The Best Educator
- From: "Islam Will Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire" <islam_to_replace_amerikan_empire@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 06:59:28 -0500
The Prophet as Educator
By Fethullah Gulen
A real educator must have several virtues, among them the following:
First: To give due importance to all aspects of a person's mind, spirit, and
self, and to raise each to its proper perfection. The Qur'an mentions the
evil-commanding self that drags people, like beasts with ropes around their
necks, wherever it wants to go, and goads them to obey their bodily desires.
In effect, the evil-commanding self wants people to ignore their God-given
ability to elevate their feelings, thoughts, and spirits.
The Qur'an quotes the Prophet Joseph (Yusuf) as saying [Surely the self
commands evil, unless my Master has mercy] (Yusuf 12:53). Commanding evil is
inherent in the self's nature. However, through worship and discipline, the
self can be raised to higher ranks, to a position where it accuses itself
for its evils and shortcomings (Al-Qiyamah 75:2), and then still higher
where God addresses it: [O self at peace! Return unto your Master,
well-pleased, well-pleasing] (Al-Fajr 89:27-28).
Higher than the self at peace (at rest and contented) is the self perfectly
purified. Those who rise to this degree of attainment are the nearest to
God. When you look at them you remember God, for they are like polished
mirrors in which all of His attributes are reflected. The Companions' desire
to follow the training provided by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be
upon him) enabled almost all of them to reach this degree of moral and
spiritual perfection; millions of people have followed-and continue to
follow-their example.
Second: An education system is judged by its universality,
comprehensiveness, and quality of its students. The Prophet's students were
ready to convey his message throughout the world. The message they conveyed,
being universal in nature and valid for all times and places, found a ready
acceptance among people of different races, religious backgrounds,
intellectual levels, and age differences from modern-day Morocco and Spain
to the Philippines, from the Russian steppes to the heart of Africa. Its
principles remain valid. Despite numerous upheavals and changes, as well as
social, economic, intellectual, scientific, and technological revolutions,
his system remains the most unique and original, so much so that it is the
hope of the future of humanity.
Third: An education system is judged by its ability to change its students.
Look at how Islam and the Prophet's spread of it transformed the tribes of
Arabia into their exact opposite within the space of just two or three
decades. To those who deny or question his prophethood, we challenge them to
go anywhere in the world and accomplish, over the course of 100 years, even
one-hundredth of what he accomplished in the deserts of Arabia 1,400 years
ago. Let them take all of the experts they can gather, and then we will wait
to see their results.
When Prophet Muhammad was conveying the message, Arabia was isolated from
its neighbors by vast deserts and rightfully could be considered one of the
most backward areas of the world in terms of its cultural, intellectual, and
moral life. The Hijaz, where the Prophet was born, had experienced no social
evolution and had attained no intellectual development worthy of mention.
Dominated by superstitions, barbarous and violent customs, and degraded
moral standards, Arabia lived in savagery. People drank wine, gambled, and
indulged in what even average societies consider immoral sexual activities.
Prostitutes advertised their services by hanging a flag on the doors of
their houses.
It was a land without law and a government. Might was right, as in many
parts of the world today, and looting, arson, and murder were commonplace.
Any trivial incident could provoke intertribal feuding, which sometimes
developed into peninsula-wide wars.
These were the people Prophet Muhammad appeared among. With the message he
relayed from God and his way of preaching it, he eradicated barbarism and
savagery, adorned Arabia's wild and unyielding peoples with all praiseworthy
virtues, and made them teachers of the world. His domination was not simply
physical or military; rather, he conquered and subjugated them by becoming
the beloved of their hearts, the teacher of their minds, the trainer of
their souls, and the ruler of their spirits. He eradicated their evil
qualities and implanted and inculcated in his followers' hearts exalted
qualities in such a way that they became second nature to all of his
followers.
But this transformation was not limited only to the people of his own time
and place, for this process continues even today wherever his message
spreads. It was not only quickly accepted in Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Persia,
Egypt, Northern Africa, and Spain at its first outburst, but, with the
exception of the now-vanished brilliant civilization of Islamic Spain, it
has never lost its vantage ground. Since it first appeared, it has never
stopped spreading.
