The Islamization of Knowledge as a Response to Societal Rationalization and Disenchantment in Malaysia

Chai Choon Lee ； Mohd Hazim Shah ； Maisarah Hasbullah

《Southeast Asian Social Science Review》 1卷1期 (2016/11) Pp. 70-92

https://doi.org/10.29945/SEASSR.201611_1(1).0004

摘要

This article looks at Malaysian modernity from a historical perspective, and the contemporary religious (i.e. Islamic) response to it. Its conceptual framework of analysis is based on Weber's theory of rationalization, modernisation, disenchantment, and its extension by Habermas. The contention is that the project of ＂Islamisation of Knowledge＂ and ＂Islamisation of Science＂ undertaken in Muslim countries generally, and the Malay-Muslim world in Malaysia specifically, is a form of Islamic response to modernity where Muslim intellectuals try to reconcile modern science with the Islamic world-view. While instrumental rationalisation had enabled modern science and technology to be transplanted and transferred to Muslim societies, its lack of, or belated value-rationalisation, created a legitimation crisis in the presence of science in Muslim society and culture. The attempt to overcome this legitimation crisis thus manifests itself in the form of the ＂Islamisation project＂. This article looks at the arguments deployed by certain Muslim intellectuals such as Hossein Nasr, Naguib al-Attas, Zia Sardar, Osman Bakar, and Adi Setia, and concludes that their arguments are not basically against science as such, but against the epistemology and philosophy of science of modernist western thinkers who use philosophy in order to promote the modernist image of science. What these Muslim thinkers basically did, was to provide an Islamic perspective on science-one that does not necessarily privilege science-in order to make science acceptable to Muslims, thus offering a form of cultural dialogue with the West by Muslims.

關鍵字

Malaysian modernity ； Islamization of knowledge ； instrumental rationalization ； disenchantment ； legitimation crisis