Chapter 4 Page 118

CHAPTER 4: THE NEED FOR ISLAMIC ACCOUNTING: PULL

FACTOR 1– THE ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE

4.0 CHAPTER OUTLINE: THE PULL FACTORS

In the previous chapter, the push factors for Islamic accounting were discussed.

These factors were those that made conventional accounting unsuitable for Muslim

users and Islamic organisations. In this chapter, the first category of pull factors of

Islamic accounting- the Islamisation of knowledge will be discussed. The researcher

defines ‘pull’ factors as those factors that make Islamic accounting both a theoretical

and practical necessity and imperative. These factors literally pull Islamic accounting

into existence to meet the need of Muslim users and Islamic organisations.

Together with the push factors discussed in the previous chapter and the second

category of pull factors to be discussed in Chapter 5, they constitute the need for

Islamic accounting. This is depicted in Figure 4-1 on the next page.

The ‘pull’ factors can be categorised into two groups:

• The Islamisation of Knowledge factor which provides the theoretical imperative

for Islamic Accounting and

• The establishment of Muslim and Islamic organisations which is the practical

imperative for the development of Islamic Accounting.

The discussion on the Islamisation of knowledge starts from section 4-1. The second

category of pull factors, the practical imperative, is discussed in the next chapter

(chapter 5).
Chapter 4 Page 119

FIGURE 4-1:THE NEED FOR ISLAMIC ACCOUNTING: PUSH AND PULL FACTORS

ESTABLISHMENT OF
ISLAMIC BUSINESS
AND NONBUSINESS ISLAMISATION
ORGANISATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE

Pull Factors
THE NEED FOR ISLAMIC ACCOUNTING

Push Factors
INAPPROPRIATE NEGATIVE
OBJECTIVES OF CONSEQUENCES OF
CONVENTIONAL. CONVENTIONAL
UNSUITABLE CHARACTERISTICS
ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING
OF
Chapter 4 Page 120

In the next section, (section 4.1), Islamisation of Knowledge, which forms the

theoretical basis of this project, is defined. The need for Islamisation of Knowledge

and the background to the movement towards Islamisation of knowledge are

discussed. In section 4.2, the methodology of Islamisation suggested in the literature

is discussed and analysed. In section 4.3, Islamisation of knowledge is discussed in

relation to general epistemological and methodological issues of research in general

and the Burrell & Morgan (1979) paradigmatic framework in particular. In section 4.4

the implication of the suggested methodology for this research is discussed together

with how this research project tries to Islamise Accounting by redefining the

objectives of and proposing the characteristics of Islamic Accounting. This chapter is

concluded in section 4-5.

4.1 THE ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE

In this section, Islamisation of Knowledge will first be defined followed in the next

subsection by a discussion of the need to Islamise knowledge. This will be followed

by a discussion on the history and background of the movement towards Islamisation

of Knowledge.

4.1.1 Islamisation of Knowledge and Islamisation.

Islamisation of knowledge has been defined by Abu Sulayman (1989) as “the critical

examination of modern disciplines in the light of the vision of Islam and the recasting

of them under categories consistent with that vision” (p13). A broader, perhaps, more

practical definition is provided by Khalil (1995) who defines Islamisation of

Knowledge as “taking part in intellectual pursuits, by examination, summarization,

correlation and publication, from the perspective of an Islamic outlook on life,

humankind and the Universe” (p3). Al-Faruqi (1988) has outlined Islamisation of

knowledge as the process of mastering the disciplines (as they are) and then

integrating the new knowledge into the corpus of Islamic legacy by “eliminating,
Chapter 4 Page 121

amending, re-interpreting and adapting its components as the world view of Islam

and its values dictate” (p30). Al-Faruqi (1982) further elaborates that Islamisation

involves recasting knowledge as Islam relates to it and to achieve this “the

methodological categories of Islam must replace the Western categories and

determine the perception of ordering reality” (p16).

Islamisation of knowledge is seen as a first step to integrate and develop the Muslim

personality and outlook, which had become schizophrenic due to the dichotomization

of knowledge between secular and religious, as a result of the modern education

received by Muslims (Brohi, 1988). It has been suggested to be the ideological and

intellectual backbone of the general Islamisation process (see below) in the Muslim

world (Abu Sulayman, 1994b).

Islamisation of knowledge can be seen as an integral part of the wider process of

Islamisation or Islamic resurgence, which has been alluded to in Chapter 2.

Islamisation can been seen as a reaction to the realities (and maladies) of the

Modern and Post-modern age by Muslims coming to realise that neither the Western

concept of Development (Sardar, 1999) nor the traditional methodology of

interpretation of Islamic law (Abu Sulayman, 1994a) solves the problems of the

Muslim Ummah. It is a reformation and revolution in thought, which abhors the

petrifaction of Islamic thought and laws. Islamists who spearhead this movement are

basically educated in the modern secular system but have come to realise their

Islamic roots. Various Muslim countries in various degrees have adopted it. In some

cases as in Malaysia and Iran, it is supported by reform-minded ‘ulemas (Islamic

scholars). The process of Islamisation is politically backed in the Islamic republics of

Iran, Pakistan and Sudan, which have adopted Islam as the ideology of the state. In

Malaysia, the substantial and economically, powerful minority non-Muslim population

has prevented the total Islamisation of the state. Hence, it has adopted a dual system

mainly in the economic area and cosmetic Islamisation through religious symbols. In

other Muslim countries (such as Turkey, Egypt, Algeria and Indonesia) it is a popular
Chapter 4 Page 122

movement with political overtones but is in many Muslim countries repressed by the

political system e.g. by the Kemalists in Turkey (Sayyid, 1994).

The importance of an intellectual backbone to this process of re-assertion of Islam in

the Muslim Ummah’s social, political, cultural, economic, educational and other

aspects of life can be seen from the partial failures in Iran which took the quick

revolutionary path to an Islamic state. Again, in the case of Afghanistan where

leadership of the traditional religious educated can be the cause of backwardness

and oppression in the name of Islam. Abu Sulayman’s (1994a) warning that political

action and mobilisation without sound ideas or people capable of delivering them

would surely be wasted, echoes these events.

4.1.2 The Need for Islamisation of Knowledge- the Malaise of the Muslim
Ummah.

It has been suggested that there is a need to Islamise Knowledge because there is a

‘crisis in the Muslim mind and thought’ (Abu Sulayman, 1994b) which has caused the

malaise in the Muslim Ummah. It is well known that Muslims had a great intellectual,

political and military civilisation in its earliest times until the 15th Century (see for

example, Sardar & Malik, 1994)). However, the Muslim civilisation today is

backward in its culture, politically degraded into disunited and often warring nation

states, and full of human suffering (wars, expulsions, genocide and poverty). This is

in spite of its vast human and material resources and in spite of its values and

principles. The editor of Abu Sulayman’s (1994a) book entitled “Crisis in the Muslim

Mind” has aptly summarized this dismal state of affairs, thus:

“Poverty and injustice characterize the face of Muslim lands

from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Pollution and corruption are
the order of the day in societies where the gulf between them
and the developed countries have never been wider. Politics in
the Muslim world are all too often the politics of desperation,
economics the economics of deprivation, and the culture the
culture of despair”. (About this book-Abu Sulayman, 1994)
Various causes have been attributed to the above depressing state of affairs by the

Muslims, among them the breakdown of moral values, colonisation, political

Chapter 4 Page 123

fragmentation and utter disunity. However, Abu Sulayman (1994a) gives a novel

diagnosis of the malaise thus:

“It is clear that the Ummah is in no real need of resources,

opportunities or values. Rather, what is lacking is a
methodology for sound thinking. Indeed, the problems of the
Ummah are clearly connected to confused thinking, obscured
social vision, improper and inadequate education and the
decline of its institutions in general. The result is that it is
divided and has begun to resemble an enfeebled and cringing
slave”.
(Abu Sulayman, 1994a, p158)

According to Abu Sulayman (1994a and 1994b), the roots of this malaise can be

attributed to several historical reasons:

1) The change from consultative government to hereditary rule

Leadership during the Prophet’s (pbuh) time and the four ‘rightly guided’ khalifs were

based on consultative and elected leadership by Companions of the Prophet imbued

with the pristine values and vision of Islam. After them it decended into a hereditary

monarchy in which the rulers did not personally practice Islam’s pristine egalitarian

values but nominally implemented the Shari’ah.

2) Ossification of Islamic Law

When political leadership passed from pious and morally upright leaders to corrupt

monarchs, it gradually led to the separation of politics from the true spirit of Islam and

isolated the intellectual leadership (represented by the Islamic scholars) from the

political and administrative affairs. The divergence between the religious intellectual

and the leadership led to the former being removed from the practical and social

responsibility of the Ummah. Islamic scholars retreated to the Mosque and

increasingly concentrated on purely ‘religious” and ritual aspects. Intellectual pursuits

were restricted to “tomes of purely theoretical lore dealing essentially with descriptive

and lexical approaches to the interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah (Abu

Sulayman, 1994a, p 26).

Chapter 4 Page 124

The Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) and the early rulers had used ijtihad1 to flex

Islamic Law to meet the needs of space and time. The later scholars (‘ulemas),

however, in their zest to prevent the corruption and misinterpretation of the texts of

the Qur’an and Sunnah from being used to justify the actions of the political

leadership closed the ‘gates’ of ijtihad. New problems could then onwards be only be

solved through using analogy to the legal rulings of founders of the madhabs

(schools of Islamic law), although these founders themselves unequivocally declared

their fallibility. This quickened the pace of stagnation of thought, although scholars of

high calibre such as Imam Ibn Taymiyah and Imam Al-Shatibi continued to exercise

ijtihad to the dismay of traditionalist scholars and at considerable personal cost.

