The Essence of Education: Views of Classical and Contemporary Scholars

This research aims to describe the nature of education according to the thoughts of educational experts in the classical and contemporary eras. Ibnu Miskawaih, Al-Qabisi, and Imam Al Ghozali represent the classical era. At the same time, contemporary-era thinkers will explore the views of Mohammed Arkoun, M. Amin Abdullah, and Fazlur Rahman. This research uses a qualitative approach to the type of library research. The data collection technique uses documentation from written sources/references from books, research results and relevant research journals. The data analysis technique is carried out in data reduction, data presentation, and concluding. The research results state that classical era experts' views regarding the nature of education are how education can form people who are faithful and devout; education should pay attention to the formation of Islamic morals and character. Meanwhile, in the contemporary era, experts see a dichotomy in education. The results of this research provide several solutions to ensure that education does not have dichotomies between religion and science in the world of education, which is differentiated from general education and religious education.


I. PENDAHULUAN
Education is a concept that never ceases to be studied and discussed inside and outside the room.The concept of education is important to know and deepen to place the concept of education as a whole.We can find many views of education experts on education in several references or books circulating in the community.Inequality in public perceptions of the concept of education and its implementation, we often find, of course, this is homework so that the concept of education can be understood as a whole so that there is no dichotomy in the world of education, especially Islamic-style education and general education.
According to experts, both classical and contemporary eras, the concept or nature of education must be studied to penetrate the imbalance of understanding of the nature of education.In some research articles, many studies on the nature of education are found, for example, "New Concepts of Contemporary Islamic Education Epistemology" by Alfauzan Amin, where the results of this study show that the purpose of Islamic education is only oriented to the afterlife alone and is defensive against science.To overcome this, according to Rahman, three efforts Another study also wrote that in Islam, education is a derivation of the messages of the Qur'an.So Islamic education is not only worldly oriented, nor is it just cultural education that solely stems from and is oriented towards efforts to develop and preserve certain socio-cultural, but at the same time intends to instil useful knowledge (ilm nafi') in order to realize human nature as khalifatullah (Ghasemi et al., 2019).The nature of Islamic education in this modern era does not indicate a dichotomy between worldly and ukhrawi orientation or orientation towards socio-cultural preservation, but all aspects are a concern that must be developed in order to realize human nature as a leader on earth.Miskawaih did not explain exactly about the basis of education.But he explicitly states that religious law is a determining factor for the straightness of human character, which makes people accustomed to doing praiseworthy deeds and makes their souls ready to receive wisdom and virtue (fadilah) to obtain happiness based on accurate reasoning.Thus, religious law is the main foundation for implementing education that refers to the Qur'an and Sunnah.Therefore, the principles of Syariah must be applied in the education process, which includes aspects of human relations with God, humans with each other and humans with other creatures.(2) Psychology, according to Ibn Miskawaih, is closely related between education and knowledge of the soul.To make a good character, it must be through engineering (shina'ah), which is based on systematic education and direction.It will not be achieved except by knowing the soul first.If the soul is used properly, then humans will reach the highest and noblest goals.Therefore, the soul is an important foundation for the implementation of education.
Education without knowledge of psychology is like work without a foothold.Thus, psychological theories need to be applied in the educational process.

Education Curriculum
The curriculum, according to al Qabisi, is divided into two parts, namely the

Imam al Ghazali
His full name is Abu Hamid Muhammad bin Muhammad Al Ghazali Ath-Thusi An-Naysaburi.He was born in Thus, which is the second city after Naysabur, located in the Khurasan region, in 450 AH or 1058 M. His father was a very wara' Sufi who only ate from the efforts of his own hands.He spun wool and sold it himself.He died when his son was still small, and before he died, he entrusted his son to another Sufi for guidance and education (Hanafy, 2018).

