Curriculum

Development in
Islamic Perspective
Submitted to: Dr. Muhammad
Nadeem
Submitted by: Hina kaynat M.Phil
Edu

Curriculum Development in Islamic

Perspective

Islamic religious curricular has gone through four distinct

periods in Islamic history. The first period is the period of
development which started with the resurgence of the
Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) in Makkah until the end of
Umayyad period. The main characteristics of religious
curriculum of this period are:
purely Arabic in nature
strengthening the basis of Islamic religion and spreading its
teaching
based on religious sciences and Arabic grammar
concentrate more on study of Hadith and jurisprudence
concentrate more on Arabic grammar and literature
the initial study of foreign languages
During this period, the mosque was the centre of
activities of the Islamic society and education was the
important part of those activities.
The second period is the flourishing period of education
starting in the East with the emergence of Abbasid dynasty
until the downfall by Tartar in 659H/1258 M whereas in the
Western part of Islamic Empire the important center is
Andalusia, especially under the rules of Umayyad
Khaliphate. During this period the curriculum was expanded
to include non-religious sciences as well as the centre also
expanded to include Makkah, AlMadinah in Hijaz; Basrah
and Kufah in Iraq; Damascus in Sham (Syria); Cairo in Eygpt
and Granada and Svilla in Andalusia.
The third period was the period of weaknesses and
decadence which started in the East and North Africa with
the resurgence of Ottoman Empire which lasted until the
independence of Muslim countries. The most important
characteristics of this period are:
the entire curriculum was based on the transmitted
knowledge
the decline of the Arabic language
the method was based on memorization

 the deterioration of scientific research and thinking process

the spread of the method of summarization and repetition of
what was made by early scholars.

The fourth period is known as the period of revival,

awakening and rebuilding education in Muslim countries
which started subsequent to the independence these
countries. This process is still going on to the present time.
The most important characteristics of religious education
during this period are as follows:
adoption of Western educational system
increasing concern on natural as well as human sciences
penetration of Western culture
an attempt toward eliminating dualism between modern
education and religious education.

ISLAMIC CONCEPT OF CURRICULUM

According to Islam, basic values are permanent. So will
be the educational objectives. In traditionalism, sources
of values are traditions of their forefathers, While is
Islam, pleasure of ALLAH is the source of Value.
According to Islam only the prophetic knowledge is
absolutely reliable. So content will essentially consist of
the knowledge , contained in the Quran and
Sunnah.Knowledge gained through other sources will
also be tested on this criteria (Quran & Sunnah) and
may conditionally made a part of curriculum.

Aims and Objective of Islamic Education At Different

Level
of Schooling
Aims and objectives are constructed before hand to know
the behavioural outcome of the Muslim learners. For the

purpose of teaching Islamic education in the formal system

of education, the teacher has to formulate beforehand the
aims and objectives of Islamic education at different level of
schooling.
At Nursery and Primary level
Salahuddin Yusuf (1991) in his article titled, Islamization of
knowledge
: A work Plan for Islamic Nursery Education suggested that,
the objectives
of Islamic nursery education should include the following:
(i) To develop the intellectual, physical, moral, aesthetic and
spiritual
potentialities of the children for the purpose of Ibadah.
At Secondary Level
(i) To provide such education as will develop mental, moral
and physical
aspects of a childs personality in the light of Islam.
(ii) To make learner realize that physical strength and
energy is properly
used only when it resists evil and upholds virtue in the
society,
Aims of Islamic Education At The University Level
Sharif, Hadi (1983) formulated the aims of Islamic education
at the University
level as follows:

(a) To speak of Islam is to speak of Truth or Reality, of the

hierarchy of
Reality and of virtues. Consequently, the fundamental goal
and the
main function of Islamic education and teaching system at
the University
level consists in awakening the spiritual insight and the
intellectual
ability in the human receptacle.
Construction of Objectives of Islamic Education in
Muslim
School Curriculum: Some Examples:
In totality we can classify different educational objectives
into following
seven broad categories
1. Knowledge level
2. Understanding level
3. Application level
4. Skill level
5. Values level
6. Interest level
7. Attitude level
Knowledge Level: The students will be able:
(a) To make the students aware about five pillars of Islam:
Faith in Allah,

Salat, Zakat, Fasting and Haj.

