(I posted this as a comment to the previous status, but it may be useful as a stand-alone status as well). With the revival of educational Islam in America in the past 15 years, we are witnessing many groups making good efforts to make people interested in deen again; this is certainly a good development, mashallah, regardless of specific group, because if youre calling to God and His Messenger (S) and telling people to pray 5 times a day, youre cool. At the same time, there is a subtle difference in the educational paradigms that needs to be expounded on as we move forward. Shaykh Amin terms these as the Islahi and `Ilmi paradigms; the former deals with the general rectification (targhib wa tarheeb, etc) of the Muslim community, the latter deals with a rigorous curriculum/teacher-based system of education. We can think of the Islahi paradigm as general health/medical knowledge that everyone needs to know (healthy diet, exercise, proper sleep, etc) whereas the `Ilmi paradigm is like a formal medical education to become a doctor, PA, etc. Both are needed because everyone needs to be involved in the Islahi paradigm, but only a few people need to be involved in the `Ilmi paradigm. So conferences/weekend seminars/youtube videos/etc are all good, but are from the Islahi paradigm at the end of the day. Institutional and curriculum based learning through teachers is the `Ilmi paradigm. There are people who have talents to speak/motivate in the Islahi paradigm, and there are people who have talents to teach in the `Ilmi paradigm. Its only a blessed few that can effectively do both and are qualified to do both. But I think many of us confuse the two paradigms, as well as assume that a resource in one translates into being a resource in the other. Its easy to be a speaker in the Islahi paradigm, but its very difficult to teach in the `Ilmi paradigm. Were blessed with a lot of dynamic and charismatic speakers in the former, and thats good, but we cant think they are teachers in the sense of the `Ilmi paradigm as outlined above. Communities need people who can do both, but because of the shortage of qualified teachers and also a general communal lack of awareness and demand for that curriculum-based learning, we are lacking *teachers*. To be a teacher in this vein is difficult because its a long process, it requires patience and it doesnt translate immediately into nice sound-bytes, quotable tweets, youtube video clips and memorable statements that inspire the resounding takbeer at a conference. It requires self-sacrifice, discipline and humility of the highest order to take on students and train them for years with little recognition. But that is why the `Ilmi paradigm is not for everyone. And thats why its incredibly easy to be a speaker, but incredibly difficult to be a teacher. #TafseerOfPreviousStatus
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 17:02:55 +0000
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