AN ARTICLE REVIEW OF:

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY IN ISLAM IN THE CURRICULUM DESIGN OF

INTEGRATED ISLAMIC EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA

As the name suggest, the journal focusses on three main keywords which are
education, philosophy and integrated which has been introduced in the abstract. The
journal is written by Raudlotul Firdaus Binti Fatah Yasin and Mohd. Shah Jani who are
both from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

In the introduction, the journal introduced the concept of knowledge which is

emphasised as something compulsory (fard) act regardless of gender or race. Next,
Islamic education is then defined as developing a person spiritually, intellectually and
physically to generate a balanced development of a person’s personality. It can also be
split into using three main components being tarbiyyah, ta’lim and ta’dib. The First World
Conference on Muslim Education has come to a resolution that Islamic education aims to
produce a good man who signifies a balanced growth of the personality over the training
of his/her spirit. Intellect, the rational self, feelings and physical senses. In addition to
that, Syed Naquib al-Attas also highlights the importance of adab, or manner, in
producing a good man.

The discussion part is divided into six parts which are (1) the dimensions or scope
of education in Islam, (2) secularism as a challenge to Islamic education, (3) the
curriculum design and delivery system of Islamic education in Malaysian schools, (4) the
preliminary model of integrated Islamic education for secondary schools in Malaysia, (5)
KAFFAH integrated curriculum and (6) challenges facing the realization of Islamic
education today. For the first part, the components of tarbiyyah, ta’lim and ta’dib is
explained further. Tarbiyyah is derived from al-Rabb, meaning the Lord, brings the
meaning of to nurture. Thus, one of the meanings of tarbiyyah is to nurture, or in other
words, to develop someone with physical, educational, moral and spiritual needs. Al-
Naqib also added that tarbiyyah also includes the application of Al-Quran and Sunnah in
all of a person’s morality and conduct in every field. The second one is ta’lim from the
root word ‘ilm which means knowledge. In this context, ta’lim is a process of teaching and
learning which includes methodology, evaluation and assessment. However, if we stop
only at ta’lim or view Islamic education from the two componets independently, we
cannot see how the implementation of Islamic education is done. The formula given in
the journal to identify an Islamic education is tarbiyyah + ta’lim + ta’dib = Islamic
education. The need of ta’dib is very important in defining the Islamic education. The
justification of the adab can be seen when al-Ghazali said adab is educating a person’s
zahir and batin that include the individual aspects like speech, deeds, belief and intention.
In short, ta’dib or manner is the factor that fulfil the meaning of definition of Islamic
education.

The second discussion part is on the challenges cause by secularism that hinders
the ultimate application of Islamic education. Since the fall of Ottoman Islamic Empire,
the progress of the Islamic education can be said as deteriorated and the main factor is
secularism. Secular education separates and removes any religion related matter from
the education system where religion is said to revolve around the daily rituals and limited
to individuals only. This separation then creates dualism, a dual education system which
are traditional (religious) and modern (secular) education. At the early stages of the
influence of secularism, the effect might not be prominent, but during this modern age,
we can see how bad the aftermath is. Those who take the traditional education will most
of the time will put behind the ‘so-called’ modern education (science, geography,
chemistry, etc) and those who undergo the modern education will be lacking in terms of
religious beliefs. From this alone we can see the problems that secularism creates from
separating the religion from education: non-holistic academician and syllabus.

The next point in discussion is the curriculum design and delivery system if
Islamic education in Malaysia. Some of the early education institutions do contain and
include religious aspects in the syllabus, however it should be continued up to the higher
level of education. The Pendidikan Islam introduced in the Malaysian education system
aims to instil the Fardu ‘Ayn. However, the system still has flaws which the biggest one
would be the exam-oriented methodology. As the name says, this method, most of the
time, forcefully made the teachers to finish the syllabus and lacking in checking the
students true understanding and application of a certain topic. Although the Malaysian
National Philosophy of Education do emphasise on the developing individuals
holistically, the aspect of spiritual and emotional has yet to be met.

The fourth discussion on the model of Ulul al-Bab separates the discussion into
two parts which are the direction of Ulul al-Bab. Tahfiz Model Ulul al-Bab (TMUA)
integrates all National Curriculum KBSM (Kemahiran Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah) and
KSSM (Kemahiran Standard Sekolah Menengah), the Tahfiz Curriculum (KBT) and Ulul al-
Bab Program based on the Quranic, Encyclopedic and Ijtihadic approaches. Ulul al-Bab’s
direction is to create experts in various field with the inclusion of being well-versed in
religion. Some of the extra co-curricular components in TMUA are the sunnah of our
Prophet Muhammad SAW which includes horse-riding, archery and swimming. Taken
from the definition of Islamic education, TMUA also includes the concept of ta’lim and
ta’dib. TMUA contains the Quranic, Encyclopedic and Ijtihadic where Quranic requires the
students to memorise and understand the Al-Quran, Encyclopedic to master various
languages and Ijtihadic promotes critical thinking among students. TMUA also
implements the ta’dib indirectly throughout the years in school.

KAFFAH integrated curriculum focus the implementation of Fardhu Ain and

Fardhu Kifayah. It is being implemented in the Islamic Integration Primary School (SRITI)
which was established by a political party, the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS). This
curriculum extends from the STEM with the implementation of aqidah, one of the subject
matters of faith and belief in Islam. KAFFAH also implemented the ta’dib concept where
the students are assessed on their akhlaq, adab and ibadah using a book called ‘Diari al-
Mustaqim’.

Last but not least is the challenges in facing the realization of Islamic education
today. With the effect of secularism in play, it is yes to be possible to realise the aim to
create holistic individuals using the education system. The thing that we need to realise
is the fact that the things taught in class are not being fully applied in the classroom.
Compared to the ancient monuments, they were built with the basis of applications with
the things learnt in Islam which is the Quranic philosophy of tawazun (equilibrium).

One of the importance of this journal is realisation of the fact that the education
system in Malaysia is greatly influenced by the secular education where religion, in most
places, is being taught separately with the other fields. When separated, we can see the
downfall of the Islam civilisation where those who learn about Islam will somehow be left
behind with science and technology fields and those who learn these modern science
subjects will have lower understanding in Islam. As Muslims, not being able to master
either one would scar the image of Islam as we are seen as the folks who can only master
either one of the fields and not both. Thus, this is not an excuse for us to only master one
but both as being master by previous Muslim scholars like Ibn Sina, Al-Khawarizmi, Ibn
Battuta and others that able to excel not only in religion, but also contributed to the world
in their respective fields of expertise.

Next, we need to be grateful with the enlightenment in Malaysia where there are
certain parties that want to help in integrating the religion in the current education
system just like the Tahfiz Model Ulul al-Bab. In addition to that, even a political party
managed to take up to the challenge of integrating and applying the Islamic education in
their syllabus as being made by PAS via the KAFFAH integrated curriculum.

As a conclusion, Malaysia’s Islamic education is on its way to a better system

where the stakeholders are aware of the importance of the implementation of religion in
the syllabus. They also have the prove where the implementation of religion in education
really helps the students to holistically developed and at the same time fulfil the National
Education Philosophy. With this, we hope that the revised version of the curriculum can
include lessons on Islam not only within religious subjects, but also in the science,
geography, chemistry and other subjects as well.