The Qur’an, Islam and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, completely flipped that equation on its head. They took education out of the privileged hands of the elite and privileged segments of society and placed it squarely in public and popular domain. They made education a basic right for all and not merely a privilege for the few.
Furthermore, Islam made education a fundamental human duty and obligation. For both males as well as females everywhere.
Islam, thus, made education a basic human right at all levels of society and not merely a jealously guarded privilege of the rich, the well-connected and the powerful few. What is more, Islam took education from the realm of being merely a right and made it a universal human obligation.
Thus, the Qur’an, Islam and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, made education a synonym and not just a component or correlate of Islam. Thus, in most cases, to be a Muslim became more or less the same thing as being educated.
That means Islam meant education. And no education meant no Islam. Let the Muslims of today deal with that issue. Let them come to terms with the challenge of this statement.
The Rest of the World Had No Choice but to Follow
Since Islam had opened the door to universal education, which it did for males as well as females, the rest of the world had no option but to embrace this Islamic doctrine universal. So, the world began to follow suit. But it did not do so immediately. Nor did it come to accept it without a long and painful struggle.
Selfish and corrupt leaders throughout the world kept their followers from following the light of Islam by using all kinds of false propaganda and wicked lies about it. This happened in Makkah, the birthplace of Islam.
And this happened in other places, notably, in Europe. Just like the people of Makkah, the Europeans too had a special knack for concocting and spreading all kinds of vicious lies about Islam, about Muslims and about the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
As they continue to do to this day.
Thus, European leaders, both secular and sacred, headed by the Pope, launched centuries of Crusades, cruelty and barbaric warfare against the world of Islam. They did not embrace Islam’s enlightened culture of science and education almost until the last Muslim had been packed out of Spain in 1492 or burned alive at the stake in what is known as Spanish Inquisition.
European scholars and reformers suffered everything from death to torture to being burned at the stake in their pursuit of the goals of science and education that Islam had made so alluring and unavoidable.
Jan Huss was killed for the crime of asking Christians to read the Bible, the way the Muslims read the Qur’an.
Martin Luther was hunted and hounded for questioning the Infallibility of the Pope and wanting to reform Christianity using the example of Islam.
Giordino Bruno was burned at the stake.
Galileo wisely repented and made peace with the Church before he suffered the same fate as Bruno. He did die under house arrest.
All this for the crime of seeking education; of pursuing science and enlightenment; and of wanting to believe and act as Muslims were doing right under their noses, and as Muslims had been doing for a long time right there in Europe.
For example, to believe in such things as:
- No human being could be infallible.
- Jesus Christ was not a son of God.
- It is the Bible that should be read and followed, not the Church and the Pope that should be blindly obeyed.
- The sun was not a chariot dragged across the sky by a team of horses.
- The earth was round, not flat.
Europe, mostly under the influence and direction of the Christian Church, punished its sons and daughters severely and ruthlessly for wanting to be like the Muslims and for embracing the individual teachings of Islam if not the actual and complete Deen of Islam itself.
Thus, the Qur’an made it clear that human success and salvation lay in reading and education. And the Muslims showed the world how. They became the Education People of the World.
Sabaq Phir Parh, Says Iqbal
So, let us relearn that lesson of universal education all over again. Let us put every ounce of energy we can to become the Education People one more time, such that no son or daughter of Islam, shall ever again be without the best education that it is possible for a human being to have in this world.
We can do it if we set our minds to it, should that be the will and pleasure of Almighty God.
It is the same lesson that Muslims need to learn all over again, says that towering super-genius, that matchless Urdu-Farsi poet and thinker, that piercing seer and visionary and that amazing man of God, Iqbal, Rahmatullahi Alaih!
The present condition of the Muslims, therefore, is not a cause for despair or depression. This is a challenge to us to be motivated, fired up and rededicated to the mission for which Allah created us in the first place: educating the world.
And that includes Muslims. Every man and woman on earth, Muslim as well as non-Muslim.
So, all we need to do is to gird up our loins, pull up our socks and each and every one us dedicate ourselves to teaching everyone we can whatever we can: from Qur’an to Hadith; from science to math; from history to geography; from carpentry to masonry; from computers to calligraphy; from cooking to sewing; from everything to everything else.
That is the power and the vision that lies behind that simple command of Iqra! It says: Go change the world, and start with education. The most complete and comprehensive education of the best kind that you can possibly get or provide.
