Bilal Philips – My Writings Islamic Studies Book Series
AI: Summary ©
of Education in Islamic language, where they had to simplify and simplify materials to make it
the foundation for their writing journey. They had to write
the first books of their series, which had a different
AI: Transcript ©
Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh People have often asked me,
How did I choose the various topics? And how did I go about writing was this something which I was born with?
I had a talent for maybe as a child, my parents saw that I was always writing and the
fact of the matter is that really I had no inclination towards writing. Though my father was a, an English teacher.
They specialize in English and languages, Latin and Spanish, etc. And my mom was a mathematician,
teacher also, I did have an inclination towards teaching more so than an inclination towards writing. So where did this writing come from?
Well, historically,
I did. Keep notes,
the books that I read,
when I first accepted Islam back in 1972, Toronto,
every book that I read, I used to write a summary and quote from that book, the main points, so I was in the habit of writing, but not creative writing.
So I was keeping a record. However,
after graduating from Medina University, back in 1980, and I
moved to Riyadh
to take on the job of
Islamic Studies teacher
in
a branch of the
school system known as Manna rot, there was Menara, to Judah, Murat, Makkah, on earth, Riyadh, my parents had
preceded me to Riyadh,
setting up the manarat or rehab schools. Now this is the English branch, the Arabic was already in place. But they were asked to set up the male and female English branches of the school and have the law they had,
you know, a lot of experience in education, they set up the two branches. The Islamic Studies teacher, who they employed,
had come from Canada, they brought them in from Canada,
is Pakistani origin. But within six months of his arrival, teaching in the school,
he went back to Canada. He couldn't deal with the children
and their behavior,
because they were not the typical submissive,
calm,
respectful
children from the subcontinent, though some of them were from the subcontinent.
Others were of Arab background, etc, who are in the school and they're mainly the sons
and daughters from the girls side of
ambassadors, and
people have
high positions in companies, etc, etc. So most of them grew up in the West. They grew up in the US, Canada, UK,
some from Europe, so they had grown up with the Western free student ways. And, you know, they were, if they were bored with the teacher, they let the teacher know and the teacher who preceded me, he suffered.
He couldn't handle them.
They drove him crazy. Finally, he quit went back. So my parents asked me to step in
I had started my master's in King Saud University and rehab in the College of Education,
specifically in the department of Islamic Studies.
And in acleda, as a specialization, so what happened was that
I now had to
teach Islamic Studies.
Initially, I was teaching students from
the high school and junior high, and I was even asked to teach those in the primary school. To some degree, also, the primary school was, of course, a big, big challenge, because that requires a whole nother set of educational training, early childhood education, etc. Whereas those from junior high in high school, they were already bigger, they, you know, you could communicate with them much more easily. I quickly won them over because, of course, they liked people who were sports men
would like sport and
and, you know, I was a black belt holder, and
karate, taekwondo, this area's and
Judo that impressed them, you know, and, of course, I would put on the gloves, boxing gloves and box with them, some of them much bigger than me, etc, etc. But my father who had been a Golden Gloves, boxing champion for the West Indies, you know, back in the day, he had taught me
a number of techniques in boxing. So bottom line is that I could play with the kids. This is the boys, obviously,
that brought me close to them.
At the same time, okay, that's managing the classroom. So I got their attention, they respected me. But now I had to teach them.
And when I looked around for Islamic Studies, books,
they were not. Today we have molvi Abdulazeez is Islamic Studies series, grades one to 12.
And we have other versions that have been done.
They're available back then they were none. The challenge before me now was to put something together.
And from my own study background, I had to put some ideas together, you know, try to take the material which I had studied in on a university level, simplify it, bring it down to a junior high high school level that the students could
handle. So this was a challenge.
And this is what
forced me to begin to write. And, as a result of it, I prepared materials, it was a learning process.
I would have my parents go over the material, checking it for suitability, and improving. With each year that I taught there, the material I taught in that school in Riyadh for about eight or nine years, and from those
rough writings, putting it together, organizing, etc, etc. I put together the material, which ultimately became the foundation for my Islamic Studies, book series, book 123. And four, this series actually included two more levels. They should have been a five and six. I didn't have the time.
I got involved in a number of other activities, publishing, running a publishing company and this type of things. So the point is that I stopped it for I started with book one, did two, three and four. And so this was among the first books
that I published Islamic studies it didn't look like this. It had a different cover.
But
this was the first
writings that I began with. And as you can see from it, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention.
There was a need and necessity and
Alhamdulillah I was able to put something together with the help of my parents
were which was of benefit to the students. That was the beginnings or the story of the beginning of my Islamic Studies Series books 123 And four, written during the 80s published
one after the other in the 90s
and used
in many schools around the world today.
BarakAllahu li comb, said I want to go come to lie over cat