Preface
Preface
Humans are unlike other creatures. They are an extraordinary creation, endowed with superior intelligence, combining both body and soul. They are simultaneously Allah’s most exalted and most degraded creation. This exaltation or
degradation is determined by their character and actions, which are shaped by their education. The purpose of education is to transform humans from mere 'creatures' into Ashraful Makhlukat, the noblest of all creations. Even among animals, there is a distinction between the educated and the uneducated. A trained horse is obedient to its master, protects its master’s life on the battlefield, follows commands, and is distinctly different in discipline and agility from an untrained horse. The education that enhances a person's character, thoughts, and actions is true education, while the education that degrades a person’s character, thoughts, and actions is miseducation.
The source of all truth and justice is the Almighty Allah, the creator of all seen and unseen. Therefore, the first education humans should receive is knowledge about the Creator, as He is the source of all knowledge. No knowledge can be attained by excluding the Creator. Since the Creator is understood through creation, gaining knowledge about creation is a fundamental part of education, which we call science. Additionally, humans, being social beings, must learn the way of life sent by Allah through His Messengers for peaceful coexistence among humanity. In essence, an educated person must first understand their relationship with the Creator and then their relationship with humanity, followed by their relationship with the rest of creation. Without a proper understanding of these three aspects, one cannot be deemed educated.
In a society guided by the system given by Allah through His last Messenger, the aim of education would be the welfare of humanity. Such an education system would integrate spiritual, moral, and worldly knowledge where teachers are symbols of humanity, virtue, and truth. They would consider teaching as their duty and responsibility towards humanity and see all knowledge as a trust from the Creator. Education would not be commercialized as it is today; it would grant equal rights to both the rich and the poor. The Messenger said, “It is recorded in previous scriptures, 'O son of Adam! Teach without seeking remuneration, just as you were taught without remuneration.” (Hadith Qudsi narrated by Ibn Masood). Historically, in the early days of Islam, teachers taught without remuneration. When Islam became somewhat distorted later, teachers were given allowances from the Bayt al-Mal for their household expenses. Since education is a fundamental right of humans, it was universal and free in the Islamic state.
Allah taught Adam (AS) the knowledge of His creation without any fee (Surah Baqarah 31), so He instructed the children of Adam to impart that knowledge without remuneration. This is the eternal teaching of all religions, as the Messenger said it is ‘recorded in the previous scriptures.’ Therefore, if the true Islamic education system is established, acquiring education would not require spending vast amounts of money. Graduates from such educational institutions would not become corrupt or conspire to sell their country for personal gain. They would be well-educated, morally strong beacons of society. They would devote themselves to the welfare of humanity and would not even consider actions harmful to humanity for any amount of money. A teacher would be revered by the students like a deity, and the students would be like the teacher’s spiritual children. The teacher of the great nation named the Ummah of Muhammad was the Messenger himself. He taught his nation how to sacrifice all their wealth and lives for the welfare of humanity. He did not teach materialism but taught, ‘Wealth increases by giving, and decreases by hoarding.’ The neglected, illiterate Arab nation, educated by the teachings of the Messenger, brought about a remarkable revolution and became the world's teacher in knowledge, science, and military power. Both men and women used to sit in his presence and acquire education. Hence, in true Islam, both men and women will acquire education together.
Since the beginning of creation, whenever humanity has tried to deviate from the natural laws governing the universe and humankind, they have faced disaster. The injustice, chaos, corruption, disunity, and disorder prevailing in our
society today are all results of disregarding these natural laws and forcibly imposing man-made rules. An educated person will never seek to go beyond natural laws. They will understand the crises in human life and the ways to overcome them. They will selflessly spread their knowledge among people. Thus, the flow of knowledge will continue through generations. Before the cultural aggression of Western civilization, the divine values given by the Creator somewhat remained in our society, making the relationship between teachers and students somewhat like that of a father and son. But now, influenced by the materialistic world view of the West, people deny the applicability of divine laws in practical life. As a result, educated people are becoming selfish and self-centered. The contribution of the educated class almost annually makes us champions of corruption. Those obsessed with securing a good job often forget even their parents. If they can keep their boss happy, that’s enough for them. This education system is producing numerous certificate holders. If each of them refrained from harming the nation while seeking their own betterment, the nation’s condition would have significantly improved, at least like the Western nations. However, due to the lack of national consciousness in our education system, the educated have no inspiration to work for the nation’s welfare. Hence, they loot the nation's resources and deposit money in foreign banks, benefiting the Westerners from that money. Thus, the educated are pushing the nation backward day by day.
The national politics today is marked by envy, violence, efforts to defeat opponents, unnecessary opposition, and a culture of crippling the entire country, political assassinations, and chaos. This anarchy in national life is also a result of the actions of the educated class, starting from educational institutions. Students are supposed to go to educational institutions to study. Various parents’ children come together and should study like siblings, with respect for the teacher and the teacher’s parental affection for the students, creating a heavenly environment in the educational institution. But today, there are daily processions, slogans - drive out so-and-so from the soil of Bengal, slaughter so-and-so, throw away the corpse of so-and-so. Students of rival political parties kill each other, sever tendons, gouge out eyes, and mutilate each other. We often see in newspapers the scenes of one student hacking another with sharp weapons. When the responsibility of leading the nation falls into the hands of these student-terrorists, what kind of peaceful life can we expect from them? Just as we see today. Not just students, but teachers too engage in political subservience and dirty politics for money and power. Today’s students fall victim to national politics’ wrongdoings, teachers’ politics, and even a large part falls prey to the vested politics of religion merchants.
