IJĀZAH: LESSONS FROM A UNIQUE MUSLIM EDUCATIONAL TRADITION
By Mesut Idriz1
The meaning of education in its totality in the context of Islam
is
inherent in the
connotations of the terms tarbiyyah, ta‘līm and ta`dīb taken together. What each of these terms conveys
concerning man and his society and environment in relation to God is
related to the others, and together they represent the scope of education in Islam, both
‘formal’ and ‘non-formal’.2
The students (talaba, tullāb, sing. tālib)
in the Muslim world throughout
history
were
systematically trained by their professors in different
fields of studies and were able
to select their professors as they pleased. The students studied many years under the professors
and
when they completed their studies proficiently, then traditionally they
obtained a licence
to teach, so-called ijāzah, either by one professor
or more than one.
The study of ijāzah tradition, its history and its impact is somehow
neglected by both Muslim and non-Muslim researchers and academics alike. In this paper, we will try
to re-examine this tradition by defining and analyzing it as well as comparing
it
with similar forms of its practice in other parts of the world. Hoping
that this study will offer new
methods for the today’s practices and discussions
towards betterment of educational
delivery.
1 The author is currently Assist. Prof.
Dr.
of Muslim History
and Civilization at the Department of History
& Civilization,
International Islamic University
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
2 S. M. N. al-Attas, Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education, ed. by S. M. N. al-Attas (Jeddah: King
Abdulaziz University,
1979) Appendix B, pp.
157-158.
i) The Meaning of Ijāzah
Ijāzah is an Arabic term derived from the root-verb ‘ajaza’ which means, as Ibn Manzūr, famous Arabic lexicographer, states in his Lisān al-‛Arab3 with reference to the
etymological origin, that to “lean upon”
as on
a cushion. Al-Nawawī, in his al-Taqrīb wa al-Taysīr li-Ma‛rifati Sunan al-Bashīr al-Nazīr, says that this verb used to refer to the water which irrigated the fields or satisfied the thirst.4 Finally, al-Fayrūzabādī,
in
his al- Qāmūs al-Muhīt,
in this regard says to give permission, or licence or authorization.5
Technically,
according to Ibn
Manzūr,
thus the
noun
ijāzah refers to
the authorities on whom a student relies to support
his
claim to knowledge
in
a particular science. For al-Nawawī, the student asks a professor
to give him an ijāzah, that is, to
satisfy his thirst for knowledge, and for al-Fayrūzabādī, with regard
to education, it refers
to
giving permission to teach.
The term ‘ijāzah’ in Islamic
pedagogy signifies generally a ‘licence to teach’, and more specifically refers to a certificate issued by a professor
in
an institution
of higher
learning to a student who has attended a course of lectures to the professor’s satisfaction,
and who is deemed henceforth qualified to transmit the same subject to his own students.6
Thus, the ijāzah was issued by the grantor (al-mujīz,
i.e. ‛ālim or professor)
who gives licence to
transmit from him all what he narrated. Generally, this ijāzah contains of:
the
title of
books or compilations and the subjects as well, for the transmission of
which a licence is issued. This transmission from the grantor could be either in general or in detail. The chain of transmitters went back until it ended up either with the author of the
book, or the Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH) or others.7
3 See Ibn Manzūr, Lisān al-‛Arab, vol. 1,
under “ajaza” (Beirut:
1970),
p.25.
4 M. Abu Zakariya Al-Nawawī, Al-Taqrīb wa al-Taysīr li-Ma‛rifati Sunan
al-Bashīr
al-Nazīr, (n.p. & n.d.)
p.18.
5 Al-Fayrūzabādī, Al-Qāmūs al-Muhīt, ed. by M. Naim al-Araqsusi, 3rd edition, (Beirut: Muesset al- Risalah, 1993)
p.652.
