jurnal qalbu 4.4 (dis 2017): 80-104 problems of...

Kushimoto Hiroko, “Problems of Islamic Education in Colonial and Post-Colonial...”,

Jurnal Qalbu 4.4 (Dis 2017): 80-104

80

PROBLEMS OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION IN COLONIAL

AND POST-COLONIAL MALAYSIA

- AN ANALYSIS BASED ON AL-ATTAS’S NOTION OF

KNOWLEDGE

Kushimoto Hiroko

International Islamic University Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the history of Islamic learning and

its relationship with the modern national education system in Malaysia to

reveal the underlying common issue of the education in the Muslim

society. Applying al-Attas’s critique of modern Muslim education and the

ideas of post-colonial critique of the power behind the knowledge

production and distribution, the article reveals the indifference of Muslim

leaders toward the worldview behind the modern education system. Based

on the analysis of a Malay Islamic journal “Pengasuh” in the early 20th

century, of the process of establishment of modern religious schools and

of the contemporary school textbooks for Islamic education, it shows the

evidence that the Malay Islamic leaders have ignored the differences in the

meaning of learning. As a result of the integration into the national

education system, learning Islam was given a new meaning in the context

of the national, social or the “secular” purpose of education, just as al-Attas

has warned for the past four decades.

“It seems to me important to emphasize

that knowledge is not neutral, and can

indeed be infused with a nature and

content which masquerades as

knowledge. Yet it is in fact, taken as a

whole, not true knowledge, but its

interpretation through the prism, as it

were, the world-view, the intellectual

vision and psychological perception of

the civilization that now plays the key role

in its formulation and dissemination”.

-Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

(1977: 20)



81

Keywords: Traditional Islamic learning, modern education system, post-

colonial, integration.

Introduction

“Knowledge is not neutral”. This is the statement that Prof Naquib

al-Attas and Prof Wan Mohd Nor have repeated for more than four

decades1. For me, this statement is a starting point to understand

their call for de-Westernization and Islamization. However, the

concept of Islamization seems to be understood in different ways by

both Muslims and non-Muslims and little attention has been paid to

the general statement.

The importance of the statement lies in the possibility to

connect the problem of Islamization with the wider discussion of

post-colonialism in education and knowledge. The timing when al-

Attas presented the issue in the Mecca conference on Islamic

education is noteworthy. It was in the 1970’s when the scholars of

the post-colonialism raised questions of the continuous domination

of the former colonizers over newly independent countries. The

scholars discussed that the continuous subordination of non-

Western societies was strongly related to the production and

dissemination of knowledge. Herbert Schiller described the

international flow of mass media as “cultural imperialism” to

criticize the US dominance in cultural products that undermined the

cultural autonomy of the Southern countries and create their

continuous dependency2. Edward Said’s Orientalism was published

in 1978 and brilliantly revealed how knowledge is produced based

on the view of those who have the power to do it3.

They all argued the same issue that the knowledge

disseminated in the modern world reflects the worldview and

perception of those who play key role in its formulation and

dissemination. However, the connection was not clearly mentioned

1 Wan Mohd Nor, Wan Daud, The Educational Philosophy and Practice of Syed

Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas: An Exposition of the Original Concept of

Islamization (KL: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization

(ISTAC), 1998), 72; al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, Preliminary Thoughts

on the Nature of Knowledge and the Definition and Aims of Education (1977),

20. 2 Sciller, H, Communication and Cultural Domination (New York: International

Arts and Sciences Press, 1976), 58. 3 Said, E, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978), 31.



82

until Professor Wan Mohd Nor put the issue of de-Westernization

and Islamization in the context of post-colonialism in his

professional inaugural lecture4.

If the problem of the education in the Muslim society is the

“non-neutral” nature of the knowledge, in other terms the imbalance

in the production and dissemination of the knowledge, the

fundamental danger lies in the ignorance of the nature when they

accept the system and content of modern education. In fact, the

ignorance repeatedly appears in the history of modern Islamic

education in Muslim countries including Malaysia. It is true that

Malaysian Muslim made great efforts to educate the society to

increase knowledge and concern on Islam. It is evident in their

challenge to integrate Islamic knowledge and values into national

education system. However, reflecting the history of Islamic

education in Malaysia, it is found that little serious discussion

occurred about the nature of the modern education.

In this article, I would like to show the historical and

contemporary evidences of the indifference of Malaysian Muslim

about the nature of modern education, knowledge and its

consequences. The first part leads the discussion back to the early

20th century when the Muslim leaders began to introduce modern

education system to the teaching of Islam without question. The

second part describes how the traditional institutions of Islamic

learning, namely pondoks, introduced modern education system

without investigation of the merit and demerit. The third part

analyzes the textbook of “Islamic education” in the national

education system to find out the consequence of “Islamization”

after the dakwah movement.

1. Teaching Islam in Modern School System – the beginning

The early 20th century was the time when the Malay Muslim leaders

began to discuss how to integrate the modern elements of education

into Islamic learning. The first Islamic school that integrated

modern subjects and system is believed to be the madrasah al-Iqbal

established in Singapore in 1907. Similar kind of madrasah spread

4 Wan Mohd Nor, Wan Daud, Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the

Role of University in the Context of De-Westernization and decolonization

(Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2013), 10.



83

throughout the Malay Peninsula by the 1930’s. By the time, many

leaders of traditional institutions of Islamic learning (pondok) began

to establish madrasah with some elements of modern schools in

addition to their traditional learning.

