Madaris...An Institution for poors*

There are about 12000 madras’s in Pakistan with more than 1.5 million students enrolled. Madras’s usually exist because the people of Pakistan do not have enough money to give there children the proper education. A madras’s is a place where they can send their children without giving much money and have them fed as well that is why most of the poor families have there children sent there. Madras’s nowadays are becoming modernized according to this article as they have installed computers. However they still do not teach science or other subjects but they have installed computer in there labs. When asked the reason for this the owner of the madras said that computers are essential for there lives ahead but what will they do with social science? These sort of assumptions are what the madras have. For them getting religious knowledge is the most important aspect. However Islam does not only restrict Muslims to get religious knowledge. One famous proverb of prophet is that “Seek knowledge even if it is in China”. This shows that no matter where you are getting knowledge is very important and not just knowledge about Islam but also worldly knowledge. The article states that madras’s are being violated by the local police because the government of Pakistan wants its madras’s modernized. Therefore in order to keep the police away from themselves they install computers to show that they are going towards modernizing there institutes. Islamic institutes are teaching what they think is the right way of teaching. They do not consider how and why should there be any changes. What the Quran says about gaining knowledge is being misinterpreted. Therefore in order to understand the true meaning of Islam and its teachings one has to learn more about what the Quran says about it.

*An article by Manu Joseph dated 04.26.04