Family & Education
ISLAMIC EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES AND DEVELOPMENT
Organised by the Manchester Muslim Forum[MMF] and hosted by Khizra Masjid in partnership:
Edited by Professor Abdul Mabud [Director General of the Islamic Academy, Cambridge]*
Foreword by Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Afterword by Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia
Presentation by Professor Abdul Mabud [Director General of the Islamic Academy, Cambridge]*
Respondant: Mawlana Dr Haroon Sidat [Cardiff University]*
*Host and chair: Dr Sadek Hamid [Senior Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh]
Date and time: Saturday 22nd November 2025, 4pm - 6pm [Prompt start]
Venue: The Khizra Mosque and Community Centre, Main Lecture Theatre , 425 Cheetham Hill Rd, Cheetham Hill, Manchester M8 0PF
Published by Beacon Books, this illuminating volume honours the legacy of Professor Syed Ali Ashraf (1924–1998)—a pioneering educator, literary critic, and Sufi scholar whose ideas continue to shape the discourse on Islamic education around the world. Through over 40 deeply engaging chapters—including reflections by friends, former students, and globally respected scholars—this festschrift offers the first comprehensive English-language exploration of Professor Ashraf’s life, philosophy, and far-reaching impact. Professor Ashraf believed that true education must cultivate the “interior”—the heart and soul of the human being—as well as the intellect. He devoted his life to challenging the dominance of secularist models and instead developed a powerful, Qurʾān-based framework that integrates spiritual, moral, and intellectual development.
Contributors include Professor Osman Bakar, Rector of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC-IIUM), and Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, whose afterword highlights Ashraf’s enduring significance for the Muslim world and beyond. From his key role in organising the First World Conference on Muslim Education in Makkah (1977) to founding the Islamic Academy in Cambridge, Professor Ashraf’s work established the foundations of the global Islamic education movement—one that calls for a holistic model rooted in divine purpose and human dignity.
Why This Book Matters - The definitive source on a transformative figure: This is the first comprehensive English-language tribute to Professor Syed Ali Ashraf—an intellectual, educator, and spiritual guide whose influence has reached scholars and institutions across the Muslim world and the West. For educators, scholars, and seekers: Ideal for academics, curriculum developers, Muslim teachers, and anyone concerned with rethinking education through a spiritual and ethical lens. This book is both a tribute to a pioneer and a roadmap for transformative practice and work of enduring intellectual and spiritual depth: With contributions from world-class scholars and testimonials from those who walked alongside him, this book provides a rare blend of analytical rigour and heartfelt reflection—an invaluable addition to contemporary Islamic thought including:
Seyyed Hossein Nasr – Civilizational Dialogue and the Islamic World
Osman Bakar – The Aims of Education: The Forgotten Truths
Akbar S. Ahmed – Islam and the West in the Twenty-First Century
J. Mark Halstead – The Islamic Concept of Knowledge: Some Reflections on the Epistemological Assumptions in the Educational Thinking of Professor Syed Ali Ashraf
Abdullah Omar Nasseef – Islam and the West
Syed Farid Alatas – The Definition of Religion
Mujadad Zaman – Islamisation and Higher Education: Syed Ali Ashraf and the Secular Consequences of Religious Ideas
Nadeem A. Memon – Education of the Interior: Reflections on the Legacy of Syed Ali Ashraf
and others
Copies of the book will be available for purchase and book signing by Professor Abdul Mabud
Otherwise one can purchase the book online here: https://beaconbooks.net/products/education-interior
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About the speaker: *Professor Abdul Mabud is the Director General of the Islamic Academy in Cambridge, set up in 1983. He completed his studies in 1970 from University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, then his doctorate at Cambridge University and a postdoctoral degree in education. His academic interests include Western educational philosophy and its influence on the curriculum of Muslim countries, and the philosophy of Islamic education and written several books on the subject. He is the editor of the Cambridge-based education journal Muslim Education Quarterly, which focuses on Muslim educational issues worldwide. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, a member of the Executive Committee of the Standing Committee on Peace Education (PESC), a division of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP); editor of the International Journal of Comparative Religious Education and Values; and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Islamic and Arab Education. A co-organizer of the Seventh and Eighth World Conferences on Muslim Education, Mabud values the education of Muslim children and youth in Western societies and the extent to which one should embrace Western curricula. He is the director of a major research project on curriculum and textbooks at the primary and secondary levels in Bangladesh and has also worked with other Muslim organizations across the ummah. He has taught at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City in the USA and recently was Professor at the Sultan Omar 'Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies the University of Brunei.
*Mawlana Dr Haroon Ebrahim Sidat is a scholar of Islam with an interest in Islamic theology, law, sufism, and the social sciences. He joined the Islam-UK Centre at Cardiff University in 2015 after being awarded the Jameel scholarship for postgraduate study. His thesis explored the fascinating world of the dārul ‘ulūm in modern Britain. Since then, he has been involved in research on imams in Britain and is now part of the project that explores the Islamic intellectual legacy that seeks to answer civilizational questions in the modern world. Recently, he has published a paper that explores the interaction between Islamic law, history, ethics, and contemporary concerns for Muslims living in the West in a paper titled ‘Competing Spaces of Religious Belonging: Deobandi Debates on Interest/Usury as a Case Study’. The second contribution is a book chapter with Edinburg University Press ‘The Taalib as a Bricoleur: Transitioning from Madrasah to University in Modern Britain’ which is a reflection on his experiences of transitioning and inhabiting two worldviews at the same time: the classical Islamic tradition and the modern university. He is preparing a manuscript based on his thesis which will explore the history, lived reality and imagination of the madrasa in modern Britain. His other contributions will be on the topic of Islamic ethics, law, theology, revivalist movements, and how Muslim scholars engage with the three Muslim publics: mosque, society, and academia.
Host and chair : *Dr Sadek Hamid is a Senior Research Fellow, at the University of Edinburgh] and prior he was Head of Research at UKIM and Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He has previously held teaching and research positions at the universities of Chester, Liverpool Hope, Cambridge Muslim College and Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He has been actively engaged in Muslim communities for more than 30 years and prior to transitioning to academia was a Youth & Community Development professional. He has written extensively on Muslim young people, Islamic activism, religion, politics, and public policy. He is author of Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism (I. B. Tauris, 2016), co-author of British Muslims: New Directions in Islamic Thought, Creativity and Activism, (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), editor of Young British Muslims: Between Rhetoric and Realities (Routledge, 2016), co-editor of Political Muslims: Understanding Youth Resistance in a Global Context (Syracuse University Press, 2018), Youth Work and Islam: A Leap of Faith for Young People (Sense, 2011) and most recently; Contemporary British Muslim Arts an Cultural Production: Identity, Belonging and Social Change (Routledge, 2023).
