Historical Study of Islamic Education
Islamic education has a long history. Islamic education develops with the emergence of Islam itself. Islamic education took place since the Prophet Muhammad was appointed as the Apostle of Allah in Mecca and he himself as his teacher. This period of education is a proto type that is continuously being developed by Muslims for the benefit of education in his day. Islamic education began to be carried out by the Prophet after receiving orders from God that he appeal to God, as stated in the Qur'an.
Calling means inviting, inviting means educating. The first step taken by the Prophet was to call on his family first, first, the Prophet called on his wife, Khadija, to believe and receive God's instructions, then followed by Ali ibn Abi Talib, his uncle's son, who was adopted as his adopted son, and Zaid bin Harith, a housemaid, who was later adopted as an adopted child. After that, the Prophet began to invite his friends, and so on.
In the context of Arab society, where Islam was born and first developed, the arrival of Islam complete with educational efforts, this is a major transformation, because pre-Islamic Arab society basically does not have a formal education system. At the beginning of the development of Islam, of course systematic formal education had not yet taken place. The ongoing education can be said to be generally informal, and even this has more to do with preaching - Islamic propaganda - the spread and inculcation of the basics of Islamic beliefs and worship.
In this connection it can be understood why the process of Islamic education first took place at Arqam's house on Mount Shafa. Arqam's house was chosen as a gathering place for Muslims to receive lessons from the Prophet, because Arqam was a loyal friend of the Prophet as well as an excellent location of his home, obstructed from the sight of the Quraysh. The first education undertaken by the Prophet was to foster a Muslim person to become cadres who were strong-minded and tough from all trials to be prepared to become an Islamic community and preachers and good educators When the Islamic community was formed, then education was held in mosques and prayer rooms. This educational process is carried out in halaqah, a learning circle.
In the early days of the birth of Islam, Muslims did not have a culture of reading and writing. For Arab society, the culture of reading and writing only developed among the Jews and Naranis. There are very few other Arabs besides Jews and Christians who can read and write. During the Prophet's broadcast of religion in Mecca, among the Quraysh there were 17 people who were literate after the battle of Badr, there were several captives who were good at reading and writing. These prisoners can redeem themselves by teaching reading and writing to 10 Muslim children for a prisoner. According to Syalabi in his book Hanun Asrohah, the institution for learning to read and write is called Kuttab, this educational institution was formed after the mosque.
At the time of the Prophet, Islamic education was centered in Medina. After the Prophet's death, the authority of the Islamic government was alternately held by Abu Bakr, Umar Ibn Khattab, Usman Ibn Affan, and Ali Ibn Abi Talib. Its implementation is not much different from the time of the Prophet, which emphasized the teaching of reading and writing and the teachings of Islam which are based on the Qur'an and the Hadith of the Prophet. This is due to the concentration of Muslims towards the expansion of Islamic territory and the occurrence of political upheaval, especially in the time of Ali Ibn Abi Talib.
After the Umayyad dynasty came to power, the implementation of Islamic education increased compared to the previous period. If in the previous period Islamic education was carried out in Kuttab, in homes, in mosques, during this period Islamic education was also carried out in the Palace to educate the children of the royal family. At this time also began to pay attention to the field of interpretation of science, hadith fiqh, and kalam science. This effort was then continued by the Abbasid dynasty, attention to Islamic education was very large compared to the Umayyad period, so that thought works in various fields developed, although the attention of education and thought development was not as great as during the Abbasid dynasty, the efforts of Muslims during the The Umayyad Dynasty was very large and its influence was very important for the development of education and thought in the aftermath. Although small, the Umayyad Dynasty had laid the foundations for the advancement of education and thought. Because of this effort, the Umayyad period was "Incubation" or the complete period for the development of Islamic intellectuals in fighting for the existence of Islamic education.