Toward an Islamic Philosophy of Intelligence: Integrating Multiple Intelligences Theory with Fitrah and Aql as a Tripartite Educational Framework
Indonesia Indonesia 
Malaysia 
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Aql, Fitrah, Islamic Epistemology, Multiple Intelligences, Philosophy of Islamic Education
Abstract
Background: Islamic schools often choose between two options. One adopts secular pedagogical models that set transcendence aside. The other relies on linguistic memorization and narrows intelligence to verbal mastery. Both leave many students’ innate potentials unrecognized. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory describes diverse potentials, but its Western psychological origin raises epistemological objections within Islamic thought.
Purpose: This study analyzes how MI theory can be integrated with fitrah (innate human nature) and aql (Islamic rationality) without losing its Islamic epistemological grounding.
Method: The study uses a qualitative philosophical design based on conceptual analysis. A hermeneutic coding protocol was applied to 40 documents: 25 journal articles indexed in Scopus or Web of Science, 5 classical texts in translation, and 10 books and proceedings. The protocol combined ontological mapping, epistemological filtering, and teleological assessment, followed by inductive, deductive, and comparative coding.
Results: The analysis yields a tripartite model. Fitrah supplies the ontological basis of innate potential, MI gives that potential its pedagogical translation, and aql works as the epistemological mechanism that ties each intelligence to transcendent ends. The mapping links intrapersonal intelligence to muhasabah, naturalistic intelligence to tafakkur, and musical and spatial intelligences to the recognition of jamal (divine beauty). The analysis also locates a gap in the philosophical foundations of current curricula, which drift toward dogmatic reduction or secular utilitarian use of MI.
Conclusion: Reading MI as the actualization of fitrah under the guidance of aql gives Islamic education a coherent basis for developing diverse intelligences and a reason to reject both dogmatism and utilitarianism. The model is conceptual. Its translation into lesson plans, assessment, and teacher preparation requires empirical testing.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Saifullah Isri, Azhari Azhari, Krim Ulwi
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