Education is the birth right of every Muslim. Islam puts considerable emphasis on its followers to acquire knowledge. Investment in education is the best investment one can make, because it eventually leads to intellectual property. As Muslims, our educational aim is to develop the personalities of our children to the end that they will be conscious of their responsibility to God and to follow humans. This has been defined in the recommendation of the Committee of the First World Conference on Muslim Education as:
“Education should aim at the balanced growth of the total personally of man through training of the human, spirit, intellect, rational self, feelings and senses. The training imparted to a Muslim must be such that faith is infused into the whole of his/her personality and creates in him/her an emotional attachment to Islam and enables him to follow the Qur’an and Sunnah and be governed by Islamic System of values willingly and joyfully so that she/he may proceed to the realization of his/her status as Khalifatullah to whom God has promised the authority of the universe”.
Due to colonialism and Western influence, Muslim parents concentrated on imparting only Secular Education to their children. Most parents would go all through all forms of sacrifices just to send their children to school and probably earn a high school or even a college diploma. They regard schooling as a means to earn a high income and social status in our success-oriented society. To these parents, it is the only hope for their children to join the middle upper class in society. So when a son or daughter has gone to school, he is expected to have access to a slice of the economic and social pie. This claim is anchored on the Human Capital Theory which views education money as a form of investment. Without really teaching the true significance of money, the youth of today has misconception of values. He believes that it is not how much he has learned , how a good student he is, and how deserving he is of his diploma, but rather how many influential people he knows, how much capital or money he has, or how much money his parents could put up for him.
This problem started with the copying of foreign curricula which have been developed far away from Islamic teachings and adopting various disciplines which have no connection with Islam. It is, therefore, high time for our educational planners to take a look at the problem so that necessary reforms maybe instituted before it’s too late because our students are headed for ignorance.
In Science, for instance, we are teaching our students to look at the universe from the viewpoint of a person who does not know God. “And how many Signs in the Heavens and the Earth do they pass by? Yet, they turn their faces away form them” [Yusuf, 12:105]. A proper study of Science would one make appreciate both the Power, Majesty, and Grandeur of Allah’s creations and humbleness and limitations of human knowledge and abilities. Today, our Science Education, in its best form, gives exactly the opposite message. It also fails to enable students to separate scientist’s opinions from their facts. Is there any Islamic school teaching Science whose graduates can challenge Darwin’s Theory of Evolution on scientific grounds? Darwin’s theory of evolution is an attempt to explain the evolution of life and its form from lifeless matter without the intervention of God. One of the leading Darwinists of this century, Sir Aldous Huxley expressed his thought as follows: “Darwinism removed the whole idea of God as the creator of organism from the sphere of national discussion”.
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity [(E=mc2)] taught in all schools is in fact an expression of Shirk. The theory states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it merely transforms into matter and vice. However, both matter and energy are created entities and they both will be destroyed as Allah (swt) clearly states: “Allah is the creator of all things . . . Everything (in the world) will perish”. (I am not arguing against the mathematical relationship between matter and energy that are eternal, but rather against their independence from Allah’s (swt) encompassing power – both creative and destructive.)
As we teach Science, are we teaching our children to put Science in its proper place, to know its limitations? Can they competently question the “technological imperative”? A medical doctor would not be considered competent if he did not know the limitations of the medicines and procedures he used. An engineer would be considered unqualified if he did not know the limitations of his tools. Why then our teaching of Science does not include a discussion of its limitations? Because of the secular mindset, Science is the ultimate tool, the supreme arbiter of Truth and Falsehood. Without even realizing it, we have accepted the proposition and our Science Education reflects that assumptions.
While Muslims are permitted and urged to acquire knowledge of Science and Technology, we are not permitted to acquire knowledge, which are not ruled by a strict sense of accountability to God. Learning Science and Technology does not necessarily mean giving up our Islamic values and principles. Whatever practical and scientific knowledge we acquire, whether from the West or form the East, must be subjected to the Islamic criteria and standard to apply whatever is appropriate and beneficial towards the building of an Islamic society governed by God’s law in all aspects of life.
The problem is not limited to Science and Technology. The best of our MBA’s have learned that the goal of a business is to maximize profits; the goal of marketing is to create demand, and the proper way of making business decision is trough cost-benefit analysis. In Economics, we have been teaching that human beings are utility-maximizing animals governed by Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. In our teaching of History, we see random of events without a moral calculus driving them. We do not see Allah’s (swt) laws that govern the rise and fall of nations. In Sociology, we were taught about cultural assimilation and diffusion. In Chemistry and Physics, we were not urged to meditate over the creation of the universe, and to study how the heavens and earth have been made subservient to man. Therefore, there has never been a conflict between faith and reason in Islam.