Understanding Level - The students will be able:
(a) To make the difference between Zakat and Taxes in the
society.
Application Level - The students will be able:
(a) To apply the acquired knowledge of Islam through Holy
Quran and
Sunnah in the different activities of the life of the Muslims.
Skill Level -The students will be able:
(a) To develop skills of communication and delivering the
best speech
about various facts and principles of Islam in the society.
Values Level - The students will be able:
(a) To realize the values of Islam.
(b) To have good feelings and emotions about the preaching
of Islam.
Interest Level - The students will be able:
(a) To have good interest in understanding of Islam.
Attitude Level - The students will be able:
(a) To have good attitude not only towards the teacher of
Islamic
Education but also towards the other teachers at different
level of
Schooling.

In the world of teaching learning process ,each and every

Muslim
teacher should construct objectives based on blooms
taxonomy in the
light of ISLAM

ABSTRACT
Education is the birth right of every Muslim and
Muslimah. Islam puts considerable emphasis on its
followers to acquire knowledge. Investment in
education is the best investment one can make,
because it eventually leads to intellectual property.
Intellectual property is the intangible property,
which no one can steal or destroy. This is the
property on which no Government can levy a tax. It
was as a result of application of knowledge that
Muslims were the superpower of the world for
twelve centuries.
Today, globally Muslims have the lowest literacy
rate. Education of Muslim children in the west has
both opportunities and challenges.
In the Western World the purpose of education is to
provide for the economic prosperity of a nation. At a
personal level the purpose of education is to acquire
academic and professional skills that enable one to
earn a respectable living with riches and fame, and
also a luxurious and comfortable life. For a Muslim
providing economic prosperity of a nation does not
contradict his/her Islamic beliefs, however focusing
the goals of education solely for the purpose of
money making is unpalatable. Muslims want to

impart Islamic education. Vast majority of the

Muslims think that Islamic education means
acquiring Islamic religious knowledge-study of
Qur'an, Arabic, Hadith, Sunnah, Seerah, Fiqh,
Islamic history, and allied subjects. As a matter of
fact, in the present world broadly speaking we have
two types of Muslims. Those who have followed the
Western type of education or secular education and
those who have acquired Deeni or Islamic
education.
In the twentieth century, due to Colonialism and
Western influence, Muslim parents concentrated on
imparting only Secular education to their children.
The weak or not so bright students were sent to
Deeni (religious) Madrasas (schools) in their own
countries or to one of the Middle Eastern countries.
The Muslims who emigrated to Western countries
became aware of their religious identity and wanted
to impart both Islamic and Secular education, what
is now known as "Integrated Education." When they
lacked the numbers and resources, they sent their
children to public schools during the week and to
the Islamic schools in the Mosque or Islamic Center
during the weekends. As their numbers grew and
acquired sufficient resources, they have opened fulltime Islamic Schools from kindergarten (K grade) to
12th grade (senior or final year) in High School. In
North America, an estimated 300 Islamic Schools
are functioning which impart Integrated education.
There are even a few full-time Hifz schools in North
America producing homegrown Huffaz (plural of
Hafeez-a scholar who has memorized the Qur'an). It

takes about two to three years of full-time study to

become a Hafeez. During this time the student
takes an equivalent to sabbatical leave from his or
her public or parochial school.
This paper analyzes the choice the parents make in
sending their children, to Public, Parochial, Private
non-parochial, Islamic, Virtual Islamic, or Home
School. Their advantages and disadvantages.
The greatest objective of education is to prepare the
young generation for leadership. Islamic education
is of course has the highest objective, and more
than that can hardly be imagined. The aim of
Islamic education is Character building. Growth and
development of an Islamic personality should be the
final goal of any Islamic School. Islamic values are
the foundation of the Islamic personality. As Muslims
our educational aim is to develop the personalities
of our children to the end that they will be conscious
of their responsibility to Allah (the Creator) and to
fellow humans. The aims and objectives of Islamic
education has been defined in the Recommendation
of the Committee I of the First World Conference on
Muslim Education as under, "Education should aim
at the balanced growth of the total personality of
man through training of the human spirit, intellect,
rational self, feelings and senses. The training
imparted to a Muslim must be such that faith is
infused into the whole of his/her personality and
creates in him/her an emotional attachment to
Islam and enables him to follow the Qur'an and
Sunnah and be governed by Islamic system of
values willingly and joyfully so that he/she may
proceed to the realization of his/her status as

