Islam via al-Quran strongly stresses the significant existence of nature. The creation of universal nature is considered as ultimate proof of the existence of God, the Creator. Islamic philosophers or religious thinkers tend to relate the significance of nature with living an appreciative life. Hamka on his philosophy of nature relates the creation to philosophy of God without distinguishing sharply between philosophy of nature and philosophy of God, calling his position ‘philosophy of life’. He was a prolific Muslim scholar whose influence persists throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Southern Thailand. Although Hamka passed away 31 years ago, his philosophy still remained strong in Malay Archipelago because of his greatness. Thus, the aim of this article is to analyze Hamka’s philosophy on nature and its relation to philosophy of God as portrayed in his book Filsafat Ketuhanan (Philosophy of God) and Falsafah Hidup (Philosophy of Life).

The purpose of Islam is to develop exceptional human beings based on aqidah. Those with faith will have good life and will, in turn, have a positive influence on people around them. In Malaysia, aqidah forms the basis of Islamic education. Its main objective is to produce students who have God-consciousness in all aspects of life. This survey was carried out by way of questionnaire among secondary school students. The interview method was also used with selected students, teachers and officers from the Ministry of Education. The paper will discuss the influence of aqidah on students in three parts. First is the extent of knowledge of aqidah among the students, second is the relationship between the knowledge of aqidah and students’ social life, and finally, the impact of aqidah on students’ behaviour. This paper concludes that aqidah has a great impact upon students’ social activities.

In this article, we attempt at analysing the thoughts of Alvin Toffler. Toffler is a prominent futurist and the proponent of the theory of ‘The Third Wave society’. In his theory, Toffler has explicitly discussed the role of knowledge and technology in effecting changes and thus shaping the coming of the new type of society in the future.

Since its establishment on May 18, 1970, various researches on Islam and Muslim communities were conducted by researchers of Faculty of Islamic Studies. Various grants are channelled to the researchers, including IRPA grant, (The Intensification of Research in Priority Areas), FRGS Grant (Fundamental Research Grant Scheme), Grant from government agencies such as the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) and the Ministry of Education, University Research Grant (GUP), Action/Strategic Research Grant, Arus Perdana Grant, Laluan Pantas Grant and Incentive Grant Funds. Since its establishment, it is estimated that RM3 million grant has been granted to the researchers. Although there are various grants and the number of extensive researches, the result of the researches have not been published in any high impact journals such as Scopus and ISI (Institute for Scientific Information). The change of qualitative research to quantitative research that emphasizes the quantitative elements and its impact to the country should be intensified in the Faculty of Islamic Studies.

Generic skills are defined as a set of skills that are directly related and needed for the working environment. Employers prefer to recruit officials who are competent in interpersonal communication, leadership skill, team work, oral and written skills. They are reluctant to employ graduates lacking certain necessary skills. This reveals the fact that there is a serious gap between the skills that are required by the employers and the skills that the graduates possess. Therefore, this research is focused on five aspects of generic skills namely; communication, team work, problem solving, lifelong learning and self-esteem. From Qur’anic perspective, the same terms have been used except minor differences in using various terms. The thematic approach is used when discussing these aspects from the Qur’an. The findings showed that the ways of effective communication are represented by terms of qawl sadid, qawl ma`ruf, qawl baligh, qawl maysur, qawl karim and qawl layyin. For collective work, ta`aruf and tafahum, as the pre-requisites, should be practiced via ta`awun and takaful. For problem solving, four methods are adapted from the Qur’an such as reflection of the past, observation, demonstration and asking questions. For lifelong learning, the establishment of learning institutions and the self-motivation of learners are two pre-requisites that should be undertaken for its accomplishment. They could be practiced through open learning system, consultation and hands-on learning. Last but not least, for personality development could be built up through physical training, spiritual training and mental training.

Clifford Geertz can be regarded as one of the most influential figures in religious studies, particularly in the field of anthropology. His unique symbolic anthropology approach had attracted researchers because of his emphasis on deductive reasoning in explaining the meaning of religion and in viewing cultural values that exist in religion. Research based on the content analysis of his works found that Clifford Geertz thought very strongly influenced by Ibn Khaldun as both of them emphasize on the practical reality of religious phenomena in the society. These symbols are then making a cultural system of what we call religion.

The purpose of Islam is to develop exceptional human beings based on aqidah. Those with faith will have good life and will, in turn, have a positive influence on people around them. In Malaysia, aqidah forms the basis of Islamic education. Its main objective is to produce students who have God-consciousness in all aspects of life. This survey was carried out by way of questionnaire among secondary school students. The interview method was also used with selected students, teachers and officers from the Ministry of Education. The paper will discuss the influence of aqidah on students in three parts. First is the extent of knowledge of aqidah among the students, second is the relationship between the knowledge of aqidah and students’ social life, and finally, the impact of aqidah on students’ behaviour. This paper concludes that aqidah has a great impact upon students’ social activities.

Kitab Jawi has been known to have played a vital role in transmitting the knowledge of Islam to the Malay people in the Malay Indonesian Archipelago since fifteenth century AD. It has been used by the Malay scholars as a medium of education in imparting the knowledge and understanding of Islam. Nonetheless, its importance has been underestimated by some scholars as irrelevant and insignificant. Thus, this article provides an overview on the important aspects of the Kitab Jawi in Sufism as a source of Islamic knowledge on sufism and as an intermediary role of this genre in transmitting the opinion of the Muslim scholars from the al-Haramayn, the centre of Islamic knowledge, and the Malay people in the Archipelago.

The West follows a number of methods and targets to destroy the Islamic world and to impose its culture on the reality of the Arab Islamists. Whether it is forcibly by direct colonialism, orientalism or by national elite, which is taught in the West and inspired by its exemplar and returns to its loyal carrier. It fights and contests the authenticity of Islam and its concept. Building upon it is also the research problem lying in the incitement towards the aggressive curriculum accompanied by the colonial schools in orientalism, which has put itself in the holistic civilization draft, but it comes by the central European framework which is based on the principle of eligibility and approval of Europeans only in urbanization and progress. Denying this vulnerability on others, so comes about the importance of research, as a renewal and stereotyping for many topics which develops the knowledge in the distinguished and the importance upon the education, culture, and ideology curricula in the Islamic world. As for the goal; it is possible to master a generation of researchers who moved out the wrong citizens, counterfeiting and fraud which takes place in orientalism, intentionally or un-intentionally because in its defamation is the foundations and principles of Islamic thought, their compliance to the curricula is offensive towards the Islamic ideology and it is not possible to apply it onto Islamic principles.

¬¬This article explores the history of the renowned world economic and political reformist, Karl Marx with a special focus on the social class concept. It also discusses to what extent that the Marx’s concept of social class struggle is capable to provide a way out to the proletariats, to free themselves from the chains of cruelty, violence and alienation in the capitalist system. Our main focal point is to scrutinize the relationship between the concepts of social class struggle and the need for a social revolution as a catalyst for the formation of a classless society. Along the way, we studied and analyzed the documents produced on the primary sources covering major works of Marx and the secondary sources consisting reviews of the Marx’s class concept. As a result, we found out that Marx’s concept of class fight is competent to represent the oppressed group to battle for their freedom rights. The Proletariat dictatorship attitude was used as their main shield to face the threat of the capitalist class. Marx’s ultimate success is realized through a burst of ideas and beliefs that supports the ideas of egalitarian Communism although many contradictions arise between the ideas of Marx and the 20th centuries Communism when they are translated into practice.