Free Education in Islam: The Right of the People and the Absolute Duty of the State
وَاللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ ۙ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
“And Allah brought you out from the wombs of your mothers while you knew nothing, and He gave you hearing, sight, and hearts that you might be grateful.” (QS. An-Nahl: 78)
In the current era of global capitalism, education has transformed from a noble institution that shapes civilization into a highly lucrative business commodity. Schools and universities compete to set exorbitant fees (tuition, registration fees, building fees) in order to reap profits. As a result, quality education has become a luxury that only a handful of wealthy people can enjoy. Meanwhile, children from poor families must settle for inadequate education, or are even forced to drop out of school. The phenomenon of student loans strangling millions of young people in Western countries is tangible proof of the corruption of this system.
Islam comes with a radically different paradigm. In the Islamic perspective adopted by Hizbut Tahrir through the book Nizhamul Hukm fil Islam (The System of Government in Islam), education is not a commodity for sale. Education is a basic public need that must be guaranteed and provided by the state (Khilafah) for FREE to all its citizens.
This article will thoroughly examine the evidence, mechanisms, and funding sources for free education in the Khilafah system, purely based on Islamic sharia.
1. Education: A Basic Public Need, Not a Commodity
In the Islamic economic and political system, human needs are classified very meticulously. There are basic individual needs whose fulfillment is left to each person’s own efforts (such as clothing, food, and shelter), although the state still supervises and intervenes if any individual fails to meet them.
However, there are three basic public needs whose fulfillment is absolutely the direct responsibility of the state:
- Security (Al-Amn)
- Health (Ash-Shihhah)
- Education (At-Ta’lim)
الْإِمَامُ رَاعٍ وَهُوَ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ
“An Imam (Caliph) is a shepherd (guardian of the people’s affairs), and he will be held accountable for the flock under his care.” (HR. Bukhari)
Taking care of the people (ri’ayatus syu’un) means ensuring that the people receive their basic rights. Allowing the people to remain ignorant because they cannot afford school fees is a great injustice for which Allah will hold one severely accountable in the Hereafter.
2. Sharia Basis for the State’s Obligation to Provide Education
The obligation of the Khilafah to fund education for free originates from the Ijma’ of the Companions and the actions of the Prophet ﷺ as the head of state (Daulah Islamiyyah) in Madinah.
A. The Example of the Prophet ﷺ as Head of State
After the Battle of Badr, the Muslims took many war captives from among the polytheists of Quraysh. Some of them had no wealth to ransom themselves. What did the Prophet ﷺ do?
He established a highly revolutionary policy for that time: Captives who could read and write could go free if they taught 10 Muslim children in Madinah to read and write.
كَانَ فِدَاءُ أَسْرَى بَدْرٍ أَنْ يُعَلِّمَ كُلُّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمْ عَشَرَةً مِنَ الْأَنْصَارِ الْكِتَابَةَ
“The ransom for the captives of the Battle of Badr was that each of them teach writing to ten of the Ansar.” (Sirah Ibnu Hisyam)
The ransom wealth of war captives (Ghanimah) is essentially the property of the state treasury (Baitul Mal). The policy of the Prophet ﷺ in exchanging this ransom wealth for educational services proves that the state may—indeed must—allocate funds from the state treasury to finance the education of its people.
B. Ijma’ of the Companions in the Era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs
During the time of Caliph Umar bin Khattab radhiyallahu ‘anhu, the state officially appointed teachers of the Qur’an and religious sciences to educate children in Madinah. Umar did not collect a single penny from the parents of the students. Instead, Umar took funds from Baitul Mal to pay these teachers a truly fantastic salary, namely 15 Dinars per month (equivalent to tens of millions of rupiah today).
This action of Umar was known to the other Companions and not one of them objected. This constitutes Ijma’ al-Sahabah (consensus of the Companions) that paying teachers and providing free education from Baitul Mal funds is an obligation of the state.
3. Scope of Free Education in the Khilafah
If today many capitalist countries claim to have made education free, this usually only applies to the basic level (elementary-middle school), and even then with very poor facilities. What about the Khilafah?
