Course: Islamic System of Education (6505)
Semester: Automu, 2021
Level: MA/M.Ed.
Assignment no 1
Question no1
Wine a note on Islamic moral values?
MORALVALUES…..
Moral values are the behavioral practices, goals, and habits which are validated by the society we’re part of. This set of values typically becomes embedded in our behavior through a long process of observation, education, conditioning, and social guidelines. Usually, these are universal in nature and may not vary much in different parts of the world. For instance, no matter which community, religion, or region you belong to, moral values such as truthfulness, loyalty, courage, faith, and honesty will be equally respected almost everywhere.
Moral values concern themselves with right and wrong. They also define what is socially acceptable, good or evil.
Moral values are ideas that society considers important. They are at play when a person interacts with the wider world or has to make a decision that will have a consequence on others.
Moral values are comparatively rigid. It is often seen that society resists any change to the moral values that it holds dear to itself.
Morality in Islam encompasses the concept of righteousness, good character, and the body of moral qualities and virtues prescribed in Islamic religious texts. The principle and fundamental purpose of Islamic morality is love: love for God and love for God’s creatures. The religious conception is that mankind will behave morally and treat each other in the best possible manner to please God.
Teachings on morality and moral conduct constitute a major part Islamic literature. The Quran and the Hadith – the central religious texts of Islam – serve as the primary source for these teachings.[3] Both sources often instruct Muslims to adopt a morally upright character. Hadith quote Muhammad as saying ‘I was sent to perfect the ethical conduct’.[4][5] Showing kindness to people and charity to the poor and the helpless are the most emphasized moral virtues in the Quran.[6] In particular, helping people in their time of need, forgiving others’ offenses, respecting parents and elders, fulfilling promises, being kind to people and to animals, being patient in adversity, maintaining justice, being honest, and controlling one’s anger appear as major virtues in the Islamic concept of morality
Hadith condemn liars, promise breakers and cheats;[7] command love — love of God and those God loves, love of his messenger (Muhammad) and of believers; as well as many other virtues
lars of Islam
The Five Pillars are the core beliefs and practices of Islam:
Profession of Faith (shahada). The belief that “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God” is central to Islam. This phrase, written in Arabic, is often prominently featured in architecture and a range of objects, including the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book of divine revelations. One becomes a Muslim by reciting this phrase with conviction.
Prayer (salat). Muslims pray facing Mecca five times a day: at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and after dark. Prayer includes a recitation of the opening chapter (sura) of the Qur’an, and is sometimes performed on a small rug or mat used expressly for this purpose (see image 24). Muslims can pray individually at any location (fig. 1) or together in a mosque, where a leader in prayer (imam) guides the congregation. Men gather in the mosque for the noonday prayer on Friday; women are welcome but not obliged to participate. After the prayer, a sermon focuses on a passage from the Qur’an, followed by prayers by the imam and a discussion of a particular religious topic.
Alms (zakat). In accordance with Islamic law, Muslims donate a fixed portion of their income to community members in need. Many rulers and wealthy Muslims build mosques, drinking fountains, hospitals, schools, and other institutions both as a religious duty and to secure the blessings associated with charity.
Fasting (sawm). During the daylight hours of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, all healthy adult Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink. Through this temporary deprivation, they renew their awareness of and gratitude for everything God has provided in their lives—including the Qur’an, which was first revealed during this month. During Ramadan they share the hunger and thirst of the needy as a reminder of the religious duty to help those less fortunate.
Portrait of Prince Muhammad Buland Akhtar, known as Achhe Sahib, at Prayer: Folio from an album
This illustration shows a Mughal prince praying on a mat that features an arch recalling the shape of a prayer niche (mihrab), symbolic of the gateway to Paradise. The prince is barefoot as a gesture of humility before God. The simplicity of his surroundings is an indication of piety; the emphasis here is on the prince’s spiritual nature rather than the opulence of his costume or surroundings (which is the case in many royal Mughal portraits; see The Mughal Court and the Art of Observation).
Pilgrimage (hajj). Every Muslim whose health and finances permit it must make at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca, in present-day Saudi Arabia. The Ka’ba, a cubical structure covered in black embroidered hangings, is at the center of the Haram Mosque in Mecca (fig. 2). Muslims believe that it is the house Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) built for God, and face in its direction (qibla) when they pray. Since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, believers from all over the world have gathered around the Ka’ba in Mecca on the eighth and twelfth days of the final month of the Islamic calendar.
Folio from the Futuh al-Haramain (Description of the Holy Cities)
This book illustration provides a schematic view of the innermost enclosure of the Haram Mosque in Mecca. It includes six minarets, the names of the gates, and even shows mosque lamps hanging in the arcades around the Ka’ba at the center of the composition. The book is a pilgrimage manual, which describes the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the rituals that pilgrims are required to perform at each location. The most important of these rituals include walking around the Ka’ba seven times, running between the hills of Safa and Marwa to commemorate the story of Ishmael (Isma’il in Arabic) and his mother, and symbolically stoning the devil in the area of Mina.
Human beings are social animals. Our tendency is to co-exist and live with others in a harmonious way. Stability in our social relations is built around certain shared principles, belief systems and ways of life.These are known as values and are important for our growth and evolution. They ground us and challenge us as individuals as well as collectives. By adopting the right values, we can create the kind of life that is most true to ourselves.
