[Muslim Role Models ]    [From Convention to Conviction ]   [Responsibility for Household ]    [Responsibility for Society ]   [Waking up to the Challenges ]   [Search for Knowledge ]   [References ]  Search for Knowledge In a world where knowledge is the greatest capital, perhaps no one needs to be told to search for knowledge. This is more so when one is a Muslim whose first word of revelation was the command to read! The regeneration of our decaying society is something that can only be done with knowledge. Force and coercion has never revitalized human societies, they can only destroy it as we have seen in the case of the Soviet Union. Knowledge and persuasion have always been the key to any revival through out human history. Women, like men, are equally responsible for this revival and are to that extent equally liable to acquisition of knowledge. In fact the education of women is far more important in this respect, as the Prophet had said educating a man is educating an individual while educating a woman is educating a nation. But what knowledge are we talking about? It is important to define the parameters of this knowledge because there is a great deal of confusion today about what constitutes learning. There are today many Islamiyya schools for women, this indeed is an important development. But the content of the education in these schools must match the needs of the day and prepare the Muslim woman for the role she ought to play. Is it doing so? I have reasons to believe that a lot of the learning that goes on in some, certainly not all, of these schools is still at parrot level, where texts are translated from the Arabic with very little or no analysis at all. This is not to say that the schools are no good, rather it is to alert us to the uncomfortable truth that the schools are not good enough for the kind of challenges we are facing today. The absence of analysis tends to develop a mechanical mind that cannot separate the letter from the sprit of the text and often tends to make Muslims very much like robots, operating completely oblivious of their context. An analytical mind on the other hand can see beyond the letter and can therefore grasp the spirit and is sensitive to its context. It therefore develops capacity for initiative and creativity which is essential today in dealing with the multitude of problems that confront us. The point here is not to blame any school or any teacher, both must be doing their best and with the best of intentions, but we must not fail to see the need to match the level of learning with the challenge on the ground. To ignore this problem because one does not want to appear critical of some good and pious Muslims is to abdicate our responsibility of correcting and improving the capacity of the Ummah. We also need to appreciate the breadth of knowledge in Islam. There is the a pervading dichotomy between what many would call Islamic knowledge and others referred to Western or secular or such other terms. Muslims must appreciate that all knowledge is from Allah, it is the intention of the seeker and the use he/she makes of it that makes it Islamic or otherwise. So while Muslims, men and women, today require both and need not limit themselves in their search for knowledge, they need to examine the needs of their community so that what they learn will be of use to the community. A situation where Muslims are motivated in their choice of career by the material benefits that will accrue to them or even by the temporary prestige associated with certain courses or even sheer fashion, is nothing short of a calamity. For if the intention in learning, ab initio, is something other than the pleasure of Allah and the benefit of the Muslim community not only is that knowledge devoid of Allah’s blessing but it is more likely to become a source of problems to the community. A situation where we have no Muslim women teachers in our girl schools because they have all gone to study business administration, accounting or even law is certainly tragic. For it shows not only an absence of a sense of priority but a deep sense of materialism and self aggrandizement. Today we may have many Muslim women graduates but the motivation that drives them and their vision of life is so self centered and materialistic that rather than benefit the Muslim community they only add to its long list of liabilities. For this kind of mentality often makes the educated Muslim woman to see her work out side the home, very much like her Western counterpart, a kind of liberation and more important than the family itself. If Muslim women are to play the role Islam expects of them especially in our situation here in Nigeria we have got to address this orientational problems. Finally, Muslim women have a role, indeed a responsibility to transform the contemporary Nigerian society. It is a responsibility which their lord and creator has placed squarely on their shoulders and their life here and hereafter will very much depend on the extent of their efforts in this respect. They will do well therefore to address some of the issues raised above. They should have nothing else to fear thereafter as the Most High himself had assured. (Qur’an 29:69).[13]