Ibn Khaldun’s Guide on How Philosophy Should be Taught to Young Muslims

• Main Authors: Machouche, Salah, Mohd Abbas, Abdul Razak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IIUM Press 2022
• Subjects: BPL27 Aims and objectives of education. Sustainable education
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/103024/1/1292.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/103024/; https://journals.iium.edu.my/revival/index.php/revival
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

Teaching philosophy continues to represent a hot issue of debate among Muslim scholars. Many leading Muslim scholars have contributed enormously to this debate including al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Ibn Rushd (d. 1198). Ibn Khaldūn, another noteworthy scholar, adopted al-Ghazali’s criticism of the advocates of the transmission of Greek philosophy. Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406) did not produce any independent work on philosophy, however, he devoted an entire chapter to its rebuttal “The refutation of Philosophy and the Corruption of its learners (Ibṭal al-Falsafah wa Fasād Muntaḥilīhā). Ibn Khaldūn’s Magnum Opus the Muqaddimah provides a rich source for the building of relevant and well-developed instruction of Muslim philosophy. This study seeks to discuss Ibn Khaldūn’s broad educational guidelines on teaching philosophy to Muslim students and draw some comparisons with other Muslim scholars. This research shows that Ibn Khaldūn’s criticism of philosophy is constructive and yet remains open for discussion. It welcomes reasonable justification for the teaching of philosophy to Muslim students. Ibn Khaldūn’s work though indirectly provides instrumental educational guidelines necessary for the filtration of Muslim philosophy from unwanted elements grounded in Greek metaphysics, epistemology, and worldview. The researchers employed textual and contextual analysis methods in interpreting the relevant data of the study. Keywords: Islamic learning, Ibn Khaldūn Muslim philosophy. Muqaddimah