AL-ATTAS’S

ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE:
PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICES1
BY
DR ADI SETIA
(adisetiawangsa@gmail.com)

I
Introduction

1. In Chapter 5 of his book Islam & Secularism, Professor Dr. Syed Muhammad
Naquib al-Attas elaborated at some length on the process of systemic
‘dewesternization of knowledge’ as a foundational condition and concomitance of a
proper, systematic and thorough-going Islamization of knowledge, including both
the natural and social sciences.

2. In applying his method of Islamization, we need to be able to make a conceptual,

structural and operational distinction between Islamization and “grafting,”
“transplanting,” or what I call “tempelization” (from the Malay, tempel = sticking),
which happens when we engage in an endless exercise of sticking Islamic qualifying
terms or categories to a host of western secular constructs without bothering even to
understand what the former or the latter means and in what why they can or cannot
be related, or without doing a proper deconstruction and unpacking of the semantic
import of those secular terms. Sticking the term ‘sardine’ to a can of beans renders
not its contents sardines.

3. Another thing to understand is that the proper critical engagement from the
various relevant Islamic points of departure with the intellectual challenges of the
modern secularizing sciences demands of Muslims both the thorough understanding
of and insight into those points of departure and the nature and provenance of the
problems posed to us by these sciences, and the creative capacity to bring the former
to bear evaluatively on the latter.

***

1
An inivited two-hour presentation delivered at CASIS, Thursday, February 13, 2020; special thanks to Sharifah
Hajar al-Mahdaly for facilitating my participation.

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 II
Some Salient Points to Ponder
from selected passages from
Islam & Secularism
Especially chapter 5
on the
“Dewesternization of Knowledge”

1. “....we are a people neither accustomed nor permitted to lose hope and
confidence, so that it is not possible for us simply to do nothing but wrangle among
ourselves and rave about empty slogans and negative activism while letting the real
challenge of the age engulf us without positive resistance. The real challenge is
intellectual in nature, and the positive resistance must be mounted from the
fortification not merely of political power, but of power that is founded upon right
knowledge.” (IS, xvi).

2. “The disenchantment of nature and terrestialization of man has resulted, in the

former case, in the reduction of nature to a mere object of ultility having only a
functional significance and value for scientific and technical management and for
man; and in the latter case, in the reduction of man of his transcendent nature as
spirit emphasizing his humanity and physical being, his secular knowledge and
power and freedom, which led to his deification, and so to his reliance upon his own
rational efforts of enquiry into his origins and final destiny, and upon his own
knowledge thus acquired which he now sets up as the criterion for judging the truth
or falsehood of his own assertions.” (IS, 38). 3. If nature is like a great, open Book
then we must learn the meaning of the Words in order to discern their tentative and
final purposes and enact their biddings and invitations and instructions to beneficial
use in such wise that we may come to know and acknowledge in grateful appreciation
the overwhelming generosity and wisdom of the incomparable Author.” (IS, 39).

4. “The islamization of language brings about the islamization of thought and

reason.” (IS, 45).

5. “Deislamization is the infusion of alien concepts into the minds of Muslims, where
they remain, and influence thought and reasoning.” (IS, 46).
6. The greatest challenge to Muslims today is the unjust misconception of knowledge
by the West and their formulation and dissemination of this misconceived knowledge,
leading to the loss of its true purpose, thereby causing confusion and chaos to man’s life,
instead of, and rather than, peace and justice. (IS, 133, paraphrased)

7. “...knowledge which has, for the first time in history, brought chaos to the Three
Kingdoms of Nature: the animal, vegetal, and mineral.” (IS, 133).

8. “What is formulated and disseminated is knowledge infused with the character and
personality of Western civilization—knowledge presented and conveyed as knowledge
in that guise so subtly fused together with the real so that others take it unawares in
toto to be the real knowledge per se.” (IS, 134).

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9. “...the knowledge that is now systemically disseminated throughout the world is
not necessarily true knowledge, but that which is imbued with the character and
personality of Western culture and civilization, and charged with its spirit and
geared to its purpose.” (IS, 137).

10. Elements constitutive of the substance, the spirit, the character and personality of
Western culture and civilization are rationalism, dualism, secularism, humanism,
drama and tragedy. (IS, 137).

11. Distinction between knowledge as such, and knowledge as framed by the Western
worldview. (IS, 138).

12. True knowledge is knowledge which fulfills man’s purpose for knowing. (IS, 138).

13. This purpose is in terms of the improvement and identification and elevation of
his personality, learning about the Divine order of the world and salvation. (IS, 156).