Our life’s flow is directed by the decisions we make on a daily basis. However, these decisions are governed by our values. Since the values differ from one person to another, people make different decisions and have different life outcomes.
WHAT ARE VALUES, MORAL VALUES & CORE VALUES
The purpose of a decision is to meet our personal or organizational needs. The decisions we make are directly influenced by the values and beliefs we hold dear.
When a person takes an individual decision, they reflect on the things that mean something to them. When groups make a decision, it is based on a sense of shared values that bind the team together as a cohesive unit.
For instance, a person might decide to refuse to pay bribes to a government official to get favors from him. He might even risk not getting the task done or getting dragged into a long-term legal battle instead of compromising his anti-bribery stance. That’s an example of the individual’s moral values.
On the other hand, a businessperson might be okay with paying bribes as long as his work is completed on priority and he is able to make profits. That’s an example of an individual’s lack of moral values.
The question, ‘what are values?’ has preoccupied philosophers from ancient times. Values could be said to be inherent beliefs that inspire our behaviors and actions. They indicate the kind of person we are and the kind of person we wish to become. They shape our view of the world.
Our values define things that we consider to be good, desirable, or important. We act as per our values. Various types of values such as personal values guide our perception of right and wrong. Values differ from person to person—as we saw in the example above, one person’s values might mean nothing to another.
Apart from personal values, you also have cultural and social values such as gender and race equality. Then, there are the professional values which define our work ethics. Values such as loyalty, courage, and honesty often carry currency in a professional environment.
Question no 2
Describe educational objectives and their significance given by AL-Ciharali
A learning objective describes what learners should know or be able to do at the end of the course that they couldn’t do before.
Educational objectives describe the goals toward which the education process is directed–the learning that is to result from instruction. When drawn up by an education authority or professional organization, objectives are usually called standards. Taxonomies are classification systems based on an organizational scheme. In this instance, a set of carefully defined terms, organized from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract, provide a framework of categories into which one may classify educational goals. Such schemes can:
Provide a common language about educational goals that can bridge subject matter and grade levels
Serve as a touchstone for specifying the meaning of broad educational goals for the classroom
Help to determine the congruence of goals, classroom activities and assessments
Provide a panorama of the range of possible educational goals against which the limited breadth and depth of any particular educational curriculum may be contrasted
A learning objective should clearly define the expected outcome of a course in terms of demonstrable skills or knowledge that will be acquired by the learner as a result of the instruction provided.
Learning Objectives Are Important
Simply put, they guide your choices. When you have a clear focus, both you and your learners can easily get there. Well-defined and articulated learning objectives are important because they:
provide students with a clear purpose on which to focus their learning efforts
inform your selection of instructional content and activities
guide your testing and assessment strategies
The Difference Between a Learning Goal and a Learning Objective
Learning Goals are what you hope to accomplish in your course: the overall goals that do not necessarily correlate with observable and measurable behavior.
Learning Objectives are brief, clear statements about what students will be able to do once they complete instruction.
Understanding the difference is important as establishing clear learning objectives will inform how you structure the rest of the course, from content to assessment. We’ve covered this relationship more extensively in a previous blog post about the Magic Triangle of learning.
How to Write Learning Objectives
Well-written learning objectives should include observable behavior which can be measured. “Learning” and “understanding” are admirable instructional goals, but they are ambiguous and not observable or measurable.
Instead, words that describe what the student will do to show that he or she understands are more useful. Corporate training teams often lean on their good ole’ instructional design standby, Bloom’s Taxonomy, to write learning objectives. “Action” verbs that correspond to the cognitive domains within Bloom’s Taxonomy are much more specific and useful.
Medical College
Importance of Learning Objectives
Writing Learning Objectives
Learning objectives ideally describe a direction for the student acquiring new knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Every decision you make about your lecture or small group session should depend on what you hope your students will be able to do as a result of your session.
Why are learning objectives important? As an expert in your field, you probably already have a good idea of what you want your students to learn during your time with them. Taking a few minutes before you finalize your session content and activities to capture those objectives is a worthwhile investment – in the development of successful learning experiences for your students and in your own development as an educator.
More specifically, learning objectives
Force you to look again. The exercise of writing or rewriting objectives prompts you to examine content you may have been teaching in much the way way for years, but with a new perspective.
Help you trim the fat. Allowing your learning objectives to drive your content or activity can result in discovering extraneous content that may be trimmed or an activity that doesn’t quite hit the target and needs tweaking. You may simply be inspired to reorganize a meandering PowerPoint with your learning objectives as an outline.
Can make your session “fall in line.” Once written, learning objectives can confirm a solid alignment or organization of learning activities and assessments or suggest that a fresh pass at your design of the learning experience is needed. For example, they are invaluable in helping you create your quiz questions – indeed, a quiz should measure whether your objectives have been met.
Can provide opportunities to present a more rich and challenging learning experience for your students. Your learning objectives will illuminate the order, whether higher or lower, to which you are asking your students to think, process, and learn during your session.
Be a guide for your students. When displayed to students, learning objectives set student expectations, guide their learning processes, and help them focus their study time for the upcoming exam(s).
