Al-ZARNŪJĪ AND THE METHOD OF LEARNING: A MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC TREATISE of EDUCATION
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Keywords:
Education, Learning, Religious Education, al-Zarnūjī, Ta‛līm al-Muta‛allim, Student-Centered EducationAbstract
The high esteem and reverence that knowledge and education are accorded in Islamic Civilization is manifested in a number of treatises composed during Middle Ages by practioners, instructors and philosophers alike. Burhān al-Dīn al-Zarnūjī is one of the medieval figures that offered practical approaches in education informed by Qur’anic and prophetic injunctions, old-age proverbs and wisdom sayings of the ancient masters and his immediate teachers. His student-centered approach to the process of learning is replete with pedagogical premises and didactic narrative. Written in Arabic during the early Middle Ages, this treatise has been translated into Latin and several modern languages. The following survey examines al-Zarnūjī’s treatise on teaching the students the method of learning by assessing and critiquing some of its premises. This study aims to demonstrate that according to al Zarnūjī’s theoretical and practical framework the students should be made aware of the tools that they possess and make use of them with proper methodology.
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