[Assam] Tayeb Hussain seems to be quite restraint in writing the piece. The word ‘curse’ in section 5 (para 4) seems missspelt, but, would not it somehow fit in if views by scholarly critics of the theology are indisputably correct and the truth? Assamese ma

[Bartta Bistar]

Some Critical Questions on Madrasa Education: What purpose it has in a
mordern world?



Or What good it is doing to the followers of islam?



http://www.bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2007-06-07&hidType=HIG&hidRecord=0000000000000000162249



Wednesday June 06 2007 22:07:23 PM BDT



By Tayeb Husain, Sweden



Madrasa represents a conservative form of theology and jurisprudence which
is ill-suited to a modern society. It has nothing to do with Islam. It is
contradictory in someway what the prophet of Islam preached and encouraged
Muslims to follow. What is taught in Madrasas is outdated and unscientific,
for example, Deobandis "still insists that the sun revolves around the
earth" and they have "special seating arrangement for invisible Jinns".

-----------------

"It is the duty of every true Muslim, man and woman, to strive after
knowledge"- Ulugh Beg [Quoting the Hadith, Inscribed on his gate in Bukhara,
1417]

1. Origin and Development of Madrasa

Madrasa is an Arabic word meaning school, any type of school that imparts
knowledge, secular or religious. The word Madrasa also exists in many other
languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish,
Indonesian, Malaysian, etc. In Arabic language, the word implies, if
translated into English, just a school-, private, public or parochial
school, and it can be a primary or a secondary school or a high school.
University in Arabic, however, is "Jami'ah" and not Madrasa.

There was no Madrasa in the early period of Islam. First Madrasa was
established, most probably, over 250 years later after the Hizrat. The
formation of Madrasa can probably be traced to the early Islamic custom of
meeting in the mosques to discuss social and religious problems. It was
again, in that early period of Islam, ordinary people used to gather around
certain educated people who had knowledge and could guide them on religious
matters. The religious scholars later came to be known as "Shaykhs" and when
they started giving regular religious sessions they were called "Majalis".
"Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin", located in Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque in the city Fez is
considered the oldest Madrasah in the Muslim world. It was established in
859.

The first major academic institution in the Muslim world, however, was
establish by Nizam al-Mulk Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi (1018 – 14 October
1092), the celebrated Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuk Empire. He
also created a system of state Madrasa called Nizamiyyahs (after his name)
in various Abbasid cities at the end of 11th century.

Two types of education were provided in the Madrasas established by Nizam-
ul-Mulk, – one, aiming at scholastic theology to produce spiritual leaders,
and the other type was to offer earthly knowledge to produce government
servants who would be appointed in various countries and the regions of the
Islamic empire. Later, Nizam-ul-Mulk established numerous Madrasas all over
the empire that, in addition to providing Islamic knowledge, imparted
secular education in the fields of sciences, philosophy, public
administration and governance. The Nizam- ul-Mulk was indeed the father of
the Islamic public education system. He, among the early Muslims authored a
renowned book on public administration called "Siyasat Nama" (The way to
Govern).

Even though a majority of the Madrasas during the subsequent centuries would
remain the centres of Islamic learning, a large number of them produced
renowned scholars and philosophers who contributed greatly to earthly and
secular knowledge. This is especially true for Madrasas in Spain, the
country that Muslims ruled for almost 800 years and is usually referred to
as the Golden Age of both Islamic and Jewish advancement in science,
technology and philosophy. It was in Andalusia in Spain that Islam is said
to have given birth to a number of scholars who combined spiritual knowledge
with the earthly knowledge. These scholars were also responsible and
contributed to the preservation of Greek and European knowledge, which was
at the verge of becoming extinct.


2. Madrasa by the Fatimids and the Mamlukes

During the rule of the Fatimid and the Mamluke in the medieval Middle East,
many of the ruling elite founded Madrasa through Waq'f, a religious
endowment.

Fatimid was the political and religious dynasty that dominated an empire in
North Africa and subsequently in the Middle East from AD 909 to 1171 and
tried unsuccessfully to oust the Abbasid caliphs as leaders of the Islamic
world. It took its name from Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad,
from whom the Fatimid claimed descent.

The Mamluke or slave dynasties (1250-1517) were the rulers of Syria and
Egypt. The term Mamluk is an Arabic word means slave. Slave soldiers had
been used in the Islamic world since the 9th century, and they often
exploited the military power vested in them to seize control from the
legitimate political authorities. In 1250 a group of Mamluk generals seized
the throne of the Ayyubid dynasty on the death of the sultan Al-Malik
al-Salih Ayyub (1240–49). The resulting dynasty legitimized its rule by
reconstituting the caliphate of the Abbasid dynasty which were destroyed by
the Mongols in 1258, and by acting as patrons to the rulers of Mecca and
Medina.