In fact, our school and colleges have been the main agency for secularization of Islamic societies. They have been effectively teaching that Islam is irrelevant to undertaking this world or to solving its problem. Many of their graduates develop misunderstandings and doubts about their faith. But even when they are strong practicing Muslims, they have not been trained and educated to detect and challenge the secular dogmas that have been integrated into their curriculum. This is not only questionable fact that our schools and colleges, and textbooks and teachers have been dispensing. In every field of study, they have been passing of “facts”, ideas values, assumptions, perspectives, explanations, “truths” and principles that are questionable, secular by promoting education. (Don’t misunderstand me. I am not ungrateful for what they have done and surely their reward is with Allah).
But the challenge for us still remains: What kind of citizens do we expect to produce with such kind of teachers? What kind of society do we wish to have in the future with students produced by such kind of teachers?
With the upgrading of education, morality and values have downgraded instead of following the real objective of education in our society with the deterioration of morality. Values went down the sink to swallow us in the muddle we are in.
This dichotomy must end. We cannot move forward without revamping our education. We cannot fully establish Islam in our societies without producing educated citizens and leaders needed for an Islamic society. The time is now to develop integrated Islamic curriculum and remove secular biases from all of our education. Merely establishing more schools is not the answer. Developing educational institutions that can teach every subject in the wholesome Islamic context is a monumental task. But without it, we will continue to spread ignorance in the name of education. If these Western educated Muslims, cannot by any means be reformed and transformed into real, pious, inspired Muslims, there is no future for Muslims and Islam.
If providing sound knowledge and developing critical thinking capabilities are any goals of an education system, the answer highlights the miserable future of the education system prevalent in our society. For no one asks the obvious: How can anyone be credited while discovering a land that was already heavily populated? Ferdinand Magellan was the first Spaniard to discover Philippines not the first man to discover the Philippine island. Several Shariefs from Borneo had reached the island before him and had been living for centuries. The assertion about Magellan reveals secular bias that goes undetected and unquestioned.
These are the challenges to our government and its various agencies like the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) – ARMM. They should conduct a very careful analysis of our educational system because it can make or unmake the society. The citizens we produce through the educational system will man the government machinery in the future, so let us do something now, not tomorrow. Tomorrow may be too late!
January 31, 2008 at 5:19 am
While the quest for knowledge is a Moslem’s duty to understand the universe in which he is a tiny participant…the science we have come to regard as secular is a part of that quest. The Qur’an was never meant to be a book of Science; it is a general book of knowledge in which to govern our relations with God and the universe that we live in.
While it is ideal to have a science education based on the Qur’an and the sunnah, it is never enough. It is very elementary and unless you subscribe to science you call secular, you will never have a better understanding of science and technology. Why will the prophet tell you to search for knowledge even if you have to go to china to find it? In the time of the prophet…China is a metaphor for SPACE AND TIME. It would take you months and maybe years to go and come back from the Hijjas to China in the time of the prophet. Today, it will take you six days to go and come back from the moon. The metaphor for China today would be planet Mars because it would take you about the same time to go and come back.
I am glad that I have not yet heard of any Moslem country that prohibits the teaching of evolution in schools. The debate in USA between the Creationists/Intelligent design and the Evolutionists has not subsided. Parents have demanded to stop teaching their children the theory of evolution contrary to their established belief. Because they lost in court to stop the curriculum, some parents stopped sending their children to school. They enrol them in home study programs where they don’t teach their children the theory of evolution. Funny, these are the same people who accuse Islam of fundamentalism.
The problem is…in spite of Islam’s 1,400 years of history, nobody came up with the right system of education to teach our children that is more in tune with every changing time. Saudi Arabia is about to overhaul its system of education because 70% of its curricula are about religion which no longer fit in with the real world. It produces religious freaks that travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to slaughter innocent Moslems they believe no longer agrees with their own interpretation of Islam.
Moslem scientists are very good at saying…Aha that is found in the Qur’an. Beautiful books have been written about scientific facts found in the Qur’an including documentaries to prove it but that is frustratingly being small minded. What good does it do to us and to Islam to confirm scientific discoveries that we call secular. What I want Moslem Scientist to do is jumpstart the west/secular science. Do we have to wait until TIME TRAVEL is discovered by secular science and say…aha, that is also in the Qur’an. Do we have to wait until the sun rises from the west when a moon size meteor hit the earth and say…aha, the Qur’an said that the impact will be so strong; Earth’s axis rotation will be reversed that will cause the sun to rise from its place of setting. Do we have to wait until ALIENS landed and say…aha, the Qur’an speaks of them as well for ALLAH (swt) is the Lord of all the Worlds and everyone in the heavens bow their heads before Allah (swt) in spite of their shadows? What I want Moslem scientists do is find the answers to the yet undiscovered mysteries of the Universe that I believe are hidden somewhere in the Qur’an.
