In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

INPORTANCE OF MADRASSAS IN BUILDING UMMAH

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

In building and shaping the fate of Muslim Ummah, our Madrassas [Religious Educational Institutions] have played a vital role from the very inception of the Islamic State in Madinah. The foundation of the Muslim Ummah is based on nothing but the Qur’an, the Book of Guidance that came from Allah to guide the destiny of the people [Al-Nass] who accept it as their way of life, practice it as how to live, act and behave on earth, invite others to enter the fold of Allah and change their life as ordained in the Qur’an and demonstrated by Prophet Muhammad (S) in his life pattern as its most perfect model.

The Qur’an deals, discusses and elaborates at length the fundamental knowledge of this cosmos: who is the Creator and Sustainer; what is the position of man on earth and what is the end of man and his abode; is man free or accountable to His Sustainer and how man should live and behave on this earth? These are the basic fundamental questions. The Sustainer has Himself answered these questions in the Qur’an. If man gets the correct answers to these fundamentals and live by that, only then he will have the peace on earth and enjoy eternal bliss after death. Any source of knowledge that does not attend these basic questions, or denies them outright or ridicules as something pertaining to metaphysical world, it is a deviation, far from the truth and leaves the man to grapple with the “uncertainties” of life in total obscurity. These “deviations” can be termed as “Jahiliyah” [ignorance] of great magnitude. If any one’s knowledge does not lead him to the presence of God, the supreme authority of this universe, does not accept that whatever he possesses or sees around are trust from God and one day he will be accountable to Him for the manner he has used them on earth and refuses to follow the model set by the Prophet of Allah, he cannot be called a learned “scholar”. In the sight of the Creator and Sustainer he is a “Jahil” [ignorant - Verse 39: 64] irrespective of the fact "how high he holds his "haughty" head in modern campuses.

The Qur’an answers these questions eloquently and, as such, Muslims founded their educational institutions based on its teachings and the allied topics like Tajweed [correct recitation], language of the Qur’an [Surf, Nahv, Balagha etc.], Fiqh [jurisprudence], Tafseer [explanation of the Qur’anic verses], Hadith [Sayings] of Rasulullah (S), logic, human rights, international relations, principles of war and peace, memorization of the Qur’an, Seerah [life history] of Rasulullah (S), morals and ethical standards set by Allah and many more relevant topics. This was the only knowledge available to mankind and Islamic society flourished it through its well-net system of Madrassas attached to Masajid. Muslims wherever they went with the spread of their unprecedented conquest in the Continent of Asia, Africa and Europe, they established Masajid and along with it Madrassas for educating Muslims that were entering the Deen of Allah in multitudes.

These Madrassas later on became big religious universities throughout the Muslim world and carried huge "Waqf" [designated] properties to manage the free education that they were imparting to locals and students coming from outside from different parts of the known world. Qurtaba, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Basra, Madinah, Ankara, and many more cities became seats of learning of Islam in the heart of Muslim world. Most of them were residential universities where thousands of students were getting the correct knowledge of this universe and the sciences of the Qur’an free of cost. This was the condition of these religious campuses when Islam was dominant all around till Fifteenth century AD. Both the Muslim Ummah and the followers of other faiths, the Jews and the Christians specially, were benefiting from this educational system immensely.

With the fall of Constantinople to Turks in 1453 and the fall of Muslims in Spain in 1492 AD, the history of the world changed. Renaissance took place in Europe and downfall of Muslims started along with it in a gradual process. The materialistic way of thinking that Islam discarded became the foundation of European knowledge. They took the contributions made by Muslims in art, science and technology to their Universities, detach it from the knowledge of the Qur’an that elevated Muslims to dominate the world for over 1,000 years and made it pure secular in nature. They progressed as Muslim progressed but they attributed it to “mother nature” and demoralized themselves in effect, producing only a “corrupt” system of oppression and exploitation in its wake.

