Excellence in Islamic Education

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Excellence in Islamic Education: Key Issues for the

Present Timeby Jeremy Henzell-ThomasBy Jeremy Henzell-ThomasThe Book Foundation

Not for publication or reproduction either in whole or in part in its present form, exceptwith the permission of the author.

The ideas in this paper constitute an elaboration of some of the founding principles of theBook Foundation Education Project and will be systematically applied in the forthcomingBook Foundation programs.

1. Islamic Education: Educating the Whole PersonWhat we are witnessing in the state education system in Britain, and no doubt also inother state education systems in the Western world and in other countries which mimicthem, is the progressive destruction of the concept and practice of a holistic system ofeducation - that is, a broad and balanced system of education based on an understandingof the full potential of the human being and a system of pedagogy designed to awakenand develop that potential.

This has been a gradual process of attrition, constriction and ultimate strangulation,culminating in a sterile, standardised, bureaucratic system which stifles creativity anddemoralises students and teachers alike. We see the triumph of quantification, leaguetables, and the proliferation of an oppressive and soulless target-driven regime derived

from alien corporate models and control-obsessed managerialism. We see unremittingassessment of uninspiring objectives and dangerously narrow prescriptive content.

What is behind this is an agenda geared almost exclusively to a utilitarian concept ofeducation, a reduction of truly holistic education to a narrow band of skills for theworkplace. This a concept of education geared to economic performance, competition andefficiency above all else. The British Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)White Paper, Schools: Achieving Success gives the game away in the first paragraph ofthe Introduction: "The success of our children at school is crucial to the economic healthand social cohesion of the country, as well as to their own life chances and personalfulfilment" (my italics). Notice the priorities which are placed first in this sentence.

It was the promise of "Education, Education, Education" as the "number one" priority

which was one of the main reasons why the New Labour Party of Tony Blair was elected togovernment in the UK in 1997. Now, five years on, and with New Labour re-elected to asecond term, Tony Blair has reiterated his commitment to education. But what kind ofeducation? In an exclusive interview reported in the Times Educational Supplement of 5July 2002, Blair states that "Education is and remains the absolute number one priority forthe country because without a quality education system and an educated workforce, wecannot succeed economically"(my italics). The real priority is clear, and it is the same one(economic power) as that which governs educational policy in the White Paper.
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In his publisher's note to New York State Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto'schallenging book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling,David H. Albert refers to the words of the social philosopher Hannah Arendt that "The aimof totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity toform any".

Gatto's indictment of the assumptions and structures which underlie modern stateschooling in the USA exposes the same deadening utilitarian agenda which informs Britisheducational policy, an agenda geared to turning children into cogs in an economicmachine, children who are dependent, conforming, materialistic, and lacking in curiosity,imagination, self-knowledge and powers of reflection. This is the modern equivalent of theworst of Victorian education geared to the production of a regimented, empire-servingarmy of uncritical ledger clerks and petty officials.

Supporting the utilitarian agenda in the UK, and also fuelled by pressure to do well inleague tables of performance, is a debilitating testing regime perhaps even moreexcessive than the national obsession with standardised testing in the USA. A national UKnewspaper, reporting recent research by Cambridge University for the National Union of

Teachers, refers to a testing "insanity" which is gripping primary schools in the UK. Almosthalf the weekly timetable is now taken up by mathematics and English lessons andthousands of children as young as seven are being tested every week on their reading.The disproportionate emphasis on the teaching and perpetual testing of a narrow band ofliteracy and numeracy skills, which are deemed to be essential for economic survival, istaking the heart and soul out of education.

The researchers conclude that "the amount of time for teaching each day does not allowfor a broad and balanced curriculum", and creative subjects such as art, drama and musicare being increasingly squeezed out of the classroom. In response to the report, JohnBangs, Head of Education of the National Union of Teachers, said: "What is shockingabout the report is the extent to which arts have been eliminated from primary schools.Tests and targets are wiping out pupil and teacher creativity." In some schools, art is now

dropped from the curriculum in the last year of primary school (at age 10-11).

History at A-level (university entrance standard in the UK) is now regarded as such anarrow, limited and impoverished historical education that Cambridge University no longerrequires undergraduate historians to have it. The head of history at Latymer School inNorth London described the A-Level course as "history for the MTV generation - know alittle but keep on repeating it".

A joint Royal Society and Joint Mathematical Council working group reported in July 2000that the teaching of mathematics was increasingly being reduced to nothing but numbers,and that the death of geometry, the study of shape and space, in mathematics educationcould only be to the detriment of visual and spatial intelligence. It takes little insight tosee in this entirely quantitative approach a verification of Ren Gunon's vision of the

"Reign of Quantity" as indicative of the profound crisis in contemporary life and thought.

A Geographical Association survey has found that "geography has been dropped as asubject specialism by more than one quarter of initial teacher-training institutions".Humanities simply do not have the status of core subjects such as English, mathematicsand science, so "young teachers who want promotion will probably focus on coresubjects".

As if the marginalisation and impoverishment of the arts and humanities and the death of


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geometry were not enough, a survey by the Association of Language Learning suggeststhat more than 1,000 schools in the UK are planning to drop foreign language lessons forpupils over 14. In February 2002, the German, Italian and Spanish ambassadors hadspoken out in an interview with The Independent about the "sad" standard of languageteaching in the UK.

In the recent flurry of debate about the pros and cons of faith schools, Faisal Bodi hasargued a strong case for Muslim schools, but I have to question the emphasis in hiscontention that two well-funded Muslim schools in London have turned out to be "factoriesfor university graduates and professionals".

This is of course meant to be a compliment to those schools, which are indeed models inmany ways. Now, no one would deny that there is a pressing need for Muslim graduatesand professionals, and those who have attained to this status deserve congratulation, butI have spent most of my working life combating the idea that schools should be "factories"geared only to examination results. We need graduates and professionals who are notonly successful in their specialized fields and able to advance their own careers, but alsocreative, well-educated and well-rounded in the broadest sense, with concomitant

cultural, moral, emotional, and spiritual development.

In the face of an impoverished curriculum and its associated regime of perpetual testing,it is hardly surprising that "growing numbers of young teachers are quitting the professionbecause they think schools are becoming results factories, where heads insist targets aremet regardless of the human cost".

We need to be very clear that, as a recent MORI poll has reported, the main reasonsgiven for parents supporting faith schools in the UK are: a desire for their children to beeducated in the same values and beliefs as their family (35%); good discipline (28%);and religious ethos (27%). Only 10% cited good exam results. Interestingly, andsurprisingly, this partly reflects the reasons cited by parents for sending their children toindependent schools (reasons strong enough to motivate many of them to make huge

personal sacrifices to pay high fees). In a survey carried out by IAPS (IncorporatedAssociation of Preparatory Schools in the UK) discipline is given as the foremost reason,but other important reasons include small classes and a broad and balanced curriculum,including the survival of those humanities subjects under threat in the state system,resources and facilities for sports, a wide choice of extra-curricular activities, andopportunities for cultural development, including music and art.

You would think that highly motivated and successful parents would place examinationresults as a top priority, but they do not. In the case of independent schools in the UK, itmay be that they take high academic standards for granted. The gap in academicstandards between independent schools and state schools is very wide: in thoseindependent schools which take the government tests at age 11, for example, over 95%of children reach the required level in English, mathematics and science, whereas in state

schools it is barely 70%. My own experience at a leading independent school in Englandconfirms that their 13 year-olds were generally two or three years ahead of children ofequivalent age in the average state school).

It is also vital to note the differences between reasons given by parents for sending theirchildren to faith schools or independent schools. While both groups give discipline as akey factor, the faith school parents emphasise family values and beliefs and religiousethos and identity, whereas the independent school parents emphasise breadth ofeducation, including sport, extra-curricular activities, cultural expression, and humanities.


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The best Islamic education will ensure that this breadth of education is added to theirethical and spiritual appeal. Interestingly, a recent report showed that young people whohave creative hobbies (e.g. playing a musical instrument, collecting things, model makingetc.) are happier than those who do not; they suffer from less depression and engage inless crime than those who can only occupy themselves by watching television, playing

computer games, or "hanging around" outside with their friends, so there is a clearconnection between extra-curricular fulfilment and the maintenance of ethical values andhappy families.