I think it is irresponsible to declare that to believe Einstein’s theory of relativity is shirk. There is a big difference between an unproven theory and one that has become standard science. E=mc2 simply means…energy is equal the mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light. To understand it better…it means that if you can suddenly release the energy that binds the atoms of a piece of hallow-block placed in the center of a city, it will decimate/incinerate one block of that city. E=mc2 is the foundation of nuclear science.
January 31, 2008 at 5:21 am
To the Teacher(from the chatroom),
My apology to the very smart teacher and of course to you my friend NLK. NLK, allow me to share some thoughts and bits of information to my teacher.
In literature and writing, IMAGERY means language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. Reading NLK’s last 2 pieces evoked those feelings. Teacher, imagery for you is ONLY a picture? Come on, you’re supposed to be a teacher and you should know that. Pre-K teachers use imagery, so that kids would understand a concept; for instance—teachers would say –red is an apple. In high school, we were taught about the elements of literature and writing and to finish a degree, requires basic literature and writing.
There are so many different words/techniques we use in literature and writing to express thoughts and ideas like imagery, onomatopoeia, malapropism, personification, foreshadowing, oxymoron and etc…I suggest you review those. Even if you are not an English teacher, you must be familiar with those being a graduate of a bachelor’s degree (maybe a PhD?) and supposedly imparting knowledge to the young.
As readers, we make meaning. What a story means to us depends, at least in part, on who we are. Because you and I have had different experiences, lived in different places, known different people, we will see things differently. The meaning each of us creates from the text is therefore going to be our own! Take some time to think about what happens as we read.
1. We connect with the text—meaning we are reminded of previous experiences in our lives that are similar to what we just read.
2. We ask questions: We ask about situations or statements that puzzle us. We ask about motives.
3. We make predictions: We wonder; “Is this what is going to happen next?” We test our predictions against the text.
4. We interpret: We decide what the story means as a whole and how its parts work together.
5. We extend the text: We reflect on the meaning of the text and think about its larger significance. We think about the text can extend to some aspect of life.
6. We challenge the text: We might say “This couldn’t possibly happen” or I wish the story had a different ending”
Have I not fulfilled the above with my previous comment?
A saying goes, “The student always end up smarter than the teacher.” No offense teacher, it’s physiologic, teachers go through senile dementia while the student still absorbs and retains everything! =D
***This was written in response to the comment of the smart TEACHER.
January 31, 2008 at 5:28 am
My apology to you…
I didn’t mean to offend you…
I just look up to NLK’s manner and style of writing, that’s why I reacted that way.
I prefer open argument on the topic posted and not talking about the personality or the imaginative portrait of the author.
I have no intention of causing pain to your unending thirst for wisdom.
I REALLY AM SORRY.
March 15, 2008 at 2:32 am
That’s a good point. I do agree with you that secular knowledge is part of our quest in seeking knowledge as every Muslim is duty-bound to do. The pursuit of physical science is an act of Ibaadah. While it is true that the highest level of knowledge is the knowledge of Deen, however, we cannot understand the process of such unless we build up the lower level of knowledge.
If Imaan demands the cultivation of theological sciences, the other requires a study of the mundane sciences. For the service of worship, the face is turned to Mecca and the service must be celebrated in the occurrence of certain determined phenomena. This requires knowledge of elements of geography and astronomy. Fasting also requires the understanding of natural phenomena, such as the appearance of the dawn, the setting of the sun, etc. The pilgrimage necessitates knowledge of the routes and means of transport in order to proceed to Mecca. Payment of Zakat requires knowledge of Mathematics, with calculations for the distribution of the heritage of the deceased.
This is to show that secular knowledge is also of great importance and should not be neglected. However, branches of knowledge should be studied and mastered side by side each complementing and supplementing the other in its proper place with limitations set by Allah (swt) and without compromising His attributes. Other wise, we go outside the fold of Islam.
If we read the history of Islam on Muslim Education, we will find that the course of education were a comprehensive as it could be. Knowledge was arranged in terms of unity (Tawheed). We think of ‘Aleem is one who studies only Fiqh, Tafseer and Hadith. How wrong it is! Do you know that Imaam Abu Hanifah wrote a scientific treatise with mathematical equations and this is available at the International Library in France? Imaam Ghazzali, Imaam Fakhruddin Ar-Razi, and Imaam Shafi’I to mention a few of them were intelligent giants in various branches of knowledge and yet they were pious and saintly people.
