Mirza Yawar Baig – How do you teach Islam practically
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and learning in personal development is emphasized, along with the need for monitoring and correction in a structured and compassionate way. The speaker also discusses the challenges of teaching Islam and the importance of partnering with parents in raising children. The speaker emphasizes the need for differentiation in teaching, taking risks, and learning within a safe way.AI: Transcript ©
My brothers and sisters,
sometime a couple of days ago I said
that Islam
was not sent to be taught academically
but sent to be taught practically.
And that is
the whole secret of the power of Islam
as Rasoolullah
taught it
and what has happened to it since then
when we have been now trying to teach
Islam
in a way that has literally,
which is exactly the same as we teach
any other subject in our schools,
which is academically.
And then we test,
the students'
memories, really, because
we are not testing knowledge. We are not
testing their understanding.
We are not,
you know, by by any means testing,
their application
of,
the religion whether
they can apply it in their lives or
not.
We're just testing how much of what we
fed them the data
information. How much of that do they return
reach retain
and how much of that can they
regurgitate on the day of the exam,
Which is completely completely useless.
Having said that,
is it necessary to assess
the effectiveness of teaching
and
the depth of learning
and the ability to use the knowledge that
was imparted?
Of course,
To know
that is critical,
both for our own
ongoing,
ongoing,
you know, modification
necessary of,
our teaching methods.
And to ensure that at the end of
the day,
having spent all the time and energy and
effort teaching something that,
it results in something beneficial
because people can actually apply it.
Now this is where we fall apart.
The reason for that is that this is
a very
time consuming
and a very,
1 on 1,
physically demanding task in that sense.
And that is why
this whole this terminology
when we say
it takes a whole village
to raise a child,
you know, we like to bandy about these
these statements.
Question, I mean, I asked myself, do we
really understand
half the stuff we talk about? And my
guess is we don't. So when we say,
raise the needs the whole village, did we
ask ourselves why do you need the whole
village?
Right? Because we have a education system
where not only do we not have a
whole village for 1 child,
we have the entire village being taught by
1 person because this is our schooling system.
Our schooling system is that each class
has 15,
20, 30, 40,
in in India, at least I know 50,
60 students.
And, 1 single teacher.
So now on the other hand, you're saying
that,
you know, you need a whole village to
teach 1 child.
The reason is
the difference of that. When you have a
whole village teaching 1 child, you create a
certain
level and quality of,
product. And when you and when you have,
30, 40, 50, 60 children in 1 class
with 1 teacher, you create a different
quality of product.
The
reason you need
so many people
is because at the end of the day,
when you are looking at
the
the issue of inculcating
values.
The way you measure that whether the values
whether these values have been inculcated or not,
is by
is by physically
seeing,
monitoring action?
How do I know if values have been
imbibed?
By seeing what,
people do, what the child,
the the student
is doing,
on a
day to day basis. So if, for example,
if I'm teaching the value of,
if I'm teaching the value of honesty and
integrity,
then I have to
say,
I have to see whether
the
value that I taught, which is honesty and
integrity,
Whether the child is actually practicing honesty or
not. Now there is no way of doing
that
apart from monitoring that child
247.
There's no way that any individual
teacher
is going to be able to do that.
You're even for 1 child.
So what do you need? You need multiple
teachers
who are,
monitoring that child. I mean, you're not looking
at some kind of police state where you
have, you know, people
watching you all the time, but you're looking
at
a situation where in the most natural way,
in the most kind way,
in the most compassionate way,
The
child is being
within course monitored
and course corrected
as the case might be. Now this
forget about
the ancient past even when I was growing
up. I grew up in a joint family,
and,
you know, we lived
in a vast house
with aunts and uncles and so on. And
it nobody had to spell out these rules.
The basic rule was that any adult
had the right to and did that in
a very nice way.
Correct me if I was doing anything
wrong. Could be anybody.
Aunts, uncles,
grandparents,
you know, grandparents,
brothers and sisters. So they were grandparents, but
like cousin, grandparents.
And including
because we had a whole
bunch of in house servant to live in
the house.
Those servants. So these were these were not
related to us. These were actually servants, but
they were treated with respect. We had to
treat them with respect. You didn't call them
by name, for example.
You know, you you call them by by,
you call them uncle
or auntie or something.
And, if you did something wrong
in and 1 of those servants saw that,
they would correct you. Now this included I
mean, never have a clue, but included, for
example,
this included
a a person, an adult, including a servant,
slapping you on the wrist, for example,
or or giving you a whack on your
behind if you were completely out of line.
Obviously, nobody brutalized
any of us. Nobody was beating them, beating
up, beating us up and so on. But
there was corporal punishment
in that way
not causing injury, but definitely,
you know,
an adult had the right to,
to correct you,
both by word or by action.
And,
this was
and if the parents came to know that
this happened,
they would be thankful that they would express
their thanks to the adult who corrected. And
so thank you very much for looking out
for my son for my son or daughter.
The second thing was that if you wanted
to complete as a child, if if, say,
an uncle of mine corrected me on something,
and this correction
comprised of,
you know, whack on my behind. And if
I went and complained to my father, I
would get a second whack on my behalf
for complaining. Right? I get 2 whacks. 1
for complaining and 1 for to reinforce,
the whack that bank will give me. So
the point here was that
this supervision, 1 on 1 attention to each
child
was possible because there were a whole lot
of adults
involved
in the care of 1 child.
