Madrisa vs University

Abubaker why didn't you point out that I was making a mistake? I asked the best programmer of my class. He raised his head, looked at me, gave me a faint smile but didn't answer. At that point I realized that it was out of respect for "ustad ji" that he

didn't point out my mistake in front of the whole class. A deep seated sense of respect that he has acquired in almost a decade of study at different madaris of Pakistan prevented him from causing potential embarrassment to his "ustad ji" ( Teachers are called "ustad ji" in madaris). This idea of respect for "ustad ji", is the cornerstone of what in Urdu we refer to as "tehzeeb" ( the lack of precise alternate word might be due to my limited vocabulary or lack of tehzeeb in English :-). Our madariss are custodians of this very important tehzeeb which is totally lacking in our secular, commercial orientated so called educational institutions. These institutions are mostly assembly lines setup to mass produce slaves, both as workers and consumers, for the global capitalist system. The teachers in these institutions are referred to as resource persons, not as teacher. Why, because the intellectual father of this tehzeeb is Frederick Winslow Taylor, not prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Taylor pioneered the time-motion studies on assembly lines so that maximum number of products can be produced at the cheapest rate in the shortest amount of time. This is the unstated goal of most of our educational institutions, (produce maximum graduates at cheapest rate in shortest time ) but they wrap it up in difficult sounding English words to impress potential clients.

Having said that, let me come back to our madariss and the effect of not questioning. I, along with few other people, have been running a one year software development training course for madrissa graduates (details are at www.isdp.info ).  One persistent problem is the lack of questioning and critical thinking. I don't think that this "not questioning" attitude has always been part of our madariss. If this would have been the case then, e.g. Ibn al-Nafis should have continued believing in Galen's idea of  pulmonary circulation and not corrected the mistake. The administration of madaris should encourage questioning and promote critical thinking. By this I am not implying in any shape or form that we start questioning the core concepts of our deen like Tauheed, Quran, finality of our prophet Mohammed (PBUH) etc, but critical thinking in non-core areas. We are living in a rapidly changing world and its impact will touch even the most sacred things in our lives. For example, my guess is that in about fifteen years paper printed copies of Quran will disappear the same way handwritten Quran is now only available in museums. Quran, Hadeth and other religious texts will all be available electronically to the masses. Only very rich would be able to buy printed copies. Our madariss need to equip their graduates with intellectual tools not for next year but for next 50 years because the Uleema that they will produce this year will most likely be alive by year 2070.