The best Islamic education must encompass the two traditional categories of knowledge,and the hierarchical relationship between them: revealed knowledge; attained through thereligious sciences; and acquired knowledge, attained through the rational, intellectual andphilosophical sciences. In the worldview of tawhid (Divine Unity), knowledge is holisticand there is no compartmentalisation of knowledge into religious and secular spheres.Both types of knowledge contribute to the strengthening of faith, the former through acareful study of the revealed Word of God and the latter through a meticulous, systematicstudy of the world of man and nature.

The perfection of the Islamic revelation embraces all the diverse aspects of the life of manand roots all of them in the Unity and Comprehensiveness of God. As Seyyed HosseinNasr explains, Islamic education is concerned not only with the instruction and training ofthe mind and the transmission of knowledge (ta`lim) but also with the education of thewhole being of men and women (tarbiyah). The teacher is therefore not only a muallim, a'transmitter of knowledge' but also a murabbi, a 'trainer of souls and personalities'. "TheIslamic educational system never divorced the training of the mind from that of the soul."Islamic education ideally aims to provide a milieu for the total and balanced developmentof every student in every sphere of learning - spiritual, moral, imaginative, intellectual,cultural, aesthetic, emotional and physical - directing all these aspects towards theattainment of a conscious relationship with God, the ultimate purpose of man's life onearth.

Syed Muhammad Naguib al-Attas prefers to regard Islamic education as ta'dib, a wordrelated to adab. He defines this term in its true sense (before its restriction anddebasement of meaning to "a context revolving around cultural refinement and socialetiquette") as "discipline of body, mind and soul" which enables man to recognise andacknowledge "his proper place in the human order" in relation to his self, his family andhis community. This order is "arranged hierarchically in degrees (darajat) of excellencebased on Qur'anic criteria of intelligence, knowledge and virtue (ihsan)". In this sense,adab is "the reflection of wisdom (hikmah)" and "the spectacle (mashhad) of justice(`adl)."

Within the dual nature of man's own self, the adab of his lower animal soul (al-nafs al-hayawaniyyah) is to recognise and acknowledge its subordinate position in relation to hishigher rational soul (al-nafs al-natiqah). In relation to God, mankind has made a covenant

(mithaq) and recognised and acknowledged God as his Lord (al-Rabb). His adab inrelation to his Lord is to recognise and acknowledge that Lordship and to behave in such away as to be worthy of approaching nearer to Him. He is motivated by taqwa(consciousness and awe of God) and ihsan, defined by the Prophet as "to adore God asthough you see Him, and if you do not see Him, He nonetheless sees you." This spiritualdimension of adab is an "Islamisation" of the original meaning, 'an invitation to abanquet', where the host would be a man of distinction and standing and the guestswould be worthy of the honour of invitation by virtue of their refined character and


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upbringing, expressed in their speech, conduct and manners.

Al-Attas claims that ta'dib is a superordinate concept encompassing not only, 'instruction'(ta`lim) and the idea of 'nurturing', 'rearing', 'nourishing' or 'fostering' (tarbiyah) - i.e. thetwo elements idenitified by Nasr above - but also 'knowledge' (`ilm). Al-Attas maintains

that the coining of the word tarbiyah (which is actually not found in any of the greatArabic lexicons) reflected the Western concept of 'education', which is derived from Latineducare/education and connected to educere (English 'educe', 'draw out or develop from alatent or potential state'). Such education, in al-Attas's view, is "intellectual and moraltraining geared to physical and material ends pertaining to secular man in his society andstate" and cannot therefore describe Islamic education.

The semantic field of tarbiyah also includes minerals, plants and animals (animalhusbandry, for example, could be a form of tarbiyah), whereas education in an Islamicsense can only apply to man, who alone of all species is endowed with 'aql. Al-Attas alsopoints out that the concept of 'possession' is implied by tarbiyah in the sense that parentsexercise tarbiyah on their offspring and in the sense of 'borrowed possession' in the termrabba applied to men. Only God is al-Rabb, Lord, and, as The Prophet said, "My Lord

educated (addaba) me, and so made my education most excellent."

Although al-Attas claims that tarbiyah is subsumed under the over-arching concept ofta'dib, it seems to me important not to marginalize tarbiyah as a fundamental principle ofIslamic education. Where al-Attas sees Western contamination in its convergence with theLatin sense of educere ('drawing out or developing from a latent or potential state'), thissense is central to the spiritual dimension of the concept of education developed by theBook Foundation and is elaborated in section 15 below ("The Spiritual Life").

There is also an inherent contradiction in including tarbiyah within the greater explanatorypower of ta'dib and yet, at the same time, regarding it as a defective concept "tinged withmodernism". Defining Islamic education so strictly in terms of ta'dib and its imperative to"know one's proper place" in the hierarchical order could lead to an under-valuation of two

vital aspects of education which are enshrined in the concept of tarbiyah: its "nurturing"function and its role in "drawing out" latent potential.

In a recent paper on the application of religious models to educational administration ,Aref Atari has shown how the implementation of both the Christian model of Service-Stewardship" and the Islamic "Khalifah" model "entails a radical transformation inmanagement, thought and practice" away from a hierarchically organised bureaucraticWestern model to a what he calls a "caring and sharing spirit". In this climate, trust, love,sympathy, mercy, cooperation, tolerance and altruism are at least as important asefficiency, effectiveness, competition, professional ambition and achievement. Theoutcome is an organisation which is both "virtue-based and excellence-oriented". Shurah-based management, empowering and working with others, replaces a top-down approachwhich manipulates, controls and works through others.

Al-Attas himself points out that the "qualitative emphasis of tarbiyah is mercy (rahmah)rather than knowledge (`ilm), whereas the emphasis of ta'dib is knowledge, rather thanmercy. We prefer to effect a balance between knowledge and mercy, so that neither isemphasised over the other, for just as mercy without knowledge can foster weakness,delusion, ineffectiveness and foolishness, so knowledge without mercy can lead toegotism, self-aggrandisement, arrogance, intolerance and high-handedness.

A holistic curriculum also aims to reconcile conventional and stereotyped oppositions such
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as art and science; creativity and rigour; analytic and synthetic styles of learning; logicand intuition; memorisation and comprehension; collaboration and competition; goal-directed learning and exploratory, discovery or investigative learning; innovation andtradition; teaching methods which facilitate learning and those which direct learning; andso on.

Guided by the need for balance, moderation, and harmony, and the existence ofcomplementary pairs of opposites as the underlying fabric of everything in the createduniverse, it seeks to avoid a vested interest in any one-sided model, paradigm, positionconceptual "package", or ephemeral fashion in educational philosophy or methodology.Education is too important a field to be left to the adversarial politics of competing model-builders, for all such models are limited and conditioned human constructions. An Islamiceducation system must be deeply rooted in a metaphysics derived from thecomprehensive and unifying vision of the Qur'an.

It is therefore important to ensure that the sphere of religious studies is notcompartmentalised and cut off from knowledge in the humanities and in the natural andsocial sciences, which are necessary for it to be a meaningful guide in contemporary life.

It is also vital that a false and misleading dichotomy is not set up between a type ofeducation which prepares students for "the life of this world" and that which preparesstudents for the "Hereafter". This is a recipe for a deeply divided mentality and a troubledsoul. Concentration on religious studies alone leads to an imbalance and an unintegratededucational system which does not give man the knowledge and skills necessary forengaging in meaningful activities in this life, which, after all, must determine his station inthe Hereafter.

Furthermore, there is an underlying unity between all branches of education and all thehuman faculties and activities involved in learning, and this unity needs to be reflected inan integrated, holistic and multi-disciplinary curriculum which does not draw rigid artificiallines between different subjects and disciplines. In practice, much of modern education isstill based on a machine-age model of separate subject areas which encourage a

fragmented view of learning. In the absence of a comprehensive and unifying spiritualperspective, it is inevitable that little more than lip-service is paid to the desirability ofcross-curricular themes and links.

Nevertheless, al-Attas has stated that, in effect, secular Western education systems, withtheir core curriculum, are more well rounded than Islamic curricula, because they havethe goal of producing an educated man or woman who is able to think and writeeffectively; to have a critical appreciation of the ways in which one gains knowledge andunderstands the universe, society and himself; to be informed of other cultures and othertimes; to have some understanding and experience concerning ethical and moralproblems; and to have attained some depth in a particular field of knowledge.

