Islamic education in Nigeria
The origin of Islam in Nigeria: Islam is a form of
religion founded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia by Prophet Mohammad in 7th
century A. D. the Arabs fought and conquered North Africa. This spread Islam
and trade into West Africa by traders through Kanem-Boron, Hausaland and the
central Sudan.
From Kanem-Borno (a section of the Borno state of
Nigeria) Islam began to penetrate Hausa land on a large scale in 15th
century.
Throughout the central Sudan (present Northern
Nigeria) many people who were converted to Islam could read and write in
Arabic. Most of the ancient states were ruled by Muslims who used the written culture
of the Arabians to their benefit.
OBJECTIVE OF
ISLAMIC EDUCATION
Islam as a religion upholds that man is born into the
world in a state of innocence like his own parents. If during his existence on
earth he yields to temptation, he will be accountable to God. This therefore
creates a need for contact between man and his creator. Man has to maintain his
natural goodness. Islamic education is intended to build and develop this
goodness that every individual has at birth so that man can hope to remain a
worthy servant of Allah.
Islamic
education generates five major aims of education.
1. Continuity
of man’s essential goodness- Islamic education unfolds the strength and ways
the person draws nearer to Allah
2. The
development of piety: Islamic education aims at developing individuals who not
only worship God but also lead a Godly life.
3. Service
to Allah and man, education is not acquisition of knowledge but the way one’s
life is affected by the knowledge one has acquired.
4. Intellectual
development: All learning must be put into practice as the society changes,
otherwise the individual in question is not learned.
ISLAMIC SYSTEM OF EDUCATION AND
CURRICULUM
1. Qur’anic
schools (the elementary): children start at age three or as soon as they
are able to walk. The mosque, Mallams house or a tree shade is used as a
school. A single Mallam takes a class. Children start learning Qur’an rote the
Mallam recites or reads from the Qur’an and the pupils repeat.
The next class is the learning to
recognize the twenty-six letters of the Arabic language.
2. Markarntun
Ilmi: (the advance level): this is the secondary school level with a more
challenging curriculum the main task of this level is learning the meaning of
those chapters they had committed to memory at primary level. The Mallam reads
or recites a portion in Arabic and then comments on it in Hausa or Fulfude.
a. Hadith – the words and deeds of the
prophet Mohamed.
b. Qur’a- this enables the individual to
understand the qur’an properly.
c. Jurisprudence – the theory of law.
d. Arabic literature- Arabic verse,
grammar, syntax, etymology and rhetorics.
e. Theology- Islamic doctrines of the one
God.