Today’s Western materialistic education and culture have made material interests such as wealth, fame, and reputation the primary purpose of education. Influenced by Western philosophy, material wealth is now the most important thing to people worldwide. Until a few centuries ago, Eastern Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, and Indians did not place such importance on economics; spiritual and moral excellence was more revered than worldly life. A wise, educated, morally upright but poor person was more respected in society than a millionaire. But today, material wealth is the measure of all honor and dignity. We are drinking this poison, presented in the attractive cup of materialistic civilization, thinking it is nectar. As a result, our lives are becoming miserable and our souls almost dead from the poison’s effects. In that era of servitude, Madanmohan Tarkalankar wrote in a children's education book, ‘He who studies, rides horses and carriages.’ In our childhood, parents emphasized these lines, encouraging us to study hard to get good jobs, earn high salaries, live in mansions, and ride in cars. They explained that doing well in exams and obtaining higher education would earn respect and happiness in life.
Parental interest in children’s education and advice inspire children. The children’s mentality develops accordingly. Just as soft clay can be molded into any shape, children's minds are soft and can be shaped as desired. Parents primarily hope for their children to be educated, get good jobs, and be happy. They rarely expect the educated children to take care of them in return, as their hearts are as vast as the sea for their children.
In reality, many children succeed in building their lives according to their parents' advice. They grow up, get good jobs, and even cars. But the influence of the Western civilization’s education system fundamentally changes the mindset of these educated children. Greed, luxury, and aristocracy take root in their minds. They become money-making machines. Schools and colleges do not teach them morality. When they enter the competitive world of money-making, they forget the moral lessons from their parents. Society does not provide any moral education. Lacking spiritual and moral education and the concept of Allah’s constant presence in their lives, they have no control over their greed, envy, and arrogance, which are controlled only by the fear of punishment. As a result, they lead a life of debauchery with ill-gotten money. Whenever possible, they become corrupt and unethical beings, engaging in bribery and causing great harm to the nation and people without a qualm.
The religion that was tasked with guiding humanity on the right path has today utterly failed to provide moral education. This is because the British established madrassas to teach us their distorted and opposite version of Islam.
Religion has now become a lucrative profession or a commercial commodity. In every religion, there exists a class of intermediaries between Allah and humans—custodians of faith, scholars, and priests—who deliver sermons and conduct prayers in mosques, churches, temples, and pagodas in exchange for money. They do not perform any service without payment, even conducting funeral prayers requires a fee. Financial transactions occur during every religious ceremony from birth to death. They advise people to pray, fast, and perform Hajj, considering these the only acts of worship and religious duty. Allah has stated that He created humans solely for worship. So, what is that worship? No, performing prayers and fasting are not the true acts of worship. Worship means doing what one is created for. A clock is made to show time; doing so is its worship. The sun is created to provide light and heat; doing so is its worship. Similarly, humans must first understand what they are created for because that is their worship. Were humans created to sit in mosques, temples, churches, and pagodas? No. Humans are created by Allah to establish truth, justice, and fairness on earth. When the world is a blazing inferno of unrest, when people lack food, when shoes are stolen from mosques, when even four-year-old girls are raped, some people believe they are worshipping by merely staying in mosques, offering milk and bananas in temples, or performing Hajj in Makkah. But their acts are not true worship. True worship is working for the welfare of humanity.
Allah has said, there is no virtue in turning your faces towards the east or the west, but virtue is in one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the Angels, the Books, and the Messengers, and who gives his wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, to those who ask for help, and for freeing slaves; and who establishes prayer and gives zakat; those who fulfill their promise when they promise; and those who are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. They are the ones who have been true, and it is they who are the righteous (Surah Baqarah 177). Therefore, to ensure that people live in peace and can sleep with their doors open, working towards this goal is true worship. For those working for human welfare and struggling to establish peace, prayers, fasting, and other rituals are necessary for their training and character building. Just as a pillar is necessary to support a roof, if there is no roof, the pillar serves no purpose. Similarly, prayers and fasting are like those pillars. For those not working to establish peace, these rituals are of no use and will not take them to heaven.
Currently, we are heading towards a deep decline in every aspect of our national life. Our history has been hidden from us through deep conspiracies, creating an overwhelming sense of inferiority about our own nation and a mentality of subservience to the West. A nation that does not know its past glory will naturally have a dark future. I would like to quote the famous British historian and researcher, Sir John Seeley: “History is the root of politics and politics is the fruit of history.”
Politics without history has no root.
History without politics has no fruit.
Therefore, to determine our future path, we first need to understand the accurate history of how this ineffective, failed, and poisonous life system spread its dark influence over our society. In this booklet, we will attempt to shed light on this matter briefly. The main ideas and content of this book have been taken from various writings and speeches of Mohammad Bayazeed Khan Panni, the founder of the organization Hezbut Tawheed. Therefore, he is the author of this book. He used to have us read any writing before its publication and seek our advice on how to enrich it further. Following his guidance, we have tried to edit this book. If any factual errors are found in the book, we humbly request the readers to inform us.
-Md. Riyadul Hasan
August 20, 2014, Dhaka
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