Classical Education in the Muslim Tradition

This is an Altum essay.

Editor’s Introduction: 

This week’s essay is by Cori Saleh, founder of Revival Ihya School in Pennsylvania, an academy in the tradition of Muslim classical education.

Some of our readers may not be aware that the Muslim tradition, like both the Jewish and Christian traditions, was deeply influenced by a dialogue with Greek paideia. In fact, it was largely through Islamic philosophers such as Ibn Sina (known in the west as Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Latinized as Averroes), and Al-Ghazali (Lat. Algazelus) that medieval western thinkers encountered the full complexity of Greek philosophy after the fall of Rome and the subsequent loss of Greek learning in the west. Along with the works of Plato and Aristotle, Islamic thinkers received Greek mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other sciences, and extended these branches of learning beyond what the ancients had achieved. As Islamic culture moved across north Africa and into Spain, western thinkers encountered and learned from this rich cultural heritage, a process that continued for many centuries.

In our own time, an effort is underway to revive Muslim classical education in a way that honors both its own traditions of paideia and those of the western lands in which Muslims often find themselves. Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts institution of its kind, was founded in 2009. Led by Dr. Hamza Yusuf, Zaytuna has hosted lectures and conversations with eminent thinkers such as Eva Brann, Roger Scruton, David Bentley Hart, and many others. Zaytuna is the center of a movement bringing contemporary Islamic paideia back into dialogue with Islam’s own rich heritage and the heritage of the west. Readers of Altum are highly recommended to peruse Renovatio, Zaytuna’s excellent online journal, which contains many of the guest lectures mentioned above, as well as profound reflections on cultural and political questions, from abortion to artificial intelligence and beyond, offered from a Muslim perspective.

In the essay below, Cori Saleh describes the origins of Muslim classical education and its contemporary revival.

THE AIMS OF EDUCATION 

“Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth,
Createth man from a clot.
Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who teacheth by the pen,
Teacheth man that which he knew not.”
–Pickthall Translation of Surah Al-Alaq 96:1-5

The first verse of the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was an injunction to read. We are called by our Lord to read and reflect upon the signs of our Creator. This verse sets the tone for the entire spiritual and intellectual heritage of Muslim civilization. The purpose of education in Islam is threefold: The giving of knowledge (ta‘lim), the preservation of our primordial nature (tarbiyyah), and the inculcation of virtue and moral character (adab). (1)

In the Muslim tradition, the ultimate source of knowledge (‘ilm) is revelation; namely, the Qur’an and the collected Prophetic practices and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (hadith), peace and blessings be upon him. According to Ali b. Abi Talib, “Knowledge is a single point, and the ignorant multiplied it.” There are three main divisions of knowledge in Islam: religious knowledge, pure reason, and natural sciences. Religious knowledge encompasses knowledge of God; pure reason which arise from logical deductions of demonstrated truths; and natural sciences stem from the exploration of the physical world. (2)

Tarbiyyah refers to the growth and development of the human being, with the ultimate aim being the perfected human being in mind, body, and soul. The Qur’an says, “It is He who has appointed you vicegerent on the earth” (Quran 6:165). In reference to the inculcation of adab, Sayyid Muhammad Naqib al-Attas said:“ It is adab in the all-inclusive sense…as encompassing the spiritual material life of a man, that instills the quality of goodness sought after.” (3) Much like Aristotle’s definition of prudence, to have adab is to ‘give someone or something its correct due.’ (4) The cultivation of moral and intellectual virtues are central to the embodiment of divine qualities. Education is primarily the pursuit of truth through faith (Iman), of good through submission (Islam), and of beauty through perfection (Ihsan). (5)

THE WESTERN-ISLAMIC TRADITION

In pre-Islamic Arabia, the Arabs did not have any formal educational systems or institutions. Although the Arabs were almost entirely illiterate, they had a sophisticated culture and language. Poetry was the ultimate mode of expression, and the Arabs developed a strong oral tradition based on memorization. To this day, pre-Islamic poetry, and the Qur’an, are foundational to the study of the Arabic language. As the Qur’an was being revealed, oral transmission and memorization were used as means for preserving the religion. After the canonization of the Qur’an and the hadith, the intellectual processes of ijma (consensus of the scholars) and qiyas (analogical reasoning) were formally instituted.

During the classical period of Islam in the 8th-15th centuries, eight fundamental texts in the philosophy of education emerged. (6) Although these texts were rooted in the Qur’an and sunnah (Prophetic tradition), they were greatly inuenced by Arab/Persian culture and the Greek educational system (paideia). According to the great Persian scholar and polymath, Imam Al-Ghazali, also known as Algazelus or Algazel in Latin, education is “to know the meaning of obedience and service to God.”; and, “[knowledge/education] should be something that improves your heart (qalb) and cleanses your soul (rūḥ).” (7) Al-Ghazali introduced the study of both the sacred and rational sciences in a way that was balanced and holistic. At this time there was a signicant movement in Graeco-Arabic translation, with Muslim scholars translating ancient Greek texts into Arabic, including, but not limited to works by Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, and Diosocrides.