Another imperative is to realise that we need more than a coterie of professionals and

academics in a narrow range of specialisations - i.e. law, management, finance, medicine,computers, academe - the ones that traditionally confer status or high salaries and whichseem especially attractive to young Muslims keen to advance their careers. There is apressing need for people who can engage in an open and creative way with the greater"community of communities". We need visionary thinkers at the cutting edge ofdiscourses which address problems and solutions of universal significance for allcommunities, who can shake off the yoke of academic jargon to make their ideasaccessible, and who can reformulate traditional ideas in fresh, modern language; we needmore teachers, writers, presenters. We need environmentalists, people concerned about


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the planet, not just their own back yards. We need creative artists in every discipline,people who can reclaim beauty for Islam, and express the beauty of Islam for allmankind.

If we dislike hostility to Islam in the media, then we should be working as journalists,

writers and commentators to present the best face of Islam to a public hungry forenlightenment; we need more Muslim voices who can match the quality of commentcoming from many non-Muslims, or from people who have no faith at all, but maynevertheless have a profound sense of natural justice.

If we dislike the misuse of creativity in the West, as for example in the entertainment andadvertising industries and in contemporary art, then we should be mastering these mediaso that we can produce more uplifting material to nourish the human soul. We need tofoster the creative spirit in every possible way, not only in obviously creative subjects likemusic, drama and art, but in every subject and in every activity.

It would be a great pity if Muslim schools, in their desire for recognition and their anxietyto be seen to subscribe to the performance culture of "success", simply reproduce the

innate flaws in the worst of the secular education system. The best schools have neversuccumbed to these flaws in the first place. They include the majority of independentschools which have been exempt from the statutory Key Stage testing regime and whichhave been able to pick and choose from the unremitting welter of government initiativesand resist the tide of bureaucracy which has engulfed and demoralised teachers. Muslimschools should not be seduced by the government conception of "excellence" which oftenhas little to do with the conception of excellence (ihsan) as understood in the Islamictradition.

The danger is that faith schools, including Muslim schools, will succumb to purelypragmatic and utilitarian aims in the service of national "development", rather than basethe education they offer on an integrated, Islamic vision of education, in which horizontaland vertical dimensions intersect, and in which the whole curriculum reflects an

understanding of the true nature of the human being and the full extent of humancapacities and faculties. We already see Islamic institutions of higher education which areoveremphasizing the applied sciences over the social sciences and humanities (e.g. thecall for the 60:40 ratio for natural and applied sciences to social science and humanities inMalaysian universities, as well as the establishment of specialized technologyuniversities). Such imbalance puts national economic development goals over individualhuman development, and regards the educational process as a factory for producinghuman "products" and "resources" to drive up the pace of economic growth and national"success".

2. Nature

"The book of Nature, my dear Henry, is full of holy lessons, ever new and varied; and tolearn these lessons should be the work of good education." (Mary Martha Sherwood,1775-1851).

In the present climate of distancing from nature, fear of even the slightest physical risk,and declining powers of observation of the real three-dimensional world (as opposed tothe increasing dominance of screens and monitors mediating and impoverishing ourexperience), we must nourish by every possible means the connection of our youngpeople to the beauty of the natural world and the rich multi-sensory world of experience it


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opens to them.

A BBC Radio 4 programme aired on 2 December 2001 described a project developed by afarmer to give children a taste of country life by actively involving them in workexperience on his farm. At that time he had given over a thousand children this

opportunity. He said that children love the contact with the land and the animals, andabove all they thrive in an environment in which they feel useful and where there iscommunal effort in which everyone's contribution is valued. He said he was saddened byhow "spiritually impoverished" was the life of so many young people in Britain today, andhe equated this spiritual impoverishment with their alienation from the natural world.

The importance of such projects cannot be over-emphasised. They are truly motivating toyoung people, who are hungry to be involved in real-world activities and have an innatelove of animals. At a time when mass entertainment dazzles and mesmerises us withcomputer animations of predatory prehistoric monsters and a sensationalized view ofnatural phenomena which paints a distorted picture of nature as threatening anddangerous, it is vital that children capture a balanced, healing and beneficent vision of thenatural world.

This must be an integral part of the best Islamic education, since faith itself is verified andstrengthened by our observation of the displayed book of nature, with all its signs ofbeauty and majesty.

3. Memory and Memorisation

We live in an age where loud-mouthed and vacuous opinions based on no real knowledgeare increasingly shouting down the meaningful thoughts of people who actually knowsomething and have something of substance to say. One of the reasons for this is thatmemory is no longer valued in our secular culture, so people are not taught to

substantiate their opinions by reference to the knowledge they might have stored inmemory. Instead, people have electronic access to oceans of data which they rarely knowhow to turn even into useful information through selection of what is relevant, let aloneturn it into knowledge or wisdom.

Real education must foster a level of debate and discussion which draws on knowledgeand experience, which encourages students to substantiate what they are saying, andwhich challenges merely vacuous opinions. If one has something stored in memory thenthere is something there for the mind to process, a framework for new knowledge.Memorisation makes complex material accessible to the brain for subsequent processingand lifelong reflection and therefore provides a potent "database" for cognitivedevelopment.

Muslim schools have traditionally kept alive the faculty of human memory, especiallythrough memorisation of sacred text. But we need to be clear about the differencesbetween memory and memorisation. Research shows clearly that the most effectivememory is memory for meaning. What is understood most deeply leaves the mostprominent and resilient memory traces. Deep comprehension of text, for example, isbased on an understanding of the deep structure of the text (its underlying semanticpropositions and pragmatic intentions, and the inferences we derive from them), notsimply from the surface arrangement of the words. Verbatim memorisation of the textcannot help us to understand it, but processing the text in some other form can (e.g.


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taking notes, discussing it, making a diagram out of it).

Schools need to reclaim memorisation in those areas where it enhances learning. I haveseen shy pupils and pupils with learning difficulties transformed by reciting poetry byheart or singing songs learnt by heart in chorus in musical productions - activities which

not only foster expressive skills but also enhance the self-esteem and self-confidence withcomes from a tangible achievement attained through effort and practice. In fact, allchildren, from those with learning difficulties to the bright and gifted, benefit fromlearning songs and research shows there is a transferable benefit to better mathematicsand language learning.

As an amateur musician, I know that the memorisation of music for performance hasdistinct transferable cognitive benefits in many areas. This personal experience confirmsthe well-attested research which has found that learning to play a musical instrument candramatically enhance human intelligence, probably because of the patterning activitystimulated in the brain. The mental mechanisms which process music are deeply entwinedwith brain functions such as spatial relations, memory and language. Spatial intelligence iscrucial for engineering, computational abilities and technical design. Learning poetry also

has transferable benefits, because all kinds of verbatim memorisation of complex materialare using a variety of patterns and cues - not just the word order, but also the prosodic,metrical and rhyming patterns, and various poetic devices. Some of these, after all, arewhat facilitate the learning of the Qur'an.

There is an excellent section on the value of memorisation in Jean Houston'sJump Time,which shows clearly how the genius of Shakespeare was grounded in the memorisationculture of Elizabethan England. Imitation, too, was another formative practice in that era."One studies a great piece of writing by one of the acknowledged giants of the past,enters into a process of internalisation - an alchemising through one's own life andexperience - and then creates a poem of other work that is unique to the writer yet hassimilarities to the original. This practice enriches one's ways of thinking, depends one'sability to allude to other forms, thickens the soup of one's mind." The best schools will

use imitation of great models this way, and not only in literature, but also in art andmusic. It is important to realise that this is not unthinking imitation, mere reproduction ormechanical copying. It is using a model to catalyse a creative process which draws on avariety of sources, both external and internal.

We need to ensure that memorisation, imitation, dictation, and factual "right-answer"recall in answer to closed questions, are not over-extended as learning strategies to areaswhere they cannot promote comprehension. Many people now have an image of madrasaeducation in Pakistan as a process of sheer rote-learning, repetition and memorisationdivorced from understanding. Muslim schools, like all schools, need to show that theyhave developed a methodology of teaching and learning in all subject areas (includingreligious education) which sees education as an active learning process which promotesdeep comprehension through critical and creative thinking skills, discussion, collaborative

learning, dialectic, research, questioning, recourse to personal experience, reflection, andcontemplation.

