Islamic Studies: Challenges and Prospects

By
Dr. S.S. Waheedulla Hussaini Multani
Senior Faculty Member, Henry Martyn Institute, Hyd

Introduction
The study of religions in the present day global context is becoming, vital
specially the study of the religion of Islam. With the result of globalization1, the
attention of the intellectuals to Islamic studies and its civilization recently are being
highly increased to contribute for the solution of world current financial social and
natural problems. Of all the revealed religion, Islam being a major religion of the world,
Islamic studies has become a subject of strategic importance in the muti-dimensional,
multi-cutural, multi-racial and multi-linguistic societies. The promotion of a debate on
the understanding of Islam and the role of the Muslims in the contemporary world has
become increasingly important, in view of the terms coined for Muslims as
fundamentalists and terrorists. This paper intends to study the very concept of Islamic
studies as a subject, its origin and development on the one hand and the challenges and
prospects it faces in the contemporary world on the other.
Concept
From the Islamic perspective, Islamic studies mean researching or learning any
topic in a way that agrees with Islamic sciences (‘Ulūm al-Dīn). Muslims consider all
kind of sciences are the creation of Allah and they convey the greatness of Him.2 In
secular perspective, Islamic studies mean the historical study of Islam, Islamic
civilization, society, culture, history, historiography, law, theology, philosophy and
sciences.

1
The globalization created a primary role in advancing the mobility of knowledge across the globe in exchanging
academics and academic materials, students, institutions and programs in Islamic studies. The term globalization can
be simply defined as the integration of countries and peoples brought about by deep reductions in the costs of transport
and communication, and the dismantling of barriers to the flow of goods services and people.
2
For further detail see The Qur’ān, chapter no. 2 verse no. 614.
1
 The first world conference on Islamic studies held at Mecca from March 31st to
April 8th in 1977 defines Islamic studies as, “the context of Islam is inherent in the
connotations of the terms education (ta‘līm), ethical nurturing (tarbiyat), and cultural
and intellectual refinement (ta’dīb).” These three terms taken together might convey
the meaning and scope of education in Islam from formal to informal.3
The values of educational ethics in Islam and other revealed religion rests on
the notion of human dignity. For example, within the judeo-christian tradition there is
a clear emphasis on the idea that humanity is created in the image of God.4 And,
therefore, the dignity and sanctity of all humanity regardless of color and creed need
to be respected. Within Islamic monotheism, there is a clear demand that practicing
justice and addressing inequality should be part of faithfulness.5 In the Muslim
tradition, contribution to the common good (maṣāleḥ al-mursalah)6 and insuring the
dignity (karāmah),7 well-being and security of all, regardless of community, ethnicity
and religious affiliation are fundamental, educational and ethical values.8

