The announcement of five new AMU campuses, three universities by Azad Foundation and another three universities by Waqf Council is a great step towards educational uplift of the Muslim community. If it really comes true, it would be a landmark achievement in the history of Indian Muslims. At this juncture, when Muslims are making such efforts in the field of education, I have a point to make here.
This century is marked by highest scientific advancement. At higher level, education is becoming more and more vocationalised, training youth professionally to meet the various demands of market. At lower level, the educational system has undergone drastic change, making teaching-learning a fun and enjoyable experience for children as well as teachers, resulting in desired result. All these developments and research work by our educationists are applauding. But a very vital part has been ignored, which needs our urgent attention at. And this is ‘moral and spiritual training of students’.
Education begins to influence an individual right from his birth and continues to affect him until he is alive. In this age, the materialistic benefits of educational enterprise occupy a place of priority, and it is assumed that education will help one enjoy economic as well as social mobility and, consequently, a better space and a greater respect in society.
Today education is taken as a strong instrument of socio-economic empowerment. As a matter of fact, this perception is flawed with a narrow understanding of the whole process of education. As a result, man is becoming a robot – an un-personal and unfeeling person. Man’s lower passions, greed and desire to accumulate worldly possessions and to dominate others are on an increase, which are the marks of total materialism.
Today, despite all advancement, men never tire behaving and acting like a beast. Be it an individual, house, community or nation, the absence of morality has its presence felt. Parents are neglected and sent to old-age houses, where they count their days. Female infanticide is a routine affair. The saddest part is that it is carried out by educated parents in cities. Says Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen: “One million girl children are missing from one census to another.” On international level, the thirst of colonisation has taken millions of lives. I cite here these examples, which are tips of the iceberg, to make one ponder over the kind of education one is receiving and to estimate its futility on this side.
The spirituality in human beings has to be strengthened and renewed through proper education so that higher and nobler aims in life may be fulfilled. While science educates and refines thinking and cognitive powers, religion strengthens and refines the feeling and affective processes. The intellectual training is incomplete unless it has an impact on the heart and the spirit as well.
Religion is extremely important. Religion can establish moral values in man. The potent and right approach is to combine both the modern and religious education. With this combination, children will be able to survive and exhibit balance between the worldly and spiritual life. With such a syllabus, children will come out as truthful, hardworking, disciplined, mentally strong and educated individuals.
Right from the village to city, English medium schools have come up like mushrooms. That a child should be educated in such a school is every parent’s dream today. In such schools, modern syllabus is too lengthy to give a child respite from doing homework. On the other hand, Urdu is no more taught in such schools and the fact is that maximum of Islamic treasure remains in the Urdu language, except a few being translated into English. So, what exposure are we giving to our children?
Muslims must take serious note of the Urdu language, which is totally neglected deliberately. The Muslims who are running their own schools must keep Urdu as a subject. The parents who are sending their wards to a school where Urdu is not taught must arrange teachers for the language at their houses. In each family, reading of hadith, tafseer of the Qur’an or any other religious book should be made a routine. This reading of such books on every day basis is indeed very fruit-bearing. These are few of the steps we must take, not only to combat the impending materialist outlook, but also because we as Muslim believe in the Day of Judgment, where we will be accountable for our deeds.
While we must celebrate the opening of new minority institutions, we must not ignore the aforesaid issue. It may not be directly associated with job and career, but it still remains very essential for the development of man as human being.
[ASIF MOAZZAM JAMAI is a LECTURER at King Khalid University, Abha, KSA]
