Islamic Schools: Who's Responsible?
16-03-2009
What do you give to your son on his wedding night as a gift? A Mitsubishi
Lancer, a Honda Accord, or do you give him the ever useful toaster?
When Ibn Al-Qayyim’s son was getting married, he found himself in this gift
dilemma. He thought and thought and decided upon a gift that would not only
benefit his son, but all the Muslims. He lit a candle, dipped his pen in the
ink, and began writing. The gift, you ask? A book dedicated to his son and
daughter-in-law about marriage and the rights of children. He named the book,
Tuhfatul Wadood, bi Ahkaam al-Mowlood. The value of the gift? Priceless.
Many times we hear about the respect due to parents – because it is often the
parents who are speaking. Yet, how often do we hear about the rights of
children? Indeed, they have many rights that go farther back than 9 months
before their creation. For example, they have the God given right that their
future mother or father choose a spouse that will teach them about Allah and be
an excellent example for them In his book, in Chapter 25, Ibn Al-Qayyim
discusses the obligation of teaching the children, disciplining them, and being
just between them. Additionally, one of the rights of children is the right to
an Islamic education.
Allah ta’aala commands us:
O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel
is people and stones …(At-Tahreem 66/6)
We are commanded by Allah ta’aala to save ourselves from Hellfire. But it does
not end there. The commandment extends to our family; we must save them also.
Using all our resources we must save them from Hellfire, and the biggest weapon
we have to protect them is knowledge of what Allah and His Messenger require
from them. For verily, a human is enemy to that which he does not understand.
In another verse, we see the example of Luqman with his son:
But if they endeavor to make you worship others with Me – that of which you have
no knowledge, then do not obey, yet accompany them in (this) world with
appropriate kindness (Luqmaan 31/15).
Notice how Allah ta’aala mentions the shirk that the child is being called to as
something which he has no knowledge of. Meaning, no knowledge of its divinity,
for there can be no knowledge about something which is non-existent and untrue.
And yet in another situation, Allah ta’aala describes the exchange between Nuh
and his son:
…And Nuh called to his son who was apart (from them), "O my son, come aboard
with us and be not with the disbelievers." / (But) He said, "I shall take refuge
on a mountain to protect me from the water." (Nuh) said, "There is no protector
today from the decree of Allah except for whom He gives mercy." And the waves
came between them, and he was among the drowned (Hud 11/42-43).
It has been said that about 90% of everything a child learns, he learns it
within the first 5 years of his or her life. If that is not enough cause for
concern, the children at that fragile age are ever so keen to please the adults
in their lives, especially the ones they see day after day. Subhan Allah, it is
a survival skill that Allah ta’aala created in humans. For had they not had this
desire to please the 'teacher', they most likely would not develop
intellectually.
If you went to public school, imagine back to your public school kindergarten
class or grade 1 class and how you used to act with the teacher. Did you try to
please him or her every chance you got? Would you do things just to win her
pleasure? I know for me, when our school play for the Christmas Concert was
coming up, the teacher chose me to play one of the lead roles because of how
good an actor I was. Mind you, I disliked the part and when a boy offered me a
handful of corn puffs to switch parts with me, I readily accepted. I took him to
Mrs. Mitchell and proudly announced that Jason would be taking my part. She was
disappointed and said how much she wanted me to do the part. I could not bear to
see her disappointment, so I continued with the part. At the time, I was in
kindergarten.
The horror story begins when the child is entrusted to a non-Muslim – to someone
who knows nothing about our obligation to Allah and His Messenger sal Allaahu
alayhi wa sallam, someone who our Muslim children are so eager to please.
There once was a little girl in a public school in a Muslim country whose
teacher was not practicing Islam. The little girl, following the blessed example
of her mother, would go to school with her hijab on. The hijab, however, was
something displeasing to her teacher, so she told the girl to take it off and
not dare come back to school with it on the next day or she would suffer the
consequences.
Home this girl went and told her mother of how the teacher did not want her to
wear hijab in school and how she did not want to upset her teacher. Her mother
calmly said, "Who do you want to please then, your teacher or Allah?" The little
girl looked her mother in the eye and said, "Allah!"
The next day, the little girl returned with her hijab on, defiant. When the
teacher saw her, she exploded in chastisement, "How dare you disobey me?"
The painful words kept coming and coming until the little girl lowered her head,
sobbing. Then she shouted back, "I don’t understand who I am supposed to please
– you or Him?" "Who’s Him?" asked the teacher.
"Allah!"
Her eyes widened and a chill ran through her. The teacher stopped talking. From
behind her tears, the little girl said, "No, I shall please Allah and Allah
alone." That day the teacher sent a letter home to the little girl’s mother with
the words, "Today your child taught me who I was and truly who is Allah. Thank
you for raising such a blessed daughter."
Television sets and public schools are spreading a subtle devastating poison
through the bloodstream of our youth. Take a random class of Muslim high school
students from public school and reflect on their habits and their knowledge of
Islam. If a parent has chosen public school for his son, in the final year when
he looks over the school yearbook and sees a picture of his son standing hand in
hand dancing with a kafir woman, at that time it will be too late to question
his upbringing. Now is the time to question it, now, before it’s too late.