3
The Arabic language has three terms for education, representing the various dimensions of the educational process as
perceived by Islam. The most widely used word for education in a formal sense is ta‘līm, from the root ‘alima, which
is used to denote knowledge being sought or imparted through instruction and teaching. Tarbiyah, from the root word
ribā (to increase), implies a state of spiritual and ethical nurturing in accordance with the will of God. Ta‘dīb, from the
root adaba (to be cultured), suggests a person's development of sound social behavior. What is meant by sound requires
a deeper understanding of the Islamic conception of the human being. Saeeda Shah, Education, Leadership and Islam:
Theories, discourses and practices from an Islamic Perspective, pp. 32-33; Karamat Iqbal. British Pakistani Boys,
Education and the Role of Religion: In the Land of the Trojan Horse, p. 135; Nadeem A. Memon and Mujadad Zaman,
edt., Philosophies of Islamic Education: Historical Perspectives and Emerging Discourses, p. 90, n. 2; Linda King,
Learning, Knowledge and Cultural Context, pp. 344-345; Paul Gibbs, The Pedagogy of Compassion at the Heart of
Higher Education, p. 132.
4
Genesis: 1:26-28.
5
Allah declares in the Qur’ān, “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even if it be
against yourselves, your parents, and your relatives, or whether it is against the rich or the poor”. 4:135. See also 5:8;
16:90; 57:25. Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Ṣaḥiḥ Muslim, ḥadīth no. 4493; Abu Isa Muhammad al- Tirmīzī, Sunan Tirmīzī,
ḥadīth no. 1329; Sulayman ibn al-Ash‘ath, Sunan Abū Dāwūd, ḥadīth no. 5100.
6
The founder of the Mālikī school of Islamic Law, Imam Malik apart from using the Qur’ān, the Ḥadīth, the praxis of
Madina’s people, extensively used Istiṣlaḥ in his legislation. Umar F. Abd-Allah Wymann-Landgraf, Malik and
Medina: Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period, pp. 266-267; Felicitas Opwis, “Maslaha in Contemporary
Islamic Legal Theory,” Islamic Law & Society, pp. 182-223.
7
Allah Most High declares, “We have bestowed dignity on the progeny of Adam and conferred on them special favours,
above a great part of Our creation” The Qur’ān, 17:70. See also 38:72; 64:3. Sunan Tirmīzī, ḥadīth no. 2010.
8
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_studies.
2
 The term Islamic studies, as used in modern academic departments and
institutions encompass a vast field of research with Islam and its common bond. It
is at once a study of religion of Islam and a study of all aspects of Muslim culture
and societies.9
Origin and Development
Since knowledge is considered a religious duty, mosques were the first
institution of learning in Islam. Learning the sciences and disseminating knowledge
are important duties for Muslims. Therefore, the teaching places like maktab,
madrasah, hawzah, dar al-‘ulūm, jāmi‘a etc., have been given a special status in
Islam. The origin of the study of Islam can be traced from the times of the noble
prophet, saḥābah, tāb‘īn, tab‘a tāb‘īn and it continued to flourish during the
Umayyad and the Abbasid periods through different schools of Islamic law namely
Ḥanafī, Shāfa‘ī, Mālikī, Ḥambalī, etc.10
We came across the name of most prestigious and oldest academic institutions
in the Muslim world like the Azhar University11 of Egypt founded in 970 or 972 by
the fourth Fatimid Caliph, Al-Mu‘iz (r. 342-364/953-975) as a centre of Islamic and
Arabic learning.12 It is one of the most influential universities in the Muslim world.
It was one of the first universities in the world, and the only one in the Arabic world
to survive as a modern university.13Its students study the Qur'an, exegesis of the
Qur’ān (tafsīr), the ḥadīth, the Islamic law (fiqh), principle of Islamic law (uṣūl al-

9
For further detail see The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, edited by John L. Esposito, vol. iv, p.332,
Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.
10
De Lacy O Leary, Arabic Thought and Its Place in History, pp. 75-76; Ahmad Hidayat Buang and Saim Kayadibi, The
Role Of Islamic Studies In Muslim Civilization In The Globalized World: Malaysian Experience, Jurnal Hadhari, 3
(2) (2011), pp. 83-102.
11
Today it is the chief center of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. In 1961 additional non-religious
subjects such as medicine, engineering, natural, positive and human sciences were added to its curriculum. Even the
most conservative and classic based education system were introduced in here, the impact of globalization changed
many things in education system of al-Azhar through the time. C.C. Adam, Islam and Modernism in Egypt. pp. 28-29;
Ahmad Hidayat Buang and Saim Kayadibi, The Role Of Islamic Studies In Muslim Civilization In The Globalized
World: Malaysian Experience, Jurnal Hadhari, 3 (2) (2011), pp. 83-102.
12
Farhad Daftary, Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis, p. 25; H.A.R. Gibbs, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 1, p. 814,
Brill, 1967; Mary Elizabeth Devine, Carol Summerfield, edt., International Dictionary of University Histories, p. xiii.
13
Phillip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 619, Edinburgh, 1966.
3
fiqh) in detail, along with two types of grammar (naḥw and ṣarf), rhetoric (bayān
and badī‘) and logic (manṭiq).14
In the year 457/1065 the Nizamiyyah institute at Baghdad for higher studies
was started by Abū ‘Alī Ḥasan ibn ‘Alī Ṭusī (409-485/1018-1092) popularly known
as Nizām al-mulk Ṭusī, the Persian vizier to the Seljuq king, Alp Arsalan (420-
464/1029-1072). This institution imparted to its students the study of the subjects of
the Qur’ān, the tafsir, the ḥadīth, and the fiqh. After a little over three centuries, the
Nizāmiyyah was merged into a new institution named al-mustanṣiriyyah which was
the first educational institution to have a hospital attached to it.15
We also come across a number of such institutions in the Indian sub-continent
during the sultanate and the Mughal periods. Shāh ‘Abdul Ḥaq Muḥaddith Dehlawī
(958-1052/1551-1642) was the one who set up first madrasah in Delhi.16 ‘Abdul Ḥaq
revived the studies of ḥadīth literature in the eighteenth century. Shāh Waliullāh
(1115-1175/1703-1762) was the one who impounded the theory of talfīq and was the
one who tried to reconcile between the mufassirūn and the muḥaddithūn, the
muḥaddithūn and the fuqahā and the wujūdīs with the shuhūdīs.17
During the eighteenth century the syllabus of dars-i nizāmī designed by the
eminent educationist Mullā Nizām al-Dīn of Farangī Maḥal (1088-1161/1677-1748)
was implemented in all the traditional madarsas of India. Its curriculum included the
subjects of the Qur’ān, the ḥadīth, the fiqh, Arabic literature (adab), syntax &

