Zaki Badawi
Muslim educators unanimously agree that the purpose of education is not to cram the pupils'minds with facts but to prepare them for a life of purity and sincerity. This total commitment to character-building based on the ideals of Islamic ethics is the highest goal of Islamic education(l). Muslim society naturally must aim at instilling the principles of Islam in the hearts and minds of its young to achieve through them the ideal of the faith , the continuity of the Umma which the Holy Qur'an describes as "the best nation ever brought forth to men."(2) The Umma was so described not for its superiority in knowledge or skill but for the fact that it enjoined virtue and forbade vice and believed in Allah. (3)
Some educational systems emphasise education for individual excellence. The interests and goals of society as a whole are secondary to those of the individual in such a system. The Sophists of ancient Greece formulated and defended this outlook. But there are those who take the opposite stand and subordinate the interests and goals of the individual to those of society. The clearest example of this attitude is that of Sparta, There, the sole purpose of education was to submerge individual identity into the ' totality of the group. Islam effected a balance between the two tendencies. Individual excellence was not sacrificed for the good of the group nor was the goal of the group given second place to that of the individual.
This balance runs through all aspects of Muslim education and is manifested most strikingly in the area of its aims and purposes. To illustrate this more forcefully we may use Max Weber's analysis of the types of education. He enumerates three types. The first he call s 'charismatic education' which is dominant "in periods in which religion reaches its highest point". It aims at awakening "religious intuition and the inner readiness for transcendental experience". The predominant aim in this case "is not the transfer of specific content or skill but to stir up certain innate powers". This type is perhaps exemplified by what the Sufis call 'tarbiyah'. It is concerned primarily with the individual's inner excellence.
The second and very different type is education for culture'. It is based on "the belief that certain contents perceived as classical have the inner qualifications of breeding a certain social type. It is not only the substance which is valued but the style of life which unconsciously will be transferred through the ideas presented. Not the content as such but its formative educational power is being stressed. Good examples are the creation of the gentleman or of the Chinese mandarin who acquire through the study of the classics a certain mental mood, style of thought, and inner disposition and sentiment." The emphasis here is on social distinction.
The third type is 'specialist education'. It "seeks to transfer a special knowledge or skill and is strictly correlated with the growth of division of labour which makes the specialist indispensable in modern industrial society." This type is exemplified by the training given in some of the modern secular trade schools where the whole relationship is purely mechanical and lacking the inner depth of charismatic education and the concern for the human personality characteristic of the cultural education. (4)
Islam blends the three types in its own system giving prominence to inner purity to be manifested in social consciousness and idealistic endeavour towards the mastery of any skill to which the person has assigned himself. Traditional Muslim education was not an activity separated from other aspects of society. It acted in harmony with all other activities and institutions to confirm them and to be reinforced by them. Not surprisingly, the mosque, the heart of all religious activities, was the apex of the whole system. Neither the educator nor the student was isolated from the rest of the community. They more often than not combined other functions with that of education, thus retaining their close contact with everyday life. There was always a close personal relationship between the teacher and the student which ensured that moral and spiritual guidance was given alongside the teaching of various skills.
Success was, of course, important, but failure did not turn the individual into a useless burden on society. Whatever he had learnt, and however little, would still be of value and his place within society would still be guaranteed. The level of achievement of the student in the traditional system was measured by the totality of the student as a person. His piety and moral conduct was regarded as of equal, or indeed superior, importance to his attainment in other spheres. The core subject in traditional education was the Holy Qur'an. The study of the Qur'an was the preoccupation of the traditional school from the very moment that it came into being. (5)
The education of the Muslim child began with the Holy Book which he learnt to read, recite and memorize. The Holy Qur'an is the final guide for the Muslim in matters of basic beliefs, forms of worship and rules of conduct. We are enjoined by Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon Him) to benefit from learning and teaching it.(6) From the study of the Qur'an, the student develops his knowledge of Islam and derives his moral ideal.
