Introduction
The twentieth century witnessed profound debates about the relationship between religion, modernity, and education in the Muslim world. Among the most influential Muslim intellectuals to address these questions was Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, a Malaysian philosopher, linguist, and historian of ideas. His theory of the Islamization of knowledge remains one of the most significant intellectual projects in contemporary Islamic thought. Al-Attas proposed not a rejection of modern science or scholarship, but a deep reorientation of their epistemological foundations to align with Islamic worldview and values.
The Intellectual Background
Born in 1931 in Bogor, Indonesia, and raised in Malaysia, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas received a rich blend of traditional Islamic and modern Western education. He studied at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, the University of Malaya, McGill University in Canada, and the University of London, where he earned a PhD in Islamic philosophy. This diverse background enabled him to engage both Islamic scholarship and Western academic traditions with remarkable sophistication.
Al-Attas became one of the early architects of Islamic higher education reform in the modern era. He founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in Kuala Lumpur, a pioneering institution that embodied his vision of harmonizing intellectual rigor with spiritual integrity. His major works—such as Islam and Secularism (1978), The Concept of Education in Islam (1980), and Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam (1995)—lay the philosophical foundation for what he called the Islamization of contemporary knowledge.
The Problem of Secularization
Al-Attas began with a diagnosis of the modern world’s crisis: the dominance of a secular worldview that had gradually displaced the sacred from knowledge, ethics, and public life. He argued that Western civilization’s intellectual history—shaped by the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and scientific revolution—produced a worldview that separated reason from revelation, and knowledge from ultimate purpose.
In his view, secularization is not merely the decline of religious practice, but a deep cultural process that redefines reality itself. It transforms knowledge into an autonomous, value-neutral enterprise concerned only with empirical or utilitarian ends. This, Al-Attas warned, leads to confusion of knowledge (ta’dil al-ma‘rifah)—a disordered understanding of reality that generates moral and social chaos.
Muslim societies, having adopted modern educational systems imported from colonial powers, absorbed these secular assumptions without realizing their philosophical implications. As a result, Muslim students might study science, economics, or sociology through frameworks rooted in materialism, relativism, or humanism—all of which contradict the Islamic conception of existence.
The Meaning of the Islamization of Knowledge
Against this background, Al-Attas proposed the Islamization of knowledge as an intellectual and spiritual corrective. He defined it not as the rejection of Western science or the mere insertion of Islamic terminology into modern disciplines, but as a systematic purification and reorientation of knowledge from secular and materialist elements.
To Islamize knowledge, he argued, means to:
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Free knowledge from the secular worldview that detaches it from God, revelation, and the ethical purpose of life.
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Reintegrate knowledge within the Islamic worldview, where all forms of inquiry are subordinate to tawḥīd (the unity of God).
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Reconstruct the disciplines of science, philosophy, social studies, and humanities so that they reflect Islamic metaphysics, ethics, and aims.
For Al-Attas, knowledge (‘ilm) is not value-neutral—it carries moral and metaphysical implications. True knowledge should lead to adab, a term he used to mean proper discipline of the soul, recognition of right order, and justice in one’s relationship with God, self, and society. Education, therefore, is not merely about information or technical skill but about cultivating a virtuous, well-ordered soul that mirrors the divine order of the cosmos.
Tawḥīd as the Epistemological Foundation
Central to Al-Attas’s thought is the concept of tawḥīd, or the oneness of God. He saw tawḥīd not only as a theological principle but as an epistemological and ontological key to understanding all reality. In the Islamic worldview, everything in existence derives meaning from its relationship with God. Knowledge, therefore, must reflect this unity and hierarchy.
This contrasts sharply with the modern secular notion of fragmented, compartmentalized knowledge. In secular systems, disciplines such as biology, economics, or ethics operate independently, often with conflicting assumptions about truth and human purpose. The Islamization of knowledge, in Al-Attas’s view, restores coherence by recognizing that all truths ultimately converge in the divine source of Truth.
The Role of Language and Conceptual Frameworks
Al-Attas paid particular attention to language as a vessel of worldview. He argued that modern Muslims had uncritically adopted Western scientific and philosophical terms—such as religion, rationality, progress, and freedom—without understanding their secular origins. These borrowed concepts subtly reshape Muslim consciousness, leading to confusion about key Islamic ideas.
Hence, one of his major contributions was the dewesternization of key concepts. He sought to recover authentic Islamic categories of thought, grounded in Arabic and Qur’anic terminology. For example, he distinguished between ‘ilm (knowledge), ma‘rifah (recognition), and hikmah (wisdom), emphasizing that knowledge in Islam carries an inherently moral and spiritual dimension.
Language, in this sense, becomes a battlefield of meaning. To Islamize knowledge, one must also Islamize the conceptual vocabulary through which knowledge is expressed.
Education as the Instrument of Islamization
For Al-Attas, the reform of knowledge begins with the reform of education. The Muslim world’s educational crisis, he argued, stems from adopting secular models that focus on producing skilled workers rather than morally and spiritually balanced individuals.
He envisioned an Islamic system of education that integrates intellectual, ethical, and spiritual training. Such an education would:
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Base all disciplines on the Islamic worldview rooted in tawḥīd.
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Cultivate adab—discipline of the intellect and soul.
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Reconnect reason with revelation, and science with ethics.
At ISTAC and later at other institutions influenced by his ideas, Al-Attas sought to implement this vision by creating curricula that combined rigorous academic study with spiritual and philosophical grounding.
Influence and Criticism
Al-Attas’s theory inspired a broad movement in Muslim intellectual circles, especially in Malaysia, Indonesia, and parts of the Middle East. It influenced thinkers such as Ismail Raji al-Faruqi, who developed a parallel (though distinct) concept of the Islamization of knowledge in the United States.
However, Al-Attas’s approach also faced criticism. Some argued that his project was overly philosophical and lacked practical strategies for reforming modern disciplines like physics or economics. Others felt that the term “Islamization of knowledge” risked isolating Muslims from global intellectual exchange. Al-Attas, however, maintained that his aim was not isolation but restoration of intellectual integrity—to engage the modern world from an Islamic center of gravity rather than its periphery.
Legacy and Contemporary Relevance
Today, decades after Al-Attas first articulated his vision, his ideas remain highly relevant. The rapid globalization of secular knowledge, the moral dilemmas of technology, and the crisis of meaning in education have renewed interest in his thought. Universities across the Muslim world continue to grapple with how to integrate faith and reason without compromising academic excellence.
Al-Attas offers a profound reminder that the crisis of modern education is ultimately a crisis of worldview. His call for the Islamization of knowledge is not a nostalgic return to the past but a bold attempt to realign human understanding with divine purpose. It challenges Muslims to participate in global intellectual life while remaining faithful to their spiritual and moral principles.
Conclusion
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas stands as one of the foremost Muslim philosophers of the modern era. His vision of the Islamization of knowledge goes beyond reforming curriculum—it seeks to reform the soul of knowledge itself. By re-centering education and science on tawḥīd, adab, and divine purpose, Al-Attas invites humanity to rediscover the harmony between reason and revelation.
In an age where information abounds but wisdom diminishes, his message remains urgent: knowledge must be pursued not merely for power or profit, but for the realization of truth, justice, and spiritual balance. Only then can education truly fulfill its ultimate goal—to cultivate the good human being (al-insān al-ṣāliḥ) who lives in harmony with God, self, and the world.
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