Coursework: Islamic Awareness

The Quran stresses the importance of reading, studying, reflecting and investigating. Surah Al-Alaq, the first Surah revealed to the prophet Muhammad SAW begins with the word:

"Read"

Reading is one of the important means of gaining different kinds of knowledge and of benefiting from the achievements and experiences of others, earlier and later scholars. It is something vital which the person who wants to learn can hardly do without. It is an essential need which is hardly less important that food and drink. Individuals – let alone cultures and civilizations – cannot advance without reading, for reading brings minds to life, enlightens hearts and sets thinking straight. Reading in as sense is always associated with gaining knowledge.

The first Surah revealed talks about reading

The Qur'an is a treasure trove of gems and jewels. For the one who diligently seeks them, it can provide any or all of the following priceless blessings required for spiritual growth and rejuvenation: knowledge, insight, understanding of reality vs. illusion, the ability to identify causes of day-to-day situations and human reactions to them, a variety of psychological behavioral traits displayed by people in any era of time, and a deep grasp of the concepts of life, death and the afterlife. Reading Quran is not only for the sake of producing sound, but also understanding its meaning. 

How great is the importance attached to learning in Islam can be understood from an event in the life of the Prophet. At the battle of Badr, in which the Prophet gained a victory over his opponents, seventy men from the enemy ranks were taken prisoner. These prisoners of war were literate people. In order to benefit from their education, the Prophet declared that if each prisoner taught ten Medinan children how to read and write, it would serve as his ransom and he would be set free.
This was the first school in the history of Islam established by the Prophet himself with all non-Muslim teachers. Furthermore, they were all war prisoners. There was the risk that after their release they would again create problems for Islam and Muslims. This Sunnah of the Prophet shows that education is to be received whatever the risk involved.Women were not kept away from educational activities.

Reading is essential for life

In Islam, the act of learning itself is considered an act of worship, provided that it is within Allah’s limits and with a good motive behind it. Thus, it is one of the important things in Islam that we know how to achieve all this skill in a correct way. It is important to us because it helps us to convey message clearly to all levels of age. 

The Quran repeatedly asks us to observe the earth and the heavens. This instills in man a desire to learn natural science. All the books of Hadith have a chapter on knowledge.In Sahih Bukhari there is a chapter entitled, “The virtue of one who acquires knowledge and imparts it to others.” For instance, there is a tradition that one who treads a path in search of knowledge has his way paved to paradise by God as a reward for this noble deed. (Bukhari, Muslim). In a tradition recorded by Tirmidhi, angels in heaven, fish in the water and ants in their dwellings pray for the well-being of a seeker of knowledge.In another hadith the Prophet of Islam observed that those who learned virtue and taught it to others were the best among humankind. (Al-Bayhaqi).

Let's go back and read the ultimate book of guidance and knowledge, and may it will keep us from astray.

Therefore, by reading Quran and understanding its meaning, we as the students of IIUM are able to preach Islam throughout the world and be the best Muslim and Muslimah, and ultimately able to guide our self and others to the true path of Islam.