Islam’s academic tradition

Born to a wealthy businessman, Muhammad Abd-Allah al-Fihri al-Qayrawani, in the Tunisian town of Qayrawan, young Fatima al-Fihri had moved to Fez with her family when her father sought to expand his business in Morocco. After his death, Fatima, in her father’s honour, founded Jami’ al-Qarawiyyin in 859 as a centre of learning and education. […]

Born to a wealthy businessman, Muhammad Abd-Allah al-Fihri al-Qayrawani, in the Tunisian town of Qayrawan, young Fatima al-Fihri had moved to Fez with her family when her father sought to expand his business in Morocco. After his death, Fatima, in her father’s honour, founded Jami’ al-Qarawiyyin in 859 as a centre of learning and education. Al-Qarawiyyin is now the world’s oldest existing, continuously operating university; it is recognized as such by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the same reason. The next oldest, still operating university is University of Bologna in Italy, which was founded in 1088, more than 200 years after al-Qarawiyyin.
Perhaps it is no surprise that the world, including many Muslims, would be amazed to learn that the world’s oldest, still operating, centre of learning was founded by not only a woman, but a Muslim one at that, and that the young Malala Yousafzai is one among many intelligent, brave, thoughtful and visionary women Islamic civilization has produced.
In 2013, 1,154 years after the founding of al-Qarawiyyin, one wonders: What went wrong? Why Islamic civilization, despite the early jump in higher learning over other cultures, has not been a pioneer in science, technology, medicine, and business? Why has it not been a vanguard of art and literature?
Many Islamic scholars, Muslims or not, have struggled to answer that question. What stands out in their reasoning is “lack of freedom”, “lack of prosperity”, or simply, “colonization”.
What is missing from their analysis as the main cause of Islamic civilization’s eclipse is perhaps lack of education and higher learning.
The pertinent question to ask, then, is why al-Qarawiyyin and other Islamic institutions of higher learning of the time did not develop into modern-day Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, University of Bologna or even a University of Mississippi?
It was the centres of higher learning in the West, apparently the idea of which was very familiar to early Muslims, that helped eradicate poverty and many diseases from Europe and America, brought them tranquility and prosperity, explored space at the macro-level and quantum physics at the micro-level, and which are now tackling the amorphous and elusive consciousness.
In the course of human history, many prophets have surfaced and have meditated on the meaning of life, on human suffering and on love.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), who is said to have said: “The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr.”
If one were to contemplate the significance of that statement, one would realize how different  Islamic civilization would have been today had it followed that brilliant utterance of its prophet, just like Fatima did in 859.
It can be argued that, ironically, Islamic civilization never heeded its revered prophet’s  exhortation to place  a premium on education and higher learning.  Education broadens a mind, provides ability to think critically, modifies social behaviour for the betterment of society, equips the pupil with the skills to compete and become a productive member of the community, and brings peace and prosperity to a nation.  The visionary prophet  was cognisant of all that, as his terse and subtle statement  reflects.  The prophet  was deeply aware of the  value and  benefits education bestows on his followers.  He is also quoted to have urged his followers: “In search of education and learning, travel to China if you must.”
It is sad that, with the passage of time, Islamic civilization diverged  from the most valuable advice its farsighted prophet  left for his followers some 1,400 years ago.  Today, one can witness the perilous consequences of Islamic civilization’s divergence from that  wisdom.
It is imperative that we, the Ummah, eschew searching for the external causes that may have contributed to eclipsing of the civilization to which we belong, and not only appreciate what our prophet  had advised us but act upon it so we can catch up to the other, non-Islamic civilizations and devise new, innovative ideas that Gerbert  found so appealing at  Islamic centres of higher learning over a millennium ago.
 
– Source: nst.com.my