Madrasa was a powerful symbol of status and an effective means of
transmitting wealth and social ranking to their descendants by the Mamluk
who could assume power but the sons of the ruling Mamluk elite were unable
to inherit. Positions and status were thus guaranteed for the sons of
Mamluks through Wag'f within the new Madrasas. Madrasas built in this period
include the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo.

Madrasa got a new impetus in Ottoman Empire. The first Ottoman Madrasha was
established by Orhan Gazi in Iznik (Nicea) sometime in 1330-31 and he
arranged sufficient Waq'fs attached to it to meet its financial needs. The
subsequent Ottoman tradition was to construct a mosque and a Madrasha
attached to it to all places that the Ottomans conquered.

The traditional courses in all Madrasas invariably were Arabic which
included Tafsir (Koranic interpretation), Shariah (Islamic law), Hadith
(sayings and deed of Prophet Muhammad), Mantiq (logic) and Islamic History.
Science or other languages or other history were rare if not completely
unknown in Madrasa education. Ottoman rulers' deliberate attempt to keep
primitive Madrasa education most important in their empire caused the
followers of Islam, many scholars believe, remain backward and keep the
Muslims in darkness from modern science and technology. Ottoman rulers, not
unjust to believe by knowing the way most of them lived, considered it easy
to keep the common people quiet by giving them only religious education,
however primitive it could have been.

3. Madrasa in the Indian Sub-continent

Origin of Madrasa education in the Indian sub-continent is difficult to find
out. One can assume that it started as Islam spread to further East. It was
the Sufi orders of the Muslim faith that started establishing Madrasas in
the Indian Sub-Continent and in Central Asia. In these Sufi Madrasas
grammar, poetry, literature, logic other disciplines of Islam were taught
including logic and mathematics. As most of the knowledge about Islam was
either recorded in Arabic and Persian, the Madrasas in Indian Sub-Continent
became places for learning Arabic and Persian. Every student aspiring to
reach the highest level of the Madrasa education had to learn these two
languages, as it is English today, whatever the mother tongue of the
students were. The most renowned poets of India at that time were, borrowing
from the Sufi traditions of Persia and Central Asia, composing their poems
in Persian.

Madrasas were also learning places during the Muslim rule in India. Indeed
it was the only place imparting knowledge in different disciplines even
though it was not modern or up-to-date considering educational advancement
in Europe. Due to British occupation of India, however, a dramatic u-turn
happened in Madrasa education. When the British introduced new educational
system and thereby modernise education the Indian Muslims considered it a
threat to the Islamic identity of the Muslims, and through this Madrasa
education, they took upon themselves the task of opposing the cultural and
educational hegemony of the British until after 1857. That was difficult
time and at this critical juncture of history we find Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in
the picture.

Sir Syed was the first Muslim who realized the need for modern education for
the Muslim community for its very survival in India. He had a strong passion
for education and while pursuing studies of different subjects including
European jurisprudence, Sir Syed began to realise the advantages of
Western-style education the British offered across India by establishing
modern schools and colleges. Sir Syed was a devout Muslim himself but he
criticised the influence of traditional dogma and religious orthodoxy of the
Muslims and earnestly appealed to them for modern education.

Sir Syed established a modern school in Aligarh and laid the foundation
stone of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College on May 24, 1875. His
pioneering work for modern education for the Muslims received support from
the British although intensely criticised by orthodox religious leaders who
were hostile to any modern influences. Sir Syed's new institution attracted
a large student body from the Muslim gentry and middle classes and finally
it helped Muslims in the Indian sub-continent to overcome greatly from the
orthodoxy of the primitive Madrasa education.

4. Madrasa Education in Bengal

Madrasa Education in Bengal was in the same path like other places in the
Indian Sub-Continent. In 1780, Alia Madrasa College was established in
Calcutta "to promote the study of the Arabic and Persian languages and
Mohammedan law, with a view more especially to the production of qualified
officers for the court of justice." However, there was important reason for
this action. The Government required competent and capable people who could
read and explain the book of law that was written and available in Persian.
Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India (1773 - 1784) responded
to this need by establishing the Alia Madrasa College.

A Sanskrit college also received British patronage for similar reasons.
Thus, both the Hindus and Muslims theology received British favour.
Actually, until the end of eighteenth century learning and education in
India at large were in decaying condition. For Muslims, it was Madrasa where
Arabic and Persian were taught whereas, for Hindus, it was 'Tols' or
institutions for Sanskrit learning that existed. But the Hindus, especially
the Bengali well-to-do Hindus, overcame the trap by educating their children
in schools and colleges that were established and run in Calcutta and other
places by some Hindu gentries, Anglo-Indians and the missionaries.

