The religion of Islam is the beloved religion and complete code of life given by Allah Almighty to His beloved Khatam-ul-Nabieen Hazrat Muhammad ﷺ. In Islamic teachings, there is a cure for all the worldly and afterlife thirsts of the human soul and a solution to the problems. But how to get Islamic teachings?
The solution to this problem was Muhammad Arabi, peace be upon him, who established the first madrassa of the Islamic world, “Sufa”, and told the Muslims who will come to the Day of Judgment. It is the Sunnah of the Prophet to establish religious schools like Sufa in the light of the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah for the survival, publication, and teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The main purpose of madrasahs is to enlighten people with the teachings of Islam and to end ignorance by lighting the candle of knowledge. Islam came to this region through traders from Arabia, the duty of spreading it to the corners of Pakistan and India was fulfilled by the saints and scholars. Thanks be to Allah, the Madrasahs established by the scholars are carrying out the responsibility and duty of promoting and publishing the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Before the arrival of the British in the subcontinent, religious schools were the only source of education and training. British imperialism used its tried and tested strategy to weaken it by separating religious and secular education on the philosophy of “divide and rule” and opened the door to divide Muslims into devout (fundamentalists) and deen-averse (liberals). Against the Madrasahs of Religion, the institutes of contemporary sciences were demolished. But the Akbar Ummah did not allow the system of Madrasas and Madrasahs to weaken in unfavorable circumstances.
After the state of Madina, the second state of Pakistan came into existence with the motto of “Pakistan means no god but Allah, Muhammad Rasoolullah”. On the one hand, there was the challenge of running the state order in the world of disorganization, and on the other hand, the problem of resettlement and support of millions of refugees was faced. In this time of difficulty, the great Ummah took up the burden of establishing religious schools and Allah made them leaders.
Today, these schools are engaged in teaching Prophetic sciences with wealth of knowledge, good deeds and good morals. Pakistani students turn to western universities to acquire modern sciences, but students from all over the world are coming to Pakistani Madrasas to receive the blessings of the Quran and Hadith. The recognition of the services of Pakistani madrasas by the entire Ummah is a matter of honor for us. Thanks to the blessings of millions of madrasas spread across Pakistan, today the Quran and Hadith and Sharia sciences remain and are preserved in their original and complete form.
These Madrasahs have given the society millions of scholars and experts in Islamic sciences, imams and khutbahs, who are illuminating not only Pakistan but the corners of the world with the light of Islam. In the remote and backward areas of Baluchistan, Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, where there is no state institution of modern sciences, there are Madrasahs which provide free education to the poor children of these areas and enlighten their hearts and minds with the light of knowledge. Madrasahs are a blessing to the entire nation that they are teaching millions of children living below the poverty line, even though this responsibility was the responsibility of the state.
State dualism has made modern educational institutions a profitable business, the owners of modern science institutions have their hands in their parents’ pockets and their feet on their necks, while Madrasahs have considered religious education as their duty and not a business but a source of divine pleasure. In these self-help madrasas, not only education, accommodation, food, clothes, books, medical facilities and scholarships are also provided. Madrasa curriculum is a manifestation of national unity and brotherhood, but the state education system of contemporary sciences is poison for class and national unity. Colorful curricula are being taught in public and private educational institutions in the same city and region, some Oxford, some Cambridge, some other curriculum which is causing division in the society.
The so-called anti-enlightenment phenomenon and the lack of research allege that scholars are against women’s education, while the largest federation of religious madrassas in Pakistan, Wefaq al-Madaris al-Arabiya Pakistan, has affiliated madrassas with more female than male students. These madrassas are not less than a blessing not only for Pakistan but also for the world of Islam, the government should always be kind to these madrassas, they should provide them with facilities, but unfortunately, in every period of government, detours were put in the way of madrassas. Sometimes Madrasahs were called bases of terrorism, sometimes they were called factories of ignorance, sometimes there were restrictions on the system of Madrasahs, sometimes objections were made to the curriculum, sometimes the bearded cap and turban of the teachers in the Madrasahs were mocked. Glory be to Allah, the Exalted, that the names and traces of those who left the country are not left today and the Madrasahs will continue to exist today and will continue to exist forever. I wish the current rulers would learn from the past and refrain from enmity between madrassas. From Karachi to Khyber, the madrasas are suffering from severe anxiety due to the government’s actions. Madrasahs are being blamed for not registering the incident.
Madrasahs are ready to register according to the law but government institutions are not ready to register. The 26th constitutional amendment was approved by the current government. In this amendment, the government presented a bill for the registration of madrasas and passed it and made an act according to which the madrasas have the authority to register under the Ministry of Education Islamabad or the Society Act if they want, but the madrasas are being pressured to register with the Ministry of Education, otherwise the madrasas will be closed, cases will be filed against the scholars and scholars and their names will be put in the Fourth Schedule. In order to implement this unconstitutional and illegal action, there are reports of harassment of scholars in the name of asking for information, due to which the people of madrasahs are worried all over the country.
A high-level meeting of Ittehad Organization Madrasas Pakistan Pakhtunkhwa was held recently. In the meeting chaired by the provincial president Maulana Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Dr. Abdul Nasir Latif of the Organization of Madaris Ahl-Sunnat Pakistan, Maulana Umar Abdul Aziz of the Association of Madaris Al-Salafiyya Pakistan, Maulana Abdul Basir Rustami, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of the Association of Madaris-e-Islamiya Pakistan, Maulana Syed Abdul Basir Shah of the Association of Madaris Al-Arabiya Pakistan, Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman, Hafiz Muhammad Daud Faqir, Maulana Arshad Ali Qureshi of the Association of Madaris-e-Salfiyya Pakistan and a large number of scholars besides Allama Abid Hussain Shakri. Elders participated, have expressed reservations on the demand for data regarding the registration of madrasas. There are reports coming from many areas that this kind of information which is being asked from the Madrasahs has never been asked in the past. This is happening not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but in the whole country. The government should show wisdom and resolve this issue amicably.
