Historic Islamic Higher Education Discourse
Meeting in Cape Town 30th July 2003
Prof. Yusef Waghied Ph.D, D.Phil,
Reflections on a Historic Moment in Islamic Higher Education Discourse in the Western Cape: the Meeting of 30 July 2003[1]
Professor Yusef Waghid, DEd (UWC), PhD and DPhil (Stellenbosch)
`Allama hul bayan’ – And He (Allah Almighty) taught
humankind Intelligence (Surah al-Rahman)
This meeting was not just a social gathering attended by `ulama,
professionals, academics and educators, but also one characterised by a
heightened sense of intellectualism, emotion and the quest to cultivate
dialogical partnerships among different Muslim higher education institutions in
the Western Cape: for now, Jami`at al-Qurra, Dar al-Arqam (affiliated to
the Muslim Judicial Council) and ICOSA (Islamic College of Southern Africa).
These established institutions had a single purpose in mind: to engage
critically in a just conversation about the future of Islamic higher education
in the Western Cape. And for now, they succeeded!
Professor Ahmad Muayiddin, a political economist, NEPAD (New Path for African Development) negotiator and invited guest, quite fittingly restated the need for Muslims to use their intelligence. His contention is that much of what is wrong with Muslim society all over the world can be attributed to a lack of using one’s intelligence. I agree since intelligence is conceptually related to emotion and wisdom which, if not enacted could exacerbate Muslim divisiveness – a situation in turn, Muslims cannot afford to let happen. Much of what has been argued for in his thesis about a perceived decline in Muslims’ contribution to knowledge production and the economy can be related to a confusion and error in knowledge which can lead to despair and hopelessness amongst Muslims. Yet, there is also an endearing feeling of hope which emanates from several of the positional presentations which ensued. This article attempts to capture some of the most significant propositions which constituted our deliberations.
Any potential Muslim higher education merger, partnership
or collaboration (I prefer dialogical relationship) cannot be successful without
a strong element of leadership. Leaders are not just people or individuals who
assume authoritative roles based on unequal power relations. Rather, they are
intellectual and intelligent beings that possess the capacity to cultivate in
others (those who follow them) a sense of humanity. In other words, when leaders
can instil in others capacities such as rational reflection and argumentation,
the ability to justifiably criticise their leaders, and to be non-dogmatic and
agents of critical inquiry, they have emerged as true leaders. When leaders
cannot accept justifiable criticism and pretend that the construction of
knowledge is through transmission – they alone know forms of truth – then,
the ability to lead should seriously be questioned. I have no doubt that we have
excellent leaders in our community, and the possibility to transform the Muslim
community into a more vibrant critical voice should become our major priority.
This meeting could be a catalyst to spark off a spiral of recruitability and
respect amongst leaders and lead, where people challenge one another and honour
one another through debate, refutation and practical rationality. Not once did I
encounter feelings of hostility and antagonism when points of view were
challenged and refuted. What I have identified could be described as a need for
a form of pragmatic leadership; one which cultivates in others capacities to
challenge and to refute, since we only seem to respect others when we challenge
them and accept their justifiable criticism of us. If this were to be an
indication of things to come, then our ensuing dialogical moments would really
evolve in morally worthwhile activities with some purposive end in mind.
Certainly the meeting accentuated the importance of critical engagement. Critical engagement invokes an understanding of public participation whereby all legitimately interested groups not only have to explain and justify their points of view, decisions or choices, but should also make their arguments reasonable to others and by which they are to be held morally accountable by and to others for those arguments. Muslims have to participate and to lay down morally justifiable rules of engagement such as to care for the viewpoints of others. This form of engagement demands that participants be capable of justifying their views of how things should go to others, it requires that they be open to a multiplicity of points of view, and it requires that a person be capable of taking other persons’ points of view seriously enough to accommodate them.
Put differently, critical engagement creates space for a
rational process of deliberation in which Muslims have to explain the basis of
their actions to others without harshness and intolerance. Such a notion of
critical engagement should be tied to a number of character traits our education
institutions need to foster: a tendency to rationally justify one’s actions to
others, openness towards others’ views and opinions and to take other
people’s interests seriously as on equal footing with one’s own.
[1] Attendees whose names I can remember include: Shaykh Yusuf Booley, Mr Shreff Abass, Dr Yusef Lalkhen, Dr Ismet Booley, Moulana Ahmad Mukaddam, Shaykh Ighsan Taliep, Mr Reshard Jedaar, Dr Salie Abrahams, Moulana Ihsan Hendricks, Dr Abdul Wahab Barday, Imam Alie Gierdien and many more important people.
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