My talk on the “Education of Shi'ahs in North America; a general outlook and suggestions” is
divided info four parts;
1. Importance of knowledge and education
in Islam.
2. Types of Education.
3. Basic Education.
4. Advanced Education.
In a society where religion and knowledge
in general and science in particular do not go hand in hand, it seems necessary
to briefly describe the position of Islam vis-à-vis knowledge, Islam, in theory
as well as in practice, has always promoted knowledge. Distinctive mark of
human beings over the angels is knowledge:
"And Allah taught Adam all the names…”
(2:31)
The first verses of the Quran began with
the word:
"Read. Read in the name of thy Lord
who created; [He] created the human being from blood clot. Read in the name of
thy Lord who taught by the pen: [He] taught the human being what he did not
know." (96: 1-5).
The Qur'an says.
"Are those who have knowledge equal
to those who do not have knowledge?!”(39:9).
The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him
and his progeny) has also emphasized the importance of seeking knowledge in
different ways:
(a) Time: "Seek knowledge from the
cradle to the grave."
(b) Place: "Seek knowledge even if
it is far as China."
(c) Gender: "Seeking of knowledge is
a duty of every Muslim"
(d) Source: "Wisdom is the lost property
of the believer, he should take it even if finds it in the mouth of a mushrik."
The Prophet did not only preach about
importance of knowledge, he also gave examples of promoting knowledge. In the
very first battle between the Muslims and unbelievers or Mecca, known as the war of Badr, the Muslims
gain victory and caught seventy kuffars as prisoners of war. One of the
criteria of releasing the POWs devised by the Prophet was that those who were
literate among the prisoners could go free if they teach ten Muslim children
how to read and write.
2)
What Type of Knowledge?
Knowledge in Islam is normally divided
into two broad categories: there is a famous saying "al-'ilm
"ilman: 'ilmu- adyan wa ilmu abdan - knowledge is of two kinds: the
knowledge concerning religions and the knowledge concerning [human and
physical] bodies." What has been mentioned above on the importance of
knowledge refers to both, the religious as well as the secular knowledge.
The Quran has specifically talked about
science also:
"In the creation of the heavens and
the earth the alternation of the night and the day, in the ships that sail in
the sea with their load…. in the rain which Allah sends down from the sky and thus
revives the earth after its death; and then He spread in all kinds of animals;
in the changing of the winds: in the clouds which have been left suspending
between the heaven and the earth -in all these are clear signs for the people
who understand” (2:164)
"We-: shall show them Our signs in
the horizons and in themselves." (41:53)
The backwardness of the Muslims in last few
centuries, as far as education is concerned, is because of the following:
o
The Muslims lost leadership in the field of physical science
and technology because of arrogance which led to stagnation.
o
The invasion by the Mongols, who were barbarians and did not
appreciate the value of knowledge: they burned down the most prestigious
libraries in Baghdad.
o
In the nineteenth century, when the Muslims attempted to
revive the process of education and knowledge in their societies, they naively
adapted the western secular system which had completely separated the religious
sciences from the secular sciences. (Example of the Turkish reformers of the
last century and also Egyptian intellectuals of the early twentieth century, especially
Dr. Taha Husayn in his Mustaqbilu ‘th-Thaqafah fi Misr. We can also
mention Sir Syed Ahmad Khan of India.)
The Muslim world is still suffering from the dissection between the religious
and secular sciences.
This issue goes back to the basic difference
between the Islamic and Christian view of knowledge. In Christianity, the
Bible relates the fall of man to the sin of stealing the fruit from the tree of
knowledge; whereas, in Islam, the Quran describes knowledge as the basis on
which the man was given preference over the angels. Even historically, the
Christian church is full of stories about its Inquisitors who censored the
works of science and also tortured the scientists if they views were contrary
to what the Bible said.
In Muslim history, no such
institutionalized censorship or suppression of scientists can be found. In the
Muslim world, you find the harmonious combination of the two types of knowledge.
For example, in the person of Ibn Sina, you had someone who had written al-Isharat
on philosophy and metaphysics, and also al-Qanun fi’t-Tibb on medicine,
a book whose Latin translation was used as a text in western universities till
two centuries ago!
This dissection between the religious and
secular sciences is the root of all the problems in the area of education for
the Muslims world-wide. The greatest challenge for the Muslims of the
twenty-first century is the issue of the bringing together of the two
sciences, religious and secular, in such a way that knowledge brings people
closer to God and gives meaning to the life on this earth. This is not
impossible because historically the Muslims have done that in the past. Right
from the days of Imam Muhammad al- Baqir (a.s.) till the down-fall of the Muslim
empire. We had Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a.s) who taught theology to Hisham bin
Hakam, Ahadith to Zurarah bin A'yan, and science to Jabir bin Hayyan. In
our Imams, we see the example of a single source for religious as well as
secular sciences.
The western science is based on experimental
method. Let me just quote something about the alchemy of Muslims from Will Durant's
The Story of Civilization,[1]
Muslim “developed experimental method which is the greatest pride and tool of
the modern mind. When Roger Bacon proclaimed that method to Europe,
live hundred years after Jabir bin Hayyan, he owned his illumination to the
Moors of Spain, whose light had come from the Muslim East."
