The aims of education: the forgotten truths

Bakar, Osman (2025) The aims of education: the forgotten truths. In: Education of the Interior: Essays in Honour of Professor Syed Ali Ashraf. Beacon Books, UK, pp. 39-57. ISBN 9781916955394

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Abstract

The main thesis presented in this chapter is that our modern systems of education have failed to address the fundamental human needs viewed in their totality, mainly because many thinkers and practitioners of education only have a vague understanding of what these fundamental human needs themselves mean. I refer to these needs as the forgotten truths in education, meaning that contemporary education would continue to be crisis-ridden unless we return to these forgotten truths. This chapter discusses the most important of these truths and their epistemological roles and functions in any proposed educational reform that is worthy of the name within the historical perspective of the revival of traditional Islamic thought in the post-colonial era. In particular, it addresses the issue of how to harmonize education of time-honoured human values that are at the core of humanness with education to generate new knowledge for society’s changing needs, both of which are necessary to the sustainment of society. The main objective of this essay is twofold. First, to identify and restate several of what may now be viewed as the main forgotten truths pertaining to the fundamental aims of education that, in the Islamic perspective, constitute its true purpose. Second, to reformulate the identified forgotten truths in the light of the present key challenges confronting Muslim education. The forgotten truths that we have in mind are not truths that have disappeared a long time ago from the collective memory of the Muslim ummah. Rather, the forgotten truths in question were last resurrected in modern times only about half a century ago when the so-called religious revival swept the Muslim world and indeed the whole ummah, including Muslim minority communities in both the East and the West, but only to disappear again from the radar of Muslim consciousness a generation later. In historical terms, half a century ago is only a recent past. So, it seems that in modern civilization, changes are occurring more rapidly and more fleeting than ever not only in the technological domain but also in the realm of ideas. From the traditional Islamic point of view, this kind of phenomenon of change and the attitudinal change that accompanies it, often for the worse, is a real cause for worry, especially when viewed in the light of the dominant philosophical belief in contemporary human thought that deifies change for the sake of change to the point of denying the very idea of permanence itself. The traditional belief based on the teachings of the Qurʾān and the Prophetic Ḥadīths affirms the position that the human mind needs to be continuously nourished by permanent truths that are to be complemented with truths of a transient nature. In other words, human needs are partly permanent and partly transient and changing with time. The rationale of the traditional Islamic position insisting on the idea of permanent truths as basic nourishments for the soul, particularly for its part that we call intellect-reason (al-ʿaql), and hence the idea of permanent human needs, is provided by the very nature of Reality itself. Both the Divine Reality and the human reality that, according to the Qurʾān, bears within itself the signs of God (āyātuʾllāh) dictate the fundamentality of the idea of permanent truths in human consciousness. It is education in its broad sense that provides the process of nourishment of the soul with absolute and relative truths furnished by both divine revelation (waḥy) and rational inquiry. If the process of intellectual nourishment in question has proved to be ineffective resulting in the permanent truths that serve as its staple food to be marginalized and subsequently forgotten, as what has actually happened to the truths about the true purpose of education, then there is an urgent need to conceive of a new educational curriculum and pedagogy that would be efficacious in delivering a good understanding of the forgotten truths.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Syed Ali Ashraf (1924-1998); Faith-based education; Foundations of Modern Muslim Education; Aims of Education.
Subjects:	BPL Islamic education L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB41 Aims and objectives of education. Sustainable education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB51 Systems of individual educators and writers
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Education International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) International Institute of Muslim Unity (IIMU) Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences Centre for Islamisation (CENTRIS)
Depositing User:	Prof Dr Osman Bakar
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2025 09:05
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2025 09:05
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/122572

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