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Importance of Madrasahs
Madrasahs (religious schools) and maktabs (Primary Schools) have
been providing traditional education in India for over eight
centuries now. They have helped in promoting literacy,
especially among the Muslims. Over the centuries, they have
produced academics and administrators such as Sher Shah Suri,
Abul Fazal, Faizi, Todar Mal, and Fatehullah Shirazi, among
others. Raja Ram Mohun Roy, the reformer and the founder of the
Brahmo Samaj, was educated at a madrasah.
At present, there are several thousand Islamic schools spread
across India. Most mosques have primary religious schools or
maktabs attached to them, where Muslim children get basic
religious education and training to serve as imams and maulvis
after the completion of their training.
It's a dream of every parent to provide best of education to
their wards, but high cost of education, limited economic
resources usually force them to look for the next best option.
For many poor families, madrasahs are the only source of
education for their children, since they charge no fees and
provide free boarding and lodging to the students. Given the
dismal level of access to education due to various factors,
madrasahs are often the only available educational option for
children from poor Muslim families.
Most madrasahs only impart basic education of Islam to children.
As for the larger madrasahs, these are basically centres of
higher Islamic learning. Madrasahs have been playing an
important role in promoting literacy among the Muslims.
According to the Prophet(PBUH), the ink of a scholar is holier
than the blood of the martyr. Inspired by these exhortations,
early Muslims showed great enthusiasm in the pursuit of
knowledge. Important cities of the Islamic world became great
centres of learning. The passion for learning was so intense
that the Arabs came into contact with the people of distant
lands to acquire knowledge about their ways of life, their
philosophy, and thoughts.
The goal of madrasahs, traditionally, has been to produce
scholars who would interpret Islam in the context of the social
requirements of a specific era. Madrasahs are undergoing slow
reforms, and have started imparting modern education, including
subjects like english and mathematics etc. Some of the madrashas
have even introduced vocational courses into their curriculum.
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