Does Islam consider education a right for everyone, including girls?

Islam treats the pursuit of knowledge as a religious obligation extending to every believer, not a privilege reserved for a scholarly class or a particular gender. The very first Quranic revelation begins with the command 'Read' or 'Recite' (96:1), establishing engagement with knowledge as foundational to the faith from its first moment. The Prophet Muhammad stated plainly that 'seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim' (Sunan Ibn Majah 224), a phrase widely understood by scholars, including many classical jurists, to include both men and women, since the Arabic term used is inclusive of both. The Prophet's wife Aisha became one of the foremost scholars of early Islam, and women narrated and taught hadith throughout Islamic history, serving as recognized authorities studied by male and female students alike. While access to formal education for girls and women has varied enormously across different Muslim societies and eras due to social custom rather than scriptural mandate, the religious texts themselves do not restrict the obligation to seek knowledge by gender, and this has been the basis for reform movements advocating universal access to education in modern Muslim-majority societies.

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