The Need for Revolutionary Change in Islamic Education - Nouman Ali Khan
I personally believe that Islamic education
needs to experience a revolution.
That's my personal belief
that Islamic education
needs to experience a revolution.
What do I mean by that?
There is Islamic studies for the 'alim.
The 'alim will study fiqh,
hadith, tafseer, 'aqeedah.
They'll study all of these things
and you'll become an 'alim.
And you will study them at a very high level.
But there is a level underneath that,
we need to create actually,
it doesn't really exist too much yet.
And we need to create it,
a level of learning Islam,
just for daily practice, daily life.
I'm not talking about fiqh,
I'm talking about advice for fathers.
I'm talking about advice for wives.
Just a curriculum:
How to be a good Muslim wife;
How to be a good Muslim husband;
How to be a good Muslim father;
How to be a good son;
How to be a good daughter;
What advice does Allah have?
Entire curricula just based on making us
good human beings.
This is education.
Real education is not that you know how to do C++,
and your Microsoft something something certified,
and your Cisco certified,
and on top of that, you have an accounting degree,
and you got an MBA.
All of that means you can make money,
that doesn't mean you're educated.
That just means you can make money.
That's it. That's all that means.
That does not make you a better human being.
I know plenty of physicians
that are terrible human beings.
I know plenty programmers
that are horrible human beings.
They're very jahil,
they're uneducated at how to be a husband.
They're uneducated at how to be a father.
What good is their education?
All that is a skill labor.
They're just a better worker at the factory,
that's all it is now.
It's a virtual factory, but that's all you are.
We have to revolutionize our Islamic education.
In that we have to create this Islamic education
revolving around becoming better human beings.
Other specific areas that need help now,
that never needed help before.
I told you what's happening.
Inside the home is being targeted.
Most Muslim fathers don't even know
what it means to be a Muslim father anymore.
These things came naturally to us.
They were not difficult for us in the past.
But now because of the change of the world,
and the change of our lifestyles.
These things are...
we have to re-educate ourselves in these things.
You have to come back and do them all over again.
How to raise kids specifically.
There's one set of CDs.
I think you might be able to find mp3s online also.
I want everybody here to listen to them.
They're not by me.
They're by a person I really really admire.
Brother Hesham Al-Awadi.
'Children around the Messenger', that's one series.
It's called what again?
'Children around the Messenger'
and 'Mothers of the Believers'.
These two series,
I want every person especially every father here,
especially every father,
but the entire family,
to listen to both of these series.
It's really really important that you do.
They benefited me tremendously
and they can benefit parents in general.
These are few resources we have, but they're gold.
They're really really valuable.
We should take advantage of them,
and we should inshAllah taala
try to have our entire family listen to them.
Put them in your iPod, put them in the car,
listen to it every day.
You will benefit tremendously.
Recite Quran with your children.
Don't hire a Qari to recite Quran.
Recite Quran with your children.
Maulana Sahab comes, reads Quran, and goes home.
What about you?
What about you? You don't have time?
If you don't have time for Quran,
why does your child have to have time for Quran?
Sit down with your child,
make those 20 minutes happen.
Shaitan will come,
he will make you yawn,
he will make you thirsty,
he will make you sleepy,
he will make you remember you had a meeting.
All of that will happen in those 20 minutes.
Why? Because you gave those 20 minutes to Quran.
He hates that. He can't stand it.
But make those 20 minutes happen.
Commit to it.
Commit to it with your children.
Get the entire family,
there's one part of the day we're gonna sit
and we're gonna recite Quran.
Listen to the explanation,
at least the translation of the Quran
together as a family.
If you can't do it for an hour, do 10 minutes.
It's okay. Just listen to it.
Just a little bit of 10 minutes of Quran.
They're beyond the recitation.
Recitation, I told you how many minutes?
20 minutes.
Listening to translation, some tafseer,
some explanation. How long?
10 minutes.
So how long you every day?
30 minutes,
you as a family just did something for Allah.
My recommendation between Maghrib and Isha.
And my recommendation,
you know, right now you're gonna say,
"Kids have exams, it's May.
Let the semester end."
Fine. You know what? I'll give you that.
This whole summer, this is what you do.
30 minutes every day.
Don't say, "Which program should I put my child in?"
You're the program,
everything else is secondary.