14
For reforms introduce in Azhar University by Muḥammad ‘Abduh see Islam and Modernism in Egypt. p. 18-103;
Hatsuki Aishima, Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt: Media, Intellectuals and Society, p. 159; Oliver Leaman,
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy, p. 199-200.
15
Ibn Athīr cites the incident of a lecturer who received his appointment but could not perform his duty pending
confirmation from the caliph. Ibn Jubayr once attended a lecture delivered after a mid-noon prayers by a professor.
The lecturer stood on the platform and the student sat on a stool and plied him with written and oral question till evening
prayers. “Al-Ghazālī who was the product of the same seminary in his Iḥyā al-‘ulūm wal dīn combated the idea that
imparting of knowledge was the object of education and emphasis the necessity of stimulating the moral consciousness
of the students, thus becoming the first author in Islam to bring the problem of education into organic relation with a
profound ethical system.” History of the Arabs, pp. 410-411. M. M. Sharif, Muslim Thought: Its Original
Achievements, p. 22; Michael M. J. Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution, p. 38.
16
Badar Azimabadi, The Great Personalities in Islam, p. 120, 1998, Delhi.
17
M.M. Sharif, A History of Muslim Philosophy, vol. ii, pp 1557-1579.
4
grammar (naḥw), morphology (ṣarf), biography (sīrah), intonation (tajwīd),
memorization of the Qur’ān (ḥifz).18
The Deoband19was the leading seminary (madrasah)of traditional sciences and
Nadwa20was a midway road between the tradinationalism of Deoband and modernism
of Aligarh Muslim University.21 One of its main aims was to reduce the distance
between traditional and westernized institutions of learning.22
As a modern field of scholarship, Islamic studies, emerged around the middle
of the nineteenth century and was a part of oriental studies also called orientalism.23
Scholars in the field of Islamic studies are often referred to as Islamists. Oriental
studies represent the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far
Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent
years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studies
and Asian studies.24
In the light of what has been stated above it is important to distinguish the study
of Islam during the medieval period in the madrasas and the present day universities.
The madrasas in the Islamic world, including the sub-continent had a traditional
approach to the study of Islam. Their orientation was mostly theological, whereas
Islamic studies taught as a subject in the western and eastern universities is of social