The Basis of al Ghazali's Educational Thought
Al Ghazali's thinking is much at odds with philosophy; in fact, he criticizes falsafah in his book Tahafut al Falasifah (confusion of falsafah), and as an alternative, al Ghazali offers Sufism to get to the ultimate truth.His Sufism thinking eventually influenced his educational ideas.He said that the function of education is the achievement of religious knowledge and the formation of morals (Ikhwan, 2018).He also said that good character is a trait of the apostle and the best action for the righteous (Gonzalez-Dogan, 2022).
Education according to him, when associated with the elements of education formation, AL Ghazali said: "Indeed, the result of knowledge is to draw closer to Allah, the Lord of the worlds ..., and this is actually with knowledge that develops through teaching and not knowledge that does not develop".If you notice, in the first quote, the word "result" indicates the process, the word "getting closer to Allah" indicates the goal, and the word "knowledge" indicates the tool.While in the second quote is an explanation of the tool, which is delivered in the form of teaching.What Al-Ghazali meant in his quote is a concept where an implementation of education must have a goal based on self-formation to bring students closer to God.In addition, in the education process, Al-Ghazali explains an educational goal that boils down to the value of moral morality.So, the purpose of education is not only worldly; education is not just to look for material in the future.Rather, education must have an emancipatory sense (understanding the self and its actions with awareness).In relation to the qualities that a teacher needs to possess, he argues that teachers need to pay attention to students in terms of their attendance in class and their daily lives, give tasks according to the student's stage of thinking without imposing, consider the differences in students (physical, intellectual, and so on) practice what is taught to students first and not deceive what is said.The teacher is also truthful in all matters, trustworthy, gentle, and compassionate.Teachers also examine and understand the souls of their students (Badriah, 2016).In Surah al-Baqarah verse 44, Allah says: "Do you call people to do good and you forget yourself, while you read the Book (Al Qur'an) do you not think".
The above verse implies that the educator, in this case the teacher, has the duty and role of conveying knowledge to students as well as calling on goodness, but he still has to be an example for them.The teacher must pay attention to himself, that he is a human being who must always do good as he calls for goodness.The teacher is a model for his students; therefore, what the teacher does will be imitated by his students.
Second, based on the object of science, including science that is absolutely reprehensible: magic, necromancy, praiseworthy science: the science of worship, science that is at a certain level praiseworthy in depth is reprehensible: naturalism philosophy.Third, based on legal status, namely fardhu ain (religious science) and fardu kifayah (medicine, politics, agriculture).

Child Education
According to Al Ghazali, the concept of child education can be traced mainly in his work entitled Ayyuhal Walad and Riyyadlat al Nafs, the book focusing on

M. Amin Abdullah's Rationale
M. Amin Abdullah offers a paradigm of scientific integration-interconnection.
In addition to trying to eliminate the dichotomy of science and religion (especially the Islamic science dichotomy), the scientific project he initiated also seeks to "bring back" various disciplines so that there is dialogue, greetings, interconnection, and mutual need between them.Third, is a critical review, more popularly called meta discourse, of the history of the development of the ups and downs of theories compiled by scientists and scholars in the second tier.More so if theories in certain disciplines, ulum al-Qur'an, are dialogued with theories that commonly apply in other areas, ulum al-hadith, the history of Islamic civilization and so on.The theory that applies to the area of kalam is dialogued with the theory that applies to the area of Sufism, and so on (Diu, 2018).

Historically
Normatively theologically, M. Amin Abdullah himself developed the epistemology of integration-interconnection based on the Qur'anic science because the Qur'an does not distinguish between religious sciences (Islam) and general sciences (science-technology and social humanities).Religious sciences (Islam) and general sciences (science-technology and social humanities) cannot be separated from each other (Yulanda, 2020).M. Amin Abdullah said that any scientific building, whether religious science (including Islam and other religions), social-humanities science, or natural sciences, cannot stand alone.When certain sciences claim to be able to stand alone, feel that they can solve problems independently, and do not need help and contributions from other sciences, this self-sufficiency will sooner or later turn into narrowmindedness, not to mention the fanaticism of scientific disciplinary particularities (Waston, 2016).
The integration-interconnection paradigm is an effort to reunite the Islamic sciences with the general sciences (modern sciences) to achieve an integrative and interconnective unity of science.This process is expected to be a solution to the various crises that have hit humans and nature lately as a result of the indifference of one science to another that has been happening so far.To comprehensively understand the concept of scientific integration-interconnection, M. Amin Abdullah then introduces the scientific paradigm of a theoanthropocentric-integralistic spider web.education is based on Islamic ideology.Therefore, in essence, Islamic education cannot leave its involvement in the perception of right and wrong.In this regard, Fazlur Rahman points out that verses often discuss the pair between al-dun-ya and al-akhirah in the Quran.Al-dun-ya means lower value, the material side of life, little results and unsatisfactory.While al-akhirah shows the opposite side, the higher value is the goal, not the lower one.In addition, the Qur'an also tells us to study the events that occur to ourselves, the universe and the history of mankind on earth carefully and deeply and take lessons from them in order to use their knowledge appropriately and not follow people who do damage.Therefore, the purpose of education is to save people starting from themselves by themselves (Ikhwan, 2021); (Saada, 2023).

