Just as the creation of human beings occured gradually, their education must be done in a gradual manner. Allah the Almighty states this point as follows:
وَقُرْآناً فَرَقْنَاهُ لِتَقْرَأَهُ عَلَى النَّاسِ عَلَى مُكْثٍ وَنَزَّلْنَاهُ تَنزِيلاً
“And it is a Quran which We have revealed in portions so that you may read it to the people by slow degrees, and We have revealed it, revealing in portions.” (al-Isra 17; 106)
In fact, the revelation of the Qur’an followed a course parallel to the spiritual level of the community to which it was revealed. Even the stories of the earlier prophets and their people were first short, but the more the Muslim community’s level of contemplation strengthened, the longer and greater their size and content became.
We can enumerate the benefits of gradual revelation of the Divine Word as follows:
1. To be able to easily recite and memorize the revealed verses
2. To be able to properly understand their meanings without any difficulty
3. To be able to slowly become cleansed from false acts of worship and customs that had been rooted in the society for ages
4. To be able to easily strengthen believers’ moral virtues, such as piety, righteousness, certainty in faith, knowledge of Allah and love for Him, etc.
The Holy Qur’an also points out the principles and methods of education that the instructors have to follow while educating human beings. Allah the Almighty says:
“…Be faithful servants of the Lord by virtue of your constant teaching of the Scripture and of your constant study thereof.” (Al-i Imran 3; 79)
Imam Bukhari narrated the interpretation of Ibn Abbas (r. anhuma) about this verse as “be knowledgeable and learned rabbani servants of Allah” and then continued saying:
“A learned rabbani is a scholar who teaches people the lesser sciences before teaching them the greater ones.” (Bukhari, ‘Ilm, 10)
Here what is meant by the lesser science is the one whose issues are clear and easy to understand; and the great sciences are the ones whose issues are more complicated and difficult to understand. Just like the Prophet’s method of teaching, a rabbani scholar teaches matters which graduate from easy to difficult, from preliminary issues to the advanced ones and from the abstract to the tangible. They put the matters in order of significance to enable their students to gain a clear understanding and embed them in their minds.
Jundab b. Abdullah (r.a.) narrated:
“We were a group of teenagers with the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). We learned faith before the Qur’an. Then we learned the Qur’an and our faith increased through it.” (Ibn Majah, Muqaddima, 9)
Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) taught these young men and his other Companions first the foundation of spiritual teaching or faith. And then he moved on to Qur’anic education and its principles; because without faith all the other knowledge would have no meaning. In this context, Ibn Umar (r. anhuma) said:
“I have had a long life; faith would be granted to us before anything from the Qur’an. When a chapter of the Qur’an was revealed, we would learn about that which was lawful and unlawful, as well as other things that needed to be learned from that chapter as you learn the Qur’an. Then I have seen some people who were learning parts from the Qur’an before faith. They recite chapters of the Qur’an starting from the fatiha to the end of that section, but they do not know what those chapters are ordering or prohibiting and what is needed to be known from them. They distribute them like cheap date fruits.” (Haythami, I, 165)
By his reprehension, Ibn Umar (r.anhuma) shed light on a method that we should follow in acquiring knowledge and on the problems expected to happen if we do not follow that method.
Jalal al-Din Rumi (q.s.) points out the same fact when saying “we should teach our children manners before we begin to teach them the Qur’an and Sunnah.” Therefore, before teaching our children “alif – ba,” ٭ we need to teach them the meaning of “alif,” who Allah the Almighty and His Messenger are, and how great the Qur’an is. We first need to fill their hearts with love for Allah and His Messenger and to reflect on the eloquence, grace, and all the other beauties of Islam in these pure hearts.
Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) would not teach his Companions the entire Qur’an at once, rather, he would follow the method of gradualism in this regard, too. Abu Abdurrahman al-Sulami narrates:
“There was a Companion of the Prophet teaching us the Qur’an. He told us:
“We would learn ten verses from the Messenger of Allah, and would not start to learn another ten verses, before we thoroughly learned the first ten. Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) would give us knowledge and practice together.” (Ibn Hanbal, V, 410; Haythami, I, 165)
It is clearly understood from this prophetic practice that acting gradually is very important in order to internalize newly acquired knowledge and knowledge without putting it into practice brings no benefit. This is why Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) sought refuge in Allah from knowledge which is not beneficial. (Muslim, Dhikr, 73)
In order to reach the intended success in education, we have to follow the training method of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). People have certain abilities and levels of comprehension, thus, they cannot learn everything at once and in a short time. As there are differences of meaning in knowledge, it can also be useful or harmful. Today, harmful information affects believers’ minds and souls more easily. Unnecessary and meaningless knowledge are more prevalent than the needed even essential information. Good and evil, beneficial and harmful are all intertwined with one another. It is very difficult to give a healthy education in the face of such information pollution. It is also necessary to organize our education based on the commands of Allah and His Messenger.