Assalaamu'alaikum, :-) My name is Dzikrullah W. Pramudya, a journalist based in Jakarta. I'm grateful to have a chance to join this forum. I hope to broaden my silaturrahim, and to learn from Brothers and Sisters Muslim journalist from around the world.
Below is one of my article published by The Brunei Times daily. May ALLAH unite our heart. Salaam, dzik ======= The Brunei Times http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn Opinion Holiday a time to ponder children's education Dzikrullah W Pramudya JAKARTA 09-Dec-06 `Muslims achieved modernisation by practicing their faith. ' THIS holiday, when the children rush off to splash into the sea and build sandcastles on the sunny beach, we should take a moment to sit back and evaluate how we have been educating them. Have we really given them the education which will not only raise them to be good citizens of this lovely country, but will develop them into Insan Kamil? This is a Quranic term which describes the perfect human beings in the sight of Allah, namely those who are strong in the four dimensions of ruhiyah (spirituality), 'aqliyah (intellectuality), syu-uriyah (emotional and mental qualities) and jismiyah (physical strength). Hillary Rodham Clinton once quoted a Swahili proverb that says, ``It takes a village to raise a child.'' No, a village is not even nearly enough. This is a story about three cities that have in the long history of mankind become centres of excellence in education: Oxford, Cambridge and Madinah al- Munawwarah. No matter how many great universities exist or are being built in Britain, Oxbridge (which stands for Oxford and Cambridge) remains the most important symbol of British education so far. Dormitories, colleges, even some of those chapels from the 13th century will still welcome you today, in addition to the ultra-modern buildings of research centres and auditoriums. The two cities are beautified by rivers and gardens. Oxbridgehas beenacradle of modern life and industrial civilisation in Britain for centuries. Nobel Prize winners lived in Oxbridge. Political leaders and prominent economists from around the world were trained here. But the city of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Madinah was more spectacular than Oxford and Cambridge ever were. Maybe not in terms of facilities, but because Madinah produced a great tradition of knowledge that integrated iman (faith), 'ilmu (knowledge), 'amal (action/ activities) and jihad (spiritual, mental and physical struggle in the path of Allah). In Oxbridge, a professor is respectable because of his knowledge in physics, for instance, and nobody would bat an eye over his sexual orientation or proclivities or even if he should make derogatory comments about the church. In Madinah, you could never become a respected scholar if you launched a campaign to say that Al-Quran is merely ``a cultural product''. A man, who narrated a hadith, if he ever performed a deception about something, would have his name recorded in the book of mustalahal hadith (the big book of everything about hadith) as a liar until the end of the world. Any narration that he issued would be classified invalid. God forbid that he should commit ma'siyat (crime) or intentionally abandon salat. Freedom of speech was guaranteed in Madinah, but preaching something that contravened the Islamic faith or committing a crime against the sharia would nullify your scientific credibility. A scholar in Madinah was by no means a saint, but someone with a solid personality who integrated iman, 'ilmu, 'amal and jihad. In its historical record, Oxbridge had been involved in conflicts with the church over various issues. Those conflicts arose when the growth of scientific knowledge was such that it began to challenge the church's doctrine. Tensions would ease off only when the church stepped back to the altar and limited its role in the knowledge and scientif ic development arena. The church was forced to secularise itself in order to avoid being totally abandoned by the society. This had resulted in the great leaps and bounds in scientific advancement that, undeniably, gave material benefits to the contemporary West and the world in general. In contrast, Madinah, Damascus and Baghdad had all witnessed and harvested the pearls of knowledge, scientific and technological advancement that derived from Al-Quran. During the centuries that for the West constituted the Dark Ages, the Islamic civilisation and the world in general witnessed the explosion of the bodyknowledge and scientific achievements in fields such as astronomy, physics, medicine, biology, mathematics, economy, literature, war technology and philosophy by Muslim scholars. These scholars memorised Al-Quran, thousands of hadiths, spent their night in prostration to Allah with tears in their eyes, spent their wealth for zakat and shadaqah, they even went to wars as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions had done. All those, while continuing their pursuit of knowledge, scientific and technological inventions. If one needs convincing, one can take a look at 1001 Inventions, Muslim Heritage in Our World, a new book that discusses a golden age of civilisation, from600 and 1600 CE, because medieval Muslims were trailblazers in fields as diverse as medicine and mechanics, cartography and chemistry, education and engineering, architecture and astronomy. Many a Muslim scholar had pointed out that while in the West leaped into the so-called modernisation by abandoning their religions; Muslims achieved modernisation through practicing their faith. This all had started with Madinah, a complete and ``pure'' city of education in the true sense of the word. It had as its leader ama'shum (freed from any sins) man, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), smart and broad-minded. Its scholars were courageous, honest people with integrity who were also the companions of the Prophet. It had a very busy, dynamic and great masjid which was open 24 hours a day. And the most important element of this education city was the sustained revelation of Al-Quran from Allah during the 10 years of the Prophet's life and struggle there. It was a community development and character building programme par excellence. This was the city that would later inspire the ``glorious'' knowledge and scientific advancement in Damascus, Baghdad, Cordova and Istanbul, which eventually led them to become the centres ofworld civilisation. When most streets in the Dark Ages' London were dark and crime-invested, all streets in Cordova were bright with lamps and hundreds of libraries served the seekers of knowledge until the late hours. Where can one find a greater city than the humble Madinah? Madinah was a city where men could confidently leave their wives and children for months in some cases even years for the cause of dakwah, muamalah (business) and jihad (the struggle in the pathof Allah) to any corners of the world. Those men believed that Madinah would protect and educate their wives and children tobecome world class people. In their houses, the children had mothers who had memorised the Quran and hadith (the two very sources of knowledge and science), and whose honour and dignity as women was protected by the shariah. In the masjid, these children could easily meet the Prophet and the great companions who took care of the welfare of the orphans, the poor and the needy into their own hands. Can anyone find better teachers for their children than those people? In every corner of the city, the children could always see for themselves the shahabah (companions of the Prophet), or the kuffar (people who denied the truth from Allah), or the munafiq (the hypocrites), as real-life comparisons. The big question of our time is this: Have all the millions of ringgit that we are pouring into our children's education, brought these young people closer to the tawhid (integration of faith, knowledge and action) that permeated the air of Madinah, or to the secularised environment of Oxford and Cambridge? Our answer would define the kind of civilisation that we are preparing for our children and the future generations. * The writer is managing editor of ISLAMIA scientific journal for Islamic thought and civilisation, published in Jakarta Copyright © 2006. Powered by Atex Make this my homepage
