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

Abstract

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 Khald?n, another noteworthy scholar, adopted al-Ghazali’s criticism of the advocates of the transmission of Greek philosophy. Ibn Khald?n (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 (Ibt?al al-Falsafah wa Fas?d Muntah?il?h?). Ibn Khald?n’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 Khald?n’s broad educational guidelines on teaching philosophy to Muslim students and draw some comparisons with other Muslim scholars. This research shows that Ibn Khald?n’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 Khald?n’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 Khald?n Muslim philosophy. Muqaddimah