Virtually every human language has a word for ‘community.’ How could it be otherwise when community is of the core essence of the human experience? We are creatures of community. To live as part of one fulfills the most natural inclination to society that thrives in every one of us. This is the reason that the notion of community—simple, innate, intuitively understood—never did call for much discussion. It was that fundamental.

Not so since the cesarean birth of the modern, when man was untimely ripped from his natural social womb and delivered disoriented into moral distortion, unmanageable materialism, greed, injustice and arrogance. This has steadily led us to a gross reverence of individualism and a near total disregard for the common weal of man.

The result has been much more than the mere loss of an abstract communal sense among us (and its attendant avalanche of ugly ills). We have been forced to endure the degradation and, in some cases, the complete destruction, of the most essential humanizing component in life: The family.

Still, 'community' remains in wide use among all people. We invoke it at every turn because it is deep in our Fitrah (the natural predisposition upon which Allah The Almighty created mankind), our inherent tendency toward virtue. For community alone holds all earthly hope for our shared happiness and brotherhood.

It is a strange thing that something as ancient as community—a given for the pre-moderns, despite their technological and informational "deficiencies"—has become a cause of primary challenge in our time and at what price?

This points up another important note on community: The lack of proper understanding of what community means. This is the chief reason it is so hard today to establish and maintain one.

In this, there is, indeed, a sign for our confused times. It exposes a certain unawareness among our Muslim leadership, which has shown itself at a loss for identifying the wellsprings of community, though the Quran is utterly unambiguous about this.

The first thing about community in the Quran that rivets you is its massive emphasis. Aside from the topics of faith and Tawheed, Ummah (in its various forms) is the most widely mentioned concept in it. It establishes community as the standard by which we are to understand and reflect upon man. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {O mankind, indeed We have created you from a male and a 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. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.} [Quran 49:13]

This is the most essential form of community intended by God Almighty for man—a single fellowship commanded to come together for the common good on the basis of monotheism. The Quran grants that material means may allow man gain in worldly matters. Yet only one criterion (God's reverence and worship—which the Quran refers to as Taqwa) forms the basis upon which man is to be judged. This makes Taqwa, reverencing only One God, the sole guidance worth living by. This is no mere abstraction. So let there be no ambiguity about it. Taqwa is entirely concrete.

If people find it difficult to grasp the rope of God Almighty by which Taqwa is represented, let's be frank, it is wholly due to one failing: The fact that establishing a community based on exclusive reverence for God Almighty alone means that some men cannot be lords over others. All are equal and must, therefore, render unto others what they expect from them in return. That is the reason why Taqwa is the only logical criterion of a just community. It is a direct measure of our willingness to believe in Allah The Most High and obey His commands.

Strikingly, the Quran tells us that the most important ingredient in establishing a community depends not on space, time, matter, or any other "chance" trait or relationship in the world. It is a bond of the human heart. The naked truth is no amount of human will or earthly means can bring it about. It is purely and explicitly an act of Divine Grace. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {…And remember the favor of Allah upon you – when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers…}  [Quran 3:103] Thus, it is Allah, and Allah alone, who brings the hearts of a community together and binds them.

We need to appreciate that this is not an act of pure destiny but also a function of whether a people consciously chooses to internalize and live by the sterling standard of Taqwa, namely this: God is God. Man is Man. The First is to be worshiped. The latter is His servant, serving all others at His divine pleasure.

It has become one of the sources of social pride and the characteristics of civilized families and high classes to send their daughters without a Mahram (non-marriageable male) to study in a foreign country. They imbue this act with a religious form and say that the Prophet  said: “Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.” [Ibn Maajah (Al-Albaani: Saheeh)] They ignore the fact that the knowledge meant in the Hadeeth (narration) is that knowledge which draws the Muslim man and woman nearer to Allah, The Almighty; not the false knowledge which keeps them away from Him.

Some people nowadays have trespassed the limits of Sharee'ah (Islamic legislation) and give the name “knowledge” to dancing, music, singing, drama, cinema, theater, obscene stories and every means of immorality and disbelief. Moreover, they call the study of means of Riba (usury) and the sexual theories of Freud “knowledge”! They have become impudent to the extent that they claim that the obligatory knowledge meant in the Hadeeth of the Prophet  is immorality which is disguised by the slogans of knowledge.

For the sake of clearing up any confusion, the knowledge meant in the Hadeeth is what is necessary to know about religion; such as knowing the two testimonies of faith and their meaning, prayer, fasting, Zakaah (obligatory charity) for those who have the Nisaab (the minimum amount liable for Zakaat), Hajj for those who are able to perform it, the rulings of transactions and trade for those who wish to trade, rulings of Muzaara‘ah (Crop Sharing) for those who wish to embark upon this transaction; and by the same token everybody should learn the relevant Sharee'ah (Islamic legislation) knowledge in his/her field.

This kind of knowledge is called “individual obligation” that every Muslim must learn. Any additional knowledge is considered “communal obligation”, if some Muslims learn it, the others are not required to do so. When no Muslims learn it, all of them bear guilt so long as the branch of knowledge is needed. Allah, The Almighty, Says (what means): {And it is not for the believers to go forth [to battle] all at once. For there should separate from every division of them a group [remaining] to obtain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them that they might be cautious.} [Quran 9:122]

After teaching the children (both boys and girls) the necessary knowledge of religion, we should bring up each group according to the needs of natural disposition. The programs of teaching boys and girls cannot be the same; otherwise, the matter would be like shoe factories whose machines produce only one model. Unifying the educational programs of boys and girls is the worst form of foolishness and ignorance. There must be a difference in educational programs so that, in the end, we would have mothers who are knowledgeable of how to raise their children and manage their homes and families. They should also have general knowledge about nursing; some of them should be specialized in this branch of knowledge in order to nurse and treat women and children. The girl should be aware of household management, sewing, needle-work and cooking. She should learn how to bring up children in a righteous manner.

These are the basics that every girl should master after knowing the necessary matters of religion. Then, it is permissible for her to know various branches of knowledge or become specialized in them if she has the ability and desire. There is a wide sphere for this matter under Sharee'ah as long as it remains within the limits of Sharee'ah and there is no intermixing between the sexes, exposing of adornments or spreading corruption and obscenity.

Dr. Alexis Carrel said that it is foolish to make the woman renounce motherhood. Therefore, girls must not have the mental and material training that the boys have. They must not be encouraged to have the same goals as boys. Mentors must exert great effort and pay attention to the physical and mental characteristics of the male and female and their natural functions. There are differences between the sexes that cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is inevitable that we take these differences into account when building a civilized world.

He also said that it is a cause of wonder that programs of girls’ education do not include any detailed study of the young and their mental and physiological characteristics. The natural function of the woman must be returned to her. This function does not include pregnancy only, but it should also include taking care of her children.

Unfortunately, educational programs for girls and boys are similar all over the world even in Arab and Islamic countries which, regrettably, blindly follow the course of the West.
The words of Dr. Carrel with regard to the similarity of educational programs offered to boys and girls and its danger to society are very important because this approach leads to attempts to obliterate the natural and biological differences between boys and girls and their ignorance of their role in life.