The first stage in Islamic formal education was the maktab or kutab which has adhered to this curriculum up to the present time. (7) Throughout the Muslim world, regardless of religious doctrine, school of law, racial composition or language, the curriculum is the same. An Indonesian, Nigerian, Pakistani or Saudi child learns the same things. The maktab was the equivalent of the primary school, the madrassah was the intermediate stage and the mosque was the apex of the system. It was, and still is, the university of Muslim education. The most famous of these mosque universities is Al Azhar of Cairo. Being very much a part of the community, the mosque university kept an open door for all comers to participate in the learning activities and in their general educational endeavour. Students attended and left on their own accord. They were not coerced but acted on their own inclination.
Young children had, however, to be made to at tend the maktab and a certain degree of coercion and discipline was exercised to enhance their motivation. (8) Al-Qabisi, who died in 403 A.H. (1012 A.D.), argued that every Muslim child should be sent to the maktab by his parents; but he did not feel that it was the function of the state to enforce such attendance. (9) This stemmed from the general view of Muslim jurists as to the role of the political power in everyday life. A great many obligations were left to the conscience of the individual and the general concern of the community without the interference of the state. Moral authority has always been rated higher than legal power in the concept of Muslim social organisation. (10) The promotion of students did not take place through the mechanical examination system which is so familiar to us. The teacher assessed the student's progress and determined the next step to be taken. The student himself, if able, assisted in this exercise. Each student, therefore, was free to attain his ultimate level in any of the areas of his interest without being held back because of difficulties in subsidiary or extraneous disciplines. (11)
Training in the mosque university was a combined activity in which both student and teacher took part. The student had to be persuaded rather than instructed and the teacher had to argue his case rather than dictate it. In this way, the personality and the intellectual ability of the student was allowed to develop and grow.
Unlike the modern system which operates like a factory with a production line measuring its success by statistical tables, traditional Islamic education measured its activity by the fact that it stimulated the community as a whole to take an interest in the higher issues so fundamental to its nature and survival. Because of his role in the community and in the field of education, the teacher acted not simply as the guide to better knowledge but also as the example to better conduct. Teaching was not simply a profession to be sold but a role to be fully and completely performed. In all this it can be seen that the school reflected most faithfully the society.
The able and studious were allowed to move forward at their own speed not restricted by a rigid curriculum nor herded in their age groups. In the same class pupils of different ages and different abilities sat side by side and took part in the exhilarating activities. The dull benefited from the brilliant and the able understood and appreciated both the difficulties and the merits of the slow learner. But above all, the school, like the mosque, was classless. Students from all classes of society sat together at the feet of the same scholar. (12) Only by their contribution to the activities of the group were they distinguished.
Early in Islam teaching was regarded as a religious duty and the teacher was therefore barred from accepting fees.(13) When institutions of learning made their appearance the jurists found a way to legalize the payment of fees and also to specify the duties and rights of teacher and pupil. (14) Direct payment by the student to teacher, however, was restricted to the early stages of education (the maktab) and only where endowments were not available. At the level of the madrassah and mosque, teachers were often provided for by large endowments and gifts given by rulers and men of wealth. A scholar was therefore assured of a living wherever he went. It was indeed customary for the scholar to traverse the Islamic world from one end to the other without difficulty receiving maintenance on the way from various educational institutions in recognition of some teaching given or received. It was not uncommon for the teacher to become a student in one and the same institution. For he following the instruction of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) sought knowledge throughout his life "from the cradle to the grave." In this way he learnt by direct and recent experience how the learning process operated.
Teaching was not a profession acquired by a mere certificate awarded by a government body, but something achieved by real ability and true vocation. To be sure, there were Ijazahs (licences) given to students on completion of their studies of a particular work authorising them to teach it. The value of such a licence depended on the prestige of the teacher who issued it. The Ijazah, however, was not the final qualification; the teacher had to prove himself a worthy leader of his pupils.