How do I write good learning objectives
Every learning opportunity can have its own objectives, from a multi-session unit to a single lecture or assignment.
Good learning objectives are clear, concise, and specific statements describing a student’s behaviors. Only a few short bullet points per activity should be necessary.
Learning objective template: “At the end of this (session, lecture, activity, etc.), students will be able to ____ (insert an action verb).
Good learning objectives are specific and measurable statements stating what specifically students be able to do differently after your instructional activity (i.e., not statements on what the instructor will do)
Objectives should not contain such vague outcomes as “Students will understand…” or “Students will know…” This is not to say that students should never simply acquire knowledge, but you will be more likely to measure this knowledge when students “Describe,””List,” or “Identify” that knowledge.
Q.3 Describe Quranic views regarding sensous knowledge
knowledge is the most important thing in one’s life; there are two kinds of knowledge: Religious knowledge and Secular knowledge. These two kinds of knowledge’s are very important for a human being, Secular for day to day dwelling and religious for his smooth life on earth and hereafter
The Holy Prophet of Allah (S.A.W.) has said: “Atta libul ilm faridhatol kuli muslim.” means: “Attainment of knowledge is must for every Muslim.”
The first guidance given to the mankind in the Qur’an was “Iqra” i.e. to read, recite or proclaim.
Surah Iqra and Surah Alaq Chapter 96, Verse 1-5.
“Read! Recite! Proclaim! in the name of thy Lord and cherisher who created – created the human, out of a congealed clot of blood (a leach-like substance). Read and thy Lord is Most Bountiful. He who taught (the use of) the Pen- taught man that which he knew not (96 : 1-5).
There are four gates of knowledge, Perception, Intellect, Intuition and Revelation. Perception deals with five senses and enhances material research. It provides us information on the matter and the properties of matter. Scientists use this method. Philosophers, Logicians and Jurists use intellect to solve the problems. The mystics and poets are endowed with the boon of intuition. The Prophets have been given the special and chosen duty of reformation through the gift of revelation. Islam ordains to use all these methods for the benefit of humankind. The antonym of “ Ilm” (knowledge) is “ Jehl” (ignorance). The Quran as a place says that turn your back to the ignorant. It means that we should not strike our head with the stony walls of illiteracy and ignorance rather we should educate the uneducated lot. An eminent Muslim political thinker Al-Mauwardi in his book entitled “ The leadership and Politics” writes that four characteristics are essential for a Muslim ruler or leader, Knowledge, Piety, Justice and Administration. Eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell in his book entitled “ Education and Social Order” writes that tolerance is the first step towards learning. The real knowledge makes us tolerant, civilized and rational. In Islamic jurisprudence no one can become Faqih (Jurist) without sound intellectual background. Whether someone is a scientist, a ruler, a leader or a jurist, knowledge is the basic requirement for these positions. The Islamic conception of education teaches us to be the master of matter and mind to serve the human kind.
Islamic Concept of Knowledge
While it is an open question whether an explicit and systematically worked out Islamic epistemology exists, it is undeniable that various epistemological issues have been discussed in Muslim philosophy with an orientation different from that of Western epistemology. Today attempts are being made to understand the basic epistemological issues in terms of that orientation.
This is a valuable effort that deserves our interest and encouragement. However, it can be fruitful only if the practice of rigorous analysis is kept up, with close attention to the precise definitions of the various concepts involved.With this view, an attempt is made in this paper to delineate the different shades and connotations of the term ‘ilm, i.e., knowledge, in the Islamic context. It is hoped that this brief attempt will serve as a step for future groundwork for the construction of a framework for an Islamic theory of knowledge.
In the Islamic theory of knowledge, the term used for knowledge in Arabic is ‘ilm, which, as Rosenthal has justifiably pointed out, has a much wider connotation than its synonyms in English and other Western languages. ‘Knowledge’ falls short of expressing all the aspects of ‘ilm. Knowledge in the Western world means information about something, divine or corporeal, while ‘ilm is an all-embracing term covering theory, action and education. Rosenthal, highlighting the importance of this term in Muslim civilization and Islam, says that it gives them a distinctive shape. In fact there is no concept that has been operative as a determinant of the Muslim civilization in all its aspects to the same extent as ‘ilm. This holds good even for the most powerful among the terms of Muslim religious life such as, for instance, tawhid “recognition of the oneness of God,” ad-din, “the true religion,” and many others that are used constantly and emphatically. None of them equals ilm in depth of meaning and wide incidence of use.There is no branch of Muslim intellectual life, of Muslim religious and political life, and of the daily life of the average Muslim that remains untouched by the all pervasive attitude toward “knowledge” as something of supreme value for Muslim being. ‘ilm is Islam, even if the theologians have been hesitant to accept the technical correctness of this equation. The very fact of their passionate discussion of the concept attests to its fundamental importance for Islam. It may be said that Islam is the path of “knowledge.” No other religion or ideology has so much emphasized the importance of ‘ilm. In the Qur’an the word ‘alim has occurred in 140 places, while al-‘ilm in 27. In all, the total number of verses in which ‘ilm or its derivatives and associated words are used is 704. The aids of knowledge such as book, pen, ink etc. amount to almost the same number. Qalam occurs in two places, al-kitab in 230 verses, among which al-kitab for al-Qur’an occurs in 81 verses. Other words associated with writing occur in 319 verses. It is important to note that pen and book are essential to the acquisition of knowledge. The Islamic revelation started with the word iqra’ (‘read!’ or ‘recite!’).