This development is often discussed in former studies as the

influence of kaum muda, the young group or those who were

inspired by Islamic reformism. Previous studies generally accepted

the claim that the new madrasah played the role to spread the ideas

of kaum muda5. Accordingly, such studies tend to describe the

spread of madrasahs as a result of the influence of progressive

reformist ideas6. However, I would like to argue here that there were

no dispute over the introduction of modern systems such as grades,

classes and examinations between kaum muda and the opposite

group, kaum tua or the group of traditionalists. Rather, the Muslim

leaders of both group shared similar idea of “learning” that is

influenced by modern education without serious consideration of its

nature.

To show this tendency, the following discussion analyses

the articles in Pengasuh, a Malay journal written in Arabic script

(Jawi). Pengasuh was published by the Majlis Agama dan Adat

Istiadat Melayu Kelantan (the Kelantan Council for Religion and

Malay Customs, below mentioned as Majlis Agama), and its

maiden issue was in 1918. The articles used in this part were

published in Pengasuh from 1918 until 1922.

I selected Pengasuh first because it has been rather ignored

in the previous studies, compared to kaum muda journals such as

al-Imam and al-Ikhwan. As a journal published by the Majlis

5 Roff, William, “Kaum Muda – Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction amongst the

Malays, 1900-1941,” In Papers on Malayan History, K. G. Tregonning ed.

(Singapore: Journal South-East Asian History, 1962), 162-192; Muhammad

Ridzuan Othman, Islam dan Masyarakat Melayu: Peranan dan Pengaruh Timur

Tengah (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit University Malaya, 2005), 115; Khoo, Kay

Kim, “Perkembangan Pelajaran Agama Islam,” In Pendidikan ke Arah

Perpaduan, Awang Had Salleh ed. (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1980),

1-36. 6 For example, Rosnani Hashim, Educational Dualism in Malaysia: Implications

for Theory and Practice (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1996), 26;

Tan, Linda, “Syed Shaykh: His Life & Times,” In The Real Cry of Syed Shaykh

al-Hady, Alijah Gordon ed., (Malaysian Sociological Research Institute, 1999),

109-162.



84

Agama, Pengasuh has the possibility to show a view of modern

education that was shared by the Muslim leaders and educationists

who were not kaum muda7. Pengasuh was once categorized by

William Roff as a journal of kaum tua8. It is true that Pengasuh was

edited by those who had opinion of kaum tua, if the meaning is

limited to their position in the fiqh that follows opinion of scholars

of the same school (mazhab). However, closer analysis shows that

Pengasuh was not necessarily against kaum muda. Indeed, it

welcomed contributors from kaum muda figures such as Tahir

Jalaluddin, the first editor in chief of al-Imam, and Zainal Abidin

Ahmad or Za’ba, the well-known writer and educator who was also

a student of Tahir Jalaluddin9. While Pengasuh strongly hold the

legal school and opinion of predecessors, it also supported the

opinion of kaum muda figures that promote social reform and

modernization including the modern education system.

The overriding claim of the article in Pengasuh from 1918

to 1922 was the importance of education for the progress of nation.

For example, Za’ba who continuously contributed articles to

Pengasuh wrote that,

“The difference between us and

westerners including British, French and

others…is the lack of education

(pelajaran) that is the most serious

disease in the world.…It is education that

sharpens our reason and it is knowledge

7 For the detailed discussion about the concept of kaum muda – kaum tua and the

position of Pengasuh, please see (Kushimoto, 2012, 212-223). I argued that the

distinction of kaum muda and kaum tua as a framework of academic analysis

should be limited to the different attitude toward the transmission of Islamic

knowledge, weather they follow the legal school and accept the intermediate

authorities or not. This redefinition is to show that “traditional” attitude toward

the legal school does not always lead to the negative attitude toward social

reform and modernization. 8 Roff, William, “Kaum Muda – Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction amongst the

Malays, 1900-1941,” In Papers on Malayan History, K. G. Tregonning ed,

(Singapore: Journal South-East Asian History, 1962), 79-80. 9 Kushimoto, Hiroko, “Islam and Modern School Education in the Journal

Pengasuh: Review of the Kaum Muda - Kaum Tua Dichotomy,” Studia Islamika

19, no. 2 (2012): 216-223.



85

that enables us to discern the bad and

good.”10

The other contributor said,

“There is no way for you to benefit

(memberi manfaat) your country except

by learning and knowing. If you love

your motherland (tanah air) …you

should share your knowledge to them

[people].”

The articles often emphasized Western countries

(especially United Kingdom and United States) and Japan as

exemplars of progressive nations through education. In those

articles, the contributors do not make distinction of the

“knowledge” of Islamic teaching and others. We can see this

tendency in the quotations above where the writers use expression

of the meaning of knowledge as “knowledge that enables us to

discern the bad and good” or “to benefit (memberi manfaat)” that is

often used in the context of Islamic learning.

The same tendency is found in the use of the term

“madrasah” that is interchangeable with “school”. An article by

Abdullah Haji Yunus states: “the supremacy (ketinggian) is

produced through the madrasah (school [sekolah])11 and all kinds

of beneficial learning”, providing a strong belief on supremacy

through madrasah. Citing Europe, America and Japan, he

emphasized that if a country recognizes the importance of

knowledge, it achieves the higher position (tinggi keadaannya).

Indeed, they insisted that both of the knowledge for “life in the

world and hereafter” should be combined. Then whatever the area

of knowledge is, the learning will help the development of society.

The articles also emphasize the importance of systematic

education for religious learning. For example, Za’ba criticized the

10 Patriot, “Menuntut Kemuliaan dan Kemenangan,” Pengasuh no. 8 (20 October

1918): 1. 11 Here “madrasah” is explained as “sekolah (school)”. There are other examples

in early Pengasuh that use “madrasah” for non-religious schools ex. [Pengasuh

no.53 (15 August 1920)]. “Madrasah” seems not to be limited to religious

school as is found in contemporary usage.