Al-Hasan ibn Ali radi Allahu anhu used to say, "Educate yourselves today, for
today you are the youth of the community but tomorrow you shall be the seniors."
Alhamdulillah, there are many exceptionally smart adults out there. When you are
in their company, you cannot help marvelling at their intellect. However, a
question comes to mind: "What could this person have done for Islam and the
Muslim community if his parents had educated him about the deen?"
There is a child, in grade 3, who has memorized almost 7 juz of the Qur’an . He
is 8 years old. This child, more than likely, knows more Qur’an than most
adults. There are other children just as smart as him thrown to public school,
their intelligence squandered on the Incas and the pyramids, while they cannot
recite the very letters of their mother tongue.
Yahya ibn Humayd said, "We went to Imam Hammad ibn Salamah once and found him
sitting with children narrating hadith to them. When he completed and the
children left, we approached him and said, 'O Abu Salamah, we are the seniors of
your tribe. We have come to you to learn. Why do you leave us and turn instead
to these children?'" "He replied, 'I once saw in a dream that I was sitting on
the banks of a river, bending over with a bucket to get water to drink. After
drinking, I turned around and saw these children standing there, and so I gave
them the bucket of water after me'" (Ibn Abee Ad-Dunya, Kitaab al-Ayaal).
A poet once said:
Young trees, if you raise them firm, they will grow straight,
They will not slouch if kept firm with a stick.
Perhaps discipline for young ones brings benefit
But that same discipline will no longer bring results in a senior.
PART II
Sa’eed ibn Rahmah Al-Asbahee used to tell his students:
"I used to camp out in the masjid in the hopes of getting the best seat in the
halaqah of Abdullaah ibn Al-Mubaarak. I had friends my age, but none of them
would do as I did. When the time for the halaqah would arrive, Ibn Al-Mubaarak
would come and with him would be the seniors. They would complain to him, 'These
children have overcome us at the halaqah, there is no place near you for us.'
"Ibn al-Mubaarak would reply, 'These children are dearer to me than you. You –
how long shall you live? These children, however, perhaps Allah shall carry them
far.'"
Sa’eed would then say to his students, "Today there is no one alive from that
halaqah of Ibn al-Mubaarak except me."
When children work on a science experiment, an instrument that they might use is
a thermometer. This is a device that reflects the heat coming from an object or
area. At home we all have this thing called a thermostat. When we are too hot,
it cools us down. And if we get cold it warms us up. Not only does it reflect
the heat, it does something about it. When we look at the Muslim ummah, we will
see that many of our communities are nothing more than thermometers. When there
is heat coming from Bosnia, it registers a reaction in our salah, our du’aas,
and our checkbooks. And when there is heat in Chechnya, it registers a reaction
in our salah, our du’aas, and our checkbooks. This is the action of a
thermometer. What we must become is thermostats; cooling things down when they
get too hot and warming things up when they get too cool.
Today everyone is looking to our brothers and sisters in Palestine and pulling
their hair because they cannot seemingly do anything. We must not let the things
we cannot do stop us from doing what we can do.
By Allah, the long-term goal is the children. If we do not stand up to the
challenge of educating them in Islam and raising them as best we can, we – with
our own hands – are paralyzing the future of Islam in this country.
All of you are shepherds and all of you shall be questioned regarding your
flock.
Never think that the work you do for the betterment of our children’s Islamic
education goes in vain. There is an English word called sacrifice. Some Muslims
when translating the idea of sadaqah may incorrectly use this concept of
sacrifice. A more correct word is 'to deposit'. We are not spending these dimes
hoping for nothing in return. Nay, we are investing it for an enormous return;
we are depositing it in the Hereafter.
"What’s in it for me?" we always ask. Of the many blessings…
Firstly: Allah ta’aala will protect your children because of your piety.
The example given to us in the Qur’an is that of Khidr. When he built the wall
without any compensation, he told Musa why:
And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and there was
beneath it a treasure for them, and their father had been righteous. So your
Lord intended that they reach maturity and extract their treasure, as a mercy
from your Lord… (Al-Kahf 18/82)
Secondly: By educating and protecting the Muslim children, you would be
fulfilling the amaanah (trust) that Allah has placed upon you. And in the
fulfillment of ones trust lies success and a 401k plan in Paradise.
Allah ta’aala says:
Certainly successful are the believers …they who to their trusts and their
promises are attentive / And they who carefully maintain their payers – those
are the inheritors / Who will inherit al-Firdaus wherein they will abide
eternally.
In conclusion, I would like to pose the question, who is responsible for these
Islamic schools? We are all responsible – every one of us. This school and
everything in it is our ra'eyyah and we shall be questioned for it.
As I was speaking to a good brother recently, he asked me about the situation of
our Islamic school. We spoke about the upcoming fundraiser, and then he said to
me, "A’aanak Allah (May Allah help you)."
I said, "No. You said it wrong. It’s a'aanan Allah (may Allah help us), because
brother, you’re just as responsible for these Islamic schools as I am."
by Muhammad Alshareef