Islam, with no doubt, has come to bestowal of honor upon humans, to raise his personal dignity, preserve his custodies and protect his life from persecution, humiliation and disgrace.
BY: MOHAMED AMINE MOKRAOUI EL WAGHLISSI
That was so clear from the first instant when the Holy Qur’an revealed on the Prophet-peace be upon him- the revelation of the first verses of EL-AAlak, which is talking about reading and writing, was to design the Right’s curriculum to be free from transgression and slavery where the nation was drown in, and the Arabs life before the revelation was called “pre-Islamic paganism”. Who meditated in the verse’s name and its beginning would find that it links the human’s life with education. There is a tight linkage between man and reading been reached by someone who really understands the deep values of Qur’an.
Islam has declared war against dictatorship through stripped off land on which it stands; it’s something that inspires the Muslim to return to that solution in facing it. The ignorant nation doesn’t know the real meaning of freedom which is devoting oneself to the worship of Allah and submit to him willingly and with fear, and seek his satisfaction. Therefore, education is the perfect way to worship Allah because the ignorant nation can’t figure out its severe depravity at the level of individuals or society as a whole, as long as it is without recognition or light, drown in primitive lusts that sticks in the concrete world far away from the world of values and ethics. So, education with the help of its enormous tools has become a weapon been brought by Islam in its war against ignorance. Therefore, the best path is the guidance of Mohammed-peace be upon him- in fighting the overwrought dictatorship which is living on susceptibility to subservience and surrender which is based mainly on the cognitive vacuum and ad-valorem.
Ignorance is one of the biggest idols:
Ignorance was considered as the most almighty idol and the most present in the life of Arabs in the pre-Islamic era. Without it, the valiant men of Kurish wouldn’t ever been able to slave the dignity of the Arabic society those days. Without it, people would never surrender and hand over their freedom. That exactly what the Islamic intellectual MALIK IBN NABI was shrewd to when he said: “the essence of ignorance is heathenism because it doesn’t embed ideas but assign idols”. That what was incorporated in the pre-Islamic society, which was full of the concrete and abstract idols. Passion, bigotry, underdevelopment, innate relapse, barbarianism and vulgarity are stones which crammed together to give that biggest idol ever.
Prophets had come to treat the greatest depravity in their peoples. Islam, as an aeonian message, has brought the immortal treatment to that sacred idol that gave birth to all depravities of humanity incorporated in both of the governor and the governed. It was an immortal miracle from a big issue’s gender that destroys man and put him in the hands of abusers from exploitation merchants. It was a Qur’an to be read (recitated), to pull people out of the social and political evil of slavery to the oasis of freedom and monotheism and cast the society out of the darkness of passion, chaos and bigotry to civilization and the satisfaction of Allah. It changes souls, enlightens minds, soften hearts and bring man back to humanism, mercy and solidarity. That exactly what Kurish had understood and consider as a threat, it used all possible means to prevent the right hood and education and it opened a war against the prophet Mohammed –peace be upon him-. Kurish had tortured and beat Ibn Messoud –may Allah bless him- to conceal the right’s breath which brings back life to the soul and cast it out from the clutches of heathenism which is irrigated by ignorance. That is repeated nowadays, the dictator fights education and persecute its people by killing and exiling them and put them in jail. That dictator knows clearly that whenever people cast out of heathenism and ignorance, they will destroy what falsehood has constructed and what it has decayed.
