Part 11
By Bisham Shaheed
10. The Weakness of the Educational and Training System in Muslim Societies
One of the main reasons for the weakness of Muslims today is the decline of the Islamic educational and training system, along with the spread of non-Islamic curricula throughout the Muslim world. Education is the foundation upon which both individual character and collective identity are built in every society. When education and upbringing are not sound, purposeful, and rooted in authentic values, future generations grow up not with intellectual and spiritual maturity, but with confusion, blind imitation of others, and a crisis of identity. One of the fundamental causes of the Muslim Ummah’s present weakness is the disorder that has taken hold of its educational system.
In earlier times, the educational system of the Islamic world was built upon the unity of knowledge and faith. Alongside the religious sciences, Islamic madrasas and centers of learning also taught the natural sciences, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy, all within the framework of a worldview founded on tawhid.
This balanced approach created the conditions for Muslim scholars to be both men of deep religious knowledge and distinguished experts in their respective fields. In the modern era, however, the educational curricula of most Muslim countries came under the influence of colonialism and imported systems, and that unity was broken. The enemies of Islam worked to separate Islamic education from modern learning until education itself was divided into two separate paths. On one side stood religious studies, which in many cases became disconnected from the practical needs of life and modern skills. On the other stood modern education, which was often stripped of faith, morality, and spiritual values. As a result, a deep gulf emerged between knowledge and faith.
When Muslims held the leadership of the world, they established great centers of learning and culture where both Islamic sciences and other branches of knowledge were taught. Muslims and non-Muslims alike traveled from every corner of the world to benefit from these institutions. Among the best-known examples were Cordoba in al-Andalus and Bayt al-Hikmah in Baghdad. But when Muslims became consumed by internal disputes, division, and the pursuit of worldly desires, drifting away from Islamic guidance, they gave their enemies the opportunity to achieve long-held objectives. One of the most important of those objectives was to reshape the educational systems of Muslim countries. As a result, a new generation grew up increasingly detached from Islam and its own historical heritage. They were raised to see this world as their only goal and purpose.
The result has been a generation that is either poorly equipped with the skills needed for modern life and global competition or spiritually empty, lacking moral direction and intellectual confidence. In many cases, this divided system has produced people who possess neither a deep Islamic identity nor the level of knowledge and competence needed to play a meaningful role in society.
At the same time, both traditional and modern educational systems in many places continue to rely heavily on memorization rather than encouraging critical thinking, analysis, creativity, and problem-solving. As a result, Muslim societies have become consumers of other people’s ideas instead of producers of their own. The real solution lies in rebuilding and reforming the educational system on the basis of a comprehensive Islamic vision, one in which knowledge and faith, reason and revelation, practical skills and moral values are brought back together in harmony.
In such a system, the purpose of education would not simply be to obtain a job or earn a certificate. Its primary aim would be to develop individuals who are knowledgeable, committed, beneficial to society, and conscious of their responsibility before Allah Almighty.
At the same time, serious attention must be given to practical skills, scientific research, and preparing students to meet the demands of the modern age, without sacrificing their Islamic identity or moral values. The reality is that until the Muslim Ummah reforms its system of education and moral formation, it cannot hope to achieve genuine independence or self-reliance in politics, the economy, culture, or any other field.
