Page 21 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

Quranic Wisdom

Education Matters

he first divine revelation received by the Prophet of Islam
Twas the chapter of the Quran entitled Al-‘Alaq (The Clot). It
begins with these words:

Read! In the name of your Lord, who created… who
taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.
(96:1-5)

This was the first message given to the Prophet by God. It
tells us that according to the Quran, learning has the greatest
importance in human life. In fact, learning is basic to all our
hopes and aspirations: the greater the learning, the greater the
progress in life.
According to a tradition, one night in the year 610 A.D.,
the Prophet of Islam was secluded in the cave of Mount Hira.
Suddenly the angel Gabriel appeared and said: ‘O Muhammad,
read!’ The Prophet Muhammad being unlettered, said, ‘I cannot
read.’ The angel again said: ‘O Muhammad, read!’ The Prophet
repeated the same answer. For the third time, the angel said: ‘O
Muhammad, read!’ But again the Prophet Muhammad said he
could not read. According to the tradition, the angel embraced
him and then he began reading the revealed words.
This story gives a great lesson: a lesson of struggle. It should
be interpreted as meaning: Read even if you cannot read, learn
even if you cannot learn.
This was the first piece of guidance given by the Quran. This
revolutionized the minds of the Prophet and his companions,
and they did their best to avail of every opportunity to acquire
learning and education. This is illustrated by the following
sequence of events.
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