Give a People Education, You Will Change Their Condition
So says the Qur’an we can say.
What is clear is this: Islam is all about education. The first commandment from God to Man in the Qur’an was simple, clear, direct, forceful and unambiguous. It was “Read!” And reading is key to education.
The same passage in the Qur’an points out how God gave education to human beings by means of the pen. Pen and education, in the middle of the 7th Century of the Christian Era? And the notion of universal education that is inclusive of male as well as female genders? How likely is such a scenario?
But that is the truth and that is what happened. We don’t have to take the word or judgment of historians for it. That is the open and secure record that is as fresh in the pages of the Qur’an today as it was 1400 years ago when the Qur’an first came down to earth.
I totally fail to comprehend it. I ask myself: How is it possible?
To me it is one of the greatest living miracles on earth that in the middle of the 7th Century an unlettered man without any formal education or training of any kind comes out of a cave in the Arabian desert and tells humanity “Read!”
And as if that were not enough, he rubs the whole thing in by saying, Oh yes, don’t forget that education comes from the point of a pen. And to make the whole thing even more shocking and mind-shattering, he throws in something that the world did not come to recognize almost till the middle the of the 1970s: Oh yes, by the way, make sure this formula of using the pen to provide education covers not only men but also women.
So, men and women of the world, go forth and seek education. Go read! Embrace the book and embrace the pen and pursue the path of education. And don’t ask if you are male or female, child or adult.
How in the world do you make sense of something like this unless you call it a miracle? And a miracle indeed it was. It is this miraculous world-changing formula that Muslims have been sitting on for all these 14 long centuries.
At one time, Muslims changed the world using this formula. That is precisely what they need to do again – one more time. And many, many more times indeed. Use the tool of education to change themselves and change the world.
For, that is what Islam is all about: education.
And lo and behold that is what the world did for the rest of the 1400 years since the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, gave humanity that glorious command “Read!” The world started to comply with his command and began to “read.” Slowly but surely education – literacy if you want – spread to the four corners of the world.
With the torch of the Qur’an in hand Muslims first spread education throughout the world within a very short span of time and pioneered all kinds of scientific discoveries and achievements. What even some of the brightest minds and most educated people in the world do not understand today is that this was completely and totally unprecedented in the world prior to Islam.
In most cases, that is how pervasive and powerful is the hold of false history, malicious propaganda and sheer ignorance on the minds of the people of the world today. Lying about Islam and Muslims and distorting history and the teachings of the Qur’an has always been a going concern. But it has never been such a widespread career choice, industrial base and market option as it is today.
Qur’an Makes Education a Universal Human Right
According to the Qur’an, education is a fundamental human right. But the Qur’an goes way beyond that. It makes education a most fundamental human duty.
As a result, no man or woman in Islam can be without education. That is the fundamental Islamic law. And that is the crux of that word Shari’ah that both Muslims and non-Muslims use so often and so freely and loosely nowadays.
But if that is the case with regard to the teachings of Islam, then, how did the Muslims end up in this pathetic stage of ignorance in which they are today? How did it happen that the majority of both males and females in the so-called Muslim world is without proper education?
The world had never before seen a universal and popular wave of literacy and education sweep the landscape before Islam introduced education to the world – not only as a universal human right but as a universal human duty and obligation.
True, the Greeks knew how to read and write. But it was their elite, not their masses who knew it. This was also precisely the case with the Romans. Just as it was also the case with the Indians – the people of India, I mean, not the American people whom Christopher Columbus erroneously dubbed Indians.
Others have maintained this most gruesome and shameful mis-nomination, mischaracterization and national character assassination and identity theft of the American people for the past five centuries.
Nor were the Mesopotamians or Chinese different.
Prior to Islam, all peoples, nations and societies of the world practiced just the opposite of what Islam gave the world. They all adhered with fanatical devotion to the universal law of denial of education rights to anyone but the kings and their royal households and the aristocracy and the rich and the elite.
But one thing was clear even then. Even in ancient times, the ability to read and write was thus the passport to power and privilege throughout the world. Or at least it was a perk of power and wealth.
For, everywhere in the world, it was the rich, the powerful, the royal, the privileged and the priestly classes that knew and practiced the art and science of reading and writing. But never the ordinary people. Never the common masses of humanity.
