Mirza Yawar Baig – What is real education
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The topic of my,
today is what is real education?
What is real education?
I remind myself I knew that the purpose
of education is to civilize the individual,
to connect the human being
to his creator
so that he recognizes him, has a relationship
with him, strives to please him,
relies on his mercy, and looks forward to
his forgiveness.
The purpose of education is to give the
child ethics, values, and morals,
which are timeless
and fundamental
and
give him the confidence to live his life
by those values.
Without this, it is not education.
To learn a skill, to make a living,
no matter what the skill is, is trainings,
not education.
They are different as chalk and cheese.
Flying a plane, driving a 16 wheeler, designing
software,
operating on somebody's heart or brain,
building a table,
fixing an air conditioner or a kitchen sink,
and countless more are all essential
skills.
We need all of them.
I'm not denigrating or discounting any of them,
but they're all training,
not education.
Education begins with ethics and morals and values.
That is the why
which drives the how in the world.
We must teach those who know
how
to ask why
so that technology and resources
are used for the right causes.
Today, we don't suffer from a lack of
wealth or a lack of technology or a
lack of resources.
We suffer from a lack of ethics and
values and morals
because of which that technology and that wealth
is used in the wrong places.
This is what Rasool did
in Makkah.
He changed people's thinking and decision making criteria.
When they changed their focus from this life
to the akhira,
their speech and actions changed
and society was transformed.
Formed. Just ask how our society would be
different
if we define
economic
well-being
not by the number of millionaires or billionaires,
but by the absence of poverty.
That is why GDP is such a misleading
number.
Instead, if we look at disposable household income
or buying power, we will have a far
more accurate picture of
the well-being,
the economic well-being of our society.
Rasool Allah gave us proof of concept,
ours
to implement it.
We need education
which is relevant,
current, and rooted in the foundation of Islam.
Both are important.
Relevant, current, and rooted in the foundation of
Islam.
Education in which
those being educated are fully involved in all
decision making
because it is their future,
which is at stake.
Education, which prepares them for a world about
which we really know nothing.
And so the only thing we can give
them are tools
and the framework
of ethical
and moral values to use them effectively.
We must be coaches
to who teach them how to play the
game. But when they when they are playing,
we can only watch from the sidelines.
And if we did a good job, then
we rejoice in seeing how well they learned
the lessons and apply them to be victorious.
To succeed, we need to educate ourselves and
learn how to be good coaches.
This is the re this is the generation
gap.
Thanks to which many parents have been reduced
to being ATM machines, which provide funds for
what their children want to do. They cannot
guide the children because they don't understand their
world. They have no communication with them, and
the children do not look up to them
as guides and mentors.
I am not talking about showing respect.
I am talking about actual respect
which will make the child come to the
parent
as first port of call. Anytime he has
a dilemma, anytime he has a problem,
the first port of call, the first person
the child will meet and talk to
is the father or the mother.
They don't just come to them for money.
Allah
defined for us the meaning of education
and showed us the way to do it.
In Surat Al Alagran, Allah
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,
which means, indeed in the creation of the
heavens and the earth and the alternation of
the day and the night, there are signs
for people of intelligence.
They are those who remember Allah
standing, sitting and lying on their sides and
reflect
on the creation
of the heavens and the earth,
and they say, our Ram, you did not
create all of this in vain.
Glory be to you. Protect us from the
torment of the fire.
Please note that this ayah,
in this ayah Allah
described the people of intelligence.
He said that they are those
who remember Allah
while standing, sitting and lying on their sides
and
reflect on the creation of the heavens and
the earth. Allah
used the preposition and,
wow,
in and not
or,
aw.
The same
ayat can be,
written as a sentence in Arabic,
replacing the wow with the oh. You can
say,
Then it will mean that the intelligent people
are those who do this or who do
that.
Right? There's no connection between the 2. Intelligent
person is one who remembers
Allah all the time, and also an intelligent
person is is somebody
who does not care about Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, does not know Allah, doesn't care, but
is a scientist, is a
research analyst. He's a,
you know, inventor. He's somebody who is reflecting
and researching on the creation of the heavens
and the earth. The same sentence can also
be written
changing the order.
For example,
including with the wow, the same sentence can
be written with the
second part first and the first part last,
which is
What? So
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would have said that
they are the people who reflect, who are
the scientists, who reflect on the
on the universe
and who remember Allah
But Allah did not say that. Allah
mentioned 2 things. He showed us the connection
between these two things, and he showed us
the sequence
in which these two things are to be
done.
They do this, they remember Allah, They know
Allah. They recognize Allah. They have a connection
with Allah and such people
then do research
in the heavens and the earth. Then they
become scientists and technologists and inventors and space,
space scientists and all kind of you would
name it. Everything comes under the under the
description of
spontaneously then they will say
They will automatically
say, oh, Allah, you have not created all
of this
Inveil without purpose.
Glory be to you and protect us from
the trauma of the fire. They will immediately
think about the akhira. When we invert this
sequence,
which is what we have done in this
world today, we will have and we have
scientists who are atheists
or theologians
who don't know how the world functions.
Both are equally
useless as far as the world is concerned.
We don't have a behavioral problem. We have
a systemic problem. We don't need tinkering.
We need to redesign. A locomotive
is a 1000000 times more powerful than a
monolite
than than a than a microlight aircraft,
but it will never fly. It can never
fly. Not because it does not have enough
power, but because it is not designed to
fly. Money and power will not help us
because we have a connection problem with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. I remind myself when you
factor Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala into the equation?
Because he is in it anyway.
Then see how your life will be transformed.
Without that connection,
there is no power.