4. Seeking Knowledge, Thinking and Active Learning

"Lord, increase me in knowledge." (Qur'an 20:114).

"It is better to teach knowledge one hour in the night than to pray all night." (The Prophet


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Muhammad).

"All men by nature desire knowledge." (Aristotle)

A blunt new report by Arab intellectuals commissioned by the United Nations warns that

Arab societies are being crippled not only by lack of political freedom and the repressionof women but also by intellectual stagnation and the stifling of creativity arising fromisolation from the world of ideas. The survey, the Arab Human Development Report 2002,was released on 2 July 2002 in Cairo. A telling statistic, according to the report, is that"the whole Arab world translates about 300 books annually, one-fifth the number thatGreece translates". In the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, it concludes,the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in one year.

A vision of a truly Islamic education sees the best schools as "thinking schools" and"active learning environments" which uphold the sacred trust to seek and acquireknowledge, and that through the quality of their education they dispense with the falseidea that "faith" is somehow in opposition to "reason", and that the knowledge attainedthrough divine revelation is somehow in opposition to acquired human knowledge.

The Prophet said: "God has not created anything better than Reason, or anything moreperfect, or more beautiful than Reason; the benefits which God gives are on its account;and understanding is by it, and God's wrath is caused by disregard of it".

It is also related that a group of people once commended a certain man in the presence ofthe Prophet, praising him excessively. Thereupon the Prophet said: "What kind of intellectdoes he have?" But they replied, saying: "We tell you about his diligence in prayer andabout the various good works he does, and you ask about his intellect? The Prophetanswered and said: "The fool does more harm through his ignorance than do the wickedthrough their wickedness."

Of course, we must not restrict the pedagogy of thinking and learning only to the skills oflogic and reasoning. These skills are, of course, fundamental and especially important ineducational environments which have over-extended the pedagogy of imitation, repetitionand verbatim memorisation, but we need to extend them beyond the conventional,'convergent' thinking skills which have been over-emphasized in our Western machine-age education model. Einstein said that "we can't solve problems by using the same kindof thinking we used when we created them" and, according to J. K. Galbraith, "Theconventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking". Ultimately, wemust extend thinking to encompass the more comprehensive view of the human intellectembodied in the Islamic concept of 'aql, which has a moral and spiritual dimension as wellas a narrowly cognitive one.

'Aql is a faculty which is hard to translate into English. Its Arabic root has the sense of

'binding' and 'withholding', i.e. the faculty of judgment, discrimination and clarificationand the intellectual power of speech (nutq) which enables man, the "language animal", toarticulate words in meaningful patterns. To Adam was imparted the Names (Qur'an 2:31),and in one sense this knowledge confers on man the faculty of logical definition and themaking of distinctions which underlies abstract, conceptual thought. But 'aql implies morethan a strictly logical ability. It is a combination of reason and intellect, and in its highestsense, as Titus Burckhardt explains, it is "the universal principle of all intelligence, aprinciple which transcends the limiting conditions of the mind". It is therefore closely


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related to the Heart (qalb), the organ of spiritual cognition.

There is some convergence here with the notion of nous (intellect) in OrthodoxChristianity (Hesychasm), which defines intellect as the highest faculty in man, throughwhich, if purified, he knows God or the inner essence or principles (logoi) of created

things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception. Again, this system equatesthe higher Intellect with the Heart, a faculty which dwells in the depth of the soul andconstitutes the innermost aspect of the Heart, the organ of contemplation, even describedin very Islamic terms as the "eye of the heart" in the Makarian Homilies. As such, nous isdistinguished from dianoia, the faculty of mere discursive reason, whereas both intellectand reason are combined in the organic unity of 'aql.

Our conception of thinking and learning must embrace not only conventional logical andanalytical skills but also skills such as those utilized by:

Active and skilled readers who employ a range of reading strategies according topurpose and genre, including close reading, scanning and skimming, and whomake inferences and predictions based on context and background knowledge soas to go beyond the information given;

Clear thinkers, able to select what is relevant and accessible and avoidunnecessary complexity and repetition in transmitting ideas to others;

Independent, critical thinkers and decision-makers;

Curious, questing, adventurous thinkers (the Prophet said: "Seek knowledge, evenunto China"; "Whoever goes out in search of knowledge is on the path of God untilthey return.");

Questioning thinkers, always seeking new evidence and able to resist prematureclosure and fixed conclusions. "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality,they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality"(Albert Einstein). The Prophet said: "Asking good questions is half of learning".

Discriminating and discerning thinkers, able to use valid criteria (including thecriterion, or furqan, of the Qur'an itself) to sift the false from the true, identifyweak assumptions and presuppositions, expose false premises, distinguish factfrom unsubstantiated opinion, and make sound judgments. A well-attestedcharacteristic of bright and gifted students is that they ask awkward questions,undermining shallow presuppositions and even questioning the hidden premisesbehind other people's questions. Good teachers are never threatened by suchstudents.

Focused thinkers, able to formulate clear and specific definitions and categories

and resist "woolly" thinking;

Reflective thinkers, able to ponder deeply and resist hasty and impulsiveconclusions;

Unitive and synthetic thinkers, able to employ dialectical thinking to resist one-sided, polarised, paradigmatic thinking and reconcile and unify dichotomies andoppositions; able to affirm and incorporate logical polarities rather than seek toavoid contradiction and paradox through one-sided adherence to a single


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perspective. In the field of developmental psychology, Klaus Riegel identifies theability to accept contradictions, constructive confrontations and asynchronies asthe highest stage of cognitive development, and James Fowler associatesdialectical thinking with the development of faith. It goes without saying that thedialectical process is not one either of compromise or loose relativism, but one ofcreative tension which ultimately transforms contradictions into

complementarities, releasing the open-minded thinker from ingrained habits andconditioned patterns of thought, established affiliations, fear of change andinstability, and reluctance to approach anything which may be threatening to one'ssense of "self".

Thinkers who employ strategies for memory and verbatim memorisation includingthe identification of organisational and cohesive features (propositional structure;rhyme, rhythm, other poetic devices), finding connections with existingknowledge, paraphrasing and summarising, visualisation, mnemonics, etc.;

Flexible thinkers able to use a range of thinking skills and strategies appropriate tovarious tasks, and able to transfer knowledge in innovative and creative ways;

Multi-sensory learners, able to use all their senses to acquire knowledge;

Nuanced and multi-layered thinkers, able to encompass subtle distinctions ofmeaning, appreciate different levels of description, and evaluate which level isappropriate in a particular context;

Creative thinkers and problem solvers, able to explore and initiate alternative,divergent and lateral approaches to the solution of problems;

Non-literal thinkers, comfortable with symbol, metaphor, allegory and analogy;

Fair-minded and open-minded thinkers, able to resist prejudice and bias, and ableto counterbalance culturally motivated distortions of fact;

Cutting-edge thinkers, able to pioneer new departures and developments;

Visionary thinkers, those who see to far horizons, reach to the heart of the matterand penetrate to the key issues and underlying trends;

Metacognitive thinkers, able to analyse their own thought processes;

Self-motivated learners, who are not over-reliant on extrinsic motivation(motivated by external factors, such as financial reward or accountability tomanagers) but can call on intrinsic motivation (e.g. love of learning for its ownsake);

Lifelong learners, who persevere in their studies and have developed effectivestudy habits, including organisation of time and resources, research skills, activereading, note-taking and note-making, listening, self-evaluation.

Learners who are able to transmit, use and apply knowledge for the benefit ofothers: There are many sayings of the Prophet on the "negligent scholar": "Apious, unlettered man is like one who travels on foot, whilst a negligent scholar islike a sleeping rider". The Prophet also refers to the "scholar without practice" as a"tree without fruit" and a "bee without honey".


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Learners who embody, realise and actualise knowledge - deep learning (i.e. trueeducation) goes beyond theoretical knowledge or knowledge which is merely"academic" in its pejorative sense; it must involve confirmation and realisation(tahqiq, derived from haqq, truth, reality) of knowledge in one's own self, whichalso inspires action (`amal). In Islam, knowledge and action are inextricablyintertwined, and there is no worthwhile knowledge which is not accompanied by

action, nor worthwhile action which is not guided by knowledge.