Islam has taken dictatorship down:
It was not that ease to deal with an ignorant society, these people got used to darkness and slavery chuckles. Therefore, Islam has managed to take the dictatorship system down, through beating the pillar on which it stood to establish dependency leading to idiotic susceptibility. That latter deprived Arabs of their humanism and disfigured their instinct and get them lost in regression and inferiority. The first thing that the prophet had worked on was to devote an entire generation of his companions to teach and educate them, to be the first core to face the tyrannical heathenism. The three years of converting people to the message of Islam were educational, didactic, enlightening and fiducial. The prophet was able to construct a strong, wise, faithful generation with cognition; he has changed humanity in two decades, but never said enough, he carried on working for more ten years which were devoted to build a pure Muslim citizen who’s free from the drawbacks of the policy of ignorance that had been practiced by the disbelievers of Mecca. Once Abu Dar El Ghafari offended Billal Ben Rabah, the messenger of Islam said: “ you are an ignorant person”, Abu Dar el Ghafari was a pioneer in accepting Islam, and the prophet reminded him of those years when he was educating them to leave the remains of the pre- Islamic era. Education, and seek after it, remains the most suitable way to fight ignorance if it tries to reappear once again, even in an isolated behavior because ignorance is the source of the biggest individual and communal dictatorship. Therefore, the almighty Allah in his book (Qur’an) called people to seek after education and knowledge. He almighty said: “and say, my lord, increases me in knowledge”.( Taha 114 ), whenever the complexities of confrontation rises in this hard life, the Muslims insist to ask help from Allah in their battle against ignorance by the light of education and scrutiny.
Islam doesn’t stop at any extent in destroying the developing dictatorship system in an environment of ignorance and obscurantism. But the prophet –peace be upon him- had linked his companions with the operation of fighting ignorance a practical linkage, that was clear in how he dealt (peace be upon him) with the hostages of Badr Conquest, when he gave them their freedom in condition of teaching ten of the companions. With no doubt, this act had a great importance and significance because reading and writing were as equal as the life of the human being and his holiness. In that solution that the prophet suggested a clear sign to the atheisms that war between Islam and heathenism between freedom and oppression, would never been apprehended just in the arena. However, it would be an intellectual, cultural and scientific war either, using the pen and the word as weapons. In that prophetic issue a clear alert to the companions- may Allah bless them all- of the importance of education in their war against the falsehood. Therefore, the war against the dictator’s project is not exceeded by assaults and circuits against the policies which encourage the civilizational carelessness because it would remain just empty acts with no value would get nothing except failure and strengthening the falsehood.
On which ignorance are we talking about?
If someone asks: we are living in a stage its first feature is that the majority of people read and write, let’s say millions of Muslims have graduated from universities, academies and educational centers which are spread in all over the Arab and Islamic world. So how come to talk about ignorance as the main cause of dictatorship that Islam has come to fight, to put education and justice instead?
This question is allowable and perhaps the most suitable answer is found in the Qur’an when it declares war against ignorance. Qur’an doesn’t fight its common phase, illiteracy, alone. However, it fights all its developed features as it is an idol apt to expansion and shrinkage and apt to development and regression. Ignorance in its developed features is clear when education loses effectiveness as Hadith says: “some knowledge is ignorance”, If education doesn’t play its role, become as ignorance or worse and much dangerous. Qur’an talks about that concerning the Jews: “the example of those who were entrusted with the torah and then didn’t take it on, is like that of a donkey who carries volumes ( of books) wretches is the example of the people who deny the signs of Allah. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people”.(Al-Djumah, 05). In this verse, the Qur’an is talking about education that lost its effectiveness and becomes useless, unable to build or move neither the person nor the society. Today, we are facing that virtue despite of all these universities, academies and educational centers, despite of all the millions of educated students in our society, despite that huge amount of diplomas and scientific claims but they all in vain, can’t stand in front of the overwhelmed current of heathenism because it lost its effectiveness and neutralized in its mission which aims at ending ignorance and purify the human soul. When it fails in this civilizational role, it will reflexes as an evil in front of the person and society because it is difficult to deal with an educated society which is unable to work or change its fact, because an ignorant is easy to deal with while an intellectual one who is unaware of his effectiveness is so hard to be fixed, those people destroyed the society. These educated generations, an empty education far from adequacy or efficiency, far from beauty and charity are compared to camels which die of thirst in the desert because they don’t know the importance of what they carry on their backs. May Allah bless who say:
Like camels in desert died of thirst.
And water is on their backs carried out.
Therefore, these scientific mass and buildings are compared to an abandoned place because it teaches history but it doesn’t graduate a historian, it teaches sociology and fails in constructing elite able to solve problems. So, they are just buildings with no importance have nothing to do with the world of ideas, far away from adequacy and civilizational efficiency. That’s why they don’t do their role in fighting dictatorship which refuses monotheism and human’s servitude to his creator.