However, such highly capable scholars were few and far between.

The political leaders, on the other hand, were deprived of a viable intellectual base to

meet the challenge of changing times and were short on ideas, policies and workable

alternatives. This eventually led to more despotic, un-democratic regimes which

characterises Muslim society even today.

3) Colonisation and the bifurcation of the Educational System

Henceforth, education which was monopolised by the ‘ulemas began to mean

essentially religious education. The sciences and arts to which Muslims contributed

much, decayed in the Muslim world.In addition to the internal decay in thought, the

colonisation of Muslim lands by the West, magnified the discrepancy between the

Islamic worldview and its thought by its imposed secularisation and its anti-religious

‘scientific’ stance. The separation of Islam from even marginal influence in politics,

law, economics and education led to the duality in thought that govern much of

Muslim intellectual activity today. The Muslim world, despite its nominal

independence from the West, retains and imitates the educational paradigm of the

1
A process of continuous exertion to deduce new laws from Qur’anic principles
Chapter 4 Page 125

West. In the modern Universities of the Muslim world, the curriculum is an inferior

copy of their Western counterparts without in the least considering the Islamic

heritage and vision.

According to Al-Faruqi (1988), this universal rush of Muslims towards imitating other

civilisations never reached its goal in any field but only succeeded in “de-Islamising

the top layer of Muslim society and demoralizing the rest” (p15). The result of all this

was:

“The vision of Islam became clouded by another vision, which

came to us with the colonial invaders. The alien vision
survived and indeed grew more virulent after the invader’s
departure. For many generations, the Muslims have been
unable to get rid of it. It is evident everywhere- in the
imported institutions; in the spread of English and French
languages among them; in the design of their offices, homes
and cities, in the recreational programs; in the economic and
political practices they follow and in the very idea of reality,
of nature, of man and of society that they hold”. (Al-Faruqi,
1988, p16)

Al-Faruqi (1998) concludes that the bifurcated educational system into Islamic and

Modern is the primary agent responsible for disseminating the alien view. Before

colonisation, the Muslims had a single education system i.e. the traditional education

or the madrasa system which produced ulemas who were learned in the religious

sciences. The primary view of the world was Islamic or ‘religious’, much like the

Middle Ages. However, after the advent of colonisation, the colonisers introduced

modern subjects spearheading the use of English, French and other modern

European languages. Of course, Islam had no place in such an educational system.

The religious educational establishment was deprived of state support and

languished only through private endowment. The choice positions of the state went to

the graduates of colonial state and missionary schools. This bifurcated system of

education continued after independence and in time alienated the leadership and

civil service from the Muslim masses who were still religiously conscious through the
Chapter 4 Page 126

efforts of the Muslim preachers (‘alims) of the traditional schools who sought to keep

the Islamic tradition alive.

Many Muslims attempted to reform Islamic education by adding modern subjects to

its curricula, ignorant of the fact that these subjects developed in ‘Modern’ Europe

were constitutive of an alien view. They assumed that the modern subjects were

harmless and could only strengthen the Muslim position. However, according to Al-

Faruqi (1998) “little did they realise that the alien humanities, social sciences and

indeed the natural sciences, were facets of an integral view of reality, of life and the

world and of a history that is equally alien to that of Islam” (p 16).

4.1.3 Reactions To The Malaise

Consistent with the categorisation of the reaction of Muslim economists to

conventional economic thinking by Haneef (1995) the reactive elements among the

Muslims could be classified into:

• Modernists who would like to re-interpret Islamic teachings to accord with the

modern Western secular capitalist or socialist paradigm.

• Traditionalists- mainly driven by the traditional scholars or ulema (with a few

notable exceptions, naively look for the solutions to the contemporary problems

of the Ummah by adhering to the fiqh (legal interpretations) of the early

generations of Muslims, and

• Islamists – members of contemporary Islamic movements who want to take the

good technological developments of the West but who nevertheless insist on a

primary Islamic core.

The responses of the above three groups have been described by Abu Sulayman

(1994a) as follows:

• The Imitative Foreign solution- the modernists borrow solutions, which originate

from the cultural (secular and materialist) experience of the contemporary West.
Chapter 4 Page 127

Solutions offered include individualism, totalitarianism, secularism, atheism,

capitalism or Marxism.
Chapter 4 Page 128

• The Imitative Historical solution - the traditionalists rely on solutions derived from

the Islamic historical experience regardless of considerations of relevance in

terms of time and space.

• The Islamic Asalah2 solution- Islamists seek to apply relevant solutions, derived

from authentic Islamic sources, to the Ummah’s contemporary problems.

The Islamisation of knowledge movement seeks to use the third method, i.e. that of

providing solutions that are relevant to the contemporary needs of the Ummah by

following the original principles in the Qur’an but reinterpreting its laws in relation to

space-time. It is unlike the reformation movement in the Christian and Judaic

Churches in that, the Islamisation movement does not seek to delete or amend laws

or to relegate religious matter to metaphorical interpretations. It is a movement to

seek a fresh interpretation to suit the present conditions of Muslims but keeping in

view the immutable principles of Islam found in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

The Qur’an as a basic source of Islamic Law and values was discussed in Chapter 2.

From the perspective of the Islamisation of Knowledge movement, it the source of

knowledge. According to Al-Alwani & Khalil (1991),” as a heavenly Revelation, the

Qur’an is the most reliable source for all kinds of knowledge and an authentic guide

for scholars in the humanities and the social sciences”. Unfortunately, earlier

generations had focussed on the formal aspects of the Qur’an and the hereafter and

thus revelation was only seen as a source of fiqh (derived Law) and legislation.

However, Al-Alwani & Khalil (1991 p12) notes that “the fiqh rulings account for only a

small part of the area covered by the Qur’an”. In order to redress this, the authors

call on Muslims to use their intellect to understand and meditate on all the verses of

2
“Asalah (pronounced Aah –saa –laah) is a comprehensive term denoting the innovative application of
original Islamic priniciples to changing circumstances. Not to be confused with fundamentalism. It is
derived from the Arabic root word ‘asl which means roots”. (Abu Sulayman 1994a)
Chapter 4 Page 129

the Qur’an, making it the primary source and basis of all knowledge in the area of

human nature and of the social and applied sciences.

According to them “the intellect should not be constrained by a limited understanding

of the Qur’an that imprisons its meanings in a particular period or ties it to a given

generation” (Al-Alwani & Khalil 1991, p11). Thus, Muslims should comprehend the

Qur’an and Sunnah in a holistic way, minus the time-space bound interpretations,

which has somehow wrongly acquired infallible and immutable status alongside the

universal principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah.

4.1.4 The Movement Towards Islamisation Of Knowledge

Muslim students studying in the Western Universities especially in the UK and the US

pioneered the Islamisation of knowledge movement. They established academic

journals such as the Journal of Islamic Social Sciences to publicise their thoughts

academically. They also held International conferences (from 1977) and established

the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Virginia, United States in 1981.

In 1982 and 1988, the Institute collaborated with the governments of Pakistan and

Malaysia, respectively, to hold international conferences on the Islamisation of

Knowledge. They found political backers in the leaders of the two countries to

implement their educational projects in both these countries. Thus, the International

Islamic Universities of Pakistan and Malaysia were established. The IIIT also

established branches in various countries which later led to the establishment of

other International Islamic Universities in countries such as Bangladesh, Uganda,

Palestine and Sudan.

The growth of the movement can be seen from the fact that in the 1982 conference,

seventeen papers were presented focussing on Perspectives on the Islamisation of

Knowledge and Islamisation of Disciplines and Islamising individual disciplines. In

1988 held in Kuala Lumpur, the conference went further into the Islamisation of the

individual disciplines themselves, although the papers presented showed that this
Chapter 4 Page 130

was a very early stage. In addition, an autonomous post-graduate research institution

affiliated to the International Islamic University, Malaysia was also established in

Kuala Lumpur as the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation which

granted Doctorates and Masters degrees in the Islamic Social Sciences and

Thought. The IIIT also published a substantial number of books, occasional papers,

monographs and sponsored academic dissertations.

Although the intellectual fortunes of IIIT have increased, its financial fortunes have

declined, at least in Malaysia because of its proximity to the sacked ex-deputy prime

minister of Malaysia. Its branch in Malaysia has since been closed. However,

Islamisation of Knowledge has caught the attention of Muslim academics,

intellectuals, students, government students and the public. Although it is at an

infantile, “prenatal” stage (Al-Alwani, 1995, p x) and the future is uncertain

(especially in the natural sciences), it has become a reputable intellectual activity at

least among Muslim scholars. Its practical reach is in Islamic economics and

banking. The researcher hopes that this research goes some way in at least thinking

about Islamising Accounting.

