پاکستانی نظامِ تعلیم میں ثنویت بطور فروغِ سیکولرزم: اسلامی تناظر میں ایک تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Dualism in Pakistan’s Education System as a Promoter of Secularism: An Analytical Study from an Islamic Perspective

Abstract

This study explores how structural and epistemological dualism within Pakistan’s education system operates as a subtle yet powerful mechanism for the promotion of secularism. It contends that the persistent separation between religious education and modern academic disciplines has shaped divergent worldviews, social classes, and moral orientations among students. By tracing the historical roots of this duality to colonial educational policies—particularly Macaulay’s Minute on Education—the article demonstrates how postcolonial educational frameworks continued to privilege secular knowledge systems while marginalizing Islamic intellectual traditions. Using contemporary theories of secularism advanced by Talal Asad and Charles Taylor, the paper analyzes how modern universities frame religion as a private, cultural, or non-rational phenomenon rather than a comprehensive worldview. In contrast, drawing upon the Islamic philosophy of education articulated by Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, the study emphasizes the Qur’anic and Prophetic vision of knowledge as an integrated and morally guided enterprise. The research concludes that educational dualism has contributed to identity fragmentation, social inequality, and the gradual exclusion of Islamic values from public life. It recommends comprehensive Islamic educational reforms aimed at integrating religious and contemporary knowledge, fostering ethical consciousness, and restoring intellectual harmony within Pakistan’s education system