Above all we should aim to cultivate 'thinkers' who use 'aql in its sense of "mind-heart",and tafakkur, in its sense of a cognitive-spiritual activity in which the rational mind,emotion and spirit are combined. These faculties, in their higher sense, are, of course,more than 'thinking' in the sense that the Western mind often understands thinking as anexclusively mental activity distinct from the workings of the heart. Essentially, this is thecontemplative state of Islamic worship, in which the truth of revelation is verified throughthe organ of spiritual cognition (ma`rifah). "Soon we will show them Our signs in theutmost horizons of the universe and within their own souls until it becomes manifest tothem that this revelation is indeed the truth" (Qur'an 41:53). The Prophet said: "An hour'scontemplation is better than a year's (mechanical) worship".

The awakening and development of these higher contemplative faculties must beconsidered within the context of a natural developmental process which governs thegradual maturation and unfolding of human capacities. This process starts with concretesensory experience and observation, progresses to the use of the mind as a tool forabstract thought, logical reasoning and analysis, and culminates in the awakening of theHeart and the attainment of spiritual insight.

At present, the pinnacle of cognitive development in Western secular education is theattainment of formal reasoning (Piaget's "formal operations"), hypothetico-deductivethinking and theory construction. It is significant, however, that Albert Einstein, one of thegreatest constructers of scientific theory warned against the over-valuation of the rationalmind: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is a faithful servant. We havecreated a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

The development of the rational mind has had obvious consequences in terms of scientificand technological progress, but it has also inhibited man from progressing further to theattainment of spiritual insight, and even undermined those capacities which he naturallypossessed at earlier stages of development, such as the capacity for awe and wonder inthe face of mysteries which are inaccessible to the mind.

The senior curriculum therefore needs to make students critically aware of the limitationsof formal reasoning, and the blindness of dogmatic scientism and reductionism whichteach that observable reality is the only reality and that there is only one level ofdescription applicable to all phenomena. Students should also be informed of the spiritualbeliefs of famous Western scientists, such as Newton, Faraday and Einstein.

The Qur'an is a "book for those who believe in the existence of that which is beyond thereach of human perception" (Q. 2:3). Muhammad Asad comments on this verse: "Al-ghayb, commonly, and erroneously, translated as "the Unseen" is used in the Qur'an todenote all those sectors or phases of reality which lie beyond the reach of humanperception and cannot, therefore, be proved or disproved by scientific observation or evenadequately comprised within the accepted categories of speculative thought: as, forinstance, the existence of God and of a definite purpose underlying the universe, life afterdeath, the real nature of time, the existence of spiritual forces and their inter-action, andso forth. Only a person who is convinced that the ultimate reality comprises far more than


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our observable environment can attain to belief in God and, thus, to a belief that life hasmeaning and purpose."

True as this is, it is important to add that we need not become disillusioned with sciencebecause of the myopic vision of scientism. As al-Ghazali warns, laborious study of the

sciences dealing with fact and demonstration is indispensable if the soul is to avoidimaginative delusions masquerading as spiritual enlightenment. It is also the case thatsome of the best cutting-edge modern science is also providing us with persuasive andcompelling evidence, from a strictly scientific perspective, of the existence of a divineprinciple of meaning, purpose and order at work behind all aspects of existence , which istestimony to the Qur'anic statement that "Everything have We created in due measureand proportion". (54:49) This kind of empirical verification, with its power to demonstratethe unity of science and religion, is far more convincing and impressive to modernstudents than contrived attempts to find a convergence between Qur'anic ayat and thespecific findings, for example, of physical or chemical research. The Qur'an should not belimited to the status of a scientific text book.

Just as we need to bring to light the difference between scientism and true science, we

need to ensure that the process of education teaches students not to equate other limitingideologies with potentially constructive tools and concepts. For example, fine thinkingdemands that we distinguish between nihilistic relativism and the valid attempt to findrelationship or use context to inform meaning. In the same way, we need to distinguishbetween absolutism as an unbending frame of mind and the absolute and the immutabletruths given to us through divine revelation.

Such distinctions can be carried further to encompass the difference betweenindividualism and individuality, between communalism and community, betweenmodernism and modernity, between fundamentalism and a commitment to fundamentals,between libertinism and liberty, and between syncretism and synthesis. Most importantly,there is a pressing need for education in the difference between secularism as a godlessideology and the intelligent appreciation that we live in the "present time" (Latin

saeculum) and therefore need to attune ourselves to its particular needs, conditions andways of thinking if we are ever going to be able communicate effectively with thecontemporary psyche.

The Islamic perspective, always seeking unity, proportion, harmony and balance, is ableto encompass many levels of description and apply each one in its appropriate domain. Itdoes not conceive, for example, of analysis and synthesis as conflicting styles, the formerto be superseded by the latter in the revolutionary school of tomorrow, but ascomplementary capacities, each with its appropriate domain. If the left side of the brain isoverused, as it may well be in much Western education, the corrective is not to gooverboard for "right-brained" thinking and consign "left-brained" thinking to the garbagebin but to seek a balance between the two sides. It is not a question of one mode ofthinking being "better" than another, or one mode of thinking becoming obsolete, but of

having the intelligence to realise that all modes have their place.

5. Striving

"Striving is the ordinance of God and whatever God has ordained can only be attainedthrough striving". (The Prophet Muhammad)


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"There has never yet been a man in history who led a life of ease whose name is worthremembering." (Theodore Roosevelt)

"Without labour, nothing prospers." (Sophocles)

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox." (Mexican proverb)

Since man is endowed with the special privileges corresponding to his status as khalifah(vicegerent, trustee), he is all the more accountable. However, given the limitations ofman and the extent of God's Mercy, which "covers everything", it is the consciousintentions of men and women which will be judged, for "nought shall be accounted untoman but what he is striving for" (Qur'an 53.39).

An Islamic vision of education should therefore lay particular emphasis on sincere effort,on the inevitability and value of failure as a means of learning, and on the avoidance ofexcessively competitive, win-at-all-costs and achievement-driven criteria for successwhich may lead to inflation, egoism, self-aggrandisement and lack of compassion. Thisinsatiable need to win, and the vices of character which can grow from it, is especiallyapparent in contemporary sports culture, in which sport has been desacralised. There is apressing need to reclaim the sacred origin of sports.

Due regard for intention, effort and striving implies that the assessment system shouldnot be excessively focused on quantitative measures of achievement, and the proliferationof statistics and "targets", which often merely reinforce failure, disillusionment anddisaffection. The assessment system needs to be based on the premise that every studentis worthy of respect and every pupil has something positive to offer and someachievement to celebrate. Such a system may include self-assessment, portfolios of work,and presentations.

The qualities of perseverance, patience and determination go hand in hand with thequality of striving. Persistent efforts are better than erratic ones, even if the latter aremighty ones. As the Prophet said: "the best deed is a continuous one, even if it be but asmall one."

The greater striving (jihad) is, of course, the struggle to master one's own lower self. Asthe Prophet said: "The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of the self". The bestschools must themselves strive to inculcate in their students the qualities of character,including modesty, self-restraint and self-control (without repression!) which will serve asthe foundation for this lifelong struggle.

6. Talk and Play

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the playinstinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with objects it loves." (CarlJung)

"The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play." (ArnoldToynbee)

We develop and refine our own models of reality by interacting with others, by checking


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out our own ideas and attitudes against those of our peers and our elders. This is mainlydone through talk, conversation, discussion, and play, and the need for this is all the moreurgent now that children are increasingly mesmerised by screens and monitors whichdetach them from interaction with real people in three-dimensional space with all theextra gestural and emotional cues which real contact with people offers.

Unfortunately, the rigidly prescribed content-heavy curriculum, narrow band of skills, andover-assessment favoured in certain Western school systems (the British NationalCurriculum, for example), do not foster a "talking" culture. I also know from myexperience observing teachers that a climate of inspection and accountability leads toover-managed lessons which deliberately leave no room for spontaneous andunpredictable events, creative departures (including unplanned digressions) or livelydiscussions, which might "get out of hand" and be construed by inspectors as abreakdown of effective "classroom management" or loss of discipline. Again and again,despite pleas to teachers not to produce supposedly "model" lessons but simply to showtheir normal practice, I have observed lessons in which nothing is allowed to happenexcept the "delivery" of a specific "objective". Questioning is geared only to test thatknowledge in conformity with the objective has been assimilated. Lateral thinking and

divergent questioning is discouraged. This is playing safe, ensuring that the lesson will beat least satisfactory in the eyes of the inspector.

