Zakir Naik – Can we Send Our Children in Secular Schools and Teach them Islam at Home

Sister has posed a question.

I do agree with all of the topic.

The chairperson gave her a chance, so I

have to answer.

She said that, is it right if we

send our children to secular schools

and teach Islam at home?

Sister, secular by definition means nothing to do

with God.

If you send your children to secular schools,

secular school nothing to do with God. But

I know what you meant. What you meant

for non Islamic schools

done by Christian missionaries and others, secular school

by definition mean nothing to do with God.

But if you send to a school with

nothing to do with God, those atheists, there'll

be a problem. They will teach there's no

God who will teach at home. There is

God. There'll be conflict. The child will have

a problem.

Similarly, if you send to other schools, which

teach wrong things, who teach to worship other

besides God.

So there they worship

Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, every day

in the morning. And you come and say

that worshiping Jesus Christ is shirk.

The child will get confused.

You know what we are doing? It is

we who are creating problem with children.

We are to blame. It's the duty of

the parents to give an atmosphere which is

right atmosphere. It is like you're tying your

children, tying the hand and the leg, putting

the swimming pool and say, swim.

I will listen.

So sister, my advice is, we do require

the worldly knowledge. It's important.

The first guidance of our creator Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala in the Quran to humankind is

chapter 96 verse number 1 is

to read.

Is to educate. Our beloved prophet said, it

is obligatory on every Muslim man or woman

to acquire knowledge.

So knowledge is a must. Both knowledge religious

as well as the other worldly knowledge, both

is important, sister. But be careful while running

after

the otherworldly knowledge, religious knowledge should not go

behind. Both should be there. So best is

put your children in schools which do not

conflict

with the commandment of the creator Allah Subhanahu

Wa Ta'ala.

But the best is schools

which teach both. Imagine you go to school

and they are taught about David and Siri,

we have been created for monkeys. And then

Allah say, we have been created for Adam

and Eve. And the child gets confused. How

many confusion will you remove?

The best is Islamic schools, unfortunately and fortunately,

there are very few Islamic schools, but

now, throughout the world including India, there are

many Islamic schools springing up.

Some of

good quality, some medium quality,

some low quality.

What we should do that we should support

those people

who

are opening such schools. And alhamdulillah,

even our Islamic Research Foundation, IRF Education Trust,

has started a school 3 years back in

Bombay

by the name of Islamic International School,

and we are striving

so that we can give to our children

what we didn't get.

What we lacked in our childhood,

we have a school we have started inshallah,

besides having

the formal education. I don't call it secular.

Mathematics is not secular. Science is not secular.

I call it formal education because science is

Islamic subject according to me. Mathematics is Islamic

subject. The great mathematicians are Muslims. The great

scientists are Muslims.

So I don't call science as a secular

subject. I call it, for the non Muslim

formal education,

Islamically, it's an Islamic subject. But should be

taught in the correct perspective. Scientific facts, not

hypothesis and theories like Darwin's theory, etcetera. So,

sister, it is important that we give our

children the right atmosphere

and see to it that they get the

right education, that's the best. If you try

and say that they go to a school

which teaches wrong things and then come home

and teach the right things about the creation

of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and the religion,

sister,

you are playing with fire. I'd advise you

put in an Islamic school. Hope that answers

the question.