basic principles in the formulation of curriculum for tertiary education with specific reference to...

8/7/2019 Basic Principles in the Formulation of Curriculum for Tertiary Education With Specific Reference to Humanities

1/4

i .

hjI

I I

IlIII

4 Muslim E duc ation Quarterlybeings and external nature we go back to Religious Sciences whose source isrevealed knowledge.

It is necessary for teachers and students not only to know theoreticallyabout knowledge but also to find its presentation in different branches andknow the teaching methodology as suggested earlier.

If we do not take it up immediately we are going to produce generationswho have lost senses of values, for whom now human life is meaningless-killing and looting and cheating are becoming day to day things, as if these donot matter. This is the condition in the West in spite of their long-standingtradition of education and the tradition of values based on ChristianisedGreco-Roman tradition. That tradition has been broken down, thwarted andspurned by new generations. The same is happening in Bangladesh.

Once education is reformed according to the broad lines suggested andexplained in detail in our books and repeatedly put forward in the editorials ofthis journal, it will be possible to rehabilitate Islamic values in education andthereby produce a new generation that will be able to face the satanicconspiracy to undermine al l human values in the name of secularism, educationfor all and freedom.

Even education cannot easily purify the mind if something is not doneto stop the evil influence of the corrupt programmes that are broadcast overthe tel evision and radio, especially the late night programmes sent round theworld through the satellites. Malaysia and Singapore governments havedeclared these programmes as illegal and all satellite programmes are banned inthose countri es. Even i n the normal programmes the religious norms of valuesare not upheld. In the name of freedom, the secularists attempt to underminethe reli gious norm and not give any substitute except the norm of the 'self'.The individual is placed in the category of "god" and the material self of theindividual is pandered to. Sex has become the most outstanding attraction.Thus children are made to lose all sense of shame and righteousness. Violenceis another physical item shown as the only true form of bravery. This is one ofthe major sources of making children lose their sense of modesty and theirsense of humanity.

It is only by the reassertion of the norm of values that all the fai ths havebeen teaching for generat ions and that Islam has always upheld that we cansave humanity from the disaster that may engulf the ent ire worl d i nto anothermuch more monstrous calamity. By getting away from faith into the arena offaithless, rootless non-morality we are proceeding towards self-destruction.

Syed Al i As hra f

Musli m E ducati on Qu ar terly, Vol. 13, No.1, 1995The IslamicAcademy, Cambridge, U.K.

BASIC PRINCIPLES IN THE FORMULATION OFCURRICULUM FOR TERTIARY EDUCATION WITHSPECIFIC REFERENCE TO HUMANITIES

Sye d Ali Ashra f

Using the word 'science' in the old western classical sense of 'scientia'(knowledge) I would like to divide it into three branches on the basis of threerelationships that can be conceived of human beings: God-Mankindrelationship, people to people relationship and Mankind-Nature relationship. Atthe centre is their relationship with God. This is 'Religious Sciences'. Thesecond kind of knowledge makes us aware of pur relationship with each otherand is called 'Human Sciences'. The third kind of knowledge makes us awareof external Nature and our relationship with it. This is known as 'NaturalSciences".' Of these three, the first is one of essentially 'Revealed Knowledge'and all ancillary branches of knowledge are based on the knowledge that wasrevealed t omankind by God directly through the prophets. The other two werecharacterised at the First World Conference on Muslim Educat ion held inMakkah in 1977 as 'Acquired Knowledge' ('ulum al-muktasibah), acquiredthrough human efforts though the knowledge is granted by God according tothe ability of the person getting it and according to that person's efforts.? Ofthese, 'Human Sciences' should be subdivided into 'Humanities' and 'SocialSciences' because their approaches and t he method of acquiring knowledge aredifferent. Imagination and emotive responses play the dominant role inacquiring the knowledge that we find enshrined in literature and fine arts. Thisis the sphere more of intuitive realisation than of discursive reasoning.Discursive reasoning is the main modus operandi for the acquisition ofknowledge that is known now as 'Social Sciences' such as History, Geography,Philosophy, Sociology, Economics, Political Science, etc.