6 R.Y. Ebied and M.J.L. Young, An Early Eighteenth-Century Ijazah Issued in Damietta, in Le Muséon -
Revue D’études Orientales, vol.: 87, (1974), p.445.
7 Muhammad A.
Gunaymah,
Tarīkh
al-Jāmi‛āt
al-Islamiyyah
al-Kubrā,
(Tetuwan,
1953),
p. 219;
Muhammad Bakir al-Majlisī, Bishār al-Anwār,
2nd edition, vol.: 102, (Beirut: Muassasat al-Wafa’, 1983),
p. 166. And see also Agha Buzruk al-Tahrani’s al-Dhari’ah ila Tasanif al-Shi’ah, quoted in both Abdullah
Fayyad, Tarikh al-Tarbiya, (Baghdad: Matba’ah As’ad, 1972), pp. 233-234, and Mahmud al-Mar’ashi, Al-
Musalsalat
fi al-Ijazat, vol:1, (Qum:
Hafidh, 1416
A.H.-1995 A.D.), p.
9.
ii) The Tradition of Ijāzah in the Muslim World and Its Significance
In Muslim tradition the authoritative character of the transmission derives
ultimately from the
Prophet, chosen by God to receive the revelation, the religious
knowledge (‛ilm) necessary for salvation, transmitted to him through the agency of the Archangel Gabriel (Jibrīl). This knowledge
the
Prophet passed on orally to his Companions
(ashāb, sahābah, pl. of sāhib), and they to their Successors (tābi‛ūn), and they to their successors (tābiu‛l-tābi‛ūn), and so on, down through the centuries to the
‛ulamā’ (sing. ‛ālim, scholar). Such was the transmission of hadīth accounts relating to
the
deeds, words and attitudes of the Prophet,
called his Sunnah. The vehicle of this
transmission was the spoken word, recited, read aloud, as was the ‘Recitation’ itself, the Qur’ān.
The ijāzah was granted
in
two ways: orally and written. But, historically the oral way of practice precedes the written one.8 Before it came to have this broader meaning, the
ijāzah
was
simply one of eight
methods
of
validly transmitting
hadīths, being
classified lower in
the
scale of reliability than direct transmission by word of
mouth.9 The
muhaddiths are the first to use this term for the sake of science. Because they are the
earliest Muslims who gave importance to writing down knowledge. Later on this method
was used for the other sciences.10
Thus, the first
technical terms
related
to ijāzah
were derived from the verb
sami‛ah, to hear. The derivative term sama‛ was used in hadīth literature and came to
mean
the certification of audition (ijāzat as-sama‛).
This certification was appended
to a book, or other writings, certifying that the owner, and perhaps others along with him who were then also named, studied the materials under his direction. The master could also authorize the person(s) named to transmit the contents on his authority as author of the book,
or as one who was duly authorized to make the authorization.
8 Abdullah Fayyād, Al-Ijāzah al-‘ilmiyyah ‘inda al-Muslimīn, (Baghdad, 1967), p.21; and Muhammad A. Gunaymah, Tārīkh al-Jami’āt al-Islamiyyah al-Kubrā, (Tetuwan,
1953),
p. 223.
9 Mahmud Al-Mar’ashi, Al-Musalsalāt fi al-Ijāzāt,
vol:1-2, (Qum: Hafidh, 1416 A.H.-1995 A.D.), pp.6-7;
and I. Goldziher and S. A.
Bonabakker, “idjaza”,
Encyclopaedia Of
Islam, 2nd ed.
10 Muhammad A. Gunaymah, p.
220.
The ijāzah to transmit hadīth included the authorization permitting others to do
the
same: authority and authorization were both transmissible. Next
to the licence to transmit hadīth, other types of licences developed, like the licence to teach law, al-ijāzah li’t-tadrīs.