4.2 THE METHODOLOGY OF ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE

To the Western academic and intellectual, Islamisation of knowledge may seem to be

a reactionary movement against the global influences of Western capitalism bent on

a futile attempt to substitute religious dogma for modern, objective knowledge. It is

much more than that. In fact, the process of Islamisation of knowledge may involve

more of a critical examination of the Muslims’ own history and method of thought

rather than being just a de-Westernisation process. In fact, Al-Alwani

Chapter 4 Page 131

(1995) one of the foremost scholars involved in the project has warned against such

a simplistic notion of Islamisation of knowledge, thus:

“If the Muslim mind is to liberate itself from the dominant

paradigm,it must construct a methodology for dealing with
Western thought, past and present. Neither outright rejection
nor wholesale acceptance of that paradigm will avail Muslims
anything. Likewise the cosmetic grafting of elements without
reference to any sort of systematic methodology, or to
differences in society and culture, will contribute nothing to
learning or to humanity”. (Al-Alwani, 1995, p 23)

The methodology for the Islamisation of knowledge has been outlined by its various

proponents differently. For example, Abu Sulayman (1988) has outlined it in a three-

step approach involving epistemological and educational terms. Al-Faruqi (1989) has

outlined in terms of a workplan, outlining the strategic steps necessary to achieve

Islamisation of knowledge. Al-Alwani (1995) has elaborated the process in terms of

six discourses and al-Khalil (1995) delineated Islamisation of Knowledge into a

process which takes place at two levels; theoretical and practical. These approaches

will now be discussed briefly.

4.2.1 The Three-Step Approach

Abu Sulayman (1994) insists that there is a need to initiate a reform in three main

areas in order to reform Muslim knowledge, culture and civilisation and to invigorate

the Muslim character. Firstly, he calls for a rectification of the relationship between

revelation and reason. He posits that, despite the tremendous achievements of

Western thought in experimental fields, the maladjustment and imbalance in Western

society is due to the inapplicability of empirical methods to mediate the conflict

between the social welfare goals on the one hand and the pursuance of personal

desires and interests on the other. “This is so because human reason alone is

incapable of attaining the ultimate truth about and full understanding of that is

desirable for humanity in this life and in the hereafter” (p 11).

Chapter 4 Page 132

Hence, as revelation has been rejected in Western society as a source of knowledge,

it is unable to arrive at one single theory or confidently resolve any (socioeconomic)

problem. From an Islamic perspective, on the other hand, both Revelation and

reason are recognized as sources of knowledge but Muslims have a problem in

defining and giving a concrete relationship between the two. In the past, Muslims,

resulting from ignorance, inexperience and a failure to use systematic reasoning

have brought about deceptive and unreasonable conclusions. On the other hand,

reason has to be used cautiously within the defined purpose of existence and the

framework of revelation in a disciplined and committed spirit to enrich Islamic

thought. Therefore, revelation and reason should be harmoniously synchronized so

that they are inextricably bound with one another.

An interesting example in economics is given by Abu Sulayman (1994a) to

demonstrate the synchronization of revelation and reason. Muslims have usually

followed a textual interpretation of the revealed sources in developing rules for

socioeconomic life. The Prophet (pbuh) had responded negatively to intervening in

the market when requested by his compatriots to do so in times of rising prices. This

Hadith was quoted as evidence to support the non-interventionist policy of Muslim

governments despite market imperfections such as monopoly and hoarding.

However, the Qur’an imperative of justice resulted in some ulemas such as Ibn

Taymiah (see Islahi, 1988) ruling that the government can intervene in the absence

of a truly free market to protect the masses from injustice, exploitation and fraud. In

such a case, a strict following of the Prophet’s Hadith to absolutely prohibit a pricing

system would undermine the cause of Islam, which preaches justice and equality. It

should be remembered that the Prophet (pbuh) had set up a ethically based free

market in Medina (Kallek, 1995) in the context of which his ruling was pronounced

correctly. Hence, in this instance, the Muslims arrived at a correct decision by using

reason and the ultimate principles in revelation, instead of abiding by the text of

revelation detached from its context. Abu Sulayman (1994b) concludes

Chapter 4 Page 133

“This shows that the mind has been used advantageously and
has proved capable of giving proper guidance in the light of
the total spirit of Islam. By realising the priority of justice in
Islam, it has not been distracted by technical theories and
considerations from accepting a system that might put a
minimum of checks and controls on economic transactions”.
(Abu Sulayman, 1994 b, p 13).

Secondly, Abu Sulayman (1994b) calls for redefining the Scope of Knowledge,

primarily by “de-centering” the faqih (the traditional Muslim scholar/jurisprudent) from

monopolizing the development of knowledge. He asserts that in the past, the faqih

had been a merchant, philosopher, mathematician, physician and chemist in addition

to being an expert on various branches of Islamic Shari’ah. He was thus capable of

directing his versatile intellectual abilities in the service of the Ummah. However,

contemporary knowledge has expanded immensely making it impossible for a single

person to be the repository of even multiple aspects of a single branch of knowledge.

Thus, ijtihad has to be undertaken by interdisciplinary specialist cadres who are

specialists in a particular field but also equipped with a first hand knowledge of the

Qur’an and the Sunnah to give them proper insight into the morals, values and

purpose of existence consonant with Islam.

Thirdly, Abu Sulayman (1994b) calls for the establishment of an Islamic infrastructure

and education aimed at reorienting the programmes of education and instruction

through uprooting the dualism in knowledge found at the leadership level today. This

would involve a study of major Islamic texts in each field of specialisation to mould

and guide the mentality of the learner. Every aspect of the curriculum should meet

the objectives and values of the teachings of Islam in a harmoniously comprehensive

manner. This reorientation would include methodology, professional commitment and

social participation in accordance with what is proper in each field. Presumably this

would include Islamisation of the various disciplines.

4.2.2 A Work Plan for the Islamisation of Knowledge

Chapter 4 Page 134

Al-Faruqi (1988), on the other hand, opines that both the traditional and modern

system of education should be united. He calls for instilling the vision of Islam in the

modern universities by a compulsory study of Islamic civilisation over a four-year

period to foster a sense of identity and awareness of the Islamic vision. However, he

contends that this is not enough and that Islamisation of modern knowledge (the

recasting of some twenty disciplines in accordance with the Islamic vision) is the

second part of the Islamisation of knowledge process. He envisages a twelve-step

work plan to Islamise knowledge, which can be distinguished into five phases.

In the first phase, modern disciplines need to be mastered by breaking them down in

categories, principles, methodologies, problems and themes in its “Western” and

highest form. The discipline is then surveyed to reveal its genesis and historical

development, the growth of methodology and the main contributions to the discipline.

This is akin to the archeology of modern disciplines undertaken by Foucault

(Merquior, 1991 p36). This survey would allow Islamic scholars to touch base and

agree on the identity, history, topography and frontiers of the discipline, which is the

object of the Islamisation effort.

The second phase of the process would be mastering the Islamic legacy to discover

what the legacy of Islam had to say of the discipline. However, Al-Faruqi (1988)

notes that this is not easily accessible to the modern scholars because the

categories of the modern knowledge are unknown as such in the legacy. The

classification is not the same as the disciplines were not developed at the time or

they were treated under a holistic schema at the earlier times. For example, Zaid

(1997) unearthed a wealth of accounting information pointing to the development of a

comprehensive accounting system a hundred years before Pacioli in an old Turkish

book entitled Risala El-Felakiyei (The Message of Astronomy/calculation). Similarly

economic and sociological matters are treated under fiqh and history by Ibn Taimiyah

(Islahi, 1988) and Ibn Khaldun respectively.

Chapter 4 Page 135

Al-Faruqi, suggests that the traditional scholars who are masters of the Islamic

legacy be instructed in the categories of modern disciplines produced as a result of

phase one and given the task of unearthing the Islamic legacy to search for Muslim

contribution to the disciplines. This should result in the production of anthologies of

the legacy which will be used by the Muslim scholar to analyse the legacy in relation

to the historical background to crystallize the Islamic vision and to filter the time-

space constrained parts from the timeless principles.

The third phase involves the establishment of the specific relevance of Islam to the

disciplines by posing three major questions; what was the Muslim contribution to the

discipline? How this contribution compares with the achievement of the discipline and

where the Islamic legacy has fallen short, in which direction should Muslim effort be

exerted to fill the discrepancy, reformulate the problem and enlarge the vision?

These questions envisage the critical assessment of the modern discipline including

the circumstances of its historical development, its methodology, its theory analyzed

and tested for consistency with the principles of Islam and an assessment of its

assumptions objectives and problems. This would by followed by a critical

assessment of the Islamic legacy- not the normative nature of revelation itself but the

understanding of Qur’an and Sunnah together with the component of the Islamic

legacy which are the products of human intellectual endeavor. It would include an

assessment and criticism of the principles provided by these sources. In addition, he

suggests that a survey of the problems of the Muslim community and a survey of the

problems of Mankind be undertaken. The Wisdom of the discipline should be brought

to bear on the Ummah’s problems and those of mankind for which the Muslims are

responsible.

The fourth phase would involve a creative analysis and synthesis between the

Islamic legacy and the modern disciplines to bridge the gap of centuries of non-

development. This would delineate the legitimate options to be followed by Muslims

to solve their problems.

Chapter 4 Page 136

The final phase of Islamisation would be recasting the disciplines under the

framework of Islam. The output of this process would result in the form of a University

textbook in the discipline for the various stages of university and school education.

The textbook and other works produced during the process would be disseminated

without any intellectual copyright to all Muslim thinkers (in the discipline) and

universities to be incorporated in their curriculum.

4.2.3 Islamisation of Knowledge through discourses

Al-Alwani (1995) suggests that Islamisation of knowledge may be developed by the

combined readings of the two books i.e. that of revelation and the book of nature. He

opines that a society which ignores the Book of Revelation (i.e. the Qur’an) will lose

sight of its relationship to the Almighty and its stewardship, trust and accountability to

a higher authority. This results in a self-centred and overweening society, which

spins for itself a web of speculative philosophy, which is powerless to answer the

“ultimate” questions.

