Educational Philosophy Imam Al-Ghazali’s Perspective

Islam is a divine religion. It is based on divine revelation (Holy Quran) and sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ. As a religion it is a complete code of life. It does not deal with worships only but addresses all fields of life. Like Beliefs and worship, Islam focuses on education also. As a last and chosen religion, it motivates human beings to seek knowledge. The first word of the first revelation (Chapter Al-alaq) starts with Iqra means Read. In first five ayat of chapter Al-alaq, the basic requirement for enhance of education (Read, knowledge and pen) have been mentioned six times. Similarly, the Holy Prophet r took many steps for imparting education. In this connection, the example of first residential university (Suffa’h) is sufficient. Imam Ghazali one of the most famous Muslim thinkers discusses the education in his books in detail. He was born in 448 AH (1057 CE) at Tabaran a town in the district of Tus, which lies within the Khorasan Province of Iran and died on 18 December (1111 CE). In this article knowledge, its classification, stages, curriculum, art of teaching, responsibility of both teachers as well as students have been discussed in the light of Imam Ghazali educational philosophy.

Developing Entrepreneur Capacities Through Higher Education: Learning for Value Creation

In the past two decades, Pakistan had witnessed a whopping rise in number of university enrollments and graduates. Due to lack of absorptive capacity in job market, the importance of entrepreneurship education has been felt more than ever. The focus of this dissertation is to use curriculum laden value creation as a stepping stone to introduce entrepreneurship into universities to o set the e ects credential creep and rising unemployment levels. This issue had been paid scant attention in Pakistani context, which makes it enticing to investigate entrepreneurship as value creation through university based curriculum. The research espouses a qualitative approach to achieve exploratory purpose of research questions through in-depth interviews. Overall, 31 interviews were conducted in full- edged second phase while 06 interviews were done in pilot phase. In absence of a-priori theories, grounded theory is chosen as strategy of inquiry. The analysis is carried out in three phases of open, axial and selective coding with point of theoretical saturation unfolding at 26th interview. The analysis indicates that a social vacuum exists due to prevalent industry and academic dichotomies. It has been learnt that informal learning is important while a wide gulf is ominous in the shape of discrepancies in regards to psychological, managerial and opportunity recognition strategies taught in universities against business practices in vogue. Thendings reveal unstitched academic-industry linkages, silo and immature conduct of operations has long term implications for innovation ecosystem of Peshawar. The misalignment between university and industry manifests itself in paradox expectations where student lament lack of jobs, while industry voices concerns over shortage of talent. Moreover, the societal narrative and discourse is highly inclined to degree as against knowledge seeking. The study concluded that universities in Peshawar are mere teaching universities giving no inputs to government in form of products, processes or policies. The study contributes to practice of understanding a social process of interest by proposing a three-tier, bidirectional framework with paths to infuse entrepreneurship in curriculum on micro, macro and meso levels. On theoretical levels, it extends the existing model on entrepreneurial process through integration of curricular, co and extra-curricular activities to better learn for value creation.