“Education is the key to the future: You’ve heard it a million times, and it’s not wrong. Educated people have higher wages and lower unemployment rates, and better-educated countries grow faster and innovate more than other countries. But going to college is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects.” Alex Tabarrok.
Education and learning are tools of empowerment; they matter. They enable analytical thinking, innovation, and adaptability. True education and learning are essential elements of 21st century society for every individual, every beginning and lifelong learner. Education and learning bring zest to life, for as writer and educator Edith Hamilton indicated, “To be able to be caught up into the world of thought – that is being educated.”
The annual rush for admissions to schools and universities in our society is a satisfying matter. Thousands join every year and many graduate from these educational centers. The younger generation, both males and females, want an education. The ambitions of the students fill one with great hope. Moreover, private universities are expanding every year. Thus, a vast learning opportunity is provided for Afghan youths.
Currently, the main desire of an Afghan youth is to graduate from a university so as to find a job. In other words, economic constraint is the big challenge ahead of Afghan people. Education is aimed at serving one’s financial needs. Don’t you think that such education lacks moral standards?
I believe that whenever education is used as a tool for mere material needs, it will certainly lack moral values. For example, when the rich attend university for getting higher positions in life, and the poor want to get rich, it shows a mundane need rather than a spiritual one. The fact is that an appetite for knowledge is hardly felt and is overshadowed by the desire for economic progress. Education is relegated from a sacred level to worldly desires.
Knowledge is supposed to quench one’s spiritual thirst. Indiscriminate learning will poison one’s mind and spirit, just as poison in food result in death. It is said that knowledge causes either positive changes or negative ones. In Islam, helpful knowledge is of great value. A person may get a high degree of education but experience no positive change in characters. It is the same as a torch used by a thief for stealing things. In such a case, education plays a destructive role in the society.
Miguel Angles Ruiz says, “Humans believe so many lies because we aren’t aware. We ignore the truth or we just don’t see the truth. When we are educated, we accumulate a lot of knowledge, and all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn’t allow us to perceive the truth, what really is.”
Getting education is strongly emphasized in Islam. As a result, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) says, “Getting education is an obligation on male and female.” He also says, “Get education from cradle to grave.” So, in Islam, the door to knowledge is open to all of any age. Moreover, Islam emphasized its followers to get education at any costs and therefore Islamic countries gained the upper hand in the time of Prophet. Which field of knowledge does Islam mean?
Islam has not specified any special field of knowledge. However, the knowledgeable who stores knowledge without supporting society is seriously condemned in Islam. In a Hadith, the knowledgeable without practice is likened to a bee without honey.
It is said that once Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) entered a mosque noticing two groups there. The first group was praying whereas the second group was debating on an educational subject. Prophet appreciated both the groups, however, joined the second one saying that he was sent as a teacher.
According to Islamic Sharia, knowledge should be combined with virtue and morality so as to form a confection to meet the needs of a society. A society which lacks knowledge and morality will be hibernating without lifeblood.
In addition, it merits blaming, in Islam, when one is too busy in many fields of knowledge to ponder over his own characteristics. Making weapon of mass destruction for annihilation of human societies rather than building humanity is a curse. Isn’t it the destructive role of knowledge?
One more question will arises about why knowledge results in fundamentalism? Once again the answer for both the questions is that such knowledge lacks virtue. Just think of pouring clean water in a dirty glass. Soon the dirt will muddy it as you will never want to drink. Same is the case with education. When one’s mind and heart are affected with immorality, the knowledge learnt will also be a poison. Therefore, it will be used to destroy society.
Unfortunately, in spite of acquiring knowledge, our youths ignore virtue and moral values. The university students lack interests in piety, especially those who study social sciences. Due to indiscriminate learning, some are strongly influenced by European scientists and their agnostic ideologies. For example, when a student studies the idea of Karl Max as he says that religion is the opium of the people, the same thing will be uttered uncritically next day, by that student.
On the other hand, the styles of the young girls in universities demonstrate their less religious mentality. They are deeply influenced by the European way of life. The Islamic culture is in the danger of erosion. It seems that many of our youths approach liberalism unintentionally or unknowingly. They may believe that it is none of the business of knowledge to deal with virtue and religion. It is what revealed by their non-Islamic style.
I would like to conclude with the statement of an Irish poet William Butler Yeats as he says, “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.”