepts in mathematics and chemistry. This means that the
curriculum should have an inner unity, allowing children to build
successively and progressively as they move from Kindergarten to Grade 12.