So this morning I posted a video about a crash course on Islam by John Green on my Facebook. Initially I posted it for my Non-Muslim friends, so they could understand Islam more, instead of getting their information from CNN or other news media. But then I got to thinking..how many MUSLIM people really know about Islam and its history? Even the five pillars? Just a couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with my brother, and he didn’t even know some basic facts about the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) life.
As a kid, I (and most likely every Muslim child raised in Canada) learned all about Jesus (peace be upon him) and Christianity’s viewpoint on how he was born, but I wouldn’t be surprised if these same Muslims, who have become adults now, do not know the story of our Holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) birth.
These days, we are all worried about making sure our children have Islamic education and know how to read the Qur’an. But what about ourselves? Yes, we probably did have some Qur’an class as a child, but how many of us can really say that we read Arabic perfectly? I certainly can’t say that. But I am trying – and always learning. There are rules of Tajweed that I didn’t even know existed when I first started to read the Qur’an as a child. After attending an adult Qur’an class, I even found out that my pronunciation was incorrect as well.
And it’s not only about the Qur’an. Learning how to read Qur’an does not fulfill your Islamic duty to yourself and to your children. Islam is a way of life. It’s not something that we include in our life. It’s something our life should revolve around.
There are many ways to learn more about Islam. You can attend a weekly Halaqah at your local masjid. There are also online classes, many of them are free as well. Seminars are a great way to learn about a specific topic, such as Prophetic Medicine, for example.
I used to teach at a weekly Islamic School and often would get frustrated when my students were not doing their homework and practising their Arabic at home. But then the Imam’s wife told me that a lot of the parents don’t have Islamic education and therefore, knowledge, to help their children; their only source of Islam is from the masjid. Honestly, I was disappointed to hear this. Yes, it’s great that we want our kids to have an Islamic education, but shouldn’t parents want that for themselves as well?
Just something to think about. It’s almost JJ’s bedtime and she’s cranky as heck. More about that later 🙂
Confessions of a Hijabi Mind 