One Robert May set-up a school in Chinsurah in 1814 and within a year he
founded sixteen other schools in the neighbourhood. Drummond, Sherburne,
Martin Bowle and Arratoon Peters were the famous English schools that some
Anglo-Indians started. These English Schools and thereby Western education
at that time were the sole monopolies of the Hindu communities. As said
before, Muslims avoided it for the nostalgia of their past glory and other
socio-political reasons. Muslims thought they could find their own power and
lost glory back only by turning to old Islamic values and education only and
by avoiding all Western influences, which sadly, Madrasa establishments
think even today.

A landmark in the growth of Western education in Bengal was the foundation
of the Hindu College in 1817 (renamed Presidency College in 1853). The main
objective of the college was "the tuition of the sons of respectable Hindus
in the English and Indian languages and in the literature and science of
Europe and Asia".

It was nothing for the Bengali Muslims as, for the reason explained before
apart from the reasons that they were poor, neglected and down-trodden, and
they continued in that sordid situation or, in most cases, had no option to
care about modern education. Political development in British India by mid
nineteenth century, however, compelled the British to look for new allay as
educated Hindus were no longer loyal to them and were demanding political
and economic rights. Naturally they turned their attention to the Muslim
community with sympathy. The story of renaming Hindu College to Presidency
College tells a little bit of it which is as follows:

On October 21, 1853, His Lordship the Governor of Bengal suggested that "a
new general college should be established at Calcutta by the government and
designated 'The Presidency College' …….. The College should be open to all
youths of every caste, class or creed……."On June 15, 1855 the Presidency
College was formally established. The 'scholars' of the College Department
of the Hindu College were transferred to the Presidency College and 101 new
admissions were made. Of this 101 pupils, two were 'Muhammadans', the rest
were Hindus.

Thus, the British divide and rule policy and Sir Syed's efforts to give
Muslim youth's modern education had some spill over effect on the Muslims of
the Sub-continent including in Bengal. Real change in Muslim mind,
especially of the Bengali Muslims, again, occurred after the foundation of
Muslim League (1906) and more so when Dacca (Dhaka) University was
established in 1921.

Muslim society, however, was still divided truly on the question of Muslim
boys getting modern education. The reactionary group, especially the poor
continued sticking to Madrasa education, because, their backward outlook and
it was traditionally and mostly free and survived with charity. Poverty was
no doubt the most important reason why Bengali Muslims preferring it.
Bengali Muslims were the poorest community of the Indian sub-continent;
nevertheless some well-to-do Muslims went for modern education.

Creation of Pakistan, however, was a turning point in the social, political
and economic life of the Bengali Muslim and establishment of Bangladesh as
an independent country accelerated the process with further impetus.
Bangladesh has achieved much since 1972 and nobody needs to deny the fact
that Bangladesh was never better as it is today. But the situation could be
much, much better if we had a good government. Anyway, that is another story
and we need not delve much on it but turn back to Madrasa.

5. Madrasa continues growing in Pakistan and Bangladesh

Growth of Madrasa did not halt after creation of Pakistan or since
Bangladesh became an independent country. Madrasa is a holy institution even
today and nobody bothers what youths learn in this sort of primitive
institution. Open discussion on Madrasa seems to a taboo and almost a
forbidden subject. What a pathetic situation, we shy away to talk about
something that concern the future of our young generation and the nation at
large! Why a nation of 145 million people is afraid of the ignorant Madrasa
educated people and do not stop them destroying the nation with this
so-called Madrasa education?

When India was colonized by the British, they introduced a new educational
system in the country. The Muslims rejected it and as we already mentioned,
the Madrasa system took upon itself the task of opposing the cultural and
educational hegemony of the British through education. But who is doing
hegemony now in our own country and against whom we are showing our apathy?
And why we need this useless, primitive Madrasa education? Prophet of Islam
would have cried if he was alive today seeing the Bengali Muslims'
horrendous apathy towards science and technology and their preference to
Madrasa education.

Madrasa represents a conservative form of theology and jurisprudence which
is ill-suited to a modern society. It has nothing to do with Islam. It is
contradictory in someway what the prophet of Islam preached and encouraged
Muslims to follow. What is taught in Madrasas is outdated and unscientific,
for example, Deobandis "still insists that the sun revolves around the
earth" and they have "special seating arrangement for invisible Jinns".

