This misunderstanding has also penetrated our education system, which is so dichotomous. There are religious and educational institutions, and there are public educational institutions. And not only in the education system, but this misunderstanding has also deeply penetrated our Muslim society’s subconscious. as a result, Our children, from an early age, are forced to row between two rocks, attending religious and general education. Or attend religious education institutions (including Islamic boarding schools) which are “attached” to the general sciences —but the two remain dichotomously separated.
For instance, I belong to the generation born from this subconscious situation of parents. From an early age, I was taught that to get good in the hereafter, which means heaven, I had to study religion. Therefore, there is no choice but to enter a madrasa or pesantren.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But imagine if a whole generation of Muslims just huddled under one roof for “religious knowledge”. Imagine if all generations of Muslims were only commentators, hadith experts, fiqh experts, faraid experts, tasawuf experts, and hafiz Quran. Imagine if all generations of Muslims were only Kiai, Ustaz or Koran teachers, preachers or preachers, or employees of the ministry of religion.
Also, imagine if a whole generation of Muslims did not become doctors, accountants, financiers, mathematicians and information technology specialists, chemists, engineering engineers, and mining experts, for example. Not even an artist or comedian. In short, imagine if all generations of Muslims did not become experts except experts in religious knowledge. If this last sentence were to happen, and it seems almost like that, then we would fail to carry out God’s mandate as caliph (not to be confused with khilafahism) on Earth (khalifatullah fil ardh).