According to the Qur’an, the first teaching class for Adam started soon after his creation and Adam was taught ‘all the Names’.
Allah is the first teacher and the absolute guide of humanity. This knowledge was not imparted to even the Angels. In Usul al-Kafi there is a tradition narrated by Imam Musa al-Kazim (‘a) that ‘ilm is of three types: ayatun muhkamah (irrefutable signs of God), faridatun ‘adilah (just obligations) and sunnat al-qa’imah (established traditions of the Prophet [S]).
This implies that ‘ilm, attainment of which is obligatory upon all Muslims covers the sciences of theology, philosophy, law, ethics, politics and the wisdom imparted to the Ummah by the Prophet (S). Al-Ghazali has unjustifiably differentiated between useful and useless types of knowledge. Islam actually does not consider any type of knowledge as harmful to human beings.
However, what has been called in the Qur’an as useless or rather harmful knowledge, consists of pseudo sciences or the lores prevalent in the Jahiliyyah.
‘Ilm is of three types: information (as opposed to ignorance), natural laws, and knowledge by conjecture. The first and second types of knowledge are considered useful and their acquisition is made obligatory. As for the third type, which refers to what is known through guesswork and conjecture, or is accompanied with doubt, we shall take that into consideration later, since conjecture or doubt are sometimes essential for knowledge as a means, but not as an end. Beside various Qur’anic verses emphasizing the importance of knowledge, there are hundreds of Prophetic traditions that encourage Muslims to acquire all types of knowledge from any corner of the world. Muslims, during their periods of stagnation and decline, confined themselves to theology as the only obligatory knowledge, an attitude which is generally but wrongly attributed to al-Ghazali’s destruction of philosophy and sciences in the Muslim world.
Al-Ghazali, of course, passed through a turbulent period of skepticism, but he was really in search of certainty, which he found not in discursive knowledge but in mystic experience. In his favour it must be said that he paved the way for liberating the believer from blind imitation and helping him approach the goal of certain knowledge.In the Islamic world, gnosis (ma’rifah) is differentiated from knowledge in the sense of acquisition of information through a logical processes. In the non-Islamic world dominated by the Greek tradition, hikmah (wisdom) is considered higher than knowledge. But in Islam ‘ilm is not mere knowledge. It is synonymous with gnosis (ma’rifah). Knowledge is considered to be derived from two sources: ‘aql and ‘ilm huduri (in the sense of unmediated and direct knowledge acquired through mystic experience).It is important to note that there is much emphasis on the exercise of the intellect in the Qur’an and the traditions, particularly in the matter of ijtihad. In the Sunni world qiyas (the method of analogical deduction as propounded by Imam Abu Hanifah) is accepted as an instrument of ijtihad, but his teacher and spiritual guide, Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (‘a), gave pre-eminence to ‘aql in this matter.
In the entire Shi’i literature of fiqh and usul al-fiqh, ‘aql is much more emphasized, because qiyas is only a form of quasi-logical argument, while ‘aql embraces all rational faculties of human beings. Even intuition or mystic experience are regarded as a higher stage of ‘aql. In Shi’i literature in particular, and Sunni literature in general, ‘aql is considered to be a prerequisite for knowledge. Starting from Usul al-Kafi, all Shi’i compendia of hadith devote their first chapter to the merits of ‘aql and the virtues of ‘ilm. In Sunni compendia of hadith, including al-Sihah al-sittah and up to al-Ghazali’s Ihya, a chapter is devoted to this issue, though it is not given a first priority. This shows that there is a consensus among the Muslims on the importance of ‘aql which is denoted by such words as ta’aqqul, tafaqquh and tadabbur in the Qur’an.
Exercise of the intellect (‘aql) is of significance in the entire Islamic literature which played an important role in the development of all kinds of knowledge, scientific or otherwise, in the Muslim world. In the twentieth century, the Indian Muslim thinker, Iqbal in his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, pointed out that ijtihad was a dynamic principle in the body of Islam. He claims that much before Francis Bacon the principles of scientific induction were emphasized by the Qur’an, which highlights the importance of observation and experimentation in arriving at certain conclusions.
It may also be pointed out that Muslim fuqaha and mufassirun made use of the method of linguistic analysis in interpreting the Qur’anic injunctions and the sunnah of the Prophet (S). Al-Ghazalis Tahatut al-falasifah is probably the first philosophical treatise that made use of the linguistic analytical method to clarify certain philosophical issues.I personally feel that he is rather maligned than properly understood by both the orthodox and liberal Muslim interpreters of his philosophy. His method of doubt paved the way for a healthy intellectual activity in the Muslim world, but because of historical and social circumstances, it culminated in the stagnation of philosophical and scientific thinking, which later made him a target of criticism by philosophers.
There was made a distinction between wisdom (hikmah) and knowledge in the pre-Islamic philosophy developed under the influence of Greek thought. In Islam there is no such distinction. Those who made such a distinction led Muslim thought towards un-Islamic thinking. The philosophers such as al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina are considered to be hakims (philosophers) and in this capacity superior to ‘ulama’, and fuqaha.
