A look into the Paradigm of Islamic thought and its relationship with Radicalism

A Look Into the Paradigm of Islamic Thought and Its Relationship With Radicalism

Islamic Pluralism as a Basis for Muslim Living

Islamic Pluralism as a Basis for Muslim Livin

Pushing the Ulama in the Philippines further

A step towards the migration of intellect towards higher understanding.

It is a grim realization that the ulama in the Philippines as a whole has not yet matured and reached its full potential. The label “Warasatul al-Anbiya” cannot be still appended to them.

One may see that even in the worldview that as a general concept, a lot of them hasn't come up to their counterpart from the other parts of world. At present, when one looks at the curriculum being used to train Ulama in the country we see a wide disparity. Indeed from how we look at it since the collective culture of the Muslims in this country hasn't evolved or matured, as a result even the religious institutions did not progress a bit further, with a few exceptions of certain Muslim intellectual and religious personalities; but as a whole the Philippine Muslim religious institutions need more than a face lift but an overhaul.

One may like to look at the curricular content in the educational institutions used to train Imam's and the religious. A simple survey would show that when we would try to match the curricular standard with he modern educational institutions training their Christian counterparts in the Philippines, they would lag really fa r behind. One couldn't even find equivalency between the madrasah's and the regular public educational system.

This is quite alarming, add to this, Filipino scholars sent abroad to study Islamic studies come hope ill-equipped and ill trained, due to several circumstances. Most of the Filipino Muslim's best minds have taken the path of secular knowledge like engineering, medicine and other fields, and normally those who have lesser educational opportunities due to various circumstances like not being able to pass the collegiate entrance exam, dismal academic ratings in public school system, financial incapacity to pursue further studies, one or several of these and other factors push these students to “study in Madrassah” not as an option but the only choice to gain an education and gain social acceptability in their conmmunities. Others who may be able to go abroad to continue their Religious studies abroad come home ill-prepared due to the fact that they were not fully trained in Arabic before leaving and specializing only in Arabic language and not in other fields only delimits them the capacity of becoming translators. And being unprepared intellectually to read the Islamic classics in Fiqh, Shari'ah and other Islamic fields also leads them further to translate and teach concepts even not within their reach or breadth of understanding. This has far-reaching consequences. Add t this the literalist-narrow-mindedness of Salafi ideology has led other Filipino Muslims to the Pitfalls of Radicalist fundamentalism.

With these things in mind, one may be induced to think, “could there be a probable solution, comprehensive so that to otherwise mitigate if not eradicate the problem?”.

Although indeed due to the perceived Government bias against Muslims due to the Mindanao conflict reservations of government intervention would be highly doubted and the fear of politicized intervention thus losing track of the original objective; still it is the best objective although to be done in another manner.

One of the things we have done was comparative analysis of the curricular content of Southeast Asian, Egyptian, Syrian Iranian and Western Islamic religious educational models and try adapting selective characteristics of these systems. When we were given an opportunity to design the Commission on Higher Education's BS Islamic Studies curriculum, we included these important facets thus , ensuring that even following the minimum standards set by CHED in BS Islamic Studies education, we can at least raise the quality of Islamic scholarship in the country.
In the case of Malaysia and Singapore, both countries allowed the profligation of Sufi-oriented Islam in their countries as well as allowing the proliferation of the Islamic classics and Islamic Philosophy. Even though the government takes an indirect hand in this matter, but allowing Sufi Islam to profligate is a good idea.

I would like to emphasize on record that despite the comments on the evolution of the Amercican Muslim movement, I personally believe that even their experiences are worth studying and emulating (except of course the theological evolution before the Honorable Late Warith Deen Muhammad took over the American Muslim religious institutions).


Perhaps by trying to do this, we can push the Ulama a step further in professionalizing themselves as we face more challenges.
More to come later.

A reflection on the Article “Childrens Environmental Rights” from an Islamic persepective

(The reaction is written in response to the conference paper presented by Atty Ronaldo Guttierez during the UNESCO World Philosophy day Conference “Power and Rights” held last 20 November at the Institute of Social Order Ateneo De Manila University.the article can be accessed at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/philophilippines/?yguid=333917463 )

The Holy Qur'an declares that man is the Vicegerent of God on Earth (khilafatul Ard) and that this trusteeship is divine in nature (amanah Ilahiyah). It is then in this context that this trusteeship is taken into the context of taking care of this divine piece of property so that the later generations (ummah) may benefit from it.

Sources from both the Qur'an and the Hadith express the divine injunctions of preserving the environment as part of a religious duty in the sense that if one does not take care of the environment, it appears that he has violated the divine injunctions for being God's trustee here on earth.

The context of protecting the environment in ensuring that future generations may enjoys it is of outmost importance that in the Islamic Rules on warfare written both in the Qur'an and the Traditions strictly prohibit any attacks made on the environment in the sense that the concept of warfare is directed at the opposing forces and that any other initiatives towards subjugation of the opposing force must be dealt with in a manner that may ensure that future generations may enjoy the fruits of a safe environment.

The fourth Caliph, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib (karamallahu wajhah) has said in one of his letters to his commander Malik Al-Ashtar, that; “in wars, we must ensure that it is only combatants we fight and no harm must be done to trees, to bodies of water or any physical resource that is of collective use of humanity. Since this collective resource is the property of the future suceeding generations.”

The Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu Alayhi wa alihi wa salam) even said, “The Physical resources we now have at our disposal is actually a loan from Allah (God) to be returned later for use of the later generations.”

Islam goes a level further, claiming that man in his original state exists in a way that adapts to nature and the nature of creation, meaning by nature Man should also follow self sustainability. However, due to his excessive greed he goes to the point of extracting much and forgettingthe later generations.

In a nutshell, the point from an islamic persepective on environmental rights can be summed up in a simple concise statement,

“We borrow the physical resources at our disposal from our later generations,we must then take care and utilize carefully so that they may use it for many generations.”

This is the context of Divine stewardship of the earth. KHILAFATUL ARD