Therefore, the last thing that a person should be taught is the physical and quantitative aspects of prayer. Similarly, the last thing people should be taught about Islam, as a comprehensive worldview and way of life, is its ritualistic and quantifiable aspects.

It is surely because of this that we in the International Islamic University Malaysia have introduced from the beginning the courses of “The Islamic Worldview” and “Creative Thinking and Problem Solving”, which lie at the core of the agenda of the University required courses.

The two courses must be taken by all students. Their contents are related, both in theory and practice, to the students’ chosen fields of interest, such as engineering, architecture, medicine, ICT, economics, law, science and humanities.

The main objective of those courses is to bring the scientific fields closer to the message of Islam, and vice versa, and to then embark on the hankered integration, or amalgamation, process between the two poles. That denotes the essence of the Islamization of knowledge concept as the official mission, or doctrine, of the University.

Students are thus equipped with the understanding and skills needed to deal with the challenges of Islamization and integration in their respective scientific fields. They are further taught to become active protagonists in the ongoing holistic project of revival of Islamic civilization. In other words, they are taught to be Islam’s and Muslims’ assets under all circumstances, rather than liabilities.

Finally, many lessons are to be extracted from the recent Arab Spring, which according to some analysts was partially successful, but according to others, was a failure.

Be that as it may, when the people across the Middle East and North Africa did what they had long wanted and had to do to remove some of the most entrenched and, at the same time, most brutal and oppressive regimes in the world, they could not carry most of their revolutionary exploits through to the end.

The letdown, in the main, was due to the people’s and institutions’ inability to fill the civilizational voids created by toppling the existing complex political systems and everything that goes with it. There were no comprehensively worked out Islamic civilizational substitutes, or alternatives, waiting to be applied in the most critical spheres of life. There were no adequately practical and workable-for-all Islamic civilizational blueprints to be implemented.

Hence, when the created civilizational voids were not suitably filled, some segments of the revolutions simply disintegrated, yet imploded. Any available, and anyhow suitable, alternatives were then desperately sought. Some patchworks worked, others did not and so, were replaced as soon as they were introduced.

The trial-and-error, so to speak, method is still unfolding in most places with some catastrophic results and long-term misery both for countries and their institutional wellbeing, as well as the people.

The people ardently followed their sentiments and emotions. However, civilizations are not thus built. The people were ready, but mere readiness is never enough. They followed their emotional impulses, but what was needed most was rationalization of those emotions.

Many people simply thought with their hearts, not their heads. Whereas civilizations are constructed mainly with, and of, inclusive ideas, knowledge and value systems, coupled with strategized programs and plans. Sentiments and emotions will bring a person, or a nation, only as far as they can go.

Surely, it is high time that studying, learning, propagating and practicing Islam get more intellectualized and painstaking, more systematic and effective, and more pragmatic, realistic and outcome-based.