IV. KESIMPULAN
The nature of education in the view of classical era experts, who in this study are represented by Ibn Miskawaih, Al-Qabisi, and Al-Ghazali, that education in their view is that education must have a goal based on the formation of morals to get closer to Allah.In addition, it is necessary to develop pragmatic abilities to help them make a living.The common thread of the views of the classical era experts is actually the balance in human education to become a complete human being both physically and ukhrawi, emphasizing the formation of good morals as a provision to get closer to Allah.
In this case, the contemporary era of education experts represented by the views of Mohammed Arkoun, M. Amin Abdullah, and Fazlur Rahman see more of the dichotomy of general education (western) with Islamic education.They consider that education should be a whole that cannot be separated, so there is the concept of a bridge of knowledge that connects Western science and Islamic science, like M. Amin Abdullah, who introduced the spider web scientific paradigm with an integration-interconnection paradigm.The idea and renewal of education, the renewal of Islamic education, can be done by accepting modern secular education and then trying to enter it with Islamic concepts.Fazlur Rahman initiated this concept to break the stagnation of Islamic education development.

The
Essence of Education: Views of Classical and Contemporary Scholars -Iwantoro, et al.50 DOI: https://doi.org/10.52615/jie.v9i1.326must be made: (1) Orient the purpose of Islamic Education to the life of the world and the hereafter at once and sourced from the Qur'an.(2) Eliminate the psychological burden of Muslims in the face of the West.And (3) Eliminating negative attitudes towards science (Amin, 2017).In almost the same research, Alfauzan Amin revealed that education has a very important role in developing Islamic civilization and achieving the glory of Muslims.Ironically, the reality on the ground is that the condition of Islamic education in Indonesia faces various problems and gaps in various more complex aspects, namely in the form of problems of educational dichotomy, curriculum, goals, resources, and management of Islamic education.Efforts to reform and improve Islamic education are often piecemeal or not comprehensive and thorough, and most Islamic education systems and institutions have not been managed professionally.An educational reform effort can be well-directed if it is based on a basic framework of philosophy and educational theory that is steady.There are several indicators as an effort to reform Islamic education, namely: (a) Educational setting, (b) Educational environment, (c) Characteristics of renewal, and (d) The curriculum is presented in accordance with the characteristics of the objectives of Islamic education (Zamrony, 2017).
it is not wrong to say that Miskawaih belongs to the Syi'ah sect.The title also often mentioned, al-Khazim, which means treasurer, due to the power of 'Adhud al Daulah of the Buwaihi Banu, gained trust as its treasurer.He was born in the city of Rayy (Tehran today), Iran, in 330H/9 M and died in Asfahan on 9 Shafar 421 H / February 16, 1030 M. Ibn Miskawaih lived during the reign of the Buwaihiyyah dynasty (320-450 AH/932-1062 M), whose leaders were mainly Syi'ah(Muvid et al., 2020).Ibn Miskawaih's Basic ThoughtIbn Miskawaih's basic thinking about education, as written by(Muvid et al., 2020), is divided into three concepts, namely: a. Human Concept Ibn Miskawaih views humans as creatures that have privileges because, in reality, humans have the power of thought, and humans are also creatures that have various kinds of power.According to the human being, there are three powers, namely: (1) Lust (an-nafs al-bahimiyyat) as the lowest power,(2) Courage (an-nafs as-sabu'iyyat) as the middle power, and (3) Thinking power (annafs an-nathiqat) as the highest power.These three potentials are human potentials with different origins.The spiritual element