Therefore, the early Muslims fulfilled the tasks of laying foundation of modern science by classifying the different branches of knowledge and removing the false from the truth. They gave science the shape of pure science and laid down the foundation of several exact sciences (e.g. Algebra [named after Shiek Jabir ibn Hayyan, Ibn Sina’s (Avicena) “The Book of Healing” 20 volumes which became the Europe’s chief medical science guide from 12th to 17th century, and etc.] They also analyzed, collated, corrected, supplemented and transferred classical Greek science and philosophy to Europe thereby enabling its Renaissance.
The point here is that while we are permitted to acquire knowledge on sciences or any knowledge, we have to see to it that this must be subjected to the Islamic criteria and standard to apply whatever is appropriate and beneficial towards us – that is to remove or counteract this secular dogmas that contradict Islamic injunctions, decipher scientists’ opinions from their facts by putting limitations or by integrating the Islam stand in this connection. Thus, eradicate doubts and false teachings infiltrated among the minds of our youth.
Unfortunately, we find this tragedy happening over and over again. This is the battlefront that we are facing right now. Who can those people who can fight on the battlefront? Will they come from heaven? No! They must be emerged from among us. It is the duty of Muslim whether young or old to organize themselves for that purpose and guide the youth by thought, by word and by deed.
We human beings lack perfect knowledge as well as perfect wisdom. No matter how hard we try, we will never attain the perfect way of life by our own thinking and interpretation. This is the reason why Allah (swt) sent us the Qur’an wherein he has set His limitations and rules, all of which are beneficial to mankind and do not need changing. Allah (swt) says: “These are the limits (set) by Allah, so do not approach them “[2:187]. In another verse, He said: “These are the limits set by Allah, so do not transgress them” [2:229] Islam was revealed as a balanced way of living.
Even in our Ibaadah, Allah (swt) has taught us to do it in a stabilized manner through the way of Prophet Nabi (saw). Life is not torturous spiritual test, where you are ordered to live in mountain and trees. Fasting all-year round is not obligatory. Marriage is permissible and you do not have to beat yourself senseless to purify your soul. Rather, we must try to follow the Prophet Nabi (saw) and his balanced teachings of life and living. As Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an: “Indeed the Messenger of Allah (swt), you have good example to follow” [Al-Ahzab 33:21].
Indeed, the words “Akhirah” and “Dunya” appear in the Qur’an an equal number of times. This is an indication that a Muslims should maintain a balance between this world and the Hereafter, so he performs righteous deeds and seek the pleasure of Allah (swt) and he works in this world within the limits of the Islamic Law to obtain a lawful sustenance on order to provide for himself and have no need to beg. However, if the balance is not kept, corruption appears. In case of seeking knowledge, if balance is not observed, then arrogance appears. This includes the arrogance of Science. We see it in the scientists who declare that there is no need to invoke a spiritual hand of God since everything has a rational basis or the medical doctor who thinks that he can control the biological processes (look at all the pronouncement of the genetic engineering pundits, euthanasia advocates, and population control gurus. Allah (swt) says: “Those who dispute about the signs of Allah without any authority bestowed on them, there is nothing in their breast except the quest of greatness which they will never attain . . . [40:56]
The theory of relativity [E=mc2] is a universally accepted standard science. However, this must be subjected to limitations. Otherwise, we are heading out young students to ignorance. We will be held accountable for this being the second parent of the students under our authority. The Prophet Nabi (saw) said: “Every one of you is a guardian and will be asked about those under his/her custody”.
This theory also implies that mass and energy are eternal having no beginning or end since they are supposed to be uncreated and be transformed into each other. However, this attribute belongs only to Allah (swt) who alone is without beginning or end. Thus, I’m personally inclined to believe this is still shirk in Asma wa Siffat of Allah (swt).
Be it recalled when the comet Schumaker Levy that struck Jupiter some years ago, the scientists and astronomers told us that we living creatures survive on this planet only by the narrowest of margins. Statistically, the dangers are so great and the mathematical probabilities of our survival are small that we should really not have been here at all! We Muslim as “Believers” would say that our creation and continued existence on this planet is due entirely to the mercy of Allah (swt). The Qur’an makes this point in many beautiful verses. For example in surah Saba [34:9] we read: “See they not how little of the sky and the earth is open to them and how much is hidden? If We wished We could cause the earth to swallow them up or cause a piece of the sky to fall upon them. Verily, in this a Sign for every servant that turns to Allah (in repentance)”.