Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Introduction
Friends beloved by Allah, one of the most fundamental external barriers in our social dynamics today is the paradigm shift—or the way society views religious education. Sociologically, there is a strong tendency for religious knowledge to be positioned as “additional” material, a mere curriculum supplement, or considered to have no strategic value for a person’s financial future. Worldly knowledge is pursued with extraordinary deployment of wealth and energy, while religious knowledge is placed as an afterthought. In Islamic epistemology, this kind of separation or caste-thinking is a fatal mistake. Religious knowledge is not a complementary branch of life, but the main foundation (the core foundation) that directs what all worldly knowledge is used for. Without religious knowledge, advanced worldly knowledge has the potential to cause destruction. Islam holds that knowing the Sharī‘ah and Allah’s boundaries is a primary need for every soul to be safe in this world and the Hereafter. Allah SWT critiques this shift in human thinking that focuses only on the outer surface of the world while neglecting the reality of the true future:
يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِّنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ غَافِلُونَ
“They know what is apparent of the worldly life, but they, of the Hereafter, are unaware.” (QS. Ar-Rūm: 7)
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also affirmed scientifically that the main sign of goodness and happiness in the life of a servant whom Allah desires is not mere material abundance, but deep understanding of his religion:
مَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ بِهِ خَيْرًا يُفَقِّهْهُ فِي الدِّينِ
“Whomever Allah wants good for, He gives him understanding of the religion.” (HR. Bukhārī)
2. Lessons and Moral Message
Let us reflect on a portrait that often occurs around us. There is a teenage child with remarkable intelligence and a heart inclined toward goodness. In his free time, he secretly reads religious books and longs to enter a religious school or pesantren to deepen his knowledge of the Qur’an and Sharī‘ah. Yet when he conveys that noble aspiration to his parents, their faces immediately turn to disappointment and anger. His parents say, “What do you want to become by entering a religious school? A mosque caretaker? What will you eat when you grow up? Religious learning is enough at evening Qur’an classes; the important thing is that you find a public school that secures your future!” The child falls silent, folds up his dream again, and his tears drip onto the floor. How sad it is to see the potential of a rabbānī generation extinguished by their own parents, simply out of excessive fear over worldly provision and the view that religious knowledge has no market value. This societal mindset that treats religious knowledge as merely an “addition” is like “An Architect Building a Magnificent Skyscraper, but Considering the Deep Footings in the Ground to be an Optional Component That May or May Not Be There.” He spends his entire budget beautifying the window glass, installing luxurious marble, and painting the exterior walls—like chasing worldly knowledge and academic degrees. No matter how beautiful that building looks on the outside, if its underground foundation is fragile or deemed unimportant, then as soon as a small tremor of life’s shocks comes—like a moral crisis, a broken home, or a mental trial—the luxury building will immediately collapse into pieces. Religious knowledge is the unseen underground foundation, yet it is what supports the entire splendor of our lives so that it does not crumble when the storms of trials strike. Ironically, our society that regards religious education as merely an “addition” will usually suddenly place religious knowledge at number one when an emergency happens. While the child is healthy and in school, if he gets a failing grade in math, the parents panic immensely, find the most expensive private tutor, and scold the child relentlessly. But if their child cannot pray or cannot recite the Qur’an, the parents remain relaxed, saying, “Ah, it’s fine—he’s still young; he’ll figure it out on his own when he’s older.” Now, when the parents have passed away, in the grave they need the supplications of a righteous child. Meanwhile the child—let alone leading the funeral prayer or reciting the lengthy grave supplication—still mispronounces the vowels in Sūrah Al-Ikhlāṣ, because he once treated religious lessons as merely an “addition”! In the end, the child stands before the grave, staring blankly while holding his phone, Googling: “Short and easy prayer for parents.”
This is a humorous jab that cuts deep: we often set aside religious knowledge while alive, even though that knowledge is the only thing we will need from our children once we lie still in the grave.
3. Conclusion and Closing
Brothers and sisters, the external barrier of a societal mindset that belittles religious education is a major cultural homework assignment for all of us. We must overturn this mistaken paradigm. Religious knowledge is not a side matter, not just the closing lesson on Friday, but the soul of all our life’s activities. Your worldly knowledge will become noble and blessed if it is guided by your religious knowledge. Let us, as parents, educators, and members of society, begin to give the best share of respect and resources to our children’s religious education. Do not let our future generation become giants in worldly knowledge, yet dwarfs who are blind in knowledge of the Hereafter.
والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmaullahi Wabarakatuh.
ِAbu Sultan Al-Qadrie