With the development of fiqh (jurisprudence), the licence was
no longer primarily for the preservation of hadīth for posterity, but it developed further into a
licence to instruct, to teach.11
These licences to teach (ijāzah, i.e. written) were first issued in Baghdad as early
as third century of the Hijrah (9th century CE). And soon, in the fourth century, became a universally used educational procedure in all the lands of Islam. This passed afterwards to
other subjects, and thus the master would
grant a recognized certificate to those students
who satisfactorily passed the prescribed
course of study under him. During the early
period, the ijāzah (licence) was usually written upon the fly-leaf of the book studied.12
a. The Examinations
The ijāzah was
issued after an oral examination satisfying the examining scholar
as to the competence of the candidate. At first a simple process,
the
examination developed into a sophisticated disputation in
which the candidate for the licence defended a thesis or series of theses. When the candidate had proved his proficiency in disputation
he was given the ijāzah
(licence) to teach law (tadrīs). The origin and development of
this ijāzah follows a line running parallel to that of the development of the science of fiqh,
jurisprudence, from
the science of hadīth. And also the
exam
took place on particular
books that had been studied by the candidate. For example, Ibrahīm b. Makram al-Shīrāzī was granted an ijāzah to teach law and issue fatwās, legal opinions,
by two
professors, and he was also examined by other professors on particular books and, as a
result, was licences
to teach those books.13
11 Abī Abdullah Muhammad Al-Majārī, Barnāmij al-Majārī, ed. by Muhammad Abu al-Ajfān, (Beirut: Dar
al-Garb al-Islāmī, 1982),
p. 53.
12 Ahmad Shalaby, History of Muslim education, (Karachi:
Indus Publication,
1979), pp.147-148.
13 Al-Sakhāwī, Al-daw‛ al-lāmi‛ li-ahl
al-qarn
al-tāsi‛ quoted in G. Makdisi,
pp.151-152.
b.
The Age of Students for Granting Ijāzah
The ijāzah was granted usually to students
at an
advanced age, in their thirties, forties or even later, with exception
of some who received it at an early age. The great Syrian jurisconsult al-Awza‛ī was said to have first issued legal opinions at the age of thirteen. The eponym
of the Shāfi‛ī School of law studied under the great jurisconsult of
Mecca, Muslim
b. Khālid, who licensed Shāfi‛ī when he was fifteen years of age. Tajud-
Din
al-Subkī was licensed to teach law and issue fatwās
at the age of eighteen, and there
are
some other cases similar to them. In fact, they were excellent skilled
disputants with a retentive memory.14
In all these and other such cases the ages cited are understood to be out of the
ordinary. Since the authorization
was
personal in character, it depended on the professor issuing it. In addition, some masters were not free with their authorizations. For instance,
the
jurisconsult
Abu Ishāq Ibrāhīm b. Yahyā al-Dimashqī made it very difficult for the students to obtain a licence, and he often sent a candidate away, declaring
him unqualified.15 The same is reported of ‛Uthman b. Sa‛īd ‛Uthmān Abū ‛Umar,16 and there are other similar cases. However, some students declared themselves that they were
not competent and qualified to obtain a licence. Since it was a great responsibility for
them, they avoided it, as in the case of Ibn Hubaysh who said: “By God, I am not competent to obtain a licence (ijāzah)………”17
c. The Ijāzah: Personal
Act of Authorization
The authority and
competence resided in the ‛ālim,
the learned man of religion,
specifically in the jurisconsult, faqīh. When the master-jurisconsult
granted the ijāzah to
teach law, he acted in his capacity as the legitimate and competent authority in the field
14 Ibn al-‘Imād al-Hanbalī, Shadharāt adh-Dhahab fi Akhbār man dhahab; Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalanī, Al- Durar al-Kāminah fī a‛yān al-mi’a
al-thāminah; and
An-Nu‛aymī, Al-Dāris fi tārikh al-Madāris, all quoted in G. Makdisi,
p.149,
15 Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalanī, Al-Durar al-Kāminah fī a‛yān al-mi’ah al-thāminah, quoted in G. Makdisi,
p.150.