And when we have that connection,
then we have all the power in the
world that we need. Because
there is no power and there is no
irada, there is no decision making, there is
no understanding
except with Allah. And if we have that
connection,
then we need nothing else. My brothers and
sisters, today we are living in a forking
time of history. History, we are standing at
the fork. Do we take this direction
or we do do we take that direction?
Forking times are opportunities
to choose
to change our destiny.
They are characterised
by turmoil,
epidemics, wars,
economic collapse,
depressions,
political instability,
civil war, and what not. But it is
precisely
for that reason that the foundations
of the structures of society are shaken,
and for a short time, it has given
into the hands of ordinary people to change
the path of destiny.
The industrial revolution,
for example,
1760-1840,
the First War of Independence in India, 18
57,
the American Civil War, 1861-sixty
5, the 2 world wars were all forking
times of history.
All these are historical markers of changes
in the paths of destiny.
There are others, but this will this list
will suffice us,
to see
how the decisions of people of that time,
leaders and followers,
changed the path of destiny,
for each one of us.
Right?
Today, we are
benefiting or suffering because of those decisions.
We don't have the time today
to do an analysis
of each of these events to point out
what the decisions were, but we must do
it
because we are living in another revolution today,
and what we choose to do or not
do will define the path of destiny for
coming generations. Believe me, our destiny is literally
in our own hands,
in the hands of adults,
not in the hands of children. It is
we adults
who created this society
and we adults who must act to change
it. That is why Rasool
focused on teaching adults. He didn't run a
primary school or a creche or a magtab.
He taught the parents.
Children learn from adults,
parents
and teachers and others. Today,
add social media to that, which is one
of the most powerful means of learning.
Powerful, but usually
negative and very harmful. What adults learn,
they teach their children
willy nilly,
consciously or unconsciously,
because children listen with their eyes. They don't
care what you say until they see what
you do. So ask yourself,
what are my children
seeing?
This is a world of cause and effect.
Allah stated this clearly and he said,
Allah said and that each person will only
have what they worked for.
If you want to change something, you must
address the cause,
not the effect or symptom. If you want
a good harvest, you must prepare the soil
before you plant the seed.
If you want children to obey and serve
you in your old age, you must treat
them with kindness and respect when they are
young. You must do their tarvia properly.
If you want peace, you must establish justice
because peace is the outcome of justice.
If you want to learn, you must approach
learning from the position of a supplicant
or someone in need.
Remember that water always flows downhill.
Arrogance has only one result, which is the
first lesson we learnt from our inception as
human beings in the story of Adam
The question, therefore,
for you and me for us is, do
we truly
believe that we need Allah
to succeed?
I say truly believe
because this is a question that each one
of us must answer for himself or herself.
The answer will be reflected in our lives.
If the answer is yes, we truly need
Allah
to succeed, then see how much we are
obeying
in our
lives. Our relationship
with Allah
is only 1. As Ibaat,
as as Abdullah or Amatullah.
As the slaves of Allah. There is no
other relationship. We are not partners of of
Allah
in his majesty and grace.
If we believe this, then we must submit
ourselves
without reservation or question to whatever Allah
ordered us in his book and the sunnah
of his messenger, Muhammad
I remind you of myself,
everything happens only and only by the will
of Allah.
Then ask,
why have we become the world's
footballs?
Civilizations
rise or fall
because of strong or weak
weak philosophies
and ideologies,
not because of a profusion
or lack of money or technology.
The Arabs of the 7th century were poor
people, but they had an ideology
which was simple enough to understand
by an by everyone
and which fitted
the
aspirations
of diverse people.
They were passionate about it and totally committed
to taking their ideology
to the ends of the world. They were
faced with 2 superpowers of the time, the
Byzantine Empire of Rome and the Sasanian
Persian Empire. They took on both and defeated
them. The rest is history. This is the
reason
Islamic education is a very special importance in
our society today, especially given the assault
on ethics and morals and values that have
been happening in the last 2 decades.
Islamic education
is not theory. It is not an attempt
of making Islam user friendly or compatible with
our nafs and toxic lifestyle of disobedience.
It is to return to the foundation of
Saskia Watarbia
taught by high quality teachers
who are role models for their students
and supported by parenting
which is fully in sync with the teaching.
It must begin
from the given that the Quran and the
Sunnah
are not changeable,
and our lifestyle must be modified
to leverage the strength
of both,
not to try to reinterpret the Quran and
the Sunnah to suit our whims and fancies.
I my brothers and sisters, please understand and
remember,
for this, it is essential.
I say that going forward that every family,
and if that seems too much, then every
community
must dedicate
at least one person
to give his life for the study and
propagation
of Islam.
And this person, this son of ours, this
daughter of ours
must be given complete and full support.
They should be
supported financially
and they should be it should be we
should make sure that they are able to
live in a lifestyle that is compatible
with their peers.
But they will not do any other work.
They will not look for jobs. They will
not do anything. They will be taken care
of by the community, and their only job
is to study Islam
and to teach that to to the community
and to propagate
it in the community.
They are the people. They should be dedicated
for that, and they should be financially supported
for that. It is absolutely critical that we
do this. I'm saying one for the community,
maybe 2 less, maybe more, but this is
something that the people must you have to
fork the money out of your pocket
and put it down there as absolutely
essential
critical to survival and success.
We are standing today at the threshold,
the doorway
to success or failure.
It is our decisions
and subsequent action with total commitment
which will decide
what the world will be for our children.
It will not happen accidentally.
It is something that we have to work
for. If not, we are looking at a
collapse,
a complete collapse of our culture and values
in the next generation.
The choice
is ours
and we will be held accountable
before Allah