In order to design a curriculum for the Humanities, it is necessary to takethis total concept of knowledge and understand the relationship that existsbetween Religious Sciences and the two other branches of knowledge.> Evenprior to this it is necessary for-us to realise that from the Qur' anic point ofview, knowledge in the sense in which God terms it as 'ilm, which ischaracterised by certainty, absoluteness and eternity, i s ava ilable only in therevealed Truth. All other branches of knowledge are to some extent 'relative'and 'conjectural' (?anril). Humanities, on the other hand, claim Truth,permanence and universality.s Writers and artists seem to act from the point of


2/4

-'~~:c_-t-~,..-~ ,~>. . '- '.' ,.;. I 6 Muslim Education Quarterly

view of some realised Truths however partial, individual and personal that truthmay be. It is because of its partiality and individual perception of reality that ithas to be differentiated from 'Revealed Truth'. That is why revealedknowledge was, and stil l is, central to Muslim education. Muslims still considerit central to their educational planning. The two other branches of knowledgemust derive their basic principles from the principles about human life andNature given in the revealed knowledge and the knowledge enshrined in thehuman manifestat ion and symbolisation of that knowledge in the sayings anddoings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him. Onlythen can we see human life as an integrated whole. This of course assumes thenecessity of faith. The justification of faith is in its impact on historicalsituation, the historical impact of the presence of the Prophet upon other humanbeings and on the society as a whole. In order to achieve this end it becomesnecessary to cultivate faith in revealed Truth from childhood onwards. Tocreate doubts in the minds of children about revealed knowledge is to leadthem away from their spiritual moorings. It is the duty of both teachers andparents, sothe Qur' an tells us, to nurture the true nature of the child, the naturethat responds to spiritual truths. This nurture implies not merely the cultivationof faith in God but also a similar cultivation of faith in Absolute values such asJustice, Mercy, Truth, Charity, Love and Righteousness all of which areenshrined in the names of God. God has implanted thei r roots in human nature.Nurture and hence education should help the child grow and flourish. The childshould grow up wi th the realisation that a human being isnot jus t a piece of dirtwith some intelligence somehow poured into its bodily frame but a completebeing who must be responsible for his orher ac tions, whose intuitive faculty isdeveloped and the infinite possibility of the person's mental and spiritualgrowth becomes a reality>Though Humanities is regarded as a branch of 'acquired knowledge' andhence does not have that completeness that revealed Truth possesses, itsintuitive method of realising Truth appears similar. Revealed Truth is grantedto human beings by God through His chosen people. It contains a completecode of life. Human beings are directly called by God to follow that code sothat they may be prepared physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially todrawcloser to Him by cultivating within themselves those values whose roots are inthe attributes of God and which God has planted within human beings aspotentialities. Except devotional literature which has the same or similar aims,literature in general tries to draw human beings out of their narrow cells andgive them a wider cognition of the reality as the writer sees it. Thus literaturealso tries to draw human beings away from the narrow limited boundaries oftheir own selves into the wider field of 'truths which, the writer feels,transcends the local, temporal, changeable reality." But, as literature and finearts are the products of individual realisation, the values manifested in themcannot be regarded as complete and whole as the values expressed throughrevealed truths are. These individually realised Truths must therefore beassessed in t he context of the whole in order to gauge their levels and ranges ofrealisation.

IJl

II I

1

f!1

The Formulation of Curriculum for Tertiary Education 7In order to organise the study of fine arts and literature at the tertiary

level, therefore, the following objectives should be kept in view: (1) Tosharpen the ability of emotive perception of truths so that falsity, cliches andcopies may not be mislead the reader, listener and viewer; (2) To widen therange of perception; and (3) To enable the reader to transcend the narrowrestrictive bonds of customs, conventions, ideologies and self-interests andknow the method of assessing the range and depth of the writers' or the artists', perception and presentation of Reality and their success in taking the audienceinto the realms of Reality.