This misconception resulted in al-Ghazali’s attack on the philosophers. Islam is a religion that invites its followers to exercise their intellect and make use of their knowledge to attain the ultimate truth (haqq). Muslim thinkers adopted different paths to attain this goal. Those who are called philosophers devoted themselves to logic and scientific method and they were derogated by the Sufis, though some of them, such as Ibn Sina, al-Farabi and al-Ghazali took recourse to the mystic path in their quest of the truth at some stage.
As I said earlier, ‘ilm may not be translated as mere knowledge; it should be emphasized that it is also gnosis or ma’rifah. One may find elements of mystic experience in the writings of Muslim philosophers. In Kashf al-mahjub of al-Hujwiri a distinction is made between khabar (information) and nazar (analytic thought).
This applies not only to Muslim Sufis but also to most of the Muslim philosophers who sought to attain the ultimate knowledge which could embrace all things, corporeal or divine. In the Western philosophical tradition there is a distinction between the knowledge of the Divine Being and knowledge pertaining to the physical world.
But in Islam there is no such distinction. Ma’rifah is ultimate knowledge and it springs from the knowledge of the self (Man ‘arafa nafsahu fa qad ‘arafa Rabbbahu, ‘One who realizes one’s own self realizes his Lord’). This process also includes the knowledge of the phenomenal world. Therefore, wisdom and knowledge which are regarded as two different things in the non-Muslim world are one and the same in the Islamic perspective.
In the discussion of knowledge, an important question arises as to how one can overcome his doubts regarding certain doctrines about God, the universe, and man. It is generally believed that in Islam, as far as belief is concerned, there is no place for doubting and questioning the existence of God, the prophethood of Hadrat Muhammad (S) and the Divine injunctions, that Islam requires unequivocal submission to its dictates.This general belief is a misconception in the light of Islam’s emphasis on ‘aql. In the matter of the fundamentals of faith (usu-l al-Din), the believer is obliged to accept tawhid, nubuwwah and ma’d (in the Shi’i faith, ‘adl, i.e. Divine Justice, and imamah are also fundamentals of faith) on rational grounds or on the basis of one’s existential experience.This ensures that there is room for doubt and skepticism in Islam before reaching certainty in Iman. The sufis have described iman as consisting of three stages: ‘ilm al-yaqin (certain knowledge),’ayn al-yaqin (knowledge by sight) and haqq al-yaqin (knowledge by the unity of subject and object). The last stage is attainable by an elect few. ‘Ilm is referred to in many Qur’anic verses as ‘light’ (nur), and Allah is also described as the ultimate nur. it means that ‘ilm in the general sense is synonymous with the ‘light’ of Allah. This light does not shine for ever for all the believers. If is hidden sometimes by the clouds of doubt arising from the human mind. Doubt is sometimes interpreted in the Qur’an as darkness, and ignorance also is depicted as darkness in a number of its verses.Allah is depicted as nur, and knowledge is also symbolized as nur. Ignorance is darkness and ma’rifah is light. In the ayat al-kursi Allah says: (Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth … Allah is the Master of the believers and He guides them out of the darkness into light). Usually darkness is interpreted as unbelief and light as faith in God. There are so many verses in the Qur’an as well as the traditions of the Prophet (S) that emphasize that light may be attained by those who struggle against darkness.Among Muslim philosophers, particularly some Mu’tazilites, like Nazzam, al-Jahiz, Aba Hashim al-Jubbai and others, adopted the path of skepticism. Al-Ghazali was the most eminent among Muslim philosophers who, in his spiritual auto-biography, al-Munqidh min al-dalal, elaborated the path of skepticism which he travelled to attain the ultimate truth.There have been some Muslim thinkers, like Abu Hashim al-Jubba’i, al-Baqillanis al-Nazzam and others, who advocated skepticism in order to arrive at certain religious faith. Skepticism is a philosophy that has three different meanings: denial of all knowledge, agnosticism, and a method to approach certainty. Most of the Muslims philosophers sought the goal of certainty. Skepticism in the general sense of the impossibility of knowledge is not compatible with Islamic teachings. It is acceptable only when it leads from uncertainty to certainty. The skeptical method has two aspects, rejection of all absolute knowledge, and acceptance of the path to overcome uncertainty. Muslim philosophers have followed the second path, because there has been an emphasis on rejecting blind faith. Shaykh al-Mufid (an eminent Shi’i faqih) said that there was a very narrow margin between faith and disbelief in so far as the believer imitated certain theologians. In his view, an imitator is on the verse of unbelief (kufr).
In Islam ‘ilm is not confined to the acquisition of knowledge only, but also embraces socio-political and moral aspects. Knowledge is not mere information; it requires the believers to act upon their beliefs and commit themselves to the goals which Islam aims at attaining. In brief, I would like to say that the theory of knowledge in the Islamic perspective is not just a theory of epistemology. It combines knowledge, insight, and social action as its ingredients.
