Respected Readers: Muslims in every country are now quite aware of the importance of education. To consider its issues and requirements, consultative gatherings of Muslim intellectuals and conscious individuals are also held, and scholarly measures are adopted with a sense of necessity. As a result, the trend of arranging education for the new generation of Muslims has become common. Although it is still less than the required quantity and need, whatever there is, is a good omen.
For humans, especially religious education, is like food for physical health. In the present era, the Western nations' concern, progress, and organization in the field of education, and then the far-reaching results that emerge from it, are all in front of everyone. Seeing this, in our backward Eastern countries, the need for better organization and management of education for ourselves has also increased, and as a result, institutions of contemporary subjects have been established and are being established. But this process requires great resources, good management, and concern, which Muslims lack, and there is less attention to it. However, its resources, requirements, and difficulties require the special attention of Muslim intellectuals, and the achievement of better results depends on their sincere thought.
Before independence, the need for education was not viewed with this importance and breadth. Under British rule, importance was given to preparing mostly clerks and officer-level individuals. The usefulness of education for the need to develop life in all its aspects was generally ignored. After independence, the need to prepare skilled individuals was greatly felt, and relatively more attention was paid to the science fields in the subjects of education, and both the theoretical and practical aspects of science were adopted.
Among the various elements of Muslim education, a major and fundamental element has been religious education. Muslims tried to give it its due place even before independence, and the individuals who were prepared by it fulfilled the religious needs of the community to a considerable extent, and a number of them also took a prominent part in the war of independence and made sacrifices. Then, after independence, this religious education remained established and even increased further. More religious schools and universities were established and are being established, and they are providing the nation with individuals for its religious needs to some extent.
Among the educational institutions established by Muslims, one type are those institutions
that have associated themselves with the preservation and promotion of religious sciences. They meet their financial needs with public donations, and in this, wealthy people with Islamic consciousness participate according to their religious zeal. These institutions provide the community with religious scholars and religious leaders and reformers who perform their duty of protecting the religion in the Muslim community and trying to make its life bound by religious rules.
Upon India's independence, Muslims faced difficult circumstances due to being in the minority. These circumstances became a challenge to the religious beliefs of Muslims and their Islamic identity. In view of this situation, important individuals of the community, who were honorable and had a sincere desire to maintain Islamic identity, gathered and agreed on the determination that the new generation of Muslims, who are in the minority in this newly independent country, should be protected from the general atmosphere of the country, which is not in accordance with Islamic thought and belief, by taking necessary steps in its initial stage and deciding on a better system. Because the new generation of any nation, of any country, when it leaves the environment of its parents and enters the stage of learning and being influenced by others, fully accepts their influence on its morals, character, beliefs, and thoughts, and thus it is deprived of the morals and character inherited from its religion and culture due to being different from those of other religions and cultures. If necessary measures are not taken in the beginning to protect against these negative effects, then this generation will not follow the ways of its nation and community when it grows up, and its thoughts and ideas will be derived from others.
Among the various elements of Muslim education, a major and fundamental element has been religious education.
It is necessary for every Muslim to know and believe in the teachings that Islam has given us. Therefore, in this country where there are various beliefs and religions, it is necessary to familiarize the minds of our new generation with the correct beliefs and practices of Islam at the very beginning of their age so that they are protected from straying from their correct path. All the efforts of our religious educational institutions are that when they join the national system of education after the initial stage, their beliefs and religious foundation can be established correctly, and they can understand themselves as children of the Muslim nation and become familiar with their basic values. In this, they will find a way to avoid being deceived and to be protected from the opposing effects of others.
Some individuals who have a greater sense of the importance of the material and purely worldly elements of education consider the arrangement of religious sciences education to be an unnecessary arrangement. These people do not fully appreciate the importance of religious education. These religious sciences schools play a fundamental role in keeping Muslims Muslim and in creating Islamic awareness and ability in them. They should be viewed in terms of the religious needs of the community. But unfortunately, the influence of Western thought and civilization on the modern Muslim educated class has created a mindset on the one hand that they consider religion to be just a personal matter of man and a matter of such little importance that whether it remains or not, it does not make any particular difference in human life, whereas for the Muslim nation, its religious belief and its practical life under it are of fundamental importance to them. Similarly, the work that religious seminaries are doing under religious requirements and needs is of great importance in the life of a Muslim, and interestingly, the Western powers themselves have realized the importance of these seminaries and have understood that adherence to religion actually creates a special usefulness in man. Therefore, from this point of view, they are beginning to feel the emerging religious consciousness among Muslims as an emerging power, which they feel is a threat to their irreligious life and shameless and misguided thought and civilization, and on this basis, they consider the Muslim religious seminaries to be a threat to their anti-Islamic civilization. Because in their view, such people are being produced from these schools who have opposing effects on the atheistic state of the Western world and the moral depravity and modesty and freedom of personal character and are going to compete with them. It is a matter of regret that our Westernized Muslim intellectuals also ignore the beneficial effects of religious schools and become aligned with the negative thoughts of the West. Our religious schools are of several types. Among them are elementary schools, which are called Maktabs. These are generally up to grade five. In these, Urdu, the Holy Quran (Nazra), and good moral, religious, and cultural things that are according to the understanding of children are taught. Along with this, some arithmetic and Hindi alphabet recognition are also taught. Their standard is according to government primary grades.
This curriculum is the backbone for Muslim children in terms of belief and religion. Muslim children who are deprived of it remain completely distant in their knowledge of their religion and faith. Then, if they find a non-Islamic environment, they become very distant from Islam.
In some of these religious Maktabs, a three-year course of memorizing the Quran is also included, due to which children become Hafiz-e-Quran, and the need of the Muslim Ummah for memorizing the Quran is fulfilled by them, which is an important need in its place, the details of which are not possible here.
Efforts should be increased to carry out religious and educational work with more courage and attention, and Maktabs should be established in more and more areas, and through them, the basic beliefs and issues of Islam should be instilled in the hearts and minds of the generation so that at least their Islamic mental identity is preserved through it, and they are not deprived of this precious identity. Everyone needs to think about how we can live in this country with the safety of our faith and Islam, and that this belief and this Islamic identity cannot be snatched away from us. For this, there is a need to increase interest in this work and for suitable workers to come forward and come forward to take over the work.
It is the responsibility of the responsible class of the Muslim Ummah to keep in mind both aspects of the life of the Muslim Ummah, that is, the worldly needs and the need for salvation and success in the hereafter. How many people are needed for the medical needs of the Ummah, how many executives are needed for administrative needs, how many individuals are needed for political needs and social works, how many experts are needed for legal requirements, similarly, how many knowledgeable people and those who take responsibility are needed for our religious and moral needs, all these needs should be in our view. There may be differences in estimating the quantity and number, but ignoring any important aspect cannot be considered correct.
Therefore, our religious schools, which are in the form of Maktabs for primary education, should be in such a number that all the children of the Ummah can benefit from them, and those schools in which there is an arrangement for education up to the level of becoming scholars and experts should be established and maintained according to the need. All classes and intellectuals of the Ummah should support and cooperate in this. This is necessary to standardize the position and role of the Ummah and to raise it to its worthy status.