These objectives assume the presence of the Higher Norm that God-givenRevealed Truths impart to mankind. Those Truths must become what T.E.Hulme calls 'the inevitable categories of mind'.? Teachers must be soaccustomed to them that they would see everything else through them evenwithout thinking about them. All human values which claim universality,essentiality and transcendence above and beyond day-to-day customs andassumptions are ultimately derived from the Absolutes that belong to God.Justice, Truth, Righteousness, Mercy, Charity are God's own attributes. Humanbeings possess them because God has endowed them with a spir it f rom HisOwn Spirit. 8 According to the Qur'an God has endowed that spir iAwith theknowledge of all His Qualities, the Qualities that He has used to create eachand every object in this universe .? That is why each objec t manifest s someQuality of God-His Beauty is reflected everywhere. His grandeur is evident inthe ocean, the sky or mountain ranges-in the whole of His creation. Hecreates, sustains and destroys and creates again. From early childhood, humanbeings show that they appreciate and understand Truth, Mercy and Justice. Allof them love also the other Divine Quality, Freedom. But they need propercultivation. Though human beings start seeing human activities and alsoexternal nature through these basic values without even realising that they aredoing so, it is necessary for their own ultimate good to be aware of them and tocultivate them. Otherwise passions and desires of the material se lves thathuman beings possess may twist and torture that vision of reality and leadhuman beings away from being just, truthful or righteous. To obey God and tofollow revealed truths is to help those forces of the Good to grow and flowerforth within ourselves. To study good and great literature and great works of artis to achieve the same ends partially or at least prepare grounds withinourselves for those values to flourish. Our qulub (hearts, sing. qalb), thespiritual organs of spiritual cognition, the seats of intuition are purified throughour attempts to cultivate those eternal virtues which are enshrined in the Namesof God. The study of great works of art and letters contribute towards thatattainment by purifying our passions, by the katharsis of our emotions andfeelings. \0

The basic difference between the effects of these two upon our selves istwofold. On the one hand by following revealed truths we gain acomprehensive and hence a balanced vision of the whole whereas by studyinggreat works our vision still remains partial. On the other hand, the visiongenerated by revealed truths commands and goads our hearts to realise our true


3/4

~

8 Muslim Education Quarterlyidentity through action, through good deeds, whereas the study of great worksleads us to contemplative consciousness and not to immediate action. Theeffect on our action is always then indirect and partial. We do not jump on thestage to kill Iago or Goneril but our consciousness of the forces of evil and ourrecognition of the processes, our expanding sympathy or the generation of'pity' purifies the mirror of our heart s and we rise the 'morrow' almost with thevision of the ancient mariner.Those who would prepare the curriculum for Humanities must thereforehave the necessary training to be able to assess what they are prescribing fromthe point of view delineated above. Those who consider literature and fine artsas subjects that would give some aesthetic pleasure and refine the emotivesensibility without the aims stated above, those who reject the higher norms oflife or the search for something eternal and permanent as the aims of all greatworks of art and letters, they will not be able to prepare a curriculum forHumanities that would lead the teachers and students to understand the integralrelationship among different branches of knowledge. The first prerequisite thenis the necessity of a group of scholars who accept the higher norm of humanexistence and are themselves in search of certainty, permanence anduniversality, whose minds have not been befogged by the shadows of theexternals and who want to see the Absolutes realised in contingentcircumstances. They are the people who understand that aesthetic pleasure isonly a means to lull the argumentative self asleep in order that the reader or theviewer or listener may lead into the stage of the contemplation of Reality. Onlythen education in the Humanities becomes complementary to religiouseducation. II

Actual curriculum therefore demands that an initial course should bedesigned to develop in students a proper critical approach, a course whichshould be both theoretical and practical. The present-day method of applyingcritical principles which do not show any awareness of the spiritual referentialframework stated above is insufficient and sometimes abortive in itsapplication. It brainwashes children and gets them habituated to expect somekind of aesthetic pleasure only. It does not rouse in them expectation of beingtransported into inner reality, into a realm of unity, permanence and certaintyeven when the writer fails to do so. What we need is 'ReconstructiveCriticism' .12 Teachers and students need this reconstructive approach so thateducation in Humanities is based on a central concept of humanity, so that theinevitable categories of the human mind become part and parcel of ourconsciousness. Only when you have an integrated curriculum based on acentral concept of humane nature, aims and objectives ofhuman existence anda higher norm of values whose absoluteness, centrality and universality areunquestioningly accepted can such a goal be achieved. As most of ouruniversities are based on the western concept of 'liberalism' which is anotherform of secularism, it becomes difficult to introduce such a central concept.Probably the best thing that the teachers in Humanities then can do is tointroduce this critical approach in their faculty and thereby make their facultyof Humanities the nucleus for the reconstruction of the entire education system.

