The holy religion of Islam has given particular importance to learning and education of human beings from any other religions in the world. In Islam, learning and teaching are considered as the best deeds of a Muslim as stressed in several verses of the Holy Quran and narrations of ‘Ahadith’.
Knowledge and awareness can help in addressing most of problems in a society and result in improvement of leadership, moral and family as well as political, economic, health and social issues. Islam has encouraged Muslims to seek knowledge and get education. Seeking knowledge is considered as the best reward. Islam is always in effort to nurture thoughts, talents and human capacities.
Besides, Islam provided great impetus for the human pursuit of knowledge.
The first verse that descended on the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was Iqra, meaning “read, The Holy Quran urges the mankind to think, ponder, reflect and acquire knowledge that would bring them closer to God and his creation.
The Holy Quran uses repetition to embed certain key concepts in the consciousness of its listeners. Allah and Rab (the Sustainer) are repeated 2,800 and 950 times, respectively, in the sacred text; Ilm (knowledge) comes third with 750 mentions.
The prophet Mohammad (PBUH) commanded knowledge upon all Muslims, and urged them to seek knowledge as far they could reach, and also to seek it all times. Islam makes it a religious duty upon Muslims to seek knowledge. Seeking knowledge with the intention of benefiting oneself and the people is rewarded like performing additional prayers or fasting. The Prophet (PBUH) said: “Seeking Knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim.” (Ahmed) Meanwhile, Ali ibn Abu Talib, 4th Caliph (may Allah be pleased with him), once said, “I would be slave of a person who teaches me a letter” accentuating the importance of knowledge.
Following these commands and traditions, Muslim rulers insisted that every Muslim acquire learning and they gave considerable support to institution and learning in general. This contributed to making elementary education almost universal amongst Muslims.
The necessity of preserving the Quran and the Traditions (Hadith) awakened the spirit of collecting such writings in various forms, which paved the way for the establishment of the earliest libraries in the Muslim world.
The mosques which, during the early decades of Islam formed the nerve centres of all political, social, religious, and educational activities, housed valuable libraries comprising books on religion hilosophy, and science.
Teaching others is one of the good deeds that will get us great rewards even after death. Whoever leaves behind beneficial knowledge will get rewards as long as people are still getting benefits from his knowledge.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “When a man dies all his deeds comes to an end except for three: an ongoing charity, beneficial knowledge and a righteous son who prays for him.” (Bukhari)
In our country Afghanistan, where all the people are Muslims, each human being has the responsibility to make particular effort to seek and promote knowledge.
We hope that our country will be able to restore the glory of the Islamic civilization. Afghanistan should achieve more progress in providing the youth with facilities to get education.
Qarizada
Importance & position of education & learning in Islam
