How Ilm Must Be Sought! Avoiding the Modern Pitfalls in Learning the Deen

Ilm Must Be Sought!

We live in era in which technology is advancing like never before. Somewhere between the inspirational tweets on Twitter and the quick tutorials on YouTube, concepts of sacrifice and hard work have disappeared and become almost foreign to us. We have mistaken following scholars on Twitter or liking their Facebook pages as a modern form of sitting with a shaykh.

While we are no longer required to travel long distances like the scholars in the past, there are still sacrifices which must be made for ‘ilm. That sacrifice could be adjusting our schedules, taking out time to find a local scholar, and might even require giving up on Halo or Call of Duty for a couple hours of weeks (I never said it was going to be easy!). The ‘ulamā of the past were very particular in making sure they took the proper steps in acquiring knowledge, as doing so would help them appreciate the value of ‘ilm.

Ibn ‘Abbas, a prominent companion and relative of the Prophet ﷺ would say,

“I would sometimes hear that another companion had knowledge of a certain ḥadīth (which I did not know). If I had wished, I could have called him, and he would have taught me the ḥadīth here. But I, myself, would go to his door and learn the ḥadīth there.” [Sunan al-Dārami]

Yes, this is Ibn ‘Abbas, the greatest commentator of the Qur’ān. He understood the only way to gain true ‘ilm was through giving it its due respect and sacrifice.

Avoiding the Milk-Shaykhs

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:

"Verily, Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the people but He takes away knowledge by taking away the Ulama (scholars), so that when He leaves no Alim (scholar), people turn to the ignorant as their leaders; then they are asked to deliver religious verdicts and they deliver them without knowledge, they go astray, and lead others astray.” [Sahih Muslim 2673]

Another phenomenon which has become widespread today is studying without actual ‘ulamā; some choose the path of “self-studying” (with help from Shaykh Google of course), while others decide to study with unqualified teachers who might have good speaking skills (also known as “milk-shaykhs”). We would never adopt these methods to learn medicine, law, or anything else, so how can we be comfortable studying the commandments of Allah and his Messenger ﷺ this way? It is worth noting the Messenger ﷺ, when prophesizing the widespread and rampant ignorance to come before the Final Day, never said it would be due to a lack of resources. Rather, he mentioned two reasons: the absence of ‘ulamā and giving unqualified people positions they shouldn’t have. 

Alḥamdulilāh, many ‘ulamā are still around and can be easily found in our localities. The onus is on us to make sure they aren’t absent from our lives, thus opening the door for the unqualified to fill in the void.

[Adapted from an article by Shaykh Omar Baig (Mississauga, Canada) https://enterthesunnah.com/2015/12/02/seeking-knowledge-then-vs-now/]

Tackling false interpretation of the Deen:

“This sacred knowledge of the religion is going to be taken and carried from every preceding generation by a group of the subsequent generation. They will expel from it the alteration made by those going beyond bounds, false claims of the liars and the false interpretations of the ignorant ones” (Bayhaqi).

From every preceding generation, a group will take knowledge and they will purify from it any misrepresentation of the religion. For example, someone may have come with a new claim about religion and corrupted a number of people; after all, ideas are prone to exaggeration. The whole reason that communism came about is because the core need of man was to have economic stability. In Russia, there was a massive gap between those who had and those who did not, and that is why one need among the many needs of humanity—of economic stability—was promoted as the main need of that time. Eventually that particular need became the dominant aspect around which everything else began to revolve and they formed an entire system around it.

Similarly, let us say there is a time when we need to promote politics in Islam, which is just one of its many aspects. If somebody takes that and makes it the entire crux and spirit of Islam, and begins to say that even your salat (prayer) is part of your Islamic politics and it is a type of training in obedience to the leader, and starts to reinterpret all other acts of worship around a political vision, he will corrupt the entire religion. He has taken one aspect of religion, and made it the core of religion. Therefore, Allah sends people to deal with the consequences of such corruption and innovation. They undertake the work of revival.

-Taken from Mufti Dr. Abdur Rahman Yusuf's article on revival of the Deen.

Why the Deeni Madrasas are the most important assests of the community and why we need to support them?

Why the Deeni Madrasas are the most important assets of the community and why we need to support them?

