Responsibility of Muslim Thinkers and Educationists (1/2)

The Muslim scholars, thinkers, educationists and the elite are called upon to take a serious and comprehensive stand by looking at the Ummah’s general contemporary culture, thought, writings and messages in order to identify and diagnose where the defects are. They should endeavor to reshape the thought, the methodology, the culture and the presentational approach in a manner that would make the Ummah regain its ideological, cultural and educational wellbeing and enable it built effective institutions that would be strong enough to eradicate the negativism and corruption, and enable it acquire Da’wah and religious education and media strength and win independence for its institutions from the grips of the political authorities.

This will liberate the Ummah from the disease of falsification of its will and marginalization of its religion, principles and goals, and put an end to manipulation of the religion in order to serve the interest of those who are in position of authority and their cohorts and in order to consolidate tyranny, autocracy and corruption in the Ummah’s public life and in its different institutions.

If we realized the Ummah’s contemporary situation, the situation of its universal vision, the situation of its culture, educational methodologies and the way it forms its children’s sentiments, and we realized the confusions and distortions that have been the bane of these messages – a situation that has led the Ummah to superficialities, and intimidation and employment of religion for personal interests of the ruling elite in the Muslim societies, starting with the child who is nurtured on methodology of memorization, coercive material and moral violence, employment of religious symbols to suppress spirit of criticism, examination and ability to make distinctions and the consequences of all that on a Muslim mind and sentiment – if we realized all the above, we would realize the crucial role the thinkers, educationists and the enlightened scholars need to play and how crucial it is for them to take up the responsibility of effecting the reform of ideological, intellectual, educational and cultural oration.

This endeavor of theirs should start with paying attention to educational presentational approach for fathers and all the institutions that are based on Da’wah affairs, the religious education and teaching process, and media institutions of all which needs to be free from the influence of the political elite. The leadership of these institutions must be selected and they must be fully qualified intellectually, experience-wise and morally.

This selection must be through ballot from the Ummah’s general public – to ensure its freedom and fairness and to ensure that their loyalty is to the religion and the Ummah alone, and not to the interests of the ruling elite, the influential individuals and the people with personal interests.

It is equally important to reshape our higher education system and the way we create intellectual and scientific cadres so that unity of Islamic education in the syllabi of our higher education can be achieved and the goal of forming a Muslim’s mindset and creating the drive for Islamic vision in his psyche can be attained. It is through this that a man can be enabled to play the role of the vicegerent, bringing prosperity to the earth and building the Ummah’s civilization with conviction, desire and perfection which Allah destined him to play when He breathed soul into him, appointed him as the successor on the earth, endowed him with intelligence, assigned him the responsibility of managing the earth and create in him the love to choose truth, justice and peace, in defiance of inclinations of the soil and jungle.

It is important here to note the experience of International Islamic University of Malaysia. This university started its experiment of “Islamization of Knowledge” that affirmed “Unity of Knowledge”. It paid attention to emotional education through “Family and Parental Institution”, and to “Creative Thinking” through “Literature of Islamic Education” and “Methodology of Islamic Teaching”. This experiment deserves to be studied and reflected upon by the reform movements.

The Muslim thinker, the Muslim teacher and the Muslim scholar are the capable hands to manage the operation key of the Ummah’s ideological and emotional reform movement – especially in the area of educational aspects relating to parents and family and aspects relating to teacher and school. This is because the family and the parents are the foundation for the change and reform of any individual who can, in turn, change and reform the society and the Ummah and their institutions – in line with Allah’s statement:

 “Verily! Allah will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change their state themselves.” (Surah Ar-Ra’d, 13:11)

In the light of this, it is incumbent upon the Muslim – in his effort to reform – to remember that success and good performance are measured by concrete results and not by mere slogans. Anything short of that yields nothing but what we witness today: Idle talk, failure, rumpus, and repeated prattle. Muslims should remember that they are a nation of the Message of Light and noble spirituality that must be adequately armed with strength and authority in order to promote justice and create a reality in which “right is might” and  in confrontation with the decadence of the ‘soil and its injustice’[1]  that promotes the notion of ‘might is right’. Allah speaks the truth in His following statement:

 “Whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it.” (Surah Az-Zalzalah, 99:7-8)

(Continued)