14. Because of the dual nature of man, knowledge is of two kinds, (i) as food and life
for the soul, and (ii) as provision in the pursuit of pragmatic ends in the world. (IS,
144, also 146-147).

15. “...the West has defined knowledge in terms of the effort of science as control of
nature and society.” (IS, 155).

16. The West does not attach any significance and reality to the intellectual and
spiritual elevation of man as individual and as person, nor to understanding the
Divine order of the world and salvation, which the most important purpose and
hence true nature of knowledge. (IS, 156).

17. 3-concentric circles diagram, describing the hierarchy of the sciences and their
relative purposes. (IS, 156—159).

18. Seven key concepts pertaining to the nature and purpose of knowledge and their
interrelation; concepts of religion, man, knowledge, wisdom, justice, right action, university
(IS, 160).

19. “In terms of practical application, the first refers to the purpose of seeking
knowledge and involvement in the process of education; the second to the scope; the
third to the content; the fourth to the criteria in relation to the second and the third;
the fifth to the deployment in relation to the fourth; the sixth to the method in
relation to the first down to the fifth; and the seventh to the form of implementation
in relation to all that precedes it.” (IS, 160).

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20. The study of nature to seek its perseity, is a study devoid of true purpose. (IS,
161).

21. They are three levels of experience/awareness, (i) rational, (ii) empirical, (iii)
spiritual, trans-empirical. At the level of trans-empirical awareness, reason and
experience is still valid but of a transcendental order. (IS, 162).

III
Dewesternization & islamization

22. Since what is formulated and disseminated in and through universities and other
institutions of learning from the lower to the higher levels is in fact knowledge
infused with the character and personality of Western culture and civilization and
moulded in the crucible of Western culture....our task will be first to isolate the
elements including the key concepts which make up that culture and civilization. (IS,
162).

23. These elements and key concepts are mainly prevalent in that branch of
knowledge pertaining to the human sciences, although it must be noted that even in
natural, physical and applied sciences, particularly where they deal with
interpretation of facts and formulation of theories, the same process of isolation of
the elements and key concepts should be applied; for the interpretations and
formulations indeed belong to the sphere of the human sciences.

24. The ‘islamization’ of present-day knowledge means precisely that, after the
isolation process referred to, the knowledge free of the elements and key concepts
isolated are then infused with the Islamic elements and key concepts, which in view
of their fundamental nature as defining the fitrah, in fact imbue the knowledge with
the quality of its natural function and purpose and thus makes it true
knowledge....True knowledge conforms with fitrah. (IS, 163).

25. It will not do to accept present-day knowledge as it is, and then hope to ‘islamize’
it merely by ‘grafting’ or ‘transplanting’ into it Islamic sciences and principles; this
method will produce conflicting results not altogether beneficial nor desirable.
Neither grafting nor transplant can produce the desired result when the body is
already possessed by foreign elements and consumed in disease. The foreign
elements and disease will first have to be drawn out and neutralized before the body
of knowledge can be remoulded in the crucible of Islam. (IS, 163).

26. The next important task is the formulation and integration of the essential
Islamic elements and key concepts to produce a composition comprising the core
(fard ayn) knowledge pertaining to insan, din, ilm, marifah, hikmah, adl, amal-adab,
and in reference to God, Revelation, Revealed Law, Sirah, Sunnah...(IS, 163-164).

27. In relation to fard kifayah knowledge, “the determining of the order of priority,
with reference to the individuals striving after the various branches of the knowledge

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of the sciences, will invariably depend on its relative usefulness and benefit to self,
society, and state respectively.” (IS, 165).

IV
General Reflections

1. Given our understanding of his method of Islamization, then the challenge for us
is to systemically reflect and research into how his method is to be applied towards
our evaluation of the modern sciences, and how and to what extent these can or
cannot be critically appropriated into the framework of Islamic Science and
Philsosophy.

2. Professor al-Attas himself has shown in some detail the manner by which he has
applied his method of Islamization to the disciplines of Malay Studies, psychology,
history, biology and evolution, education, linguistics, philosophy of science,
philosophy in general, and so on, and we need to re-study his manner of application
and then to extend it to the intellectual challenges posed by other disciplines in the
modern academia, including their implications for policy making and institutional
structuring of society.

3. We may illustrate the manner of this further application by drawing attention to

specific case studies in physics, biology, economics, agriculture, education, medical
ethics, human rights, politics, sociology, philosophy of science and philosophy in
general.

