Confusion over 'aql and logical thinking among young muslims in Malaysia

Popular phrase many people take for granted without thinking when someone said or did something wrong is “he/she succumbed to logical mind”. This paradoxical statement has become a big wall that people would go to hide to escape from giving defensible justifications for claims made especially claims on religious beliefs and the unseen existences. This pose a huge problem for those who use logical thinking to examine the truth value of any proposition as if logical thinking would result in wrong judgment on truth and ethical proposition. What is more, some hold the belief that the Qur’an shuns logic and thus Muslims are prohibited to apply logical thinking to determine truth from falsehood. This study explored young Muslims’ understanding of the concept of logic to get some insight on this phenomenon so that informed decision and planning could be made to arrest this confusion. Moreover, assessment on young Muslims’ understanding is very important to ensure their understanding is in line with Quranic teachings. Qualitative analysis was used to analyze data collected from 10 participants using semi-structured interviews. Since face to face interaction was not possible because of the current pandemic, interviews were done using Zoom, Google Meet and WhatsApp. The emergent themes that could be extracted from the participants’ responses were confusion on the understanding of ‘aql and the relationship between spiritual brain and heart; logical mind as means to solve problems of non-religious issues; and negative consequences of logical thinking among others is could lead to unbelief. However, a minority of the respondents viewed logical thinking as necessary to understand revelation. This study also found that the young Muslims were weak in logical thinking

The Effectiveness of Strategies Used by Teachers to Manage Disruptive Classroom Behaviors: A Case Study at a Religious School in Rawang, Selangor

Studies have indicated that there is a positive correlation between disruptive behaviors and low academic achievement which resulted in other problems such as absenteeism, school drop-out and delinquent behaviors. Lack of knowledge and skills and failure in managing classroom disruptive behaviors have caused frustration, stress and burnout among teachers which pushed teachers to leave the profession especially novice teachers. The pervasiveness of classroom disruptive behaviors implied that strategies employed by teachers to manage disruptive behaviors are not effective. This requires immediate attention and action to find effective solutions. Therefore, this exploratory study attempts to discover the common classroom disruptive behaviors; to identify strategies used by teachers in managing misbehaviors; and to find out to what extent the strategies used by teachers were actually effective in managing classroom disruptive behaviors. This is especially critical in religious schools since the majority of teachers teaching in religious schools in the state of Selangor had no formal training in education; and they were not trained in classroom management, thus have no exposure on handling student classroom disruptive behaviors. Participants of this study were 14 teachers from a religious school in the district of Rawang, Selangor. Data collected using self-constructed instrument and semi-structured interviews were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis. Findings of this study revealed that majority of classroom disruptive behaviors were low level disruptions; nonetheless they were burdensome to teachers which led to teacher frustration. Majority of teachers used ineffective punitive measures to handle student misbehaviors. Implications from the study were discussed

The effectiveness of strategies used by teachers to manage disruptive classroom behaviors: A case study at a religious school in Rawang, Selangor

Studies have indicated that there is a positive correlation between disruptive behaviors and low academic achievement which resulted in other problems such as absenteeism, school drop-out and delinquent behaviors. Lack of knowledge and skills and failure in managing classroom disruptive behaviors have caused frustration, stress and burnout among teachers which pushed teachers to leave the profession especially novice teachers. The pervasiveness of classroom disruptive behaviors implied that strategies employed by teachers to manage disruptive behaviors are not effective. This requires immediate attention and action to find effective solutions. Therefore, this exploratory study attempts to discover the common classroom disruptive behaviors; to identify strategies used by teachers in managing misbehaviors; and to find out to what extent the strategies used by teachers were actually effective in managing classroom disruptive behaviors. This is especially critical in religious schools since the majority of teachers teaching in religious schools in the state of Selangor had no formal training in education; and they were not trained in classroom management, thus have no exposure on handling student classroom disruptive behaviors. Participants of this study were 14 teachers from a religious school in the district of Rawang, Selangor. Data collected using self-constructed instrument and semi-structured interviews were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis. Findings of this study revealed that majority of classroom disruptive behaviors were low-level disruptions; nonetheless they were burdensome to teachers which led to teacher frustration. Majority of teachers used ineffective punitive measures to handle student misbehaviors. Implications from the study were discussed

Tok Kenali: pemodenan pondok di Kelantan

Cendikiawan dan ulama Islam sentiasa berusaha untuk membangunkan sistem pendidikan yang boleh melahirkan insan yang mempunyai keperibadian Islam yang seimbang dari segi fizikal, intelektual, psikologi dan rohani. Justeru, kajian yang menyeluruh terhadap pencapaian dan kegagalan sistem pendidikan masa lalu perlu dijalankan, yang bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti pemikiran dan amali yang masih relevan dan patut dikekalkan, atau sebaliknya yang tidak lagi relevan dan tidak perlu diteruskan. Tuan Guru Muhammad Yusof bin Ahmad atau Tok Kenali (1868-1933) merupakan seorang pengasas pendidikan bersepadu dari aspek pemikiran dan amalan pendidikan. Pemikiran beliau dikaji sebagai rujukan untuk para pendidik ke arah membentuk sistem pendidikan yang bersepadu dan menyeluruh

