I’ve often wondered what makes a scholar a scholar?
Judging from the scholars I know from real-life and from hear-say, they tend to come from a large variety of cultural, educational, and spiritual background.
My impression is that there are several ways in which someone can ‘reach’ the status of scholar. This not only pertains to Islamic scholars, but also to other religions and also to a historical context on how to become a scholar.
Usually scholars have spent years in a madrassah or an other religious institution, they have done a lot of auto-didaction, and they have spent years in vicinity of other scholars. Sometimes, they also have had a formal academic training, usually in Islamic sciences.
A few things which I’ve seen scholar have:
- profound knowledge of the backbone of their religion, i.e. holy scripture
usually -in the islamic setting- the scholars can mention dozens of ayahs with exact number and surah by heart, or chapter and verse in bible etc.
- profound knowledge of the accessories of their religion, i.e. historical records.
again in the islamic setting, they know various hadiths by heart. Similarly, in other religions the priest has profound knowledge of what the apostles wrote down.
- they have profound knowledge on the interpretations of the above as put forth by others (usually past scholars). Usually, they don’t give their own opinion, but echo opinions/conclusions that were formed by their predecessors.
- they have profound knowledge on the history and historical context of their religion as far as that knowledge is obtained from sources within the religion
- they are usually the person to which you turn for almost all questions relating to religion. Whether it be a political, economical, judicial of medical issues. The scholar knows all
A few things which I find lacking in most scholars:
- they have very little knowledge on history and historical context of their religion as obtained from sources outside the religion. From an archeological point of view, a lot has been written on islam by muslims, but also a lot has been written about islam by others. I think knowledge of the latter source is also pivotal to understand the role of islam in the world as a whole.
- they are very close-minded for opinions that fall outside their own scope, even though noone is enforcing those opinions on the scholar. Somehow they experience it as an attack on the integrity of their religion, if someone puts forth a different opinion, even if it was for informational purposes
- they have very little knowledge on (the history of) other religions/cultures/civilizations.
With the abovementioned combination of traits, it is easy to see why in the current world setting, it is very difficult to get a dialogue going between various religions and various religious authorities.
I therefore propose a more academic approach to becoming a scholar
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Someone wanting to become a scholar should start formal university training in a broad subject such as history, archeology, life sciences, sociology.
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After completion of the bachelor degree (3 years), that persons must go into a Masters program (2 years), in which that persons selects Islamic Sciences as major (if that person wants to become an Islamic scholar) and two minors that pertain to non-Islamic religions/cultures/civilization. The latter need not necessarily be Jewism or Christianity, one might also select a foregone religion such a Greek mythology or Azteks (in Mexico) or Zoroastrians, or a civilization, such as the Vikings or the Indians.
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Part of the Masters training should also be a 6 months to year internship at a religious institution to get first hand experience into being a scholar
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Completion of the Masters should give someone a Grade I title of Islamic Scholar. Grade I means that that person can be considered knowledgeable on general Islamic Principles. That persons also has insights into some other religions outside Islam, and has the ability to compare, relate, abstract, extrapolate Islamic knowledge to certain situations.
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After completion of the Masters, that persons should go into a PhD project for Islamic Sciences and then focus on one Islamic school of Thought. The PhD training will take 4 years to complete. The PhD will be conducted under the direct supervision of a grade II or III Scholar (see below).
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Upon completion that person will become a Grade II Islamic Scholar. This entails that that persons can be considered knowledgeable regarding the general Islamic Principles, but also how that relates to a certain School of thought within Islam. That person can therefore also give guidelines to others on interpretations etc, as long as it is a general inquiry. This means that they cannot give guidelines regarding specific situations. These are situations for which one needs additional knowledge outside religion: such as medical knowledge for medical inquiries, judicial knowledge for judicial inquiries, etc
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For further higher studies, Grade II Scholars can decide to persue further specialization. So if someone wants to specialize in giving judicial guidelines within the framework of Islam, that persons should be required to go to lawschool. This combination will then give rise to Grade III Scholars. Highly specialized scholars, that have a good basic training, and have excellent skills to deal with specific religious questions that arise in their field of specialization. This means that a Grade III Scholar from one specialization cannot give guidelines regarding a different specialization.
I think if muslims can implement worldwide such a system to become a scholar, it will greatly benefit not only islam, but also other religions.
Bro STP
bad boy …