The Draft Constitution (Dustur) of the Khilafah adopted by Hizbut Tahrir formulates the scope of free education clearly:
يَجِبُ عَلَى الدَّوْلَةِ أَنْ تُعَلِّمَ كُلَّ فَرْدٍ مِمَّنْ يَحْمِلُ التَّابِعِيَّةَ تَعْلِيمًا مَجَّانِيًّا فِي مَرَاحِلِ التَّعْلِيمِ الِابْتِدَائِيِّ وَالثَّانَوِيِّ، وَأَنْ تُوَفِّرَ لَهُ التَّعْلِيمَ الْعَالِيَ مَجَّانًا بِقَدْرِ الْإِمْكَانِ
“The state is obliged to provide free education to every individual citizen at the primary and secondary education levels. The state is also obliged to provide higher education for free according to its ability (capacity).”
Let us break down this scope:
| Education Level | Funding Status | Additional Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Primary (Ibtidaiyah) | Absolutely Free | No fees of any kind may be charged. Compulsory for all citizens. |
| Secondary (Mutawasithah & Sanawiyah) | Absolutely Free | Exemption from tuition fees, books, and laboratory facilities. |
| Higher Education (University) | Free According to Capacity | Free for students who meet academic qualifications (pass entrance selection exams). If campus capacity is full, the state must prioritize the most outstanding. |
The word “free” here does not merely mean exemption from tuition fees, but the state providing proper buildings, library books, teaching aids, advanced laboratories, and highly prosperous salaries for teachers and lecturers.
4. Education Without Caste or Religious Discrimination
One of the corruptions of capitalism is the creation of educational caste systems. The children of the rich attend elite international-standard schools, while the children of the poor attend marginalized schools with leaking roofs. This creates a terrible social gap.
In Islam, free education applies to all citizens without discrimination.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.” (QS. Al-Hujurat: 13)
In the Khilafah system:
- Rich and Poor: The child of a minister and the child of a farmer will sit at the same school desks, enjoy the same laboratory facilities, and be taught by equally qualified teachers. There is no commercialization.
- Men and Women: Both are obliged to seek knowledge. The state facilitates schools for women (with inshishal separation according to Islamic interaction laws) so that they become intelligent Ummu wa Rabbah al-Bait (mothers and household managers), doctors, scientists, and scholars.
- Muslims and Non-Muslims (Ahl al-Dhimmah): Non-Muslim citizens have the right to enjoy education in science, technology, and skills for free just like Muslim citizens. They are only exempt from the obligation to study Islamic creed.
5. Where Does the Khilafah Get Enormous Funds?
Many might be skeptical: “Where can the state get the funds to finance free education for hundreds of millions of people along with its advanced facilities? Will the state not go bankrupt?”
This skepticism is understandable if we use the lens of a capitalist economy whose sources of income only rely on taxes (extorting the people) and foreign debt with interest (usury). The Khilafah has a very robust economic system (Nizhamul Iqtishadi) with abundant independent funding sources through Baitul Mal.
The following are the revenue items of Baitul Mal that sharia mandates to fund education:
A. Fa’i and Kharaj (State Property)
These are assets that are the rightful property of the state, such as:
- Kharaj: Land tax on conquered agricultural lands.
- Jizyah: A sign of submission from non-Muslim citizens (Ahl al-Dhimmah) to the Islamic state.
- ‘Ushur: Customs duties on foreign trade goods crossing state borders.
- Ghanimah & Fa’i: War spoils. The Caliph has full authority to allocate funds from these items to build schools, pay teachers, and establish universities.
B. Public Ownership (Milkiyah ‘Ammah)
This is the greatest “treasure” of the Muslim ummah, which today is plundered by foreign/private corporations under the capitalist system. Islam stipulates that natural resources of unlimited quantity are public property (belonging to the people), and the state only manages them.
الْمُسْلِمُونَ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ: فِي الْمَاءِ وَالْكَلَإِ وَالنَّارِ
“Muslims are partners (have equal rights) in three things: water, pasture, and fire (energy).” (HR. Abu Dawud)
Gold mines, coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, and vast forests are the property of the people. The Khilafah state will take over all these mines from private/foreign hands, manage them independently, and return all profits to the people in the form of public services—one of the greatest being Free Education.
Imagine, if trillions of rupiah from Freeport mining, the Mahakam Block, or nickel mines did not flow into the pockets of oligarchs, those funds would be more than enough to build thousands of advanced laboratories and pay teachers generously without needing to collect VAT from the poor!
6. Analogy: Education as the Oxygen of Civilization
To more easily understand why Islam prohibits the commercialization of education, let us use the analogy of Oxygen.
Education in a civilization is like oxygen to the human body.
- If oxygen is free and abundant, all the cells in the body will be healthy, strong, and capable of doing great work.