16 Ibrahim Ali Al-‘Aksh, Al-Tarbiyah wa al-Ta‛līm fi al-Andalus, (Amman: Dar al-Fayhā’ & Dar ‛Ammār,
1986), pp.156-157.
17 Al-Muqrī, Nafh al-Tayyib quoted in Ibrahim Ali Al-‘Aksh,
p. 156-157.
of law, it was as an individual, not as part of a group of master-jurisconsults acting as a faculty. Throughout
its history down to modern times, the ijāzah remained a personal act of authorization, from authorizing ‛ālim to the newly authorized one. The sovereign
power had no part in the process: neither caliph, nor sultan, nor amīr, nor qādī, nor anyone else, could grant
such an ijāzah.
There being no church in Islam, no ecclesiastical hierarchy, no university, that is to say, no guild of masters, no one but the individual master-jurisconsult granted the ijāzah. However, no one could legally force him to do so,
or to refrain from doing so. The line of religious authority
rested, not with sovereign power, but rather with the religious scholars, the ‛ulamā’. Moreover, the institutions in
which the ‛ulamā’ taught were creations completely independent
of the sovereign as such,
and in no need of his sanction to come into existence. Indeed the sovereign had no
say in the matter of the ijāzah even
when he was the founder of the institution. Muslim
education, like Islamic law, is basically individualistic, personalist.18
d. Types
of Ijāzah
As
for the types of ijāzah there are six types, and they are as follows19:
1. The Specific ijāzah: Here the ijāzah is granted by a certain person
to
another certain
person. The four essential parts of this most prestigious type of ijāzah are: the specific mention of the professor’s name, his student’s name, the subject matter and use of the
term ajaztu, lisenced.
2. The Non-specific ijāzah: Here the professor’s
name
as well as that of the student are mentioned, the subject matter is, however, dropped. Thus, the professor would say that he
gave his student the permission to transmit that which the student has studied with him without specifying any book or subject-matter.
18 G. Makdisi,
p. 271.
19 For details
see Hisham Nashabi, The Ijaza: Academic Certification in Muslim Education; and Ibrahim Ali Al-‘Aksh,
Al-Tarbiya wa al-Ta’lim fi al-Andalus, pp.151-153. In this reference, the types of 3-4 I have
not
quoted, because both are considered very weak ijāzahs and refuted by many scholars, like Ibn al-
Zubayr in
his
Silat al-Silah, and al-Māwardī.
3. The General ijāzah: Here the professor’s name is mentioned,
but his students as a group,
without specific
mention
of
their
names,
are given a general
permission to transmit knowledge received from him in a
specific subject.
4. The ijāzah on
a particular book: This type of ijāzah is very specific; the professor
attests that a particular student has studied with him a particular book, or
that he has
memorized a specific text. Only when the student gives evidence to that effect, he is
granted this type of ijāzah.
5. The ijāzah by correspondence: This type of ijāzah is specific to hadīth literature. It is
used when an ‛ālim writes down
a text and sends it to one or more of his students
accompanied by a “letter-ijāzah” permitting
them to transmit to other students the
information that the professor wrote down.
6. The honorific ijāzah: These
ijāzahs are often restricted to ‛ulamā’,
and are often
exchanged among them as a sign of mutual respect and appreciation.
One may find variants
of each one of these types of ijāzahs. A general
characteristic common to all ijāzahs, however,
is that they are, as we cited earlier, all
personal rather than institutional. This, indeed, is the most outstanding
characteristic of
certification in Muslim education.
e. The
significance of Ijāzah
The value of ijāzahs to the modern student of Islamic civilization and others is
great. The most important
significance of ijāzahs can be reduced to five point, which are as follows:
1. They contain a considerable amount of detailed biographical information.
The biography of the scholars who transmitted words, attitudes and accounts related to the
deeds of the Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH) as well as scholars is narrated with the mention
of their names, genealogies, titles and works, in addition to those of their professors who authorized them, and so on. This can be considered
as
a great source for Islamic bibliographies.
