KARACHI: A lecture by American scholar Dr Joseph E. B. Lumbard on Friday brought together intellectuals, representatives of civil society, alongside members of the Habib University community, for a wide-ranging discussion on how Islamic knowledge traditions can address some of the fundamental challenges facing modern higher education.

The lecture titled ‘Beyond Specialisation: An Islamic Vision of Education’ was the third public lecture in Habib University’s flagship Reshaping Philanthropy in the Islamic World Lecture Series.

Dr Lumbard is an American Muslim scholar and Associate Professor of Qur’anic Studies at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, said a press release issued by Habib University.

“Nowhere in the Islamic tradition is knowledge understood as a human production. In fact, we can say quite the opposite. That dedication to knowledge produces us as regards to both individuals and societies. We do not, as is too often assumed in modern parlance, produce knowledge. Rather, we transmit knowledge through knowledge,” he said, adding: “We cultivate knowledge through tarbiyah. We discover truth through kashf. We verify truth through tahqeeq. And we recognise truth through ma’rifah.”

Habib University organises lecture by American scholar on Islamic vision of education

In his lecture, Dr Lumbard focused on what he described as an intellectual crisis in contemporary higher education. He argued that modern academia has increasingly fragmented knowledge into isolated disciplines, often divorced from ethical purpose and spiritual meaning. Drawing on Islamic intellectual history, he presented a vision of education that seeks not merely to produce technical specialists, but to cultivate intellectually and morally integrated human beings.Ha

He spoke about the effect of technology on humans that has resulted in cognitive decline and subsequently reduced knowledge and wisdom to information.

“Increasing reliance upon technology creates a world where the very tools many now use to access information ensure that the human faculties required for knowledge act ever more rapidly. Study upon study has shown the cognitive declines associated with excessive social media immersion and now with the cognitive offloading through regular use of artificial intelligence. Once heralded as great tools of enlightenment, the computer, the internet, the cell phone, and now AI drift further from these vaunted objectives as we humans succumb ever more to our basest desires,” he said.

By linking knowledge with philanthropic institution-building, the lecture invited participants to reconsider how higher education might serve society in a more holistic and responsible manner.

The lecture series was introduced by Dr Nauman Naqvi, Associate Professor in the Comparative Humanities Program at Habib University, who highlighted the urgency of rethinking philanthropy as a long-term investment in knowledge, institutions, and ethical leadership rather than short-term charitable relief.

The session concluded with a Q&A segment, during which audience engaged Dr Lumbard on topics including the role of ethics in the pursuit of knowledge, the relevance of Islamic intellectual traditions today, and the institutional challenges facing higher education in Muslim societies.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2026