86

ignorance of Malay people because of the lack of religious

education (pelajaran agama Islam) except such matters as the

intentions of prayer and fasting that is regarded as shameful to be

ignorant. The religious education of contemporary children is just

the same as their fathers’,

“The system (jalan aturan) is not like in

the schools but it depends only on the

effort of parents either to teach by their

own or to send their children to study in

the teachers’ house or prayer houses, [the

teachers] who are only qualified with

their title as haji and wearing white cap

(kopiah) or long dress (jubbah) with their

turban. Once they finished reciting whole

al-Qur’an, it is regarded “done” without

paying attention to the correctness of

their recitation.

He also criticized that even in the college that was well

known [for religious education], the religious teacher is alone with

low salary and the classes are not given by turns or separately

according to the level of knowledge. He pointed out that both of the

teachers and students did not take the class seriously and “this is the

situation caused by the lack of sufficient system and method (aturan

dan qawaid)12. After a long description of the problems of religious

education, Za’ba concluded that it is only for the government,

people of influence and the committees (majlis) of Malays that we

can entrust the realization of their wish. Such expectation for that

the government and powerful people to be responsible for the

education is not special for Za’ba. It is rather the common view

reflected in the Pengasuh writings or articles is for religious

learning to be under the control of the state government or ruler (the

Sultan)13.

12 “Patriot” “Leteran Pelajaran Agama pada Umat Melayu,” Pengasuh no. 21 (1

May 1919): 3. 13 An example is found in the discourse that the achievement of dignity and wealth

as the result of knowledge can only be achieved through the “support of Sultan

and the men of influence”. Pengasuh no. 52 (30 July 1920): 6.



87

These discussions of education in Pengasuh corresponds

the warning of al-Attas about the purpose of Islamic education;

The purpose of seeking knowledge in

Islam is to inculcate goodness in man as

man and individual self. The end of

education in Islam is to produce a good

man, and not – as in the case of Western

civilization – to produce a good citizen14.

The articles in Pengasuh clearly shows that their idea of

“education” is strongly connected to the “nation”, as it is typically

seen in the modern education system. Al-Attas is not against the

education for good society, “since society if composed of people,

making every one or most of them good produces a good society15”.

However, he draws our attention to the danger in the education for

social purpose;

When the exercise of tarbiyah

conceived as education is transferred over

the state, there is danger that education

becomes a secular exercise, which is what

is happening in fact16.

Pengasuh was written and read by those who insisted the

importance of traditional Islamic learning. Many previous studies

assumed that there was a conflict between those who promoted the

modern kind of religious education and those who hold the

traditional ones. However, even in this kind of journal, there is little

evidence of the sense of fear or being suspicious about the nature of

modern education. Rather, the contributors seem to take modern

education for granted and supported the development. This

tendency is found in the usage of the terms. The terms “madrasah”

and “sekolah (school)” are used interchangeably and the term for

“education” is “pelajaran” in both contexts of religious and non-

religious learning. Then the purpose of “pelajaran” is explained as

14 al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, The Concept of Education in Islam: A

Framework for and Islamic Philosophy of Education (KL: ABIM, 1980), 22. 15 ibid, 25. 16 ibid, 30.



88

the “development of the nation” and those responsible are primarily

the government.

The discussion of education in Pengasuh indeed stressed

the importance of education, especially religious education.

However, their concept of “education” is understood as the

production of good citizens to help development of the nation. This

is an early example of the confusion among Muslims that al-Attas

has repeatedly warned. The danger of secularization is not always

in the rejection of religion, but it can be embedded in the effort to

promote something “Islamic” by putting it into the modern system.

2. Modernization of the religious schools – the role of al-Azhar

as a model

The analysis of Pengasuh implies that there was no dispute over the

introduction of modern systems to the process of Islamic learning.

In fact, it was the tok gurus of pondoks and those who were assumed

to be kaum tua or at least non-kaum muda who contributed to

establish madrasahs. Then why did the tok gurus easily accept the

new system and even took initiative to change their education to suit

the modern system of education?

In order to answer the question, this section focuses on the

role of al-Azhar in Egypt as the model of modern religious schools

in Malaya. It might seem the same as the previous discussion that

took Egypt as the source of modern Islamic reformism, but the focus

here is on the actual education system in al-Azhar which was not

necessarily based on the idea of reformism. Establishment of

madrasah in Malaya can be interpreted as the reaction to two

phenomenon; one is the expansion of opportunity for education

among Muslims in Malaya/Malaysia and another is the

modernization of al-Azhar education system in Egypt.

In the world of traditional Islamic learning in the Malay

world, Mecca had been regarded as the ultimate destination of

learning. The trend began to change during the turn of the century

when some prominent ulama such as Wan Ahmad al-Fatani (1856–

1908)17 explore the path of religious learning in Egypt then

17 According to Wan Mohd Saghir, Ahmad al-Fatani was the first student from

Southeast Asia to move from Mecca to study at the great masjid of al-Azhar. He

later returned to Mecca where, as noted in the previous chapter, he played a

prominent role with the Southeast Asian Muslim community. However, he

remained highly appreciative of his time at al-Azhar and recommended that his



89

recommended their students to study there in addition to Mecca18.