On, the other hand, those “religious” elements that take the first reading of revelation

ignore the existential reading of nature and create imbalances in the form of Comment [SH1]: Clarify with Prof.
innes
aversion to the world and worldly pursuits. This results in their losing their ability to

participate and contribute to society and the failure to undertake their responsibilities

as stewards and keepers of Allah’s trust. Such a loss of equilibrium will result in

people incapable of creative and independent thinking.

Therefore, Islamisation of knowledge may be brought about by the combined

readings of the two books and the establishment, on the basis of their similarity and

complementarity, of a methodology for research and discovery. Islamisation of

knowledge, therefore, is primarily a methodological issue which is pre-positioned on

the identification and articulation of the relationship between revelation and the real-

existential. Al-Alwani (1995) suggests that Islamisation of knowledge should

presently focus on six discourses;

Chapter 4 Page 137

4.2.3.1 Articulating the Islamic paradigm of knowledge

This is identifying and erecting a tawhid-based system of knowledge based on

two fundaments:

1. the conceptual activation of the articles of faith to a creative and dynamic and

intellectual power capable of giving adequate replies to the ultimate

questions and

2. the elaboration of the paradigms of knowledge which guided historical Islam

and its school of thought to link those with the intellectual output of the past

and an evaluation of the extent to which they contributed or otherwise to the

dynamism and comprehensiveness of the output.

4.2.3.2 Developing Qur’anic (or Islamic) methodology

As methodology is a means of attaining truth, and a way to understand and analyze

phenomena, a Qur’anic methodology will have to be discovered to enable the Muslim

mind to deal effectively with its historical and contemporary problems.

4.2.3.3 Methodology for dealing with the Qur’an

This would include a review and re-organisation of the Qur’anic sciences and even

possibly excluding some traditional areas of study. This is to take account of spatio-

temporal differences to the understanding of the Qur’an from those of a simple and

limited social and intellectual formative Arab society to the nature of contemporary

civilisation. This would involve a shift from the traditional emphasis of descriptive and

lexical analysis of texts to a disciplined means of interpreting the texts of revelation

and relate it to nature.

4.2.3.4 Methodology for dealing with the Sunnah

Chapter 4 Page 138

The Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh) serves a major source for clarification and

explanation of Qur’anic text. At the time of the Prophet (pbuh), this clarification was

done in the particular mental, linguistic and intellectual abilities of the people he

addressed. Narrators of Hadith then preserved his actions and words.

Muslims are expected to emulate the Prophet (pbuh) as he is the best example.

However, this emulation has become one of deference or reliance on textual

interpretation rather than one based on an understanding of how the Prophet (pbuh)

applied the teachings of the Qur’an (revelation) to real situations of his time. A

methodology is therefore required which takes into consideration the situation and

context in which his actions were performed and his commands issued.

4.2.3.5 Re-examining the Islamic intellectual Heritage

There needs to be a critical understanding of the Islamic intellectual heritage to avoid

the three present methods of dealing with it; total acceptance, total rejection and

arbitrary borrowing. Such an understanding would shed light on how the Muslim mind

had dealt with social and other phenomena in the past and how that mind may deal

with the present. Muslims would have to discern the objectives the Islamic heritage

sought to serve and then to evaluate the methods used and the solutions suggested

in order to assess their usefulness in our own time and place.

4.2.3.6 Dealing with the Western Intellectual paradigm

A methodology needs to be constructed to deal with the dominating paradigm of

Western thought in order for the Muslim mind to liberate itself from it and to deal with

it. This does not mean total rejection or acceptance of the Western paradigm of

thought neither does it entail cosmetic grafting of elements without reference to a

systematic methodology or irrespective of cultural and societal differences.

4.2.4 The Two Processes Approach

Khalil (1995) divides the process of Islamisation into two levels, the theoretical and

practical. The theoretical level “explains the dimensions, motives, aims and main
Chapter 4 Page 139

stages of the process and identifies ways of implementing them in all the different

areas of knowledge” (p1). According to him, this includes the collection and

classification of data relevant to the contemporary Muslim situation to define and

consolidate Islamisation. The practical level is the task of reshaping every branch of

human knowledge in accordance with Islamic worldview.

Khalil (1995) also call for an examination of the link between the Islamic intellectual

legacy and the Islamic view to derive an Islamic methodology. This material has to be

scrutinised and selected in order to improve accessibility of Islamic terms and details

to today’s Muslims (p9). What is truly Islamic must be distinguished from the

elements, which had been introduced from the outside from the Islamic legacy. He

calls for the need for a methodology to deal with the mass of knowledge in the

legacy. The obsolete material should be discarded. Such sifting, testing and

classifying the legacy entails clarifying the Ummah’s conceptual, civilisation and

historical roots in order to be able to eliminate the risks of starting from scratch or

operating in a vacuum. Khalil (1995) also asserts that it is vital to take modern and

contemporary Islamic material seriously, since it provides the Islamisation process

with experience and thought. He notes the problem of surplus works in some areas

(e.g. economics, history) while there was a dearth in many others.

Khalil does not say much on the practical stage of Islamisation, the Islamisation of

disciplines except to suggest that it will require a long time and considerable effort.

He, however, proposes that broad outlines (or basic plans) be drawn for the

methodology of Islamisation of each discipline.

A summary of the methodologies suggested by the various writers is given in the

table 4-1.

Although the emphases placed by the authors are different (see table 4-1), they have

many common threads. The differences also reflect the evolutionary and gradational

nature of the Islamisation project, which reflects the evolution of Islamic thought over

a period of about 15 years. Although the different proponents of Islamisation of

Chapter 4 Page 140

knowledge seem to have different views, the process can be seen to be constitutive

of two elements:

(a) An evolution in Islamic thought and methodology and

(b) Islamisation of the modern disciplines.

The first phase involves a critical reexamination of the Islamic legacy of knowledge

and development of a fresh methodology in Islamic thought which seeks to integrate

its history, legal and thought process as well as a new hermeneutic for the

interpretation of its basic religious texts. This process is not easy, as it would be

opposed by the traditional ulema as an unwelcome intrusion by ignorant outsiders

(the modern Muslim intellectuals). However, this process is absolutely necessary and

has to be undertaken with the higher more mature and adventurous ulemas who are

not narrow-minded. There are such capable ulemas in the Muslim world who are

respectful of tradition without being unduly bound by it and are in turn respected by

the group of traditional ulemas.

The second element (which has been italicised in table 4-1), which this research is

concerned with, is the Islamisation of modern disciplines i.e. re-examining,

reinterpreting and reformulating the objectives, process (including historical

development), methodology and conclusions and incorporating the vision of Islam

into these components of the disciplines.

The most comprehensive methodology is that devised by Al-Faruqi (1988) in 1982,

the twelve-point plan (which has been summarised to five points in this chapter and

table 4-1). This is both strategic and integrative of both the two elements listed

above. Despite this, however, detailed methods have not been forthcoming from the

proponents of the Islamisation of knowledge in both elements. What has actually

happened is that “short cut has taken place” by initial Islamisation of disciplines by

Muslim, Western educated scholars in each field, although Al-Alwani (1995) has

warned, that Islamisation of knowledge “may not be pursued except by those

endowed with vast knowledge of the Qur’an and with it, a firm grounding in the social
Chapter 4 Page 141

sciences and humanities” (p13). This is a chicken and egg situation because very

few scholars (if at all) of such caliber exist. However, Islamisation of disciplines,

especially economics has proceeded because of practical developments in the

economic field. Hence as Nasr (1992) suggests, Islamisation has put the cart before

the horse by jumping over the theory (Islamisation methodology) and going straight

to the second ‘practical’ phase Khalil (1995) of Islamising the disciplines.

However, the researcher believes that this process is not too damaging, as long any

of the output is not taken as final. Islamisation of disciplines can be an iterative

process stretching over several generations. Indeed, its proponents have recognised

the evolutionary nature of the project. The process of Islamising education is already

taking place in the Islamic and other universities in Muslim countries. Eventually, this

would lead to more Islam-cognisant University graduates who will take the process

further. Meanwhile the results can be fed to the broadminded ulemas mentioned

above, who, being the Masters of the Islamic legacy would rule on the Islamicity of

the results.
Chapter 4 Page 142

TABLE 4-1:CLASSFICATION AND EVOLUTION OF ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE METHODOLOGIES

Al Faruqi Abu Sulayman Al-Khalil Al-Alwani

Proponent
1988 1988 1995 1995

Category Strategic (“Workplan”) Methodological/Practical Theoretical/Practical Discourses

Theoretical level: 1) Articulating the Islamic

Key Steps/ Mastery of the Modern
Stages Discipline
Mastering the Islamic legacy
Establish specific relevance of
Islam to each area of modern
knowledge
Creative synthesis between
Islamic legacy and modern
knowledge
Dissemination, education and
application of knowledge in
socioeconomic and political life
of Muslim Ummah.
Rectifying relationship between
revelation and reason
Redefine knowledge and clarify
key Islamic concepts such as
ijtihad (effort to develop new
rulings) and ifta (formal legal
opinion)
Reorganize and reorient the
methodology of Islamic
education and instruction to end
dualism.
Definition, aims, objectives,
dimension and stages
&implementation methodology
of Islamisation of knowledge.
(theoretical construct of
Islamisation of Knowledge)
Practical level:
To reshape all branches of
human knowledge (humanities,
pure & applied sciences in
accordance with Islamic world
view .
Islamisation of Disciplines
paradigm of knowledge
2) Developing Qur’anic
methodology
3) Methodology for dealing
with the Qur’an
4) Methodology for dealing
with the Sunnah
5) Re-examining the Islamic
intellectual Heritage and
6) Dealing with the Western
Intellectual paradigm
Chapter 4 Page 143
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4.3 ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE, A PARADIGM SHIFT IN

EPISTEMOLOGY?

