Ornamentation Of The Student Of Knowledge: A Look At An Interchange Between Scholars - Notes on online learning [Ust Abul Hussain]

The Continuity of Purposed Scholarship Methods In Najd

A few years back while reading through Shaikh Saleh Uthaymeen’s (r) Sharh of Shaikh Bakr Abo Zayd’s (r) Huliyat Talib al Ilm (A Work Based In The Pursuing Knowledge Genre) there were a number of issues that remained for me points of reflection. It is these matters of which I feel an intense desire to communicate and share with the reading audience.

Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) out of all the Najdi, Saudi Ulema holds an interesting place in my thought for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons are too personal to digitalize and publish online and others because of their beneficial nature demand to be  made known.
Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) was an inheritor of the teaching method of and an initmate student of the esteemed Hanabali scholar, who was the only Najdi to interpret the whole of the Qur’an, the Faqih Shaikh Nasr as-Sa’adi (r). Shaikh as-Sa’adi (r) employed a teaching method in community of Unayza, Najd which deeply impressed, shaped and affected Shaikh Uthaymeen (r).

To begin with Shaikh Sa’adi (r) focused on the works of Shaikh al Islam Ibn Taymiyah (r) and others from the Hanbali school like al Bahuuti. He put much emphasis on linguistic studies so he taught most of the old Azhar language curriculum up to the al Fiyah Ibn Malik. Learning was based on texts and stages and teaching was oral commentary interlaced with inquiring questions that could determine the student’s understanding plus student participation. Learning was in stages and was a marriage of theory and application in which we find that traditional texts and primers (mutoon) along primary sources being taught (Qur’an and Hadith). Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) inherited this system and continued this tradition of teaching so that we find the Sa’adi system continued on. This system emphasized the continuity of traditional scholarship with a push to  investigative learning so that not only the rationale for a position or opinion was learned but also its evidence whether it was textually based or principally based.

Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) was reknown for zuhd, humility and the love of his students. One of the signs of his humility was that he explained the Book of Shaikh Bakr Abo Zayd , Hulliyat Talib Ilm despite the fact that Shaikh Bakr was his contemporary to Shaikh Uthaymeen (r). Rather, than write a work he took to explain a work of one of his contemporaries. Many saw in this a gesture of respect and esteem, a demonstration of refined ethics and communicating his value of other scholars. He demonstrated that manners can accompany disagreement as he disagreed with Shaikh Bakr Abo Zayd (r) on occasion throughout his commentary on the work.

Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) continued to extend the educational method he inherited from Shaikh as Sa’adi (r). As a result we see Shaikh Uthaymeen gently critique the suggestion made by Shaikh Bakr Abo Zayd (r) that after reading al-Waraqaat in Usul al-Fiqh that one can progress on to ar-Rawda (an Adapation and Abridgement of Imam Ghazali’s (r) al-Mustafsa) of Imam Ibn Quddama (r) in Usul al Fiqh. The rationale for not coming to agreement with Shaikh Bakr Abo Zayd is that Shaikh Uthaymeen understood this  suggestion not to follow in line with systematic learning as had been the path of all the great scholars of Islam. He wanted to instill into the student in practice and thought the matter of gradual, systematic progressive learning. This was the way and path to  success and refinement.

A Difference Of Method Rather Than End

Another point which caught my attention was Shaikh Uthaymeen’s (r) critique of Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn Arabi al Maliki (r). Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) voiced his difference with a suggestion made by Qadi Ibn Arabi (r) that the first thing a student ought study is mathematics before pursuing any other learning. In response Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) qualified this suggestion as preposterous and further raised the question: how could one put anything before the study of the Qur’an?

Two important points emerge from this position and question and they are method and end. Here what we see is a difference in method rather than end. The two are agreed upon in the importance of the centrality of the Qur’an in study. There is also a contextual difference Qadi Ibn Arabi al Maliki (r) was an intimate student of Imam HujjatUllah Abu Hamid al Ghazali (r). Learning had in their time been permeated by a love of the humanities and those sciences which enhance human reasoning for the Ulema (r) considered the ability to properly conceptualize matters to be the larger part of knowledge.

