Islam & Education: For the learning community (Paperback or Softback)

Knowledge is absolutely central to the deen of Islam as recorded in a multitude of texts, among which is: "seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim," men and women, not confined to the acts of worship, and indeed not restricted to what are thought to be 'Islamic' sources. Thus it is certainly time to take a long and careful look at the institution of education.

It seems we have three perspectives on this:

First, an unquestioning embrace of academia and existing secular educational institutions from the creche, kindergarten and primary school upwards;

Second, a retreat from the above to purely 'Islamic' sources, or what we might call 'the madrasa';

Third, a syncretic combination of both of those hoping to gain the best of both worlds.

A fourth way is here explored by the authors: gaining from the insight of the late Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi that, "Islam is not a culture, but a filter for culture," assiduously and critically taking the best of the Western canon along with the most traditional possible Islamic perspective.

It must be emphasised that this is not a theoretical text, for it emerges from communities that have consistently engaged with their own educational models which these papers represent.

Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi (1930-2021) entered Islam with the Imam of the Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, Morocco, and studied under Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib of Meknes and Shaykh Muhammad al-Fayturi of Benghazi.Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi has been responsible for the most far-reaching and successful Islamic Da'wa of the 20th and 21st century. He has founded mosques in England, Spain, Mexico and South Africa. His writings encompass well over 20 books and many essays and articles, and he has initiated the translation and publication of numerous classical works of Islam, most notably the Muwatta of Imam Malik and Ash-Shifa of Qadi 'Iyad.His students, many of whom are world-renowned and respected in their own fields, have been responsible among other things for definitive translations of the Qur'an into English and Spanish.

A lifelong educationalist in the Muslim community's schools in Granada under the tutelage of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi.

Uthman Ibrahim-Morrison was born to Jamaican parents in London and studied law as an undergraduate at UCL before going on to pursue postgraduate studies in applied linguistics at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He became Muslim in 1987 and had a leading hand in the establishment of the Brixton Mosque in South London in 1990. He became founder Chairman of the Blackstone Foundation educational trust in 1993 and presently lives in the city of Norwich as a prominent member of the well known Ihsan Mosque community, where he has been occupied with specialist teaching, writing and publishing since 1995.In his dual capacity as Chairman and Director of Education of the Blackstone Foundation he has played a key role in the development of innovative scholastic initiatives including the Norwich Academy for Muslims, the Wazania Academy for Girls, New Muslim Initiatives and most recently, the Muslim Faculty of Advanced Studies. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Dallas College in Cape Town and has regularly presented papers on Muslim schooling at educational conferences and colloquiums. He has also written extensively on the effect of Islam on the modern politics of African identity, as well as conducting related workshops.