Khalifatullah to whom Allah has promised the

authority of the universe."
We need to prepare the younger generation having
leadership quality and not to be the followers of
alien ideologies but to play the role of torchbearer
by their excellence in knowledge, character, and
positive action. Some scholars believe that this
quality can be developed in Muslim youth by a
direct study of the Qur'an with a view to solve the
problems of life in its light. A program of action to
upbring the younger generation for leadership has
not yet been formulated.
Every Muslim parent is advised to raise his or her
children well and properly. A happy home, comfort,
care and love, providing the necessities of life and a
good education are some of the responsibilities that
parents are required to fulfill. Prophet Muhammad
(Peace be upon him) said whoever is not kind to
young people is not one of us and the best teaching
that a parent can give a child is the teaching of
good manners and character. The Muslim child
absorbs the Islamic values from its parents,
teachers, peers, friends and the environment,
including the care- givers. Nip it in the bud is the
best advice. Otherwise once the Muslim child
develops undesirable habits and unethical values, it
becomes extremely difficult to make the child into a
good Muslim/Muslimah.
Parents play a vital role in the education of their
children. Early childhood education program
emphasizes the role of parents. It declares that
learning begins in the first days of life and continues

for long. Parents should develop a habit to read with

their children every night. Parents should provide an
Islamic environment, an Islamic culture. It is
hypocritical to do things differently and expect the
child to have Islamic values. Parents set the best
examples for their children to imbibe. Like parents
the role of family has also been considered
important in learning and upbringing the children.
As the children grow the teachers, community
elders, their friends exert deep influence on the
character of the child. The parents should choose
the right schools for their children. Audio-Visual
media such as TV, Video, video games, Movies, peer
pressure could play an effective role in erasing the
Islamic personality the parents are building and
deeply influence the behavior of the children for
years. It takes constant and continuos effort on the
part of the parents and others to keep our youth on
the path of Islamic values. Otherwise they will
become an American statistic. Character education,
promotion of order and discipline and ending the
culture of guns and drugs from schools are the
important steps of Islamic education. Islamic
education should open the door of college education
for every Muslim.
The frontiers of learning are expanding across a
lifetime. All the people, irrespective of age, must
have a chance to learn new skills. Internet is now
the power of information. The classroom, library and
even the children's hospitals are planned to connect
with it for easy access to knowledge.
History of Islamic Education

Thus, in this way, Islamic education began. Pious and

learned Muslims (mu' allim or mudarris), dedicated to
making the teachings of the Koran more accessible to the
Islamic community, taught the faithful in what came to be
known as the kuttb (plural, kattb). The kuttb could be
located in a variety of venues: mosques, private homes,
shops, tents, or even out in the open. Historians are
uncertain as to when the kattb were first established, but
with the widespread desire of the faithful to study the Koran,
kattb could be found in virtually every part of the Islamic
empire by the middle of the eighth century. The kuttb
served a vital social function as the only vehicle for formal
public instruction for primary-age children and continued so
until Western models of education were introduced in the
modern period. Even at present, it has exhibited remarkable
durability and continues to be an important means of
religious instruction in many Islamic countries.

The curriculum of the kuttb was primarily directed to young

male children, beginning as early as age four, and was
centered on Koranic studies and on religious obligations
such as ritual ablutions, fasting, and prayer. The focus
during the early history of Islam on the education of youth
reflected the belief that raising children with correct
principles was a holy obligation for parents and society. As
Abdul Tibawi wrote in 1972, the mind of the child was
believed to be "like a white clean paper, once anything is
written on it, right or wrong, it will be difficult to erase it or
superimpose new writing upon it" (p. 38). The approach to
teaching children was strict, and the conditions in which
young students learned could be quite harsh. Corporal
punishment was often used to correct laziness or

