Reason for the Spread of Education
The Quran stresses thinking and contemplation. During Muslim rule, nature was displaced from the pedestal of worship under the influence of Quranic ideology. Subsequently, nature became a subject of research and investigation, leading to the scientific revolution.
The actual reason for this unparalleled impetus given to education was, without doubt, the influence of the Quran, the first preserved divine book in human history to lay great emphasis on reflection upon natural phenomena as being of God’s creation.
The Quran stressed thinking and contemplation, almost elevating these mental activities to worship. The last verses of chapter 3 of the Quran mention those who reflect on the universe and the creation of the heavens and the earth (3:191). In chapter 35, verse 28, those who reflect on the system of the rains, the vegetable world, the animals, the making of the mountains, etc. have been given the status of the learned (ulama). For the first time, we know from the Quran that “God has subjected whatever is in heaven and on the earth to you” (45: 13). As a result, far from being man’s object of worship, nature began to be treated as man’s servant.
Several such verses have introduced believers to an extended area of knowledge in the Quran. Accordingly, the entire universe became a vast library for contemplation. Learning no longer remained a limited sphere but was transformed into a field accessible to all.
This was no simple matter. Shirk, which had prevailed throughout the world before Islam’s emergence, was another name for nature worship. In the ideology of shirk, nature, having been placed on the pedestal of worship, could never have been treated as an object of investigation.
During Muslim rule, under the influence of Quranic ideology, nature generally came to be displaced from the pedestal of worship. Subsequently, the phenomena of nature became a major subject of research and investigation. Madinah became the first centre of this new culture, reaching Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad. In Baghdad, it flourished greatly. Later, it reached Muslim Spain, with Cordova and Granada becoming its centres. Under Muslim rule, this began an age of learning; all the things of the universe became the subjects of study and research, whereas earlier, they had been treated with solemn reverence.
Several scholars have acknowledged this reality. For instance, the British historian Arnold Toynbee (d. 1975) posed the question as to why, when physical science was nothing but the discovery of nature—nature which had always existed in the world—and of which man had been aware from the beginning, there should have been this significantly delayed discovery of nature in modern times? In attempting to answer this question, Arnold Toynbee wrote that, in ancient times, man, having come to regard nature as sacred, had accorded it the status of divinity. That was why man could never think of investigating or conquering nature. According to Arnold Toynbee, in later periods of human history, when monotheism gained ideological ascendancy, putting an end to the ideology of shirk, man began to think very differently about nature. This later became the cause of the scientific revolution. (For details, see Islam: Creator of the Modern Age by the author)
