Abstract
Current trends in Islamic education indicate a decline in intellectual performance. History shows that early Islamic scholars were able to develop their critical thinking skills to such a depth that they attained the rank of mujtahid mutlak, whereas in contemporary Islamic education, the teacher’s authority is regarded as the ultimate limit of the pursuit of knowledge. This condition indicates a shift in the Islamic scholarly tradition, particularly in the process of acquiring and developing knowledge derived from the Qur’an, Hadith, ijma’, and qiyas, as formulated in various classical texts. The objectives of this study are 1) to identify the epistemological foundations of Islamic education contained within the classical Islamic texts, 2) to identify the role of critical thinking skills in reconstructing the epistemology of Islamic education, and 3) to analyze a model of the epistemology of Islamic education constructed through the integration of the classical Islamic texts and critical thinking skills. This study employs a qualitative approach in the form of field research. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and document analysis. Data were analyzed using the Milles-Huberman analytical model through data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of the study show that (1) the epistemological foundation of the Islamic classical tradition is built through the integration of bayani, irfani, and burhani epistemologies; (2) critical thinking skills serve as instruments of reconstruction through the process of identifying, verifying, analyzing, evaluating, and contextualizing Islamic knowledge; and (3) the integration of these two elements produces a reflective, critical, and contextual epistemological model of Islamic education through the stages of fahm, naqd, tarjih, tajdid, and tatbiq.