By Aamir Iqbal Yazdani

Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929), the French statesman, once famously remarked:

“War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.”

The same could be said — perhaps even more forcefully — about the teaching of Islamic Studies.

Teaching this profound and sensitive subject is far too serious a responsibility to be left solely in the hands of traditional clerics. Nor can it be adequately handled by those holding only an MA, MPhil, or even a PhD in Islamic Studies — at least not in the current academic and religious climate of Pakistan.

Why? Because, regrettably, much of Islamic instruction in our country serves only to reinforce sectarian boundaries, rather than transcend them. Many instructors, consciously or unconsciously, end up glorifying their own sect’s interpretations without critical engagement or independent reflection. The Qur’an is rarely approached as a living source of inspiration — it becomes a text filtered through preexisting dogma.

This narrow and often rigid approach perpetuates certain volatile and theologically questionable ideas:

• That Jihad is primarily a militant pursuit for Islam’s “glory”
• That the ideal of Khilafah must be restored by political or militant means, often idealizing the early caliphate without context
• That Muslims are guaranteed Paradise simply by virtue of their identity — an echo of the misplaced assumptions of the Children of Israel
• That all non-Muslims are to be considered kafir in the most damning sense

These are latent yet deeply dangerous ideas, subtly absorbed and rarely challenged — and, crucially, the Qur’an itself challenges them.

It is time we reimagine Islamic Studies as an intellectually honest, Qur’an-centric discipline. One that encourages reflection, context-based interpretation, and moral reasoning — free from the emotionalism and blind following that so often cloud religious discourse.

Let the teaching of Islamic Studies be entrusted to thoughtful, informed individuals from all walks of civil society — those who engage with the Qur’an directly, not merely through the lens of inherited sectarian narratives, but with a commitment to truth, reason, and spiritual depth.