University is a Slaughter House?

"Dear students! You have spent many years of your life at this institution to acquire education. You have eagerly been waiting for the day when you will reap the harvest of your labour in the form of a degree. I am aware of your emotions on this occasion, and that is why it pains me to express my thoughts so bluntly.

Frankly speaking, I consider this Alma Mater, in fact all Alma Maters of this kind, slaughter houses rather than educational institutions. The degrees to be awarded are in fact death certificates, issued when the murderer is satisfied that he has accomplished his task; fortunate are those who escape from this organised butchery with still some spark of life.

I have not come here to congratulate you on receiving these death certificates. I am, rather, overwhelmed with grief to see you in such a miserable plight. I am like someone seeking a person who might still be alive among a mass of corpses."

Such a deep opinion from Sayyid Abul 'Ala Maududi, a prominent Islamic figure and intellectual around 20^th century.

I’ve been thinking thoroughly about this again and again. Why is so terrible his view on university students? Is it that our struggle to gain knowledge is meaningless?

Well, let’s try to be critical on this. Personally, I agree with him. Why?

Just look at our friends. Look at university graduate. Look at us! Look at them!

Instead of building intellectual culture in a society, they are actually destroying everything. Just see who’s drink alcohol in the pub? Who’s involve in bribery? Who’s give birth to illegitimate children? Who’s stealing? What else? Don’t you see that most of them are university graduates?

This is what happened when worldly matters are weaned from Islam. If we can revive back the syllabus in the universities around the world, we would see how the capitalist embed the element of Atheis in it and how they separate divine revelation with knowledge. In the end, university will only yield a slave to serve the lust of the western rather than to contribute to the welfare of ummah.

It’s not that I urge all my friends to stop learning. Rasulullah once said “Talabul I’lmi faridatun ala kulli muslim”(Learning is an obligation for all Muslims). It’s just that we need to have concern on this matter. We can’t accept everything as it is before exploring it ourselves. That’s the defect of today’s system. They just ask student to pick all what the lecturers said and write them in exam paper without trying to explore them and understand them by heart.

We Muslims are helpless. We have no choice but to accept those system. Therefore, only deep understanding and strong Islamic creed will help us to come out ‘safely’ from this ‘hell’ system.. Let us pray for it.