A specific example will suffice. On a training course for inspectors, one of our tasks was toevaluate a lesson on video according to a scale of 0-7, where 0 was excellent, 4 wassatisfactory and 7 was very poor. The lesson was one on "creative writing" for a class ofYear 5 pupils (9-10 year-olds). Every moment of the lesson was managed. The topic waschosen by the teacher. Every word the children were to use in their "creative" writing waschosen and written on the board by the teacher. When children tried to suggest ideasfrom their own personal experiences and words from their own vocabularies they were cutshort and re-focused sharply on the "objectives" set out by the teacher. The whole lessonwas entirely dominated by the teacher. There was virtually no discussion of the topic, noallowance for the alternative ways in which the topic could be approached. I gave it a

grade of 6 ("poor") because it had manifestly failed to foster any creative activity or toengage the children through the medium of their own knowledge or experience.

The inspector leading the session commented on my judgment by saying that we had togive it a grade of 4 ("satisfactory") or better because it was a "well-managed lesson". Wecan see what is happening here: mediocre education is being promoted by the inspectionsystem, because one of the criteria for success in an undisciplined learning environment isthat a teacher at least manages to keep control of the class.

This process of strictly manageable objectives reflects a trend which is now increasinglyevident even in the approach to "play" amongst very small children. This is the self-contradictory notion of play with "predictable outcomes", a managed kind of "play" inwhich the thrills of discovery and the unexpected are replaced by pre-determined

"objectives" and "targets", and in which natural and infinitely varied objects like sticks andstones are replaced by plastic components. It is not play at all. It is a totally inappropriatetransplantation of a rigid performance management culture. In Britain, teachers are nowexpected to "assess" pre-school children. Over-management is now a disease in the adultworkplace, but to impose it on children in their play is a travesty of the nature of play. Idare to say that adults need to learn to play too.

Play relates to talk too, because playful talk is a creative activity in itself. Play can expressitself through talk in a variety of ways: in joke-telling, riddling, parody, satire, repartee,


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dramatic enactment, mimicry, having fun with language - in all kinds of ways.

We need to foster high quality 'talk', including much oral interaction, questioning anddiscussion in the classroom. We need to facilitate orderly discussion work, includingdialectic and debate, so as to foster confident self-expression, respect for alternative

points of view, and receptivity to new ideas. The dumbing down even of scienceprogrammes on television (which are increasingly little more than special effects shows)means that students are not being taught how to develop and sustain coherent andextended explanations and logical arguments through the process of discourse(thankfully, the quality science programme "Horizon" still does it but it may not be able tohold out for much longer against the theatrical effects and epic music department ofdumber programmes).

An Islamic education system geared to excellence needs to show how its methodologyfacilitates a vibrant culture of conversation and talk within classrooms and the widerschool community.

Such a culture is an active learning culture, not a top-down instructional regime based on

what Roland Barth calls the "Transmission of Knowledge Model" with its disproportionateamount of didactic teacher talk. Barth reports the estimate of John Goodlad and othersthat 85 percent of lesson time in American schools is taken up by a prevailing pedagogybased on teachers talking and students listening, occasionally interspersed with teacher-directed discussion.

As Barth points out, "one of the central reasons for the incredible persuasiveness andpervasiveneness of the Transmission of Knowledge model is that it allows learning to beevaluated and numbers attained" and, through these numbers students and teachers canbe held "accountable". Einstein speaks of the way in which mere cramming of contentundermined his love of science: "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for theexaminations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on methat, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of scientific

problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

A wide survey of British secondary schools has revealed that less than ten percent ofteacher talk is concerned with the development of higher order thinking skills. Most of it isdirected to mere control and management, including keeping order and givinginstructions. The rest of it (apart from the paltry amount involved in getting students tothink) is low-level transmission of facts and information.

In all of this, we must be true to our commitment to distinguish real education from mereschooling and instruction.

7. Cross-Cultural and Inter-Faith Education

Cross-cultural and inter-faith dimensions of education and the inter-cultural and inter-faithsensitivity they promote are of the greatest importance at this time. Despite all the talkabout globalisation, there is evidence in many quarters of entrenched parochialism,increasing xenophobia, racial and cultural intolerance and prejudice, isolationism, cross-cultural communication failure, profound misconceptions of other cultures (fed by flagrant


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misrepresentation in the media) and outright ignorance and bigotry.

This situation is only exacerbated by allegiance to the poisonous doctrine of the Clash ofCivilisations, which is easily exploited, either by mediocre minds or by those pursuing anagenda of political, economic, military or evangelical domination, to give credence to an

infantile us-and-them, either-you're-with-us-or-against-us, black-and-white, axis-of-evil,good-and-bad-guys, mentality.

We must take every opportunity to enhance cross-cultural and inter-faith understandingand respect for diversity. This is not something only done in personal and social educationor religious education lessons and school assemblies but in every subject area and inevery aspect of school life, as set out in the new Citizenship component of the BritishNational Curriculum. Art and music are fertile areas for cross-cultural work. It can bepromoted in every subject area, including mathematics and science, and no teachershould be allowed to get away with the idea that their subjects are only concerned with aset of prescribed skills or a narrow band of content which has to be "taught" so as to"cover" the syllabus in time for the examinations.

Faith schools must also demonstrate their respect for religious and cultural diversity andtrue pluralism, in the sense that openness to other faiths and traditions does notnecessitate any loss of commitment to a particular faith community. Parochial limitation,narrow affiliation to a single community and exclusion by faith will not build the bridgesthat need to be built with the wider community of communities. At the same time, weneed to understand why many parents prefer to send their children to single faith schools,not least because of the cohesive ethos and coherent system of values they provide.

The best curriculum should aim to encompass a global dimension and extend the horizonsof students in all areas of the curriculum, so that, while having pride in their own culture,they will have respect for cultural diversity in all its forms and understand the contributionof all civilisations to the development of mankind.

The curriculum should therefore provide opportunities for the study of world history; worldgeography, including human geography and anthropology to promote understanding andrespect for human and cultural diversity; world civilisations and their contribution to thetransmission of sacred knowledge, including the thematic study of comparative mythologyand symbolism and their significance for the psychological and spiritual development ofthe student.

The curriculum should also acknowledge the contribution of Islam to the development ofWestern civilisation, not in the sense of dwelling nostalgically on "past glories", but in thedeeper sense of finding common ground between Islam and the West, and in bringing tolight the unique capacity for synthesis characteristic of the Islamic perspective. Islam is,after all, "a community of the middle way" (Qur'an 2:143). The ummatan wasatanrepresents what Gai Eaton has called "a connecting link and a centre of gravity" in the

midst of a world polarized between East and West, and North and South.

As Mona Abu-Fadl has explained, this is not the Aristotelian "mean" based on the idea of"a middle ground arrived at by the elimination of extremes or an aggregate amounting toa moderate stance" which would, by its very nature, be "shifting and defined, moreover,in terms of other positions, not of any intrinsic characteristics." A middle way rooted intawhid and "deriving its elements from transcendental sources, provides a stable integralcore which serves in itself as a point of departure and a referent for defining andqualifying other positions, and not the reverse. In this way, it constitutes an intrinsic core


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and provides a vertical axis, or a spinal component, round which the diverse elements andmodes of knowledge in the circle of consciousness cohere."

The best Islamic education will renew that essentially Islamic capacity to integrate andaccommodate diverse traditions in a spirit of pluralism, as embodied in the historical

legacy of intellectual giants such as al-Biruni, Ibn al-Haytham, al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Raziand Suhrawardi.

Pluralism is itself an ideal environment in which to project not narrow formalisms but coreIslamic values, including the genuinely Islamic concept of human dignity. These coreIslamic values are the same universal values that promote unity in the secular world -values such as seeking knowledge, equality, freedom, human rights, justice, and altruism.The principles of a new world order are embedded in the pluralistic vision of Islam andwere embodied in the prototype of an Islamic society existing during the time of theProphet (peace and blessings upon him) and in al-Andalus - a vision capable of reconcilingthe demands of diversity and unity in a humane framework.