2. They contain a lot of valuable historical information about the scholars, their scientific
activities, practices, views and thoughts.
3. They give much
information about
the cities that were centres of learning
and
scholarship at particular periods.
4. They reveal the books mostly studied in the cultivation of particular subjects.
5. Finally, a picture can
be
obtained
from them
about
the development of
Islamic
academic life and its underlying currents of ideas.
iii) The Genres of Ijāzah
As it is mentioned earlier in relation to the types of ijāzah, there is an ijāzah called specific ijāzah. In this type,
there are genres of ijāzahs in the fields of, primarily
hadīth, and then other fields such as calligraphy, tarīqah (religious order), Sufism, poetry,
literature, medical sciences and Islamic sciences. After the development of hadīth ijāzahs in early Muslim history, all other genres of ijāzah came into existence.
The ijāzah on calligraphy with all its various types were granted by the professors to their students for being qualified as a calligrapher or
copyist and clerk in the government offices.
For this genre of ijāzahs,
some examples can be found in al- Muradi’s Silk al-Durar
fī A‛yān al-Thānī ‛Ashar20 and in Uğur Derman’s Hattat Icâzetnâmeleri.21 Many students were interested in the mastery of the Islamic calligraphy
and obtaining an ijāzah because of the importance of calligraphy in both the government offices and copying the books,
when the printing machine did not exist.
As for the tarīqah
and Sufi genre of ijāzahs, it is very wide among the spiritual masters (shaykhs) to grant to their disciples (murīd) either a spiritual authority (to become
the
successor of that master) or permission to teach the books dealing with Sufism. To cite an example for granting a spiritual authority,
the
ijāzah of Shaykh ‛Abbās Afandī granted Hāfiz ‛Umar Afandī in the tarīqah of
Ummī Sinān, a branch of Naqshibandiyyah,
20 He is Abū al-Fadl Muhammad
b. ‛Alī b.
Muhammad al-Murādī.
21 See Ugur Derman, “Hattat Icazetnameleri”, paper presented in Turk Tarih Kongresi (Turkish Historical
Conference) (25-29 September 1970), Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu; and idem., “Hattat Icazetnameleri”, in
Hattat Imza ve Şecereleri, vol. 2,
(Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1973),
pp.
716-727.
in 1321 A.H., in Skopje (Turkish Uskub).22 And here is an example for permission to
teach a book dealing with Sufism, the ijāzah of Shaykh Nizamuddin Awliyā granted by
his
spiritual master Shaykh Faridud-Din
Gani-Shakar who confers spiritual authority to him and accords permission to teach Tamhidāt of Abu Shakūr Salīmī, which deals with
the
fundamentals of faith.23
As for the ijāzah in the field of poetry,
the
ijāzah granted
by Ali b. Muhammad b. Mahfūz al-‛Alawī to his son Siddīq b. Ali in 691 A.H. is an example for permission
to teach a poetical work by ‛Umar b. al-Farīd. It is as follows:
My son,
Siddīq ibn Ali, the learned,
righteous and enthusiastic student
- may God inspire him
to follow the right and true
path, and protect him from
associating with those who
deserve condemnation to torment - has studied this
poetical work of ‘Umar ibn al-Farid
under me except one poem which begins: Sa’iq al-Az‛an Tatwī al-Bid Tay, and so I have certificated him
to recite it after me as I do this after Shaykh Fakhrud-Dīn al-Irāqī.24
As for the
medical
sciences,
in the
Muslim
world the importance of the
medical
profession was so well
realised that
from the
beginning of the tenth century A.D., physicians had to pass an examination and obtain a certification without which they would not be allowed to practice this profession. For this genre of ijāzahs, we are able to find some examples in Ibn Abī ‛Usaybi‛ah’s Tabaqat al-Atibbā’.25
iv) The Structure and Content of the Ijāzahs
In this section will be provided a general schema for ijāzahs which will include
the
common characteristics of ijāzahs granted in the Muslim
world. With minor
exceptions, almost all of them more or less conform to this schema.