The great mosque of al-Azhar has been a center of Islamic

knowledge for centuries since its establishment in 970. However, it

was not something we imagine with the term “university” until early

20th century. Al-Azhar in the late 19th century was described as a

“chaos” that lacks the “order” of modern schools. The teachers “do

nothing but sit at a pillars of the mosque giving lessons, without

bothering to record the presence or absence of student and the

students were moving “haphazardly from professor to professor,

passing from one text to another”. There was no space to

accommodate a thousand of students of every age and the place was

very noisy with perpetual movement of people19.

The transformation of Al-Azhar into a modern institution

for religious education began in the 1870s, with the introduction of

new subjects and new methods of examination. The first significant

change in the system came with a law passed in 1896 under the

influence of Muhammad Abduh, who had argued for the

modernisation of Al-Azhar. The law introduced a new system of

eight years of secondary education and four years of higher

education, with certificate examinations at each level. However, it

was not until 1911 that the process of drastic transformation into a

modern institution really began for Al-Azhar. Eccel refers to the

transformation that occurred after the law of 1911 as

‘bureaucratisation’, and point out that numerous institutions for

religious instruction all over Egypt were arranged into a hierarchy

that placed Al-Azhar at the top20. The whole system was divided

into three levels: elementary, secondary and higher education,

students study there. He studied in Egypt for seven years, including the period

from 1876 to 1879, when he wrote and published several poems and books (Wan

Mohd Saghir, 2005: 43–53). 18 Kushimoto, Hiroko, “Azharization of Ulama Training in Malaysia” in Shaping

Global Islamic Discourses: The Role of al-Azhar, al-Madinah and al-Mustafa,

Masooda, Bano and Keiko Sakurai ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

2015), 190-218. 19 Mitchell, Timothy, Colonising Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press,

1988), 80-81. 20 Eccel, A. Chris, Egypt, Islam and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and

Accommodation (Berlin: K. Schwartz, 1984), 281.



90

which were allocated four years each21. The economic base of the

education system also changed during this period. After the

independence of Egypt in 1922, the Egyptian government began to

control the waqf income that had supported the autonomy of the

ʿulamaʾ of Al-Azhar. This policy, designed to break the economic

base of the ʿulamaʾ, was completed in 1954 under the Nasser

regime22.

The reform contained in the law of 1930 was equally

important: it aimed to ensure employment for the university’s

graduates. It was at this time that the name of the four-year higher

educational institution was changed from ‘mosque’ (jāmiʿ) to

‘university’ (jāmiʿa); the university’s degrees were also made equal

to that of national universities23. The elementary and secondary

levels were rearranged into four years of elementary (ibtidāʾīyya)

and five years of secondary (thanawīyya). Students who passed the

last examination in the secondary school were given a certificate

titled shahāda al-thanawīyya24, and the portion of secular subjects

was increased to up to thirty percent of the curriculum. Eccel refers

to this feature of the transformation in the 1930s as

‘professionalisation’25.

The development of modern religious schools in Malaya

closely followed the shifts in Al-Azhar. Muslim leaders saw the

British schools as problematic, not only because of the limited

opportunities they provided for Muslims but also because of the

lack of religious education. Thus, ʿ ulamaʾ trained in the Middle East

took initiatives to establish modern religious schools to provide

alternative educational opportunities for Malay children. For

example, Madrasa Hamidiah (now known as Maktab Mahmud) was

opened in Alor Star, Kedah, in 1914. The initiative was taken by

Wan Sulaiman Wan Sidik (1874–1935), who studied in Mecca and

served as shaykh al-Islam in Kedah. Wan Sidik invited two Arab

21 Bayard Dodge, Al-Azhar: A Millennium of Muslim Learning (Wasington, D.C.:

The Middle East Institute, 1961), 140-1. 22 ibid, 143-7. 23 Eccel, A. Chris, Egypt, Islam and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and

Accommodation (Berlin: K. Schwartz, 1984), 280. 24 Muḥammad ‘Abdul Mun ‘im Khafājī, Al-Azhar fī Alfi ‘Ām: al-Juz’u al-Thānī

(Qāhirat: Maktabat al-Kullīyat al-Azhar, 1987), 131. 25 Eccel, A. Chris, Egypt, Islam and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and




91

ʿulamaʾ, from Mecca and Al-Azhar respectively, to teach in the

madrasa, and imported textbooks from Egypt as well.26 In 1938, a

teacher who had graduated from Al-Azhar was appointed as

principal. He reformed the system of the madrasa into a seven-year

curriculum based on the model of the Al-Azhar secondary school.

In 1955, the system was further developed into a twelve-year

programme to prepare students to enter Al-Azhar University. The

courses were divided into three levels, elementary, lower secondary

and upper secondary, and each level was four years in length.

Another example is Madrasa Muhammadiyah (now known

as Maahad Muhammadi), opened by the Kelantan Council of

Religion in 1917. In the beginning, it had only three grades for boys

between nine to fifteen years old and used Malay as the medium of

instruction – some textbooks were imported from Egypt and

translated into Malay for that purpose27. However, in 1937 it was

developed into a four-year course based on the agreement and

support of Al-Azhar28. The madrasa was further reformed into a

nine-year curriculum based on the three levels of Al-Azhar

education, elementary (ibtidai), lower secondary (idadi) and upper

secondary (thanawi),29 which were each allocated three years.

Maahad Muhammadi’s certification was recognised by Al-Azhar in

1960 and some students from the school entered Al-Azhar

University for the first time at the end of the 1960s30.

The application of the Al-Azhar system was not limited to

schools – such as Maktab Mahmud and Maahad Muhammadi – that

are related to the religious administration of the state government.