The secular forces of Modern age realized and soon discovered that Muslim's success in the world was mainly due to their attachment to the Qur’an which is interwoven with the entire educational set up from Madrassa to University level. If Muslims are to be ousted from the place of power, they should be detached from the Qur’an and from the Qur'anic Arabic. The "reformation" of Arabic language started in mid nineteenth century from Lebanon by two Christian brothers and Madrassas became gradually ineffective though foreign domination of the Muslim world during the colonial era of the West. The remnants of the Madrassa education based on the Qur’an are now being removed by the “yes-men” of Europe and America ruling over the Muslim world. They are determined to close the Madrassas or make them totally ineffective by prohibiting the teachings of the Qur’an form their syllabus and discarding the foreign students from these religious institutions in the name of the so-called “war on terror”

In this brief review that I have just presented in the foregoing lines, one can easily understand the importance of the Qur'anic education that inspired Muslims for centuries together to produce imminent scholars in every field of human knowledge, motivated the Ummah to be the leader of mankind, provided feasible solution of the problems that world confronted during their time of rise and even that of “stagnancy.” It still has the great potentials to rejuvenate the Ummah again to play its role in the new millennium. The West is fully aware of this proposition. Hence they are now determined to snatch away that role from our Madrassas and leave them with “beggars” bowl. Unfortunately, the corrupt leadership of the Muslim world like Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, Hussni Mubarak of Egypt, the foreign “stooges” in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Sheikhs of Gulf states, the despotic rulers of North Africa, Far East and Central Asia, all are harping on the tunes of Bush-Blair.

The Ummah has already reached its lowest ebb. Now it is the time of tide. The Qur'anic education of Madrassas, of course, needs some improvement but not scrapping it altogether as the conspiracies are going on at home and abroad. Muslims must uphold the cause of Madrassas, as the important most milestones towards the revival of their fate as Ummah within a few decades, Insha Allah. The growing interest of Muslim youth in the study of the Qur’an confirms it. Qur'an was the instrument for Muslims to rise. They subsequently "failed" because they neglected the Qur'an and will rise again when they will hold fast this "Rope of Allah" as they did at the very outset.

Shamim A Siddiqi

Dated: August 9, 2005

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

INPORTANCE OF DEENI MADRASSAS IN BUILDING UMMAH

[Religious Educational Institutions]

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

In building and shaping the fate of Muslim Ummah, our Deeni Madaris [Religious Educational Institutions] have played a vital role from its very inception of the Islamic State in Madinah. The foundation of this Ummah is based on nothing but the Qur’an, the Book of Guidance that came from Allah (SWT) to guide the destiny of the people [Al-Nass] who accept it as their way of life, practice it as how to live, act and behave on this earth and invite others to enter the fold of Allah (SWT) and change their life as ordained in the Qur’an and demonstrated by Rasulullah (S) in his life pattern as its most perfect model on earth.

The Qur’an deals, discusses and elaborates at length the fundamental knowledge of this cosmos: who is the Creator and Sustainer; what is the position of man on earth and what is the end of man and his abode; is man free or accountable to His Sustainer and how man should live and behave on this earth? These are the basic fundamental questions. The Sustainer has Himself answered these questions in the Qur’an. If man gets the correct answers to these fundamentals and live by them, only then he will have the peace on earth and enjoy eternal bliss after death. Any source of knowledge that does not attend these basic questions, or denies them outright or ridicules as something pertaining to metaphysical world or falls within the per-view of the so-called scientific analysis, it is a deviation, far from the truth and leaves the man to grapple with the “uncertainties” of life in total obscurity. These “deviations” can be termed as “Jahiliyah” [ignorance] of great magnitude. If any one’s knowledge does not lead him to the presence of God, the supreme authority of this universe, does not accept that whatever he possesses or sees around are trust from Him and one day he will be accountable to Him for the manner he has used them on earth and followed the Prophet of Allah, he cannot be called a learned “scholar”. In the sight of the Creator and Sustainer he is a “Jahil” [ignorant - Verse 39: 64] irrespective of the fact "how high he holds his "haughty" head in modern campuses.