in the form of lust (an-nafs al-bahimmiyyat) and courage (al-nafs as-sabu'iyyat) comes from the material element while thinking (an-nafs an-nathiqat) comes from the Spirit of God because of that Ibn Miskawaih argues that the two an-nafs derived from matter will be destroyed with the destruction of the body and an-nafs an-nathiqat will not experience destruction.b.Concept of MoralsIbn Miskawaih's thinking in the field of morals is one of the underlying concepts in the field of education.The moral concept he offers is based on the doctrine of the middle way.Ibn Miskawaih generally gives the meaning of the middle (middle way), among others, with a balance or middle position between two extremes.However, Ibn Miskawaih tends to argue that the virtue of morals, in general, is defined as a middle position between the extremes of excess and extreme lack of each human soul.As previously explained, there are three human souls, namely the soul of lust (al-bahimmiyah), the soul of courage (as sabu'iyyah) and the soul of thinking (an-nathiqah).According to Ibn Miskawaih, the middle position of the lustful soul (al-bahimmiyah) is al-iffah, which is to keep oneself from sinful and immoral acts such as adultery.Furthermore, the middle position of the brave soul is an officer or courage that is carefully calculated with the advantages and disadvantages.In comparison, the middle position of the soul of thought is wisdom.The combination of the three middle positions is justice or balance.c.Education ConceptIbn Miskawaih explains that the basis of education is: (1) Syariat, Ibn ijbari and ikhtiyari curriculum (Ashwani, n.d.): a. Ijbari Curriculum.The ijbari curriculum is a compulsory curriculum for every student.The content of the curriculum is the three logical principles:(1) devoting attention to the teaching of the Qur'an because it increases ma'rifat to Allah and draws closer to Allah.(2) the importance of the science of nahwu for the correct understanding of the scriptures for the child.(3) teaching Arabic as a tool to understand the meaning of the Qur'anic verses along with the hijaiyyah letters so that they can write and pronounce them correctly.The responsibility of parents in providing Qur'an education to their children, according to al Qabisi, is allowed to be entrusted to educators and payment to the educators concerned if the parents do not have the ability to teach the Qur'an.b.Ikhtiyari curriculum.This ikhtiyari curriculum includes arithmetic (hisab), poetry, and stories of Arab society.So al Qabisi, in choosing lessons that are ikhtiyari, is very selective because it is always associated to develop noble The Essence of Education: Views of Classical and Contemporary Scholars -Iwantoro, et al. 56 DOI: https://doi.org/10.52615/jie.v9i1.326morals in students, fostering a love of religion, holding fast to the teachings of Islam and behaving in accordance with pure religious values.

57 JIE (
Journal of Islamic Education) e-ISSN: 2528-0465 (online) | Volume 9, Issue 1 | April 2024 p-ISSN: 2503-5363 (print) -philosophically, M. Amin Abdullah offers a concept of the division of Islamic science into three areas.First, the area of practice of belief and understanding of revelation has been interpreted in such a way by scholars, community role models and experts in their fields and by members of the community in general.This area of practice is generally without scientific theoretical clarification and clarification.What is important here is practice.At this level, the difference between religion and tradition, religion and culture, and between beliefs and habits of mind is difficult to separate.Second, scientific theories are designed, stematized and methodologized by scientists, experts, and scholars according to their respective fields of study.What is called ulum al-tafsir, ulum al-hadith, Islamic Thought (kalam, philosophy and tasawwuf), law and social institutions (fiqh), history and Islamic civilization, Islamic thought, and Islamic preaching are in this area.