The difference in positions between that of Qadi Ibn Arabi (r) and that of Shaikh Uthaymeen is one of great interest. And this given that Qadi Abu Bakr (r) demands that the student refine certain analytical capabilities and skills before aiming to develop  memory and approach the Qur’an. Whereas, Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) wants the student to cultivate memory and become familiar with content of the Qur’an before immersion in secondary sources and tertiary and supplementary learning. There is a qualitative difference in these two methods but in the end both scholars delved in fiqh, usul, tafsir, and hadith.  Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) gave to grammar the role given to logic by more senior Ulema who had preceded. On the other hand, Qadi Ibn Arabi al Maliki (r) saw importance in logic, grammar, and math in the development of the mind and in the cultivation of learning these are sciences which fall under the category of means rather than ends (Uloom al-Al’aa).

Imam Ibn Khaldoun (r) in his Muqaddima speaks of a similar difference between the educational methods of al Anadalus (the West) and the Cities of al Maghrib. The Cities of the Maghrib relegated and restricted study in the early stages to the Qur’an whereas in al Andalus learning was diversified the Qur’an was accompanied by ancillary studeis. In the end the educational systems emphasized various methods to achieve the same purpose, a well educated individual. Now maybe it can be argued that they may have had different vision of what a good education is and this a plausible claim.

In my read of the difference between Shaikh Uthaymeen (r) and Qadi Ibn Arabi (r) there is a meaningful difference.  Curriculum and education can achieve varying ends predicated upon the materials and the ways in which learning takes place. I would go out on the edge and make the claim that in this difference there is an assertion that Revelation is superior to intellect as well as an assertion that Revelation is not understood except with presence of intellect. Discussing this topic is worthy of a separate post. In any event, we gain much from looking in to this difference and accounting for it.

Education, The Muslim In The West And Islam

What constitutes a real well rounded education is a matter of emphasis and debate but  what remains constant is that it must be one which refines and cultivates morals as well as skills. In the debate over how and what a student ought study whether it be primary sources or principles or the application of principles in light of the primary source there are a number of things that we Muslims from the West must come to terms with.

What we want to claim is that a well rounded Islamic education is concerned with building intellectual and well as physical skills in addition to, cultivating intimacy with the Qur’an and Sunnah and instilling respect and familiarity for the scholarly Islamic tradition because it is in the tradition that we will learn how principles are outlined and applied that is contextualized. So the universal needs a particular and vice versa.

The Western Muslim or Muslim from the West brings various skills some intellectual and others practical. What we bring to the table as Westerners are very essential skills that can aid us in grasping the spirit and content of Islamic tradition as well as its primary sources. The challenge we encounter as Westerners is the notion that things West are wicked as well as a problem of values. There is an assumption in Western Academic culture that critique is an end in itself and that there are no absolutes except the claim that there are no absolutes. It can be conferred to that this method has allowed science to progress but it has also undermined other very necessary things for life such as the life of the soul. What has driven many of us to Islam and its sources and tradition is no longer vibrantly in practice to a large degree.The same methods of rigor and intensity is rare to find in scholarship today although it is there and the idea of the polymath which so much characterized the Muslim scholar is rare in the West. We are truly in an age demanding the Reconstruction of Islamic Thought without being charged with treason.

In aiming to map a sense of intellectual and emotional orientation we are faced but with two very spiritual and profound values. The first is patience and the other is exertion. We must patiently exert ourselves to study to be able to make sense of ourselves and Islam today cultivating continuity and illustrating legitimate and wholesome adaptability while keeping in mind that Islam relates to but is above context. Tradition has always been a dialogue between principles and context unfortunately Islamic thought today and learning struggles with engaging de-contextualization so that we can speak to the age. The educated is left to question and to fend in the wild. It is in resolving these differences we face brought on by political demise, colonialization, rationalization, scientification, secularization, globalization and Westernization as well as ignorance and disorientation that movement, forward movement, resolution may, perhaps be attained to.We need in my estimate to look to see if there may be fruit in the differences and contrasts we live in today and further by looking to find the fruit we need to keep in mind the importance of meaning and substance.

It is in a kufri (devoid of Iman) read of history that the claim is made that we can not transcend the suffocating atomosphere that we abide in. In fact, this is even a bad readof qadr itself and is more characteristic of determinism (jabr) than it is of a sound interpretation of Islamic creed. Man in the pinnacle of creation in our read of time and history and man is possessed of guidance (shariah), intellect, instinct, emotion, and will plus Divine aid but Allah (swt) has charged us to follow causes (see: Surah Kahf) while understanding their powerlessness. So it is necessary to return to a proper anthropology of man (understanding of man), history and the aims of time, life and creation.

