Concept of Education in Islam and Its Objectives Essay

The Arabic language has three terms for education, representing the various dimensions of the educational process as perceived by Islam. The most widely employ word for education in a formal sense is talm, from the root alima (to know, to be aw atomic number 18, to perceive, to learn), which is used to de none familiarity world sought or imparted through instruction and teaching. Tarbiyah, from the root raba (to increase, to grow, to rear), implies a domain of spiritual and ethical nurturing in accordance with the will of God. Tadb, from the root aduba (to be glossinessd, refined, well- worldnered), suggests a persons development of fundamental social behavior. What is meant by sound requires a deeper understanding of the Moslem desire of the human cosmos.1) Importance of Education Education in the context of Islam is regarded as a process that involves the complete person, including the rational, spiritual, and social dimensions. As noted by Syed Muhammad al-Naquib al-Attas in 1979, the comprehensive and integrated approach to education in Islam is say toward the balanced growth of the total temperthrough training piece of musics spirit, intellect, rational self, feelings and bodily sensessuch that faith is infused into the whole of his personality (p. 158).Educational theory in Islam In Islam educational theory knowledge is procureed in order to actualize and perfect alone dimensions of the human being. From an Islamic perspective the highest and most useful model of perfection is the prophet Muhammad, and the destruction of Islamic education is that people be able to live as he lived. Syed Hussein Nasr wrote in 1984 that while education does prep ar manhood for happiness in this life, its ultimate goal is the abode of permanence and all education points to the permanent world of eternity (p. 7). To ascertain truth by reason alone is restrictive, according to Islam, because spiritual and temporal reality are two sides of the aforementioned( prenominal) sphere. Many Muslim educationists argue that favoring reason at the expense of spirituality interferes with balanced growth. Exclusive training of the intellect, for example, is inadequate in developing and refining elements of love,kindness, compassion, and selflessness, which have an altogether spiritual ambiance and stack be engaged only by processes of spiritual training.Education in Islam is twofold 1. getting intellectual knowledge (through the application of reason and logic) 2. development spiritual knowledge (derived from divine revelation and spiritual sense) According to the worldview of Islam, planning in education must be made equally for both. Acquiring knowledge in Islam is not intended as an end further as a means to stimulate a more sumptuous moral and spiritual consciousness, leading to faith and righteous action.1. Emphasis on Acquiring Education in Quraan In a society where morality and knowledge in common and acquisition in particular do no t go hand in hand, it seems necessary to briefly show the position of Islam vis--vis knowledge, Islam, in theory as well as in practice, has always promoted knowledge. Distinctive mark of human beings over the angels is knowledge And Allah taught ex all the names (231)The send-off verses of the Quran began with the word Read. Read in the name of thy Lord who created He created the human being from blood clot. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen He taught the human being what he did not know. (96 1-5). The Quran says.Are those who have knowledge equal to those who do not have knowledge?(399).2. Emphasis on Acquiring Education in Hadith The seer of Islam (peace be upon him and his progeny) has too emphasized the importance of pursuit knowledge in different ways(a) Time Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. (b) Place Seek knowledge still if it is far as China. (c) Gender Seeking of knowledge is a duty of every Muslim (d) Source Wisdom is the lost property o f the believer, he should take it even if finds it in the mouth of a mushrik.The Prophet did not only vaticinate about importance of knowledge, he also gave examples of promoting knowledge. In the very first battle between the Muslims and unbelievers or Mecca, known as the war of Badr, the Muslims gain victory and caught seventy kuffars as prisoners of war. One of the criteria of releasing the prisoners devised by the Prophet was that those who were literate among the prisoners could go free if they teach ten Muslim children how to pick up and write.2) Aims and Objectives of Education in Islam The aim of education in Islam is to produce a good man. What is meant by good in our concept of good man? The fundamental element inherent in the concept of education in Islam is the inculcation of adab (tadib), for it is adab in the all-inclusive sense I mean, as include the spiritual and material life of a man that instills the quality of morality that is sought after. Education is what t he Prophet, Peace be upon him, meant by adab when he tell My Lord, educate (addaba) me and make my education (tadib) most excellent.There is a general tendency among Muslims who are aware of the dilemma that is now pressing upon the fraternity to see its causes as remote, as coming from the outside, originating from influences exerted by western sandwich culture and politeness. That its causes are attributed to external elements is of course based upon correct observation, but it is also only partly true.It is true that the Muslim mind is now undergoing great(p) infiltration of cultural and intellectual elements alien to Islam but to say that the causes are derived from external sources is only partly true. How has it been possible in the first ordain for Muslims to succumb to such infiltration to the extent that their predicament has now off-key the proportions of a dilemma? We will at once realize that the external causes referred to are not the only ones responsible for th rowing us into a convey of general crisis, and we must see that the full truth of our answer to the head teacher lies undeniably in the prevalence of a certain anomaly in spite of appearance our Community an anomaly that has with increasing persistence plagued our world and our intellectual history, and that has been left field uncorrected and unchecked, now to spread like a raging transmission system in our midst.Only by our consciousness and recognition and acknowledgement that solid internal causes have incircumstance contributed considerably to our general disarray will we be able to discern the full truth that lies at the core of the dilemma we suffer today. The secular scholars and intellectuals among the Muslims derive their inspiration mainly from the West. Ideologically they depart to the same line of descent as the modernist reformers and their followers and some of them stand by to the views of the traditionalist reformers and their followers.The majority of them d o not possess the intellectual, spiritual, and linguistic prerequisites of Islamic knowledge and epistemology so that they are severed from the cognitive and methodological approaches to the schoolmaster sources of Islam and Islamic learning. In this way their knowledge of Islam is at the barest minimal level. Because they immerse a strategic position in the midst of the community and unless they drastically change their ways of thinking and believing, they pose a grave peril to the Islamic welfare of the Community.They have no adab, for they do not make and acknowledge the legitimate authorities in the true hierarchical order, and they portray by example and teach and advocate confusion and error. This is in fact the main reason why, as demonstrated in the course of Western intellectual history throughout the ages and the rise of secular philosophy and science in Westerncivilization, the Western conception of knowledge based upon its experience and consciousness must invariably lead to secularization.There can be no doubt, therefore, that if the secular Muslim scholars and intellectuals allow themselves, or are allowed to blur the Muslim youth in knowledge, the delslamization of the Muslim mind will glide by to take effect with greater persistence and intensity, and will follow the same kind of secularizing course in future generations.Large numbers among them do not fully understand the nature of Western culture and civilization whence they draw their inspiration and before which they stand agape in reverential awe and servile humility portraying the attitude of the inferior. They do not even completely grasp the contents and implications of the teachings of their alien masters, being content only to repeat them in vulgarized versions and so cheat the Muslim audience of their true worth.