ABSTRACT
The word knowledge is associated with one of the beautiful names and attributes of Allah, and Islam is the religion of mercy that champions intelligent and emotional intelligence for the spiritual, cultural, social, economic, and political well-being of people. It was for this reason that Adam, the father of humanity, was taught knowledge of all things, and the first revelation (Q 96:1–5) to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was “Read.” Advancing Muslim education is critical, as it makes Muslim societies functional, productive, innovative, and sustainable. Despite such religious encouragement and motivation, Muslim societies in Kenya are not doing well in terms of education, as Muslim education suffers from historical, developmental, and structural crises. Education has always been used by successive governments as a weapon of manipulation and marginalization, and it has been largely controlled by Christian missionaries since independence. The purpose of this paper is to diagnose challenges facing Muslim education with the objective of exploring sustainable solutions to improve it. The research methods used in this study are philosophical approaches, observations, and document analysis for enhancing understanding and explaining, as well as exposing and evaluating underlying assumptions and connectedness. The study findings revealed the significant impact of the Christianization of education during and after colonization, which has traditionally had an impact on the Muslim population of learners, teachers, and institutions. According to the literature, the Muslim education problem is centered on a problem of inequality, which is attributed to the historical and structural features of colonial education systems. Qur’anic schools are relegated to complementary nonformal education and have remained unrecognized as an education system. Other findings from this study include problems of understaffing, poverty in Muslim families, illiterate parents, leadership and administrative weakness, early marriages, drug and substance abuse, rampant cheating in examinations, competition between Islamic and secular education for Muslim students, and the environmental and climate change crisis. The study appreciated efforts made by Muslims and Muslim organizations to establish their own educational institutions ranging from basic to tertiary in the last three decades, prompting the government to recognize these efforts. The paper recommends urgent reforms of the Muslim Education Council in terms of policy, institutional, curriculum, and quality assurance aspects so that it drives the culture of academic excellence and invests in pedagogical capacity building and skills for the delivery of education.
