Special Message for students.

[servantforever]

All praise be to Allah SWT,

Beloved children and students, and to all revered audience. All praise be to Allah Taala, the All Mighty, who reminds us to rebuild our education system.

Beloved audience,
In Islam, education is of the utmost importance. It is mandatory upon every person (fardh ‘ain) who is of age and of sound mind (mukallaf). It is also mandatory upon the Islamic society (fardh kifayah) to provide the arena for education. The Islamic teaching demands that Muslims take knowledge and education seriously. Only that the knowledge to be learned can be mandatory upon the individual (fardh ‘ain), it can be mandatory upon the whole society (fardh kifayah), and it can be commendable (sunat) which I believe I need not have to elaborate at this juncture.

The main purpose of establishing education and upbringing is not merely to master various fields of knowledge but specifically to produce humanbeings who fear Allah Taala (taqwa). Those who take Allah to be their supreme love, who take the Hereafter to be their goal in life and who regard the world merely as a place to cultivate good deeds and obedience, the harvest of which will be reaped in the Hereafter, whence there is safety from Hell and admission into Heaven.

Most revered audience,
We must remember, succeeding in producing people who fear Allah Taala (taqwa) through the real Islamic system of education and training, means that we have succeeded in producing trained recruits for the struggle or missionary work (dakwah), who are capable and proficient in using knowledge as a weapon to accept the call and responsibility charged upon them by the community. After their studies, they should be ready to struggle for whatever they have learned in school or in other words, they should be responsible and be ready to disperse and circulate among the society to propagate knowledge and to build mankind’s personality so that they become people who fear God (taqwa). This is what is mentioned in the Quranul Karim, that is known as “amrun bil ma’ruf, wa nahyun ‘anil munkar” (to encourage towards good and to hinder transgressions).

Blessed audience,
Here, we can understand that school is not merely to teach knowledge or to produce people of knowledge, or to produce people of knowledge with certificates and degrees for the purpose of getting jobs to earn a salary. Knowledge is also not for the purpose of earning sustenance or as a source of pride and fame on earth. It is to produce recruits of God or the people of God (rijalullah) who can shoulder the responsibility of propagating the teachings of Allah Taala on God’s earth. They are teachers who introduce Allah to people, the fighters of the truth who live and die for Allah, missionary workers who are diligent and whose sole purpose is to ensure that the religion of Allah is accepted by people and can surpass all the other religions that exist on the surface of this earth. In other words, they struggle and fight so that all mankind do obeisance to Allah who creates them.

Blessed audience,
Such is the objective of education and training. It has such a major implication to mankind. It is the soul and pulse of life, so that all of human livelihood can run with full discipline, with help and assistance, cooperation, full of love and care, harmony and upon the Shariah (rules) of Allah Taala. If it is not for this purpose, or if this purpose is not achieved, then in Islam, such a school has grossly failed even if it can produce students who excel in their studies or people of knowledge in various fields or scholars who are well-known and famous. It has failed because it produces people who do not know their Creator, who disregard the Shariah (rules) of Allah, who do not give any priority to life in the Hereafter and who hunt and hoard all that is worldly in nature. It has failed because it produces people who are full of self-interest, arrogant and given to fame and glamour. Subsequently, there will henceforth emerge the culture of toppling one another , revile and slander and hurting people’s feelings. This will create strife and uproar in life and consequently , all parties will not feel safe and peaceful.

As such, the task of fostering education is not a small matter. It is a major responsibility that demands strength of the soul. A system of education cannot be built half-heartedly because upon it lies the secret of the development of the personality of those who fear Allah Taala (taqwa). At the same time, it can develop civilization on earth which is in accordance to the role of mankind who is the vicegerent of Allah and so that everything works upon the rules of Allah. Hopefully, the education that we establish today is the seed that will germinate into a garden of education in the future.

Wabillahil hidayah wattaufiq. Wassalam.

[servantforever]

This message is very important. Everyone has to read it. No exclusion!