I would like to cite here a tradition of the Prophet (S) narrated by Amir al-Mu’minin ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib: Once Gabriel came to Adam. He brought with him faith, morality (haya’) and ‘aql (reason) and asked him to choose one of the three. When he chose ‘aql, the others were told by Gabriel to return to heaven, they said that they were ordered by Allah to accompany ‘aql wherever it remained. This indicates how comprehensive are the notions of intellect and knowledge in Islam, and how deeply related they are to faith and the moral faculty. The all-round development of various branches of knowledge pertaining to physical and social phenomena, as well as the process of logical argumentation for justification of Islamic doctrine and deduction of Islamic laws (ahkam) with reference to Qur’anic injunctions and the Prophetic tradition, is indebted to Islam’s notion of ‘ilm. Scientific knowledge, comprising natural and physical sciences, was sought and developed by Muslim scientists and mathematicians vigorously from the beginning of the last decades of the first century of Hijrah. The scientific endeavour found its flowering period with the establishment of the Bayt al-Hikmah in the reign of al-Ma’mun. Undoubtedly the major contributions in philosophy and sciences were made by Iranians, but the myth created by the orientalists that the fundamental sources of Islam, viz. the Qur’an and Sunnah, did not contain scientific and philosophical ideas is totally false. As said earlier, not only the Qur’an and hadith encouraged Muslims or rather made it obligatory for them to pursue truth freely from all possible sources, but also contained certain guiding principles that could provide a secure foundation for the development of religious and secular sciences. Some Prophetic traditions even give priority to learning over performing supererogatory rites of worship.
There are several traditions that indicate that a scholar’s sleep is more valuable than an ignorant believer’s journey for pilgrimage (hajj) and participation in holy war, and that the drops of a scholar’s ink are more sacred than the blood of a martyr. Amir al-Mu’minin ‘Ali (‘a) said that the reward for piety in the other world would be bestowed upon a believer in proportion to the degree of his intellectual development and his knowledge.
Q.4 Natrate the basis and functions of curriculum with reference to Muslim Philphers
The Curriculum is one of the important elements in the educational system which determines the success of learning for the students. Ramayulis (2001) stated that the curriculum is the subjects given to students to cultivate knowledge to be able to adapt totheir environment. In the context of Islamic education curriculum, the name of Al Ghazali is unquestionable. Al Ghazali’s thoughts on education have been widely expressed, such as by’ Abd al-Amir Syams al Din in his book Al Fikr al Tarbawiy ‘inda al Ghazali, Fatiyah Hasan Sulaiman in his book al Mazhab al Tarbawiy’ inda al Ghazali, Hasan Asari in his book The Educational Thoughts of al Ghazali.Al Ghazāli’s thoughts on curriculum can be learned from his thoughts on dividing sciences into three broad categories: (1) unworthy sciences, (2) worthy sciences, and (3) sciences which are commendable to a certain degree but are not recommended to be studied in depth. Nata (1998b) explained the categories further. First, Worthy sciences. According to al-Ghazāli, the science in this category is a science that has no benefit both in the world and the hereafter and only brings harm to those who have it, as well as to others. Witchcraft, for example, can break friendships, revenge, enmity and bad things. Another example is astrology. al-Ghazāli divide astrology into two; calculations based astrology (reckoning), and istidlaly based astrology. However, in some cases, he stated that astrology is not totally unworthy because it can be used to know the direction of Qibla. Second, the worthy sciences. Al-Ghazāli explained that these sciences are those closely related to worship. He divided this into two parts, namely fardlu’ ain, that is the true science of religion with its types, starting from the book of Allah, the primary worship, to the science of shari’a by which he will understand what to be abandoned and what to be done. The fardlu kifayah is all sciences that cannot be ignored to support life, such as medical science, arithmetic, and others. According to Al-Ghazali, if no one learns the fardhu kifayah science, everybody will be burden with sin. However, if someone has mastered it and practiced it, other people will be released from the responsibility. Third, sciences which are commendable to a certain degree but are not recommended to be studied in depth such as philosophy and logic episteme. It is because this kind of sciences can lead to chaos and confusion between beliefs and doubts. This will eventually lead to disbelief (Ghazāli, 2013).There are a lot of books about Al Ghazali’s thoughts, including Sabda (2008) The Concept of Islamic Education Curriculum Reflection of Al Ghazali’s thoughts. in this book, the concept of curriculum highlighted from the concept of curriculum development perspectives, (philosophical, psychological, and sociological), and its curriculum design ideas (objectives, materials, organizations, and systems of implementation of Islamic education curriculum). The basis and ideas of Islamic education curriculum according to al Ghazali is reflected from various thoughts in various fields. However, this book did not discuss the relationship between al-Ghazali’s thoughts with the concept of previous education, especially with the curriculum in the times before al Ghazali.There are several articles that also discussed al Ghazali thoughts on curriculum, such as the article Kurnanto (2011), discusses al Ghazali’s thoughts on the concept of education of al Ghazali which includes discussion about students, human nature, andlearning ethics. According to Edi the concept of education of al Ghazali is closely related to the concept of human, so this paper is derived from the concept of human accordingA basic benchmark in the preparation of curriculum is should be formulated. It consists of objectives, contents, methods of learning and evaluation. All of them must be mutually related, harmonious, balanced and leveled. Therefore, a curriculum designed is expected to produce output with integrated knowledge.
