Is Education the Way for Revival?
 

The advancements of the Western world in education and technology have enamoured the Muslims for many decades. A deep sense of inferiority has overcome many in the Ummah, who on the basis of the huge gulf in achievement look up to the Western world and its institutions of science and learning as a role model for true progress and revival. No doubt, this gap is large, as we see the Muslim world characterised by illiteracy, and backwardness in all areas of material life to the point that we have become virtually dependent on the West for almost every kind of development, from agriculture, to military to even consumer goods. This has happened to such an extent, that some Muslims feel the only way forward from our current state is through education when Muslims have achieved such levels of education and scholarship as is seen in the West, only then will our problems be solved. In fact, many Muslims believe that by their personal efforts in becoming engineers, lawyers, doctors, physicists, etc., they are contributing directly to the effort of revival. By considering some of the concepts from the Islamic belief and the glorious scientific and educational heritage of the Islamic Ummah, it is clear that the notion of increasing the level of academic education is not at all the cause of revival, rather it is a consequence of revival.

The roots of revival in the Arabian Peninsula and the Western world

Although the pre-Islamic desert Arabs were possessed of a rich literary heritage, being skilled in language, poetry, oration and memorisation, they had a system of oral-based learning relatively few people could read and write. They were largely devoid of a significant knowledge in technical or other academic matters, of the sort which lead to material progress, such as agriculture, economics, military technology, physics, architecture etc. However, with the advent of Islam, their state was rapidly transformed within a few decades, they were making significant advances in technology and before long became the leading nation of the world politically, technologically and in all fields of science and learning.

More recently, a similar turn was seen in the Western world which, at the time of Islamic world-dominance was living in a deeply backward and barbaric situation. For within the last two centuries, Europe and America have become the leaders in the world, setting the global standards of education, technology and science. So what was the cause of these radical transformations?

Some argue that the key was in education. Amongst the Arabs, reading and writing, i.e. literacy on a large scale was introduced by the Prophet Muhammad (saw), who for example, made the ransom of each prisoner of the battle of Badr the teaching of 10 Muslims to read and write. In later years, Islam heralded the establishment of the first schools and universities, and it is to such developments in education that the progress of the Muslims has been attributed.

A similar story is presented in the West, where schooling and further education is highly structured at all levels, and is accessible to the vast majority of the population.

Some Muslims identify this as the root of the contemporary advancement of the Western world. Accordingly, they hold that the reason for the decline in the station of the Islamic Ummah, is that such institutions and the availability of mass education has all but disappeared in the Muslim world. It is deduced then, that only in rectifying this decline, the Islamic Ummah can progress. This idea is incorrect.

Ideology forms the basis of intellectual progress

From a survey of the history of Islam and other civilisations, it is clear that progress in education does not arise in isolation, or from the initiative of individual scholars. For example, in Europe, such progress arose in the background of the Reformation, before which the Church ruled over the people with an iron fist, and actively discouraged scholarship by torturing and killing intellectuals such as Galileo and Copernicus, whose discoveries of scientific facts threatened the validity of Christian religious beliefs. It was only after the European nations adopted the ideology of Capitalism, that levels of research, scholarship and progress escalated, and the world witnessed events such as the 'industrial revolution.'

For the Muslims the same was true, as it was only after the Prophet (saw) arrived with the ideology of Islam and its directives and motivation for progress, that changes began to happen. These being furthered by the efforts of the Khulafa'a after him.

An ideology is in essence a viewpoint about life, from which emanates a system to organise the affairs of individual and societal life, providing a means of solving problems and a basis upon which the society may progress. Islam and Capitalism are both examples of this. When a people adopt an ideology, their society develops an objective and a direction. In Islam, the implementation of the deen of Allah (swt), the solving of life's problems by it and the mission of spreading the deen to the rest of mankind provide this direction. It is these that present the impetus for progress in education, and in all areas of life.

This impetus is furthered by the fact that ideologies, when adopted by the people, manifest themselves in the form of states. When the Prophet (saw) came with the deen of Islam, its practice was not restricted to individuals only, but demanded the establishment of a state. Similarly, when Capitalism was adopted in the West, it primarily addressed the functions of state and government. Regarding education, this is an essential factor, as only states can provide the necessary conditions for education to flourish en masse, by establishing institutions of learning, laboratories and giving funding etc., which are necessary for any serious development to take place.

