Madrasah-4: The Student

 

This is a series of articles for the understanding of the history of centuries old Madrasah and Islamic Education System in South Asian perspective published in Muslims Weekly, New York, USA, in 19 series of the weekly column “Personal Notes.”

 

First Published: Muslims Weekly, Issue No. 218, May 7, 2004

 

The student is the central component of the Islamic education system. It is the students’ responsibility to acquire education that is obligatory. As vicegerents or viceroys of Allah, humans have been given the responsibility of conducting lives that are significant in establishing and maintaining peace and justice, among other things. Muslims have an additional role to play: “Ye are the best party (Ummah), evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong” (Al-Qur’an 3:110).

Education that provides knowledge and wisdom of “what is right” and “what is wrong” and gives the power to establish the good and demolish the wrong is compulsory for Muslims. On their journey to education, students must face difficulties with perseverance and resolve. In Islam, there is no age limits in the process of gaining knowledge; education is a lifelong process, from birth to death.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) often prayed, “O my Lord! Enhance my knowledge.”

Becoming educated was never an easy task. In both old and modern times, it was a bed of thorns. There are a lot of hindrances: internal, external, psychological, and otherworldly. Satan constantly works to divert the attention of a student who works in the way of a good purpose and direct it to a bad purpose.

Only the attachment and love of Allah, a strong willpower, and an iron commitment can help the student to withstand the Satanic onslaught. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “If a person acquires knowledge in which Allah is pleased, but he acquired the knowledge only for selfish worldly needs, that person will not even smell Heaven.”

To acquire the pure and required education, one must be obedient to Allah. Imam Shaafei was a great scholar of Islam and founder of one of the five main schools of law of Islam. He said, “I complained to Imam Wakee about my short memory; he advised me to abstain from sins and said that knowledge is the light of Allah and the disobedient can’t get the divine light.”

Most of the scholars of Islam advised students to purify their purpose of education, make commitment to Allah, and pray to succeed in acquiring knowledge. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “A person who leaves home to seek knowledge is a soldier (Mujahid) in the way of Allah until he returns home” (Tirimidhi).

Another Hadith explains, “In respect, angels spread their wings in the path of a student” (Abu Daud).

According to a Hadith of Muslim, “Those who travel to seek knowledge, Allah will ease the way of Heaven for him.”

These concepts of great rewards left no excuse for anybody who says that since there is no teacher or Madrasah in his or her city or town, he or she cannot learn Qur’an and Hadith. No! There is no excuse. You must take this particular hardship and overcome it in order to learn the knowledge that is mandatory, Farde Ain.

If you learn the history of Muhaddesin [collector and compiler of Hadith, sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)], these people traveled hundreds and thousands of miles to meet and study with someone who remembered Hadith. In general, twenty years of a Muhaddesin’s life was spent in journey only to seek knowledge.

I can give several examples of the dedicated students from the history of Islam who faced extreme hardships in the way of seeking knowledge. Here are a few examples from the history of Muslim India (reference: the late Professor Syed Muhammad Saleem).

1. Maulana Shibli Noamani (1856-1914), a great scholar of Islam of India of his time and author of a very famous book on the biography of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) “Seerat Un Nabi.” When he had completed his formal education, he wanted to learn Arabic literature. Maulana Faiz ul Hasan Saharanpuri, a teacher of Oriental College, Lahore, was the famous Arabic poet and man of literature of that time. Shibli Noamani requested him to teach. Maulana’s excuse was that he had no time other than the time he spent walking from and to his college every day. His college was at the distance of two miles from his home. The enthusiastic student took advantage of this time. Every day Shibli would reach the home of Maulana Faiz and walk with him to his college. During these walking periods, he was taking Arabic language lessons. Regardless of whether the weather was a sizzling summer day, or chilly winter, or stormy rain, Shibli remained steadfast and punctual in attending his ‘walking class’ for several years and completed his Arabic language.

2. Maulana Syed Abul Aaala Mawdudi (1903-1979), a great and world renowned scholar of Islam. He asked Maulana Abdus Salam Khan Niazi, a prominent scholar of Maaqoolat (Philosophy & Physical Sciences), to teach him the subject. Maulana Niazi had no time, but he couldn’t refuse Mawdudi due to his respectable family background. He asked Mawdudi to come at dawn and finish the lesson before Fajr prayer (the prayer before sunrise), if he could. It was an extremely hard condition and synonymous to refusal. But the zealous student accepted this challenge. Syed Mawdudi attended his class for a very long time and finished his lessons before the Fajr prayer.

3. Munshi Tek Chand, a Hindu, non-Muslim student, a product of Madrasah, presented a unique example in the history of learning. He was writing and compiling a Farsi dictionary “Bahar e Ajam.” Nadir Shah of Iran with his force attacked Delhi in 1739. It was a “golden opportunity” for Munshi Jee to learn Farsi from Iranian soldiers. Daily from the early morning, he would go to the camps of Iranian military and do research on Farsi words, phrases, idioms, jargons, and vocabularies. Even on the day when Nadir Shah ordered the massacre and bloodshed in the city (on March 11, 1739, from 9 am to 3 pm), Munshi Tek was, as usual, doing “research of words” in the middle of a massacre.

The importance of learning for students gave them a sense of high respect for their teachers. After the Creator (Allah) and parents, teachers received the highest respect from everyone. Students did their best and put in a lot of effort to please their teachers. To make teachers angry meant the invitation of anger of Allah, and a student who was seeking the mercy of Allah couldn’t afford that. A teacher, Maulana Abdul Haq Khairabadi (1898), once became angry with Hakim Barakat Ahmed Tonaki (1928). It took Hakim Barakat two years to please the royal temperamental teacher. He pleased the teacher and returned back as a student.