But let us be clear that such a vision encompasses not only the openness that

characterises living traditions, but also a strong commitment to a particular tradition andcommunity. Diana Eck, Director of the Pluralism Project, argues that there is no suchthing as a generic pluralist. There are pluralists from different faith communities, andeven humanist pluralists, committed to their own tradition, but at the same time willing toencounter one another and respect each other's particularities. The task of a pluralistsociety, she says, is "to create the space and the means for the encounter ofcommitments, not to neutralize all commitment," for "unless all of us can encounter oneanother's conceptual, cultural, religious and spiritual expressions and understand themthrough dialogue, both critically and self-critically, we cannot begin to live with maturityand integrity in the world house".

A view of pluralism which entails commitment as well as openness and respect fordiversity seeks synthesis in relation to a stable, integral core of knowledge, but this is not

the same as a syncretic view which tries to fuse or cobble together different traditions -including incompatible principles or beliefs - into a new system. It is not "a globalshopping mall where each individual puts together a basket of appealing religious ideas,"flattening out differences and reducing every tradition to "the bland unity of the lowestcommon denominator" or "the nicest platitudes".

Nor is it an attempt to make up an artificial language, to produce a kind of religiousEsperanto, a common language made up from words and grammatical structures selectedfrom some of the major world languages. Made-up languages of this kind never seem towork. Apparently, there are more people with an interest in Klingon, the made-uplanguage developed from the Star Trek television series, than Esperanto, because Klingonis a language which dynamically and organically expresses the character of a particulargroup of people, even though they are completely fictional.

It might be said that a language like Esperanto is a worthy attempt to promote inter-cultural understanding within the "greater common world" which Bacon regarded as thedomain of those who had liberated themselves from prejudice, conditioning, and thoseother "idols of the human mind". But I think this is a profound misunderstanding. Unitycannot be artificially constructed and contrived in this way, because it contradicts theentirely natural multiplicity that is the very matrix of the entire universe. Unity is a stateof being within ourselves that enables us to live with paradox, to reconcile opposites, torespect differences, to understand complementarity. It must be first and foremost a


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spiritual condition. "Verily, never will Allah change the condition of people until theythemselves change what is in their souls" (Qur'an 13: 11). This is change based on aspiritual perspective and the striving (mujahada) to master the lower self which must takeprecedence over a merely sociological or political view, for the relationship with God is thecore of what it is to be a Muslim, and, indeed, an adherent of any religious faith.

In the wake of September 11 2001, and all the dangers which accompany a polarized us-and-them outlook on the world, the West should never forget one of the foundingprinciples of its civilisation in the affirmation by Plato that philosophical dialectic, thetesting process of critical enquiry through discussion and dialogue, is utterly distinct fromand immeasurably superior to rhetoric, and this legacy has ultimately ensured that in thecontemporary usage of all modern European languages, the word rhetorical almostinvariably has negative connotations, implying the abuse of language for self-servingends.

At the same time, Muslims need to recall that one of the founding principles of Islamiccivilisation was a dynamic spirit of open-minded enquiry, which Muslim scholarscommunicated to the Christian, Greek, and Jewish communities in their midst. As

Muhammad Asad has so eloquently written: "[The Qur'an], through its insistence onconsciousness and knowledgeengendered among its followers a spirit of intellectualcuriosity and independent inquiry, ultimately resulting in that splendid era of learning andscientific research which distinguished the world of Islam at the height of its vigour; andthe culture thus fostered by the Qur'an penetrated in countless ways and by-ways into themind of medieval Europe and gave rise to that revival of Western culture which we call theRenaissance, and thus became in the course of time largely responsible for the birth ofwhat is described as the 'age of science': the age in which we are now living."And for Muslims, the Qur'an I, par excellence, that transcendental source which providesthe qibla or orienting point of reference, the vertical axis and integral core around whichall modes of knowledge and all diverse traditions revolve and cohere.

The best cross-cultural and inter-faith education therefore goes far beyond a bland and

diffuse medley or recipe of selected traditions and beliefs of different cultures, traditionsand faith communities, even though this in itself can help to cultivate the attitude oftolerance which can be a useful starting point. We need to teach our young people morethan mere facts about the festivals held by different religious communities, or theirreligious artefacts, or their rituals and practices, as if they are items of anthropologicalinterest.

8. Reflection

"He who knows his self, knows his Lord." (saying of the Prophet)

"One who knows much about others may be learned, but one who understands himself ismore intelligent." (Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching)

A recent survey using various test instruments showed that children are now 50% moreextraverted than they were in the 1960's. This could be good in some ways, as it suggestsgreater confidence, but there are some troubling implications. High extraversion isassociated with the need for continual external sources of stimulation and the need forexternal validation from friends and peers rather than through internal validation gainedthrough reflection and self-analysis. High extraversion is also associated with impulsive


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behaviour and even with criminality. The idea that modern young people are learningintrospective skills through solitary engagement with computers is a dangerous myth,because computer games, though often solitary, are not teaching any introspective skillsat all, but are simply external sources of high-octane stimulation.

Introspection and reflection are also essential for the development of moral and ethicalvalues because they teach young people to examine themselves, to understand their ownmotives and the consequences of their actions. Intelligent and purposeful struggle withthe lower self is dependent on those qualities of self-awareness and self-knowledge whicharise from self-examination.

The curriculum in all its aspects, both in and outside the classroom, must giveopportunities for extended reflection. Studies have shown that a calm school environmenthas a major effect on student behaviour, reducing or eliminating the incidence of bullyingand other anti-social forms of behaviour. Conscious relaxation and other calmingtechniques, including meditation, have been shown to have a positive affect on studentattitude, attention and performance in the classroom.

9. Imagination and Creativity

Imagination is in peril in our culture, because little is left to the imagination any more.Young people's minds are subject to a constant barrage of powerful and emotive images,none of which have emerged from the fertility of their own minds but have been handedto them ready-made with all the high-impact gloss and glitter available to theentertainment industry.

However, we can do little to promote imagination in the young if we have none ourselves.The attitude that we have a body of prescribed content to teach and that any excursionoutside these narrow limits is an unjustified digression is the antithesis of a broad and

balanced curriculum. It is our vision in extending students beyond these narrow limitswhich goes far beyond the process of constriction which is occurring in state educationand which provides the enriched dimension of independent school education. Imaginationis not something which should be restricted to subjects conventionally associated with"creativity", i.e. language studies, literature, art, drama. The way we can foster it is firstand foremost to increase it in ourselves through the richness of our own interests andaspirations.

I believe that one of the features of the very best schools is their resistance to the erosionof the humanities and the arts. In the case of Muslim schools, I believe this can be a weakarea of the curriculum. According to Jean Houston, "arts kindle the imagination, stimulatethe brain's connectivity". The arts "make us human". We know from research that only15% of learners are auditory learners (i.e. absorb information through hearing it). 40% of

students are visual learners (i.e. they process information primarily through seeingpictures) and fully 45% are kinaesthetic learners (i.e. they learn best through theimmediate sensory stimulation of hands-on experience and action).

The implications of this are very clear. The best schools do not rely on predominantlyverbal instruction, which is one of the main sources of the pervasive boredom whichinhibits learning. To do so would not only ignore the learning styles of the majority ofpeople, but also fail to make use of the full potential of the individual human brain.


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The best schools will always balance the seduction of hi-tech by providing highlystimulating visual and tactile environments, and use multi-sensory teaching techniques.An Islamic education system in tune with the findings of contemporary research needs tore-evaluate the place not only of music in the school curriculum, but also the educativepotential of movement activities such as dance, which energizes and stimulates the entire

mind-body system. Research has shown that test scores in language arts rise incorrelation to the amount of time spent in movement activities. I have already referred tothe transferable benefits of music education and the well-attested research which hasfound that learning to play a musical instrument can dramatically enhance humanintelligence.

The best schools will also use the power of drama to enrich the learning experience.Through dramatic enactment in theatre, the student explores the many guises of what itis to be a human being, using a rich array of skills - music, movement, rhetoric,expression and feeling - to tour the landscape of human experience. What is more, whatis enacted is more readily remembered.

