Zakir Naik – Can we Send Our Children in Secular Schools and Teach them Islam at Home
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A caller asks if it's okay to send children to secular schools and teach Islam at home, but the representative responds that it is required to ensure the schools do not conflict with the creator's commandment. The caller advises parents to support schools that teach the right things about Islam and to give children the right environment to learn.
AI: Summary ©
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.