But, for today, I would like to briefly
look at this issue in the Western context and propose some ideas which
hopefully would generate discussions in the workshop this afternoon.
3) Education at the Basic Level
What can we do to combine the religions
and secular education for Muslim children in North America? There are two solutions to
these problems: a short-term and a long-term solution.
a) The Short Term Solution
Send our children to the public or private
school for secular education; and for their religious education, send them to
the: Sunday schools and summer programs. This is what we are doing at this
stage of our settlement in this continent.
But this short-term solution is not a
complete solution, its still suffers from the problem of separating religion
from science; religion from real life issues. If the parents do not implement
what is taught to the students at the Sunday schools, then there is the danger
that the student might suffer from the double standard syndrome: behave as a
Muslim in madrasah, masjid and majlis but. behave as a “regular” with others.
b) The Long-Term Solution
Creation of full time Islamic schools.
This will provide The Muslim students with a morally Islamic atmosphere turning
the peer pressure in favour of Islam rather than against Islam.
Secondly, a full time Islamic school
would integrate the secular sciences with religious sciences — science will
became not only a servant of man but also a means of serving Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
4)
Education at Advanced Level
At the present stage of our settlement,
on this continent, we cannot think of the same solution for the advanced level
or education as we presented about the basic level of education. Maybe, our future
generations may explore the means and ways of establishing an Islamic university
which our students can study the so-called 'non-religious' sciences not as
anti-religious but as part of their 'religious' outlook.
At the moment, however, our efforts
should be concentrated on bridging the gap between the 'ulama and the
scientists on the intellectual and mental levels. This may be done in two
ways:
a) Short Term
There should be regular inter-action,
dialogue and discussion between the ulama and scholars of secular sciences.
b) Long Term
(a) The 'ulama’ should
become familiar with the modern scientific issues: their information on
social, economic, and ethical issues of our time must be up- to-date and
correct.
In the old Islamic system, there was no
separation between the centers of learning of religious and secular sciences.
You could have gone to Baghdad, Hella, Najaf,
Ray, Cairo, Fez, Qum or Cordova for seeking of religious as well as scientific
knowledge. Even now, I personally know of examples among the 'ulama' of
Qum who had hired a learned economist from the University of Tehran
to visit them on a weekly basis to discuss the most modern and advance economic
theories of the time. My own grandfather was an ‘alim and also a tabib.
(b) The Muslim scientists must familiar
themselves with the basic texts of Islam: the Qur'an and sunnah.
The Muslim scientists must become
familiar with the Islamic literature related to the areas of their
specialization. When the Prophet said, "I am leaving two precious things
amongst you: the Book of Allah and my family; as long as you hold to them you
will never be led astray," he was not only addressing the ‘ulama':
he was leaving these two guides for the entire ummah.
Out of six thousand and some verses of the
Qur'an, only five hundred arc on fiqh, The verses on nature and creation are
still waiting explanation by the Muslim scientists. The ahadith on nature and
science arc still waiting for explanation at the hands of Muslim scientists.
Allamah Majlisi has compiled a 110 volumes encyclopaedia of Ahadith
known as Biharul Anwar. In this compilation, there a complete volume on
the verses and ahadith related to the earth and heavens; this particular volume
is sub-titled as 'kitabu ‘s-sama" wa 'l ardh" — the book of the
heaven and earth.
Small steps have already been taken by
some scientists to study the original texts of Islam on scientific issues. The
fore-most example is that of Dr. Maurice BuCaille in his Bible, Qur'an Science.
Also a group of Canadian science Lists from the University
of Toronto were invited in early
eighties by a university in Arabia to study
embryology in the Quran and hadith. These non-Muslims were astonished to see
that the Qur'an spoke about issues which have
been discovered only recently by the modern science on embryology.
My prayers is to see that Muslim scientists
come up with ground-breaking theories based on the Quran and Ahadith
rather than wait for science to discover something and then say that it was mentioned
by the Qur'an 1400 years ago!
5)
Some more Suggestions
The Shi'ah community of North
America is, al hamdulila-Lah, affluent to take care of its
children. And I strongly believe that our organizations, specially the federal,
national or umbrella organizations, must establish scholarship programs for
those who want to pursue advance studies in all fields of knowledge. They
should also establish 'awards' for those of our children who show excellence in
their academic fields. Even Muslim scholars and scientists should be awarded
for their achievements. Such projects already exist among other ethnic and religious
groups. e.g., the Jewish people, who recognise the achievements of their own
people. We should we not take pride in our community members and support them.
If there are organizations which have
such programs, then they should be more publicized among- our communities all
over North America. I hope the ideas I have
thrown around will help in generating discussion and formulating a vision and
a view of future, which, I believe is optimistic.
Remember, our Imams have said that if you
have to select between wealth and knowledge, go for knowledge: wealth can he
stolen but knowledge can never be taken away; wealth decreases with usage but
the more you use your knowledge the more you increase in it.
Look at the examples of our Imams: the
rulers took away the wealth but they could not take away the knowledge which
had been bestowed upon them by Allah. In spite of all the bitterness between
Imam Ali and first caliphs, the second caliph used to approach Imam Ali
whenever he could not resolve a legal or Qur'anic problem.
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