imprecision. Memorization of the Koran was central to the

curriculum of the kuttb, but little or no attempt was made
to analyze and discuss the meaning of the text. Once
students had memorized the greater part of the Koran, they
could advance to higher stages of education, with increased
complexity of instruction. Western analysts of the kuttb
system usually criticize two areas of its pedagogy: the
limited range of subjects taught and the exclusive reliance
on memorization. The contemporary kuttb system still
emphasizes memorization and recitation as important
means of learning. The value placed on memorization
during students' early religious training directly influences
their approaches to learning when they enter formal
education offered by the modern state. A common
frustration of modern educators in the Islamic world is that
while their students can memorize copious volumes of notes
and textbook pages, they often lack competence in critical
analysis and independent thinking.

During the golden age of the Islamic empire (usually defined

as a period between the tenth and thirteenth centuries),
when western Europe was intellectually backward and
stagnant, Islamic scholarship flourished with an impressive
openness to the rational sciences, art, and even literature. It
was during this period that the Islamic world made most of
its contributions to the scientific and artistic world.
Ironically, Islamic scholars preserved much of the
knowledge of the Greeks that had been prohibited by the
Christian world. Other outstanding contributions were made
in areas of chemistry, botany, physics, mineralogy,
mathematics, and astronomy, as many Muslim thinkers
regarded scientific truths as tools for accessing religious
truth.

Gradually the open and vigorous spirit of enquiry and

individual judgment (ijtihd) that characterized the golden
age gave way to a more insular, unquestioning acceptance
(taqld) of the traditional corpus of authoritative knowledge.
By the thirteenth century, according to Aziz Talbani, the
'ulama' (religious scholars) had become "self-appointed
interpreters and guardians of religious knowledge.
learning was confined to the transmission of traditions and
dogma, and [was] hostile to research and scientific inquiry"
(p. 70). The mentality of taqld reigned supreme in all
matters, and religious scholars condemned all other forms
of inquiry and research. Exemplifying the taqld mentality,
Burhn al-Din al-Zarnji wrote during the thirteenth century,
"Stick to ancient things while avoiding new things" and
"Beware of becoming engrossed in those disputes which
come about after one has cut loose from the ancient
authorities" (pp. 28, 58). Much of what was written after the
thirteenth century lacked originality, and it consisted mostly
of commentaries on existing canonical works without adding
any substantive new ideas. The lethal combination of taqld
and foreign invasion beginning in the thirteenth century
served to dim Islam's preeminence in both the artistic and
scientific worlds.

Despite its glorious legacy of earlier periods, the Islamic

world seemed unable to respond either culturally or
educationally to the onslaught of Western advancement by
the eighteenth century. One of the most damaging aspects
of European colonialism was the deterioration of indigenous

cultural norms through secularism. With its veneration of

human reason over divine revelation and its insistence on
separation of religion and state, secularism is anathema to
Islam, in which all aspects of life, spiritual or temporal, are
interrelated as a harmonious whole. At the same time,
Western institutions of education, with their pronounced
secular/religious dichotomy, were infused into Islamic
countries in order to produce functionaries to feed the
bureaucratic and administrative needs of the state. The
early modernizers did not fully realize the extent to which
secularized education fundamentally conflicted with Islamic
thought and traditional lifestyle. Religious education was to
remain a separate and personal responsibility, having no
place in public education. If Muslim students desired
religious training, they could supplement their existing
education with moral instruction in traditional religious
schoolsthe kuttb. As a consequence, the two differing
education systems evolved independently with little or no
official interface.

4.Muslim Education
Independence

Movements:

4.1.Deoband
4.2.Aligarh
4.3.Anjamane Himayat-e-Islam
4.4.Nadwatul Ullema
4.5.Jamia Millia Islamia

REFRENCES:

Pre-

 Abdul Wafa al Chunemi-al Taftazani (1986): Islamic Education: Its Principle

and Aims, Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. l,pp. 66-75.
Ahmad, Manzoor (1990), Islamic Education : Redefinition of Aims and
Methodology, Quazi Publishers and Distributors,
Vateg Building, Nizamuddin West, New Delhi
Al-Attas, Syed Mohammad Al Naquib (1979). Aims and Objectives of Islamic
Education, Hodder and Stoughton King Abdul Aziz university

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