Islamic Pedagogy for Guidance and Transformation Toward an Islamic Experiential Learning Model

Abstract

Education is not a modern innovation that emerged from Western civilization. It is as ancient as the human experience and intrinsic in the human psyche to learn, grow, and develop. Contemporary scholars and practitioners in education worldwide continue to grapple with the conundrum of the definition of “sound education,” from its higher objectives and philosophical underpinnings to pedagogical understandings and delivery modes. There has been an increased emphasis on repealing and undoing the standardization of education that has shaped the modern education system due to the industrial revolution, free market economy, imperialism, and colonialism, among other factors. Within the context of Muslims and Islamic education, the call for the renewal of education has been echoed in most educational circles worldwide. This renewal and paradigm shift in education necessitates an objective rather than a problem-based approach to inspire a new vision in Islamic thought and education based on divine guidance and embedded in wholism and interconnectedness (Auda, 2021).

A paradigm shift in Islamic education necessitates a redefinition of concepts and the design of new conceptual understandings of what it means to educate, the modes of delivery, and the outcomes of the educative process within an Islamically rooted worldview. Accordingly, this inquiry seeks to gain a deeper conceptual understanding of the modes and methods of education found in the Holy Quran as it relates to learning through experience. The scope of this paper is centered around the notion of experiential education and learning and its manifestations in the Quran as a pedagogy for guidance and transformation as higher objectives of Islamic education. Importantly, this inquiry also proposes a model for experiential learning that does not neglect spirituality and meets the needs of Muslim learners.