THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

Research it is the most popular keywords nowadays, especially in my

faculty and the university, for along with it comes Research University,
Research Alliance, Research Centre, Research Group, Research-based KPI
and many more. But why such a word becomes so magical all of a sudden?
Why we fuzz about its utterance only today? What did happen yesterday? Is
it really important this thing called research? All that we know is that, there are
so many questions with very few answers. Even this last sentence invokes a
set of new questions, why is this so? Why we have so many questions? Why
can not we answer? Why is it so hard for us to agree? Do people around the
world asking the same questions? So, having these everlasting questions to
begin with, I have decided to limit this writing on the importance of research
into the scopes of 1) research as a form of teaching and learning and 2)
research as a religious act. It is hope that what follows would shed some light
on some of the mystery mystifying that very word.

1) Research as a form of teaching and learning

We are really teaching, you know, when we do research, especially when we
are working with our postgraduate students. Whilst in the conventional
teaching (i.e. lecturing and tutoring), the subjects being delivered are rather
general and typical, supervising postgrads means delivering and transferring
our best knowledge, whatever the last in stock. Also, whilst the aim of the
conventional teaching most likely to produce doers (especially in our exam-
oriented system), research supervision could provide thinkers that able to
shape not only the country, the ummah but also the world. Sukarno once said
(something sounds like this):Berikan aku sepuluh pemuda, akan ku gegar
seluruh dunia (Hand me a ten of young men for then I will shake the whole
world). What Sukarno really saying is that there are times (many times in fact)
when quality is what really matters.

And teaching our postgrads should not be like any other teaching, it involves
personal affection for the student will becomes his or her teachers reflection.
For those preferring Sufism analog, it should be like a sheikh and a murid and
for those who are into Star Wars, it should be like Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke
Skywalker. By looking at this whole research things through such a
perspective, one can even get the feeling that this research type of teaching is
more difficult and demanding than the conventional one.

But what do we teach? We teach them first and foremost how to read books,
how to think or in other words, how to learn by themselves. We teach them
to become the master of themselves. For me, this is the most valuable
knowledge of all and this was what my PhDs supervisor instill in me. On the
teaching of the technical parts, there is an argument, however, that we must
let our postgrads to go independent in their study yet this is very subjective
and relative. I agree to this to some extent especially in the context of western
universities but there are some explicit differences between them and us. I did
not go totally independent myself when I was in the Imperial Colleges for
there were like tens of very capable seniors at my disposal. When I became a
senior myself, I was referred to by my juniors and taught them many things
many times. Now, do we already have such a bunch of seniors that can assist
in supervising the juniors? Until this is established, I believe that we should be
the senior to our students, hence a personal tutoring what we must do. Again,
a very demanding job if one looks at it this way.

As far as learning is concerned, research itself is a learning process.
Discovering whatever to be discovered is of course learning by itself. But that
is not all, research is about reading as there will be no research without
reading. Everyone must read and this only to include the supervisors. There is
no way for us to solve a problem been left by those who were more superior
in that particular knowledge until we have at least accumulated the same
amount of knowledge, for this would give a way to the possibility of luck
coming into play. But again, how can we accumulate such a sufficient amount
of knowledge if not by reading and keep reading and keep reading and keep
reading and this only means learning and keep learning and keep learning
and keep learning. All I am saying is, by doing research we have all the
reasons in the world to keep reading thus to keep learning hence fulfilling
what Rasullullah SAW demanded of us as his ummah; to keep learning until
the end of our life.

And there is one big difference in the reading of a postgrad and of an
undergrad; the former reads for his/her understanding whilst the latter usually
reads for the sake of answering the exam questions.

2) Research as forms of religious act i.e. ibadah, jihad, dawah

I think there is a compact way for me to write on this topic that is, by telling a
story of myself from which we can deduce the essence of research as a form
of religious act to include ibadah, jihad and dawah.

When I was in the Imperial College I tried to do dawah to my fellow non-
Muslims friends only to end up with them saying back to me, Airil, if Islam is
so great, tell me what is so great about you, about your country? Arent the
Muslims countries are the poorest, and ones that always at war. What are the
Muslim contributions in this contemporary world ? and so on which stroke me
like a lightning. How can we do dawah, how can we promote the syiar of
Islam if people do not even want to listen to us in the first place simply
because we are nothing, we have nothing. Look around us, look at the
computer, the lights, the fan, the air conditioner, the cars, the plane, the ship,
which one is ours? Still, many of us do not even want to write journal articles.

From that very day, I have made a pack with myself that; there will be no
longer a day without knowledge for me. I will go on the jihad by striving to be
the best and the smartest in the field so that when I want to talk about Islam,
people will listen just as they listen to me when I talk about mechanics and
finite element. I must earn their respect and trust by first being the authority in
my fields, then only will I have the chance to say whatever I want to say and
preach whatever I want to preach and only this way, there will be a better
chance for some of them to agree and to follow. InsyaAllah.