Educating girls contributes to stronger economies and alleviates poverty.Education helps communities recover faster after war and conflict because it builds resilience, stability and strong social cohesion.Educating girls reduces female fertility rates, lowers infant and child mortality rates, lowers maternal mortality rates, as well as increases women’s participation in the labor force and fosters educational investment in children.Enrolling and keeping girls in school can positively impact their health, protection and economic prosperity and improve the security of their communities and countries.Literacy, especially literacy of women, is a means to achieving a sustainable and healthy society.Some of the benefits of educating women include the following: Without educating its citizens, no society can develop and prosper. It is a process of acquiring knowledge, skills and values in a variety of different areas that enables individuals to contribute to the social, economic and political well-being of their families and communities in meaningful ways. Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen, secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic CooperationĮducation is more than the ability to read and write. “Education is the only way to empower them, improve their status, ensure their participation in the development of their respective societies, and activate their role to be able to take responsibility for future generations.” The Quran urges Muslims to improve their communal life, to support one another and to combat poverty. According to Muslim jurists and scholars, the pursuit of public good is the maqasid (purpose/objective) of law and governance in Islam. The pursuit of knowledge for girls and women is also a requirement of the maqasid and masalih mursalah, or public good, because educating girls has important benefits for their families and communities. GIRLS’ EDUCATION AS A REQUIREMENT OF MAQASID AND MASALIH MURSALAH It allows girls and women to make use of the gifts Allah has given them. The Quran tells us (Q17:70, 95:4, 2:30-34, 33:72) that every human being is furnished with reason and has the potential to be good and to choose to work for the establishment of harmony, and honors reason as the mechanism by which moral choices of right and wrong are made.Įducation of girls is central to their faith because it increases their knowledge, teaches them how to use their intellect, furnishes them with critical reflection skills and makes them better Muslims and better members of their communities. The right to education falls under the cardinal right of mind and intellect ( al-Aql), which are central to the deen (faith). These rights include sanctity of life, property/wealth, religion, mind/intellect, honor and family/progeny. Girls’ education is one of the sacred/cardinal rights of all human beings in Islam. Preventing women and girls from receiving education is preventing them from fulfilling the divine obligation commanded by Allah and intervening with their akhirah, or afterlife. The obligation for women and men to study is also confirmed by the hadith and the sunnah. Though God Almighty and the Holy Prophet (ﷺ) use the masculine form to describe most of the commandments, women also are bound to act and follow those rules and regulations. If this principle is rejected, then the basic pillars of Islam such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and alms-due become null and void for women. Read in the name of thy Lord who taught by the pen: taught the human being what he did not know.” (Q96: 1-5)Ī basic principle of Shariah states that when a commandment is revealed, even if the masculine form of a word is used, the female gender is also included in this commandment. Read in the name of thy Lord who created created the human being from blood clot. The very first revelation to Prophet Mohammed (ﷺ) starts with the word read and says: In the Holy Quran, Allah orders both men and women to increase their knowledge and condemns those who are not learned. The Holy Quran puts the highest emphasis on the importance of acquiring knowledge, and with more than 800 references to the word ilm (knowledge) and its derivations, it urges mankind to think, ponder and reflect. The Quran as well as the hadith leave no doubt that women, like men, are obligated to increase their knowledge and pursue it. In Islam, education is a divine command for both men and women. Recorded in Hadith Collection Ibn Majah GIRLS’ EDUCATION IS A DIVINE COMMAND “Searching for knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim male and Muslim female.” Neither can reasonably be used to justify restricting the education of girls. ![]() Beginning millennia ago with prophetic words, through centuries of tradition and pursuit of knowledge to 21st-century institutions, Muslim women respect the divine obligation to learn. Without question, education for women and girls is an integral part of Islam.
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