Lulua
29-04-2002, 04:51
Muslim schools: who’s responsibility?By Muhammad Alshareef
What do you give to your son on his wedding night as a gift? A Mitsubishi
lancer or 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
dilemna. He thought and thought, and decided upon a gift that would not only
benefit his son, but all the Muslims. He lighted his candle, dipped his blessed
pen, 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.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Many times we hear about the respect due to the 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 further back than 9 months
before their creation – 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.
Ibn Al-Qayyim has a chapter in the book he wrote for his son: Chapter 25 –
Regarding the obligation of teaching the children, disciplining them, and being
just between them.
One of their rights which we would like to speak about today is the right of our
children to an Islamic education. Allah ta’ala commands us:
[O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel
is people and stones …] Surah At-Tahreem 66/6
We are commanded by Allah ta’ala 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 Luqmaan 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.] Surah Luqmaan 31/15
Notice how Allah ta’ala mentions the Shirk that the child is being called to as
something which ‘he has no knowledge of’. Meaning, no knowledge of it’s
divinity, for there can be no knowledge about something which is non-existent
and untrue.
And yet in another situation, Allah ta’ala 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.] Surah Hud 11/42,43
It has been said that about 90% of everything a child learnn, he learns it
within the 1st 5 years of his or her life. It 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 that see day after day. Subhan Allah, it is
a survival skill that Allah ta’ala 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 and how you used to act with the teacher. Did you try to please
him or her at 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 (smile). 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 that
time, I was in kindergarten.
The horror story now happens when the child is put in the lap of a non-Muslim,
in the lap of someone who does not knows nothing about the our obligation to
Allah and His Messenger, someone who are Muslim children are so eager to please.
There once was a little girl in a public school in a Muslim country who’s
teacher was not practicing Islam. The little girl, following the blessed
example of her mother, would go to school with her Hijaab on. The Hijaab,
however, was something displeasing to her teacher, subhan Allah, so she told the
girl to take it off and not dare come back to school with it on tomorrow or she
would suffer the consequences.
Home this girl went and told her mother of how the teacher did not want her to
wear Hijaab in school and how she did not want to displease her teacher. Her
mother calmly said, “Who do you want to please then, your teacher or Allah?”
The little girl looked in the eye and said, “Allah!”
The next day, the little girl returned with her Hijaab 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 am I 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, and let happen happen.”
That day the teacher sent a letter home to the little girls 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.”
These television sets and the public schools are spreading a subtle devastating
poison through the bloodstream of our youth. If you don’t believe me, 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 the public
school for his son, in the final year when you look over the school yearbook and
see a picture of your son standing hand in hand dancing with a Kafir woman, at
that time it will be too late to question your upbringing. Now is the time to
question it, now, before it’s too late.
Al-Hasan ibn Alee – Radi Allaahu ‘anhu – used to say, “Educate yourselves today,
for today you are the youth of the community but tomorrow you shall be the
seniors.”
Alhamdulillah, I have met many exceptionally smart adults in my travels for
Hajj. When I sit with these brothers and marvel at their intellect, I wonder to
myself ‘What could this person had done for Islam and the Muslim community had
his parents educated about the Deen?’ Dear brothers and sisters, we have a
student here in grade 3 who knows almost 7 Juz’ of Qur’an. He is 8 years old!
I don’t think I would be wrong if I claimed that he knew more Qur’an than 95% of
the adults in this Khutbah. He is 8 years old. I have seen students just as
smart as him thrown to public school – their intelligence squandered on Inca 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.”Kitaab al-Ayaal by Ibn Abee Ad-Dunya
As 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 of 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 more 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 do a science experiment, an instrument that they might use is a
thermostat. This is a device that reflects that heat coming from an object or
area.
But have you ever thought about how spoiled we are at home? There is 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 then thermostats. When there is heat coming from Bosnia it
registers a reaction in our Salah, our duas, and our checkbooks. And when there
is heat in Chechnya it registers a reaction in our Salah, our duas, and our
checkbooks. But this is the action of a thermostat. What we must become is
thermometers, 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 Philisteen and pulling
their hair because they cannot seemingly do anything. Dear brothers and sisters,
don’t let the things you cannot do stop you from doing what you can do.
By Allah, the long term goal is in these 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.]
But never think that the work you do for the betterment of our children’s
Islamic education goes in vain. The Christians have 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’ala 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.] Surah 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 one’s trust lies success and a 401k plan in paradise.
Allah ta’ala says:
[Certainly successful are the believers … they who to their trusts and their
promises 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? Look to the brother on your left. Now look to the brother on
your right. Now look at me … then look at yourself. We are all responsible –
every one of us. This school 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
Al-Huda school. We spoke about the upcoming fundraiser on April 27 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, cause brother your just as
responsible for these Islamic schools as I am.”