22 The Ijāzah [unpublished ijāzah of Hafiz Umar Afandi granted by Shaykh ‛Abbās Afandī, in the year
1321A.H./1901A.D. ( Personal collection, Husamettin Vardar,
Skopje, Macedonia )].
23 Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India During the thirteenth century, (India: Idarah
i Adabiyat i Delli, n.d.),
pp.349-350.
24 Ahmad Shalaby, History of Muslim education, p. 148, it is taken from the manuscript of the private
possession of Professor A. J. Arberry.
25 Ibn Abi ‛Usaybi‛ah, ‛Uyūn al-Anba’ fī
Tabaqāt al-Atibbā’, ed. Nizar Riza, (Beirut: Dar Maktabat al- Hayat, 1965).
1. The ijāzah invariably starts with the basmalah (the formula “in the name of God the Beneficent, the Merciful”), and then continues with the praise
to
God (hamdalah)
and the praise to the Prophet and his Companions (salwalah).
2. The praise of knowledge and its importance: Here are mentioned usually those verses
of the Qur’ān
and hadīths of the Prophet which are related to the significance
of knowledge, such as the following Qur’anic verse: “Say: ‘Are those equal those
who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endued with understanding
that
receive admonition’”26; and the hadīth
such as: “If
anyone
travels on a road in
search of knowledge, Allah will cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise”.27
3. The importance of isnād (chain of transmission): Here usually sayings of the great early scholars with regard to isnād are mentioned, such as the saying of Abdullah b. Mubārak: “The isnād (chain of transmission) is part of faith (religion)”28.
4. The names of both the student and his professors:
Here the grantor of the ijāzah mentions the name of the student to whom the ijāzah
is being granted. The moral
qualities as well as the academic achievement of the student are described. Besides, the
grantor avails himself of this opportunity to express his gratitude to his own professors,
thus
mentioning his own academic lineage.
5. The titles of both the books and the subjects on which ijāzah was granted
are mentioned.
6. The chain of transmitters (silsilah)
usually goes back to God, except if the ijāzah is on a particular book, then it goes back to the author of that book. However,
for
the hadīth books, it goes back to the person
who collected the hadīths and wrote down, because the hadīths in that book with the different transmitters
goes back to the Prophet.
Moreover, mentioning in the ijāzah the name of all transmitters who lived during the period from the Prophet to the person who collected hadīths was something very difficult, as the chain of
transmission becomes very long and requires great time and writing space. Thus only some of the names were mentioned.
26 Az-Zumar:
9,
(translation of Yusuf
Ali).
27 Abi Dawud, Sunan Abī Dawūd, no: 3634.
28 See Muslim, Sahih Muslim, (Muqaddimah; the section of introduction), p.5.
7. Then the grantor
proceeds to give advice to the student as to how he should
use
his knowledge, treat his future students, exercise his function as a scholar (‛ālim) in his society as well as asks his student not to forget him
and requests from him to pray for the
God’s forgiveness.
8. Finally, the ijāzah normally
ends with a prayer, date of issue, and professor’s ratification
of the ijāzah either by seal or signature, or both. Yet the institution
where the teaching has taken place is rarely
mentioned. Only if it is granted in an official
ceremony, then the place of ceremony is mentioned. Hence, the place can be verified. Besides this,
by verifying the name of professor who granted the ijāzah and the date, also the place can be
verified. In this way, geographical situation of the sciences can be described, i.e. where, when, how and which kind of subjects were studied, so the position of that place or district, in
terms of political and
social relations, comes into light
and its role
in history
can be known.