In the 1930s and 1940s, many similar schools were established on

the model of these famous schools. Most of these schools were

26 According to a letter received by the office of Shaykh al-Islam Kedah, the books

were imported from Cairo without mentioning Al-Azhar (“Purchase of Arabic

Books”, 1922). 27 Abdul Razak, Mahmud, MAIK: Peranannya dalam Bidang Keagamaan,

Persekolahan, dan Penerbitan di Kelantan Sehingga 1990 (Kuala Lumpur:

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2010), 104. 28 Muhammad Yunan, Mahmood, Sejarah Maahad Muhammadi 1937–1997 (Kota

Bharu: Maahad Muhammadi Lelaki, 1997), 7-9. 29 These Arabic terms can be spelled in various ways in Romanized Malay. 30 Abdul Razak, Mahmud, MAIK: Peranannya dalam Bidang Keagamaan,

Persekolahan, dan Penerbitan di Kelantan Sehingga 1990 (Kuala Lumpur:

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2010), 45-52.



92

supported by donations from the local community or from the

private property of the family of the supreme leader of the school

(tok guru). They received no official support and there were no

offices to supervise the administration and curriculum – this was,

then, a totally independent effort on the part of religious leaders to

adopt the model of Al-Azhar.

Al-Azhar was further reformed as a modern university

under Nasser in the 1950s, Al-Azhar University and its elementary

and secondary schools having come fully under the control of

Nasser’s government after the revolution in 1952. The budget for

Al-Azhar came to be distributed by the government and the funding

was increased31. In general terms, opportunities for education and

employment were expanded under the new government. The

standardised examination system was introduced to prepare for the

expansion of higher education. This pushed Al-Azhar to place more

stress on non-religious subjects in order to ensure the employment

of graduates and attract students. In 1960, Al-Azhar opened new

faculties of Commerce, Engineering, Agriculture and Medicine, in

addition to the traditional Arabic and Islamic departments. A 1961

law decreed that a certificate from the Al-Azhar secondary school

would qualify a student to enter any university in Egypt, making the

Al-Azhar school stream entirely equal to the government school

system32. The modern reform of Al-Azhar made the institution a

part of Egypt’s national education system and so made the ʿulamāʾ

a part of the bureaucratic school system.

In tandem with this transformation, since the 1920s Al-

Azhar had been accepting more and more foreign students. This

policy was further accentuated in the 1950s when Al-Azhar

provided generous scholarships for foreign students, contributing to

a rapid increase in their numbers, especially from Asian countries33.

The preparatory course for foreign students (Maʾahad Buʾuth) was

established as well. The first college for female students was opened


The Middle East Institute, 1961), 166. 32 Muḥammad ‘Abdul Mun ‘im Khafājī, Al-Azhar fī Alfi ‘Ām: al-Juz’u al-Thānī

(Qāhirat: Maktabat al-Kullīyat al-Azhar, 1987), 222-3. 33 Eccel, A. Chris, Egypt, Islam and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and




93

in 1962, and the number of female foreign students increased in the

1970s34.

The introduction of the Al-Azhar curriculum up until this

point had been an independent effort without any institutional

support. The first active official initiative for standardisation based

on the Al-Azhar curriculum began in the 1970s. The state religious

councils, which first appeared in Kelantan in 1915, had been

established in all thirteen states by the early 1970s. These religious

councils began to provide financial support to the independent

religious schools, and in some cases provided these schools with

concrete sets of guidelines. Kelantan was one of the earliest states

to import the standardised curriculum based on Al-Azhar. One of

the reasons for this initiative was the declining popularity of

religious schools, which had resulted from the expansion of

educational opportunities for Muslims in the government school

system.

Educational opportunities for Muslims, the majority in

Malaysia, rapidly expanded after the late 1960s. The language of

secondary schools was gradually switched from English to Malay,

and the number of Malay students increased from 2,315 in 1957 to

28,067 in 1964. The abolition of entrance examinations for

secondary schools in 1964 caused the number of students to jump

to 294,832 in 197535. In addition to the language policy, the New

Economic Policy (NEP), initiated in 1971, further promoted

educational opportunities for Malay students. These policies led to

the establishment of various universities and colleges in the early

1970s and a rapid increase in the number of Malay Muslim students.

This expansion of educational opportunity in the

government school system resulted in a decrease in the number of

students in religious schools. Kelantan, for example, which for

centuries had been the largest centre of religious learning, had 182

religious schools in 1962, but the number dropped to 158 in 1968


The Middle East Institute, 1961), 158, 221 35 Sufean, Hussin, Pendidikan di Malaysia: Sejarah, Sistem dan Falsafah (Kuala

Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1993), 40.



94

and 89 in 197236. One of the responses to this was an initiative on

the part of religious schools and state religious offices to introduce

the Al-Azhar curriculum more systematically, in order to ensure

greater opportunities for higher education. The Kelantan state

religious council introduced a standardised curriculum,

examinations and a certificate 1971. The introduction of a

standardised certificate abolished the certificates that had been

previously issued individually by each school. Although other states

soon introduced similar policies, the pressure for standardisation

remained weak. In Kedah, the religious council only offered

guidelines such as a list of textbooks and the choice of curriculum,

while the certification was issued by each religious school.

The modernization of religious school was the consequence

of two phenomenon; one is the expansion of national education

system in Malaya and the modernization of Al-Azhar as the full-

fledged university. The tok gurus of pondoks had little question in

transforming their system of learning to suit the national education

system because it was on the intention to protect religious education

against the quick expansion of almost secular national schools.

Furthermore, the existence of Al-Azhar as the model of religious

institution in the form of modern education system convinced the

tok gurus to believe that the change will not only never harm the

religious education but even gives advantage to it. Again, there is

no hint of critical discussion of the nature of modern education that

might reflect different worldviews and change the meaning of

religious learning.

