Madrasah Al-Maarif Al-Islamiah

Al-Maarif was established in 1936 by Syeikh Muhammad Fadhlullah Suhaimi, a strong and progressive advocate of education for girls.[3][4] Al-Maarif's reformist ideals were immediately apparent by its inclusion of non-religious subjects into its curricula.[3] Al-Maarif was also the first madrasah to accept female students as well as male.[4] Today, Al-Maarif is one of the only two madrasahs that offer madrasah education exclusively to girls. It was later noted that founder Fadhlullah Suhaimi's son Kamil himself exemplified his father's reformist ideals—by studying jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University and then law at Lincoln's Inn in London—before returning to contribute as a lawyer and religious leader.[5]

Associate Professor Khairudin and Dayang Hussin postulated that Al-Maarif represented a new breed of madrasahs imbibing aspects of Islamic reformist ideals and accordingly, represented the beginning of formal Muslim education. They wrote:[3]

The structure of this madrassah was generally characterized by its systematic organization, such as fixed curriculum period, division of educational levels into primary and secondary, as well as existence of facilities such as chairs and tables for students. As for the enhancement of intellectual tradition, the madrassah incorporated other ‘non-religious’ subjects, such as mathematics and science (and other subjects depending on respective madrassah) in addition to subjects on Islam.

In line with its reformist ideals, Al-Ma'arif was the first madrasah to prepare its students to sit for the GCE, the equivalent of today's GCE 'O' Level examinations, in the 1960s, and then the GCE 'A' Level examinations in the 1970s.[5][6] This shift, whilst revolutionary, was made in the belief that madrasah students must master both religious and secular subjects.[5]