In this section, the development of knowledge in the Western civilisation is discussed

with a special emphasis on the concept of paradigms and its implication for

accounting research. The researcher then attempts to place and link Islamisation of

knowledge in the general scheme of epistemology, methodology and methods and

how this research attempts to Islamise accounting and the theoretical assumptions

which underlie this research.

4.3.1 Epistemology: The Development and Schools of Western Epistemology.

The problem of what constitutes knowledge, from what sources it can be derived,

whether criteria can be established on which alternate claims to truth can be

validated are still unsettled questions. For example, sceptics conclude that

knowledge is impossible as no one does know because no one can know (Dancy,

1996). These questions are the province of epistemology, which has been defined

as the theory of knowledge and justification of belief. (Dancy, 1996). Epistemology,

according to Honderich (1995) is concerned with “the nature of knowledge, its

possible scope and general basis”(p 242). It deals with the sources and methods

from and by which knowledge can be obtained as well as determining criteria for

evaluating and adjudicating alternative truth claims (Chua, 1986).

Modern Western epistemology seems to have started from Descartes and developed

by Kant and others. Although Descartes and Kant, had a place for God, in their

epistemologies, after the age of enlightenment and the age of reason and science,

religion and revelation has been gradually been banished from the realms of Western

epistemology and methodology. For example, Locke argued vehemently that all our

ideas (but not all truths) arise from experience. Later, J. S. Mill extended the source

of truth to experience only. A modern philosopher of knowledge, for example, A.J.

Chapter 4 Page 144
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Ayer asserts that all knowable truths are either analytic or empirical, there is no room

for synthetic a priori views.

In contemporary Western epistemology there are two different views or schools of

knowledge i.e. rationalism and empiricism (Ryan et al., 1992). The rationalist school

of knowledge tenaciously holds that certain (true) knowledge can only be obtained

through the use of reason. This school is attributed to Plato, the disciple of Socrates.

It emphasises the power of logic and mathematics in deciding the truth of competing

theoretical arguments. According to this school, truth cannot be discerned by

observation alone but by reason. In fact, true knowledge can be obtained by

introspection, empirically a priori true propositions. Modern rationalists include Hume,

Berkeley and Locke.

The development of trade guilds in the 17th to the 18th Centuries in Europe, where

knowledge and expertise were passed down from master to apprentice, required

observation and practice rather than any deep reasoning. This led to the counter

philosophy of empiricism. The empiricist school holds that truth can only be

acquired through observation and this was the only route to certain knowledge. This

school was suspicious of the speculative method and viewed logic and mathematics,

only as tools for exploring the implications of observed knowledge. Empiricism holds

that only through perceived experience can there be certainty of belief in what we

know. Sense perception is the basis of knowledge, which can be only obtained

through the five senses. The implications of this are:

1. Beliefs based on non-experiential grounds are metaphysical and are

meaningless.

2. Beliefs about the world cannot be justified by the use of unaided reason alone,

since all knowledge is derived from experience (Locke’s tabula rasa – everybody

is born a clean slate on which sense impressions are laid making him/her know).
Chapter 4 Page 145
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3. The natural and social sciences should be value free (from beliefs and

ideologies) which cannot be justified in terms of the objects of experience under

study.

The pervasive influence of empiricism and with the scientific revolution has led to

positivism, which is the significant philosophical movement of modern times. This has

been influential in the development of economics, finance and accounting. In fact

positivism is the main constituent of mainstream accounting research (Chua,

1986;Baker & Beltner, 1997).

This positivism took root in the United States (and spread to other human science

disciplines such as economics and accounting) in the form of “structural

functionalism”. Led by Talcot Parsons, structural functionalists looked at society as

an “organic structure, which grows and gradually becomes complex in the

relationships of its interdependent substructures (institutions). The main job of the

researcher was therefore to discover how individual roles are related to the

institutional imperative and how developments in one substructure are related to

developments in other substructures. With this system orientation, the new

sociologists justified the capitalist-democratic system.

However, the move towards positivism and structural functionalism did not go

unchallenged. Weber opposed the earlier move towards empiricism and natural

sciences. Weber (1949, as quoted by Giddens, 1971) emphasised that “in the social

sciences we are concerned with the mental phenomena, the empathic understanding

of which is naturally a task of a specifically different type from those, which the

schemes of the exact natural sciences in general can or seek to solve” (p146).

Weber envisioned sociology as a science of social action to be explained by

understanding the interpretive meanings the actor attaches to the environment.

Thus, Weber contended that because the “interpretation of the actor cannot be

reached by empirical observation, experimentation or otherwise, sociology (and other

Chapter 4 Page 146
146
human sciences) is fundamentally distinct and different from the natural-scientific

disciplines.” (Ba-Yunus,1988 p 276).

Later, this interpretive approach led to phenomenology and symbolic interactionism

which focused on internal processes of thought, meanings, rationalisations and

justifications, which are supposed to be the building blocks in the development of the

visible action or act of the social actor (Bar Yunus, 1988). Akin to this, the critical

theorists were in vogue in the 1960’s and 1970’s and have increasingly influenced

sociology and accounting. This school, a product of German idealism and Marxist

theory of class conflict was the vanguard of the Marxist attack on conservative

positions of structural functionalism. Although Marx himself favoured scientific

methodology in his theory of dialectical materialism, the critical school moved

towards the subjective dimension in using the “soft” anti-empiricist methodologies in

studying human behaviour and societal conflict.

4.3.2 Scientific revolutions and Sociological Paradigms

It can be seen that Western epistemology, especially in the human sciences has a

tendency to take extreme positions along what is known as the subjective-objective

continuum (Burrell & Morgan, 1979; Hopper & Powell, 1985; Boland, 1989). Even in

the natural sciences, Kuhn has put forward the theory of scientific revolutions and

expounded the concept of paradigm shifts to reflect contrasting philosophical

positions in the sciences.

The concept of paradigm, according to Kuhn (1970) represents a way of viewing the

world. Different paradigms therefore represent separate and largely

incommensurable ways of viewing the world. Kuhn asserts that scientific

interpretations of the empirical world are paradigm (or theory) laden. This theory

dependence of observation implies that observation and meaning of reality depends

on our theoretical constructs. Kuhn asserts that the world goes through scientific

revolutions or paradigm shifts where not only are there different explanations of a

given reality but a fundamental shift in the way scientists view reality. This puts the
Chapter 4 Page 147
147
bold claim of objectivity and truth of scientific facts and testability of scientific

theories, somewhat shaky even in the natural sciences, and more so in the human

sciences such as accounting which is claimed to be value-free, objective and

unbiased.

In the human sciences, the work of Burrell & Morgan (1979) on sociological

paradigms on organisation theory has had tremendous impact on accounting

research thus:

“Burrell & Morgan’s (1979) meta-analysis of the sociological

theories that have guided the general field of organisational
studies also helped to reveal the functionalist assumptions
that have explicitly or implicitly guided organisational
research in accounting....Their book was an important
element in the shifting background of assumptions about
social science that helped to set the stage for more
interpretive research in accounting.... The result has been an
increase in the number of “roles” of accounting that are
revealed as different perspectives are taken”.
(Boland, 1989, p592)

Burrell & Morgan (1979) conceive social theory in terms of four key paradigms based

on different sets of meta-theoretical assumptions about the nature of social science

and the nature of society. They assert that these four paradigms are founded upon

mutually exclusive views of the social world and thus generate distinct analyses of

social life. Thus different theories and perspectives in each paradigm are in

opposition to those generated in other paradigms.

Chapter 4 Page 148
148

THE SOCIOLOGY OF RADICAL CHANGE

Radical Radical
Humanist Structuralist

Interpretive Functionalist

THE SOCIOLOGY OF REGULATION

FIGURE 4-2:THE FOUR PARADIGMS OF BURRELL & MORGAN (1979)

Burrell & Morgan (1979) categorise the meta-theoretical (philosophical) assumptions

which underlie the different approaches to social science as ontological,

epistemological, human nature and methodological. The different assumptions under

these categories are themselves delineated in two dichotomous dimensions, the

subjectivist and objectivist. These are displayed in figure 4-3 below:

SUBJECTIVST OBJECTIVIST

Nominalism ONTOLOGY Realism

EPISTEMOLOGY
Anti-Positivism Positivism

Voluntarism HUMAN NATURE Determinism

Ideographic METHODOLOGY Nomothetic

FIGURE 4-3: THE SUBJECTIVE- OBJECTIVE DIMENSION OF META

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS

The ontological assumptions relate the essence of the phenomena under

investigation i.e. the nature of reality. In the objectivist dimension, is the realist view
Chapter 4 Page 149
149
that there is a reality external to the individual imposing upon the consciousness from

without. This is the ontology of realism. The Ontology of nominalism in the subjective

dimension views reality as the product of individual consciousness. The question

therefore is whether there is an objective reality or only a product of cognition.

The epistemological category of assumptions concerns the grounds for knowledge,

how the world could be understood and be communicated to others. From the

objective perspective is the epistemology of positivism where knowledge is held as

hard, real and capable of being communicated in a tangible form. From the

subjective dimension, the anti-positivist epistemological stand is that knowledge is

soft and more subjective, spiritual and transcendental kind based on experience,

insight of unique and personal nature, which can only be personally experienced.

