ZAYTUNA COLLEGE PAKISTAN CAMPUS: A Dream

Hi Blog,

Lets just go with it. When I see all the frustration, confusion, arrogance, stupidity, violence, narcissism, conflict, crime, chaos and whatnot in my beautiful country, I see no reason but ignorance behind all this. Ignorance is like a disease and the cure is education. Not schooling. 

But what is this cure: education. How will this ‘education’ cure us? And lastly what's that to do with Zaytuna College Pakistan Campus if there is such a college. The thing is I see Zaytuna College as a medium of 'education' in Pakistan and subsequently a cure to the prevailing disease.

So what is ‘education’? Education is, in my personal opinion, an ability to think and think clearly. But that is a very generalized definition of education. Some other philosophical questions may arise from this definition like what is the ability to think and so on. So to keep the things simple I will take the help of some truly educated people to better define and understand the concept of education.

 According to Robert Frost:

     “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” 

According to Margaret Mead:

     “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” 

According to Martin Luther King Jr.:

   “Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”

According to C.S. Lewis:

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” 

According to Bertrand Russell:

“We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.”

According to Mark Twain:

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” 

According to Socrates:

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” 

According to Aristotle:

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

The list of quotations goes on and on. Let me summarize what these educated people are trying to say because each of these quotations is worth an article itself. Education is a never-ending process of “to study, understand, inquire, question, reason, study, understand, inquire…” It is become a research loving and a knowledge seeking person. The word ‘education’ actually covers a lot of things and has a metaphysical component attached to it. Limitations of language or my limitations will not allow a better definition.

The remaining two questions are intertwined. Zaytuna College (proposed) is going to provide such an ‘education’ which will cure the disease. It will follow the same curriculum as the first campus with some modifications according to our society. Mainly it will be an Islamic Liberal Arts College. Let’s take one example of the prevailing problems in Pakistani society to elaborate further.

POLARIZATION:

Now this is one of the major issues in Pakistan. Hard to explain due to all the dynamics involved. I will try my best. Some part is played in this by our identity crisis. We are still struggling with our identity after 70 years of independence. Liberal or Islamic or… So what happens mostly in our society is either we become 'too Islamic' or 'too liberal' based on our schooling. Both parties develop narcissistic attitudes without having knowledge of the other side. I will not go into the details and I am not taking any sides. Now this creates a crisis of knowledge and subsequently ignorance prevails. This is where Zaytuna College comes into picture. It will unite both sides. Taking tradition and today’s demands hand in hand.

The following video portrays the purpose of the above proposed college. You can find more about Zaytuna College at their YT channel.
Website: https://zaytuna.edu/

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”
― Walter Cronkite