This is extracted from Pukhtoon Khan's "Religious Exploitation of Afghans and World Peace".
The religious curriculum taught in Pakistan is the major reason for the backwardness of the Pakistani society [and all other societies in general].
Whatever I know about the very philosophy of religion or Islam is that after all the zeal, fervor and enthusiasm the new converts or the "born again" Muslims turn out to be no different than those who glorify Arab culture, language and civilisation instead of having a serious, sincere and intellectually honest approach to find out the reality , if any, in religion and how it can help solve the problems faced by humanity.
The curriculum taught in Pakistani institutions [called Madrassas, which I sometimes refer to as mad-rassas] is out of date and irrelevant to our contemporary problems and their solutions. The syllabus taught there was proposed hundreds of years ago by Nizam.
In the west, due to the dominance of Arab faculty or Arab investment, what they teach to the common Muslims is more of what is called "organized religion" in the academia which is aimed at the "glorification of the Arab culture" instead of a serious inquiry into the truth and reality of religion as a metaphysical discipline.
Just for reference, here is a glimpse of "Dars Nizami" syllabus taught in Pakistan. One can see how far they get from reality after studying for so many years. No wonder after getting "graduated" from Dars Nizami , they start considering the masses around them as some lunatic aliens who need to be shown the right path.
1st year
nahv meer
ahkam us salat
insha ul arabia
tariqatul jadeda
ilm ut tajweed
muhadsa
sarf nihai
asas ul arabi
..............
2nd year
tasheel un nahav
tasheel us sarf
noor ul ezah
tasheel ul mantiq & taleem ul mantiq
mutalitul arabia
hidayat un nahav
...............
3rd year
qudoori
osool e shashi
kafia
sabaa mualliqat
mirqat
duroos ul balaghat
al itqan
ilm ulum quran
...........
4th Year
sharah mulla jami
hidaya
noor ul anwar
sharah tahzeeb
talkhees ul miftah
jalalain
musnad imam e azam
risyaz ul salihen
...........
5th Year
jalalain ukhra
hidaya
hussami
mukhtasar ul muaini
mishkat shareef
............
6th Year
tuzeeh wa talweeh
hidaya
tafseer ul bedawi
zubdatul fikr
siraji
sharah aqauid
....
final Year
sahih bukhari
sahih muslim
jami tirmizi
sharah muaini ul asar
sunan nisai
sunan abu dawood
asar e sunan
sunan ibne maja
The Islamic studies taught in universities are a perfect way to indoctrinate students' minds with the Arab culture. I condemn this approach. It is a cheating which the presenters and the propagators of the Islamic studies do. The serious students of Islamic studies should raise a voice against it. How is it a cheating? Here is the answer.
In 99.99% of cases Islam is projected as the way of life, the salvation for humanity, the only true philosophy of life, the perfect system of life, correct code of life, the universal teachings of the prophets etc etc.
All these definitions if analysed logically are purely academic ones. If you say that it is an explanation of life and existence, you need to refute the contemporary and/ or ancient ideas about life and existence. It encompasses the theory of origin of universe, the nature of life, the composition and nature of human beings, all these are the topics of physics, biology and philosophy.
If you assert the existence of God and consider it a source for all Islamic teachings you need to discuss the scholarly arguments for the existence of God or the refutation of non existence of God. This includes among other things the basic conceptions about logic, ontology and physics. You cannot neglect creationist vs evolutionary approaches, the scholastic interpretations of, for example, Shah Waliullah , Jamaluddin Afghani, Syed Qutub, Mohmmad Qutub, Iqbal, Harun Yahya etc from the modern age and Ibne Rushd, AlGhazali, Almawardi, Ibne Arabi etc from the medieval age and a lot more.
Similarly you need to question the modern sociological theories and concepts about society, its growth, institutions, civil rights etc in case of social and family related injunctions of the Quran etc.You need to be aware of the the role of various revolutions and their contribution to the makeup of various definitions related to family, social group,community,soceity etc.
The same is true about a lot of other aspects of life which need to be considered. Without these considerations, as I claimed earlier, defining Islam, is just an effort to arabise people in the name of Islam. Asking them to learn the science of religion [Islam] while practically teaching them just about the language, culture and history of the nation who claimed to offer a solution to the problems of humanity and not critically evaluating the solution itself.
This is same as asking people to learn science and technology and practically teaching them about British, European and American cultures instead of teaching them about Pure and Applied Sciences like Physics, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, etc.
Waterborne! I am sorry to tell you that you did not understand a single bit of what I have tried to say. Infact let me admit I could not convey it to you or others of your school of thought. You are totally talking about something which is not the subject matter of this article.
ReplyDeletePir Rokhan
religion and tradition should be taught only by one's own families and men of god who have good reputations. On no account should the state take up the contract for god and provide funds for the same. This will solve most of the problems, and remove the hypocrisy and criminality that has crept into the destructive politico-religious mixture. We have direct proof(through untold amounts of suffering) that this mixture leads to destruction.
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