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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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