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Children studying in madrasas and
training to become ulema fulfill the collective duty (farz-e kifaya)
that is mentioned in the Quran in the following words:
Nor should the Believers all go forth
together: if a contingent from every expedition remained behind,
they could devote themselves to studies in religion, and admonish
the people when they return to them,- that thus they (may learn) to
guard themselves (against evil) (9:122).
These students are among those who are
indicated in a hadith report, in which the Prophet is said to have
declared, ‘The best among you is he who learns the Quran and teaches
it’. They are also indicated in another such report, according to
which the Prophet declared that ‘The ulema of my ummah are like the
prophets of the Children of Israel’. According to yet another hadith,
the Prophet is said to have mentioned that for he who walks in the
path of seeking knowledge God makes easy for him one of the paths to
heaven; the angels, pleased with him, cover him with their wings;
and the creatures of the skies and on earth and the fish in the sea
supplicate for him. The superiority of a scholar over a worshipper,
the Prophet is said to have remarked, is like that of the full-moon
over all the stars. According to the Prophet, the scholars are the
inheritors of the prophets, who have left behind as their
inheritance not dinars and dirhams but knowledge (Ahmad, Tirmidhi,
Abu Daud, Ibn Maja and Dirami).
He whom God wishes well He provides
with knowledge and understanding of the faith. According to a
narration reported by Hazrat Anas, the student who travels in the
path of knowledge remains on the path of God until he returns (Tirmidhi,
Dirami).
*
Given this great importance of
madrasas and the ulema, it is obvious that their responsibilities,
too, are immense. They need to provide guidance not just Muslims
alone, but to the whole of humanity. This is why madrasas need to
introduce, to the extent necessary and possible, the teaching of
modern subjects that are indispensable in today’s society. Of
course, the centrality, importance and superior place that religious
subjects should occupy in the syllabus of the madrasas is
undeniable, but madrasas must also keep in mind the contemporary
salience of modern subjects and the demands of today’s age. In the
absence of this, Muslim society will continue to remain backward and
marginalized, and, leave alone being able to guide or lead others,
we will not be capable of even walking at par with them. This is why
it is indispensable that madrasas introduce the teaching of subjects
such as Hindi, English, Science, History, Geography, Economics,
Politics and so on, till at least the high school or intermediate
level.
Till recently, the syllabus used in
the bigger madrasas in India used to take into account the
prevailing social and economic needs and demands. Accordingly, they
would regularly update their curriculum. This provided madrasa
education with expansiveness and made it holistic. As a result,
madrasa graduates had a well-rounded learning that enabled them to
provide leadership in various spheres of society. However, over time
their curriculum began to narrow down and become increasingly
stagnant till they began to restrict themselves simply to religious
education. This resulted in growing backwardness and marginalization
of the wider Muslim society, which, on the whole, remained cut off
from, and ignorant of, modern knowledge. To remedy this state of
affairs it is now essential for the madrasas to seriously ponder on
and review their stagnant and limited stance so as to widen the
scope of their curriculum and make the education they provide more
holistic. In this way, they can better serve not just their own
students and graduates but even the general Muslim society as well
as people of other faiths and be a source of welfare, benefit and
inspiration for all.
*
It is essential that the
administrators, ulema, teachers and students of madrasas all be
characterized by sincerity of intention, the readiness to engage in
introspection, and a firm consciousness of their responsibilities.
Without these, madrasas cannot be a source of benefit and welfare,
and nor will they be fit to receive God’s blessings and assistance.
Nor, too, would they be able to have a positive impact on society.
The madrasa system of education is
based on sincerity, purity, dedication to God, consciousness of the
Hereafter and on placing the demands of the faith over worldly
desires. It aims at providing religious education and training to
members of society and working for their reform and welfare. On the
other hand, the principal aim of the Western-style system of
education is material acquisition or accumulation and improving
economic standards. This is why it focuses so heavily on
job-oriented learning. One consequence of this sort of education is
that students and teachers often miss out the higher and loftier
aims of education, and focus, instead, simply on the economic
factor. Islamic education is certainly not about world-renouncing
monasticism. Nor is it blind to the need for human beings to earn
their livelihood. But, yet, it does not make economic development or
material accumulation its primary concern. Rather, this concern is
secondary, though it permits working for this purpose to the
necessary extent.
*
In recent years the Government of
India has been trying to implement schemes to introduce the teaching
of modern subjects in the madrasas, to help improve the conditions
of the madrasas, and to increase the salaries of madrasa teachers.
As a matter of principle, no one has any fundamental differences
with these measures. Yet, those associated with the madrasas must
keep in mind the implications of the setting up [by governments] of
madrasa boards, one of these being the declining standards of many
madrasas affiliated with such boards. Many teachers and students in
these affiliated madrasas are no longer concerned about their
principal duties, but, instead, like staff and students in regular
colleges and universities, they, too, have joined the materialistic
rat-race. This has caused them to deviate from the basic and
fundamental aims and purposes of madrasa education. That, needless
to say, is a major tragedy. As a poet very aptly puts it:
Oh bird that soars in the higher
realms!
Death is better than that food, eating
which your flight is impaired.
Aye tair-e lahuti us rizq se mat acchi
Jis rizq se ati ho parwaz ki kotahi
This is translation of
the editorial titled ‘Madaris-e Islamiya Ka Maqam Aur Paigham’ (‘The
Position and Message of the Islamic Madrasas’) written by Maulana
Asad Qasmi, in the September-October 2009 issue of the bi-monthly
Urdu magazine Fikr-e Islami
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