Isa Jahangir

Distinguishing Characteristics of an Islamic Model for Values Based Education

 

Attaching importance to ethics and moral education is not unique to Islam and Muslim communities. Experience has shown that human beings, be they committed to divine religion or not, have always needed moral education even in the modern and post-modern periods. Hence, one of the expectations that one has from an educational system is to have a policy and a plan for moral education. This has been an expectation from education throughout human history. Perhaps it can be said that in the era of post-modern scientific and technological advancement the necessity of, and the need for, moral action that would make life meaningful, are increasingly felt more than ever before. On this basis thinkers, policymakers and educationists have continually paid plenty of attention to theorisation in the field of theoretical paradigms and designing executable models in schools and educational institutions.

Considering the universal nature of morality however, the following question may arise:

What would be the necessity of designing religious and Islamic models of character education in addition to other designed models in the secular world, and essentially what would be distinguishing characteristics of Islamic model of education?

This paper attempts to explore the distinguishing characteristics of the Islamic model at different levels by alluding to a comparative approach to epistemological, ontological and anthropological foundations of religious and non-religious models in this field.

The conclusions of this research show that the Islamic model of moral education is a Tawhidi model which is not entirely imbued with secular and relativist trends; it is more comprehensive, takes into account wider vistas and is much more in-depth. Apart from Foundational difference, the paper also will delve into some of methodological and cultural differentiations between the two approaches. 

It goes without saying that I don’t intend to ignore the shared and universal human values when I refer to the distinguishing features of a religious model.