Reviving the Muslim tradition of dialogue: A look at a rich history of Educational theory and institutions in pre-modern and modern times

Abstract

This paper aims to generate a debate within Muslim scholarship and comparative educators to engage in analysing both the institutions and the philosophy of education in Islam historically, to understand its present challenges and to create an environment conducive to dialogue between various civilizations and educational systems. At present Muslim parents, teachers and students in contemporary educational systems face a big challenge. On one hand, a modified system of Western education is likely to leave Muslim children exposed to a set of an underlying set of secular values and assumptions which are alien to the spirit of Islam, but on the other hand Muslim schools of the old style seem unable to prepare children adequately for the needs of the modern world or to help them take part in the scientific, technological and economic progress (Halstead, 1995). At the core of this issue lies the lack of knowledge of both Western educators and contemporary Muslim theorists regarding the rich tradition of education and scholarship in Islam that ensured the coexistence of the religious and the secular through dialogue with other traditions.