Education in Islam

Most of the times when we think about education, by default the western concept of education come to our mind which lacks the essential knowledge of faith i.e. the existence of Allah as our Lord and His sole right to be worshipped wholeheartedly by all human beings. Education for majority of this world means secular education which tends to give more emphasis on job-oriented goals. Unfortunately we Muslims are also getting deceived by this sort of education and starting to believe that the only way to success is to get secular education.

Sometimes parents do not have any intention to bring up their children in proper Islamic way. Instead, the secular education becomes the only priority. However, I do believe that secular education is necessary in order to succeed in this world but there should be more priority given to become the true vicegerent (khalifa) of Allah on this earth. In fact, this concept of secular education is alien to Islam.

Islam is a way of life not just a mere religion. Education entails everything that brings you closer to Allah SWT. For example, being a doctor makes you have more knowledge about Allah SWT’s magnificent and sophisticated creations as well as serving His creation to the best. Through this profession, you tend to be more able to worship Allah with proper understanding. That is just an example of one profession. There are plenty of other noble profession, through which we can manifest our devoutness and love for our Creator Allah SWT.

In Islam, education is comprehensive and we do not need to separate this system into secular and divine. Its in fact during the renaissance period of Europe , the so called intelligent people came up with idea of separating religion from every aspect of public life , thus religion was forced to be confined in private arena and science and technology become godless arena. We can see the devastating effect of that in our modern life. We as the super intelligent beings of twenty first century have managed to kill more innocent people in more sophisticated ways than ever before!

Even in Muslim world, the effect of renaissance was corrupting the empty minds of so-called Muslims. When Muslims are not practising their deen properly, they get deviated quite easily by Satan and his agents. Thus, the history of colonialism and imperialism gives us the vivid picture of polluting and corrupting the Muslim mind with secular ideas. Unfortunately during that period majority of Muslims also fell into trap of ‘divide and rule’ policy and ended up having two groups in a same society: one educated in western tradition and enjoying the fruits of prosperity and the other ended up with so called religious education and trapped in limited field of religious institutions which were disappearing quite rapidly. You can see the example of this in every country. Thus, you can notice around Muslim world traditionally the intelligent kid is sent to become a doctor or an engineer and the ‘dumb’ one is sent to madrasa ( religious institution) to become a ‘alim’(Alim is one who has attended a reliable institution and received sound knowledge of the Qur’an, Sunnah, Fiqh and Arabic from qualified tutors) . Sadly we tend to underestimate the importance of religious education. Societies as a whole don’t view religious education as something cool and trendy. I can’t blame them that much as I personally would not send my children to madrasa as the track record of them are unfortunately not that good either. I believe Islam promotes very strongly to be smart and best in both worlds. Even in the Qur’an Allah SWT has taught us a prayer where we can ask for the best of both worlds.

Let us as Muslim mothers, educate our self with the best of both and teach our children to be balanced in their perspective. If we as mother do our job properly, Insha-Allah our sons and daughters will carry the real message of Islam which will free this world from all the false and dangerous ideas, Insha-Allah. May Allah SWT guide us towards the right path.

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