4. Please see the many relevant articles tackling the above concerns, mainly in the
Canadian journal, Islamic Sciences, http://www.cis-ca.org/islamscience1.php.

V
Some case studies

1. Islamic Science

Three meanings of Islamic Science, which refer to the integration of the two
meanings of history and philosophy of Islamic Science into a third operative
meaning, thus rendering Islamic science as a Long Term Scientiifc Research Program.
Please see the papers, Adi Setia, “ISLAMIC SCIENCE AS A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
PROGRAM: CONCEPTUAL AND PRAGMATIC ISSUES,” http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol3-
no1/adi-endmatter.pdf; & ISLAMIC SCIENCE AS A SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROGRAM:
CONCEPTUAL AND PRAGMATIC ISSUES, http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/vol3-no1/adi-
endmatter.pdf.

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2. islamic Economics

Meaning and purpose of ‘economics’ & the ‘economy’: Qaṣd, iqtiṣād, maqāṣid, tadbīr al-
manzil; please see Adi Setia, “The Meaning of ‘Economy’: Qaṣd, Iqtiṣād, Tadbīr al-Manzil”
(http://cis-ca.org/jol/JIS-14-1/JIS-14-1-endmatters-web.pdf).

3. sociology

Al-Ghazaliʾs Sociology—understood as the science that explicates the factors leading

individuals to come together to form communities and societies—boils down to his
concept of Farḍ Kifāyah, which he defines as the duty of providing capacity and
sufficiency to the Community through the cultivation of those beneficial sciences and
vocations upon which are structured the well-being of people = furūḍ al-kifāyāt min
al-ʿulūm maa yatarakkabu ʿalayhi maṣāliḥ al-ʿībād (Iḥyāʾ, Book 1). The flip side of these
is that many modern secular sciences and vocations don’t count as farḍ kifāyah since
they are actually very harmful to people, like much of modern science and
technology, eg., modern economics, agriculture, medicine. See Adi Setia, “Al-Ghazālī
on the Proprieties of Earning and Living: Insights and Excerpts from His Kitāb Ādāb al-kasb
wal-maʿāsh for Reviving Economies for Communities” (http://www.cis-ca.org/jol/JIS-11-
1/JIS-11-1-Adi.pdf).

4. medicine

We neeed to revisit and revive the concept and meaning and function of tibb in the
Islamic medical tradition, including rearticulating Tibb Nabawī as framework for a
revitalized contemporary Islamic Medicine Research Program. Along the way, we
need to adhere to the principles and practices of Medical Ethics, which are rooted in
Virtue Ethics as opposed to the new-fangled Bioethics which is thoroughly
instrumentalist, impersonal and utilitarian. Please see Adi Setia, “Islamic Ethics in
Engagement with Life, Health & Medicine” (forthcoming in Springer); see (google)
also Serdar Demirel, “A Theoretical Framework for al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī.” See also,
https://www.tibb.co.za/articles/islamic%20medicine%20revisited.pdf;
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4776947/;
https://en.shafaqna.com/95811/the-encyclopedia-of-islamic-herbal-medicine-by-dr-john-
andrew-morrow-a-book-review/.

5. agriculture

We need to rearticulate Filāḥah in relation to the foundations of civilizations and

their prosperity, and to revive the original meaning and practice of agriculture as
the culturing, nurturing and cultivation of the earth in harmony with the local social
ecological contexts. For more elaboration, please see:
http://www.filaha.org/introduction.html.

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6. politics

Rearticulating Siyāsah as tadbīr al-madīnah, which is basically the extension of ethics

into economics into politics, understood as the art and science of the judicious
administration of the city, and by extension the country as a whole, through creative
engagement with the relevant works of al-Marwārdī, al-Juwaynī, al-Ghazālī and the
Naṣīḥat al-Mulūk texts in general, and along the way engaging current debates on
democracy, monarchy and the nature and purpose of the government and the state.
In Malaysia, there is a real need to clarify the proper relation between parlimentary
electoral democracy and the constitutional monarchy, to integrate formal electoral
into substantive consultative and participatorial democracy, and to give a real
substantive role to the Monarchy as the stable transpolitical head of governement to
serve as a check against the tyrannical majority of partisan party politics and thereby
guarantee and secure the rights of minority and marginal groups like the Orang
Aslis, Pribumis and others. Please see:
https://assets.cambridge.org/97811076/87110/frontmatter/9781107687110_frontmatter.p
df.

Thank You!