Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 133
133 to obtain Western - style education. In the same way, it was stressed that permission be given to establish a women’ s college [in Qadian] , but I was always opposed to this. However today, I myself, am inaugurating the women’s college. This is a third kind of phenomena; n either did I change with the time s , nor did the time s change me. Instead, God Almighty brought about such a welcome change in the time s that we can now establish education in college according to the Islam ic tradition. Meaning, forge t the details of what the education will be in the future , b ut what a wonderful feeling it is that since Pakistan has come into being, Islam iyyat (study of Islam and history of Isla m ) is now available as a course of study at the university level. There will be particular focus on Islam ic history. Hence, we have not changed with the time s , and nor has the time s changed with us. For according to our point of view, we still do not have the emphasis on I slam ic education we believed to be necessary. Therefore, according to these changing circumstances, even though we can very easily offer religious studies in college, I have decided to eliminate religious education classes because the girls will have advanced religious education in this college. In this way they can acquire the highest standard of knowle dge in religious education along with their regular college education. Their outlook on Islam will be expanded. Th e Christian government which used to inte rfere i n [matters of] education no longer exists. For this reason , I decided we should now establish a college to give our girls an excellent education so they can be at par with the highly educated women in Pakistan, and act as their equal. What should actually happen is that following this education, your mental and em otional states and your intellect should be far superior to others. W henever you are with them, they should realize that your knowledge is of one k ind and theirs is of another. Your knowledge is heavenly and theirs is earthly a nd if you strive to comprehend the Holy Qur’an and make a habit of contemplating [its depths], it is not such a difficult matter. You passed the entrance exam. I however failed at this level. The fact is that I did not even pass middle school because I also failed there. Actually, according to the law, my education should have been terminated at the elementary level, since as far as I recall , I did not even pass the