v) Main Differences Between Ijāzah and Certificate or Diploma
The ijāzah tradition, as it was mentioned earlier, developed in Muslim
world at least as early as the 3rd century A.H. (9th century C.E.). Some two-and-half centuries later, in the second
half of the twelfth century, it made its appearance in the Latin West. It was a license to teach, so-called licentia docendi, the same as the ijāzah. According to
George Makdisi, there is not even a single evident showing that education in antiquity,
whether in Greece or Rome, did produce
the
licence to teach. Nor was the licence produced by Eastern Christian Byzantine education, which was a direct continuation of
classical education. Nor was it produced by Western Christian Latin education.
It first
appeared in the Christian West in the second half of the twelfth century, as one of a number of institutions without indigenous
antecedents.29 But Daniel Haneberg, in his
work on Islamic education, makes
the following statement
pertaining
to ijāzah: ‘I
29 George Makdisi, The
Rise of Colleges,
pp. 272.
suppose that our licentiate stems from this Muslim institution’30 Therefore, there is possibility that
the
origin of licentia docendi
was from ijāzah.
In addition,
the
stages of development
of both ijāzah and licentia docendi,
according to George Makdisi,
are
quite identical in nature, and he describes them as follows:
From initial training in the literary arts, to embarking on the long course of study leading to the mastership,
passing through the ranks of scholar (mutafaqqih) and fellow (faqih), representing the undergraduate and
graduate
levels, assisting the
master as ordinary repetitor (mu’id) or extraordinary docent
(mufid), including the
work of building up repertories of disputed questions
(masa’il khilafiya, quaestiones disputatae), the student
practice of quizzing one another
(mudhakara, collatio), disputing for practice with fellow
students, or
with masters in class (munazara, disputatio),
disputation
based on the
confrontation of conflicting
opinions (khilaf, sic
et non), and the
mastery of dialectic (jadal, dialectica), and finally obtaining the licence to teach (ijaza li’t-tadris,
licentia docendi),
and incepting by giving
the
inaugural
lesson
or
lecture (dars
iftitahi,
inceptio).31
There
is only one difference that the development of ijāzah in Islam took place more than
a century before any part of licentia docendi began in the Christian Europe. This was the early form of certificate in the West. But throughout
the
history, the term ‘licentia
docendi’ was altered according
to
the systems of universities
into certificate, diploma, degree, etc. Like the case in France, the licence had traditionally been
the first degree in France; training for the licence was the central concern of the French
system
of higher
education. However, with the reform of French university
diplomas, begun in 1973 and completed in 1976, the position
of the licence was altered.32 Whereas the term ijāzah, in Muslim educational life, remained almost same since it was developed in the early time up today with exception of some areas.
30 D. Haneberg, Abhandlung über das Schul-
und Lehrwesen der Muhamedaner im Mittelalter,
(Munich
1850), quoted in G. Makdisi, p.275.
31 George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges, pp.276.
32 See Carol Green, “Degrees,
Diplomas and Certificates” in The International Encyclopedia of Higher
Education, vol:4,
(D -F),
(San
Fransisco, Washington &
London: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1978),
p. 1234.
Now, we can proceed to present the main differences
between the ijāzah and today’s certificate or diploma, as a practice. As far as the differences are concerned, it can be
reduced into three main differences, and they are as follows:33
a. Firstly, a unique feature of Muslim education is that Muslim
educational institutions
were
never concerned with the granting of academic certificate. This is essentially the responsibility
of the professor concerned, who, upon the termination of teaching a particular subject would certify some of his students, depending on their performance,
to apply, teach or transmit the material taught to them to other seekers of knowledge.
Neither the seal, nor the approval of the institution where the professor
taught were ever solicited. This, in fact, means that ijāzah in Muslim educational practice engaged the responsibility
of the professor only. And as long as the professor was conscious of this responsibility,
the
quality of education and academic standards were in Muslim culture maintained.
