Madrasa Education in Bangladesh: What Can We Learn from the Golden Age of Islam?

Bangladesh is passing through an important debate about the future of education.

One part of this debate concerns madrasa education. With millions of children studying in Aliya and Qawmi madrasas, the question can no longer be treated as a matter concerning only religious communities.

It is a national question: What kind of education do we want for the next generation?
The answer should neither be the abandonment of religious education nor the preservation of an educational system unchanged by the requirements of the modern world. Perhaps the best way forward is to look back at the history of Islamic civilisation itself.

When knowledge had no artificial boundaries
The history of Islam provides a remarkable example of a civilisation in which religious learning and intellectual inquiry once developed together.

The Qur’an repeatedly encourages human beings to observe, reflect and acquire knowledge. In the centuries following the rise of Islam, Muslim societies developed institutions of learning that studied not only Qur’an, Hadith and jurisprudence but also mathematics, medicine, astronomy, philosophy, geography and other sciences.

During the Abbasid period, Baghdad became a major centre of intellectual life. The House of Wisdom, associated with the Abbasid translation movement, brought together scholars and texts from different intellectual traditions.

Greek, Persian and Indian knowledge was translated into Arabic, studied, criticised and developed further. Scholars of different religious backgrounds participated in this wider intellectual environment.

Muslim civilisation subsequently produced extraordinary scholars. Al-Khwarizmi made foundational contributions to mathematics and algebra; Ibn al-Haytham transformed the study of optics; Ibn Sina’s medical writings influenced medicine for centuries; and Muslim astronomers, philosophers, physicians and mathematicians contributed to knowledge that eventually travelled beyond the Islamic world.

The significance of this history is not merely a matter of Muslim pride. It carries a lesson for the present.
In medieval Bengal too, madrasa education had a broader character than is sometimes assumed today.

Banglapedia records that during the Sultanate and Mughal periods, madrasa curricula included Arabic, Islamic jurisprudence, philosophy, logic and other subjects; over time, astronomy, mathematics, geography, accounting, agriculture, public administration and natural sciences were also incorporated.
How did the division arise in Bengal?

The present division between Aliya and Qawmi education has a historical background.
The Calcutta Aliya Madrasa was established in 1780 under Warren Hastings.

It was designed partly to produce people familiar with Arabic, Persian and Muslim law who could serve in the administrative and judicial system of British India. English and other subjects were subsequently introduced into the curriculum.

The Qawmi tradition developed in a different historical environment.

The establishment of DarulUloomDeoband in northern India in 1866 became a major influence on the Qawmi tradition, which sought to preserve Islamic scholarship and identity outside direct colonial educational control.

The Qawmi tradition subsequently spread to Bengal; Hathazari became one of its major centres.
Thus, the two systems have different historical roots and different institutional philosophies.

Aliya education became part of the recognised state education system. Qawmi education developed largely through community initiative and remained outside the mainstream government education structure.

How large is the madrasa sector today?
The scale of madrasa education makes the issue impossible to ignore.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ 2023 Socio-Economic and Demographic Survey, 5.85 per cent of students aged three and above were studying in Aliya madrasas and 6.61 per cent in Qawmi madrasas.

Together, they represented approximately 12.46 per cent of students. In other words, roughly one student in every eight was in one of these two madrasa streams.

The Qawmi figure deserves particular attention because Qawmi institutions are not comprehensively registered with the government. Consequently, estimates of their total number and enrolment vary considerably, and claims about current numbers should be treated cautiously.

But whatever the exact number, the conclusion is clear: madrasa education represents a substantial part of Bangladesh’s human capital.

Quality: a question that requires fairness
It would be unfair to describe madrasa students collectively as either inferior or superior to students in mainstream schools.

They are educated for somewhat different purposes.
A traditionally trained Qawmi student may possess considerably greater knowledge of Qur’anic studies, Hadith, Arabic texts and Islamic jurisprudence than a mainstream student. That is a genuine educational strength.

At the same time, many traditional Qawmi students may have had less exposure to English, mathematics, natural sciences, information technology and other subjects increasingly important for higher education and employment. Research comparing the different madrasa systems has identified these curricular differences.

Aliya students occupy a somewhat different position because their curriculum combines religious education with general subjects and their qualifications are integrated into the national education framework.

The question, therefore, should not be:
“Are madrasa students good or bad?”
It should be:
“Does every child receive the range of knowledge necessary to live, work and contribute effectively in twenty-first-century Bangladesh?”

We should learn from our own civilisation
Here lies the most important lesson.

When Baghdad became a centre of learning, Muslim scholars did not simply repeat what earlier generations had written. They translated, examined, debated, corrected and extended existing knowledge. The intellectual culture of the Islamic Golden Age was built on curiosity and engagement with the wider world.

That spirit is worth recovering.
If our ancestors could study Greek philosophy, Indian mathematics and Persian scientific traditions without feeling that learning from others threatened their Islamic identity, why should a Muslim student today be afraid of mathematics, physics, biology, English or computer science?
The answer should be obvious.

Faith does not become weaker because knowledge becomes wider.
Reform, not destruction
The solution, therefore, is not to abolish madrasa education or to force every madrasa into an identical mould.

Qawmi madrasas have played an important role in preserving Islamic scholarship, Arabic learning and religious traditions. Aliya madrasas have demonstrated that religious and general education can exist within the same institutional framework.

What Bangladesh needs is a serious programme of educational reform.
Every madrasa student should have the opportunity to acquire strong foundations in Bangla, English, mathematics, science, information and communication technology, history, civics and critical thinking, while continuing to study Qur’an, Hadith, Arabic, Islamic history and jurisprudence.

The purpose should not be to secularise religious education.
It should be to broaden it.
A student who can understand the Qur’an in Arabic, study Hadith and Islamic jurisprudence, and at the same time understand mathematics, science, technology and the modern economy is not less Islamic. He or she may actually be better equipped to serve society.

The choice before Bangladesh
Bangladesh should not create two classes of educated citizens—one possessing religious knowledge but limited access to modern disciplines, and another possessing modern education but little understanding of the country’s religious and cultural heritage.

We need educated citizens who can combine faith, knowledge, morality, scientific curiosity and civic responsibility.

The great Islamic civilisation once demonstrated that this combination was possible.
Its scholars did not build their intellectual world by closing the doors of knowledge.

They opened them.
If Bangladesh can achieve that balance, madrasa education need not remain a subject of division. It could become part of the country’s educational renewal—and perhaps, in a modest way, a revival of an old Islamic principle:

Seek knowledge wherever it is found, and use it for the betterment of humanity.

(The writer: Researcher and Advisory Editor of The New Nation)