Madrasas are the most productive institutions today when we consider the amount the community spends on them (compared to other institutions) and their crucial services to the community. Madrasas play multiple roles. Our investment on them is almost totally from zakat which any how we have to give as a fardh. 

Apart from imparting free Islamic education to the poorest of the poor, the madrasas provide them free food and shelter for 8 to 10 years & with dignity. Many of these madrasas have orphans too making them the largest network of orphanages in the community. Madrasa system not only gives their students Taleem and academic certificates but also do their Deeni and akhlaqi tarbiyat & make them responsible & morally much better human beings. I don't know which modern schools do such fine deeni tarbiyat. All the Deeni services needed for the community are provided by the graduates of madaris whether it's the basic level like regular imamat of masajid, khateebs for Juma and Eid prayers, funeral services, teaching Quran to children, giving duroos in the masjids etc to the higher level roles like managing various community organisations, providing milli leadership and guiding the ummah in Deeni matters and the highest and most important role of preserving the knowledge of the Deen and passing it on to the future generations to safeguard the Deen till qiyamat and protecting the Deen from Tahreefaat and distortion. Basically it's the madaris and their graduates which keep the Deen alive in the community by acting as a link between the Deen and the masses.

There are different categories and levels of madaris just like in modern schools and colleges there are different levels. So definitely all madrasa graduates are not at the same level. The top madaris have produced and continue to produce some of the best Ulama whose erudition and authority is widely acclaimed in the Islamic world. Most of the milli leadership is comprised of Ulama from these madaris even today. In the matters of Deen, the modern educated people generally cannot compare with them in both ilm and taqwa. It's almost impossible for those like us who have studied under a secular educational system since childhood to be totally free from it's ill effects which have seeped in to our way of thinking, our priorities, our way of looking at the dunya, our weltanschauung & our response to various challenges of life. Those who studied the Deen in madrasa system don't have that spiritual and ideological disadvantage. Their minds and hearts are purer, more natural & aligned with Islam.

It's not an exaggeration, this is what one feels again and again when one sits with them. 

Even knowledge wise, the ilmi depth of the curriculum they teach in madrasas is way beyond what most of the modern Islamic schools teach. There is no comparison. One just needs to go through the books they teach to realise this.

Some exceptions are there everywhere. But we have to see the general picture.

Many people mock the madaris that they teach only by rote learning and that their syllabus is outdated.

We should know that the Memorisation based learning is done only at the level of Hifz of Quran and few initial Alim course subjects where one has to memorise Arabic grammar rules, Sarf and vocabulary. After that it's mostly an understanding based learning with some amount of necessary memorisation. Most of the Darse Nizami books are so voluminous that its impossible to do rote learning! 

Infact the darse nizami syllabus teaches Logic and philosophy too which teach critical, coherent and systematic thinking from a young age. Fiqh and Usool al fiqh are the pinnacle of rationality applied to Quran and Hadith for practical scenario application and problem solving. These skills are perfected at Ifta level to the maximum. 

We have a lot of misunderstandings about the madaris and their syllabi because we dont know much about it. I realised it all after studying these books with the ulama alhamdulillah. Many books I could simply not understand unless the teacher explained it repeatedly in class. All my previous extensive reading of general Islamic literature and listening to general bayans and lectures couldnt help me there. It's a totally different level. The Islamic intellectual tradition is quite strong and unique and no way less in-depth compared to modern subjects.

There is a wide gulf between the modern educated and madaris graduates. Misunderstandings are there on both sides and common Muslims tend to get biased also because of the image that western and Indian media have willfully created of the madaris and their education being outdated and useless and extremist, narrow minded etc, all Islamophobic tropes. We need to be careful in this. 

Ofcourse there is a room for improvement in the system of madaris we have today. And the Madrasa managements are very much aware of this. Many big madaris are infact teaching English, maths and computers to their students. But their major problem is they are not able to find proper teachers to teach these subjects due to low salaries the madaris can offer, apart from other difficulties. But slowly things are changing. The more we get involved with madaris and offer our help, the more they will improve and serve the community better. The increasingly complex challenges the community is facing from different directions makes it incumbent upon us to strengthen the madaris more so that they can prepare to meet the challenges better. InshaAllah.

(The author is a Medical Doctor who has completed traditional Alim course too)