In contrast to this situation, educational institutions
in West, assume fully the responsibility
of certification and the granting of academic titles and degrees. The
professor’s responsibility in this regard is relegated to a secondary position.
This
practice creates a problem when universities assume a
large
size
and
large
classes
make
it
practically impossible for the professor to
know his students well enough as to engage his
direct responsibility
in
their certification. Thus, the rich intellectual contact between
professors and students is often lost. Only at the graduate level the professor-student
relation is maintained.
b. Secondly, in the
ijāzah,
in addition to the
subjects that
have been
studied,
are mentioned the title of books as well as the chain of transmitters (silsilah)
of the book, which goes back to its author. Whereas the diploma or certification mentions only the
subjects which have been studied and not the books
studied, nor their authors,
nor the
chain of transmitters for the books.
33 See my both articles: “The Ijāzah Tradition in the 19th – 20th Century Balkans”, Al-Shajarah Journal of the International
Institute of
Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), vol.: 5,
No. 2 (2000),
Kuala Lumpur, pp. 233-236; and “İslâm Eğitim
Yaşamında İcazet Geleneği”,
Değerler Eğitim
Dergisi
(Journal of
Values Education), [Translated into Turkish by Ibrahim Kapaklikaya], vol. 1 (July), 2003, Istanbul, pp.
175-177.
c. Thirdly,
the
difference in shape. Generally ijāzahs are granted in the form of a booklet which sometimes they contain twenty pages and more. But certificates and diplomas
are granted in the form of a scroll which they contain one page only.
Conclusion
The ijāzah tradition, as mentioned earlier, has a long history and was developed
by the Muslims at least as early as the 3rd century
A.H. (9th century A.D).
It is an original
tradition developed by Muslims under the influence
of Islamic sciences such as hadīth and Qur’ānic
exegesis.
In the
4th century A.H.,
it became a universally applied
educational procedure in all the Muslim
lands, and even had some significant impacts on the educational life of the Christian Europe, as it has been shown in the chapter one. The ijāzah tradition continued for centuries up to the beginning of 20th century, and even
survives today in some ‘non-formal’
institutions of the Muslim world such as Persia and
Arabia.
The various ijāzahs across the Muslim world show the religious, cultural and educational unity of the Muslims in the past, in spite of their geographical differences, as in each part of these Muslim lands, the tradition of ijāzah was
more or less same with some minor differences in practice. Besides, there was a linguistic unity as well, for
almost all the ijāzahs were written in Arabic, which was the lingua
franca
in the Islamic
world. Even the term ijāzah has remained the same in almost all over the Muslim
world,
but the term licentia docendi which was the early form
of
certificate in the Christian
Europe, in contrast to the Muslim world, it was altered throughout
the history according
to
the systems of universities into certificate, diploma, degree, etc.
The ijazahs reflect the Muslim world-view
and ethical values as well. They were
not mere documents showing
the
students’ qualifications,
rather, as we saw, they
contained praise
to God,
His Prophet
and
knowledge,
and statements
about the
importance of knowledge
and of ethical values such as humility,
love and respect for
knowledge and scholars.
All the ijāzahs
contain chain of transmitters for the subjects, showing the source
of knowledge ending up with the scholars of the past. Sometimes,
especially in the
subjects of Qur’ān and hadīth, this chain went as back as to the Prophet or the Almighty
Allah. This openly shows the great influence of the hadīth methodology upon
the ijāzah tradition. In addition, it had an important consequence:
the
professor was more important than the institute, for it was the former
who granted the ijāzah,
in contrast to the Western
practice. However,
this did not mean that the procedure and the requirement for ijāzah- granting were arbitrary; rather as the documents of ijāzah and the historical information
show, the professors were conscious of their duties and responsibility,
and
the quality of
education and academic standards were maintained to a great extent. Moreover, the
information on the transmitters and the knowledge they transmitted is a valuable source
for
the modern researcher as well.
