Exploring AbdulHamid AbuSulayman’s Views on the Contemporary Challenges towards Higher Education in Muslim Countries

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the critical views of AbdulHamid AbuSulayman (1936–2021) on the contemporary challenges towards Higher Education in the Muslim countries and their solutions. Professor Emeritus Dato’ Dr. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman (1936–2021) was a scholar, educationalist, institution builder, a leading intellectual and creative thinker in the Muslim world. Throughout his ten-year tenure as International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Rector, he has made remarkable efforts to enhance the Islamisation of disciplines and the integration of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and human sciences. The significance of this study lays in extracting the crux of the problems faced by Higher Education in the Muslim countries by studying the original works and writings of AbdulHamid AbuSulayman including the Crisis in Muslim Mind, Revitalizing the Higher Education and others. The Muslims have contributed outstanding point in history through the development of numerous fields of knowledge and skills, especially in education and even the world's first higher education institutions were established by Muslims in the Islamic world, that later setting example for the establishment of many universities in Europe at twelfth century. However, due to many internal and external challenges imposed towards the Muslim civilization, it has consequently affected the higher education. Hence, AbdulHamid AbuSulayman’s meticulous works in elucidating the afflictions in higher education expand from the seriousness of the threat, the extent of the crisis from which it suffers and efforts required to rescue it from further declining. This research employed qualitative methodology that incorporates the approach of collection data from the primary and secondary sources. The major approaches, namely descriptive, evaluative and critical analysis are implemented throughout the study to analyse data.