IOS Calicut Chapter organises seminar on “Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi and the Integration of Knowledge”

February 8, 2020 at Calicut
 
 
Calicut: Institute of Objective Studies (IOS) Calicut Chapter organised an academic seminar on “The contribution of Dr Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi to the Integration of knowledge” on Saturday, February 8, 2020 here at its auditorium. The seminar was formally opened by Dr R Yusuf, the principal of Irshadiya College Feroke, Calicut. A PhD from IIU, Kuala Lumpur, he said that Al Faruqi was a thinker, writer and proposed the idea of Islamisation of knowledge as the first step towards a critical reappraisal of the sources of western knowledge. 
 
Dr Al-Faruqi was born in Palestine and his family went though horror and displacement due to Zionist invasion. 
 
Initially he was immersed in Arab nationalism, but latter shifted to Islam as he wanted to encounter the threats posed by the west to Islamic culture and civilisation. Dr Yusuf observed that once Al-Faruqi said in the beginning he had been an Arab, a Palestinian and a Muslim, but later understood that basically he was a Muslim. He questioned the alleged value neutrality of knowledge and conversely argued that the knowledge coming from West was not value-neutral.
 
KC Saleem, who translated Al-Faruqi’s “Tawhid, its Implications for Thought and Life”  into Malayalam in 1985 , said that the great scholar was able to revive and re-interpret  the comprehensive  nature of the term Ummah  and his articulation of Tawhid is one of most beautiful expositions of the unity of God in Islam. Dr Al-Faruqi argued that Muslims failed in modernising   themselves because they relied on models imported from the West.
 
 
Khalid Musa Nadvi, faculty of Islamia College, Kuttiadi delivered the key note speech. He said that Dr Al-Faruqi’s theory of Islamisation of knowledge influenced students and youth from 1980s till today and made them self-confident about their role in history. He added that some of the courses currently offered by many Muslim educational institutions are inspired by the idea of Islamisation of knowledge.
 
PV Shuhaib from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, presented a paper on the Work Plan of Integration of Knowledge.
 
 
CA Rauf in his paper critiqued the Brahmanical interpretation of Indian sociology.
 
 
Zeba Sherin went for a comparison between Islamic and western legal systems.
 
 
A paper on the principle of integration of knowledge was presented by KP Fathima Sherin. Nasiha binth Hussain dealt with the problems of rewriting Indian history. 
 
Prof. P Koya, the Coordinator, moderated the discussion and A A Vahab, the Secretary welcomed the audience.
 

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