3. Meaning of religious learning in the modern schools –

analysis of textbooks

If there is any possibility that the introduction of modern education

system changes the nature of religious learning, what kind of

consequences can we find? The last example that support the

importance of al-Attas’s warnings is the integration of “Islamic

studies” in the national curriculum. After the independence, the

national education system in Malaysia was developed based on the

previous system of the colonial time. The religious education was

36 Abdul Razak, Mahmud. MAIK: Peranannya dalam Bidang Keagamaan,

Persekolahan, dan Penerbitan di Kelantan Sehingga 1990. (Kuala Lumpur:

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2010), 62.



95

naturally not the central matter in the system even when the teaching

of Islam was included in the national curriculum based on the

Education Ordinance of 1957. The subject for Islamic learning was

not subject of the national examination thus teachers and parents

tend to be less serious about the subject. In addition, Islamic value

was not seen as something that should be realized in the whole

school experience. These problems are raised as one of the central

issues in the dakwah movement in 1970’s.

The dakwah movement in Malaysia resulted in

implementation of a series of policies that focused on integration of

Islamic values. The policies, often called as “Islamization policy”

by the observers, covered wide area from economy to legal system.

Education was one of the area that showed most of obvious

consequence of the trend. The establishment of International

Islamic University Malaysia (1983) was the most symbolic event

during the time, besides the introduction of the “Integrated

Curriculum” (KBSM) that affected the whole nation’s experience

of Islamic learning. Besides the national schools, the Islamic

movements such as Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM)

established private Islamic schools that combined the national

curriculum with the religious curriculum. The common key concept

of the events of that time was “integration”.

As a result of the policy, teaching of Islam was well

“integrated” into national education system. In the government

schools that the subject called “Islamic education” was given almost

twice of previous teaching hours and Islamic elements were given

priority in the school life such as establishing more prayer rooms in

the school and promoting uniform that covers aurah. In the higher

education, faculties and courses of Islamic studies are established

to give chances for graduates of religious secondary schools to

continue higher education in own country. At the same time, the

curriculum and certificates of various religious secondary schools

were increasingly standardized to fit the national school system.

All these developments might be called as the achievement

of “integration” in contrast to the previous situation that generally

separated Islam from the national education system. It is obvious

that the chance to learn about Islam increased in the whole

education system. However, the increase of quantity should be

analyzed in terms of quality as well. Is there any possibility that the



96

quantitative increase of Islamic elements result in something

different from what was intended?

Al-Attas’s discussion about Islamization does not suppose

that it is automatically achieved when something Islamic is

increased in the education. Al-Attas repeatedly warned that the

problem of knowledge among Muslim is not equal to the problem

of ignorance37. When the peoples’ knowledge of “Islamic” increase

in the quantity, there still exist the possibility that they are lead to

more confusion than the solution. This is why al-Attas insists

establishment of proper worldview before the easy implementation.

The same point is discussed by an anthropologist. Gregory

Starrett who did research in modern Egypt on the shift of the main

sphere of religious socialization from private to public suggested

the concept of “functionalization” to analyze the transformation of

meaning in religious learning. Starrett explains “functionalization”

as the process “of translation in which intellectual objects from one

discourse come to serve the strategic or utilitarian ends of another

discourse. This translation not only places intellectual objects in

new fields of significance, but radically shifts the meaning of their

initial context”38.

When the government and public institutions began to play

important role in religious socialization, the context of religious

discourse has changed to fulfil the “strategic and utilitarian ends of

the modern and secular discourse of public policy”39. In other word,

what happened in Egypt was that “ideas, symbols, and behaviors of

‘true’ Islam came to be judged not by their adherence to

contemporary popular or high tradition, but by their utility in

performing social work, either in furthering programs of social

reform or in fulfilling police functions that Europeans attributed

education as such”40.

One of the main source of his discussion is the religious

discourse appeared in the religious textbooks in Egyptian public

schools. He states that the Egyptian textbook describe religious

37 al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, Islām and secularism (Muslim Youth

Movement of Malaysia, 1978), 133. 38 Starrett, Gregory, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious

Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). 39 ibid, 10. 40 ibid, 62.



97

rituals in the context of social function, such as the contribution to

the national development. For example, he found that the

importance of cleanliness in Islam is explained as the evidence of

progress and civilization. The textbook said that Islam teaches the

Muslims to take bath and contemporary medical doctors also

recommends that in order to keep our body clean and protect the

body from illness. This kind of expression of religious teachings

shows the hints of “functionalization” because the context of rituals

of cleanliness is now transferred to the social function to keep

hygiene41.

Similar process of “functionalization” can be found in

Malaysian textbooks of “Islamic education”. Here I show an

example of “Pendidikan Islam (Islamic Education)” textbook for

Form 1 that was published in 200242. In the textbook, the teachings

of Islam are often explained in relation to the social and national

purposes.

For example, the section for tafsir in the beginning of the

form one textbooks explains the meaning of verse 1 to 5, surah al-

Baqarah as follows. The unit under the title “al-Quran produces the

excellence in the life (al-Quran melahirkan kecemerangan dalam

kehidupan)” discusses the concept of takwa (taqwā in Arabic) that

appears in the second verse in the form of muttaqīn (Ar). Muttaqīn

is explained as those who have takwa, afraid of Allah, and will be

guided by Him to be “mufliḥūn”. The textbook translates

“mufliḥūn” as “orang yang berjaya” in Malay. “Berjaya” means

“success” and it is often used in many contemporary Malay

translation of al-Quran. It is also used in the context such as

“Malaysia berjaya (successful Malaysia)” and the “success” here is

social achievement.