- Islamic Education Curriculum
Omar Muhammad al-Toumy al-Syaibani cited in Nata (1998a) revealed that the characteristics of Islamic education curriculum are as follows
: a) Highlights religious and moral goals on the various purposes and content, methods, religious tools and techniques;
- b) Extends the scope and thoroughness of its content that is the curriculum that truly reflects the spirit, thoughts, and comprehensive teaching. The curriculum should also pay attention to the development and guidance of all aspects of the student’s intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual life;
- c) Being balanced among the various sciences contained in the curriculum. In addition, it is also balanced between useful knowledge for individual and social development;
- d) be thorough in organizing all subjects needed by the students
; e) The curriculum is always tailored to the interests and talents of students.Islamic Education principles must be met in the formulation of the curriculum to maintain the relationship between the subject matter and the religion. Basically,
everything comes from Allah. It is the interpretation that makes it look different.Al-Syaibani as cited in Nata (1998a) mentioned 7 principles of Islamic curriculum
as follows: (1) Perfect linkage with religion, including its teachings and values. Each part contained in the curriculum, starting from the purpose, content, teaching methods, ways of treatment and so on should be based on religion and Islamic values. The curriculum must have the spirit of Islamic religion. The virtue of the goals and concerns must be based on Islamic teachings; (2) Universal purposes and content of the curriculum, which includes the purpose of developing aqidah, minds, and other things beneficial to society in spiritual, cultural, social, economic, political development; including the sciences of religion, language, humanity, physical, practical, professional, art and so on; (3) a relative balance between goals and content; (4) Associating the talents, interests, abilities, and the needs of the learners as well as between the natural surroundings, both physical, and social where the students live and interact; (5) Maintaining individual differences among students, both in terms of interest and talent; (6) Accepting the development changes in accordance with the development of the times and places; (7) Relating the various subjects with the experiences and activities contained in the curriculum.
In this case, religious nuance is very obvious. The series of subjects contained in the curriculum, all leading to the One. This was also applied to the Prophet’s education, to the time of the dynastic era. In general, educational curriculum principles contain three main things; continuous, sequential and experience integrity. Thus, besides the curriculum is a series of interconnected materials, it must also be arranged in sequence and leveled, systematically directed to obtain educational objectives.
To see more about al-Ghazāli curriculum, it is necessary to mention the various forms of curriculum and enforced in the Islamic education, from the period of the Prophet to the period of al-Ghazāli coherently. The curriculum before al-Ghazāli began when Muhammad was appointed as a prophet. It began when Muhammad was in Makkah, so the form and scope of the material was very simple and not constructed systematically.
- Curriculum in Makkah Period
According to Tafsir (2001) Curriculum at that time was only in the form of al-Qur’an which contained faith, prayer, and morals. Muhammad at this time was in a very difficult time; his environment was occupied by ignorant people to Islam. To introduce the Islam, it was initially done in secret, until Muhammad found a way to do it in public. Furthermore, the revelation received at that time was limited to monotheism, upholding the ultimate obligation, such as praying and set good examples.
- Curriculum in Madinah Period
Curriculum in this period has been developed, due to the increasing number of revelations received by Muhammad, many things needed to be regulated more and more. According to Nata (1998a) in this period the form was reciting al-Qur’an Faith (pillars of faith), worship (pillars of Islam), morals, economic and political base, sports and health, as well as reading and writing.
- Curriculum in Khulafaurrasyidin and Bani Umayyah Periods
At this time, the curriculum changed, however, the scope was extended covering the subject matter of school, called Kuttab. The wider area of Islamic power and the more influence of the culture of the conquered territories emerged a variety of new knowledge that needed to be developed and taught in school. The curriculum included reading and writing, reciting the Qur’an and memorizing it, faith, worship, and morals. According to Nata (1998a) and Tafsir (2004) during Umar bin Khattab period, he instructed people to teach their children swimming, horseback riding, archery, reading and memorizing easy verses and proverbs. High school and college taught the Qur’an and its interpretation, hadith and its collection, and Fiqh. According to Usman & Lubna (2010), in period of Bani Umayyah the form was al-Qur`an, hadis, dan syair.
- Curriculum in Bani Abbasiyah Period
The Curriculum of Bani Abbasiyah Period became increasingly complex, due to the expansion of Islamic territory and the growing influence of the wider local culture. Islam is growing with more diverse communities and this influenced the mindset of Al-Ghazāli. In Kuttab, schools taught reciting and memorizing the Qur’an, the main basis of religion (Faith, worship, and morals), the story of the great people (characters) of Islam, reading and memorizing the poetry and natsar (Prose), mathematics, and the principles of nahwu and sharf.
Al-Qabisyi as cited in Nata (1998a) sorted it into compulsory subjects and elective subjects. Compulsory subjects consisted of al-Qur’an prayers, some nahwu, and Arabic, reading and writing. While, elective subjects consisted of numeracy, all nahwu and Arabic, poetry, history /Arabic texts.
Generally, subjects taught in secondary schools are al-Qur’an Arabic and literature, fiqh, Tafseer, hadith, nahwu, sharf, balaghoh, sciences, mantiq, astronomy, history, chemistry, medicine, and music. For vocational high school of clerks, the subjects are language, correspondence, speeches, discussions, debate, and arts.Higher education in Abbasiyah period had two majors; naqliyah and aqliyah sciences. The major of Naqliyah sciences consisted of Tafseer, hadith, fiqh and ushul fiqh, nahwu and sharf, balaghoh, Arabic language and Arabic literature. The majors of aqliyah sciences consisted of mantiq, and chemistry, music, sciences, geometry, astronomy, divinity, animal science, plant science, and medicine.
