Madrasas Galore: Muslims Must Divert Charity Towards Modern Education
By M
A Siraj, New Age Islam
13 April
2022
Charities
Need Better Avenues Such As Modern Education
Main
Points:
1. It is time
we understood the entire structure of madrasa education in India.
2. People of Bangalore
and Karnataka and generally South Indian states, generously donate money for
them, given the attestation done by some local madrasa.
3. Bangalore is
currently the hub of donation collectors of madrasas from all over the country,
mainly from UP and Bihar.
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Bangalore
is currently the hub of donation collectors of madrasas from all over the
country, mainly from UP and Bihar. Soon after the prayers are over, the Imams
come up with an appeal for a madrasa (may be Bahrul Uloom, Mambaul Uloom,
Kashiful Uloom, and so on) from Saharanpur, Benares or Sitamarhi (or name any
city in those two states). The wordings are standard:
“Madrasa
Kashiful Uloom (or whatever) in Bareli has 300 students doing maulvi course. Of
these 168 are inmates for whom lodging and boarding arrangements are made.
Annual expenses come up to Rs. 78 lakhs (so on and so forth). There is no
source of for permanent income. The building is under construction and requires
Rs. 2 crore for completion. Pls donate your Sadaqa, Zakat charity for the same.
Kifalat (sponsorship) of one Yateem (orphan) will entail annual expense
of Rs. 34,000 (or so). A mosque is also coming up on a piece of land bought for
Rs. 89 lakh. A Musalla (space needed for one person to do Namaz) would cost
Rs. 13,000 (or so). Reserve your place in Jannah by making generous donation.”
One can see
two Safeers (agents) of the madrasa collecting the instant donations within the
premises of the mosques. Some local madrasa would have certified them of being
genuine.
All through
the Ramazan, the announcements to this effect can be heard after every Namaz
and invariably in each and every mosque. Schedules are prefixed and they have
charts for the entire month.
People of Bangalore
and Karnataka and generally South Indian states, generously donate money for
them, given the attestation done by some local madrasa. Not alone this. Several
Maulvis from those two states have set up madrasas in Bangalore and elsewhere
in South India. They also bring children from those two states and from Assam
and West Bengal as local Muslims mostly prefer modern education for their own
kids.
This whole
business of madrasas has assumed proportions of a racket. UP and Bihar madrasas
overproduce Maulvis who are employed as imams, muezzins and khateebs on petty
salaries. They possess any skill to earn their livelihood. Nor are they trained
in any language other than scriptural text's. Even the Arabic they would have
learnt is archaic. After serving for five to seven years, they prefer to have a
madrasa of their own rather than being a salaried imam. They set up some Behrul
Uloom in say Kunigal, Hassan or Krishnagiri and pool all the zakath, Fitrah, Sadaqa
and charm e Qurbani (sacrificial skins) and designate themselves as Muhtamims
(rectors) of the new outfit. They too bring poor kids from those four
unfortunate states, often severing the little kids from their parents. They are
forced to memorise the sacred text. There are no affiliating bodies, no
syndicates, no syllabus committees, no exam control authorities, no
accreditation board, no certifying agencies for their degrees. The 400-year old
Dars e Nizami is pushed down the throats of these innocent kids. Lo and behold!
they are imams in waiting after seven or eight years of a course where entire
stress is on memorization, not on intelligence, not on reasoning, not on
deduction, not on wisdom, not on contextual relationship of the medieval text,
not on analysis or inference.
And what do
you expect from such imams and Khateebs who utter things without any contextual
relevance?
This is a
sorry state of affairs. Our charities need better avenues such as modern
education, spiritual training, value orientation, family counselling, media
building, social media for articulation of current thoughts, libraries,
publications on modern issues, legal aid, funds for helping students being
trained to be professionals in medicine, law, media, chartered accountancy,
business, social sciences. Modern education and training in human values (which
also include Islamic values) are the game-changers in the current world. But
our charity is being drained out for preparing run-of-the-mill maulvis in madrasas
of UP and Bihar or their likes in south India. What an irony?
It is time
to wake up. It is time to engage in self-scrutiny and introspection. Let us not
waste our resources like this.
Bihar has
nearly 1,400 madrasas attached to Bihar Madrasa Exam Board. But Muslims there
run only 71 high schools. A survey of three districts of UP, namely Basti, Gonda,
Bahraich, reveals that they have nearly 370 madrasa (with lodging and boarding
facilities) but only six primary schools managed by the Muslims.
And all madrasas
in UP and Bihar are run on the pattern of mauroosi jaidad (ancestral property).
Three generations of Madanis have been rectors of Darul Uloom Deoband. The very
same Madanis have led the Jamiatul Ulema Hind. The Darul Uloom Waqf Deoband
which came up after the split in the management of the Darul Uloom too has all
the rectors from the family of Taiyab Qasimi.
So, now one can discern the religio-political nexus and the umbilical
cord that ties them together. We Muslims in South India somehow believe that UP
Islam is the mainstream Islam just as the world thinks that Arab Islam is the
authentic Islam. It is time we came out of this delusion and stop wasting our
charities in such institutions which are run as family properties. Maulana
Ghulam Vastanvi, an executive member of the Darul Uloom Deoband was thrown out
of the executive once he pleaded for introduction of modern courses. Vastanvi
runs medical, engineering, law and arts and science colleges in Akkalkuwa in
Maharashtra.
It is time
we understood the entire structure of madrasa education in India and demand
transparency from them and insist on modernization of syllabus. It is too late
in the day. Our charities need better investment for more purposeful and
productive objectives.
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M A
Siraj is a Journalist based in Bangalore.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/madrasas-muslims-charity-modern-education/d/126789
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