18
M. Reza Pirbhai, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, p.184; Francis Robinson, The Cambridge Illustrated
History of the Islamic World, p. 242; Mubarak Ali Khan, The ulema, sufis and intellectuals, p. 134.
19
It was founded by Maulānā Qāsim Nānotvī and Rashīd Aḥmad Gangohī, in 1283/1866 or 1284/1867. Aziz Ahmed,
Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857-1964, pp. 103-132; Brannon D. Ingram, Revival from Below: The
Deoband Movement and Global Islam, p. 229.
20
It was established by Maulānā Shiblī Nu‘mānī in the year 1311/1894. Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857-
1964, pp. 109-124; P. K. Agrawal, Indian Culture, Art and Heritage, pp. 64-67.
21
It was founded by Sir Syed Aḥmad Khān in Aligarh, in the year 1292/1875 with an emphasis on modern Western
learning. It was previously known as Muḥammadan Anglo-Oriental College. Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan
1857-1964, pp. 31-56; Muḥammad Moj, The Deoband Madrassah Movement: Countercultural Trends and
Tendencies, p. 47.
22
Dietrich Reetz, Islam in the Public Sphere: Religious Groups in India, 1900-1947, Oxford University Press, 2006;
Andrew Shryock, Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend, p. 125. Muhammad Qasim
Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change, p. 249.
23
Bernard Lewis, Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East, pp.103-114; Azim Nanji,Mapping
Islamic Studies: Genealogy, Continuity and Change, p. 149; A profile of the department of Islamic Studies, University
college of Arts and Social Sciences, Osmania University, Hyderabad – 2005-2006, p. 2.
24
https://www.definitions.net/definition/oriental%20studies Accessed on 16th of April, 2019.
5
science orientation, with emphasis upon the study of Muslim societies, its culture,
economies, politics, art and architecture and off course the study of subjects like the
Qur’ān, the tafsīr, the ḥadīth, the fiqh, the sīrah, the tārīkh and taṣawwuf. The courses
at University level also orient the student of Islamic studies to study Islam in West
Asia, South East Asia, North West Africa. More recently even the study of Islamic
banking and its different aspects such as ijārah, murābaḥah, bay‘ al-dayn, takāful etc.,
due to technological enhancement which made every corner of the world closer to
each other. Hence the importance of Islamic law in Islamic studies, in banking and
finances yet to become a vital requirement.
“In fact, some of the more traditional Western universities still confer degrees
in Arabic and Islamic studies under the primary title of Oriental studies. This is the
case, for example, at the University of Oxford, where Classical Arabic and Islamic
studies have been taught since as early as the 16thcentury, originally as a sub-division
of Divinity. This latter context gave early academic Islamic studies its Biblical studies
character and was also a consequence of the fact that throughout early-Modern
Western Europe the discipline was developed by churchmen whose primary aim had
actually been to refute the tenets of Islam.”25
“The first attempt to understand Islam as a topic of modern scholarship (as
opposed to a Christological heresy) was within the context of 19thcentury Christian
European Oriental studies. In the years 1821 to 1850, the Royal Asiatic Society in
England, the Société Asiatique in France, the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft
in Germany, and the American Oriental Society in the United States were founded. In
the 2ndhalf of the 19thcentury, philological and historical approaches were
predominant. Leading in the field were German researchers like Theodore Nöldeke 's
study on the history of the Qur’ān, or Ignaz Goldziher 's work on the prophetic
tradition.”26

25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_studies Accessed on 5th of April, 2019.
26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_studies#History Accessed on 5th of April, 2019.
6
Challenges
Islamic studies is a multi-dimensional subject. It covers all aspects of Islam and
Muslims, therefore, a student of Islamic studies is expected to demonstrate
competence in Islamic religious history, focusing on the development of Islamic
civilization, law, society and institutions; Islamic religious thought focusing on
Islamic philosophy, theology, Sufism and Shi’ism; Islamic scripture and tradition
focusing on the composition, and interpretation of Qur’ān and Ḥadīth; and also the
modern developments.27 Apart from this they are also required to demonstrate their
skills in research and research methodology.
The second challenge which is confronting the student of Islamic studies is the
job market. The basic question is how to market the subject. In this age of information
and technology there is a vast scope to change the traditional outlook by introducing
the choice based credit system (CBCS). The subject of Islamic studies should be
taught with seventy percent syllabus as the core subject and the rest of the thirty
percent should be taught as add-on or breadth courses.
The add-on courses will orient the students towards the modern day
requirements of the age and it will enable them to seek employment in sectors other
than Islamic studies. The add-on courses can be on the communication skills; the
knowledge of the computers; its basic knowledge of Desktop Publishing, accessing of
Internet; competence to browse the online sites; basic knowledge of banking system
like handling the cash counters, loan counters, Paramedical courses like X-Ray
technology, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Lab Technician, billing etc.
The breadth courses would enable the students of Islamic studies to specialize
on topics like the sīrah of the noble prophet, laws relating to the marriage, divorce,

