The Preservation and Authenticity of Ḥadīth As a Source of Sīrah: A Critique of Robert Spencer’S Views on Historicity of Muḥammad

The account of the deeds and sayings of the prophet (ﷺ) has been carefully preserved since the dawn of Islam. This is what actually led Ernest Renan to believe that “[Islam] was born in the full light of history”, and that the life of Muḥammad (ﷺ) can be known as explicitly as that of any sixteenth century reformer. Notwithstanding, some contemporary writers doubt the historicity of Muḥammad (ﷺ) ; Robert Spencer is one of them. He is an American author. He is quite famous for his criticism of Islam and the prophet of Islam. He has published twelve books so far. He is a member of Melkite Greek Catholic Church. He contends that Muḥammad’s (ﷺ) historical value is in no way greater and more reliable than mythological figures or characters such as Robin Hood and Macbeth. He maintains that the very idea of subjecting the traditionally accepted account of the life of Muḥammad (ﷺ) and the origins of Islam will be regarded by many Muslims as an affront. To substantiate his argument, he rigorously criticizes the historical value of ḥadīth. He argues that aḥādīth were fabricated and compiled in the third century. He maintains that aḥādīth were concocted much later to be used as weapons in political strife and religious controversies. This paper is an academic attempt to prove that aḥādīth were painstakingly preserved and for that purpose various techniques were employed. Besides, it also sheds light on the reasons for the fabrication of aḥādīth and the ways and means utilized for sifting the genuine aḥādīth from forgeries. Findings of this article suggest that the minute details of the life of Muḥammad (ﷺ) have been scrupulously preserved; hence aḥādīth can be used as a reliable source of Sīrah.

Wholistic Management Education Wme : Contextualized Applicability of Transformative Learning in Management Education Discourse

This thesis is a critical exploration of traditional management education discourse. It advocates imparting transformative business education leading to ‘whole person’ learning of business students. Traditional management education needs transformation because it is in crisis. The prestigious management education journal Academy of Management Learning & Education is leading a wave of scathing criticism on different aspects of business school education for the last decade or so. The most critiqued of these aspects include inability of traditional business school education to prepare students to face real world complexities. This is attributed to management education pedagogy’s over-reliance on science and rationality leading to short term profit focus and its being oblivious to larger issues of society, context, values and history. A majority of previous research involves application of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory in non-management settings. This thesis combines Mezirow’s cognitive perspective of transformation with later developments including extra-rational thinking, multiple ways of knowing and the ability to critically evaluate social and organizational dynamics to presents the concept of ‘wholistic management education’ (WME). Based on contemporary scholarly critique on management education, UNESCO Curricular Reforms Manifesto (2011), Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) (2011) and guidelines of Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan (2012) the thesis constructs five ‘missing’ discourses of management education. These discourses serve as foundations for developing WME model of the thesis. This model not only captures the micro level discursive interplay between business school texts and actions but also connects it with the macro discourse’s proximal and distal structures like organizations, society and environment. From WME discourse construction the thesis turns to critical analysis of traditional management education discourse by incorporating extra-linguistic factors such as power relations, dominance, history, ideology and hegemony inherent in it. The five main discourses are constructed on the basis of carefully and systematically selected management education and transformative learning literature. The main proponents of different perspectives of transformative learning are identified on the basis of number of well received books authored/edited (the cut-off point is at least 4 well received books) and their publications in IF Journals. For selecting literature of management education it is ensured to include the main writers highlighting different gaps in management education over the last 15 years. Academy of Management Learning & Education is the main source for selecting frequently cited articles on management education critique. More than 100 such articles were short listed for abstract reviews. Those found relevant with research objectives and questions of this thesis were reviewed thoroughly. Some of the books mentioned in the References of the selected articles were shortlisted and their Introductions and Prefaces were read. Those resonating with the research aims of the thesis were given detailed reading. The same criterion of identifying influential authors is employed as in the case of transformative learning literature. The thesis creates nuance in transformative learning and management education research by positing them as discourses and also through the application of critical discourse analysis on business education. The construction of WME discourse and critical analysis of traditional management education discourse reveal that history of Western civilization has a reflexive relation with history of management education which in turn has shaped the overall discourse of business education. Similarly Civilizational values have played an important role in shaping different historic-philosophical epochs of Western civilization which have influenced the development of cultural and organizational values manifesting as organizing practices institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of management education texts. The strong reflexive relation of management education with this ‘value hierarchy’ creates the notion of ‘universalism’ through which traditional business education implicitly suppresses local non-Western contexts and epistemologies. The micro-micro and micro-macro intertextuality-based discourse relations emerging through applying the proposed WME model are shown to counter this suppression and to encourage developing whole person learning in business students enabling them to face the ambiguities and complexities of their respective real worlds. The thesis not only pioneers the application of extra-linguistic critical discourse analysis techniques on management education but also advances transformative learning theory towards a more unified, contextualized and wholistic perspective. The major scholarly value of this thesis is production of a contextualized ‘counter-discourse’ to the universal traditional management education discourse.