Many world-renowned individuals have been raised in the school of Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him). Certainly, we come across numerous great
historical figures in other schools of education as well. God has honored
humanity with great heroes, eminent statesmen, invincible commanders,
inspired saints, and great scientists. However, most of them have not made a
deep impression on more than one or two aspects of human life, for they
confine themselves to those fields. But since Islam is a divine way for all
fields of life, a divine system encompassing all aspects of life "like a
perfect work of architecture all of whose parts are harmoniously conceived
to complement and support each other, nothing lacking, with the result of an
absolute balance and solid composure," according the Muhammad Asad, a Jewish
convert. Its students usually combine within themselves the spiritual and
the rational, the intellectual and the material, the worldly with the
other-worldly, the ideal with the real, and the scientific and the revealed
(by God).
At its very outset, Islam abolished tribal conflicts and condemned racial
and ethnic discrimination. The Prophet put the Quraishi chiefs under Zaid's
command (an emancipated slave), and innumerable scholars and scientists,
commanders, and saints appeared among conquered peoples. Among them was
Tariq ibn Ziyad, an emancipated Berber slave who conquered Spain with 90,000
valiant warriors and laid the foundations of one of the most splendid
civilizations of world history. After this victory, he went to the palace
where the defeated king's treasury was kept. He said to himself, "Be
careful, Tariq. Yesterday you were a slave. God emancipated you, and today
you are a victorious commander. However, you will change tomorrow into flesh
rotting under earth. Finally, a day will come when you will stand in the
presence of God."
The world and its pomp could not attract him, and he continued to live a
very simple life. What kind of education could transform a slave into such a
dignified and honorable person?
However, his conquest of Spain was not his real victory. This came when he
stood before the treasury of the Spanish king and reminded himself that one
day he would die and face God. As a result of this self-advice, he took none
of the treasure for himself.
`Uqbah ibn Nafi' was another great commander who conquered northern Africa
and reached the Atlantic coast. There he stood and said, "O God, if this sea
of darkness did not appear before me, I would convey Your name, the source
of light, to the remotest corners of the world."
Before his conversion, `Abdullah ibn Mas`ud took care of `Uqbah ibn Abi
Mu`ayt's sheep. He was a weak, little man whom everyone ignored. After
becoming a Muslim, however, he was one of the most senior Companions. During
his caliphate, `Umar sent `Abdullah to Kufah as a teacher. In the scholarly
climate he established there, the greatest figures of Islamic jurisprudence
grew up, among them `Alqamah, Ibrahim An-Nakha`i, Hammad ibn Abi Sulaiman,
Sufyan Ath-Thawri, and especially Imam Abu Hanifah, the founder of the
largest Islamic legal school of thought.
`Ikrimah was the son of Abu Jahl, the harsh and inflexible leader of the
Quraishi unbelievers. Finally, after the Conquest of Makkah, he converted to
Islam. This event so changed him that he welcomed martyrdom 3 years later at
the Battle of Yarmuk. His son, `Amir, was martyred with him.
Khansa' was one of the finest poetesses before Islam. Becoming a Muslim, she
abandoned poetry because "While we have the Qur'an, I cannot write poems."
She lost her four sons at the Battle of Qadisiyyah. This great woman, who
had lamented her brother's death before the appearance of Islam with a great
poem, did not lament this loss. Instead, she deepened her submission to God
and said only, "O God, all praise be to You. You have bestowed on me while
alive the possibility of offering you as martyrs my four sons that You gave
me."
The school of Prophet Muhammad also produced the most just rulers in
history. Besides Abu Bakr, `Uthman, `Ali and many others who succeeded them,
`Umar has been recognized in almost every age as one of the world's most
just and greatest statesmen. He used to say, "If a sheep falls from a bridge
even on the river Tigris and dies, God will call me to account for it on the
Day of Judgment." When you compare the pagan `Umar to the Muslim `Umar, you
easily see the sharp contrast between the two and understand how radically
Islam changes people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Excerpted, with some modifications, from the author's book Prophet
Muhammad: Aspects of His Life.
** Fethullah Gulen is an influential Turkish Muslim intellectual who
inspired a series of social activities, including a transnational education
and business network, inter-faith dialogue forums, and multi-cultural
encounters. His official Web site is http://en.fgulen.com/.
http://www.islamonline.net/english/IN_DEPTH/mohamed/1424/MANNERS/article19.shtml
.
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