Dhaka Thursday February 25, 2010

Islamic education heritage

Dr A.M. Choudhury
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Sk. Enamul Haq

Our education system is broadly divided into three categories, the Bengali medium, the English medium and the Madrasa system. Bangladesh has two kinds of madrasas: The government controlled Alia madrasa system and the privately run Quomi madrasas. The government of Bangladesh pays most of the salaries of the teachers and administrators as well as considerable portion of the development expenditures in the case of alia madrasa system. According to the latest statistics the number of such madrasas including few government madrasas is 9384 and the total number of students is 18,96,111.

There is no mention of exact number of Quomi madrasas in government statistics. However, there is an estimate of more than 6500 quomi madrasas and the total number of students there is about 14,62,500.The quomi madrasas are private, receive no financial support from the government and are maintained by religious endowments, or by Zakat, Sadqa and donations from the faithful. The degrees of the Quomi madrasas are not recognised by the government and they pursue their careers in religious establishments and private business.

The total number of students in the general primary schools is 1,63,85,874. Thus madrasa students including both alia and quomi madrasas constitute about 20 percent of primary school enrolment and that is quite considerable.

Islam has emphasised two types of knowledge: revealed knowledge that has come through the Holy Quran and the knowledge that is to be discovered by man himself. Islam considers both to be of vital importance and directs its followers to seek knowledge. If we look at the first verse revealed by God to Hazrat Mohammad (SM) : Iqrah bismey rabbiquallazi khalaka; Khalqal insana min alaq. In the first part, the prophet has been asked to read which means seeking knowledge. The second part describes how man has been created. That is high science about which scientists are still working and modern research has shown that the initial embryo of humans has the characteristics of alaq mentioned in the holy Quran which has also described in various chapters the development of the embryo which is supported by modern research. Quran has mentioned 82 times about prayer but thousand times about science. The prophet has directed his followers to go to China if necessary to seek knowledge. He also said that a learned man's sleep is more valuable than the Ibadat of an ignorant man.

In the early days of Islam both the spiritual knowledge and the worldly knowledge were given equal importance in the teaching system. Tthe first organised madrasa established in Bagdad in 1067 A.D. by the Seljuk Prime Minister Nizamul Mulk, called Nizami madrasa, these two types of education were provided. Scholastic theology was taught to produce spiritual leaders and worldly knowledge to produce government servants who could be appointed in various regions and countries of the empire. The education included various disciplines of science, philosophy, public administration, governance and the like, Nizamul Mulk himself authored a book named Siasat Nama which means Way to Govern.If he was alive to-day definitely he would have included computer science and electronic governance in the curriculum of his madrasa.

If we look at the Muslim rule in Spain, education was universal available to the most humble, while 99 percent of the Christian Europe was illiterate at that time. Seventeen universities were established in Muslim Spain when none such universities existed in Europe at that time. The universities developed during eighth and ninth centuries had a structure similar to modern European or American universities. Almost all the modern subjects used to be taught there, which included astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, physics, philosophy etc. In a Spanish University during Islamic times the inscription read like this The world is supported by four things only: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valour of the brave. The scholars there pioneered knowledge of rational sciences, mathematics and medicine. The Muslims in Spain practised farming in a scientific way. They developed good system of irrigation and knew about fertilisers. They introduced into the west many trees and plants from the east. They introduced art of manufacturing paper which helped production of books. Their commerce was considerable extending to China, Russia and India. The Muslims in those days gave equal status to religion and philosophy as system for explaining the cosmos. The questioning and the use of logic revolutionised the definition of truth, which was essential for the birth of Renaissance. They also introduced manufacture of gunpowder in Europe which their enemies later adopted to drive them back to Africa.

Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science. Armed with the teachings of Islam, Muslims made tremendous contributions in science, knowledge and culture. During the Abbasside period, Baitul Hikmat (House of Knowledge) was established in Bagdad. Here rare books were collected from far and wide. Huge number of books in Persian, Greek, Sanskrit etc. were collected. The best philosophical works of ancient Greece were brought from Athens and translated into Arabic. Original research was also conducted more significantly in the field of Astronomy. The telescope was invented by a scientist named Abul Hasan, which was ascribed to Galileo several centuries later. Valuable treatises were written on medicine, optics, mechanics etc. An observatory was established .Scholars from other countries and various territories of the Islamic state gathered in Bagdad in pursuit of knowledge.