The human nature assumption is concerned with the relationship between human

nature and the environment, which respectively forms the subject and object of

research enquiry. From the objective dimension, the school of determinism holds that

human beings respond in a mechanistic fashion to situations encountered in the

external world. This implies that human beings are products of the environment

conditioned by external circumstances. This is the basis of much traditional

management accounting research such as social systems theory and even

contingency theory which tries to find solutions in order to manipulate human

behaviour toward organisational objective (Hopper & Powell, 1985). On the other

hand, the voluntarism school in the subjectivist dimension, holds that man is the

creator of his environment (he has free will), he is the controller and master and not a

puppet subject to the ravages of the environment.

The above ontological, epistemological and human nature assumptions have direct

implications for the methodological assumptions, which underlie any piece of

research. Methodology can be seen as the way in which one attempts to investigate

and obtain knowledge about the world. Realist ontology combined with positivist

epistemology and determinist human nature assumptions would lead to a nomothetic

Chapter 4 Page 150
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methodology. As these theoretical positions assume a real hard and external social

world, the nomothetic methodology seeks to analyse relationships and regularities

between various elements. It seeks to identify, define concepts, measurements, and

underlying themes, usually employing mathematical and statistical methods of

measurement.

On the other hand, an ideographic methodology reflects the assumptions of a

subjective world being capable of manipulated and interpreted by the subject. This

methodology therefore focuses on the understanding of the ways in which the

individual creates, modifies and interprets his world. The objective of research here is

the explanation and understanding of what is unique and particular to the individual

rather than what is general and universal which is the concern of a realist, positivist

ontology and epistemology.

The above four sets of assumptions provide a powerful tool of analysis of social

theory and have led to different schools of thought in the social sciences. These

include (i) sociological positivism which attempt to apply the models and methods

derived from the natural sciences and (ii) German idealism which holds that ultimate

reality lies in subjective, spiriit/idea, rather than on ultimate data of sense perception

and hence, denies the methods of empirical science.

Burrell & Morgan (1979)’s contribution is to combine these four categories of

philosophical assumptions on the nature of social science to two sets of assumptions

on the nature of society to develop their four paradigms. The two sets of assumptions

regarding the nature of society arise from the order-conflict debate of 19th century

sociologists. Conventional social theory as influenced by Durkheim, Weber and

Pareto viewed society as an ordered and cohesive system while Marx viewed society

as characterized by class-conflict and asserted this conflict as the driving force

behind social change. Burrell & Morgan (1979) develop these two views into the

Sociology of Regulation and the sociology of Radical change.

Chapter 4 Page 151
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The sociology of Regulation emphasizes the cohesiveness and unity of society and

expresses a concern for the regulation of human affairs. Every society is a relatively

persistent, stable and well-integrated set of elements. Each element has a function,

which contributes to the maintenance of a system. This view of society seeks to

preserve the status quo and believes that the consensus in society is due to shared

values.

The sociology of Radical Change views society as subject to ubiquitous change due

to internal dissent and conflict. Every element contributes to disintegration and

change. The semblance of unity is only achieved by coercion of the poor by the rich

through financial and political power. Value orientations and normative structure are

master symbols of domination. While the sociology of regulation seek to regulate

human affairs to maintain the status quo, the sociology of radical change seeks an

explanation for the radical change in the deep-seated structural conflict, modes of

domination and structural contradiction which characterizes modern society and

limits its potential. The objective is to emancipate man from the structures of society

and the material and psychic deprivations thereof.

Burrell & Morgan (1979) combined these two dimensions of society into the

subjective-objective dimensions to produce the four paradigms seen in diagram 4-1.

The four paradigms introduced by Burrell & Morgan (1979) (starting from the bottom

right corner) are termed the functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical

structuralist paradigms.

According to Burrell & Morgan (1979), most of academic sociology has been

conducted in the functionalist paradigm firmly rooted in the sociology of regulation

(and from an objective point of view). Chua (1986) also opines that most research

projects in mainstream accounting are also conducted in the functionalist paradigm.

This paradigm seeks to provide rational explanations of social affairs. Its pragmatic

orientation means that it is concerned to understand society to provide useful

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knowledge. The functionalist paradigm has its roots in the sociological positivism of

Comte, Durkheim and Pareto.

Researchers in the Interpretive Paradigm adopt an implicit view of the sociology of

regulation because of their subjective analysis of the social world. Here the concern

is to understand the world as it is at the level of subjective experience and individual

consciousness. The researcher here is treated as a participant in the social process

as opposed to the observer view taken in an objective functionalist approach. Under

this paradigm, the researcher sees the social world as an emergent social process

created by individuals. Social reality outside individual consciousness is viewed only

as a network of assumptions and inter-subjectively shared meanings. The quest here

is for fundamental meanings underlying social life rather than causal relationships in

social phenomena. Interpretive paradigm is the direct product of German Idealism of

Kant who emphasized the spiritual nature of the social world.

The radical humanist paradigm is concerned to develop sociology of radical change

from a subjectivist viewpoint. The social science assumptions are the same as the

interpretive paradigm i.e. nominalist, anti-positive, voluntarist and ideographic.

However, in contrast to the interpretive paradigm, radical humanists view the world

as full of social conflict due to class conflict and domination. As such theorists

emphasise the importance of over-throwing or transcending the limits of the existing

social arrangements. Hence, theorists concentrate on studying the roots of class

domination and hegemony and the ideological superstructures, which cause the

alienation of man. The object of this exercise is to emancipate the human subject

from these alienating superstructures, which drive a cognitive wedge between man

and his true consciousness. The theorists in this paradigm provide a critique of the

status quo. Unfortunately, because this paradigm is essentially founded upon Marx

and his historical materialism, the radical humanists point a finger at the spiritual

(religious) bonds as one of the superstructures which fetters the human beings into

the existing social patterns and prevent them from realising their full potential. Due to
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their subjectivist leanings, the radical humanists place emphasis on the human

consciousness and therefore seek to change the social world through a change in

the mode of cognition and consciousness rather than attacking the structures.

The Radical structuralists, on the other hand, represent the objectivist version of

the radical humanists. Both the radical humanist and structuralist view the world as

one of conflict, deprivation and domination. However, whereas, the radical humanist

seek to change the world through change in the internal consciousness, the radical

structuralist attacks the dominating and alienating external structures of the realist

social world. The theorists in this paradigm hold that contemporary society is ridden

with fundamental conflicts, which generate radical change through political and

economic crises. Theorists seek to explain the basic interrelationships (e.g. internal

contradictions, structure and analysis of power relationships) within the context of

total social transformations. Different theorists stress different social forces to

explain change. Some seek to explain change in terms of deep-seated internal

contradictions in society, while others stress the importance of structure and power

relationships in society.

4.3.3 The Implications and critique of the paradigms.

According to Burrell & Morgan (1979), although, each of the paradigms shares a

common set of features with its neighbours on the horizontal and vertical axis, the

fact that it is differentiated on the other dimension implies it is separate from the its

neighbour. This differentiation is of sufficient importance to warrant treatment of

paradigms as four distinct and mutually exclusive, which represent fundamentally

different perspectives for the analysis of social phenomena. Thus, researchers

located in each paradigm have a different frame of reference, mode of theorising and

modus operandi but those located within the same paradigm share all these and this

binds them to the same problematic. Although theorists within a paradigm do not

share complete unity of thought, their shared “taken for granted” assumptions
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separate them, in a fundamental way, from other theorists working within a different

paradigm. They might not even recognise an alternative view of reality existing

outside their own paradigm. Thus to be located in a paradigm is to view reality in a

particular way. It also provides a “map” for locating and negotiating one’s subject

area.

According to Burrell & Morgan (1979):

“A synthesis is not possible; since in their pure form they are

contradictory, being based on at lest one set of opposing meta-
theoretical assumptions. One cannot operate in more than one
paradigm at any given point in time by may operate
sequentially over time, since in accepting the assumptions of
one, we defy the assumptions of the other”.
(Burrell & Morgan, 1979, p25)

The different paradigms may also serve as explanations for the different and

sometime conflicting conclusions arrived at by researchers looking at the same

problem but from different paradigms. Chua (1986), for example, shows how

accounting researchers working within different paradigms, use different

methodologies and focus on different matters when researching on the same area.

Chua compares the work of Chandler and Daems (1979) and Tinker et al., (1982) on

the historical development of accounting theory and practice. Chandler & Daems

(1979), working from the mainstream functionalist perspective, view accounting as a

rational control mechanism which are part of a concrete reality and which evolves in

a rational manner to meet the need for efficient organisation. The firm is viewed a

rational, single-minded organic system which adapts its accounting system to ensure

its survival. There is no consciousness (by the researcher) of intra and inter-

organisational conflict except perhaps in instrumental terms.

Tinker et al., (1982), by comparison, using a critical perspective (radical humanist

paradigm) view accounting as a discourse of the dominating forces in perpetuating

the status quo. The pretence of Accounting to be an objective, neutral discourse is

exposed and argued to be a tool actively involved in social control and historical
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conflict. The development of accounting, in their view, is not a rational evolution in

the quest for the firm’s efficiency and survival but a tool whose dominating discourse

evolves in line with the interest of the dominating groups in society during a particular

period.

Although, the importance of the paradigms and the consequent fundamental

philosophical assumptions do have implications for accounting and research in the

social sciences, the claimed mutual exclusivity of each paradigm has been critiqued

in the literature. Hopper & Powell (1985) argue that although analytically distinct,

there are often strong relationships between the positions adopted on each

continuum, which has been integrated by Burrell & Morgan (1979) in the subjective-

objective continuum. However, in order to create their four paradigms, Burrell &

Morgan created a dichotomy between objective and subjective approaches. Hopper

& Powell (1985) only recognize three paradigms; the radical, interpretive and

functionalist. They combine the radical humanism and radical structuralist paradigms

into one radical paradigm because they argue that this is a mistaken position taken

by authors (such as Althuser, 1969), who believe in the epistemological break

between the earlier and later works of Marx on which the two paradigms are based.