What do you give to your son on his wedding night as a gift? A Mitsubishi
lancer or 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
dilemna. He thought and thought, and decided upon a gift that would not only
benefit his son, but all the Muslims. He lighted his candle, dipped his blessed
pen, 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.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Many times we hear about the respect due to the 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 further back than 9 months
before their creation – 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.
Ibn Al-Qayyim has a chapter in the book he wrote for his son: Chapter 25 –
Regarding the obligation of teaching the children, disciplining them, and being
just between them.
One of their rights which we would like to speak about today is the right of our
children to an Islamic education. Allah ta’ala commands us:
[O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel
is people and stones …] Surah At-Tahreem 66/6
We are commanded by Allah ta’ala 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 Luqmaan 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.] Surah Luqmaan 31/15
Notice how Allah ta’ala mentions the Shirk that the child is being called to as
something which ‘he has no knowledge of’. Meaning, no knowledge of it’s
divinity, for there can be no knowledge about something which is non-existent
and untrue.
And yet in another situation, Allah ta’ala 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.] Surah Hud 11/42,43
It has been said that about 90% of everything a child learnn, he learns it
within the 1st 5 years of his or her life. It 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 that see day after day. Subhan Allah, it is
a survival skill that Allah ta’ala 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 and how you used to act with the teacher. Did you try to please
him or her at 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 (smile). 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 that
time, I was in kindergarten.
The horror story now happens when the child is put in the lap of a non-Muslim,
in the lap of someone who does not knows nothing about the our obligation to
Allah and His Messenger, someone who are Muslim children are so eager to please.
There once was a little girl in a public school in a Muslim country who’s
teacher was not practicing Islam. The little girl, following the blessed
example of her mother, would go to school with her Hijaab on. The Hijaab,
however, was something displeasing to her teacher, subhan Allah, so she told the
girl to take it off and not dare come back to school with it on tomorrow or she
would suffer the consequences.
Home this girl went and told her mother of how the teacher did not want her to
wear Hijaab in school and how she did not want to displease her teacher. Her
mother calmly said, “Who do you want to please then, your teacher or Allah?”
The little girl looked in the eye and said, “Allah!”
The next day, the little girl returned with her Hijaab 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 am I 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, and let happen happen.”
That day the teacher sent a letter home to the little girls 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.”
These television sets and the public schools are spreading a subtle devastating
poison through the bloodstream of our youth. If you don’t believe me, 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 the public
school for his son, in the final year when you look over the school yearbook and
see a picture of your son standing hand in hand dancing with a Kafir woman, at
that time it will be too late to question your upbringing. Now is the time to
question it, now, before it’s too late.
Al-Hasan ibn Alee – Radi Allaahu ‘anhu – used to say, “Educate yourselves today,
for today you are the youth of the community but tomorrow you shall be the
seniors.”
Alhamdulillah, I have met many exceptionally smart adults in my travels for
Hajj. When I sit with these brothers and marvel at their intellect, I wonder to
myself ‘What could this person had done for Islam and the Muslim community had
his parents educated about the Deen?’ Dear brothers and sisters, we have a
student here in grade 3 who knows almost 7 Juz’ of Qur’an. He is 8 years old!
I don’t think I would be wrong if I claimed that he knew more Qur’an than 95% of
the adults in this Khutbah. He is 8 years old. I have seen students just as
smart as him thrown to public school – their intelligence squandered on Inca 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.”Kitaab al-Ayaal by Ibn Abee Ad-Dunya
As 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 of 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 more 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 do a science experiment, an instrument that they might use is a
thermostat. This is a device that reflects that heat coming from an object or
area.
But have you ever thought about how spoiled we are at home? There is 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 then thermostats. When there is heat coming from Bosnia it
registers a reaction in our Salah, our duas, and our checkbooks. And when there
is heat in Chechnya it registers a reaction in our Salah, our duas, and our
checkbooks. But this is the action of a thermostat. What we must become is
thermometers, 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 Philisteen and pulling
their hair because they cannot seemingly do anything. Dear brothers and sisters,
don’t let the things you cannot do stop you from doing what you can do.
By Allah, the long term goal is in these 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.]
But never think that the work you do for the betterment of our children’s
Islamic education goes in vain. The Christians have 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’ala 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.] Surah 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 one’s trust lies success and a 401k plan in paradise.
Allah ta’ala says:
[Certainly successful are the believers … they who to their trusts and their
promises 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? Look to the brother on your left. Now look to the brother on
your right. Now look at me … then look at yourself. We are all responsible –
every one of us. This school 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
Al-Huda school. We spoke about the upcoming fundraiser on April 27 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, cause brother your just as
responsible for these Islamic schools as I am.”