The curriculum of the maktab as stated earlier centred around the Qur'an and the child was taught to read it and learn it by heart. He also learnt to read, write and calculate and in some areas of the Muslim world was taught Arabic language and literature so as to enhance his appreciation of the Holy Qur'an and the Tradition of the Prophet. (15) A great deal of the learning had to be by rote involving drills and repetition, sometimes at the expense of understanding. Once the Holy Book and a fair number of Hadiths had been mastered the student was involved in courses of exegesis and scholarly elaboration of the Tradition. Such activity encompassed the whole field of Islamic knowledge. For around these two sources, the Holy Qur'an and Tradition, revolves everything else, whether law, theology, mysticism or rituals. In discussing any problem of life or faith the student and the teacher must rest their arguments finally on the divine source, the Holy Qur'an.
Other disciplines not bearing directly on Islamic studies were not neglected or excluded from the system. Medicine and science and other technical knowledge were learnt through apprenticeship. The student having been through the maktab and having already acquired basic religious knowledge was able to satisfy his interest in the healing profession or in any other skill by joining with a master to teach and guide him. The objective here was not divorced from the main objective of society, namely the Islamic ethical principles and values. In the circles of Muslim medical men and engineers and mathematicians and philosophers, the final aim remained decidedly religious. For every action and every endeavour had to be justified in religious terms. (16) Thus, the professional standards of excellence and the ethical standards of professional conduct were reinforced and safeguarded by religious ethics and values.
To summarise, I would like to make the following comparisons between the traditional system and the modern:
The question that we must now face is whether the modern educational system can be inspired by the aims and purposes of Muslim education; or to put it another way, can the aims and purposes of Muslim education have any value in a modern society? To answer this question we must realise that certain aspects of Muslim education have in the modern age to be abandoned. First, the Muslim states must pursue an interventionist policy. They can no longer stand aside leaving education to the community nor can they fail to enforce education on all their children. They must define the future shape of their society, their economic development using education as the main instrument for preparing the next generation to the projected social organisation and economic transformation. Whether we like these aspects that are called progress or not, Muslim societies everywhere are invariably moving towards industrialisation and scientific education on a large scale. Indeed, those of them that are lucky enough to have surplus funds are buying more technology than their societies are ready to absorb. Some might argue that Muslims are going the wrong way. But what alternative is there except a return to the pre-scientific age in all its simplicity and the active rejection of modern science and technology? This might have been pleasant if it were possible. Unfortunately, no society can escape the influence of modernity. You either master it or perish by it. (17)
Colonialism in its military sense might have receded but in its political and more obviously economic aspects it is still very much with us. The former colonial powers are still the buyers of our raw materials and the suppliers of our manufactured goods. We still pay very heavily for the products of their technology. These products have become the essential tools of our social organisation and political administration.
But modernity without moral guidance, religious ethics and the belief in Allah and the destiny of man can bring more unhappiness and cause more disorder and misery. We must bring religion to control the motives of the men of science and guide their conduct in the pursuit of knowledge. This need not hamper scientific advance, on the contrary it should advance it. Let me in this respect quote the words of a scientist: "Science prospers exactly in proportion as it is religious.
The great deeds of philosophers have been less the fruit of their intellect than of the direction of that intellect by an eminently religious tone of mind. Truth has yielded herself rather to their patience, their love, their single-heartedness and their self-denial, than to their logical acumen." The author of this statement is Professor Huxley, the famous Darwinist, and is quoted with approval by yet another Darwinist, Herbert Spencer. (18)
Science must be self-disciplined. We do not and must not seek to impose from the outside any limit to the activities of scientists or to put constraints on their thoughts since our religion has always emphasised the duty of man to acquire knowledge of the universe and to improve his ability to gain greater benefits from his environment. One need not cite the many verses of the Qur'an bearing on the subject nor the words of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) to the same effect. Our religion, therefore, is not against science but it is against the misuse of science and the misapplication of technology.