They point to the work of Giddens and Habermas who have made considerable

efforts to incorporate both strands. Hopper & Powell (1985) hold that maintaining the

division set up by Burrell & Morgan (1979) carry the risk that the concern of the

radical structural analysis may be seen as incompatible or irreconcilable with those

stressing consciousness, rather than seeing both as dialectical aspects of the same

reality.

Chua (1986) also finds the dichotomous division of the assumptions into subjective

and objective (the division of human nature into free will versus environmentally

determined) as problematic. She also criticises Burrell & Morgan for embracing a

strongly relativist position of scientific truth and reason through a misreading of Kuhn

(1970). Chua (1986) also points to a fundamental tension in Burrell & Morgan’s
Chapter 4 Page 156
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(1979) framework. While accepting Kuhn’s argument that there is no trans-historical,

neutral, permanent language (set of criteria) for evaluating scientific theories, Burrell

& Morgan (1979) adopt an inconsistent, non-evaluating stance and thereby attempt

the use of a completely neutral language within which the rival paradigms can be fully

expressed.

While acknowledging Burrell & Morgan’s (1979) contribution in breaking the hold of

a crude objectivism on accounting research, Boland (1989) criticises their posing a

dichotomy between the subjective and objective realms. He asserts that, although

both the subjective and objective are legitimate concerns, it is a mistake to suggest

that there are two different kinds of researchers. He points out that they have laid a

trap for subjectivist researchers by reifying the objective-subjective continuum as a

kind of fundamental distinction that gives a new boundary to the accounting

discourse. This has resulted in the replacement of an old mind set with a new one,

which is as bad as the predecessor.

Boland (1989) suggests that there is a need to appreciate the nature of their

(subjective-objective) union in the experience of both accounting users and

researchers. Each requires the other for context to be completed and to stand out as

apart and separate. Thus the “objective fact is socially constructed and the symbolic

meaning is empirically grounded”.

Boland (1989) suggests that this subjective-objective constraint can be broken by

studies, which form part of the hermeneutic turn in the social sciences. Taking a

hermeneutic turn involves a special appreciation of the close intertwining of human

action and human language embedded in a field of social practice. It means

approaching the social world as a text that is alien and unfamiliar: a text with

significance and meaning that will emerge only through interpretation. The

researcher is a reader of the text or a reader of the way social actors read that text to

themselves.
Chapter 4 Page 157
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4.3.4 Theoretical assumptions of this research

This researcher takes the position of Hopper & Powell (1985) that there is no such

thing as a totally objective and value free investigation and that certain fundamental

theoretical and philosophical assumptions underlie any piece of research.

Many accounting researchers have called for researchers in accounting to “recognise

and assess the underlying theoretical and philosophical assumptions “ behind their

research to are consistent with of their own beliefs (Tinker et al., 1982; Hopper &

Powell, 1985;Chua, 1986;Cooper & Hopper, 1990). The values to be examined

include the researchers’ own values and beliefs concerning the nature of society and

the social sciences.

The reason behind this call is that the researchers assert (and this researcher

agrees with them) that the method and interpretation of results of any piece of

research would depend on these assumptions, as no research is totally objective or

value free. The confusing results of research on the same area, under alternative

paradigms would become clearer if the assumptions underlying the research were

made explicit.

Hopper & Powell (1985) assert that, failure to take account of the researcher’s

theoretical and philosophical assumptions, would make commonly held views and

taken for granted ‘facts’, which rest upon such assumptions, to be unquestioningly

accepted as fact resulting in developing and nurturing ‘myths’.

Tinker et al. (1982) assert, that two such myths in accounting are that of pretensions

of objectivity and independence. The failure to make explicit, the underlying

normative assumptions, they assert, masks the “social allegiances and biases of

accounting”. This is made possible by promoting positive, descriptive and empirical

theories of “what is” as more realistic and factual and relevant than normative

theories of “what ought to be”. Tinker et al. (1982) contend that even these so called

positive theories which claim to be objective and value-free are themselves value
Chapter 4 Page 158
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laden and normative. They appear to be factual and value-free because, the non-

disclosure of their underlying assumptions masks their conservative ideological bias

in their accounting policy implications.

4.3.5 Locating this research

This research, however, cannot be located within any of the paradigms proposed by

Burrell & Morgan (1979) because the underlying assumptions of the study do not

coincide with their social science and nature of society assumptions. The theoretical

framework and assumptions for this research is the Islamisation of knowledge, which

from the above discussion on epistemology and paradigms can be seen as a search

for an alternative epistemological paradigm located in a third dimension; the Islamic

(see figure 4-4).

According to Izetbegovic (1984), there are only three integral views of the world; the

religious, the materialistic and the Islamic each reflecting three elemental

possibilities; conscience, nature and man and each manifesting itself as Christianity,

Materialism and Islam. The religious worldview takes only the existence of spirit into

account, whereas the second worldview takes into account only the existence of

matter. Islam takes into account the simultaneous existence of spirit and matter.
Chapter 4 Page 159
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Injustice

Subjective
ISLAMIC

Materialist

Justice

FIGURE 4-4:LOCATING THIS RESEARCH :ISLAMIC PARADIGM AS A THIRD DIMENSION

The Islamic world-view or paradigm and the Islamisation of knowledge can be

located in a third dimension. The front face of the box represents the four paradigms

of Burrell & Morgan (using a subjectivist/objectivist approach). As the Islamic world-

view is the unity of spirit and matter, then it has to be located in another dimension.

For a theory of the nature of the social world, Islam views it as one of cycles; order to

disorder and order again; the conflict between good and evil. The class conflict can

be seen as one particular manifestation of this conflict between good and evil. The

equilibrium state is justice and the conflict state is injustice. An Islamic view would

seek to remove injustice by following its principles in the conduct of social and

individual affairs and constantly monitor empirically the state of affairs to seek to

move towards justice when there is conflict and to maintain the status quo of justice

when there is equilibrium.

Another point of note is that Islamisation of accounting can be seen as part of the

interdisciplinary project in accounting (Roslender & Dillard, 1999). In many respects,

the Islamisation of accounting can be seen as a extension or modification of the

critical accounting sub-project within this interdisciplinary project. The problem with

the interdisciplinary accounting project has already been highlighted by Roslender &
Chapter 4 Page 160
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Dillard, as being too narrow a confinement within the Marxist critical paradigm which

has been superceded by other perspectives for example, Foucauldian accounting.

Although, Islamisation may have the same concern for emancipation from the status

quo to a more just system, the atheistic and overtly radical orientation of Marxism

presents a problem for the researcher to locate this research within the critical

paradigm. Islam has its own assumptions of society and social science. However,

from the example of the Prophet (pbuh) and the methodology of gradual revelation of

the Qur’an, an evolutionary strategy for changing society from inwards to outwards is

indicated. This is also the strategy of Islamisation of the Muslim Brotherhood (one of

the earliest radical but reformist Islamic movement) which is change through

personal and family spiritual reform extending to the local and national community

and then on to the world at large. This is also the strategy adopted by Gray et al.

(1996) in the social and environmental accounting project.

One problem which Western academics might have with the Islamisation of

knowledge as an epistemological evolution is that, on the surface, it looks as if this is

an attempt to re-introduce religious doctrine and dogma posing as knowledge.

Secularisation has pervaded Western society to such an extent that this looks like it

is a yearning for the past, a backward, retrogressive step. The secular mind finds it

difficult to understand how knowledge that should be objective and neutral could be

based on the basis of religious doctrine.

The first answer to this is that Islam should not be thought of in a Western sense of

religion. The importance of both perceptual knowledge and reason is a Qur’anic and

Islamic imperative. Contemporary knowledge in the garb of objectivity and neutrality

is in fact imbued with its own “religious” values- that of fundamental secularism which

separates revelation from reason. According to al- Faruqi (1988), this separation of

revelation and reason is utterly unacceptable, as “it is opposed to the central appeal

of the Qur’an to reason, to weigh rationally all matters and to favour the more

reasonable, more median course” (p35). Al- Faruqi (1988) further claims that:
Chapter 4 Page 161
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“Unlike those religions which sought to overwhelm man’s
understanding – to overpower his conscience so that he would
surrender to the irrational, or even the absurd – the call of
Islam was rational and critical. Invariably, it invited men to
use their intelligence; to apply their critical faculties to all
claims;......and always to seek correspondence with reality.
Such exhortations, injunctions and commands are found in
practically every page of the Qur’an. Without reason, the
truths of revelation cannot be appreciated”. (Al- Faruqi,
1988, p 35)

Further, knowledge from the Western perspective is not entirely value-fee and

empirical. Tinker et al. (1982), shows even positive theories are embedded in

normative value-laden normative origins.

