Forum 1

What is the philosophy of Muslim education?

The philosophy of Muslim education is La hi la ha i’llallah. It means there is no god except Allah. When Allah created human being. He created us for worshiping him alone without any partners. Worshiping him in the sense of “do what Allah has command and forbid what he doesn’t like”. Worshiping is an act of showing thankfulness for given us many things and acknowledging that he has the ultimate and supreme power. As an individual we should obey Allah such as by believing the pillar of  Islam and by doing the five pillars of Islam.

According to (Firdaus & Jani, n.d), the purpose of education in Islam is to produce a good human being (al-insān al-ṣāliḥ), who is capable of delivering his/her duties as a servant of Allāh and His vicegerent (khalīfah) on earth.  To behave as khalīfatullāh fī al-arḍ (vicegerent of Allāh on the earth), moulding the nature and character of an individual so that they can  represent Islamic values. In another word, education is “a process through which human beings are trained and prepared in a concerted way to do their Creator’s bidding in this life (dunyā) to be rewarded in the life after death (Firdaus & Jani, n.d). There are two knowledge in Islam, firstly, revealed knowledge that is Knowledge of Quran, sayings of prophet (S.A.W), Sunnah. Secondly, acquired knowledge that is beneficial for humanity like physics, mathematics, sociology, etc. It prepares human being a holistic life without separation of life and death. Philosophy of Muslim education acquiring knowledge is to bring us closer to Allah.

In Islam, seeking out knowledge is part of the process of education that aims to enlighten the human and enriches knowledge that helps in knowing Allāh SWT, the Creator of all humankind and universe. This will fill a sense of responsibility to worship him and obey His command at all times and to accomplish the purpose of the creation of mankind as stated in the Qurʾān, that is, to worship Allāh,

Thus, the aim is the complete submission to Allah on the level of individual, doing good to environment of nature and society (other people).

Find out of the objectives of the Mecca Muslim World Conference 1977.

After the collapse of Ottomon Empire, the concept of education in Islam has been influenced by secularism education. Secularism mean the separation of religion from state. Which resulted in the failure of the Muslim Ummah in its quest for nation building and development according to Islamic perspective. The effect of this is every Muslim country started to follow and become secular. During that time Muslim education in Muslim countries was in a very critical stage.  At that time education was back forward, Muslim are too dependent on western ideology and they became consumer rather than producer. There was a separation of Islamic teaching which is revealed knowledge and acquire empirical knowledge. Because of this Mecca Muslim World conference was established and the main objective of Mecca Muslim World Conference was to Islamize education in Muslim World. In other word, the solution was in middle, to integrate extreme end of secularism and extreme end of religion. This happen because of colonization from western country that imposed on their ideology. Because of this it doesn’t align with Creator.

References:

Firdaus, R., & Jani, M. S. (n.d). Islamic Education: The philosophy, Aim and Main Features. n.d