Islamic Perspective

• In Event: Developing a Spiritual Research Paradigm: A Groundbreaking Effort Incorporating Spirituality in Research in Social Sciences and Science

Abstract

The Muslim world has struggled intellectually with the forces of modernization since its first encounters through colonization, and continues to struggle with its most recent manifestation in the form of globalization. The intellectual challenge facing the Muslim world is how to synthesis a deeply religious worldview with modern modes of inquiry, which deny a supra-natural reality. Muslim communities across the globe have grappled with this challenge and have generally responded in one of three ways: They have retreated into a defensive, puritanical posture, and rejected all modern modes of inquiry; they have adopted a modern western perspective and abandoned their theistic worldview; or they have tried to synthesis the two worldviews into hybrid systems. In this paper Qargha argues that before a true synthesis can take place, the philosophic basis of inquiry in the form of ontology, epistemology, and axiology have to be critically compared in order to break the cycle of intellectual reactionism. Qargha attempts to do this by comparing the philosophic basis of inquiry in Imam al-Ghazali’s writings with that of Paulo Freire, and discusses how this influences each thinker’s perspective on education and inquiry.

Author

• Omar Qargha, University of Maryland - College Park