By Mukhtar Ahmad for TwoCircles.net
From the earliest days of Islam, the issue of education has been at the forefront on the minds of the Muslims. The very first word of the Quran that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was, ‘Iqra’ which means “Read”. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) once stated that “Seeking knowledge is mandatory for all Muslims.” The Quran also asks its reader to ponder on each of its verse, to draw a lesson from that verse. It says that there are signs there for people who reflect.
The reflecting on a verse can be in a simple way but to have deeper understanding it requires a good knowledge of science and other social science subjects. With such a direct command to go out and seek knowledge, Muslims have placed a huge emphasis on the educational system. Throughout much of Islamic history, madrasas were the major source of religious and scientific learning. They were responsible for promoting Islamic scholarship to the world between the seventh and twelfth centuries. Free-thinking luminaries such as Alberuni, Ibn Sina, and al-Khwarizmi were all product of madrasa system of education. The first educational institution in the Muslim world was the mosque built at Medina early in the seventh century by the Prophet Muhammad and his Companions. From then on, mosques were used for teaching purposes, especially for the teaching of law and theology, but as society developed, education was provided not only in the mosques but also in palaces, streets and even in the market-places.
Nevertheless, the mosque remained pre-eminent for the teaching of theology and jurisprudence, where students sat in a circle at the teacher’s feet. Dating back to at least the 900s, young students were educated in a primary school called a maktab. As a rule, the maktab was attached to the local mosque and was often located in the teacher’s house, where he and his wife looked after boys and girls separately. These classes would cover topics such as basic Arabic reading and writing, arithmetic, and Islamic laws. Most of the local population was educated by such primary schools throughout their childhood After basic teaching in the maktab few of the students will go to madrasas for higher learning. Madrasas were usually attached to a large mosque. Examples include al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt (founded in 970) and Al-Karaouine in Fes, Morocco (founded in 859). Later, numerous madrasas were established across the Muslim world by the great Seljuk vizier, Nizam al-Mulk. In the 1100s, there were 75 madrasas in Cairo, 51 in Damascus and 44 in Aleppo. There were hundreds more in Muslim Spain at this time as well. At a madrasa, students would be educated further in religious sciences, Arabic, and secular studies such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy, history, and geography, among many other topics.
It was felt that in order to produce scholar (alim) of highest standard it is necessary that some of the people from getting an education from a madrasa continue the study of not only religious books but also the modern subjects. This is borne from fact mentioned by Imam Ghazali in his book Al-munqudeen –al-Dalal, that he spent 38 years in the search of truth from place to place and studied different schools of thoughts of that time Nizam al-Mulk appointed the 33-year-old Al-Ghazali as a professor in Nezamiyah the earliest Islamic University. While resident as a professor at the Nizamaya madrasa in Baghdad, al-Ghazali made a thorough study of philosophy (Greek philosophy, in particular, that of Aristotle, Plato and Plotinus, as well as Islamic philosophy, in particular, that of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi) in order better to refute it. The basic problem facing Al-Ghazali was that of reconciling philosophy with religion.
Al-Ghazali further exhorted his pupils to make a thorough study of geography, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, medicine, the classification of medicinal plants and the systems of underground irrigation.
The education system in Muslim societies was, without a doubt, one of the most extensive and most developed of all those prevailing in pre-industrial societies Muslim society of that time stands out for its more flexible and less hierarchically organised structures. The body composed of scholars and the literati was open, non-centralized, non-hereditary, and non-exclusive, thus giving rise to a relatively broad education and teaching system that in many ways prefigured our modern system.
The tradition of madrasas and other classical forms of Islamic education continues until today, but with lesser importance. Due to the influence of western education system, public schools began to teach a European curriculum based on European books in place of the traditional fields of knowledge that had been taught for hundreds of years. Although Islamic madrasas continued to exist, without government support they lost much of their relevance in the modern Muslim world.
Despite the new systems in place in much of the Muslim world, traditional education still survives. Universities such as Al-Azhar, Al-Karaouine, and Darul Uloom in Deoband, India continue to offer traditional curricula that bring together Islamic and secular sciences. Such an intellectual tradition rooted in the great institutions of the past that produced some of the greatest scholars of Islamic history and continues to spread the message and knowledge of Islam to the masses.
Madarsa education in India
In India, madrasas are not homogeneous. There are madrasas controlled by madrasa boards in different states. There, the syllabus is at par with state government schools. The other category of madrasas are run without any government support and their curriculum is mostly religious. These madrasas are also divided along sectarian lines. Deobandis, Barelwis and Ahl-e-Hadis, all have their own network of madrasas. Though at loggerheads with each other, they are nevertheless united in their opposition to reform. Madrasas are centres of free education; they are the nucleus of cultural & educational lives of Muslims. The Madrasas are an invaluable instrument of traditional education but they’ve also played a vital role in spreading literacy amongst the downtrodden segments of Muslim society. Several Madrasas not only offer free education but also free boarding & lodging. In respect of Madrasa education, there is a need to preserve the delicate balance between the emphasis on the religious underpinning of the community, on which the Muslim community lays special emphasis, and the need to make education a powerful tool for empowering the community.
Role of Deeni Madaris in India
The Deeni madaris in India have played a role which has no parallel in history. During the British rule, Muslims were driven away not only from the seats of political power but also from other areas of influence. The Christian missionaries mounted a ruthless assault on Islam and the Muslim in the subcontinent. In those turbulent times, the problem of maintaining and deepening the Islamic identity of the recently converted Muslim masses was a formidable task. History bears witness to the creditable manner in which the Ulama not only checked the inroads being made by the British masters and Christian missionaries into the cultural life of Muslims but also prepared a generation of freedom fighter.
“The tradition of opening madaris with the help of voluntary local assistance for the preservation of our cultural identity is still continuing in the subcontinent. At present, there are more than 30,000 such non-governmental educational institutions, spread all over the Indian union. This is the largest chain of educational schools running on an absolutely voluntary basis, anywhere in the world. These madaris function with ridiculously low financial resources, collected from the local communities. It has a disadvantage also as most of the zakat of Muslims is utilised in running these madaris with the very little amount left for other welfare works. The other drawback is almost no control of financial management and curriculum in small madaris. Perhaps one may revert to an earlier system of having madrasa attached to the main mosque of a city or few bigger mosques where the local people have an interest in its management.
As mentioned earlier a teacher may be provided more than formal education of madrasa and there should be a provision of teachers training programme for the teachers who wish to associate with Madrasa education.
Role of Madaris in finding solution to present crisis
Perhaps the major crisis faced by Muslims throughout the world is the issue of terrorism. It was expected from the top level clergy to have an Ijma (consensus amongst Muslim jurists) to provide clear views on the present activities of various groups claiming themselves to be Islamic groups. Although most of the clergy individually have denounced the acts of terrorism, it needs a final verdict by Ijma.
Another factor which is presently troubling the Muslim umma is the factionalism among various sects. Here the various Madaris instead of propagating the acceptability of various school of thoughts are rigidly implanting their own school. When it is agreed that all the four or even five sects of Islam are true then it must be taught in madaris.
The author is a former professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University.