A CONCEPTION OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION

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Education in the Islamic spirit is the last but most important category in this typology, because it is often the first meaning readers attribute to the phrase, Islamic education. Unfortunately, because of the swirl of media attention focused on education for and of Muslims, the term can connote for some people a concept of education so limited as to imply that Islamic education omits secular knowledge in favor of religious beliefs, and may be equated with the dissemination of ignorance. Some might assume that Islamic education might be shorthand for teaching hatred of "the West" or the United States. The concept of Islamic education cannot be reduced to such stereotypes, nor is it limited to rigid transmittal of 1400 year-old lifeways from ancient Arabia. Islamic education is certainly part of a historical tradition, but it is not the polar opposite of modernity, democracy or Western values. Stereotypes aside, such views of Islam and learning also result from over-identification of religious teachings per se with the historical/cultural context of Church/science conflicts known in the Western educational tradition, which are mistakenly assumed to be universal to human experience. The following paragraphs discuss some key terms and concepts from Islamic and Arabic terminology that are historically and currently associated with education in the Muslim tradition.

Education is the first duty of a Muslim, male or female. Knowledge of God is equated with the process of learning and teaching. The well-documented process of preserving Islamic scripture demonstrates the early emergence of a literate tradition and its transmission among Muslims as a social priority. It was incumbent upon the Muslim community from the beginning to commit the words of God and the teachings of Muhammad to memory and to writing. Among the least examined statements in academic literature is the notion that the Qur'an was collected from fragments after Muhammad's death. From the earliest period, recitation of the revealed portions of the Qur'an was part of the community's life. Since the verses were not revealed in the order in which they appear in the completed Qur'an, the ongoing process of placing them in order was part of Muhammad's mission to transmit the revelation until completion over 23 years of his prophethood. Scribes undertook the work of setting down the Qur'an resident in the memory of numerous reciters and in writing. Muhammad's own words and his exemplary deeds were also recorded (in hadith), and the sciences of Qur'anic exegesis and hadith authentication and evaluation became the foundation of the scholarly disciplines and Islamic law.

                      Source: Douglass, S.L. & Shaikh, Munir A.

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Some people said that conception of education does not have any roots in Islam. If there is a term, it is limited only for implying that Islamic education omits secular knowledge. The other might assume that it is shorthand for hatred teaching of western civilization. How do you think this opinion? Write at least three reasons to support your argument. You may agree or disagree with those.