Thus it becomes clear, that an ideological revival is the necessary basis for educational or scientific progress, which is merely a sign of such a revival. In Islam, the basis and purpose of life itself is defined by the Islamic creed, and the way to manifest that purpose is through the implementation of the Shari'ah (divine law). So, we can see that the early centres of academic education emerged in the Islamic state from centres of religious teaching, i.e. the mosques, and if one considers the multitude of the famous scholars in Islamic history, the foundation of their learning was firmly rooted in knowledge of the deen (i.e. that of the Islamic ideology). For indeed, when isolated from knowledge of the purpose of individual and societal life, the pursuit of academic education becomes meaningless.

By analogy then, it can be seen that the relationship of education to the revival is as that of a fruit to a tree. Education is one of the fruits of revival, the ideology upon which it is based being the roots of the tree itself. It appears and grows only if the roots are present and firmly placed, and disappears or declines when the roots become unhealthy or are destroyed altogether. To claim that the fruits themselves are the source of nourishment of the the tree is retrograde logic. Accordingly, to call for academic and scientific education in the hope that it will lead to a correct revival is futile. Rather, it is the calling for the re-establishment and correction of the ideology that will lead to educational progress.

Reasons for the decline in the intellectual standing of the Islamic State

Many factors can be indicted in the decline of the Islamic state and the Muslim contribution to education. But the first and foremost factor is the decline in the level of the Muslims in understanding their deen as an ideology. After becoming complacent with their early success, which was built on the strong intellectual and ideological revival brought by the Prophet (saw) and his Companions (ra) after him, an intellectual decline set in. Slowly, their comprehension of the deen as an intellectual creed which gives rise to solutions for the problems of life began to transform into more of a habitual practice of rites and living.

This paved the way for an intellectual and physical attack against the Muslims and their state by the Europeans and their newly born Capitalist ideology. Part of this attack focussed on the educational system of the state the colonialist era saw the separation of religious centres from centres of academic learning, which ensured that religious scholars would be devoid of academic and practical scientific education, and vice versa. Indeed the attack was successful, and this situation persists until today, where the intellectuals of the Ummah are pushed into study of medicine, engineering, physics etc., and the underachievers resort to studying in the 'madrasah'. Thus, it has arisen that credibility for study lies not in the deen, as was the case in the past, but in the secular sciences.

The reality of secular education

For Muslims, understanding and living by the creed which defines the purpose of their life is the basic education, and this is fard on every individual. Thus, the education policy of the Islamic state is primarily directed towards imparting a clear understanding of the deen of Islam, which forms the basis of other studies. Today, however, many Muslims lack the correct ideological understanding of the deen, which as we have discussed forms the basis of true revival, yet they consider that excelling in academic studies in some way contributes to the Muslims well-being. In truth, this approach is a disaster for both the individual and the Ummah. For the reality of secular education, especially in the West, is that it imparts as well as academic knowledge, a distortion of Islam and how Muslims should live and behave. Foreign students from Muslim countries learn values and concepts alien to Islam, such as love of freedom, democracy, and the secular lifestyle. They adopt theories of evolution instead of creation of all things by Allah (swt) and Capitalist economics and politics instead of the rule by Allah's (swt) laws. In effect, what they learn hinders the correct Islamic revival of Muslims, as opposed to contributing to it.

As for contributing what they have learnt to the well-being of Muslims, the reality is that the brains of the Islamic Ummah are invested in the laboratories of the kuffar to further their own materialistic ends - designing bombs to drop on Muslims, and defining policies to exploit their resources. Indeed, despite the huge numbers of Muslim academics trained in Western universities, there is no sign of any real and meaningful progress in any field in their native countries. For despite many such people returning to their own lands, their countries lack any ideological direction whereby they may invest these abilities. A classical example of this is in Egypt, which boasts great numbers of Ph.D. holders, yet she still relies on Western resources and management in the undertaking of any industrial, economical or technological project.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be seen that education is but a sign of revival of a society, and not the basis.

Thus, we must remove from our minds the shackles of indoctrination with Western ideals and values, and realise the futility of the pursuit of secular education and the isolation from the correct ideological understanding of our deen, which is the real foundation of the revival of the Islamic Ummah. It is the decline in this understanding that caused us to fall to the wayside in dominating the world in all affairs, including education, and it is only in its revival that the solution lies.

That will primarily cause the Ummah to adopt a direction in the management of its affairs, by responding to the obligations of our creed. The result will be the formation of an ideological Islamic state which will in turn provide the atmosphere and facilities for advancement in all fields of education and science, just as it did in the past, and again we will see Insh'Allah, this Ummah leading the world as a shining example of true progress.