Ignorance paths and dictatorship’s expansion:
A lot of people think that dictatorship’s systems are stupid. This judgment reveals shallowness in the conception and the perspective. This is evidenced by the absence of choice pillar of knowledge and disabled its efficiency as the fertile ground for planting the mortal sins of exploitation and slavery. Islam has minded to that when wardens to fight these organizations by science and scientists. He almighty says : “ and strive against them with the Qur’an a great striving”, in this verse a clear significance that following ignorance paths need a great effort and devoting an entire honest elite of the nation to end this evil and burn it with the flame of education and cultivation.
The paths that dictators use to destroy the efficiency of education and its symbols are:
Chop the nation off its referential: they head for distracting the world to seek for positions and agnomina and govern councils and they have been given favors so that to forget their real role and message. And make them do researches have nothing to do with nowadays issues; In fact it’s just a tearful distraction. They push them to do lectures, seminars, and meetings under glossy logos sponsored by them. However, it’s a chance to talk and got diplomas and echelons that help the participants in his career. All those favors are just idols alienated the Muslim from his missionary occupation.
That was the same policy which Kurish followed with the teacher of humanity, Muhammad, when they offered him money, positions, women and wealth bit he, peace be upon him, refused all that and chose the path of the Right.
These smart paths were able to use education a tool to get jobs. They make the learner or the scientist just as an employer has to choose whether to follow the dictator’s policy and betray the trust or fade in dismissal and elimination’s corners. This is our fact nowadays, the nation has relied on many people to end the civilizational disgrace but they destroyed themselves by following the bad systems, giving birth to a generation which has a false image as far as life is concerned that is assigned by Islam. So, he has no value from education, this generation consider the years of education just a way to get a diploma then a job and a biological life. After graduation he find himself unable to criticize or figure out the weakness of his life and his society. This is so logical because if the educator is unable to criticize, the graduate is much incapable to conceive criticism and questioning which Islam teaches its followers to love and keep as a concept.
Among the paths that expands the dictator’s dominance on his citizens is to break the symbols of the society who are the intellectuals by giving too much importance to silly people. This is why the flame of reformation fades in the hearts of many of them, especially that people are as the prophet said: “ like a hundred of camels”.
The creation of these smart tracks in the lives of individuals who were once projects for the good, making the patch of ignorance wide open; facilitates the way to foolish the society and the spirit of the implemented resistance in human nature.
A vivid, useful science........ It’s what we seek for.
The real education is the one that moves forward and doesn’t know relapse or delay in the conflict with the enemies of freedom, unity and unification, the education that draws right and left to search for obscurantism and tyranny policies to eliminate and fight them using efficiency, effectiveness and beauty. Therefore, it becomes a necessity to reconstruct what has been destroyed by the policies which dumps the content of their holy meaning which has attacked the efficiency that Qur’an has talked a lot about it when linked in many occasions between work and science. He almighty said: “those who believe and do righteous deeds”.
Working is close to science, the latter is with a great benefit if it is out of the saying and viewing circle to action and embodiment circle. And efficiency which is the reform and charity in the change; the people of effectiveness are referred to by the prophet saying: “Islam began as something strange and will revert to being strange as it began, so give glad tidings to the strangers.” It was said: “who are the strangers?” he said: “who did righteous deeds when people are depraved”.
The absence of efficiency of science in our nation has many negative drawbacks on Muslims such as aggression, tyranny and dictatorship. If it were a deprived nation, it would not rescue from this absence in its facts. what Ibn Dounia said proved that : “.....................”
Therefore, if we belittled science at the extent to be on a par ignorance, we would suffer from a terrible life. Allah the almighty said: “ and do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest you be touched by the fire” (hud; 113).
For the righteousness of people’s life, the Muslims have no chance but science and its civilizational efficiency that has been brought, dozens of years ago, by Qur’an in its verses which talked about it and sensitize the nation to activate it.