During the Muslim rule in Spain, which lasted some eight hundred years, scholars from various countries used to come to study in the Spanish universities established by the Muslims and they used to carry that culture into the countries from which they came and the influence of the Spanish universities upon the universities of Paris, Oxford and those which were established in Northern Italy was considerable. The scientific world owes a great deal to the Muslims. They invented the Arabic numerals which made written calculations with far greater simplicity than did Roman numeration. drAlgebra is particularly their creation. They developed trigonometry, optics, astronomy and the pendulum. They studied physiology and hygiene, they performed most difficult operations at a time when elsewhere in Europe, practice of medicine was practically forbidden by church. The name of legendary Ibn-e-Sina deserves to be mentioned in this connection. His book Canon of Medicine was used in Europe as a text book until the development of modern medicine. He wrote many books on a large number of subjects. He was known as Sheikh al-Rais(leader among the wise men). Alkhwarizimi was the greatest astronomer at that time. He compiled the oldest astronomical tables. In number theory he wrote a book named Kitabul Hind. It was he who first achieved a systematic decimal classification using zero. The term used in modern computer science algorithm originates from the book : Algorithmi de numero Indorum, the Latin translation of Alkhwarizmi's treatise on Hindu-Arabic numerals. Hundreds of such examples could be given. It is from the Muslims that scientific knowledge got transferred to the Europeans including the ancient Greek knowledge.

After the defeat of Muslim empires one by one, Muslim learning and scholarship went into a state of decay resulting in the Muslim Ulema to shun any pursuit of worldly knowledge and go back to basics only. When the South Asian subcontinent came under the British rule, a new modern system of education to run the machinery of colonialism was introduced and excluded the role of madrasas in any type of development. The new rulers brought the ideas of the madrasa education without emphasis on worldly education which suited them well. The madrasas in south Asia including Bangladesh follow a curriculum known as Dars-i Nizami first introduced by Mullah Nizamuddin Sihalvi and this is not the same as the curriculum introduced by Nizamul Mulk in Bagdad in eleventh century, who gave his system of education the name Madrasa. That was the Arabic name for a university. The Deoband Madrasa which was established in U.P., India in 1867 has embodied Dars-i Nizami system. The quomi Madrasas in Bangladesh are predominantly of Deobandi persuasion and follow a very outdated syllabus which has not changed during centuries.

Though there were attempts to change and introduce worldly curriculum and modernisation in the government controlled madrasas, it has not been very successful so far .A modern syllabus which includes computer education and vocational training would enable large number of madrasa students to get well established in society. Islamic education which gave birth to Renaissance which is the basis of modern civilisation can not be in conflict with it. It is suicidal to exclude imparting of worldly knowledge in the madrasa education.

The new education policy of the Government of Bangladesh emphasises educating madrasa students on general and vocational curricula alongside traditional religious education to develop a skilled population for the nation. But so far it does not include the quomi madrasas. An ideal system would be to impart a uniform education system in the whole country and every student would be imparted basic religious as well as worldly education in the school and later they could specialize in their respective fields of interest. Those who want to specialise in theology can receive doctor of divinity degree. But that will take a long time.

Since the guardians of Quomi madrasa claim to be the guardians of Islam as well why not they follow the whole of Islam which is enshrined in the Holy Quran and Sunnah. Do they think that they are better Muslims than those during the Abbassides and Muslim rule in Spain when the whole of Middle East, large part of Asia and Europe were Muslim rule. In the whole of Quran and Sunnah there is mention of basic religion as well as code of conduct for worldly affairs. At the end of our daily prayers ,we seek favour of God both in this world and the afterworld and the worldly favour is mentioned first. Unless we practise worldly activities how can we ask for God's favour?

There is no truth in the allegation that madrasa education per se gives rise to terrorism. If any madrasa student gets involved in terrorist activities, this should not be because of his education but because he is led astray by alluring financial benefit or some other promised advantage and this can happen to people coming from any other section of the society as well. The safeguard against terrorist activity is to train people on vocational lines so that they are sure of economic security.

The author is an educationist.

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