"Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has created (all that exists). He has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous. Who has taught (the writing) by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not" (Quran 96: 1-5).

This was the very first verse revealed to the Prophet (s).

"Elevated status is accorded to those who seek, possess, teach and act upon knowledge. Dismiss any thought of equality between those who know and those who do not" (Quran 39:9).

The above Quranic verses undoubtedly reveal Allah’s instruction to man about the attainment of knowledge. In fact one-eighth of the Qur’an is a call for Muslims to seek Allah’s signs in the universe and hence that science is a spiritual as well as a temporal duty for Muslims. Perhaps the most widely used argument one hears is that the Prophet Muhammad (s) had exhorted his followers to “seek knowledge even if it is in China,” which implies that a Muslim is duty-bound to search for knowledge.

With the advent of Islam in the 6th century, its followers, as instructed by Quran, placed huge emphasis on the attainment of all forms of knowledge, including the undertaking of scientific research. Muslim rulers established governments which had set up the unrivalled intellectual centres for science, philosophy, medicine and education. The Muslims at the time were influenced by Quranic injunctions and hadith such as "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs" which highlights the merits of knowledge. Muslims ruled most of the known world for a thousand years because they excelled in knowledge, more than anything else. However over past few hundred years, Muslim rulers indulged in luxury, infighting, inaction which weakened them and this led to loss of power in many regions and repeated aggression and occupation of Muslim lands by Western powers.

Today Muslims, throughout the world, lag behind in knowledge and attainment of education which has affected their progress in the modern world. Muslims of India, in particular, suffered hugely since nation’s independence.

The creation of Pakistan left Indian Muslims as a minority which had lost trust of Hindu majority. They were pushed to limits, faced discrimination on various fronts, repeated communal riots weakened them further and they are now counted among the lowest socio-economic communities of India.

Indian Muslims, themselves, are to be blamed as well. During British rule, misguided Muslim religiousscholars vehemently opposed the new system of education believing that the modern science and logic taught in English was at variance with the tenets of Islam. They looked upon the study of English as little less than embracing of Christianity. The great reformer who stood against this religious stigma was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim university.

According to latest census data released in 2016, 42.7 per cent of Muslims in India are illiterate compared to 36.4 of Hindus, 32.5 for Sikhs, 28.2 for Buddhists and 25.6 for Christians.

The situation is worse when it comes to higher education. Despite almost trebling in the decade ending 2010, from 5.2% to 13.8%, the rate of Muslim enrolment in higher education trailed the national figure of 23.6% and that of other backward classes (22.1%) and scheduled castes (18.5%).

Scheduled tribes lagged Muslims by 0.5%. In proportion to their population, Muslims were worse-off than scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Muslims comprise 14% of India’s population but account for 4.4% of students enrolled in higher education, according to the 2014-'15 All India Survey on Higher Education.

It is important to note that the statistics vary widely between North India and South India. There are two major Minority institutions is North India. Aligarh Muslim University enrol 70% Muslims of its total strength whereas Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi enrol nearly 40% Muslims. However, in other institutions, Muslims enrolment in North India is abysmally low with 1% to 3% only at undergraduate level and in professional courses. Comparatively in South India, 9% to 11% of enrolled students in undergraduate and professional courses are Muslims. Uptake of scholarships by Muslims in North India is only 1% while in South India it is 7%.

Looking at primary education, again Muslims fair badly compared to non-Muslims. According to a research paper published in International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR), 63.23 % of Muslim boys drop out at the end of Primary education stage and 78.66% at the end of secondary school. For Muslim girls it is 59.26% at the end of primary education stage and 79.02% at the end of secondary school.

Extremely poor performance in education reflects in jobs, needing qualifications, be it clerical, administrative, technical or professional. Muslims have the lowest share of working people among all communities, as per the Census 2011 data. Hindus and Christians have a worker-population ratio of 41 and 41.9 respectively, for Buddhists the figure is 43.1, for Sikhs it is 36.3 while for Jains it is 35.5. For Muslims the figure was lowest at 32.6.

Prestigious government jobs have very little representation of Muslims. Muslims had been found to be only 3% in the IAS (Indian Administrative Services), 1.8% in the IFS (Indian Foreign Services) and 4% in the IPS (Indian Police Services). The community has a representation of only 4.5% in Indian Railways while 98.7% of them are positioned at lower levels. Their share in police constables is only 6%, in health 4.4%, in transport 6.5%. At the same time, Muslims have a very high representation in menial jobs such as rickshaw pullers (3 wheels pulling cart), handicraft factories workers and other labouring jobs.

It is obvious that Muslim community of India needs huge up-liftment measures. Many NGOs are working to facilitate education for Muslim in India. Muslims living overseas have also been proactive in promoting education among poor sections of Muslim community.

Scholarships are being offered by many charitable bodies to promising students. Such efforts have produced positive results at times. Recently declared results of civil services exam brought smile to the founders a few NGOs who have established coaching centres for Muslim students. A record 50 Muslim candidates, out of 1099, cleared the civil services exam in 2017, the highest since independence.