III. TEMUAN DAN PEMBAHASAN The Essence of Education in the Classical Era 1. Ibnu Miskawaih
Some of the research results above illustrate the dichotomy of educational orientation, especially in Islamic education; this can occur because the understanding of the nature of education is not maximized.This research will describe the views of education experts in the classical and contemporary eras;

Iwantoro, et al. 52 DOI
: https://doi.org/10.52615/jie.v9i1.326name of his friend Ali, who, for the Syi'ah, is seen as having the right to replace the Prophet in his position as leader of the Muslims after his death.From this title,

et al. 54 2. Al-Qabisi The
(Arafat et al., 2022)i is Abu al Hasan Ali bin Muhammad Khalaf al Maarifal Qabisi.Born in Qoirawan Tunisia (Magribi Region, North Africa), on Monday of Rajab in 324 H coinciding with May 13, 963 M, and he died on 3 Rabiul Awal 403 H. Coinciding with October 23, 1012 M (Ramadhan, 2020).Al Qabisi is an expert in the field of hadith, fiqh Maliki and also an education expert.His monumental work in the field of education is ahwal al muta'alimin wa ahkam al mu'allimin wa al muta'allimin, which is one of the popular books in the field of Islamic education in the 4th century Hijriyah and after (Arvisais et al., 2021).According to al Qabisi, education needs to be nurtured from the beginning of the child's development.Al Qabisi did not set a specific age for students to enter the Kuttab because, in his view, a father is responsible for teaching his child from the time he begins to speak.This means that a father needs to teach his child from the age of two or three.Children need to be taught to pray as the Prophet Muhammad said: "Command children to pray when they reach the age of seven, and when they reach the age of ten, then beat them (if they neglect it)" (HR.Abu reached puberty, and what they learned was the Qur'an, writing, nahwu, Arabic, history, mathematics and poetry.The teaching method is to do repeated tasks where students help each other strengthen memorization and move their hands by writing what is memorized, functioning the eyes by observing what is read, after which they show the results to the teacher(Burde et al., 2015).Al Qabisi has a desired goal, namely that education and teaching can develop the child's personality under the correct Islamic values.It also aims for the child to have pragmatic skills and expertise that can support earning a living.This is given after religious and moral education with the hope that earning a living or working is based on fear of Allah(Arafat et al., 2022).It seems that the goal of education desired by Al Qabisi is an integration or balance between fostering Islamic values and providing the skills needed to navigate world life.
(2) Essence of Education: Views of Classical and Contemporary Scholars -Iwantoro, Al Qabisi was a prolific scholar in composing books.He produced 15 works in the fields of fiqh and hadith.His works in the field of education include ahwal al muta'alimin wa ahkam al mu'allimin wa al muta'allimin, marhala al ta'limi al shibyan (periodization of child education), halat al ta'lim (conditions of education) which discusses the influence of geography on education, realism or idealism of education (Sabic-El-Rayess, 2020).The Basis of Al Qabisi's Educational ThoughtThe concept of al Qabisi's educational thought can be formulated as follows, among others: (1) the importance of developing children's moral strength,(2)fostering a love of religion, (3) adhering to its teachings, (4) developing behaviour in accordance with pure values, and (5) children can have pragmatic skills and expertise that can support the ability to earn a living (Arifin, 2002).Daud).So, this hadith clearly shows that Islamic education needs to be nurtured from the beginning of the child's development at home.And will be continued at school, guarded by teachers.Students who studied in the kuttab lasted until they (Suyadi et al., 2022)escents.The method of educating children is very important because children are a mandate for their parents, and therefore, parents are responsible for their children's education.If children are familiarized with good things and taught in a good way, they will grow in goodness and gain happiness in this world and in the hereafter.Meanwhile, parents and teachers will get their share of rewards in the hereafter(Suyadi et al., 2022).Al Ghazali, in making happiness the main goal for morals and in his interpretation of the definition of happiness, has been followed by Islamic scholars who have touched on moral issues in studies and discussions after al Gazali until now (Langgulung, The Essence of Education: Views of Classical and Contemporary Scholars -Iwantoro, et al. 58 DOI: https://doi.org/10.52615/jie.v9i1.326school

et al. 66
The Essence of Education: Views of Classical and Contemporary Scholars -Iwantoro,