The concept of ‘Islamization of knowledge’ and its philosophical implications

Abstract

This article proposes that the concept of ‘Islamization of knowledge’ is not to be taken in the literal meaning of the term ‘Islamization’, as it is used in everyday religious or political contexts. In this new and specific context, ‘Islamization of knowledge’ is not a simple ‘external and mechanical procedure’, but the adjustment of certain forms of knowledge to the contents of Islamic science, or the struggle to fortify the position of Islamic science within the context of contemporary knowledge, including its various perspectives and points of view. Current discussions on this problem include the profound philosophical presumptions that are the focus of this paper and are particularly referred to in the philosophical discussions of Naquib al-Attas, Sayyed Hossein Nasr and Ismail Raji al-Faruki. So, the concept of ‘Islamization of knowledge’ is not monosemous. It involves multiple approaches to the various forms of modern-world thought in the context of the Islamic intellectual tradition, including metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and methodological premises regarding the modern issue of knowledge. The article underlines what the above-mentioned philosophers have in common and then moves on to consider their different approaches to the Islamization of knowledge, i.e. their ways of looking at the problem of modern knowledge criticism, and their thinking on the philosophical principles on which Islamic knowledge is based. This discussion will show that a single concept, such as the Islamization of knowledge, is able to stimulate deep philosophical discourse.