Madrasa curricula, in most cases, offers curses like "Koran-i-Hafiz"
(memorisation of Koran), "Alim" (to become a scholar in Islamic matters),
"Tafsir" (Koranic interpretation), "Shriah" (Islamic law), "Hadith" (sayings
and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), Mantic (logic) and Islamic History (mostly
constructed and invariably avoiding any discussion on weak points of old
Muslim leaders). Modern Muslims' concern does not seem to be brotherhood,
equality, democracy or, care for fellow human beings, honesty and
uprightness that prophet of Islam preached and put high weight but idiotic
rituals that vested interest groups passed as Islamic things and obligation.
Pirs and Satan like "professionals Islamists" have taken over Islam and
ignorant Muslims and educated (?) crooks follow them blindly.

One can understand curiosity of a wealthy intellectual in a rich country
trying to learning Tafsir, Sharia or Hadith as personal interest and thirst
for ancient knowledge but why a poor man (rather the very poor one) needs to
memorise Koran or to know Koranic interpretation of things? Is Islamic law
(Sharia), for example when it instructs chopping of hand for stealing
something, can be accepted in any civilized society today? Would prophet of
Islam like it now if he were alive? How could we survive in Bangladesh
without Sharia until now? Where is the Islamic society in which one can say
that life is worth living? In Saudi Arabia? No, thank you, Sir, most of our
young men would say I suppose, only if they have a better option such as
living in a European or North American country where infidels (?) live.

And most surprisingly, Madrasa is not dying but growing like mushroom in
Bangladesh. In a recent report says that, that from 2001-2005, Madrasa
growth was 22.22% again 9.7% growth of general educational institution
(Bangladesh Economic Review Statistics). Rise of Madrasa teachers raised by
16.52% whereas teachers in schools and colleges increased by 12.27%. During
the above period, number of students increased by 10.12% in Madrasa whereas
increase in enrolment in general educational institution was 8.64%. There
are over 9,000 government-registered Madrasas in Bangladesh but nobody knows
how many non-registered primitive Madrasa there are across the country
offering primordial education. One report by one Abdul Jobbar, secretary
general of Bangladesh Qawami Madrasa Education and reported by Daily Star
says that the board has a list of about 15,000 Qawami Madrasa apart from
many that are not listed with anybody. The scenario is frightening. How a
nation can leave her young people to be taught such primitive subjects by
those ignorant teachers who do not have any education themselves worth
mentioning? What wastage of time and meagre resources of a poor nation
directing her young to an education worthy enough to be called so! What the
nation will do with millions of those ignorant young men and women when they
come out in the job market and enter practical life with only knowledge that
make them capable of is reciting Koran or explaining Tafsir, Hadith or
Mantic?

6. What to do with Madrasa?
Don't we need to do something about the Madrasa now? Or, it is already too
late? We suppose, the sensible answer is 'yes' and we need to stop this
primitive ill education immediately.

First action, one can rightly say, would be to re-name our schools and
junior colleges. The new name should be either school or Madrasa, if we
should and must need to Islamize it. But most important action shall be to
frame uniform curriculum for all our schools or Madrasas, as the name could
be (I will now use the world school only in this concluding sentences of
this write-up). Then, and the most expansive and difficult action shall be
to force-retire all the Madrasa teachers. They could be provided with other
jobs if possible but making it sure that they never again get any
opportunity whatsoever teaching anything in the future. The Madrasa and
Madrasa teachers have done great and incurable damage to us and the Muslim
society at large and it is time that they and their role in any nation
building activity is stopped for good. Religious education should be along
with general education but again, no religious teaching as such that today's
Madrasa offers. Religion should be a non-obligatory subject and taught only
in 7th and 8th classes and for those students who want to learn it for
personal interest. Curses like "Koran-i-Hafiz", "Alim" "Tafsir", "Shriah",
"Hadith", Mantic and Islamic History shall be offered as subjects at the
university level and only to those who has minimum 15 years education or
already a B. A. (Honours) in a major subject. "Alim", "Tafsir", "Shriah",
"Hadith" etc. shall be for M.A. and Ph.D. degrees making it respectable and
something only for highly educated intellectual people.

Religion is an important matter. Whether we like it or not, people can not
live without a religion. But when religion is left with ignorant "Jahels",
life could be real hell on earth. "It is the duty of every true Muslim, man
and woman, to strive after knowledge" have been said by many Muslim scholars
but Madrasa education today is detailed long ago and it has totally failed
to live up to the spirit of Islam. Madrasa education does not strive after
knowledge but orthodoxy. The situations in Pakistan, Bangladesh and other
Muslim countries prove this remark candidly and sooner we do something about
Madrasa is the better for us and surely best for Islam, the religion Muslims
believe in and want it so desperately to be respected as a faith by others.
***************************
Tayeb Husain
Lund, Sweden
E-mail: th12sw at yahoo.com
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