Science, it is alleged, can be neutral whereas technology must respond to its environment. It is my contention that science also bears the stamp of its social and intellectual milieu. (19) A society guided by ethical values and the great tradition of Islam can produce a science which is more satisfying to the totality of man. It can produce a technology that is less destructive of man's environment, less motivated by a desire for material benefit and more concerned with the needs and aspirations of a divinely guided community. It is therefore possible, and indeed in the present circumstances imperative, that we should endeavour to establish an educational system based on Islam yet answering all the needs of modern society. It should be noted that currently many western countries are re-examining their educational systems from a very similar point of view. Many people in the West are concerned at the amoral and areligious nature of their schools.
They see that often they turn out immoral and irreligious graduates. They see in their society the decline of authority at all levels, the disruption of the family and the lack of social cohesion. They lament the disappearance of the school of the past where ethics and moral values were at the centre of its teaching and organisation. What better proof as to the failure of secular education than that its former advocates are now its most vocal critics?
Under a modern Islamic system of education we can look forward to the emergence of a society not dissimilar to that of the Golden Age of Islamic Civilization when all disciplines were thoroughly and fruitfully pursued and where discussion on all aspects of knowledge were freely conducted and where scholars were able to develop their ideas and argue their differences motivated by love of knowledge and a deep sense of piety.
The conflict between science and religion is neither inevitable nor fruitful and in the context of Islam it has no grounds. There is, however, a certain degree of suspicion in Muslim circles as to the impact of western science on Islam. This suspicion is well founded. Western science, it must be remembered, has, for historical reasons, developed in an atmosphere of hostility towards religion and has in the process acquired a negative attitude towards all non-empirical aspects of belief. The basic assumptions of western science are in reality a greater menace to Islamic culture than any hostile work by orientalists.
Modern education is by definition that type of education inspired by the West. It was imposed on our nations sometimes by force of arms and sometimes by enterprising rulers who sought a way of standing up to the West by utilizing the very skills of the West. Generally, the old educational system was retained alongside the new and our people had to endure the divisive, wasteful and illogical system of dual education.
When it was decided to come to terms with western education and incorporate it into our system, western scientific and technological knowledge was accepted fully and almost blindly by us. It has been sufficient to describe a work or a theory as scientific to stifle our critical faculties. Western scientists are looked upon with veneration reminiscent of that conferred by our forefathers on the great founders of the schools of law.
By contrast, the contribution of western philosophers, historians and more especially orientalists has of recent times been critically examined. Indeed, in Muslim educated circles, you need only describe a new opinion as emanating from an orientalist source to have it totally condemned. The orientalists and their like are no longer a threat to us. Their open attack can be perceived, examined and countered. But the onslaught of science upon our basic belief and values is indirect and therefore too obscure for the ordinary person or even for the educated to measure and to rebut. Western science assumes the rejection of metaphysics and the meaninglessness of values. In short, it relegates religion to the corner of irrationality and looks upon it with benevolent contempt. Yet science itself is based in the final analysis on irrational assumptions and the fact of its successes should not blind us to this reality. (20)
Our own scientists must involve themselves in the thorough reexamination of science in terms of our culture so as to have it fully assimilated within Islam. Only then will the aims and purposes of Muslim education become meaningful in a modern system of education. It has been observed that despite the long connection between the Muslim world and the West in the area of scientific studies, the Muslims have so far produced experts but not scientists, technicians but not inventors. This strange and disheartening phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the contradiction between the basis of western science and the principles of our culture raises a serious conflict which draws our scientists away from full assimilation and participation.
The task of re-examining the basic assumptions of science cannot fall exclusively on the shoulders of the scientists. The scholars of Islam must surely carry part of the burden. They must acquaint themselves fully with the principles of science and the methods of research employed by scientists. Only then will they be able to look into science in terms of our faith and to give an impetus to scientific knowledge and scientific advance in accordance with the dictates and the spirit of our religion. The task I am setting here for our scientists to converge on religion and our religious scholars to converge upon science is not easy. Nor is it a once-and-for-all exercise. It will be a continuous task for which a group of scholars in each generation will have to devote their lives.