A narrative review on the concept of ‘Aql

The proliferation of opinions, in social media, on the danger of using ‘aql to understand religion is appalling. Some Muslims would except whatever information, however silly it may be, imparted by their teachers as true without first evaluating it critically. This would lead to the perpetuation of blind imitation which in turn would stifle deep understanding and creativity. The most devastating consequence of relegating the ‘aql is the failure to make correct conclusion and judgment on religious truths. This misconception of the meaning and functions of ‘aql probably stemmed from the lack of literature written and disseminated among Muslims on the concept of ‘aql in Islam. Therefore, this narrative literature review was conducted to summarize and synthesize research reports on the concept of ‘aql from Islamic perspective. Sixty-one articles and theses which met the selection criteria were reviewed and categorized according to the emerging themes. The findings showed that most studies were done to analyze and interpret the concept of aql in the Quran, past scholars’ conception of aql—the past scholars are al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Miskawayh, Ibn Taymiyyah, Zamakshari, Tabari, al-Ghazali, Muhammad Abduh, roles of ‘aql, ‘aql and Islamic education, the relationship between nafs and ‘aql and brain and heart. All research reports asserted the compatibility between ‘aql and revelation. However, extensive analysis on the curriculum of Islamic education in Malaysia found that even though higher order thinking is emphasized but the concept of ‘aql was not included in syllabus of Form 1 to Form 5

Thinking from the Qur’ānic perspective

The Qur’ān is the main reference and source of knowledge for Muslims. It logically follows that understanding the concept of thinking should also be referred to the Qur’ān. Even though the word ‘intellect’ is mentioned 49 times in the Qur’ān, and there are hundreds of verses that urge Muslims to think, the theory of thinking from the Qur’ānic perspective has not been extensively explored to guide Muslim educators, curriculum designers and developers. Hence, this paper attempts to explore the concept of good thinking from the Qur’ānic perspective. It extensively examines verses of the Qur’ān pertaining to the intellect and thinking to come up with a theory of good thinking. From the analysis of the relevant Qur’ānic verses, the research found that the intellect is capable of rational and spiritual cognition as a result of applying critical, creative, ethical and spiritual thinking. Therefore, the research posits that good thinking from the Qur’ānic perspective is multi-dimensional; the dimensions are critical, creative, ethical and spiritual thinking. Furthermore, according to the Qur’ān, the aim of good thinking is to achieve wisdom. Hence, this paper also explicates the meaning of wisdom from the Qurānic perspective

Teachers’ knowledge of higher order thinking and questioning skills: A case study at primary school in Terengganu, Malaysia

The purpose of this research was to explore primary school teachers’ knowledge of higher order thinking (HOTS) and questioning skills. This was done because little is known about the level of teachers’ knowledge and skills in HOTS; and their knowledge and skills in questioning to stimulate HOTS. To this end this paper employed exploratory case study to gain an in-depth understanding of this phenomenon in the actual setting so that the actual behaviour can be examined with minimum interference that may obstruct the reality. Nine primary school teachers were selected to be interviewed and observed. Semi-structured interview questions were used to collect data on teachers understanding of the concept of thinking and higher order thinking skills; and Likert- type checklist was used to gather data on the frequencies and types of questions teachers usually asked to promote thinking. Observations were conducted to validate the teachers’ responses regarding the frequencies and types of questions asked during teaching and learning sessions. The data gathered through interviews were analysed to determine the emerging themes. The findings revealed that the teachers failed to explain clearly the concept of thinking and thinking processes; and majority of teachers could not give satisfactory explanation of HOTS as critical and creative thinking. However, half of the teachers could list the subskills of HOTS according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Data on teachers’ questioning skills revealed that they were familiar with questioning based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, however only half of the teachers practised asking HOTS questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy

A CRITICAL NEED FOR BREASTMILK COLLECTION CENTERS FOR HIGH-RISK PREMATURE BABIES

Premature babies are very vulnerable and exposed to various life-threatening diseases. The World Health Organisation reported that many premature babies were saved from morbidity and mortality when they were fed breastmilk starting within the first hour after their birth. The rate of premature birth in Malaysia has increased exponentially since 2018—more than 20 percent of premature births. Therefore, hospitals should have enough supplies of breastmilk to save the lives of these precious premature babies. However, only one hospital in Malaysia provides supplies of breastmilk on demand. This study employed content analysis to examine the concept of Maqasid Shari’ah to justify the proposal of the establishment of breastmilk collection centres in hospitals throughout Malaysia to save the lives, intellects, and progenies of at-risk premature babies. The primary issues resulting from breastmilk sharing according to the Islamic perspective were examined, and practical steps were proposed to rectify them. The steps involved obtaining signed consent from the wet nurse and her husband; screening of the wet nurse’s health and personality characteristics; screening of the breastmilk by the milk collection centre; obtaining a signed consent from the premature baby’s parents; feeding breastmilk to the premature baby with the consent of witnesses; a meeting between the wet nurse and her family and the baby’s parents and family; and completing the wet nursing document to be given to the newly formed milk kinship family