HOW SHOULD INHERITED CRAFT KNOWLEDGE BE GOVERNED? ISLAMIC ETHICAL CUSTODIANSHIP FOR KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJLGC.1145009Keywords:
Heritage Governance, Islamic Ethical Custodianship, Knowledge Transfer, Malaysian Handicraft Heritage, Maqāṣid al-SharīʿahAbstract
How inherited craft knowledge is governed matters as much as how it is transferred. Malaysian handicraft knowledge carries tacit judgement, cultural meaning, practitioner authority, livelihood value and intergenerational responsibility across artisans, institutions, digital systems and markets. Transfer mechanisms explain how this knowledge moves; ethical responsibilities governing authority, recognition, representation, welfare and continuity remain conceptually fragmented. This conceptual paper develops Islamic ethical custodianship as a value-based moral architecture for responsible knowledge transfer. Through conceptual synthesis and model-building, the framework integrates amanah, adab, maṣlaḥah and ʿadl with the selected Maqāṣid preservation principles of ḥifẓ al-ʿaql, ḥifẓ al-māl and ḥifẓ al-nasl. The architecture connects heritage knowledge context and transfer mechanisms to cultural, community, and economic and adaptive outcomes. Its central contribution shifts analysis from knowledge movement to custodial responsibility without displacing established mechanisms of continuity, offering an ethical basis for heritage policy, craft education, documentation practice and community-centred preservation across changing heritage settings.
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