A teacher was asking her pupils in the class when the school re-opened in the first week of June this year: what you would like to be in the future?This is a routine question, I hope, we all remember from our school days. Especially when a new academic year starts or a new teacher takes her job in a school.
It was a routine exercise for both, the teacher and her pupils. And of course the answers were on expected line. One of the pupil said, I want to be a Doctor, another said, I want to be an Engineer, another one said Teacher, some Pilot, Scientist and on and on.When the turn of Umamah, a little girl of 9 years came, the same question was put to her, what you would like to be in the future? She said, I want to be a “Jannati” (i.e., the inhabitant of Paradise!!).
The teacher was shocked; she was totally shaken and flabbergasted. What a strange and yet so sweet thing this little girl has spoken. What should be the aim of we Muslims, and what is our real future? This girl has really shaken our conscience.
Whether it be the field of education, the field of work or the sacred act of worship: our primary aim and in fact the only aim should be to seek the Pleasure of Almighty Allah and to win a place in His Jannah. Is this not the real spirit of Islam?
This world and its careers, its competitions, its accomplishments, its vanities, is this not a deception, a test and a trial? Is this not the message of Qur’an and the call of our inner voice?But in reality we are deceiving ourselves; we are living in a fool’s paradise of our own making. We are gagging our inner voice, throttling the yearning of our soul with our hypocrisy.
But not so Umamah. She is free of all these artificialness and is unburdened of all the various hues of hypocrisy. She is like that child of yore who called the King naked. And indeed, Umamah has shown to us our spiritual nakedness.
Socially we are the dregs of the society. Educationally our condition is becoming bad to worse, defying all the predictions. This in spite of various measures being taken at all levels. Where does the problem lie? What is the solution to all these?
If the story of Umamah revealed to us, the yearning of a tender and unpolluted soul, the following story of Abdul Majid, will show to us the revulsion this soul has towards modern education.
Abdul Majid, a typical Indian Muslim in his early twenties. Simple, religious, modest yet graceful. From a struggling lower middle class background. After his twelfth, he started working in a computer hardware shop to supplement his family’s meager income. Seeing his good skills, his employer insisted him to study further and told him not to put a full stop to his studies. He applied for BCA (Bachelor of Computer Application) course and continued with his job on a part time basis.
After the completion of his graduation, his employer, who is a religious and educated Muslim, insisted him to go ahead with post graduation course. Abdul Majid refused to study further. When his employer insisted, he replied: Sir, please tell me, whether my post-graduation will earn me “Jannah”?
His employer was speechless at this unusual question thrown at him. Abdul Majid continued: Sir, instead I will go to the Gulf for few years, earn a fortune, invest in some venture and secure myself financially. Once I do that, I will dedicate all my energies, capabilities towards earning Allah’s pleasure and His Jannah.
These two innocent expressions should be an eye opener for us all. It should compel us to properly analyze the prevailing situation, so that the mystery behind the backwardness of Muslim community in India could be solved. Till now the attitude of the well-wishers, leaders, intellectuals and scholars towards these problems has been pathetic. We give many proposals for the upliftment of the Indian community, but we fail to arrive at a sensible solution.
One such problem being faced by this Ummah is regarding its Educational Upliftment. As this is intimately related to economic and social upliftment of Indian Muslims, a solution to this occupies a central role in improving the lot of this community. Let us try to analyze this problem from a no-nonsense and objective point of view. We will present this in the form of a hypothetical interview (or dialogue), for the sake of clarity.
Question: - Why do some communities and nations make progress and excel in the field of education, scientific research and innovation than others?
Answer: - To make progress and excel in any field of activity (scientific or otherwise), what is required is utmost hard work, devotion, dedication and sacrifice. In short, it requires hard work and application. If the West has progressed scientifically and still excelling in it, it is due to its grooming of such individuals (or due to its success in attracting from other societies) such individuals, who are consistently giving their utmost devotion, dedication and sacrifice in the field of research and its application. If Muslims had excelled in the past it was due to such perseverance.Naturally, if the Muslims of today are lagging behind in this field, it is because they are not producing such individuals, who can give utmost dedication, devotion and sacrifice in these fields.
