Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Introduction
Friends beloved by Allah, one cultural ailment that today has become the greatest external barrier in the world of da‘wah is the marginalization of religious knowledge. In contemporary sociology, modern society tends to be trapped in the current of utilitarianism—a worldview that judges everything solely by its material function and instant financial gain. As a result, religious education is often pushed to the farthest corner, regarded as secondary material, a decorative ornament, or an “extra activity” sought only when there is free time. Scientifically and spiritually, treating religious knowledge as supplementary material is the root of a fragile civilization. In Islam, religious knowledge is not one branch of the tree, but the roots and the soil in which the tree of life grows. Without a firm understanding of Sharī‘ah, the worldly sciences pursued so desperately have the potential to become destructive instruments against humanity. Allah SWT reminds us—beautifully yet piercingly—of this shift in human thinking in the Qur’an:
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 established a scientific indicator of a servant’s nobility. Allah does not measure our success by how high our pile of wealth is, but by how deep our understanding of religious knowledge is:
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 Message
Let us look at the bitter reality that often occurs in our family living rooms. There is a child with an extraordinary fascination for the purity of the Qur’an and Islamic studies. In his small bedroom, he secretly memorizes verses of the Sharī‘ah and dreams of dedicating his life to a madrasah or pesantren to safeguard the legacy of the prophets. Yet when he gathers the courage to express his soul’s longing to his parents, the response he receives is a cold stare and a heavy, disappointed sigh. His parents say, “What will you become by studying religion? Your future will be bleak if you only rely on books. These days, what matters is math and science so you can work at a big company. Religion is secondary; as long as you know how to pray, that’s enough!” The child bows his head, folds up his noble dream again, and his tears fall onto the cold cement floor. How tragic it is when the potential for a great scholar or defender of the faith is extinguished by his own parents’ hands, merely out of excessive fear over worldly provision. Treating religious education as merely an “addition” is like “A Captain Sailing Across a Vast Ocean with a Ship Equipped with the Most Advanced Engine and the Most Luxurious Sails, but Considering the Compass and Navigation Charts to be Mere Extra Accessories.” He spends all his energy speeding up the engine and beautifying the ship’s deck—like chasing a career and worldly knowledge. The ship does move very fast, but because the captain ignores the compass of direction—religious knowledge—the ship sails without purpose until it finally crashes into reefs or is swallowed by storms in the middle of the open sea. Worldly knowledge is the engine that drives life, but religious knowledge is the compass that ensures we reach the port of safety in the Hereafter. Ironically, our society that treats religious lessons as merely a “side activity” will suddenly panic and place religious knowledge at number one when death draws near. While the child is still in school, if his physics grade drops, his parents are stressed beyond measure and immediately hire the best private tutor. But if their child does not know how to perform wuḍū’ or cannot recite the Qur’an properly, the parents are relaxed, saying, “Ah, don’t worry—when he’s grown up and repents, he’ll figure it out on his own.” Then, when the parent breathes his last, in the grave he desperately awaits the supplications of a righteous child. Meanwhile the child—let alone reciting Sūrah Yāsīn or leading the funeral prayer with devotion—still stumbles over a simple safety prayer because all his life he treated religion as just an extra subject! In the end, at the graveside, the child just stands confused, busy opening Google on his phone: “Short grave prayer in Indonesian.”
This is a humorous jab that pierces our ego: we often place religious knowledge second when we are healthy and well, even though that knowledge is the only asset we will need from our children once we lie stiff beneath the earth.
3. Conclusion and Closing
Brothers and sisters, the external barrier of the mistaken societal understanding that religious education is unimportant is a major cultural task for us all. The highest moral message is this: we are not forbidding our children from mastering worldly knowledge. Be a great doctor, be a skilled architect, be a genius technologist. Yet place religious knowledge as its soul. Your worldly knowledge will become blessed and count as worship if it is guided by your religious knowledge. Let us, as parents, educators, and social media users, begin to reverse this mindset. Give the best share of respect, time, and resources to our children’s religious education. Do not let our generation become mighty giants in worldly affairs, yet blind dwarfs in matters of the Hereafter.
والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmaullahi Wabarakatuh.
ِAbu Sultan Al-Qadrie
