Malaysia is working hard to become the global Halal Hub. Halal has traditionally been associated with food products. But now we are talking about the complete Halal value chain: "from finance to investment, livestock to manufacturing, processing to packaging, freight to logistics through retail and restaurants", according to the Halal Journal.

But shouldn't we include Education in the Halal value chain? Is there such thing as the Halal Education? After all, it is the people who makes the Halal value chain possible. As such there is a compelling reason for Halal Education. The Halal Journal, March+April 2006, while it does not outright call it Halal Education, features an article, "QIDS School: Instilling Faith in Education". QIDS, a shortform for "Quranic Intelligence Development System", is a school, or rather, a paradigm, lead by Rozzi Abdul Wahab, that integrates Islamic teachings into the normal Malaysian National Curriculum. As she puts it, the QIDS platform is built on four pillars: Iman (faith), Ilmu (knowledge), Amal (practice) and Ehsan (excellence). I believe Ehsan is the part that elevates a person to a Halal state of being.

There is too much decay in the society. We could see how the people around us becoming more selfish every day, from people doing selfish acts while driving to companies destroying the Earth. While one could argue that this is happening to all people of all faiths, one cannot avoid the fact that Muslims make up the majority of the population. We must start to teach what is Halal to our young ones and how it makes our lives better. I think QIDS is moving in the right direction. Visit QIDS at http://www.qids.org.my/ and the Halal Journal at http://www.halaljournal.com/.

A more eloquent treatment of Islamic Education (than this blog entry) can be found in The Real Purpose of Education by Khalid Baig.