Unique Relationship Between Money and Religion

The opinion that says everything needs money is very common nowadays.  Perhaps the way of thinking that money is everything started to become viral for the citizens of the world since about 30 years ago.  We'll see how money seems to be able to solve everything.

Everything is Meaningless Without Money

To get a job, people are willing to bribe with a nominal amount that is quite a lot. Formal educational institutions are also racing to build their buildings so that their quality is recognized in the community.  They built a more complete and grander building.  As a consequence they attract a lot of tuition fees.  So what happened next was that many rich children's children went to these educational institutions because they were able to provide the costs.

In this context, it applies who wants to be smart, who wants to attend a well-known school must pay a lot of money.

Another example can be seen in various applications related to the Internet, for example those sold on the Play Store.  People who don't have money will use free apps which have limited features and lots of advertisements passing by.  Then if you want to get more complete facilities, customers must switch to the Pro or Premium features.  In this premium feature, customers have to pay a large amount of money but the facilities will be more complete.

This reality also hit the world of health services.  Hospitals provide rooms or treatment facilities with various classes.  There are class 1, class 2, VIP A, VIP B, and and Super VIP or VVIP.  It means as if a person's healing and life can be determined by the money they have.  If he wants to recover quickly and get maximum service, he must choose the Pavilion room which has premium facilities so that the drugs given are more effective and the medical officers are more total in treating patients.  Of course logically the patient will recover faster.  Meanwhile, poor people will be treated in makeshift wards with cheap medicine and mediocre services.

A company manager also needs a nice enough car to drive when he goes to work.  What for?  To make self-esteem and dignity more appreciated by subordinates or office colleagues.  So if there is a company manager who rides a dirty motorbike everyday, he is worried that the people in his office will not respect him so he doesn't have any authority.  So for the sake of the smooth running of his work, for the sake of his dignity and self-esteem he was forced to buy a new car even though it was in installments that suffocated his neck.

Studying Religion Should Be Cheap

From some of the examples above it may not matter because the things mentioned above are related to world affairs or maybe mostly related to business matters.  However, imagine if these principles were applied to the realm of religious education.

Let's just focus our conversation on the world of Islamic boarding schools.  What is happening today is that many Islamic boarding schools adhere to the notion that quality is directly proportional to the quantity of money.

In the past, it seems as if it could be said that the costs to be incurred by a student in Islamic boarding school were the same or equivalent.  But what is happening now is very unethical.  There are many Islamic boarding school that require very large financing scheme for their prospective students.

The boarding school is of course majestic and luxurious in its building.  The lodge also provides other facilities that pamper the students, for example, providing food for the students, providing laundry services and other facilities, the condition of which is a large amount of money.

What happened was the same as the phenomena above.  Only children from rich families are able to become santri in the hut.  Meanwhile the children of the poor who, although intelligent and perhaps very eager to learn religious knowledge, can only bite their fingers.

This phenomenon is of course unfortunate because this is very similar to selling religious knowledge.  Whereas the task for the pious or people who master the science of religion is to spread or convey the knowledge of religion to all circles.  It doesn't matter the poor or the rich.  It would be wonderful if all Islamic boarding schools were inhabited by students ranging from poor students to students who were children of conglomerates.

The services of the caregivers can be adjusted to the abilities of the parents of the students.  So those who can pay a little may have to cook themselves and wash their own clothes.  Meanwhile, those with excess money may be able to pay for the people who cook or wash the students' clothes.  However, these costs should not be included in one student candidate fee package.

In short, this paper can be concluded that it is unethical that the principle of money and quality is applied to the realm of religious education.  Because religious knowledge is a matter of sincerity and responsibility for the scholars.

Hopefully this simple review can open the eyes of the heart and not actually make angry and emotional

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