' IljJ

The Formulation of Curriculum for Tertiary Education 9One facility that we have in liberal education should not be missed, thefreedom to introduce such courses provided they are not doctrinairilydictatorial. We who believe in what the humanists call the charter of humanrights and thus subscribe to the hidden curriculum that consists of unwrittenlaws of human behaviour most of which are derived from religion, should takethis opportunity to initiate an approach that would appear to be similar but thatwould take the teachers and students beyond the narrow, rather biased approach, towards deeper realisations.It is the cultivation of this approach to literature and fine arts throughtheoretical discussions and practical demonstrations that should form a coursefor all students of the university. Going back to what I have said regarding thedivision of knowledge into Religious Sciences, Human Sciences and NaturalSciences and the necessity of making it obligatory for all university students totake at least one course from Religious Sciences, two courses from theHumanities of which one should be from either literature or fine arts and onefrom Social Sciences and one course from Natural Sciences, I would like toinsist that this course in Reconstructive Criticism should be a FoundationCourse in Humanities (including literature and fine arts) for all students. Ifeducation in Natural Sciences is going to train the discursive intell igence ofstudents and help them to think logically, coherently, and also in symbols andthe education in Social Sciences is going to expand their vision and rouse theirsocial humanitarian sensibility, education in Humanities becomes a necessity totrain emotive responses to life and go deeply into the interior meanings of life,letters and language. Moreover, whereas the attention of Natural Sciences isgenerally confined to the material universe or the world of matter, and of SocialSciences to the world of facts about human life in society, the attent ion of theHumanities is fixed on the spiritual and moral dimensions of existence. That iswhy in the first year in the university, all university students need theseFoundation Courses including a course in Humanities. 13

As far as courses for specialisation in literature or fine arts are concerned,besides the general principle that stress should be la id on great and good works,other principles are more specific. I shall here discuss only the principles on thebasis of which courses in literature should be designed.

Besides a higher level course in methods of literary criticism there shouldbe at least one course in language that should deal wi th the essence of languageand meaning and style. The essence of a language is in its meaning, the essenceof the meaning is beyond sounds and alphabets. As language is the means ofcreating literature, a proper appreciation of literature is not possible without aknowledge of the essence of language. Speech is one of the essential Attributesof God. All revealed truths came through speech. It is speech which is themeans of creation. God says, 'Be' and 'it is'. The faculty of language is notman-made. It is God-given. It rests on the structure of the human nervoussystem and therefore cannot be taken as something created by the human being.It is intimately bound up with the structure of the brain. It is therefore innateand not acquired. 14 The diversity of languages indicate the ability granted byGod to use the sound systems in different ways and herein comes man's role in


4/4

,IjIIIiI!1'III

10 Muslim Education Quarterly.~

i1,

making different languages, and the acquisition of a particular languagebecomes a possibility. That the essence of a language lies i n i ts inner meaning,in what the mind and the heart or the qalb of the person wants to say or signifycomes out clearly when we see that some saints are capable of understandingwhat a person wants to say or is thinking in his/her mind even when the saintdoes not know the language of the person. It is this inner sense that a languageconveys which is untrans latable but which can st il l be reproduced in anotherlanguage. Metatinguistics has tried to enter into this deeper region of languageacti vi ty.t> A student of li terature shoul d t herefore know the differentapproaches to language that have developed in the last t hirty years and theimplications of this knowledge in the study of literature. Special emphasisshould be on semantics and stylistics and the significance of their application toliterature.