27
https://religiousstudies.yale.edu/academics/fields-study/islamic-studies Accessed on 20th of April, 2019.
7
inheritance Islamic history, its culture, societies, art and architecture, Islamic coinage,
ceramics and Sufism depending upon his/her choice.
Language being a sole vehicle through which communication occurs also
possesses another major challenge with the student of the subject of Islamic studies,
due to their mother tongue being Urdu, Pushto, Punjabi, Hindi and other regional
languages. Due to it they are not only unable to comprehend the contents and context
of Islamic course but also unable to express the knowledge acquired due to
insufficient Arabic, Persian Pushto and even Urdu language in which the primary
and secondary sources are available. They need to improve upon their
communication skill by joining the English language training cells (ELTC) and
Intensive Arabic, Persian and Urdu language skills which are available in almost all
universities of Asia with language lab. Moreover, teaching in English and Arabic in
Islamic studies made any institution as an internationally recognized institution
which become a center of attention for many Islamic countries as well as European
countries.
Most of the rural based students apart from language skills are afraid of facing
the aura of the interview, handling the officials of the company and the requirements
of the companies which are working 24x7. They need to be sent to the finishing
schools where they may be trained in moral values, behavioral attitudes and the
challenges of the modern day requirements.
Prospects
The orientalists due to their creative endeavors have done in-depth research and
have produced huge literature on Islam and Muslims and have been bitterly critical of
the different aspects of Islam.28Orientalism, more than a study of subject, has emerged

28
T.W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islam; H.A.R. Gibb, Islam and Mohammadanism; R. A. Nicholson, History of Arabs;
Alfred Guillaume, The life of Muhammad and The Tradition of Islam; by Sir William Muir, The Life of Mohammad;
David Samuel Margoliouth, Mohammad and the Rise of Islam; Bosworth Smith, Mohammad and Mohammadanism;
A.J. Arbery, Sufism; P.K.Hitti, History of the Arabs; etc.
8
as a critic of Islam and its institution and as a result of this has emerged a
misunderstanding and hatred towards Islam and Muslims.29
Orientalists have been critical since the early times. The recent example is of
Richard Maxwell Eaton, who in his book on Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700 writes a
chapter and captions it as Sufis as Warriors,30 which has been refuted by Carl W.
Earnst in his Eternal Garden Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi
Center. He writes, “In the absence of contemporary source material for this early
period Eaton was forced to rely on nineteenth-century sources for his analysis of the
extension of Sufism to the Deccan frontiers in Bijapur. Eaton did not have access to
the fourteenth-century sources on the Sufis of Khuladabad, and did not take account
of the position of Daulatabad in the development of Deccan Sufism. Earnst further
writes that the evidence of modern hagiographies and gazetteers about the
development of Indian Sufism cannot be accepted at face value.”31
He further writes, “To begin from the methodological point of view, the warrior
Sufi theory is questionable at face value in its unconscious projection of the image of
Fanaticism.” “Eaton Comparison of the Deccani Sufis to the Ghazi religious warriors
and bābās of Anatolian frontier and the early Safavid State in Iran is inexact on this
very point.”32
It is this aspect of the orientalism which needs to be examined. In it lies great
prospects for Muslim scholars to train and create expertise among the students,
scholars and teachers to enable them to answer this criticism of Islam and Muslims by
the orientalists. The requirement of the age, time and society is to develop scholars
who are multi-lingual, inter disciplinary and who are oriented in research
methodology, the theological and social science subjects.

29
For further detail see Edward Said, Orientalism, p. 4 -9, Penguin Books, 1995.
30
R.M. Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur, pp. 19-43.
31
Carl. W. Earnst, Eternal Garden, pp. 99-100.
32
Earnst, Eternal Garden, p. 100.
9
 Islam is faster growing religion and the second largest religion of the globe after
Christianity. Significant numbers of Muslims may be found throughout the entire
world. Time is ripe for the scholars of Islam and Muslims to take up the challenge to
counter the negative assumptions of fundamentalism, terrorism and the theory of
Jihad which is being presented by the non-Muslim scholars. It is in this respect the
department of Islamic studies in Middle East, Asia, and Far East can play an important
role in redesigning their curriculum at per the requirement of time, age and society
and produced scholars who can counter these negative theories.
At present Islam is the most criticized religion of the world both in print media
as well as the electronic media. In view of the great revolution which is taking place
in the information technology a new field has emerged which is projecting Islam and
Muslims in a negative manner. They have been reduced as fundamentalists and
terrorists. Despite the fact that this is happening for more than ten to fifteen years
neither the Islamic world nor the departments of Islamic studies have taken any steps
to counter this propaganda. Time is ripe to take full advantage of this IT revolution
and counter these allegations globally by setting up their own IT industry and
departments of Islamic studies who can furnish material for the print and electronic
media.

10