All family members
related, even unrelated servant and so on We're
we're concerned about this 1 person, 1 child,
and they were
interested in that person's welfare. And this happened
in a very normal,
matter of fact way. It wasn't in a
class and so on,
but it happened. You know, the the example
of this I always think about is the
way elephants
bring up their young. An elephant calf is
an extremely valuable member
of the of the herd because it has
a the elephants have a huge gestation period,
very long gestation period. And then the the
delivery of the calf is is very difficult.
So, therefore,
the calf is hugely hugely
valuable. The the elephants elephant will not just
let a calf go. So the whole heart
takes care of the calf. The calf is
in the center of the herd. The calf
has a ball.
The nicest childhood in the world is a
childhood of an elephant calf. He is completely
secure.
He's taken care of by his mother and
by what in in the in the our
language we call aunts. So these are
they're all related because the whole herd is
related, but they are close closer
and, more distant
relative. They would be could be older siblings,
could be siblings from a different,
brood,
different generation.
Also would be the,
the the literally the aunts,
the sisters,
of the mother
and,
including sometimes the hard bulls. They would all
look after that 1 calf. Now, again, they
will look after the calf if you did
some if you did we're taking any risk.
They would, you know, look out for him.
They would allow him also to take certain
risks.
They will not completely protect him because they
want him to learn. So they let him
do something, but
they let him do that
within the purview of safety
they did not let the car they would
not let the
car take risk which might put its own
life in peril. But, within those boundaries, they
they lend the car,
do what it wants, have fun,
and learn, make mistakes.
You know, sometimes they get a little bit
hurt. Doesn't matter what. They still let them
do that. Now this is what this is
how they were brought up. And that is
the reason why it,
why these lessons were learned, and they were
learned in,
such a wonderful,
practical way,
which remained,
lifelong. Right? Nobody needed to teach that lesson
a second time.
The lesson was learned very well. Now the
challenge for us today
in,
in teaching Islam
and now again before I come to that,
the Rasool Allah Salam also taught in this
way. Right? Children,
individuals,
the the Sahaba who they taught, who he
taught were
individually
important to him. He spent time on each
1 of them personally,
and
other senior Sahaba
spend time on them,
on the junior ones. So each Sahabi had
multiple teachers. And, again, all done in a
matter of fact way
while doing their going through their daily jobs
and work and,
you know, social life and so forth.
All of these things. Corrections were done.
Reinforcement was done. Praise was given.
They were they were applauded,
and they were corrected. So this happened. Now
the big challenge for us is that since
we have created a,
schooling system
that is
come that's the same. There's no differentiation between
how we teach
Islam and how we teach anything else. We
teach all of those things in the same
way,
which is a which is in a classroom,
which is with 1 teacher, maybe 2 teachers,
and,
multiple students,
15, 20, 30.
Even if you don't go all the way
to 50 60 like they do in India,
but, you know, you still 50. Even 15
children, for example. 15 children, 2 teachers. You
might say, well, you know, this is, this
is fantastic. Yes. It is compared to the
app the the others the other,
way, which is 50, 60, but still,
it's not the same as in 1 student,
with 2, 3 teachers. Now, obviously, that is
in in practice not possible,
because here you're talking about people who are
paid to do what they do and what
our
what we got in our families.
All the people who,
took the trouble to train us and to
spend time on us,
were, people,
you know, who are not paid for that.
Right? These are people who
these are people who are,
who who did that out of love. Right?
So,
and and they did that. They, I mean,
they they they did what what we wanted
them to
do, and they did it out of affection,
without being paid. But we have the situation.
So I think the the thing is to
see how we can
partner with parents.
That is the the key thing. Partner with
parents in such a way that at least
the things that you're trying to achieve in
the school get reinforced
back home,
with proper parenting.
Draw parents into the school also for example.
Get the parents to say when you are
free. Just come come to the school and
and sit in the class and, and be
co teachers.
And now, you know, they might say, well,
no. You're paying the you're not paying me.
Sure. The the the child belongs to you.
Your child is not the teacher's child. The
teacher will get paid. You will not get
paid. This is your contribution,
to,
to your own child and to,
the others children or others, which is, you
know, this is all part of the same
game. We said, did did the whole village
to raise 1 child? Obviously, the child is
not related to everyone in the village, But
the whole village is participating in raising that
child because there is a,
there there is a there is a joint
stick
for everyone
in the raising of their child.
Everyone is involved. So we say, well, you
know, I will I may not be my
child, but I'm raising another
individual who is,
who is equally important
for me and for all of us. So
I think this is very important for us
to keep in mind and say, how can
we get
parents involved,
in the raising of our children?
And
so that, you know, we at least,
to some extent we measure.
We we we mirror,
the goodness of
Tarbia.
The that the Sahaba got. That's why the
whole issue of Tarbia, the Suraba,
the of,
of elders,
the importance of the importance
of physical company of teachers,
you know, there's we we have lost so
much that it's
a struggle to even recall what we lost.
But anyway, as long as we keep working
on it, there's
always hope.
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