Today, Malawi joined the world in commemorating the International Day of Education under the theme “To Invest in People, Prioritize Education.”
The theme of the commemorations is colourful but it is haunting Malawi Muslims who are still singing a song of having the Islamic University of Malawi. Malawi Muslims are not awake. They are still dreaming and now the dream has become a nightmare.
It is worrisome to claim how the long awaited dream of having the Islamic University in the country is not making any visible progress. Is it making any progress? If yes, the leaders championing the project must let Muslims understand the steps taken so far. Just visible and practical steps.
The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) made it clear that seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim (men or women). The Prophet (SAW) is stressing that it is a must for every Muslim to be educated. To the contrary, Muslims in the country are failing to utilize their potential due to lack of the Islamic University. What are we missing as Muslims? We have no clear vision to step on in our quest to build for the future.
Firstly, we don’t have a clear strategy on how to establish the University and then, we lack practical approaches that can make our inactive strategy work. It is almost impossible to implement to a strategy that has no clear objectives. Do we have a strategy on how we can have the Islamic University ? If yes, then as a community, we are not spreading our wings strategically.
Muslims in the country can start the University from zero. In the context, zero means starting with the readily available resources while mapping out ways on how to construct state of art infrastructures. You can all be surprised to hear that the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) began with only one block at a premises of a secondary school. Great things start with a mere drop. Currently, IUIU has four campuses with state of art infrastructures. With just one click , a dream was realised.
We have infrastructures that Muslims can use to actualize a dream of having the Islamic University. Are we still waiting for top class infrastructures to start an institution of higher learning? I swear if the mentality is maintained, the song of having Islamic University in the country will never end. It is high time that we should stop dreaming.
Conclusively, we need to start making things tick. We can’t continue this way. We should not align the dream of having Islamic University in our long term strategy. We need to be heard. We can’t keep waiting whilst doing nothing. The precious dream of having Islamic University of Malawi must not become a nightmare.
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