VALUABLE is the taste for art, ye men of vision; But vision that perceives not the reality is useless. The goal of Art is the flame of the immortal life, not this fleeting breath transitory like the spark. O “Spring rain” If they do not throw the heart of the river into ferment, The shell and the pearl are both worthless. Nations do not revive without miracles, And art, with-out the miracle of Moses, is dead. Zarb-e-Kalim, p 117.
All educationists may not happen to be philosophers but all philosophers, obviously, were educationists whether involved directly or indirectly.
Be it Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Dewey or Rousseau, they all shared the opinion that to bring a positive change in a society, change in its educational system is crucial. Like the mentioned scholars, Dr Mohammad Allama Iqbal was also a renowned philosopher and a revolutionary poet of subcontinent, who figured out the core problems in the Muslim societies existing in his time. However, Iqbal has never been an educationist in the limited everyday sense of the word except for a comparatively brief period-in teaching as junior professor of Philosophy in Government College Lahore. On the basis of his great vision, solid education and sheer experience of world, he also recommended major reforms in the educational system. His philosophy does not only offer the solutions to the problems of his time, but also holds solutions to the prevalent problems of the Muslim societies. He considers true education as a system that gives its students a direction, courage and critical thinking.
As per Iqbal’s philosophy, any knowledge seeker should be free to explore what is hidden inside and outside. Educational institutes should be very focused in provision of the required facilities to the students to have first-hand experiences. The curriculum often imposes con-tents on students’ minds without paying attention to the aptitude, interest and needs of the students. A good educational process is to provide opportunities for students to be creative. He also recommended that conventional teaching methods should be replaced with technique of learning by doing, where the students are put into real life situations and problems, and they are compelled to learn to overcome these challenges on their own. Iqbal also talks about freedom of choice bestowed by Allah on Adam that shows complete trust on human beings. Similarly students should be given freedom of choice to acquire any form of knowledge they want without any pressure being put on them. On the same lines, in-culcation of creativity and sharp intelligence is also linked with freedom. Similarly, creativity comes from diving into research that, unfortunately, is lacking in our country. It is the reason that we are no more producing intellectuals like Al-Biruni, Al-Farabi, Al-Khwarizmi or spiri-tual leaders like Jalal-ud-Din Rumi. It is a known fact that any living nation reaches the height of progress only if it follows the footprints of its ancestors, teachers, and intellectual think tanks. Therefore, it has become quintessential to follow the educational guidelines as set by Iqbal for a prosperous future. With this respect, Iqbal’s concept of education is based on the teachings of Al-Quran that not only refers to Islamic intellectualism, spiritual realizations, and mysticism but also embedded with lots of practical and problem solving ideas. As rightly pointed out, ‘Verily, God will not change the condition of men, till they change what is in themselves’ (Quran). Similarly, now the responsibility lies on our shoulders to make our educational institutions centre of excel-lence only through the collective and focused efforts of all the stakeholders including the government, the community, faculty members, administrators, students, alumni and parents.
The writer HOD/Assistant Professor English University of Jhang, Punjab.
