Principles of Islam
7. Education
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would serve as his ransom and he would be set free.
This was the first school in the history of Islam,
established by the Prophet himself. It was of no
matter to him that all its teachers were non-
Muslims, all were prisoners of war, and all were
likely to create problems again for Islam and
Muslims once they were released. This Sunnah of
the Prophet showed that whatever the risk
involved, education was paramount.
Islam not only stresses the importance of learning,
but also demonstrates how all the factors necessary
to progress in learning God has provided. An
especially vital factor is the freedom to conduct
research. Such freedom was encouraged right from
the beginning, as is illustrated by an incident which
took place after the Prophet had migrated from
Mecca to Medina. There he saw some people atop
the date palms pollinating them. Since dates were
not grown in Mecca the Prophet had to ask what
these people were doing to the trees. He thereupon
forbade them to do this, and the following year date
crop was very poor as compared to the previous
year. When the Prophet asked the reason, he was
told that the yield depended on pollination. He then
