ABOLISHING MADRASAAS: Need Of The Hour

Sounds very strange! But this is the hard reality. This we will have to accept at one point of time or another. We are already late. The existence of madrasaas is a hindrance in the Muslims’ integration into the mainstream. It is not that since fewer Muslim children go to madrasaas there is, therefore, not much problem. Those fewer graduates reinforce the marginalization and propagate a deen which is divorced of dunyaa. The system of education in madrasaas is especially based on rote learning. In many of those madrasaas instead of teaching Qur’an, a specific Tafseer (book) is taught, as an example. Qur’an is not the focus in many others, unfortunately.

The Muslim community is spending a lot on these madrasaas but doesn’t get much in return in terms of the social and economic betterment of its situation – leave alone fulfilling any civilizational goals. In many cases the graduates of these madrasaas remain dependent on the community for the rest of their life. A big number of them cannot join a private or government sector job. Thus, they perpetuate the same vicious cycle. We will be required to come out of that cycle someday.

Despite long years of study they are not able to earn a dignified living. I often wonder that with the same number of years of education the ‘modern educated’ can earn much better living. The same number of years of education in a top class University in the West will make one a leader and a critical thinker. Let us contrast sometimes.

The above mentioned vicious cycle needs to be put to an end – someday. The perpetuation of madrasaas, in my view, is against the spirit of Qur’an and opposed to the tasks that the Muslims are supposed to perform on earth as the vicegerents (khulafaa’) on earth. They have to lead the world. With the existing system and division of knowledge they cannot. I always wonder how one could lead the world without first learning from it! No matter how many motivational speeches are delivered for the purpose in our madrasaas.

We should have a uniform school system till grade XII and the usual specialization programs after that – based on the interest of the students themselves. We can ultimately do away with the nomenclatures like ‘modern’, ‘traditional’, ‘secular’ and ‘religious’. The names leave an unconscious impact and condition the patterns of thinking and further harden the schema. This is why the division has become deeper. Therefore, let us just name the sciences and disciplines e.g. Chemistry, Biology, Tafseer, Business Administration, Hadeeth, Nanotechnology, Fiqh and Biotechnology etc etc.

I would, however, not advocate any hasty steps or decision in this regard. We need to communicate with the ‘Ulama. We need to put forth our arguments in front of the ‘Ulama and listen to them in full – patiently. We especially need to argue that Islam does not believe in the division of knowledge into ‘secular’ and ‘religious’. This fact they should know more than anyone else. That the Muslims should master all the sciences of the world and become founders of many more they should know far more than anybody else. That they should know English and Hindi more than anyone else in order to discharge their duties on earth – more than all others.

Also, we need to argue with the ‘Ulama that we should not decide at a very early stage of a child which specialization he should take to. We should never decide his future studies. We should only facilitate the students as they move forward – utilizing some psychological tools to figure out their aptitude. This is a must if we want excellence. We should – at the same time – have some plans in place to teach Arabic and the fundamentals of Islam to our youngsters in their (regular) school years.

Arguments will be put forth that the madrsaas are rendering very good ‘service’ to Islam. I do not subscribe to the idea of “serving” Islam. Islam does not need to be served. If we are able to serve ourselves better, this is enough. We inherently believe in the dark corner of our hearts that Islam is weak. Hence, it needs to be supported or served. This is a grave mistake. And the existence of madrasaas has reinforced this notion. The “services”, however, which the madrasaas have rendered are not the only ones which they could have rendered. We almost always underestimate ourselves. We almost always see what is happening and do not try to see what more could have happened.

There is a need to build momentum for the above with a lot of patience and persistence. It is a crucial step – as crucial as surgery which becomes essential at some point of time. The existence of madrasaas is like that organ in the body of Indian Muslims which needs to be amputated. But there are processes before the actual surgery is performed. Also, the doctors shouldn’t do so without the consent of the ‘family members’. The job of the doctors, however, in this case is also to convince the ‘family members’ - going the extra mile. This is why we need to take the ‘Ulama along. We have to find ways to engage them in dialogue for the purpose.