Truthfully, sometimes I feel guilty that in seeking knowledge, I don’t get to spend time with the children. Or they are with me but we are not doing more “fun” stuff like going to the beach or the zoo. But then again, it all comes down to intentions, doesn’t it? And when I asked Big A if she wanted to go with us for a 2-day workshop, studying parables in the Quran with Shaykh Ahmed Saad, she said yes!
MasyaAllah she totally surprised me, sitting right in front with me and quietly drawing and colouring. It doesn’t mean that she wasn’t paying attention though. That’s just her style. Many times she had quoted things she had heard in class from different teachers while following me, when I thought she was just busy doodling in class. This style of learning most probably won’t be tolerated in a school setting.
Alhamdulillah Ihsan Institute has a branch now in Singapore for the teaching of traditional Islamic Knowledge. According to Shaykh Ahmed Saad, this is what Traditional Islam is versus what it is not:
- sitting with scholars for years to learn knowledge vs learning from YouTube and social media
- learning ideas that have gone through rigorous debates, discussions and verifications vs novice ideas with little or no testing
- ijazah and sanad vs degrees and certificates
- teacher-student relationship vs teacher-class commitment
- tolerant and inclusive vs too rigid or too liberal
- specialisation up to the point of being encyclopedic vs superficial learning
May we see the true value of sitting with our teachers to seek knowledge. Truly it is a jihad fisabiLillah.
