This series is based on our experience of running a school for over fifteen years and working with youths in the community for over two decades. Please visit www.waliulasr.ca/parents for earlier parts.
Establishing and supporting Islamic schools
Children spend a very significant portion of their day, during the formative years, in a school. The impact of the ideology, culture and environment where the child spend 7 hours a day for 14 years cannot be undone through a 3-hour weekend program. It is imperative for our communities to establish and support Islamic schools. The most common questions we are asked are as follows:
1. “Islamic school children are kept in a bubble and cannot deal with the real world”. The idea that children must be exposed to Haram at an early age, to prepare them for future Haram, is not supported by Islamic teachings or logic. Children with a strong foundation in religion are far more likely to excel than those who are presented with diametrically opposite values at homes, mosques and schools.
2. “Children who study at Islamic schools will not be admitted to top universities”. This is simply false. Please visit www.waliulasr.ca/alumni for a breakdown of university admissions for our graduates. Many Islamic schools have similar track records.
3. “I did not attend an Islamic school and I turned out to be fine”. The role models for our families are the Ahlal-Bayt(a) and InshaAllah we want our children to be far better than us. Secondly, due to ubiquity of devices, the world has changed drastically within the last decade in terms of what is acceptable and prevalent.
4. “Islamic school teachers are not qualified…”. The role of a teacher is to prepare a child to excel spiritually, academically and professionally. Please type “Wali ul Asr school ranking” on google.com or check the ranking of other Islamic schools and you will find that many of the Islamic schools are top ranked, and their alumni are excelling at universities and in their professional lives.
5. “But what about the accent…?”. It is high time for us to drop the post-colonial inferiority complexes and not let our prejudices cloud our judgement, make false assumptions or assign priorities in an incorrect manner. Children are an Amanah of Allah, and we will be asked about what we did to facilitate that they achieve their purpose of creation and existence.
Our Jewish cousins have established over 130 schools in Canada and synagogues and communities support them enthusiastically. In the words of a Rabbi, “We could not have saved our religion for 4,000 years if our children were educated by teachers who do not believe in the God of Moses”.
Every Muslim is a seed of Islam. A dead seed assimilates in a manner where it becomes indistinguishable from the environment. A living seed takes nourishment from the environment and turns in to a tree that provides fruits, shade and many other seeds. By establishing and supporting Islamic schools, we can develop a generation of Muslims InshaAllah who become ambassadors of our beautiful faith and interact with the society as leaders rather than followers who become merged and lost.