Sardar (1999) alludes to the fact that that knowledge at present is not only value

neutral but also Eurocentric. He asserts that “ Eurocentrism is inherent in the way we

organize knowledge”, in addition to it being, “ intrinsic in the way we think and

conceptualise” (p 49). This was brought about because at the time, the various social

science disciplines- from economics to anthropology, emerged, Europe was

formulating its world-view and “virtually all (these disciplines) were geared to serving

the needs and requirements of Western Society and promoting its outlook. Sardar

(1999) further asserts that this Eurocentrism was overt and obvious during the period

of colonisation but became deeply embedded and covert in their modernist and post-

modernist incarnations. He point out the way knowledge is compartmentalised (or

dichotomised) as physics and sociology, law and ethics, and religion and politics and

opines that this is not due to any universal axiom but a product of the Western

worldview. Thus:

“Neither nature nor human activities are divided into

watertight compartments marked “sociology”, “political
science” or “economics”. All those disciplines ... are
culturally specific; they are products of a particular culture
and particular way of looking at the world and are
hierarchically subordinate to that culture and worldview.
They do not have autonomous existences of their own but
have meaning largely in the worldview of their origins and
evolution”. (Sardar, 1999, p 50)
Chapter 4 Page 162
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This compartmentalisation reduced physical reality into smaller and smaller parts,

removing the parts from the context and then studied it as an artificial construction.

This also echoes the call of Gray et al. (1996) to use a General Systems Theory

framework to study disciplines as opposed to viewing accounting from a reductionist

perspective.

The Eurocentric nature of this compartmentalisation of knowledge is especially

evident in sociology and anthropology as pointed out by Sardar (1999). For example,

when the West wanted to study its own society, it termed this discipline “sociology”.

However, for studying, controlling and managing other cultures, it invented

“Anthropology”. This, he says, is evident because many of these disciplines have no

meaning in other cultures. For example, anthropology would be meaningless from

the perspective of Australian Aboriginal scholars unless it is used to control and

manage themselves or perhaps to study Western society?

It is often said that in an age of globalisation, the Western scheme of learning and

knowledge is validated by its adoption throughout the world. However, Sardar (1996)

opines otherwise. Comparing the disciplines to burger and coke, he asserts that the

presence of the latter does not demonstrate their universal acceptance as food, but

the power and dominance of the culture that produced them. Similary “ disciplines too

are like burgers and coke; they are made not in heaven nor do they exist out there in

some ‘reality’ but are socially constructed and develop and grow within specific

worldviews and cultural milieus” (p 60).

Hence, according to Sardar (1999 p 60), the problem of Eurocentrism – the power to

define categories and knowledge is thus the problem of knowledge itself. This

charge of Eurocentrism in the monopolisation of defining knowledge is not too

preposterous if we remember the study by Foucault on “The Order of Things”

(Merquior, 1991). In this work, Foucault asserts that power relationships in history

determined and defined what is knowledge. Hence at one time natural history,

alchemy and astrology were considered knowledge, whereas the different epochs or
Chapter 4 Page 163
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‘epistemes’ as Foucault called them led the development of biology, chemistry and

astronomy. Whereas in the Middle Ages, it was the power of the Church who defined

and monopolised knowledge, “Western” scientists define what is knowledge today.

This definitional power of societal –elitist structures is also evident in the definition of

madness as the “other” in Foucault’s book, “Madness and Civilisation”.

It can be seen that contemporary knowledge and methodology is not completely

value-free and therefore there is no reason to fear Islamisation of knowledge will lead

to an irrational dogma-bound monopoly of the religious class. The researcher, thus

sees the Islamisation of knowledge, as not a contradiction in terms but part of the

process of discovering “Other ways of knowing, being and doing- a problem of how

to be human in ways other than those of Europe” (Sardar, 1999). Islamisation of

knowledge in one way of de-centering Europe from knowledge and towards

consonance with world-view of Muslim society. Further, even in Western

epistemology, the possibility of religious and moral knowledge has not been excluded

altogether. Audi (1988), for example views that moral and religious knowledge is

possible, thus:

“The question, how far our knowledge and justification

extend beyond our belief grounded directly in experience or
reason turns out to be complicated. We have at least found
warrant to rejecting the stereotypic view that whereas there
obviously exist scientific knowledge as an upshot of proof, it is
at best doubtful that there is any moral knowledge or even
can be religious knowledge.... Moreover scientific knowledge
does not often represent uncontroversial beliefs of precise
generalizations but is typically approximate knowledge, often
recognized to need refinement or knowledge of
approximations formulated with restrictions left unspecified.
There is good reason to think that we have ...moral
knowledge. And there is no apparently decisive reason to
deny the possibility of religious knowledge”.(Audi, 1988,
p134)

Thus, the Islamic world view of unity of mind and matter, the Eurocentric nature of

current knowledge posing as objective and value-free and the possibility of religious
Chapter 4 Page 164
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and ethical knowledge makes Islamisation of knowledge a logical and

epistemologically acceptable activity.

4.4 AN INTIAL ATTEMPT AT ISLAMISATION OF ACCOUNTING.

From the previous section, it can be seen that Islamisation of knowledge or even

Islamisation of a modern discipline such as accounting is an enormous task that will

take several decades and the efforts of hundreds of scholars. Further, the process,

as suggested by the researcher is iterative where the output will be refined as time

goes on with more experience of the process. Therefore, it is not possible, in this

doctoral research project to Islamise accounting. However, a beginning can be made

and the researcher argues, has to be made because of developments in the

business environment in Muslim countries i.e. the development of Islamic economic

institutions and the efforts at Islamising the economic systems of some Muslim

countries.

From the Islamisation seminars held so far, (IIIT, 1988 and 89; Muqim, 1997)

outlines have been presented for the Islamisation of economics, sociology,

philosophy, arts and architecture, history, jurisprudence, philosophy of science,

anthropology and psychology. The papers presented show the process at a very

early stage being very general in their suggestions. To the researcher’s knowledge,

no papers have been presented on the Islamisation of Accounting. This may be due

to the general perception, that Accounting is a technical subject and like the physical

and natural sciences not susceptible to Islamisation. The researcher has argued

otherwise in the introduction to this research.

The analysis of the Islamic legacy of knowledge which has been suggested by the

proponents of Islamisation is beyond the scope of this research although some work

has been done in this area (Zaid, 1997). What this research aims to do is to critically

examine conventional accounting (which has been done to some extent in chapter 2

and 3) and incorporate the Islamic vision discerned from the overall worldview and
Chapter 4 Page 165
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economic objectives of Islam as explained in chapter 2. This will be mainly in the

area of the objectives of Islamic accounting, suggestion of an Islamic theoretical

framework (Islamic Accountability model, see chapter 6), the characteristics of

Islamic accounting including measurement, disclosure and valuation principles. The

hypotheses discerned by the researcher will be tested by means of a perception

questionnaire as an attempt to elicit perception of Malaysian accounting academics

and accountants in Malaysia. Further research can be extended to other groups and

countries, which hopefully arrive at a general framework under which the Islamisation

of accounting can proceed.

4.5 CONCLUSION

In this chapter, the researcher has attempted to outline the Islamisation of

Knowledge which has been categorised as one category of pull factors necessitating

the development of Islamic accounting. After defining the Islamisation of Knowledge,

the researcher portrayed the need for the Islamisation of knowledge in the crisis of

knowledge affecting the Muslim community. A short history of the movement for the

Islamisation of knowledge was then outlined. This was then followed by a discussion

of the various methodologies proposed for the Islamisation of knowledge. The

various methodologies were categorised and tabulated by the researcher. Next the

Islamisation of knowledge was viewed as a paradigm shift in knowledge by

discussing the Islamisation of Knowledge in the context of development of Western

epistemology and the sociological paradigms of Burrell & Morgan (1979). The

researcher concluded that although Burrell & Morgan (1979) did have some

relevance to the Islamic paradigm, it could not be placed in any of the four paradigms

they suggested. Hence the researcher located his work outside their paradigms in a

third dimension to take into account the ontology of the Islamic worldview. Although,

the methodology suggested for Islamisation of knowledge could not be followed in

this limited research project, this research is seen as a humble initial attempt to
Chapter 4 Page 166
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Islamise knowledge in the field of accounting, by taking into consideration some parts

of the methodology suggested for Islamisation of knowledge. It is seen as a small

part of the whole Islamisation of knowledge project.

The researcher will discuss, in the next chapter (chapter 5), the second category of

pull factors i.e. the establishment of Islamic organisations which provides a practical

need for the development of Islamic accounting.

Chapter 4 Page 167
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CHAPTER 4: THE NEED FOR ISLAMIC ACCOUNTING: PULL FACTOR 1– THE

ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE ............................................................................................. 118

4.0 Chapter outline: the pull factors ....................................................................................... 118

4.1 The Islamisation Of Knowledge ........................................................................................ 120
4.1.1 Islamisation of Knowledge and Islamisation. ............................................................... 120
4.1.2 The Need for Islamisation of Knowledge- the Malaise of the Muslim Ummah. .......... 122
4.1.3 Reactions To The Malaise ............................................................................................ 126
4.1.4 The Movement Towards Islamisation Of Knowledge .................................................. 129
4.2 The Methodology Of Islamisation Of Knowledge ............................................................ 130
4.2.1 The Three-Step Approach ............................................................................................ 131
4.2.2 A Work Plan for the Islamisation of Knowledge ......................................................... 133
4.2.3 Islamisation of Knowledge through discourses ............................................................ 136
4.2.4 The Two Processes Approach ...................................................................................... 138
4.3 ISLAMISATION OF KNOWLEDGE, A PARADIGM SHIFT IN EPISTEMOLOGY? ...... 143
4.3.1 Epistemology: The Development and Schools of Western Epistemology. .................. 143
4.3.2 Scientific revolutions and Sociological Paradigms ...................................................... 146
4.3.3 The Implications and critique of the paradigms. .......................................................... 153
4.3.4 Theoretical assumptions of this research ...................................................................... 157
4.3.5 Locating this research ................................................................................................... 158
4.4 an intial attempt at Islamisation of accounting. ................................................................ 164
4.5 Conclusion......................................................................................................................... 165