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Encyclopedia of Religion entry for
Education
. Education without religion is to the Muhammadan mind an anomaly. In all books of Traditions there are sections specially devoted to the consideration of knowledge, but only so far as it relates to a knowledge of God, and of "God ‘s Book". (See Sahihu ‘l-Bukhuri Babu V ‘Ilm. The people who read the "Book of God" are according to the sayings of the Prophet, described as "assembling together in mosques with light and comfort descending upon them, the grace of God covering them, and the angels of God encompassing them round about." The chief aim and object of education in Islam is therefore, to obtain a knowledge of the religion of Muhammad, and anything beyond this is considered superfluous, and even dangerous. Amongst Muhammadan religious leaders there have always been two classes - those who affect the ascetic and strictly religious life of mortification, such as the Sufi mystics and the Faqirs [FAQIR.]; and those who, by a careful study of the Qur’an, the Traditions, and the numerous works on divinity, have attained to a high reputation for scholarship, and are known in Turkey as the ‘Ulama, or "learned", and in India as Maulawis. Amongst Muhammadans generally, a knowledge of science and various branches of secular learning is considered dangerous to the faith, and it is discouraged by the religious, although some assert that Muhammad has encouraged learning of all kinds in the Qur’an, by the following verse, Surah ii, 272: - "He giveth wisdom to whom He will, and He to whom wisdom is given hath had much good given him." Mr. Lane in his Modern Egyptians, says: "The parents seldom devote much of their time or attention to the intellectual education of their children; generally contenting themselves with instilling into their young minds a few principles of religion, and then submitting them, if they can afford to do so, to the instruction of a school. As early as possible, the child is taught to say, ‘I testify that there is no deity but God and I testify that Muhammad is God ‘s Apostle. ‘ He receives also lessons of religious pride, and learns to hate the Christians, and all other sects but his own, as thoroughly as does the Muslim in advance age. In connection with all mosques of importance, in all parts of Islam whether in Turkey, Egypt, Persia, or India, there are small schools, either for the education of children or for the training of students of divinity. The child who attends these seminaries is first taught his alphabet, which he learns from a small board on which the letters are written by the teacher. He then becomes acquainted with the numerical value of each letter [ABJAD.] After this he learns to write down the ninety-nine names of God, and other simple words taken from the Qur’an. [GOD.] When he has mastered the spelling of words, he proceeds to learn the first chapter of the Qur’an, then the last chapter, and gradually reads through the whole Qur’an in Arabic, which he usually does without understanding a word of it. Having finished the Qur’an, which is considered an incumbent religious duty, the pupil is instructed in the elements of grammar, and perhaps a few simple rules of arithmetic. To this is added a knowledge of one Hindustani or Persian book. The ability to read a single Persian book like the Gulistan or Bostan ‘ is considered in Central Asia to be the sign of a liberal education. The ordinary schoolmaster is generally a man of little learning, the learned Maulawi usually devoting himself to the study of divinity, and not to the education of the young. Amongst students of divinity, who are called talabatu (sing. talib) ‘l-ilm, or "seekers after knowledge", the usual course of study is an follows: as-sarf, grammatical inflection; an-nahm, syntax; al-mantiq, logic; al-hisab, arithmetic; al-jabr wa ‘l-muqabalah, algebra; al-ma ‘na wa ‘l-bayan, rhetoric and versification; al-fiqh, jurisprudence; al- ‘aqa ‘id, scholastic theology; at-tafsir, commentaries on the Qur’an; ‘ilmu ‘l-usul, treatises on exegesis and the principles and rules of interpretation of the laws of Islam; al-ahadis, the traditions and commentaries thereon. These are usually regarded as different branches of learning, and it is not often that a Maulawi, or ‘Alim, attains to the knowledge of each section. For example, a scholar will be celebrated as being well educated in al-hadis, but he may be weak in al-fiqh. The teacher, when instructing his pupils, seats himself on the ground with his hearers all seated round him in a ring. Instruction in mosques is usually given in the early morning, after the morning prayer, and continues some three or four hours. It is again renewed for a short time after the mid-day prayer. Students in mosques are generally supported by the people of the parish, (each mosque having its section or parish), who can be called upon for food for all the inmates of a mosque every morning and evening. Not unfrequently mosques are endowed with land, or rents of shops and houses, for the payment of professors. Mr. Lane speaks of a mosque in Cairo, which had an endowment for the support of three hundred blind students. The great mosque al-Azhar, in Cairo, is the largest and most influential seat of learning in Islam. In 1875 when the present writer visited it, it had as many as 5,000 students gathered from all parts of the Muhammadan world. In India almost every mosque of importance has its class of students of divinity, but they are not established for the purposes of general education, but for the training of students of divinity who will in time become the Imams of mosques. Some of the Maulawis are men held in great reputation as Arabic scholars, but they are, as a rule, very deficient in general knowledge and information. Whether we look to India, or Persia, or Egypt, or Turkey, the attitude of Muhammadanism is undoubtly one in direct antagonism to the spread of secular education. Much has been made by some writers of the liberal patronage extended to literature and science by ‘Abdu ‘r-Rahman and his successors as Khalifahs of Cardova in the Middle Ages. But there was nothing original, or Islamic, in the literature thus patronized, for as Professor Uerberweg remarks in his History of Philosophy, "the whole philosophy of the Arabians was a form of Aristotelianism tempered more or less with Neo-Platonic conceptions." The philosophical works of the Greeks and their works of medical and physical science, were translated from Greek into Arabic by Syrian Christians, and not by Arabian Muslims. Muhammadans cannot be altogether credited with these literary undertakings. Al-Maqqari, in his History of the Dynasties of Spain, has an interesting notice of education in that country, in which he writes: - "Respecting the state of science among the Andalusians (Spaniards), we must own in justice that the people of that country were the most ardent lovers of knowledge, as well as those who best knew how to appreciate and distinguish a learned man and an ignorant one; indeed science was so much esteemed by them, that whoever had not been endowed by God with the necessary qualifications to acquire it, did everything in his power to distinguish himself, and conceal from the people his want of instruction; for an ignorant man was at all times looked upon as an object of the greatest contempt, while the learned man, on the contrary, was not only respected by all, nobles and plebeians, but was trusted an consulted on every occasion;
A MUSLIM SCHOOL
"Owing to this, rich men in Cordova, however illiterate they might be, encouraged letters, rewarded with the greatest magnificence writers and poets, and spared neither trouble nor expense in forming large collections of books; so that, independently of the famous library founded by Khalifah al-Hakim, and which is said by writers worthy of credit to have contained no less than four hundred thousand volumes, there were in the capital many other libraries in the hands of wealthy individuals, where the studious could dive into the fathomless sea of knowledge, and bring up its inestimable pearls. Cordova was indeed, in the opinion of every author, the city in Andalus where most books were to be found, and its inhabitants were renowned for their passion for forming libraries. To such an extent did this rage for collection increase, says Ibn Sa ‘id, that any man in power, or holding a situation under Government, considered himself obliged to have a library of his own, and would spare no trouble or expense in collecting books, merely in order that people might say. - Such a one has a very fine library, or, he possesses a unique copy of such a work in the hand-writing of such a one.
citations: Dictionary of Islam, Hughes
article created 2006-04-12 , last updated 2006-04-12
"I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the country under regulations as" Thomas Jefferson
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