ISLAMIC EDUCATION SYSTEM IN NIGERIA

ISLAMIC EDUCATION SYSTEM IN NIGERIA

The history of Islamic education in Nigeria cannot be complete without recasting our minds on the impacts it had made on theorld at large. Islamic education generally started with the first Qur’anic revelation to the prophet of Islam, Muhammad (S.A.W.). The first five verses revealed contained clear directives to him and the rest of the Muslims to pursue the course of
knowledge, signifying that the religion is solidly rooted in the pursuit of knowledge. The verses in question are as follows:
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

1. Read in the Name of your Lord who created;
2. Created man from a congealed blood;
3. Read, and your Lord is the Most Great;
4. Who teaches man the use of Pen;
5. Teaches man what he knew not; (Q96:1-5)

The above verses illuminated the world, which was hitherto groppping in darkness and sauntering in the shackles of ignorance. The virtue of knowledge is extolled and the power of the pen for its documentation and preservation is clearly pointed out. Since then, the Muslims have been working relentlessly to establish themselves as patrons and/or custodians
of knowledge. The tremendous achievements recorded in the fields of architecture, history, medicine, philosophy and other branches of liberal and natural sciences were credited to the period of the reign of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties who ruled in the third century after the Hijrah. The scientific and technological breakthroughs of the modern world owe a lot to
the researches conducted by the great scholars of Islam. Centres of learning in Basra, Kufah, Baghdad, and elsewhere in Europe particularly Cordova which began from mosques as religious centres developed into full fledged centres of higher learning and universities, from where a great number of Muslims scholars emerged. Notable among them were Averron (Ibn
Rushd) who was “responsible for the development of Aristotle’s philosophy, which made a clean distinction between religious and scientific truths’. His achievements in the area of philosophical discourse “paved the way for the liberation of scientific research from the theological dogmatism that was prevalent in churches and mosques”. Others like Muhammad Ibn Musa, the Mathematician responsible for the introduction of decimal notation and assigning digits the value of position; Avicenna (Ibn Sina), the physician and other Arab scholars spearheaded the introduction of geometry and the development of spherical trigonometry, particularly the sine, tangent and cotangent.

In the field of physics, to say the least, the Muslim Arabs discovered the pendulum and were able to advance “the world’s knowledge of the optics”. They dominated the field of astronomical research and invented many astronomical instruments, which are still in use today. The angle of ecliptic as well as the precision of the equinoxes worked out by the Arab scholars have been and are still sine-qua-non to the world’s technological advances. The Arab Muslims discovered such substances as potash, silver nitrates, corrosive sublimate and nitric and sulphuric acid, which set the edifice for the scientific breakthroughs the world is witnessing today. The Muslim scholars have also made their marks in the field of agriculture and manufacturing which helped to boost trade among nations. It was indeed, the trading activities that transpired between the Arabs and the Africans that brought about Islam and the Islamic system of education to Africa.

Historical records show that Arab scholars and traders played a great role in the propagation of Islamic faith and education in Africa and Nigeria. Great cities like Cairo, Timbuktu, Djenne, Gao and the regions of the Western Sudan flourished as centres of commerce and religious learning. Many notable judges, doctors, clerics and historians were produced in these centres, which impacted significantly on the lives of the people. The civilization that came to Africa, especially the North Africa and the Western Sudan, owe much to the activities of the Arab traders and scholars who visited the land hundreds of years before the
coming of the Europeans.