Question:- What makes a community or an individual to dedicate and devote his energy in a field of activity?
Answer: - It is the motivating factor behind a community, an individual or a nation. The “Driving Force and Motivational Energy” is different for different communities.
Question: - You mean to say, the “Driving Force and Motivational Energy” for the Muslims and the non-Muslims is different?
Answer: - Yes definitely. There is a heaven and hell difference between the “Driving force and Motivational energy” of the Muslims and the non-Muslims. A non-Muslim individual can be motivated to offer sacrifices and devote his life in the pursuit of knowledge and research if we evoke in him nationalistic, materialistic, racial or even egoistic sentiments. But this is not the case with a true Muslim.The main driving force behind true Muslims is the seeking of the pleasure of Almighty Allah (swt) and the promise of a lasting reward in the Hereafter in the form of entry into His Garden of Bliss. (Li-Wajhi-al-Allah). The evoking of all other sentiments to offer sacrifices are bound to fail and will never be effective in the long run.
But unfortunately, the institutes of Modern education and scientific research (whether established by Muslims or non-Muslims), their design, their working pattern, their aims and objectives are such that it fails to strike a chord with the beliefs, sentiments and the inner chemistry of a true Muslim. In the imitation of other communities, we wrongly believed that, what worked for other communities will also work for our community. The enticements, slogans and stimulants which has awakened the non-Muslim community and which has motivated its individuals to dedicate their life in the pursuit of modern education and scientific research, we thought it may well, work with we Muslims too. And we have fallen headlong into this satanic trap, with our eyes wide shut.
Instead of the lofty goals of Islam, which would have awakened in him the zeal, the motivation and the energy to excel in any field, today’s Muslim has made the illusory worldly goals as the prime objective of seeking and imparting education. Those Muslims who establish the modern institutes see it as a great business project and the customers, who seek admission into these, see these solely as a means of lucrative career. Their dedication and devotion can only be stretched with difficulty up to their bellies and not beyond that. When there is such a narrow, myopic and opportunistic approach to education, how can it bear fruit? There may be some individuals as exceptions, but here we are discussing about the trends and the all pervasive pathology paralyzing the Ummah.
Question: - Hmm, quite revealing. But some people say, the main reason for the Muslim’s backwardness is due to the division of education into “Deeni” and “Duniyaavi”.
Answer: - Division of education into different fields should not be a problem at all. We see many more complicated divisions in our day to day life, yet they are causing no problem. For example there is a division of modern education into Science and Arts & Humanities. Within science there are various divisions, like Medical Sciences and Engineering. Divisions per se do not cause any problem in these fields. In fact, these divisions have helped these fields to progress rapidly.
Question:- Then why this hue and cry over the division of Education in case of Muslims?
Answer:- As I have told you, we have approached this problem in a very arbitrary and superficial manner. You make hundreds of division, if you are successful in attracting such individuals in each of these fields, who are ready to dedicate their life for excelling in their respective divisions of knowledge, you will succeed against any odd. In other words, your design, working pattern and goals should be such that, it should harness the “Driving force and Motivational Energy” of this Ummah. If not the long term results will be disappointing, with or without divisions.
Question:- But you cannot say that almost all the Muslim institutions are running after this illusory world. There are many individuals who are foraying into this field of modern education with the sole intention of seeking the Pleasure of Almighty Allah.
Answer:- You are right. We should welcome this trend. But institutions do not simply run by the good intentions of the management alone. There are other vital pillars of an institution, and in a successful institute all the vital pillars should work in harmony, towards a common goal.
There are four vital pillars in any Institution, namely;
1. Management
2. Faculty (i.e. the teachers, lecturers and professors)
3. Students
4. Parents or Guardians.
In a successful institute or centre of excellence, all these vital pillars are equally motivated in their respective capacities. But for the Faculty and the Management, motivation and skills, both should be of high standard.
