FOLLOW US
Al Missned: Redirecting the Course of Globalization
Written by Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, wife of Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar; UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education
Monday, January 2, 2006
Muslim thinkers have recognized the importance of morals and ethics in guiding human development and have been cautious about aimless progress. For example, both al-Ghazali and Ibn Khaldun argued that the pursuit of knowledge, particularly scientific development, must never be divorced from ethics and values. While reason and knowledge, and indeed economy, have an important place in the development of human societies, they ought to be subservient to ethics.
But if this is to be the case today, the way globalization has been managed needs to be radically rethought. I believe that education can play an important role in achieving public good and ethically redirecting the current course of globalization.
The word for knowledge—ilm—is mentioned 750 times in the Qur’an, the third most frequently mentioned word. This signifies the importance placed upon the intellect in Islamic culture. The value of this intellectual mission is exemplified through the outward-looking perspective of our ancestors, who studied and translated texts of diverse cultures and ideologies in order to further the noble goals of acquiring knowledge. We should be proud that learning has played a major role in the development of our civilization. There are records of a private library in Baghdad as early as the ninth century that required 120 camels to move, and in 1258, before the Tartars invaded, Baghdad had 36 public libraries and over 100 book dealers. It was al-Ghazali who best summarized the Muslim view on the power of education in actualizing the intellect: “Knowledge exists as potential inside the human soul like a seed in the soil. By learning, potential becomes actual.”
Further to this nurturing of the intellect, the methodology of student-centered learning and the concept of universal education were critical components of the early Muslim educational system. The madrassas were organized around the Halaqa, or study circle, which were conducted by well-traveled scholars. Great mosque schools such as al-Qayrawwan and al-Zaytuna in Tunisia, al-Azhar in Egypt, al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, and those in Granada, Seville, and Cordoba became the models of the modern university. These universities attracted students from Asia, Africa, and Europe, and it is estimated that Cordoba alone had 11,000 students in the ninth century. Indeed, some of the very principles of modern education—such as the granting of diplomas, the system of doctoral thesis defense (ijaazat), and peer reviews of scholarly works—came from the early Muslim universities. Scholars have noted that the books translated by Muslim thinkers became the core texts of the first Western universities when they were founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, including Montpellier, Bologna, and Oxford.
This appeal to universal education and student-centered learning, firmly based in the ideas and practice of our ancestors, has become the focus of current educational reform in Qatar. In Qatar, we believe that education is not only the right of every citizen but also a pillar of a developed and just society. So, recognizing the power of education in stimulating a genuine cultural, social, and political awakening, Qatar began a series of educational reforms in 1995. The principles of collaboration, respect for others, and popular participation have been the impetus to changes in all levels of our educational structure from K-12 to postsecondary systems. We have forged international alliances with established institutions. We have revived our forgotten traditions of dialogue and openness. We have encouraged the private sector to invest in education and stimulate competition between schools and colleges to improve their standards and offer choices to our students.
[Source: Islamic Perspectives on Peace. Tarrytown, NY: Universal Peace Federation, 2006.]