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| Remember, one day you will appear before Allah (The Creator) and you will answer for your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone. [Muhammad's Last Sermon] |
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Islam and Education
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The world today has little appreciation for the impact Islam had when it recognized the importance of and encouraged seeking knowledge. Muslims are inspired by the first word revealed in the Quran, 'Iqra', meaning 'read.' They follow the age-old adage based on Islamic teaching: to "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave." The inevitable result was a passion for learning, driven by their Islamic belief, which produced great intellects. This included women , which was almost unheard of in the rest of the contemporary world. Such a drive gave birth to institutions for learning, renowned for their scholastic excellence and achievements.
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After the Prophet Muhammad  passed away, Muslims spent tireless days, nights, and indeed lifetimes, working to preserve the knowledge of the prophetic traditions, the Hadith. They were the reports of the sayings and actions of the Prophet .
The Prophet Muhammad said: "The learned are heirs of the prophets, and the prophets do not leave any inheritance in the form of (monetary wealth), but they do leave knowledge as their legacy. A person who acquires knowledge, acquires his full share (of this legacy)." [1]
The scholars were the inheritors of divine knowledge, taking on the immense responsibility of acquiring and disseminating knowledge widely. Thus, it was the heirs of the Prophets who left no stone unturned in their meticulous compilation and preservation of the divine revelation, the Quran, and the widespread sayings, actions and consent of the Prophet . The Quran, after 1400 years, remains unchanged, memorized then passed on from one generation to the next. The manuscript of the Quran (the Mus-haf), written in the presence of the Prophet , has also been copied and checked against the memorized Quran, generation after generation, until it reached us today in the age of the printing press. Even today, new print editions are meticulously checked for accuracy by committees of scholars, ensuring that not a single letter has been changed from that which was written down by the companions of the Prophet. This is proven by the corroboration of all copies of the Quran in the world, old or new.
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Prophet Muhammad said: “Seeking knowledge is a duty of every Muslim, man or woman”. [2]
The privilege of an education was not only a right for women , but a duty from the very inception of Islam. This is unlike in the West, where women fought to gain rights, honour and respect, right up until the present day. Of the most famous of scholars and educators was Aisha, the wife of the Prophet . However, delving deeper into the Islamic history shows that there were a large number of Muslim women who contributed greatly to the Islamic heritage. Muhammad Akram Nadwi’s forty volume compilation of a biographical dictionary of Muslim female scholars details the influence these women had on Islamic jurisprudence. Commenting on his research he observed, “I thought I’d find maybe twenty or thirty women ," but to date he has in fact found 8000. His work includes a fifteenth century woman who taught hadith by the Prophet’s grave in Medina.; a female scholar in twelfth century Egypt whose male students marveled at her mastery of a “camel load” of texts; and a seventeenth century Madinan woman who reached the academic rank of jurist, issuing key fatwas on hajj rituals and commerce.
Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm, the famous Andalusian (modern day Spain) (d.1064), stated in his renowned Tawq al-Hamamah that his first teachers in Quran and hadith were women .
“Labana of Cordoba was thoroughly versed in the exact sciences; her talents were equal to the solution of the most complex geometrical and algebraic problems, and her vast acquaintance with general literature obtained her the important employment of private secretary to the Khalif al-Hakem II.” [3]
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| Initially, mosques combined both religious rituals and learning activities, but by the tenth century, the Seljuks had introduced the 'Madrassa'; a proper school built independently from the mosque. They were also the first to make the Madrassa system a public domain under the control of the Khalifah (Caliph). | |
| If the definition of a university is assumed to mean an institution of higher education and research, which issues academic degrees at all levels (e.g. bachelor, master and doctorate) as in the modern sense of the word, then the Islamic schools, known as Jami'ah ("university" in Arabic), founded in the ninth century would be among the earliest examples of such institutions. The Al-Qarawiyin in Fez, Morocco, is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university in the world, with its establishment in 859 by Fatimah al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. The eagerness to pass on knowledge and learning for the advancement of a civilisation was the impetus that gave rise to such Institutions. Also in the ninth century, Bimaristan medical schools were founded in the medieval Islamic world, where medical degrees and diplomas were issued to students of medicine who were qualified to be a practicing doctors. | |
| The education system above became the driving force from which emerged intellects such as Abdullah Ibn Firnas, whose first attempt at flight was as early as 852; the thirteenth century engineer, Al-Jazari, inventor of ingenious mechanical devices, including the crank shaft, central to much of the machinery in the modern world. Education under Islam resulted in the thirst for knowledge and led to a remarkable Islamic heritage. |
| [1] Riyadh-us-Salaheen, Number 1388
[2] Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 218
[3] S. P. Scott, History of the Moorish empire in Europe. The original Arabic manuscript for Tawq al-Hamamah can be viewed at http://bc.ub.leidenuniv.nl/bc/olg/selec/tawq/index.html
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| Categories: Islam Explained,
| Tags: education,
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The following articles are also linked to this article: | women: Women under the Shariah? It is widely believed in the West that Islam subjugates women. Many believe that men force women to cover their hair, to stay at home chained to the stove, that women should remain uneducated and weak... |
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