Question:- You mean to say that, good intentions and motivations of one or two pillars will not suffice?
Answer:- One or two pillars will definitely be better than no pillar at all ! But for establishing an Institute of Excellence and creating Leaders and Innovators in Modern and Scientific disciplines, all the four pillars mentioned above have to be really strong.
Question:- What do you say about the current trend of clubbing “Deeni” and “Duniyaavi” education. Will this be a solution for our educational problems?
Answer:- First of all I would like to make one thing very much clear. In Islam there is no such physical division of knowledge into “Deeni” or “Duniyavi”. The only division of knowledge according to Islam is into “Naa'fe Uloom” (i.e. Useful knowledge) and “Ghair Naa'fe Uloom” (Non-useful knowledge). As far as Deeni and Duniyavi is concerned, our intention of seeking and imparting it renders it Deeni or Duniyavi. The so-called ‘Deeni’ knowledge will become Duniyavi, if the intention is to earn the fame and riches of this world. Conversely, the so-called ‘Duniyaavi’ knowledge will become Deeni, if the intention is to gain the pleasure of Almighty Allah.
Now if we club the so-called ‘Deeni’ and ‘Duniyavi’ studies into a single course, what will be the attitude of the pupils, faculty, management and parents towards these two streams of knowledge? Obviously for the religious part of the syllabus (if the intentions are right) they hope of getting the reward from Allah Sub’haanahu wa Ta’ala, and for the part containing the modern disciplines, their attitude will be to seek the worldly fame and riches. The basic fault remains as it is. Without curing this skewed approach, jaundiced outlook and impurity of intentions, the clubbing of so-called ‘Deeni’ and ‘Duniyaavi’ subjects will be like clubbing milk and wine.
Question:- What according to you is the use of “Educational Awareness Campaigns” motivating Muslims to come forward in the field of education?
Answer:- Such campaigns are good-- better than doing nothing--but they will be successful in only shaking this Ummah, a little from their drowsy state. You may succeed in increasing the literacy level and the percentage of graduates, to a slightly higher level. But for establishing world class centers of Excellence, high motivation, commitment, consistent hard work, religious devotion is a must.
Question:- What according to you is the right solution for this problem?
Answer:- According to me the right solution to this problem is; we should strive to establish such institutes of Modern Education, Research and Application where the Management, Faculty, Students and the Parents should be motivated to offer their sacrifices in their respective capacities for achieving educational excellence, as a religious duty, in the hope of winning the pleasure of Almighty Allah.
They should take this challenge as a modern day Jihad, for intellectually arming this Ummah, to solve the problems haunting the Humanity in general and this Ummah in particular. Only then we will be qualified to be called as “Khair-e-Ummat”.
Question:- But how can we get all the four pillars right at once? Is it not asking for too much?
Answer:- I know, it is difficult, but it is not impossible. Before rushing to establish any institution, we should try to first get all our four pillars right. Of the four pillars the most important in practical terms is that of the Faculty and that of the Management. In case of later two pillars (i.e. the students and the parents); we can motivate them, by sustained public campaigns. But in case of the former two pillars (Management and Faculty), along with high motivation, they should also be highly skilled for their job. Before starting an Institution we should have at our disposal, sufficient number of highly motivated and highly skilled staff and administrators. And all our resources and energies should be first spent in creating and grooming such cadre. Even if it takes a couple of decades to accomplish this task, we should do it, because there is no easy way for achieving success. Once such a cadre is created, we should begin in humble way and slowly climb upwards. We should never succumb to the temptation of going after big projects early on.
If we succeed in establishing such institutes, the tender and innocent soul of Umamah will be properly nurtured and the likes of Abdul Majid will say: Sir, I want to do my post graduation and after that further research in the field, because this is my Jihad and it is where, I smell the fragrance of Jannah!!!
