The Future of Muslim Education: Challenges and Opportunities
As one of the world's fastest-growing major religions, Muslims must play an active role in shaping scholastic's future. Muslims should create schools that not only educate socially relevant students but also contribute to democratic transformations of society and help us live more peaceful lives in this complex and challenging world.
Muslim nations worldwide maintain an active tradition of informal educational activities (https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-89-Joshua-M-Roose.pdf). Scholars have taught children and adults alike in mosques around the globe for centuries. At Islam's three holiest sites - Haram in Makkah, Masjid al-Nabawi in Madinah and Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem - scholars provide regular lectures that are open to anyone wishing to take part.
Oral culture alone was insufficient to educate a rapidly expanding Arab population that was becoming illiterate, leading to formal school systems like circle schools (maktabs) and palace schools that began appearing.
Although important to Islamic school experience, these schools still possessed distinct limitations: narrow curricula that contradicted religious and secular goals; physical facilities not always conducive to creating an effective learning environment; lack of funding necessary to hire qualified staff - all being potential obstacles to education for Muslims today.
As part of an attempt to address the deficiencies of medieval educational systems, new philosophies of education were devised that combined Islamic and secular knowledge more holistically. These new approaches emphasized educating students for both temporal and eternal destiny simultaneously.
At that time, several scholars were active, such as Naquib Al Attas who proposed "Islamization of Knowledge," Syed Ali Ashraf and Ismail al-Faruqi who wrote extensively on this topic; and Darul Uloom in Deoband scholars. Although their philosophies of education eventually succumbed to modernization and secularization, their contributions remain lasting legacies.
Today there is an increasing trend toward schools inspired by Islamic or "Muslim" philosophy and traditions that draw upon ancient philosophies and practices. Your average Muslim School is privately run and established as collaborations between traditionally/Islamic-school trained scholars/teachers. Also, those educated at secular universities who share an interest in Muslim education are welcome to educate.
As in other religions, Islam prioritizes spiritual and moral excellence as an integral aspect of scholastics. Many scholars cite Prophet Muhammad as the ultimate model of moral excellence and believe that to emulate his behaviour is key to living an abundant and rewarding life. This has resulted in an array of Islamic educational texts and methodologies spanning basic prayer instruction up to more in-depth teachings on topics like theology, jurisprudence ethics and history.
Early Muslims understood that for a unified and cohesive society to emerge as described in the Koran, access and effective formal scholastics were paramount. Thus, they created an elaborate system of schools and colleges specialized in various fields - mosque (masjid) colleges in particular dates back to the eighth century.
These colleges were the focal points of learning for Muslims around the globe and still play an essential role in Muslim communities today, yet often face a fundamental challenge: reconciling secularized modern education with Islamic religious tradition--something which often causes negative responses from both parents and students of Muslim backgrounds.
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Choosing A Muslim School
Islamic worldview combines spiritual and temporal realities into one coherent narrative, and education aims to prepare people for both. Prophet Muhammad himself serves as a model of perfection; Muslim education seeks to produce men and women who resemble his qualities. According to Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr: 'Islam concentrates on developing one for both this life and the next while also striving to ensure its balance."
Education in Islam emphasizes both intellectual and spiritual knowledge. Students learn how to acquire intellectual knowledge through rational analysis and logic while developing spiritual awareness through divine revelation and spiritual experience. This dual focus can be seen through Islamic schools that combine classroom instruction with religious practice and social service projects.
Islamic schools present educators with unique challenges due to their diverse pedagogy, which often differs from Western models. Students can often feel pressure to conform with teacher or peer values which may result in negative feelings of identity, leading to an increase in isolation for many young Muslims.
Educators in Muslim societies face increasing difficulties and must find ways to overcome them. One approach would be teaching both students and teachers empathy skills and creating a third space within the education process, which can result in creating a more inclusive society in which everyone thrives.
Though Muslim education systems have seen notable gains over the years, four out of ten adult Muslims still lack formal education. This trend is particularly prominent in sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East-North Africa regions where 65% of Muslim adults lack any formal education.
According to this site, female attainment rose dramatically between generations from 4% in older generations to 23% among younger ones; men had postsecondary degree attainments increased more modestly from 7% of older cohorts to 11% among younger cohorts.
Islam emphasizes the value of education for human development. Education is one of the seven cardinal rights granted to all humans by Allah: life, property/wealth, religion, honour, family/progeny and knowledge (adab). According to the Quran, Muslims must use their minds and intellect to further society by working for social justice - making scholastics a powerful weapon in this respect for Muslim educators hoping to change students' lives. A quality Muslim school education provides not only in-classroom fostering of community but also relevant things to do with teens in Melbourne outside of the classroom.
Claire Alkouatli, an interpretive researcher specializing in Muslim pedagogies, conducted an interview with thirty-five Sunni Muslim teachers regarding their teaching of Islam. Through a thematic analysis, Claire's results suggested that teachers' values and perspectives about Islam influence what they teach their classrooms as well as the subject matter they cover.
This in turn influences students' beliefs and attitudes regarding Islam and democracy; teachers with conservative or liberal interpretations may even affect how they participate as democratic citizens in a pluralistic society.
Some teachers were reluctant to bring up democracy in their classes, while others made it a point to include this topic as part of their curriculum. One group of teachers stressed the need to Islamise democracy; they believed a secular understanding would hamper students from participating in respectful dialogue with "Others."
