From Secularization to the Islamization of Science: Al-Attas’s Epistemological Critique of Western Modernity and Its Relevance to Islamic Education

Abstrak

Western modernity has shaped influential conceptions of knowledge through rationalism, empiricism, positivism, and materialism, often separating scientific inquiry from revelation, metaphysics, moral responsibility, and humanity’s transcendent purpose. This article examines Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s epistemological critique of Western modernity and analyzes the Islamization of science as a response to the secularization of knowledge. The study employed qualitative library research with a philosophical-epistemological approach. Its primary sources were al-Attas’s major works, supported by scholarly literature on Islamic epistemology, worldview, adab, ta’dib, Islamic education, and the Islamization of knowledge. The analysis shows that al-Attas does not reject reason, empirical inquiry, or scientific achievement as such. His critique is directed at the secular worldview that detaches knowledge from revelation, moral orientation, and the recognition of God. Within this framework, the Islamization of science entails the critical examination of secular assumptions and the reconstruction of knowledge within tawhid, revelation, guided reason, and adab. The article further argues that al-Attas’s thought offers an epistemological–adab framework for reflecting on contemporary Islamic education. This framework does not establish that secularization directly causes bullying, violence, harassment, or abuse of authority, as these problems involve complex psychological, social, legal, institutional, economic, and digital factors. Rather, it provides a philosophical basis for evaluating whether education sustains the relationship between knowledge, moral formation, institutional responsibility, and the protection of human dignity. The article proposes that Islamic educational reform should reaffirm the formation of civilized human beings, cultivate institutional cultures of adab, and strengthen accountable educational authority.

Kata kunci

• Secularization of Knowledge
• Islamization of Science
• Naquib al-Attas
• Western Modernity
• Islamic Education
• Adab