The educational process has started across the world. Schools, universities, and institutes have opened their doors, welcoming our sons and daughters, the nation’s wealth and pioneers of its future. They carry hopes to achieve beneficial knowledge, upright character, and effective skills.
Indeed, how beautiful is knowledge and how great is its status in Islam! It is so great that the first revelation was: “Read in the name of your Lord who created.” (Al-‘Alaq: 1), making reading a gateway to the status of reverence: “Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge.” (Fatir: 28) At the time these ayahs were revealed, the Ummah was at the lowest levels of ignorance in every sense. However, by the light of the Quran and the methodology of Islam, it made a tremendous leap in the world of change, transitioning in a few years from tending sheep to leading nations, from ignorance to excelling in all fields of knowledge and disciplines.
However, a quick glance at the current educational system, whether in its form, timing, curricula, or those running it, reveals the extent of deviation and drift it has suffered. Allow me to pose some revealing questions that require reflection:
First: Does the current educational system link knowledge with faith? Are its curricula built on this basis? Do we read in the name of Allah as we were commanded?
The sad truth is that the unequivocal answer is no. Education today is disconnected from faith, and the curricula are designed according to Western standards that have no relation to the Islamic value system. The curricula are meticulously crafted under the supervision of the American and European systems and controlled by the international framework in a way that one could hardly imagine. The curricula are based on Western standards, even identity subjects like Arabic language, Islamic studies, and social studies, all designed according to international standards following the methodologies, values, and ideas of Western society.
I recall supervising the creation of identity curricula for an Arab and Islamic country a few years ago. I was accompanied by several educational experts from around the world. I would send the ministry the unit of study, or sometimes even a single lesson from the identity subjects for approval and comments. To my surprise, I would receive several reports, not only from that country's Ministry of Education but also from the American “Rand” Institute and other research centers following its approach. The ministry treated these reports as if they were divine texts that should not be contradicted, no matter what directions they contained against Islam and its values!
This makes us realize that the curricula in the hands of our children are not of our making, not derived from our Book, and do not create a generation that upholds and fulfills the word of Islam. In fact, some of them oppose Islam and contradict its Sharia in totality.
Second: Does the extended educational period suit the needs of our children?
A child is taken from his mother's lap after weaning to join the nursery, then school in its various stages, then institutes and universities for no less than 20 years. But is what our children gain after all these years worth this time and these sacrifices?
The more critical question is: Who imposed this division? How do we easily and persistently entrust our children to this system for 20 years? Is what our children gain after such a long period worth all the effort, money, and the years considered the most beautiful stages of their lives that can never be compensated?
I believe that the knowledge and insights gained during this long period, considered the most valuable, richest, and most beautiful in a person's life, do not deserve all this hardship, effort, or money. Much of what is taught to them does not have real targets for building a balanced character or discovering and investing in their potentials, but quite the opposite!
Moreover, most of the certificates they return with have no relation to the jobs they are exploited in. Some might even graduate with market demands but are void of any Islamic teachings and values!
Third: What does the current educational system produce for us?
Looking at the outputs of educational institutions, one realizes that moral values are lost, and mixed-gender schools lead to increasing moral corruption. Graduation parties in schools and universities have become an expression of the disappearance of values, with dancing, nudity, and mingling between boys and girls being common in these events.
Some even return psychologically, intellectually, and socially distorted due to the struggle for grades they and their families strive to achieve. Most families are only concerned with the numbers and grades obtained by the students, regardless of the accompanying intellectual or moral deviation!
A woman from ancient times taught us a profound lesson that should awaken our zeal and correct our concepts. She was the mother of Sufyan al-Thawri, who said to him as a child: “O my son, take these ten dirhams and learn ten hadiths with them. If you see that they change your behavior, come back, and I will give you more and help you with this spindle.” This wisdom reflects the difference between knowledge that brings about real change in morals and behavior, and the knowledge we acquire today without seeing its effect.
She taught humanity that the essence is not in memorizing the ten hadiths, but in seeing their impact on behavior and morals, which is nonexistent in our education or even in our families and communities!
The worst of all is that some people, or many, rush to send their children to foreign curricula and schools, boast about it, and spend huge amounts of money, thinking they are serving their children. They forget they have handed over their children's minds to those who do not know Allah, and who are enemies of Islam and Muslims. The strange thing is that people might teach their children to boycott certain foods and drinks provided by enemy companies while handing over their children's hearts and minds to those who corrupt them immensely!
The Extent of the Problem
The crisis of education in the Islamic world goes beyond merely weak academic results. It threatens our identity and values and weakens our ability to compete in the modern age. Instead of education being a means to build conscious and capable generations of creativity, it has become a tool for rote learning and preparing the workforce. This situation requires all of us—governments, civil society organizations, and individuals—to unite to reform this faltering educational system and set our sights on building a generation conscious of its religion and values, capable of uplifting its Ummah.
Moreover, the educational system has become a tool today for marketing authoritarian regimes, wasting funds, and destroying human energy. The Islamic Ummah today lacks genuine educational methodologies that instill Islam in its children's hearts.
The Islamic Ummah possesses an immense educational heritage that produced the greatest models and the highest levels of knowledge. The Ummah achieved the highest research and intellectual ranks. However, it is not known that Muslims used that knowledge to create destructive weapons that annihilate humanity, or monopolized knowledge and did not share it with humanity, or used it to turn people into lab rats, or spread immorality, or distorted human nature. Quite the contrary, the Ummah’s sciences, even to this day, have been a source of scientific renaissance and the starting point for the knowledge revolution.
The Solution
– We need to call for a revolution against this deadly system that has assassinated the youth of our Ummah and wasted much of our efforts, money, and lives.
– We must think about creating an educational methodology derived from the sources of our religion and its lofty values, independent of external control in all its dimensions.
– It is necessary to return to the Islamic system where students learn comfortably, with a different methodology that preserves their lives, production, and discovers and invests in their potentials.
– We must reformulate education and return to the methodology of “Read in the name of your Lord,” to achieve true honor for humanity. Only then, we will produce a Quranic and Islamic generation that will uplift the Ummah once again.
– The family must return to its educational, guidance, and moral role and not leave the educational system to act as it wishes in the minds and hearts of its children.
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