Question no 5…
Describe administration and supervision Discuss these terms in the prespective of blam, also
Supervision means overseeing the performance of a person or a group. It consists of developing skills and acknowledge of the employed workers. Supervision means to check the performance of workers and to guide them accordingly. As compared to administration is used to implement the policies, rules and techniques passed by management.
Administration is the process of overseeing a company’s overall performance . It is concerned with managing different departments, ensuring that goals are achieved. Supervision is a managerial process that involves monitoring a person’s performance. It is concerned with managing a group of people towards delivery of specific goals. The administrator is responsible for the supervisor while the supervisor answers to the administrator. Supervisor is the work maintainer and processor if any employee ha a problem issue so they consult with supervisor then the supervisor report to administrator and try to clear the problem , supervisor is the responsible for employee and administrator is the responsible for all.
Administration involves follow up set procedures and processes in a system and supervision involves to watching over those in the administration or any type of worker, administration is what runs a school but also looks up to a supervisor.
- From the point of view of emphasis on maximising production – The definition following under this category associates supervision with output, that is, because of their skills, expertise and experience etc., supervisors help their subordinates to improve their output in terms of both quantity and quality.
Thus, supervision implies guiding and looking after the work of the subordinates so as to ensure that the work is being done according to the norms laid down for the purpose. In this way, the primary objective of a supervisor is to help in getting the production maximised both quality- and quantity-wise.
- From the point of view of emphasis on workers’ performance and human relations aspect – In this category, we include those definitions that lay emphasis on workers’ performance and human relations aspect, and which accept the worker as a part of the social system. Thus, according to this view, supervision is the process by which a supervisor helps the supervisee to adjust to his/her job, to develop team spirit and to assume even greater responsibility.
- From the point of view of emphasis on the development of the personality of the worker – In this category are included those definitions that lay emphasis on the development of personality of the worker. According to the experts holding this view, supervision is the act of ‘guiding the workers to develop their self in the best possible manner’.
In short, we can say that supervision involves motivating, guiding, inspecting, superintending, developing, coordinating and controlling the subordinates.
It can sometimes be helpful to look at another organisation’s supervision policy to help think about what your organisation does well and what it might want to change. ENABLE Scotland has developed its supervision policy and practice and its head of learning and professional development reflects on the process below, with links to the template (Appendix 2) currently used to record supervision. Supervision to support personalised services
ENABLE Scotland recently revised its approach to support and supervision to bettersupport personalised services. We used a proactive and dynamic approach for this task. A group of staff met to try, learn, adapt and improve the existing approach and to troubleshoot issues. We used participative leadership, person centred approaches, a focus on the outcomes of the people we support, the EuropeanFoundation for Quality Management (EFQM) quality framework and the SSSC competencies of the Continuous Learning Framework to underpin development of the system and processes. The staff used a quick turnaround and followed an iterative plan, do, check, act, approach. This enabled the paperwork to improve as it was trialled.
We chose to use open questions to encourage first line managers and personal assistants to focus on resilience and strength. For example, staff members are asked ‘What are your successes? What are you pleased about?’ They are also asked ‘What will you focus on to help people using services move towards personal outcomes?’ Workers are encouraged to seek feedback from others. This complements a ‘no blame’ improvement culture where staff members have coping strategies beyond the supervision sessions. See the current form we use to record supervision in Appendix 2. This is merely a support to good conversation and open dialogue in supervision and will be reviewed again based on feedback from ENABLE Scotland staff on its usefulness.there is a lack of trust between the participants in supervision
- the culture of the organisation is defensive
- the supervisor is uncomfortable with her/his authority and over compensates by being excessively demanding
- the supervisor is less comfortable in the support role and/or lacks the skills to promote development or reflection.
In other situations the supportive function may dominate. This might be because:
- the supervisor is aware of the pressure her/his staff are under and tries to
compensate by being protective
- the supervisor is uncomfortable with her/his authority and overcompensates by being excessively nurturing
- the boundary between personal and professional issues is unclear and the supervisor gets pulled into a counselling/therapeutic role20
- the supervisee is not fully confident in their professional role and can be overly dependent on the supervisor
- the organisation has a tough ‘macho’ culture and supervision is a compensatory space.
If you supervise (or are supervised) in a work setting where the functions are allocated to different people, it will be useful to think about how to minimise or avoidsome of the potential difficulties including fragmentation, duplication and omission.At a minimum, we recommend you have occasional three-way meetings to discuss arrangements and explore the kinds of challenges that may arise as well as making the most of the benefits.There is an increasing focus on integration in social services and it is not unusual for someone from a different professional background to supervise staff. In these instances, the different functions may be distributed across two or more members of staff. If this is part of your experience, as a supervisor or supervisee, or you are thinking about the possible benefits this may bring, there is a short film (Supervision in an integrated setting) on the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) website which shows how practice in an integrated setting can be enhanced by ‘complementing line management supervision with clinical and professional supervision’.