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Describe the history of Islamic education

      

Describe the history of Islamic education

  

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Faith
The orthodox Muslims believed in absolute fatalism. But, some sects within the faith believed in a limited form of free will. That evil and injustice are due to man and not God. Therefore, the believe in predestination has philosophical and educational implication. For example, this would be no sense in the use of the resources of reason when all you need is faith.
However, Islam provides for a strong family system, moderate habits and for charity towards the underprivileged members of the society.
According to Mohamed, all believers are equal before Allah. Therefore, in that connection there would be no for an organization for priesthood. In this regard, the centre of theology is the Koran and not the church.
According to Islam, sins are put in two main categories. These are as follows:
-Major sins
-Heresy
-Murder
-Adultery
-Magic
-Gambling
These sins require genuine repentance. The worst sin is the disbelief in God. This leads to domination and is unpardonable.
The minor sins
-Dispation and acts of lust
-Sexual morality
An amend for the sins in this category is by doing good. However, there is far less Puritanism in Islam than in Christianity. It follows therefore that, the system of polygamy and the subordination of the women allowed for more erotic freedom than western religions could recognize.
The believers of Islam are expected to repeat the Creed five times a day while bowing facing Mecca. Alms giving is encouraged and stressed because charity is part and parcel of Mahamedanism. Fasting is encouraged during the month of Ramadan. And then as far as it is possible, Islamic believers are expected to visit Mecca at least once in their life’s time.
There are many constant struggles to be found within Islam philosophies. These struggles are between those who believe and accept the inspired message of Koran and those who were guided by reason and were inclined in the direction of philosophy. One of the most notable of the Muslim philosophers is Alfarabi. He made an interpretation of Islam in the context of Platonic philosophy.
In his view, He advanced the view that we cannot know God completely because, God is infinitely perfect. Like Plato he stressed the importance of reason as a means of arriving at the point of the acquisition of the knowledge. Furthermore in his educational advancement , Alfarabi stressed that God is a spirit of truth and we honour him best by cultivating our philosophical powers. And that, the teacher is the representative of Allah on earth.
Another philosopher of note was Avicenna. His greatest contribution was in the field of medicine like Alfarabi, he too believed in the omnipotence of God. And that, the value of man manifests itself when a man identifies himself with God.
Avicenna believed in the personal morality. That, the soul is not corruptible by matter. There is a lot of mystical expression in his philosophy such that he states that, the highest state of knowledge is arrived at when we feel a divine illumination which cannot be verbally expressed. For Avicenna, the main purpose of education is the cultivation of mysticism.
One of the other notable Muslim philosopher from the Muslim world is Al- Gazzali who further heightened the mystical strains in Islam he deeply studied philosophy and religion.
He divided the search for truth into four categories. These were the following:
-Scholastic
-Believers in esoteric doctrines
-Professional philosophers
-Sufis
Al-Gazali’s view in these categories were that, the scholastics did not have enough faith to defend religions ideal. In which case they could not give certainty to man. And as far as those who believed in an esoteric doctrines, their knowledge was shallow and fraudulent. HE particularly was critical about professional educators and philosophers. He felt that the doctrine they taught was irrelevant, and tended to be subversive.
The approach which Al- Gazzali approved was that of Sufis. He felt that theirs was the sure way to salvation. The Sufis replaced reason by faith to scientific knowledge by intuition. He further asserts that man does not need theology to achieve realization of divine reality which governs the universe.
Furthermore, according to the views of Al-Gazzali, real education demands asceticism. and that man must abandon all lust of the flesh and striving for honour and the worldly praise. In this way we turn away from sense object and then we get to see the overwhelming majesty of God.
A yet another notable Muslim philosopher was Averroes who relied mainly on the Greek thought in philosophy of Aristotle. He believed that only the active intellect is immortal. That what remained after death is part of a man which is reason whose aspects we share with other beings.
In order to keep away with his critics, he took refuge in bauble truth. That, it was possible that something could be sure in philosophy and education and yet the same thing could be found to be false in theology. Averroes did not believe in the concept of creation out of nothing. He believed that the universe was eternal and could not be destroyed by Allah.
Averroes believes in the course of enlighten, he contented that a real teacher is the one who is emancipated from superstition and the one who understand the symbolic nature of the truth. He will look upon knowledge as an eternal process, not as a final attainment.

Titany answered the question on August 30, 2021 at 07:57


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