The next basic principl e i s the method of organising the course. Shouldthe emphasi s be only on great works of art or on the evolut ion of a particularliterature throughout i ts existence? In most cases a compromise formula hasbeen evolved. Historical division of literature into periods areaccepted but onlyselected few are studied from every period. In the case of English literature atthe University of Cambridge another new formula was used and is still beingused. For Preliminary and Part I of the Tripos examinat ions the historicalmethod has been adopted. But for Part IT Tripos the emphasis is on certainforms aswell . And here world literature provides the specific books or authors,not only English literature. This I think is a happy combination. In somecountries worl d literature i s introduced under the t itl e 'translation'. Tointroduce world literature through the study of some basic forms is a far betterapproach. Though students wi ll be reading l it erature produced in otherlanguages but translated into the language of their own land, their attention willnot linger on the appropriateness and success of translation.

Another principle focuses the attention of the readers on theinterrelationship between literary activity and the socio-cultural consciousnessof the people. I t i s somet imes entit led as a course in 'literature, society andculture'. It is otherwise known as a course in the sociology of literature. Thedanger of such a course l ies in t reat ing l iterature as a measuring stick for theliterary consciousness of people. Instead of helping students t o understanddepths and range of literature proper such a course turns into a means to assessthe shades of cultural consciousness of the people. Probably such a course maymake teachers and students conscious of an internal linkage between SocialSciences and Humanities and i s from that point of view, justified. But a sharpeye is necessary to guard the precincts of literature and never allow it to bedragged into a phenomenon in which literature starts getting treated almost as aform of sociology.

If the above principles are kept in view and courses are framed and taughtwith the intention of making and shaping good men and women, we willachieve great success. This is the way the supra-temporal, the metaphysical, theemotional and physical depths get blended into unity.

. .1j

The Formulation of Curriculum for Tertiary Education 11Notes1. This can berepresented as follows:

GODGod-Human BeingsRelationship (A)

HUMAN BEINGHuman Beings & HumanBeings Relationship (B)

HUMAN BEINGS NATUREThebasic principle for B and C are derived from the God-given code in A.2. See "Recommendations" in Conference Book, London-Jeddah, 1978.3. For further discussion see the two essays in Literary Educaiion and Religious Values by SyedAliAshraf and Stephen Medcalf, The Islamic Academy, 1984.4. Syed Dawalibi has discussed t his in detail in his book, Qur'iinic Epistemology of 'Ilm.5. About human nature see my article, "Education and Value s: Islamic vis-a-vis the SecularistApproaches" in Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol. 4, No.2, 1987. Allah says in the Qur 'an,"And I breathed into him of My Spirit" (15:29). See also, Qur'an 30:30 and Fri th jof Schuon,From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom Books, Bloomington, USA, pp. 5-7, 9-10.6. See S.A. Ashraf, "Literary Education and Religious Values" in Literary Education and ReligiousValues by SA Ashraf and S. Medcalf, The Islamic Academy, Cambridge, 1984.7. Speculations, ed. H. Read, Hudson, London, 1936, pp. 1950-51.

8. Qur'an 15:29.9. That is the Trust that God has given to Man. "Divine Names are the archetypes of all valuesmanifested in contin gent circumstances to be realised through action in the human world." SeeLiterary Education and Religious Values, ibid., p. 15, note 30. See also Schuon, UnderstandingIslam, Allen Unwin, London, 1963: "Man is a theomorphic being endowed with an intelligencecapable of choosing what leads to the Absolute" (p. 13).10. Similar to Aristotle's concept of Katharsis though the result as explained is deeper.11. S.A. Ashraf, in "Literary Education and Religious Values" In Literary Education and ReligiousValues, ibid., p.8.12. As against the whole principle of 'deconstruction'.13. See my proposal to King Abdulaziz University published in New Horizons inMuslim Education;London, 1985.pp. 95-97.14. Unpublished Professorial addres s by Professor Eric Fudge entitled, "Theolinguistics-Language,Man and God", pp. 7-8.15. See the works ofBenjamin Lee Whorf.

basic principles in the formulation of curriculum for tertiary education with specific reference to...

Documents