The textbook explains the concept of “success” with

pictures and sentences. There are two pictures in the unit; one is the

scene of the university graduation ceremony another is of joyful

mother and family who received excellent result of her child. The

title of the first picture is “the success of a child who achieved the

university degree” while the other is “happiness of a mother who

41 ibid, 140-1. 42 Razali Sharif et.al.(eds.) Pendidikan Islam Tingkatan 1 (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan

Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2002), 1-8.



98

received the news of her child’s success”. Both pictures tell that the

term “berjaya (success)” is interpreted in the context of

achievement in the education system.

The concept of takwa is explained after the statement that

“those who practice the teachings of al-Quran will be promised the

peace and success in this world and the hereafter”. It states that

those who have takwa practices fardu ain such as the prayer, fasting,

seeking for knowledge and ethics as well as fardu kifayah to fulfill

the needs of the ummah and to contribute to its development, such

as to learn medicine, technology, IT and commerce. The ideas of

fardu ain and fardu kifayah are summarized in a column; fardu ain

includes five pillars of Islam while fardu kifayah includes funeral,

national defense and development of the economy of the ummah.

The merit of having takwa is explained “to be pleased by Allah and

to achieve success in this world and the next”. It is followed by

some examples of worldly success such as “to be a successful leader

and competitive businessman”.

The unit is concluded with five points such as “those who

have takwa can develop the nation and the state for the sake of

Allah’s pleasure” in addition to other four points that mentions the

peace in this world and the next, confidence in the hereafter,

obligation of prayers and zakat. Overall, the chapter connects the

concepts of takwa, practice teachings of al-Quran, contribute the

nation and ummah, and berjaya (success) in one context. With the

effects of pictures and figures, the representation gives the meaning

to takwa in the context of social utility rather than achievement in

the hereafter.

This is merely an example of general feature of the

latest textbook of Islamic education. The difference is clear if it is

compared with traditional Islamic textbooks (kitab) or the Arabic

textbooks used in the religious schools. The representation of

Islamic teachings in the national school textbooks have been

changed based on the issues raised in the dakwah movement. With

the slogan “Islam is the way of life”, the movements tried to change

the perception that Islam is all about prayer and fasting. It seems to

be a natural consequence that the textbook began to include many

contemporary matters and to explain Islam in the context of national

development. The germination of new representation of Islam can

be found in the textbook published in 1989 when illustrations that



99

reflect contemporary Malaysia were inserted for the first time. The

context of national development was clearly stressed in the textbook

of 1998 that used the colored photos of national symbols. The 2002

version enhanced the trend with photos, illustrations and charts used

in every page. Now it is visually clear that Islamic knowledge is

useful for the national development.

The dakwah movement indeed succeeded in increasing

Islamic elements in various aspects of the society, however at the

same time it also resulted in something unexpected, which is best

described with the concept of “functionalization”. The following

quotation from Starrett summarizes what happened in the Islamic

movement; “Traditions, customs, beliefs, instructions and values

that originally possessed their own evaluative criteria and their own

rules of operation and mobilization become consciously subsumed

by modern-educated elites to the evaluative criteria of social and

political utility”43.

However, the notion of “functionalization” requires

caution because it implies the judgement that the process leads to

secularization. In his explanation of “functionalization”, Starrett not

only points out the process of adding social function to the religious

practice but also the process that the social function is understood

as the main purpose of the religious practice and that is taken as the

reason why Allah taught the human to perform it44. The discussion

of second process touches the sensitivity of Muslim because it

implies that they interpret Islam based on the secular mindset. Even

though the first process of adding social functions is clearly found

in the Islamic Education textbook, there is no evidence for the

second process that social function even exceeds the religious

meaning. In this respect, al-Attas’s description of “confusion of

knowledge” and “loss of adab” seems fairer to describe the problem

avoiding judging it as secularism.

43 Starrett, Gregory, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious

Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 10. 44 ibid, 142.



100

Conclusion

The implication of the three case studies above is that the efforts to

make education to be more “Islamic” resulted in putting

“education” of Islam in the mold of modern education system. As

the opportunity for Islamic education expanded, the knowledge and

education of Islam came to be interpret in the context of social and

national utility. Over past four decades, Professor al-Attas and

Professor Wan Mohd Nor has told us that we should begin with

recognizing the problem of confusion of knowledge and meaning

of the religion of Islam. Without the recognition, increasing the

practice of something “Islamic” might result in more confusion. In

the worst case, wrong interpretation of the meaning of Islam, or in

other term having wrong world view, might lead the Muslim to the

secularism without consciousness. The problem of confusion

among Muslims has much in common with the problem of

colonialism and neo-colonialism that has been actively discussed in

various area of humanity and social sciences.

Prof. al-Attas emphasized the importance of enhancement

of the worldview before implementation of individual “Islamic”

practice. This is because the Secularization can happen when people

practice something “Islamic” without identifying the secularizing

philosophy behind the knowledge and system of modern education.

Wearing head scarf can be secular action when the intention is fully

for fashion. Learning religion can be secular action when the

intention is purely for passing examination. It is true that intention

to study the religion cannot be totally cut from the purpose for the

hereafter, even when the examination appeared as the inevitable

target of studying religion. However, what is important here is to

realize that modern education system is so influential that might

change the context of learning Islam from religious to secular.

