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  The process of education and going to school seems so normal today that we usually take it for granted. The schooling years are a given, almost mandatory, part of every child’s upbringing to become independent and lead a successful adult life. Turn the clock back some 10 centuries, however, and we see a totally different reality when it comes to schooling. Clearly, the education system then was not nearly as developed and complete as it is today. Many pioneers of the time put great effort in defining the educational process and schooling activities into a systematic and effective course of action. One on the most influential of these pioneers was a man known by the name of Al Ghazali, who lived in the 12^th century Muslim realm. The following is a brief account of this Muslim scholar’s life and contributions.

Al Ghazali: Early Life

  Abu Hamid Al Ghazali, also known by as Abu Hamid Muhammad Ibn Muhammad At Tusi Al Ghazali, or sometimes Algazel was born in Tus, Iran in the year 1058. This was a region in eastern Iran, near Meshed. It was in his home town that he received his first tutoring, after which, knowledge-thirsty, the young Al Ghazali continued his studies in Jorjan and then in Nishapur. Here he was privileged to have as his teacher Al Juwaini, the Imam Al Haramayn – the Imam of the two holy towns of Mecca and Medina. Upon the death of Al Juwaini whom he admired, Al Ghazali accepted the invitation to relocate and work for the court of Nizam Al Mulk. Pleased with Al Ghazali’s accepting the invitation, Al Mulk – the powerful leader of the Seljuq Dynasty – made him the head master of the Al Madrasah Nizamiyah, or the Nizamiyah College, in Baghdad in the year 1091. This launched a magnificent, although short-lived, career for Al Ghazali as the most well-reputed educator of the Islamic society in Baghdad.

  Al Ghazali had reached the peak of his career early in his life. In his thirties, he was the head of the most highly reputed higher education facility in the eastern Muslim realm. In fact, the Nizamiyah College was compared only to Cordova in the West. As a head of Al Madrasah Nizamiyah, Al Ghazali was on a mission. His reforms in education would affect the Muslim educational system for centuries to come. He put great emphasis on early upbringing, paying utmost attention on children’s response to educational methods set forth by their tutors.

Al Ghazali on Children’s Education

  Al Ghazali insisted that “knowledge exists potentially in the human soul like the seed in the soil. By learning, the potential becomes the actual.”  As a related statement, he maintained that every child is like a “trust, placed by God, in the hands of his parents, and his innocent heart is a precious element capable of taking impressions.”  Therefore, he placed great importance on the role of the parents in the earliest stages of upbringing. The parents, and later the teachers, would be responsible to devote themselves to the proper education of the child. When raised in the proper way, a child would lead a happy life which would be carried over to the next world after death. Thus, Al Ghazali maintained, the parents would be rewarded by the almighty for their proper endeavor in relation to their child. On the other hand, when parents do not pay special attention to their child’s proper education, both they and their child would be cursed by leading unfulfilled lives in this and the next world and they would be held responsible.

  A basic tenet in Al Ghazali’s views was that a child must learn to recite the Creed in its entirety early in life although he (sources do not talk of girls) should not try to understand it all at this stage. The connotation can be realized later in life, which is in accord with the three basic phases of memorizing, understanding and conviction.

  Another related topic in Al Ghazali’s treatment of children’s education was the relationship of the child with society or the child’s functions and behavior within society. This touches upon some basic principles, for example that a child should never boast about his father’s affluence and that he should at all times be respectful to anyone he approaches or to those who approach him. He should always be especially respectful to elders and his parents. On the materialistic level, Al Ghazali instructed that a child should learn not to feel affection for money as this would be equal to sin. Furthermore, on basic good manners, the child should refrain from spitting or cleaning his nose in public at any time of the day.

  In the next stage of life, in young adulthood, according to Al Ghazali, education must prepare the child to abide by the rules of personal hygiene, to learn and observe the sacred script, and to fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Furthermore, the righteous individual should avoid adorning himself with silk, silver, and gold; he should avoid accumulating wealth from unclean sources and should not seek the company of the great of this world. Also, Al Ghazali maintained the pupil should never be overly swollen with pride, and never be envious of others. As an overall guideline, Al Ghazali pointed out a student should treat others as he would have others treat him and that for his relationship with God, he must act towards God as he would have his servant act towards him, as everyone is in service of God.

  Al Ghazali’s main philosophy in regards to education is based on the notion of personal elevation to finding truth. This personal elevation is a result of two elements – a received education and the guidance of a teacher. For Al Ghazali, education can be compared to a farmer’s efforts in digging up the weed and clipping wheat to help it grow into a good crop. There is the innate knowledge in every child to help him grow and survive, but without a teacher he cannot develop and use this potential in the proper best manner.

  And last but not least, Al Ghazali gave fitting emphasis on recreation. He advised that a child should, after a day of study, be allowed to play and have fun. To ban such activities would prove counterproductive in the child’s education as it results in the dryness of the soul and in monotony of the mind.

The Responsibility of the Teacher

  Throughout his scripts, Al Ghazali stresses on numerous occasions on the great task of teachers. “The teacher who embarks on instructing children for their journey into life,” says Al Ghazali “undertakes a great duty.” As they must respect him, so should he at all times be gentle to them and treat them like he is to treat his own children. He must not shame them through direct criticism, for this is not effective. Rather, he must set example, and teach through suggestions, making the student experience fulfillment in the learning process.

  The teacher should also be flexible with every student, teaching him according to his competence and leading him, but not too fast and not too slow as to discourage or bore him. The instructor must not lose hope with the slower student, as education is adaptation to the new, as some simply adapt slower than others. Every student must be encouraged, no matter how slow or fast he learns, for if discouraged, a student will forever lose the innate potential which a teacher can, like a farmer and his crop, help him reap.

  Overall, the teacher should undertake his responsibility in accordance with some basic principles. The first one, as already implied, is that a teacher is a father figure for his pupils. Also he must always teach for the sake of God. He should instruct the pupil with care and understanding and moderate his itch to learn hurriedly. He would be insensitive to correct in public; he should do it privately so as not to damage the pupil’s reputation and his trust in his teacher. The opposite would only result in an inflexible student who will do everything to prove he’s right in order to protect his ego.

  Teaching and education was the passion of Al Ghazali’s life. The years he spent teaching at Nizamiyah College were his most productive and his most joyful. This account put emphasis on his devotion to education, but at the same period he was interested in philosophy and fellow Muslim thinkers such as Al Farabi and Ibn Sina. The next stage of Al Ghazali’s life was marked by a deep depression and a personal spiritual crisis. He stopped teaching, and left Baghdad and his daily duties for two years when he traveled in Syria and Palestine and completed his pilgrimage to Mecca. After this, Al Gazali went back to Tus where he continued with some scholarly activities. He was invited to return to the Nizamiyah College, which he did and taught for a short period, before he decided to go back to Tus and lived there until his death.

  Abu Hamid Al Ghazali was a reformer in a day and age when reform was very hard to carry out. Communications were difficult in a 12^th century setting. Nevertheless, his devotion to children’s education and teaching has left a firm mark in the Muslim schooling system for many centuries to come. In addition to his interest in education, Al Ghazali was also one of the most illustrious jurists and theologians in the Muslim realm of the period.