The Qur’an answers these questions eloquently and, as such, Muslims founded their educational institutions based on the teachings of the Qur’an and its allied topics like Tajweed [correct recitation], language of the Qur’an [Surf, Nahv, Balagha etc.], Fiqh [jurisprudence], Tafseer, Hadith of Rasulullah (S), Ilmul kalam, logic, international relations, principles of war and peace, memorization of the Qur’an, Seerah of Rasulullah (S), morals and ethical standards set by Allah and many more allied topics. This was the only knowledge available to mankind and Islamic society flourished it through its well-net system of Madrassas attached to Masajid. Muslims wherever they went with the spread of their unprecedented conquest in the Continent of Asia, Africa and Europe, they established Masajid and along with it Madrassas for Muslims that were entering the Deen of Allah in multitudes. These Madrassas later on became big religious universities throughout the Muslim world and carried huge "Waqf" properties to manage the free education that they were imparting to locals and students coming from outside the area from different parts of the known world. Qurtaba, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Basra, Madinah, Ankara, and many more cities became seats of learning of Islam in the heart of Muslim world. Most of them were residential universities where thousands of students were getting the correct knowledge of the sciences of the Qur’an free of cost. This was the condition of these religious campuses when Islam was dominant all around till Fifteenth century AD. Both the Muslim Ummah and the followers of other faiths were benefiting from this system immensely.

With the fall of Constantinople to Turks in 1453 and the fall of Muslims in Spain in 1492 AD, the history of the world changed. Renaissance took place in Europe and downfall of Muslims started along with it in a gradual process. The materialistic way of thinking that Islam discarded became the foundation of European knowledge. They took the contributions made by Muslims in art, science and technology to their Universities, detach it from the knowledge of the Qur’an that elevated Muslims to dominate the world for over 1,000 years and made it pure secular in nature. They progressed as Muslim progressed but they attributed it to “mother nature” and demoralized themselves in effect, producing only a “corrupt” system of oppression and exploitation in its wake...

The secular forces of Modern age realized and soon discovered that Muslim's success in the world was to their attachment to the Qur’an which is interwoven with the entire education set up from Madrassa to University level. If Muslims are to be ousted from the place of power, they should be detached from the Qur’an and from the Qur'anic Arabic. The "reformation" of Arabic language started in mid nineteenth century from Lebanon by two Christian brothers and Madrassas became gradually ineffective though foreign domination of the Muslim world during the colonial era of the West. The remnants of the Madrassa education based on the Qur’an are now being removed by the “yes-men” of Europe and America ruling over the Muslim world. They are determined to close the Madrassas or make them totally ineffective by prohibiting the teachings of the Qur’an form their syllabus, discarding the foreign students from these religious institutions in the name of the so-called “war on terror”

In this brief review that I have just presented in the foregoing lines, one can easily understand the importance of the Qur'anic education that inspired Muslims for centuries together to produce imminent scholars in every field of human knowledge, motivated the Ummah to be the leader of mankind, provided feasible solution of the problems that world confronted during their time of rise and even that of “stagnancy.” It still has the potentials to rejuvenate the Ummah again to play its role in the new millennium. The Anglo-American mockery of the West is fully aware of this proposition. Hence they are now determined to snatch away that role from our Madrassas and leave them with beggars bowl. The “idiots” like Parvez Musharraf. Of Pakistan, Hassni Mubarak of Egypt, the Sheikhs of Gulf states, the despotic rulers of North Africa, Far East and Central Asia are harping on the same tunes of Bush-Blair. The Ummah has thus reached to its lowest ebb. The Qur'anic education of Madrassas needs some improvement but not scrapping them altogether as the conspiracies are going on at home and abroad. Muslims must uphold the cause of Madrassas.

It is now the time of tide for the Ummah. It is enthusiastically undertaking to the Qur'anic education everywhere, especially its youth. A Muslim can die but individually he will never give up the Qur’an and its teachings to himself and to his children. Every house will become Madrassa and a challenge to anti-Qur’an movement being launched by the western hegemonies. I am more than sure that soon Qur’an will re-play its role gradually and prepare the Ummah to attain the role of leadership of mankind. The seventy years despotic role of Communism in Russia and the secularist Turkey could not eliminate the importance of the Qur’an from their societies. It stands revived over night with the departure of despotic regimes. So Ummah is going to revive very fast, faster than the fall of leaves in autumn in a couple of decades. This is the century of Islam and the selfish neo-cons are just taking perhaps their last breath. Beyond that, the "Qur'anic-will" will prevail: “A' laisa al-subhu beqareeb” [Is not the morning nigh” (11: 81). The same concept of hope was beautifully put by Keats in different words: “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Qur'an was the instrument for Muslim to rise. They "failed" because they neglected the Qur'an and will rise again when they will hold fast this "Rope of Allah" as they did at the very outset.

Shamim Siddiqi

Website: WWW.dawahinamericas.com August 7, 2005