Muslim Views . February 2017
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Duty of the educator in enhancing the capacity of the learner Part 1: The road forward (the first of a two-part series on education) SHAIKH SA’DULLAH KHAN
‘PROPHETS leave behind the legacy of knowledge,’ said the Prophet (SAW). In Islam, teachers are therefore considered as potentially those who perpetuate the profession of prophets. This implies that the teacher combines the responsibility of what is termed as: mudarris: one who schools others through appropriate and effective instructions muallim: transmitter of knowledge (not mere conveyor of information). It is factual information for positive transformation and progress. muaddib: inculcating etiquette, manners, discipline and morals. murabbi: facilitator of holistic development; promoting the deeply cherished values of sincerity, honesty, integrity, sense of responsibility and concern for the rights and welfare of others. Such a comprehensive task could be understood as a mission for cultivating the intellectual, moral, emotional, physical, psychological, empathic, social and spiritual dimensions of the learner.
Educator as murabbi The notion of murabbi is interesting; like the Almighty is the Rabb/ Divine Facilitator at the macro level, the teacher is murabbi, doing tarbiyah, cultivating, developing, enhancing the student at a micro level; empowering learners to develop practical dispositions and positive habits. The divine murabbi teaches
It should be realised that to teach people enough to school them, we must meet their deep human need to be acknowledged and feel cared about. In this way, teachers would be able to unearth the jewels within their classrooms.
People are treasures
Shaikh Sa’dullah Khan is CEO of Islamia College, in Cape Town. Photo SUPPLIED
with compassion. Ar-Rahman/ The Most Merciful teaches the Quran (Quran 55:1) so it is essential that there be an empathic, compassionate source from which that teaching needs to emanate. In other words, teaching with compassion and love. The key factor that makes students like school, study hard, achieve and stay on course is the
‘C’ word, which does not stand for ‘curriculum’ but for ‘caring’; caring deeply about each student and about the student’s needs, anxieties, accomplishments and growth. It begins with the teacher recognising the student as an individual who brings particular experiences, interests, enthusiasms and fears to the classroom.
The Prophet said, ‘Human beings are (ma’adin) mines of treasure.’ (Bukhari & Muslim) Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi reiterated this when he elaborated in his Mathnawi: ‘The body is a (ma’dan) mine of endurance, the heart is a mine of gratitude. The bosom is a mine of joy and the liver is a mine of compassion.’ Teachers need to ask themselves: are we unearthing these jewels within the students, extricating them from the sand, taking the rough, raw material and nurturing them appropriately to become the best they could be – valuable polished gems; or are we leaving them buried under the rubble, sometimes adding more dirt and thus curtailing their potential to enhance?
Teachers eager to learn Any educator must be open to learn, especially ways other than what he is accustomed to. The present is a world of cyberspace, outer space, genome maps, globalisation, smart cards, smart bombs, supersonic jets, nuclear power, stem cells and cell phones. There is no denying it: we live in a new age where the science fiction of the 1970s has become the scientific fact of 2017.
We should realise that youth live in the same world as we but with different challenges; thus, in the words of Sayyidina Ali: ‘Train your young ones with a training different from your training for they have been created for a period different from yours.’ One of the major lessons we learn from the somewhat detailed story of Prophet Musa and Khidr, in Surah al-Kahf (chapter 18), is that though Musa (AS) was a prophet among the ulil azm – the five major prophets, which include Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa and Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all) – he was kalimullah (one whom Allah addressed directly). But, despite all that, when he heard that a wise man, Khidr, had some knowledge that he did not possess, he immediately went to seek that knowledge, and he was taught significant lessons in a manner that he was never accustomed to.
Learn in order to teach Sometimes, we are so obstinate in our insistence on thinking the way we thought, teaching the way we were taught, that our ossified mode of thinking and teaching may itself be an obstacle to learners learning and progressing. A teacher who is close-minded cannot open the minds of others to learn. A teacher who is not open to learning is not worthy of teaching. In part two, Shaikh Sa’dullah asks: ‘Are we still teaching the same way?’
Muslim Views