Bismillah-ir Rahman-ir Raheem
Questions & Answers for ISLAM TODAY
"Educating the Muslims"

Thank you so much for your Email and your question regarding Islam. It is wonderful to see people like yourself taking the time and interest to learn more about the correct teachings of Islam. This in itself is a sign of guidance from the Almighty Above. May He grant us the wisdom to know the right knowledge and the ability to put it into practice, ameen.

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Now as regards your question:

we need few information or guidence from you in terms of our sylabus, right now we have childerns who are doing hifiz only & once they are done with hifiz they go to other madarsas for further education, now we are planning to retains the hafiz in our madarsa for their further education for which we need your guidance in terms of both sylabus & how to generate funds.
Bismillah Al Hamdulilah was Salat wa Salam ala rasoolulah. Maa baad:
Allahu Alim.
In the Name of Allah, I praise Allah and thank Him and ask for His Peace and Prayers upon Muhammad, and all of the prophets of Allah, ameen. It is only Allah Who has all the Knowledge, and we only have what He might give us.
To continue:
Al Hamdulilah, you have hit on on of my favorite topics: "Educating the Muslims." It is my contention that in these days there is no area of endeavor which requires more attention than the proper education of the Muslims. I would like to note that I did not limit this statement to 'Muslim children.' We are all in desperate need of more education in many areas, especially Islam.

But this should be undertaken with a note of caution from the very beginning. We can not and must not allow the non-Mulims to educate us or our children in certain, specific areas:
1.) Religion
And don't think I need to explain this one in too much detail. But suffice to say, I must mention that we are now seeing Muslim 'scholars' who have even 'Doctor Degrees' in Islam from prominent Western Universities, who have NEVER HAD A MUSLIM TEACHER.
I would ike for you to think about this for just a moment. How can a Muslim learn the true beauty and depth of Islam and come to know the closeness of Allah's Knowledge, Hearing and Seeing, from a Kafir?
We even find in some cases here in the US, Muslim organizations in high positions, bringing in speakers who are professors of Islam, authors of books on Islam, experts of Islamic law who even give testimony before the courts on Islamic Jurisprudence, yet they ARE NOT EVEN MUSLIMS. One such case is right here in our own back yard so to speak. His name is Dr. John Esposito and he has his own foundation (funded by the Saudis in the 1980s) called "Christian Muslim Understanding." When this man goes to the Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Society of North America, and others, they pay him to come and tell the Muslims how to understand Islam. Do you think that when he is done that he will make a dua to Allah Subhammah wa Ta'ala? (no) Will he recite the beautiful ayahs of the Quran with the tajweed of Quran? (no) Will he call the people back to the true teachings of our beloved nabi, paece be upon him? (no) Will he ask the non-Muslims who have come to hear about Islam, to make shahadah of 'Laa elaha illa lah?" (I think not)

2.) Science
This is a good one. Especially in light of all the things which we are seeing happening in today's world. Muslims are looking to the West as though they have all the answers. What a joke. I cannot believe how desperate the Muslim world is for 'Ad-dunyah'. They chase after high technology and 'modern science' as though they think that it is their god. Auothbilah.
Yet, little attention is paid to the fact that almost every single advancement in science has at least in some part derived its sources from Muslim scholars of old. That is a fact which cannot be denied by any seeker of truth.
The origins of modern understanding of sciences lie in the works of the early Muslim scientists and inventors from the time of the Khulafah until the end of the Spanish Muslims in January of 1492. The sciences of Astronomy, Alchemy, Algebra, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Medicine, psychology and geology are only a few of the many sciences which owe a great debt to the early Muslim scientists. Some of the names themselves are coming from the Arabic language; i.e., Al Jibber (algebra).

3.) History
When you consider that it is up to the victors of a war to decide how to relate what took place in the battle, it becomes obvious that factual reporting of the history of the world is very subjective at best. When it comes to the Crusades, Inquisition and other famous exploits of the Christians over the Muslims, you will seldom if ever, see the true atrocities which have been perpetrated in the name of 'Spreading Peace' around the world. At least from the Western point of view. For instance consider the famous propagation at present which claims that Islam was spread by the sword. In fact, it was Christianity which was spread by this method. The word 'sword' appears in the Christian Bible over 200 times. However, you will not even find on occurrence in the Holy Quran. The teachings of Islam are clear on the waging of Jihad. It is only to preserve the peace and to uphold the justice system of Islam. Never is it to be used for anyone's personal gain or advantage, such as in the case of Clinton firing missiles into several countries on the very day that he was supposed to go to trial for committing unspeakable acts with his aid, Monica Lewinsky. Warfare in Islam carries very clear limitations, such as not killing or harming the children, the elderly, the livestock, nor even damaging the foliage and trees. Yet when the enemies of Islam begin to tell their tales, suddenly Islam and Muslims are represented as the very devil and his shayton. History in the West becomes "His Story."

For these and many other reasons, it is imperative that we give credence to the idea of working only from curriculum which is Islamic based and written by true Muslims. This requires effort and dedication on the part of all of the teachers of Muslims around the world. Because English is one of the most prevalent languages and is understood at least to some degree in every country on earth, it becomes necessary to consider the development of this material in the English language. I quickly add, however that we should whenever and wherever possible introduce the Arabic language as much as possible within the curriculum.

These are my own personal ideas and thoughts on the matter and they do not represent any of the organizations who help to sponsor us in our dawah projects. In fact, I feel confident that many of these concepts would fall under immediate attack by some of the governments of the Muslim countries themselves. But I am not interested in what is the best interest of a political party or state at this point. My concern is that our children are loosing Islam and are becoming modernists and secularists without any regard to the precious teachings of our Lord and His Messenger, peace be upon him.

Well, once again, I have gone farther than I intended but not as far as I would like on this most auspicious topic. Therefore, I beg you the reader, to please make dua' for all of us that Allah grant us the success of the true propagation of our deen of Islam through the education of our youth.

Ameen.

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Again, it is only Allah who has All Knowledge. May He forgive me my mistakes and guide us all to the right way, ameen.

You can find a lot of answers by researching on our website. Both Quran and Sunnah (Hadeeths) are word searchable:
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Try it. You'll like it, inshallah.
Jazakalah khair and may Allah continue to guide you, ameen. Wa As-Salam alaykum wa rahmatulah wa barakatah,

Your Brother in Islam,
Yusuf Estes
http://www.TodayIslam.com/
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Chaplain to World Assembly of Muslim Youth, WAMY Visit us at: wamy.org