Indonesia’s State Islamic Universities have undergone a profound intellectual transformation. Their development from IAIN into UIN did more than expand institutional structures and academic programmes. It forced Islamic higher education to reconsider the foundations, sources, purposes, and organisation of knowledge itself. This essay examines four major paradigms that have shaped this transformation: the Islamisation of Knowledge, the Integration of Knowledge, the Interconnection of Knowledge, and the Fricativisation of Knowledge. Each paradigm offers a distinct account of the relationship between revelation, reason, empirical science, culture, spirituality, and human experience. Through a comparative examination of ontology, epistemology, axiology, scholarly authority, educational symbolism, and institutional implementation, the essay reconstructs the changing intellectual architecture of Indonesia’s State Islamic Higher Education Institutions. Special attention is given to the Fricativisation of Knowledge, a spiritually grounded paradigm proposed by Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad, in which knowledge is understood as light, breath, inward resonance, and transformative consciousness. The essay argues that the future of PTKIN will not be secured by choosing one paradigm and rejecting the others. Its future depends upon a creative synthesis capable of combining tawḥīdic foundations, scientific competence, multidisciplinary openness, social relevance, and spiritual depth.
From Islamisation to Fricativisation: Four Paradigms Transforming Indonesia’s State Islamic Universities
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