THE CONCEPT OF EDUCATION IN ISLAM

The meaning of education and of what it involves is of
utmost importance in the formulation of a system of
education and its implementation. Supposing I am
asked: What is education?, and I answer: Education is a process of
instilling something into human beings. In this answer ‘a process of
instilling’ refers to the method and the system by which what is
called ‘education’ is gradually imparted; ‘something’ refers to the
content of what is instilled; and ‘human beings’ refers to the
recipient of both the process and the content. Now the answer
given above already encompasses the three fundamental
elements that constitute education: the process, the content, the
recipient; but it is not yet a definition because those elements are
deliberately left vague. Furthermore, the way of formulating the
sentence meant to be developed into a definition as given above
gives the impression that what is emphasized is the process.
Supposing I reformulate the answer: Education is something
progressively instilled into man. Now here we still encompass the
three fundamental elements inherent in education, but the order
of precedence as to the important clement that constitutes
education is now the content and not the process. Let us consider
this last formulation and proceed in analyzing the inherent
concepts.
I shall begin with man, since the definition of man is already
generally well known, and that is, that he is a ‘rational animal’.
Since rationality defines man, we must at least have some idea as
to what ‘rational’ means, and we all agree that it refers to
‘reason’. However, in Western intellectual history, the concept of
ratio has undergone much controversy, and has become—at least
from the Muslim point of view—problematic, for it has gradually
become separated from the ‘intellect’ or intellectus in the process
T2 • The Concept of Education in Islam
of secularization of ideas that coursed through the history of
Western thought since the periods of the ancient Greeks and
Romans. Muslim thinkers did not conceive of what is understood
as ratio as something separate from what is understood as
intellectus; they conceived the caql (ﻋﻘﻞ) as an organic unity of both
ratio and intellectus. Bearing this in mind, the Muslims defined
man as al-ÌaywÂn al-nÂtiq,
where the term nÂtiq signifies
‘rational’. Man is possessed of an inner faculty that formulates
meaning (i.e. dhÄ nutq ﻄـﻖÿﺫﻭ)
and this formulation of meaning,
which involves judgment and discrimination and clarification, is
what constitutes his ‘rationality’. The terms nÂtiq and nutq are
derived from a root that conveys the basic meaning of ‘speech’,
in the sense of human speech, so that they both signify a certain
power and capacity in man to articulate words in meaningful pattern.
He is, as it were, a ‘language animal’, and the articulation of
linguistic symbols into meaningful patterns is no other than the
outward, visible and audible expression of the inner, unseen
reality which we call caql. The term caql itself basically signifies a
kind of ‘binding’ or ‘withholding’, so that in this respect caql
signifies an innate property that binds and withholds objects of
knowledge by means of words. cAql is synonymous with qalb (ﻗﻠـﺐ) in
the same way as qalb, which is a spiritual organ of cognition
called the ‘heart’, is synonymous with caql.
The real nature of
caql is that it is a spiritual substance by which the rational soul (alnafs al-nÂtiqah ﺍﻟﻨﺎﻃﻘـﺔ ﺍﻟﻨﻔﺲ ) recognizes and distinguishes truth from falsehood.
It is clear from this, and many more references which
we have not mentioned, that the reality underlying the definition
of man is this spiritual substance, which is indicated by everyone
when he says “I”. When we speak of education, therefore, it must
pertain to this reality of man, and not simply to his body and his
animal aspect.
In defining man as a rational animal, where we
mean by ‘rational’ the capacity for understanding speech, and
the power responsible for the formulation of meaning—which
involves judgment, discrimination, distinction and clarification,
and which has to do with the articulation of words or expressions
in meaningful pattern—the meaning of ‘meaning’ in our present
context, and based on the concept of macnÂ), is the recognition of
the place of anything in a system. Such recognition occurs when the
relation a thing has with other things in the system becomes
clarified and understood. The relation describes a certain order.
Meaning, conceived in the way I have formulated above, is a
mental image in which a word or expression is applied to denote
it. When that word or expression becomes an idea, or a notion,
in the mind (caql with reference to nutq) it is called the
‘understood’ (mafhÄm). As an intelligible form that is formed in
answer to the question “what is it?”, it is called ‘essence’
(mÂhiyyah). Considered as something that exists outside the
mind, that is, objectively, it is called ‘reality’ (ÌaqÆqah: ﺣﻘﻴﻘـﺔ). Seen
as a specific reality distinguished from the others, it is called
‘individuality’ or ‘individual existence’ (huwiyyah: ﻳﻴـﻪﻮ ﻫ).
In this way and in the context of the present discussion we say that what
constitutes meaning, or the definition of meaning, is recognition
of the place of anything in a system which occurs when the relation a
thing has with others in the system becomes clarified and understood.