Professor Wan Mohd Nor has provided fresh insights to the

matters of knowledge and education of Muslim societies by

applying professor al-Attas’s metaphysical ideas to analyze various

contemporary matters. The perspective is applicable not only to the

normative discussion but also to the positive analysis of social

phenomenon. After three or four decades of Islamic movements and

various efforts for “Islamization”, now it is the time for the serious

reflection of what the Muslim has achieved. Did the efforts change

the situation of uneven production and dissemination of



101

knowledge? Can Muslims think without depending on the

knowledge and system based on the Western worldview? These

questions requires deep historical, sociological and anthropological

research to find out what has actually happened before jumping to

the normative discussion of what should be done next.

This article is a humble trial to apply the critical viewpoint

of the two professors for a positive analysis of the historical and

contemporary events. It is still far from showing the proofs of

“confusion” to the ummah, thus it is hoped that more and more

Muslim scholars work on the reflection of the modern Muslim

education so that wider society realize the real problems. May Allah

protect Muslims from the ignorance and reward Professor Wan

Mohd Nor for his great contribution for the ummah.

References

Unpublished documents

Unknown author. “Purchase of Arabic Books for Boys in

Madrasa Limbong Kapal.” No. 413/1339. National

Archive of Malaysia, 1922.

Textbooks

Ahmad Awang et.al.(eds.) Pendidikan Islam Tingkatan Satu.

Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Pustaka Islam, 1989.

Razali Sharif et.al.(eds.) Pendidikan Islam Tingkatan 1. Kuala

Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2002.

Ruslan Kamarul Zaman and Norliza Embong (eds.)

Pendidikan Islam Tingkatan 1. Kuala Lumpur:

Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia and Dewan Bahasa

dan Pustaka, 1998.

Periodical

Pengasuh



102

Published Books and Articles

Abdul Razak, Mahmud. MAIK: Peranannya dalam Bidang

Keagamaan, Persekolahan, dan Penerbitan di Kelantan

Sehingga 1990. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan

Pustaka, 2010.

al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib. Some Aspects of Sufism:

As Understood and Practiced Among the Malays.

Singapore: Malaysian Sociological Research Institute,

1963.

_______. Preliminary Thoughts on the Nature of Knowledge

and the Definition and Aims of Education. 1977.

_______. Islām and secularism. Muslim Youth Movement of

Malaysia, 1978.

_______. The Concept of Education in Islam: A Framework

for an Islamic Philosophy of Education. KL: ABIM,

1980.

_______. Islam and Secularism. 2nd ed. Kuala Lumpur:

ISTAC, 1993.

_______. The Concept of Education in Islam: A framework

for an Islamic Philosophy of Education. Kuala

Lumpur: ISTAC, 1999 (1980).

Bayard Dodge. Al-Azhar: A Millennium of Muslim Learning.

Wasington, D.C.: The Middle East Institute, 1961.

Eccel, A. Chris. Egypt, Islam and Social Change: Al-Azhar in

Conflict and Accommodation. Berlin: K. Schwartz,

1984.



103

Khoo, Kay Kim. “Perkembangan Pelajaran Agama Islam.” In

Pendidikan ke Arah Perpaduan. Awang Had Salleh

ed., 1-36. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1980.

Kushimoto, Hiroko. “Islam and Modern School Education in

the Journal Pengasuh: Review of the Kaum Muda -

Kaum Tua Dichotomy.” Studia Islamika 19, no. 2

(2012): 207-249.

________. “Azharization of Ulama Training in Malaysia” in

Shaping Global Islamic Discourses: The Role of al-

Azhar, al-Madinah and al-Mustafa. Masooda, Bano

and Keiko Sakurai ed., 190-218. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press, 2015.

Mitchell, Timothy. Colonising Egypt. Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1988.

Mohammad Redzuan Othman. Islam dan Masyarakat Melayu:

Peranan dan Pengaruh Timur Tengah. Kuala Lumpur:

Penerbit Universiti Malaya, 2005.

Muḥammad ‘Abdul Mun ‘im Khafājī. Al-Azhar fī Alfi ‘Ām:

al-Juz’u al-Thānī. Qāhirat: Maktabat al-Kullīyat al-

Azhar, 1987.

Muhammad Yunan, Mahmood. Sejarah Maahad Muhammadi

1937–1997. Kota Bharu: Maahad Muhammadi Lelaki,

1997.

Roff, William. “Kaum Muda – Kaum Tua: Innovation and

Reaction amongst the Malays, 1900-1941.” In Papers

on Malayan History. K. G. Tregonning ed., 162-192.

Singapore: Journal South-East Asian History, 1962.



104

Rosnani Hashim. Educational Dualism in Malaysia:

Implications for Theory and Practice. Kuala Lumpur:

Oxford University Press, 1996.

Said, E. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon, 1978.

Sciller, H. Communication and Cultural Domination. New

York: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1976.

Starrett, Gregory. Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics,

and Religious Transformation in Egypt. Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1998.

Sufean, Hussin. Pendidikan di Malaysia: Sejarah, Sistem dan

Falsafah. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka,

1993.

Tan, Linda. “Syed Shaykh: His Life & Times.” In The Real

Cry of Syed Shaykh al-Hady. Alijah Gordon ed., 109-

162. Malaysian Sociological Research Institute, 1999

Wan Mohd Nor, Wan Daud. The Educational Philosophy and

Practice of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas: An

Exposition of the Original Concept of Islamization.

KL: International Institute of Islamic Thought and

Civilization(ISTAC), 1998.

________. Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the

Role of University in the Context of De-

Westernization and decolonization. Kuala Lumpur:

Penerbit Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2013.

Wan Mohd. Shaghir Abdullah. Sheikh Ahmad al-Fathani:

Pemikir Agung Melayu dan Islam (Jilid1). Kuala

Lumpur: Khazanah Fathaniyah, 2005.

jurnal qalbu 4.4 (dis 2017): 80-104 problems of...

Documents