Why Islam Gives Importance to Education

The Quran contains various kinds of knowledge apart from law. If you understand this, you will realize that education is as important in Islam as it is for any person. There is no difference between Islam and other thought systems in this regard. The Quran tells you to think about nature and understand God's signs. This is why, you will seek all branches of knowledge. You will have to know chemistry, astronomy, physics, botany, zoology and so on. You will have to know everything, otherwise you won't gain deep understanding.

Video Transcript
Video Transcript

The Quran repeatedly speaks about dawah, or conveying God's message to people. ادْعُ إِلَى سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ (16:125) The Quran often says: Call to the way of your Lord. Give them the message. How will the message be conveyed? The Quran says: وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلَّا بِلِسَانِ قَوْمِهِ (14:4) This was the way of all the prophets. You have to convey the message in the language of your audience. If a person's language is Russian and you speak Persian, he will not understand.

According to the Quran, Muslims are dai and non-Muslims are madu, or Muslims are addressor and non-Muslims are addressee. The Quran say: Do dawah work. If you have to convey the message to someone, you have to know his language. You have to deliver the message in the language of the addressee. This includes learning all the languages of the world. وَقُلْ لَهُمْ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَوْلًا بَلِيغًا (4:63) You have to convey the message as long as minds are not addressed.

How will the minds be addressed? You have to know the idiom of the person whom you address. You have to gain all the knowledge that has shaped the mind of the person you need to address. You have to read the mind of people. You have to know their idiom. You have to know people's rational level. You have to know all these through education.

The mistake made here was that ilm-e-deen was taken to meen ilm-e-fiqh. Religious knowledge was taken to mean legal knowledge. Fiqh involves only law and leaves out everything else. طَلَبُ الْعِلْمِ فَرِيضَةٌ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ. (Sunan ibn Majah 224) The meaning of this was thought to be knowledge of law. Thus, the Quran was left out. The Quran contains various kinds of knowledge apart from law. If you understand this, you will realize that education is as important in Islam as it is for any person. There is no difference between Islam and other thought systems in this regard. The Quran tells you to think about nature and understand God's signs. This is why, you will seek all branches of knowledge. You will have to know chemistry, astronomy, physics, botany, zoology and so on. You will have to know everything, otherwise you won't gain deep understanding.

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QURANIC VERSES1:7
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