Islamic Education for Millennials
By: Azizi Khalid
Tags: Education, Reform, Islam

Earlier this year my wife and I decided to start a weekend Islamic class for children in Nedlands, Western Australia. We wanted to send Sumayyah to such a class, but couldn’t get her a place in one of the classes near our place and the other one was just too far. After talking to a few other parents, we realized that we weren’t the only parents looking for such a class. Many others were in the same predicament. With the help of a few parents, we started our class.

This is just a short note on the things that I think is important when raising Muslim children in the 21st century. I am not a scholar or an alim and I understand that these concerns may have been addressed by the ulama’ of our time. Just that these are things that I couldn’t really find answers for them in the traditional texts that I grew up with. Points highlighted here are especially true when children are raised in a Muslim minority country.

Islam vs. Science & West vs. Islam

The West has always had this issue of Science vs. Religion. As Muslims we tend to brush away this issue as a Western agenda against Islam. But the truth is, this is never about the hostility between Science and Islam, but against religion in general. The West has a bloody history when it comes to this battle. The Church in the European dark ages penalized, tortured and killed scientists whenever their findings went against the Christian doctrine. Islam does not have this historical luggage. In fact while the Christians were in their darkest hours, we were in our Golden Age. At that time, scientific discoveries were mostly made by Muslims.

The animosity the West has against Islam is just a reflection of their animosity towards their own religion. What they are trying to do is to tell us, “We have ‘been there, done that’ and things got better the day we decided to discard religion”. Thus, relegating religion into merely a moral compass; not as a way of life.

God and Evolution

“Where does Allah fit in the evolutionary process?”

One day, on the subject of Aqidah, I was explaining to the students about surah al-Ikhlas that Allah is the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe. Then came a question from one of the students, “Where does Allah fit in the evolutionary process?”

Evolution theory, in the scientific community is pretty much accepted without dispute, similar to the theory of gravity. The word theory in the scientific world is ‘not just a theory’. A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is acquired through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation.

An Islamic educator today must have some basic understanding of science. I humbly submit that basic science be part of the ilm alat, tools of knowledge, just like grammar, morphology, logic and other branches of knowledge necessary in order to fully grasp the religion.

The Ashaari and Maturidi methods of learning Aqidah was an answer to the prevailing threat of aqidah to the third century Muslims — philosophy. While I went through the Ashaari texts when I was younger, (and I am not trying to dismiss the importance of studying such texts) most students today find such extensive study into philosophy very taxing. They can’t relate to those texts.

The Ashaari and Maturidi methods of learning Aqidah was an answer to the prevailing threat of aqidah to the third century Muslims — philosophy.

Scientific atheism may be the threat to our children’s aqidah today. When the scholars of the past faced challenges from philosophy, they didn’t diss philosophy as being unIslamic, or even a deviation from Islam; instead they answered it with a framework that saved the Muslims using the same philosophy that was deluding the ummah. Al-Ghazali went to the extent of becoming an expert in philosophy to the point that he was a recognised authority in the field by Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

With the same spirit, perhaps it is time that we have a new Aqidah education framework using the scientific language. It is not to replace the traditional methods, but to build on top of them. It is time that some of Islamic scholars dive deep into science to the point of being recognised as experts in the field.

Dismissing the question of my student that evolution is just a theory that is accepted only by atheistic scientists may lead the child into a dichotomy: religion = personal morals; science = how the world operates. Such secularistic view is not Islamic as Islam goes beyond personal morals — it is a way of life.

Religion vs. Culture

Growing up in a Muslim majority country, a lot of what is culture has become intertwined with religion. While culture is a source of law in Islam, some cultures may not be suitable in other countries. When having students from different countries in the same class, coming from different schools of thought, it is imperative that the teacher knows the boundaries of where religion ends and culture begins.

Many a time my students will ask me about certain practices that is done by their parents or people back in their country of origin but not practiced by most Muslims here. Some others ask about things are that are deemed ‘haram’ back home, but practiced by most Muslims here. At such junctures it is important that teachers know what is the original ruling of such things and how culture influences fiqh.

Differences of Opinion

This is deeper than cultural differences. Different schools of thought have existed since the early days of Islam, and many of the differences are equally valid and accepted in the Deen. In the past the only time a Muslim sees a practice different from his community’s is when he performs hajj. And back then, only a small percentage of the ummah went to hajj. Most of us were used to the uniformity in Islamic practice. Differences of opinion were the domain of the ulama’.

Being too strict with one’s school of thought may cause disunity in the ummah, and being to lax with it and you may end up with no Deen to practice.

It is only in these past few decades that travel has become accessible and the past decade accelerated by the Internet that differences of opinions are discussed even among laymen. Herein lies the problem: being too strict with one’s school of thought may cause disunity in the ummah, and being to lax with it and you may end up with no Deen to practice. It is crucial that teachers now how to manoeuvre this tricky path.

For instance, I have met people who refused to pray behind another because the Imam’s prayer is invalid according to his school of thought. Yet the prayer is valid according to another mazhab. I’ve also met some others who take all that is halal in each mazhab; in the end, nothing is off-limits and you’ll have nothing left of the religion.

Striking a balance between these two extremes is a challenge. Teaching such balance is a even a greater challenge.

Different Sects

While there are some valid differences in Islam, some differences are just out of the boudaries of the Deen. And just like the mazhab, people today are exposed to the various sects that claim to be the true path of Islam. Hence it is important for Islamic educators to know the boudaries; where we can differ and where we can’t. When I was growing up, discussion about different sects are usually kept for the later stages, when one has covered the basics of the Deen.

However with the exposure that children have today, I think it is important that some introduction is done to the various sects that exist today, at least at the basic level. In my class now we are doing the history of of the sects in Islam, and the first sect that we are discussing is Shiism. And one student spoke up and said that recently she was invited to convert to Shia Islam as her friend claimed that is the real Islam as practiced by the family of the Prophet. It was a good thing we had that discussion and now she knows to avoid such invitations.

I don’t know

لا أَدْرِي : نِصْفُ الْعِلْمِ “ I don’t know is half of knowledge”

After all is said and done, it is important for teachers to know that they can’t know everything. This is not specific to educating the milleneals, but since the advent of Google, information is no longer the domain of teachers. Students may have more information than the teachers since they may spend more time in Wikpedia. But it is the teacher’s duty to impart wisdom so that the students can sift through the noise of information and obtain knowledge.

The students are at such an impressionable age that a wrong input may stick with them for life. It is important for the teacher to have the humility to say “I don’t know”. After all in our tradition, admitting that you don’t know is half of knowledge.

We may be at the most challenging time in history to raise children. Access to confusion and vice is easily obtained. But so is access to knowledge. It is the duty of educators to help the next generation make the right choices. I do not claim to have the answers to all the challenges. And as I have mentioned at the beginning, this is just a note on some of the challenges I faced as a weekend Islamic teacher.