10. Communication and Design Skills

One of the outcomes of an impoverished arts and humanities curriculum can be a failureto develop effective communication skills. In the 1980's, when I was a lecturer atEdinburgh University, I assisted in the training of new faculty members in lecturing skills.Each course member began the course by giving a short mini-lecture which was thenevaluated by the rest of the group. It was striking how bad the medical doctors often werein communicating their ideas. Weighed down with factual knowledge, and steeped incluttered medical terminology, they had little idea how to organise it or to make itaccessible, and even less idea how to use visual aids, interpersonal skills or variety intheir approach (e.g. using anecdote, story, analogy) to engage the interest of anaudience.

My experience of presentations by many Muslim speakers at conferences is that theirmode of delivery can also lack expressiveness, modulation, nuance, subtlety, colour,dramatic variety, visual support, and awareness of audience. Even "questions" asked fromthe conference floor can be lengthy, dry, inaudible monologues which show a peculiar lackof sensitivity to the needs and interests of the audience as a whole. Perhaps this can alsobe attributed to a lack of development in the arts and humanities. Such skills aredeveloped as much through music, art and aesthetics as through literary studies.Understanding of human psychology (e.g. perception) also plays a part in refining theseskills.

The same can be said about design skills. Many Muslim publications are crudelypresented, with a poor appreciation of the use of visual elements and design subtleties

(including colour, layout and fonts) and how such visual elements engage interest andattention.

The best Islamic education needs to ensure that the curriculum gives opportunities fordevelopment of spoken communication and design skills. Students should be taught howto give spoken presentations within clear time limits and with visual support, andexpressive speech can be developed through drama, reading aloud and poetrycomposition and recitation (The Prophet said: "God has treasuries beneath the Throne,


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the keys to which are the tongues of poets.") Story telling should be cultivated.

Students should also be taught how to chair meetings and conferences, how to elicit theopinions of others, how to motivate, encourage and support others through praise, how toresolve conflicts and arguments, and other interpersonal skills which enhance

communication and harmony.

It is vital too that students are taught how to use language as an instrument for buildingbridges rather than as a means of erecting walls. Many Muslims who have spoken publiclysince the events of 11 September have come across as harsh, dogmatic, ranting anduncompromising, and have unwittingly reinforced the Islamophobic stereotypes ofMuslims which they seek to overturn. They fail to modulate their language according tothe needs of their audience.

I am not suggesting that Islamic education should teach students to value the containerover the contents, the jug over the water, and to value spin, presentation and productionvalues over substance and truth. I do not hold with the advice given by an eminentpublicity consultant on one of television programmes in the BBC Islam UK series screened

in 2001 that Muslims should try to improve their image by getting more "celebrities" torepresent Islam in the media. Muslims do not have to sell out to the celebrity culture.What I am saying is that people often cannot hear the truth if it is communicated in sucha bald way that it arouses no sense of beauty; if it makes no allowance for thecontemporary mindset; if it is conveyed only in granite - in heavily formulaic utterancesand foreign terms which make no connection with our life experience; if it cannot recastideas in fresh, modern language; and if it can only brow-beat and harangue rather thanpersuade. The Prophet said: "He dies not who gives life to learning".

The curriculum needs to ensure that students learn how to use language to win friendsthrough the Truth rather than make enemies; to persuade rather than repel; and to warmthe heart.

There is also a pressing need to enhance communicative competence in written language,especially in the field of creative writing. Methods need to include the practice of non-literal and non-expository forms of conveying meaning, such as poetry, analogy, allegory,metaphor, illustrative story-telling, and personal reflections. Expository writing could beimproved through the practice of summarising and paraphrasing skills, and the use ofdrafting and revising to elaborate and refine ideas and enhance structural coherence.

11. Character and Ethical Values

The Prophet said: "The Qur'an was revealed for the acquisition of good character, not forchanting written chapters".

It is not difficult to find examples of increasingly materialistic, grasping, self-obsessed andself-serving behaviour in our society, in which there are many signs of regression byadults into infantile behaviour. Such signs include the very obvious expressions of rageand insatiable greed which are a disfigurement and debasement of the true nature of thehuman being.

In this climate, students need, above all, role models of adult behaviour who actively


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embody in their lives a conception of what a true human being is, in its totality. Forpeople of faith, this is a spiritual matter, but for others who may not hold any spiritualbeliefs it still operates at the level of an ethical or moral vision, a belief in standards ofconduct which are not abandoned because of the effort or will needed to uphold them, norfor the sake of pandering to lower standards because that is what everybody else does in

today's world.

In a climate of self-interest, it is schools which are increasingly going to have to counterthe negative trends in society, and schools which promote the highest standards ofconduct and character, which demand the best of what a human being can be, and at thesame time engage in a process of education which makes students think and feel whysuch conduct is better - these are the schools which responsible parents are going to wantto send their children to, not the ones which merely promise advantage, achievement andsuccess above all other things. But policies cannot ultimately achieve this; it is only acommon vision, shared values and consistent application of principles and policies byevery member of staff which creates and sustains these standards.

I would emphasise also that the introduction of Citizenship into the curriculum, while a

step in the right direction, may not go far enough. The objective of Islamic education,and, indeed, all systems of education which are based on an understanding of the fullpotential of the human being, is to produce a good and complete man or woman (in thesense of balanced intellectual, moral and spiritual excellence, with refinement of cultureand character), not merely a compliant citizen of a secular state.

The notion of "citizen" here reflects the British government White Paper, Schools:Achieving Success, which, as I have already pointed out, regards "the success of childrenat school" as being "crucial to the economic health and social cohesion of the country".Social cohesion is undoubtedly important, as long as it is not founded on mono-culturalconformity, but rests on the respect for diversity, inter-faith tolerance and inter-culturalsensitivity which is an element of the Citizenship programme. Faith schools, whethersingle-faith or inter-faith, as well as secular schools which teach religious education,

contribute to this process by showing how the development of character and ethicalvalues also goes beyond utilitarian citizenship and is based ultimately on our correctspiritual relationship to God (adab), not merely on a functional relationship to the state.

It is vital, however, that faith schools show how this concept of the precedence of Goddoes not have to be associated with a severe clash of loyalty between the secular stateand religious beliefs. This is especially important in the context of the current fears abouta "segregated" mentality, disaffected youth (wrongly associated with faith schools) andextremists engaged in a war against the West (whose anti-secularism is seen to emanatefrom religious instruction).

I would offer one caveat: I doubt if there are any "secular" schools which have a missionwhich does not include a moral dimension, if not a spiritual one. Phillips Exeter Academy

in the USA, for example, has a mission founded on the idea that Knowledge WithoutGoodness is Dangerous. John Phillips wrote this in his original deed of gift in 1781: "Butabove all, it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the mindsand morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well consideringthat though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge withoutgoodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character; and lay thesurest foundation of usefulness to mankind."

This academy is founded on "humanist", "utilitarian" philosophy, and has no explicit


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religious orientation, but it cannot be denied that the above statement accords with onelevel of Islamic values, even if it does not encompass the ultimate source of knowledgeand goodness. The transmission or possession of knowledge without the appropriatemoral and spiritual qualities is considered dangerous in Islam too, and Sana'i, the Persianpoet, describes a person having knowledge without virtue as a "thief". The Prophet said:

"The worst of men is a bad learned man, and a good learned man is the best".

The emphasis on the "usefulness to mankind" of knowledge is also wholly consonant withthe supplication of the Prophet that God protect him from "useless knowledge". TheProphet also said: "The knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure fromwhich no charity is bestowed in the way of the Lord".

Faith schools should not believe that they have a monopoly on moral and spiritual values.The most coveted student prize at the school where for many years I served as Director ofStudies was not an academic, cultural or sports trophy but the one that was presentedlast as the climax of the day: it was for the three C's, Courtesy, Consideration andCommunity Spirit, and the school prided itself on the way it fostered these virtues in allareas of school life.

I wrote the Mission Statement for the same school and it went like this:

"Our mission is to educate the whole child by providing unparalleled opportunities inbreadth and depth for the concurrent development of academic, cultural, spiritual, moral,sporting and practical dimensions of school life."

The statement goes on to set out the principles underlying this mission, which include"the discovery and development of the unique talents and abilities of each individual" and"a forward-looking and innovative approach which reflects our awareness and anticipationof current and future trends but does not sacrifice traditional strengths."

It concludes by saying that the school aims to accomplish its mission "within theframework of a secure and caring community based on:

1. A code of conduct which encourages co-operation, courtesy and common sense,promotes mutual

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