ISDEV PAPER SERIES: PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF ISLAMIC MANAGEMENT METHOD (WORLDVIEW, EPISTEMOLOGY AND ONTOLOGY)

By Dr. Fadzila Azni Ahmad

ISDEV Paper Series, No. 11
First Print, 2010
22 pages

This article focusses on the discussion pertaining to the philosophical underpinnings of Islamic management method. It represents the elements that should form the basic of determining and characterising Islamic management method and to differentiate it with the conventional management method (for example, the Total Quality Management (TQM), the Quality Control Cirlces (QCC) and the Business Process Reengineering (BPR)). The basic elements referred to are worldview (tasawwur), epistemology and ontology of the management method itself. 

*** This paper originally presented at The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) Internal Seminar of the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 12 May 2010.

 

TASAWUR MELAYU

Artikel Dr. Mohd Shukri Hanapi yang disiarkan dalam Berita Harian, Rabu, 6 Jun 2012, hlm.N6.

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TIGA ELEMEN TASAWUR PEMBANGUNAN ISLAM

Artikel Ustaz Dr. Mohd Shukri Hanapi yang disiarkan dalam Majalah Milenia Muslim, Tahun 9, Bil. 116, April 2012, hlm.44-45.

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EPISTEMOLOGI ISLAM: KEKUATAN HUJAH AL-SUNNAH SETARAF AL-QUR'AN?

Artikel Ustaz Shahir Akram Hassan yang disiarkan dalam Milenia Muslim, Tahun 9, Bil. 118, Jun 2012, hlm. 60-61.

THE ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW, ETHICS AND CIVILIZATION

Edited by Abdul Kabir Hussain Solihu 

ISBN 978-967-0225-63-0
First Edition, 2011
280 pages

Modern civilization has brought many unprecedented achievements in science and technology but  has equally generated a wide array of complicated issues that have been addressed from different perspectives. The absence or marginalization of the Divine-inspired civilizational worldview, the true vision of reality and the meaningfulness of existence has led to the deterioration of the quality of life, the degeneration of social order and the erosion of religious values. This book contains chapters that cut across several disciplines adressing social, psychological, political, environmental, developmental, medical, communicational and conceptual issues from the ethico-religious perspective. It deals with the Islamic vision of progress and development and its solution to human predicaments. The book adresses the centrality of morality to human nature and the role of religious ethics in coping with challenges brought about by modern secular civilization.

 

From: IIUM Press

INTRODUCTION TO THE ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW: STUDY OF SELECTED ESSENTIALS

Editor: Abdelaziz Berghout  

First Edition 2009

222 pages

    

This book sheds some light on the Islamic Worldview and its vital role in the renewal of the Muslim Ummah. In principle, the Islamic worldview stands as the cementing force behind the making of the Islamic civilization and its progress in history and society. The book deals with the Islamic worldview not only from a theological perspective, but more importantly from a comprehensive perspective stressing its civilizational implications in the life of the Muslim and the Ummah as well. On the other hand, this book provides important information on the various aspects of the Islamic worldview as well as the western worldview so as to assist the reader to grasp and appreciate the distinctive features of Islam and its vision of life. This book creatively summarizes many scattered ideas and ties together many important aspects of the Islamic worldview reflecting its coherent and consistent vision of life. Additionally, it highlights the essential role of the concept of TawÍÊd in human existence and life. Last but not least, this book adds another vital brick into the works and studies related to the Islamic worldview, opening a new horizon on this field of study.