What studying Qur’an, Sunnah and the scholarly tradition which dialogues with and contextualizes these two sources in time and place by rigorous scholarship guided by principles ought teach us is a number of values of these mention will be made of two:

One listening is the majority of the struggle in learning. If one listens well then one will be on the path for listening clarifies, allows one to analyze and through it we come to realize. Listening requires humility and demands a willingness to learn from others. Two, being seriously systematic and maintaining continuity with the past and present is the way of scholarship and knowledge.

AstagfirUllah Wa Allahu Al’am Wa Aleem Wa Rabbul Alaameen

Abul-Hussein

Some Notes Regarding Distant And Online Learning In Islamic Studies

The debate regarding distant and online learning versus “traditional classroom” education is nothing new in Western educational circles but it is unprecedented in Muslim circles in the West and not so new for Muslim circles in the East. There are a number of issues that come up with University education, online education and the Halaqa system. There is a qualitative difference in these systems and each has its own characteristic and and benefits and deficiencies at times.

There are fundamentals in Islamic scholarship which are not compromisable and that is that Islamic education is grounded in shaping character and not just intellect this is a primary end of Islamic education. The least effective in realizing this endeavor is online learning. Online learning is a response to meet the need of a student who is unable to have personal contact with Ulema or those who are bogged down by the affairs of life and need flexible schedules.

In discussing the matter of online learning with Dr. Nabil al Jawhari (h) head of tasfir studies in al Azhar ash Sharif Tanta Branch he said that with a strong curriculum there is benefit but the student after finishing a full BA program needs at minimum 50 hours live contact time with scholars. This is to fill in gaps. As da’wah and education being a subset of da’wah becomes more commericialized it is necessary to critically evaluate the new postures and efforts in Islamic education in the West so that people are clear as to the realities of Islamic education. The foundation in Islamic education is contact in the live with Islamic scholars and the foundation in studying classical texts is to study these texts with the learned this also is the case with the Arabic language and Qur’anic memorization and recitation. Any other approach to this goes against what is foundational (khilaf al asl)and will require fine tuning.

The concern here is more with the psychology of the student than it is with the attempt to afford others sound and solid education according to ability. The student needs to be honest that enrolling in an online program is an attempt to close a gap but it is not the most effective way of learning least we have a generation of students convince themselves that they are scholars and not be prepared to handle what is demanded of scholars. Sound Islamic education is craftlike and in so being demands a student-master relationship that is not virtual but rather personal this is the foundation of Islamic education. Communicating literacy in Islamic sciences can be achieved a number of ways and of those is by way of online learning but being a faqih requires intimacy as well as reading classical texts. Online learning is much more effective with the use of contemporary scholarly texts as the amount of mastery in language skills and other sciences to deal with these works is less demanding than what is demanded when working with classical texts.

Another suggestion in refining online learning is to focus on developing intellectual skills, and a strong focus on how to study, and benefit and then that a system of account be put in place as many of our brothers have transformed online learning into entertainment and have lost the seriousness that learning demands. If we want to communicate quality learning and not just aim for business success then we need to consider the reality of the student. In my experience of teaching online it is the sisters who have brought the skills that pay the bills. The essence in Islamic learning will remain one on one live contact least we see disaster. As we saw that University education versus halaqa studied brought benefits as well as problems we will see that online learning too has its flaws in fact those flaws are clear to the experienced. The University system and online learning in its various forms ought compliment the halaqa circle rather than compete to eliminate it. In this way Islamic education will be dynamic and people have the chance to be honest with themselves and others.

Some students who study online or online institutions may see this post as an attack on the legitimacy of their efforts but by Allah (swt) as an online instructor it is far from that. We need to be honest and put sensitivity and ego aside for the sake of Islamic learning. The truth is that any respectable online educational system even in the West requires live contact time to accompany online learning. The essence is Islamic learning is live contact time anything other than that goes againt this foundation (khilaf al asl) and requires fine tuning particularly if the student has not mastered Arabic.

Wa Bi-Lahi at Taufeeq

Abul-Hussein

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