Various initiatives have been undertaken to counter the problematics of colonization, modernity and knowledge production, furthermore to disentangle these legacies of the West still prevailing towards Islam, Muslims, and the whole world. Among the initiatives, Islamisation of Knowledge and Critical Muslim Studies are discussed here in conversation with one another, with reference to Malaysia.

The discussion towards Islamisation of Knowledge took place during the First World Conference on Muslim Education held in Mecca in 1977 that resulted in a list of recommendations, including the need to pursue the Islamisation project in all areas of knowledge perceived to be problematic due to Western influences. A master plan, ‘Islamization of Knowledge: General Principles and Work Plan’, was produced, which led to the establishment of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981 as the leading agency to drive the project ahead. Ever since, the Islamisation project has been seen in operation through academic works produced by IIIT with associated scholars and also through the further establishment of various institutions globally related to the Islamisation project.

Critical Muslim Studies could be seen as another project responding to the ordering of knowledge in a West-dominated world, where Muslimness is usually sidelined. The increasing interest in the academia towards Muslims since the later part of the 20^th century has been mostly constrained to ethnic or international area studies, with inadequate presentations of Muslimness. In academia lacks the theoretical tools with prevailing Euro-centric conceptions; ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ could not easily be adopted within the standard categorization, either of religion, ethnicity, or nation. Within these settings, Critical Muslim Studies emerges as a space for conversation on Muslimness.

What is the problem, or the question to be resolved? The Islamisation project sees the condition of knowledge as part of the predicament of the Ummah: political weakness, economic insufficiencies, cultural westernization, corruption of self and society, and the core problem lies with the education of Muslims.

There can be no doubt that the intellectual and methodological decline of the Ummah is the core of its malaise. The educational system is the breeding ground of the disease.

The education imposed on Muslims is described as Western in spirit, comprising problematic traits of being Western, modern, secular, and nationalistic, and in contradiction to what is perceived to be Islamic. The dominant form of Western education imposed on Muslims, on top of the continuous learning of Islam, has led to the problem of educational dualism, divided knowledge between the Western and the Islamic. The overarching solution called for the integration of the divided forms of knowledge and the need for an Islamisation of knowledge.

Whereas, Critical Muslim Studies locate the problem not only in knowledge per se but more in the ordering of knowledge, being part of the broader world itself. The centuries-long domination of the world by Western powers has shaped the knowledge order comprising influences of Eurocentrism, orientalism, and positivism as part of the formation of modernity, on top of various legacies of colonialism that remain in place. Realizing the problematic elements in the knowledge-world order, Critical Muslim Studies plays a role in clearing the ground, destabilizing the order, and opening up spaces for the Muslim question and critical interventions regarding Muslimness.

As the Islamisation project sees the problem with educational dualism, therefore integration is required to develop a synthesis between the knowledge of Islam and the West. The integration strategy is undertaken by a screening process of ‘eliminating, amending, reinterpreting, and adapting’ to extract the ‘good aspects’ from Western knowledge while re-discovering the intellectual legacies of the past. Thus, a new integrated epistemological position is required as a form of knowledge that can be considered Islamic. The ‘First Principles to an Islamic Methodology’ comprises the essentials of Islamic knowledge presented as a set of unities: the unity of Allah, creation, truth/knowledge, life/humanity, revelation, and reason.

On the other hand, Critical Muslim Studies takes key critical epistemological positions towards the meta-narratives of modernity and Euro-centrism, coloured by its suspicion of positivism and critique towards orientalism. It also embraces decolonization as the condition of the world is still very much shaped by the legacies of the colonial past.

The construction of ‘the Islamic’ as an epistemological and methodological category as applied in the principles of Islamisation, with its description, criteria and parameters may appear as an ontic presentation of the Islamic. This ontic criteria for an Islamic system then is used in engaging with knowledge of the modern-West, in dialectical ways forming the integrated synthesis of an Islamicised Knowledge that manifests in various fields and disciplines of the Islamisation project; Islamic education, Islamic economics and finances; Islamic psychology and human sciences, etc.

However, critical challenges are faced, especially when the critique towards the problematics of the West is not rigorous enough, that the Islamicised knowledge could be easily trapped within the knowledge order of the dominant West, thus not necessarily capable of providing solutions to the problems of Muslims’ education.

Here, the critique mounted by Critical Muslim Studies becomes crucial as the problem is not simply in terms of epistemology but much broader in the ordering of knowledge of the world, and the need to scrutinize the episteme of the modern contemporary world where the conditions for the possibility of knowledge are formed, systematized and established to the point that arguably no forms of knowledge could escape, including the Islamicised knowledge.

Such a venture could only manifest by putting forward the critique in a way that goes beyond the ontic into the ontological, with the positioning of Muslims’ subjectivity against the problematics of the West. Critical Muslim Studies works through critical positions and narratives; in being critical, it works against the knowledge structure toward changing and reorienting the world.

Islamisation of Knowledge has achieved certain milestones, though quite far short of its earlier expectations of its proponents. Saqeb explains the failure to achieve its goals is due to the unwillingness of the governments of Islamistan to implement their commitments for the advancement of the project, though with one interesting exception;

“The only exception to this indifference, stands out to be the case of Malaysia where the government took the Conference decisions seriously and have implemented the Islamization of education programmes at all levels.”

The exceptional case of Malaysia as an Islamisation of Knowledge success story can be seen with the establishment of several Islamic higher learning institutions, particularly the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). In fact, Islamisation does appear to have advanced itself beyond the educational sphere into other spheres of the Muslim public life; legal-governance, economics/finances, politics, culture, media, etc.

However, the advancement of Islamisation takes place without the emphasis on criticality, thus facilitating its recuperation in the neo-liberal world order. Even more concerning when elements of ‘the Islamic’ are simply being used in retaining, conserving, and fashioning the world order, while commitments towards social justice and Ummatic solidarity remain elusive. Here, Critical Muslim Studies becomes helpful in recognizing the colonial foundations of the world-knowledge system and subsequently mounting a critique of the Westernese project.