From: IIUM Press

DEVELOPMENT WORLDVIEW IN AL-QUR’AN: A STUDY OF THEMATIC EXEGESIS

THESIS ABSTRACT

The conventional development (PL) and the Islamic-based development (PBI) are two different entities. PL is developed from the conventional worldview while PBI is developed from the Islamic worldview. As such, is it suitable to adapt and adopt PL for the development of Muslim countries? Could it solves the problems related to Islam? Based on this issue this study attempts to study the PBI worldview. It is carried out based on the thematic exegesis of the Qur‘an to achieve three research objectives. First is to identify the verses on development worldview in the Qur‘an. Second is to analyse the identified development worldview verses from the Qur‘an based on the thematic exegesis. Third is to develop the development worldview based on the identified verses of the Qur‘an. In attaining all the objectives, an exploratory qualitative and descriptive research using historical and content analysis methods are employed. The historical analysis method is used to analyse the incidents that provided the reasons for the revelation of the verses. The content analysis method on the other hand is used to identify, collate and analyse the meaning of the development worldview verses in the Qur‘an. These two methods employed are then adapted to the thematic exegesis method. The results from these showed that this research managed to uncover the development worldview verses in the Qur‘an. All these verses explain one of the three fundamental elements of worldview that is Allah SWT as the Creator, humans as the creation as well as the natural resources also as the creations. After these verses were analysed, six conceptual elements of development worldview in the Qur‘an is formulated that is al-tawhid (Oneness of Allah), al-‘ubudiyyah (servitude of self/worship to Allah), khalifah fi al-ard (vicegerent on earth), mawarid al-tabi‘i (natural resources), al-azminah - ‘alam al-ruh, ‘alam al-dunya wa ‘alam al-akhirah (time frame – world of al-ruh, present world, and the world hereafter), and mardat Allah (pleasures of Allah). The core element to these six conceptual elements of development worldview is al-tawhid. Based on these six conceptual elements of development worldview in the Qur‘an, the PBI worldview is built. It possesses its own strengths as it is based on revelation; its core is al-tawhid; its basic elements which include aspects of Allah SWT as the Creator, humans and the natural resources as the creations; its time frame encompasses the realm of world of al-ruh, present world, and the world hereafter; and its objective is to attain the pleasures of Allah SWT.   

A CIVIL STATE: IDEAS AND CHALLENGES

One of the distinguishing features of political Islam in the early twentieth century was its call for the creation of an Islamic state. Methods and strategies might differ, but the aim remained the same.

The structure of the state was conceptualised in the light of Islamic principles - as drawn up by the classical Sunni and Shiite traditions - and articulated around the core concept of "Islamic law," meaning the concept of Shari’ah. It was no accident that late nineteenth and early twentieth century Islamist organisations expressly sought to revive Islam's social and political heritage.
 
It was only normal for the movements that identified themselves as Islamic to organise their action in pursuit of two priority objectives: the national and state structures that had been imposed upon them in the aftermath of the 1885 Congress of Berlin and the potential for transnational dynamics, as reflected in the pan-Islamism of Jamaluddin al-Afghani and later, of the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan al-Banna.

To the Islamists of the day, the Islamic state comprised the threefold response - religious, political and cultural - to the imposition of western models, and was understood as a call to resistance to the plans of the colonialists who were, in turn, seen through the prism of imperialism, and whose aims seemed crystal clear: consolidating the political and economic dependence of the colonised countries, enforcing secularisation, fighting Islam and traditional cultures in general.

Confronted with a multidimensional threat of this magnitude, the Islamists were convinced that only by referring to Islam could they resist western imperialism and the three-pronged assault of colonialism - a perception shared by all Islamist movements.

The state, defined as "Islamic" was, according to them, the only structure that could ensure the political independence, religious identity and cultural specificity of the emerging Arab state entities. It was an ideological response which must be assessed in the light of the prevailing issues of the day.

The same pattern prevailed until the Iranian revolution, which would be the last revolutionary expression of political Islam within the strict framework of the nation-state in opposition to a pro-western dictatorial regime. The Iranian experience, failing as it did to fulfil the idealistic aspirations of many Islamists, was to have a powerful impact on both Shiite and Sunni movements and organisations.

Factors like globalisation, the absence of a genuine pan-Islamic movement and the emergence of new forces explain why the understanding, the vocabulary and even the objectives of the Islamists have taken new forms.