- The Capitalist System turns this “oxygen” (education) into paid cylinders. Only those who have money can breathe freely. Consequently, the majority of the body’s cells (the poor) become ignorant and weak, and the civilization eventually becomes paralyzed due to a lack of intelligent people.
The Khilafah comes to liberate this oxygen once again. The state becomes a giant lung pumping the oxygen of knowledge to all corners of the country, ensuring that a child in a remote mountain village receives the same quality of education as a child in the capital. Because the Khilafah is aware, if even one intelligent child fails to attend school due to poverty, the ummah has lost one potential great inventor of the future.
7. Historical Evidence: When the World Learned for Free from the Khilafah
This obligation of free education is not a utopia or a bedtime story. History records in golden ink how the Khilafah practiced it for centuries.
In the era of the Abbasid Caliphate, the Caliph established Baitul Hikmah in Baghdad, the largest university and research center in the world at that time. Not only was it free, but the state even gave gold equal to the weight of books successfully translated or written by scholars!
In the era of the Ottoman Caliphate, Sultan Muhammad Al-Fatih established Madrasah Sahn-i Seman in Istanbul. Students studying there not only had their education fees waived, but they were also given free dormitories, clothing, nutritious food every day, and monthly pocket money from the state.
يُؤْتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَنْ يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا
“He grants wisdom to whom He pleases, and whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted abundant good.” (QS. Al-Baqarah: 269)
Thanks to this free education system fully supported by the state, the Islamic world produced giant scientists such as Ibn Sina (Father of Medicine), Al-Khawarizmi (Inventor of Algebra), and Ibn al-Haytham (Father of Optics). They did not have to worry about campus installment fees, so their minds were free to roam beyond the boundaries of science.
8. What Happens If the State Treasury is Empty?
Islam is a very rational religion. So, what if at some point the Khilafah is struck by a disaster (e.g., major war or famine) such that the Baitul Mal treasury is completely empty? Is free education stopped?
No. In a force majeure emergency condition where Baitul Mal is empty, Islamic sharia stipulates that the obligation to fund education shifts to become a collective responsibility (fardhu kifayah) upon wealthy Muslims (Aghniya’).
The Khilafah state has the right to levy a tax (Dharibah) only upon wealthy Muslim citizens (those who have surplus wealth after their primary and secondary needs are properly fulfilled). The funds from this incidental tax are specifically used to finance urgent educational facilities, so that schools do not close and teachers continue to be paid. As soon as Baitul Mal is refilled from mining or fa’i proceeds, the tax collection from the wealthy is immediately stopped.
This proves that under any circumstances, education must not be commercialized to the general public!
9. Comparative Justice: Khilafah vs Secular State
Let us clearly compare how these two systems view education:
| Parameter | Secular Capitalist System | Islamic System (Khilafah) |
|---|---|---|
| Status of Education | Commercial service (business). | Basic right of the people, obligation of the state. |
| Accessibility | Depends on wallet thickness (money equals quality). | Equal for all citizens (rich/poor). |
| Source of Funds | Tuition fees from people, taxes on the poor, foreign debt. | Proceeds from managing natural wealth (mining/oil & gas) belonging to the ummah in Baitul Mal. |
| Student Outcome | Trapped in decades of student loan debt. | Graduate debt-free, ready to serve the ummah. |
| Campus Orientation | Seeking profit and international rankings. | Research for the ummah’s independence and civilizational da’wah. |
10. Conclusion: Awaiting the Promise of Prosperity
Free, high-quality education is not a political campaign promise in Islam. It is a sharia law that must be executed by the Head of State (Caliph).
- ✅ Education is a Basic Need: As important as security and health.
- ✅ Forbidden to Commercialize: Turning schools into business arenas that exploit the poor is oppression.
- ✅ Funded by Baitul Mal: Derived from the intelligent management of publicly owned natural wealth (mines, oil & gas, forests).
- ✅ Without Discrimination: Applied justly to men and women, rich and poor, and Muslims and Dhimmis.
وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ
“Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession upon the earth.” (QS. An-Nur: 55)
This promise of prosperity, justice, and free education will only remain a beautiful theory on paper as long as Muslims are still willing to live under the grip of the capitalist-democracy system. It will only become an empirical reality when Muslims move together, striving to re-establish the institution that implements sharia comprehensively: Daulah Khilafah Rasyidah ‘ala Minhajin Nubuwwah.
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