We are all familiar with the barrier erected between scientific education and religious education in Muslim countries. The religious scholar is restricted for the most part to the study of his religious discipline without reference in any meaningful terms to modern disciplines and specially to modern science. On the other hand, our scientists are deprived of any meaningful appreciation of our religion and its principles. To be sure, religious lessons have been available in some of our secular or western-type schools, but they have been superficial, inadequate and completely out of place.
On the other hand, some scientific training has existed in some of our religious institutions. But again it has been equally superficial, inadequate and completely out of place. This is not the answer, for it presents not a harmonious relationship between the two types of knowledge but a mere contiguity. We must bring about the Muslim scholar who assimilates science with his religious training. Equally, we must produce scientists who absorb religion with scientific education. The question of assimilation is basic to any programme to find a solution to this problem facing us.
Assimilation is manifested by the total harmony between the various aspects of knowledge and between knowledge and behaviour. Our society needs harmony between knowledge and belief,between science and religion. In ' the absence of this harmony our scientists may continue to contribute far less than their intellectual gifts warrant. The remedy lies in having knowledgeable piety and pious knowledge. Religion and science must converge and merge within the mind of one and the same individual and within the spirit of the whole community. It is, however, imperative at this point to caution against the practice of some of our scholars who exert a great deal of effort trying to find correspondence between certain facets of science and certain texts from the Holy Qur'an or the Prophetic Tradition. While one must appreciate their motives and applaud their intention, one is regretfully compelled to pronounce their efforts as pointless, even harmful. To clarify this point, let me cite one example. Last year an eminent physician published a book on the medical significance of prayer (salat). He attributed certain hygienic and curative functions to the body movements which comprise salat and found himself constrained to make a comparison with yoga. It was not difficult for him to show that salat was superior to yoga. He expressed it thus: "Praying exercises are successive graceful movements which represent entire submission to God. They are not mere numbers of physical exercise."(21) Indeed, they are not. We do not do them for our health but for the worship of our Creator. We follow not the requirements of our body but the dictates of our faith. Assertions of this kind bring rationalism into an area where human reason should not tread. Our scholars must draw the line between faith and reason, between science and religion. They must learn not to use the tools of the one to research the other. We do not use the ear in tile act of seeing nor the eye in the act of hearing. We should equally refrain from employing reason where only revelation must be relied upon. In this respect there is no hostility between revelation and reason any more than there is between the eye and the ear. This demarcation line must express an organic relationship between religion and science at the level of the individual and also in terms of the society as a whole.
Clearly, there is tension between the two aspects but this tension is a healthy one for it is a tension that is motivated not by opposition but by co-operation. There is no intention on the part of science to rebel against religion, nor on the part of religion to oppress science. The aim is to define the terms and the areas so that science can function under the aegis of religion. To function as an integral part of the whole act of worship. For in Islam, one of the highest acts of worship is the pursuit of knowledge.
I have so far defined the problem as one between science and religion. I am well aware that science does not comprise the whole of modern education. There is the vast area of the humanities which must be considered by itself. As mentioned earlier, Muslim scholarship was more conscious of the onslaught of western ideas in fields such as philosophy, history and religion. Such ideas have been critically examined and where necessary refuted. However, there is an important point which we must bear in mind, namely that the humanities in the West have succumbed to science. Scientism has become a vogue not only in the study of language but even of literature!
Once we are able to come to terms with science and bring it up to the level of our faith there will be harmony within our society and harmony within our educational system and the place of religious education will have become fully and firmly established within our educational system. We will then be able to heal a world torn by declining standards of faith and value. We can then lead the world to a more harmonious existence when man's power to control his environment is not taken as a rebellion against his Creator and where his religious belief is not regarded as a manifestation of a retarded culture. But the question is how to bring this happy state about. To begin with, our schools and universities must endeavour to instill the basic principles of our faith into the hearts of their students.