Some Muslim scholars and leaders - like Shaikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi or Tunisian leader Rachid Ghannouchi - have readily accepted the democratic principle. For them, it is not in contradiction with the idea of Islam as a political project. Still, the Islamist leader of the Algerian Hamas party, Mahfoud Nahnah, appears to have been the first no longer to speak of an Islamic state but of a civil state.

It was not long before several Islamist movements replaced "Islamic" with "civil" in describing themselves, all the while avoiding terms like secularisation, secularism or non-denominational as such concepts continue to carry a negative connotation in the broad Arab and Muslim conscience.

In his on-the-spot, and highly optimistic, analysis of Egypt's 25 January 2011 uprising, left-wing intellectual Mohammad Imarah emphatically affirms that the Islamic state is a civil state, which, he adds, must be based on institutions and on consultation (shura) and that the operative decision-making process requires that its authority be civil in nature.

For him, the civil state must administer majority preferences through the categories of "right or wrong" and not through those of "faith or of its rejection", in full recognition of the plurality of religions and political ideas.

Some Islamic movemen leaders, like the former Muslim Brotherhood Abdul Moneim Abul Futuh in Egypt or Ghannouchi echo the position taken by the Moroccan movement Al Adl Wal Ihsan (Justice and Excellence Party) whose priority, as Shaikh Yassine's daughter Nadia Yassine explains it, is to found a democratic republic as opposed to the monarchy.

The movement is now on record as preferring a civil state, according to its spokesman Fathallah Arsalane, a statement that confirms that Islamist leaders seek to distance themselves from the notion of "secularism," seen in the Arab world as shorthand for westernisation, while steering clear of the idea of the "Islamic state," stigmatised by its cumbersome baggage of negative connotation.

The Iranian experience has created the widespread impression that an Islamic state would be a kind of theocracy run by a clergy-like apparatus similar to Iran's Shiite hierarchy. The perception is so widespread that Islamists have been compelled to revise their terminology and define their concepts more precisely.

When referring to recent experience, they more often - like Nadia - prefer the Turkish model to an Iranian-style revolution.

Biografi Prof. Tariq Ramadan
Tariq Ramadan adalah Profesor Pengajian Islam Kontemporari di Universiti Oxford (Oriental Institute, Kolej St Antony) dan juga mengajar di Fakulti Teologi Oxford. Beliau merupakan Profesor Pelawat di Fakulti Pengajian Islam, (Qatar), Felo Penyelidik Kanan di Doshisha University (Kyoto, Jepun) dan Pengarah Pusat Penyelidikan Perundangan dan Etika Islam (Doha, Qatar).

Beliu juga merupakan cucu kepada Hasan al- Banna, pemimpin utama Ikhwan Muslimin di Mesir. Beliau memegang Ijazah Sarjana (MA) dalam Falsafah dan kesusasteraan Perancis dan PhD dalam Pengajian Arab dan Islam dari Universiti Geneva. Di Kaherah, Mesir beliau menerima latihan intensif (talaqi) daripada ulama di Universiti al-Azhar dalam bidang pengajian Islam klasik. Melalui karya tulisan dan ceramah beliau Tariq telah menyumbang kepada perbahasan mengenai isu-isu umat Islam dalam kebangkitan Barat dan Islam di dunia Islam. Beliau aktif di akademik dan peringkat akar umbi dengan mengajurkan syarahan secara meluas di seluruh dunia dalam bidang teologi, etika, keadilan sosial, ekologi dan dialog antara budaya dan agama. Beliau juga adalah Presiden kepada sebuah badan pemikir: European Muslim Network (EMN) di Brussels.

Buku terbaharu beliau: “The Arab Awakening: Islam and the New Middle East” Penguin (Spring 2012); “The Quest for Meaning, Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism” Penguin (2010); “What I believe” OUP USA (2009); “Radical Reform, Islamic Ethics and Liberation” OUP USA (2008). 

From: al-ahkam.net & Yayasan Islam Pulau Pinang