Knowledge of Shariah and Knowledge to Manage ‘Self’ and ‘System’: Integration of Islamic Epistemology with the Knowledge and Education

Abstract

Islamic Shariah is complete but only the knowledge of Shariah may not be successful in terms of managing the personal and social affairs of the Muslims without planned integrated knowledge and education. The goal of integrated knowledge and education in Islam is to acquire the knowledge to manage ‘self’ that is one’s personal life as well as the knowledge to manage ‘system’ that is one’s surroundings and environment. The integration means the Islamic epistemological integration with the body of conventional knowledge, which should be taught in the Islamic education institutions to empower and to equip the learners with knowledge to manage ‘self’, and ‘system’. The ‘self’ includes the personal and spiritual aspects of life while the ‘system’ refers to the socio-cultural, and interpersonal aspects of the life. Indeed, the learners of integrated education are important to build a civilization, which the Muslims did before. In order to regain the past Islamic civilization this paper suggests not to focus only on the learning the knowledge of Shariah but also to improve the Islamic integrated education which depends on proper understanding of the Quran.