The earliest ijtihad, in the face of societal changes, can be traced backto the period of Khalifah Umar bin al-Khattab. The methodology ofjuristic preference (istihsan) was developed later as one way of institutingIslamic reform. It emerged as a response to the inadequacy of themethod of mere deduction. Other forms of intellectual reform can beseen in the works of Al-Ghazali in Ihya’ ‘Ulkn al-Din and Tahafat al-Falsifah, and in Ibn Rushd’s response, Tahafat al-Tahafat.Many of these early efforts toward intellectual reform were individualand accidental in nature and did not reflect any methodological school orinstitution. Reformers and creative thinkers seemed as flashes in the historyof Islamic thought. As the European challenge to the Ummahmounted, and the cultural and scientific imitation failed, many Muslimreformers surrendered themselves to culturally copying Europe whilecontinuing to praise the heritage of the Ummah and the sublime valuesand concepts embedded in its legacy.The movement for Islamization of knowledge tried to dig deep intoIslamic intellectual tradition in order to provide Muslim thinkers with thecapabilities and potential for the reform of contemporary Islamic thoughtand methodology. The genesis of the movement can be traced to the birthof the Association of Muslim Social Scientists in the United States and -Canada (AMSS) in 1972, the establishment of the International Instituteof Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981, and the development of theIslamization of Knowledge program of the International IslamicUniversity of Malaysia (IIUM) in 1989.As a result of these efforts, the ideas of Islamization of knowledge andIslamic methodological reform have become central themes in the worksof Muslim scholars, who find that these concepts give direction and purposeto their work. If we use the metaphor of a seed to describe the roleof intellectual and methodological reform in developing and reformingsocieties, then political, economic, technological and all other contributionsand reforms can be seen as the fruits of civilization. The questionthat presents itself is, if the seed is there-meaning proper thinking ...
Islamic Education Reform