Issue 4: From Consumer Minds to Qur’an-Grounded Education
The Qur’an warns us that this world can deceive us if we see only its surface growth:
“The life of this world is but play and amusement, and pomp and mutual boasting among you, and rivalry in wealth and children—like vegetation after rain, whose growth pleases the farmers; but then it dries and you see it turn yellow; then it becomes debris…” (Qur’an 57:20)
This is the image of a field: seeds sprouting, crops rising green and strong, farmers admiring their beauty — until time passes, and the stalks collapse into dust.
The lesson is clear: if we treat dunya as decoration, it will rot in our hands. Crops are not meant only to be admired. They are meant to be harvested at the right time, offered as food, and given as sustenance.
Wealth, children, knowledge, even science — all are fields. If we do not harvest them with the akhirah in mind, they decay into play and amusement. If we harvest them rightly, they become fruit that feeds humanity and sadaqah jāriyah (ongoing charity) that lives beyond us.
The Hidden Curriculum: Growing Without Harvest
Modern schooling teaches children how to grow but not how to harvest. It pushes them to accumulate grades, careers, wealth, and comfort, but never shows them how to release, share, and give.
This is why children grow into adults who admire their own growth but cannot let go of it. They boast of careers, collect possessions, and compete endlessly — while their crops quietly turn yellow and fall to debris.
Scientists are trained to accumulate knowledge but not to serve with it.
Professionals grow salaries but not service.
Markets grow profits but not mercy.
The hidden curriculum of modern education is this: hold on, never harvest, never release.
Wealth: Not to Be Shunned, But to Be Managed as Trust
The Qur’an does not ask us to abandon wealth, nor to romanticize poverty. It asks us to see wealth as a trust (amanah), something to be held with responsibility and humility. Allah explicitly warns:
“Do not entrust your wealth, which Allah has made a means of support for you, to the foolish…” (Qur’an 4:5)
This ayah shows wealth is a pillar of life, a means to build families, sustain communities, and preserve dignity. But it must be in capable, disciplined hands. To hand it to those who cannot manage it is a betrayal.
At the same time, the Qur’an reminds us of wealth’s fleeting nature:
“The life of this world is but play and amusement, and pomp and mutual boasting among you, and rivalry in wealth and children—like vegetation after rain… then it dries and turns yellow; then it becomes debris.” (Qur’an 57:20)
The lesson is not that wealth is evil, but that its beauty fades if hoarded or idolized. Like crops left unharvested, money left for ego or greed eventually spoils. Its real fruit comes when harvested at the right time: through sadaqah, investment in community good, and raising children with strong akhlaq rather than chasing empty academic or social trophies.
The Prophet ﷺ praised those who earn and manage wealth justly. Those who employ others with fairness will be shaded under Allah’s Throne on the Day of Judgment. Loans given without exploitation are considered sadaqah; investment in halal trade is rewarded like charity. Wealth, when circulated rightly, revives the community instead of corrupting it.
This is the economy we must teach our children:
Earn halal. Wealth gained dishonestly poisons the heart.
Invest justly. Work with fairness, avoid exploitation, and grow resources for benefit beyond yourself.
Spend with gratitude. Take what you need without guilt, but recognize the joy of others as your own.
Give generously. What you don’t need is seed for someone else’s harvest — sadaqah never decreases wealth.
In this light, children should not be raised to equate richness with greed, nor to equate piety with helpless poverty. Instead, they should be raised to see wealth as a garden: grow it with care, harvest it at the right time, and share its fruits so that the ummah thrives together.
Children as a Field: Harvest Through Akhlāq
The Qur’an reminds us that children too are part of the rivalry of dunya (57:20). Parents often admire their children’s academic growth, like farmers admiring green stalks. They measure success in grades, medals, and careers.
But if children are not harvested through akhlāq — truthfulness, mercy, service, and justice — their growth withers into debris. A child with degrees but without character is like a field left unharvested: impressive for a season, but empty when it matters.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“The most beloved of people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to people.” (al-Mu‘jam al-Awsaṭ 5787)
Raising children for community good, not just academic trophies, is the true harvest.
Science as a Field: Harvest Through Amanah
Science too is a field. Knowledge sprouts abundantly in every age. But if it is pursued only for curiosity, profit, or prestige, it becomes “play and amusement.”
“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding — those who remember Allah… and give thought [tafakkur] to the creation…” (Qur’an 3:190–191)
Science harvested rightly becomes amanah: a trust that heals soil, restores water, and serves communities. Science admired only as cleverness becomes vanity.
Our children must learn to harvest knowledge: to ask, Does this discovery increase gratitude? Does it preserve balance (mīzān)? Does it serve creation with mercy?
The New Foundation: Education as Harvest
Modern education teaches children to admire fields of growth — wealth, status, knowledge — without teaching them how to harvest. It is a system of endless admiration that turns to debris.
Qur’an-based education builds a different foundation. It teaches children that the purpose of growth is harvest:
Wealth is harvested by sadaqah.
Children are harvested by akhlāq.
Science is harvested by amanah.
Comfort is harvested by sacrifice.
“But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and [yet], do not forget your share of the world. And do good as Allah has done good to you. And desire not corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters.” (Qur’an 28:77)
This is the foundation of Qur’an-grounded education: to train children not only to grow but to harvest — to let go of pleasures and greeds at the right time, transforming them into fruits for dunya and akhirah.