Epistemology Of Contemporary Islamic Education: A Critical Examination Of The Integration Of Revelation And Science
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64540/8ad5es88Keywords:
Islamic educational epistemology, revelatio, scientific knowledge, knowledge integration, reason, tawhid, contemporary Islamic educationAbstract
Contemporary Islamic educational epistemology faces the fundamental problem of fragmentation in the sources, methods, and orientations of knowledge, rooted in the dichotomy between revelation, reason, and empirical experience. Such fragmentation has implications for educational practices that tend to separate the spiritual, intellectual, moral, and scientific dimensions of education. This study aims to analyze the epistemological foundations of contemporary Islamic education, critically examine the relationship between revelation and scientific knowledge, and formulate an integrative epistemological framework relevant to the complexities of global society. This study employs a qualitative approach using a library research method. Data were drawn from the Qur’an, Hadith, classical and contemporary works on Islamic epistemology, and relevant scholarly articles. The data were analyzed through content analysis involving source identification, thematic categorization, critical interpretation, conceptual comparison, and theoretical synthesis. The findings indicate that the integration of revelation and scientific knowledge should not be understood as the methodological fusion of all disciplines, but rather as a reconstruction of the relationship among sources of knowledge, scientific methods, values, and educational objectives within a tawhidic paradigm. Revelation serves as the normative and axiological foundation, reason functions as a rational-critical instrument, empirical experience provides a means of verification, while adab serves as an ethical principle in acquiring, developing, and applying knowledge. This framework affirms the epistemological unity of Islamic education, which is oriented not merely toward the mastery of knowledge but also toward the formation of civilized human beings and the realization of human welfare. Therefore, an integrative epistemology can serve as a foundation for reconstructing Islamic education that responds to the development of science and knowledge while remaining firmly rooted in the principles of tawhid.
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