Nobody can deny the significance of education in Islam. Like any other religion, Islam also considers the acquisition of education to be a compulsory obligation. There are hundreds of verses in the holy Quran and thousands of sayings in the books of hadith mentioning the significance of education in Islam. The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) declared the acquisition of education to be compulsory for every Muslim man and woman. You can imagine the significance of education through an incident of war when the prophet (peace be upon him) imposed and condition on every prisoner that if he wanted to end the imprisonment, he had to teach Muslims. This shows the significance and value of education in Islam.
The prophet (peace be upon him) told numerous rewards and benefits for a scholar and student. The Almighty says in the Holy Quran that a literate and illiterate can never acquire an equal status. In Islam a scholar posses a unique position. Here it is worthwhile to mention that Islam does not discriminate man or woman in the acquisition of education. Islam promises the same rewards for both the man and woman. You can imagine the value of education for woman by considering the example of Ayesha (R.A), the wife of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), she was one of the biggest scholars of Islam.
Hadrat Ayesha (R.A) was also the second biggest narrator of Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be upon Him) sayings. She narrated thousands of sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). She also used to answer and give solutions for various problems, after the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him) many companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to seek knowledge from Hadrat Ayesha (R.A), the mother of all the Muslims.
If talk about the posy-era of Kher-ul-quroon (the initial 300 years of Islam), the Muslim world produced thousands of scientists, mathematicians, geologists, and medical experts such as Jabir bin Hayan, Boo Ali Sina, Alkeme and others. When the entire western world was in the dark ages, the Muslims were at the peak of education, innovation and inventions. Iraq, Egypt and Spain were the major centres of education in the Muslim World. People from all over the world including western countries used to come Iraq and Spain to get admission in the Universities of Qartaba and Al-Azhar. This show how Muslims acted upon the teaching of Islam pertaining to education in the past.
If we talk about the current age, unfortunately, The Muslims are not showing as much attention towards education, most of the Islamic countries spend only a nominal percentage of their GDP on education and consequently, the entire Muslims world is suffering the field of education. Muslims are far behind the western world in the field of education, the only reason is that we have left and ignored the teachings of Islam pertaining to Education. Therefore, if muslins want to gain the past glory again, they have to pay adequate attention towards education.