Islamic worldview Midterm

UNGS 2030 Sem 1/2007
Midterm Examination
September 1—30 2007
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Intructions: This examination consists of three parts. Answer all questions unless otherwise stated. All answers are to be emailed to the instructor at (adi_setia@iiu.edu.my) on or before September 30 2007. Late answers will not be entertained at all. Answers should be typed directly into the email page without attachments. This is to avoid problems with downloading or opening attachments. Write your name, matric number and section at the top of the first page. You are expected to do your own work, therefore all forms of plagiarism will be severely censured. Remember, writing assignments is like cooking food, so make sure you prepare tasty, nutritous intellectual food to nourish your mind and my mind!
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Part 1: Textual Understanding

This part tests your comprehension of selected sentences/passages from Professor al-Attas’s text, The Worldview of Islam: An Outline. Give concise answers with one or two concrete, real-life examples to illustrate your point, and support your point by relevant quotations from Professor al-Attas’s text.

1. Compare and constrasts between the Islamic and the secular understanding of the term ‘worldview’.

2. What is meant by the statement, “The religion of Islam was conscious of its own identity from the time of its revelation”?

3. What do change, development and progress refer to according to the Islamic viewpoint, and constrast it with the western secular viewpoint thereof?

4. Why is the external structure or pattern of Muslim society not divided by the gap of generations such as we find prevalent in Western society?

5. How do individuals in Islamic society establish their identity and establish their ultimate destiny, and thus arrive at a correct understanding and experience of true happiness?

6. What is meant by this statement, “Knowledge is not neutral, and can indeed be infused with a nature and content which masquerades as knowledge”?

7. How does knowledge become education, and how is the latter related to adab?

8. Elaborate on the statement, “The world of nature as depicted in the Qur’an is composed of symbolic forms (ayat), like words in a book.”

9. What is the meaning of ‘freedom’ according to the Islamic worlview?

10. Please elaborate on al-Attas’s definitions of ‘knowledge’ and ‘meaning’, and on how the two are interrelated.

Part 2: Intellectual Quiz

This part tests your creative, critical and analytical understanding certain key ethical ideas and concepts discussed so far in class. Again, give concise answers with at least one personal real-life examples.

1. Clarify the statement: “Progress has meaning only when the goal is clear.”
2. How does al-Attas defines ‘revealed religion’?
3. What are some of the most salient elements of the Islamic Worldview?
4. What is meant by the term ‘corruption of knowledge’?
5. What is meant by the greater struggle (jihad akbar)?

Part 3: Research Assignment

This part is to encourage you to research into worldview related issues so that you can clarify them and articulate your own stand in regard thereof. Choose only one research topic, preferably the one most related to your academic major. Write up your findings in essay form in not more than two or three pages.

1. Write a short critical, intellectual analysis of the mainstream, western definition of economics as “the science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to meet unlimited human wants.”

2. Write a short critical essay to explore to what extent the University’s slogan “Garden of Knowledge and Virtue” is an accurate or inaccurate description of the reality of campus life.

3. Do a library and/or internet research on the concept and practice of “green technology” and evaluate it from both the Islamic and western viewpoints.

4. Write a short critique of the concept of “economic growth,” from the perpectives of Islamic and Western worldviews.

5. Do a library and/or internet research on the concept and practice of “green engineering” and evaluate it from both the Islamic and western viewpoints.

6. Do a library and/or internet research on the concept and practice of “green chemistry” and evaluate it from both the Islamic and western viewpoints.

7. Write a short essay exploring the extent to which “change, development and progress” in Malaysia or China or Dubai conforms or not conform to the Islamic understanding of “change, development and progress” as outlined by Professor al-Attas.

8. Among the five fundamental objectives of the Shari‘ah (Maqasid al-Shari‘ah), the objective of preservation of wealth (hifz al-mal) is placed last in fifth place. Why is that, and what are the implications for an Islamic philosophy and practice of engineering?

9. Do a library and/or internet research on the theme of “Islam & Ecology” or “Islam & the Environment” or “Animals in Islam,” and then write a short summary of the Islamic ethical attitude towards nature, and thereby determine to what extent this attitude is or is not reflected in mainstream engineering practices.

10. Prepare an Islamic critique of secularism.

11. Prepare an Islamic critique of utilitarianism.

12. Prepare an Islamic critique of materialism.

13. Prepare an Islamic critique of rationalism.

14. Prepare an Islamic critique of positivism.

15. Prepare an Islamic critique of the darwinian theory of evolution.

16. Prepare an Islamic critique of postmodernism.

17. Prepare an Islamic critique of globalization.

18. How can you, as a Muslim engineer, contribute toward tackling the problem of global warming.

19. Read and review at least five articles on Islamic Enginering from the muslimheritage.com website.

20. How do you integrate environmental engineering into the Islamic Worldview?