The teaching profession should be given back its true function in moral guidance alongside the task of training. The teacher must stand as an example to his students in his observance of the law and his adherence to good behaviour. This is not a plea for a rigid or blind conformity. We recognise the possibility even the necessity of change, but such adjustments must be within the framework of Islam. "What is Halal (permissible) is clear and what is Haram (prohibited) is clear." (22)
We must, however, guard against the misuse of religion to hamper the innovative spirit of man or to allow its advocates to brandish it as a weapon stifle any new idea or to cripple scientific enquiry. It is enough for the society to be deeply religious and for the scientist to be so inspired to ensure that he would not step out of line or to misuse science as to impinge on the province of religion. We must also realise that religious knowledge while having the prime place in our educational system, scientific education has to be given its proper place and time. We cannot expect the student involved in learning medicine or engineering or geography or whatever to devote as much time and energy to the deepening of his religious knowledge as those involved in one or other of the specific fields of Islamic studies. The growth of human knowledge necessitates specialisation. We must also seek to harmonise religious education with the various disciplines in which the students might be interested. It is true that the principles of Islam and Islamic moral values are immutable but individuals with different background, different interests and different outlooks may view them differently and it is the task of the educator to impart his knowledge in accordance with the need of the student.
Alongside organised institutions, we should return to the old Islamic institutions. The open school for all ages at all levels and needs. We must endeavour to inject the new institutions with the old fervour for in this way we may very well teach those who are now teaching us technology that though we may be their student in this area of human endeavour we could with justice be their teachers in matters ethical and religious.
1. Al-Ibrashi, M.A. Education in Islam, p.11 Studies in Islam series, The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Cairo, Egypt, 1387 (1967)
2. The Holy Qur'an, Sura 111, Verse 110
3. Ibid. The same verse. The meaning is translated as follows: "You are the best nation ever brought forth to men, enjoining virtue and forbidding vice and believing in Allah."
4. Mannheim, Karl and Stewart, W.A.C. An Introduction to the Sociology of Education, pp.161-162, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1962
5. Ibn Khaldoun, The Muqaddima, pp.397-398; also Al-Ahwani, M.F. Education in Islam, p.100; also Al-Qabisi, Treatise on Education edited by Al-Ahwani in the same vol. p.282
6. See, for instance, Ibn Sahnoun, Treatise on Child Education edited by Al-Ahwani the same vol. pp.353-354
7. Al-Ahwani, ibid. p.75
8. Ibid. p.141 ff. c.f. Ibn Khaldoun, Maqadimma where he counsels against severity.
9. Ibid. pp.102-103
10. The schools of law are unanimous in their prohibition of upholding the letter of the law while breaking its spirit. The Prophet (peace be upon Him) cautioned those who might win a court case through eloquence rather than in accordance with the true spirit of the law that they would receive Allah's wrath.
11. This was the system in, among others, Al-Azhar mosque university until its re-organisation early this century.
12. Al-Ahwani, op.cit. pp.253-254. Admittedly the wealthy classes hired private tutors for their children but there were no 'public school systems' or schools for the privileged.
13. Al-Ghazali, Ihya' Ulum AI-Din, vol.1, p.46. Al-Ghazali maintains that no fees should ever be accepted by the teacher. This is at variance with the common practice in his day.
14. Tibbawi, A.L. Islamic Education, p.40, Luzac & Co., London, 1972.
15. Ibn Khaldoun, Maqaddima, pp.397-398.
16. Al-Ahwani, op.cit. p.110
17. Badawi, M.A. Zaki, The Reformers of Egypt, Introduction p.9 The Muslim Institute Papers 2, 1976
I8. Spencer, Herbert, Education, p.47, Watts & Co., London, 1945
19. Hodgson, H.G.S., Modernity and the Islamic Heritage, Islamic Studies, vol.1, p.115
20. Friend, J.W. and Feibleman, J., Science and the Spirit of Man, passim especially pp.21-63, Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1933.
21. Soudan, M.Z.A., Prayer in Islam, p.165, Cairo, 1976
22. Hadith Sharif.
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