Notes of the presentation “Developing Islamic identity and creating leaders”

As promised, here are the notes of my presentation titled, “Developing Islamic identity and creating leaders” that I presented at the 1st Annual ISAC Ed Conference on June 4, 2023 at Ajax, Ontario.

Here are some highlights from the presentation to jog your memory:

“Use the foundation you already have to get closer to perfect.”

Don’t start from scratch! Every Islamic school has some things that we are doing right and some things that need to be realigned. We do not need to overhaul the whole system. Additionally, we have a 1400 plus years of rich history and success stories. But more importantly, we have the Qur’an!

WWMD?

What would Muhammad ﷺ do? We reflected over how the Prophet ﷺ with Allah’s ﷻ Guidance transformed the Arabs from a nation that was annihilating each other through inter-generation vengeful warfare and drowning in several darknesses to a nation that was united under the banner of Tawhid and became the beacon of hope, progress, and prosperity for the entire world for many centuries to come.

Education in Islam

What is the concept of education in the Qur’an? Education according to Al-Attas in his book Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education consists of three terms: 1. Tarbiyah (تربيه), 2. Ta’lim (تعليم), 3. Ta’dib (تأديب). We explored the concept of tarbiyah in more detail through an interactive activity.

Focus of Education

Secular education focuses primarily on the cognitive domain. It is about the development of the brain. Think about Bloom’s taxonomy. Even though Benjamin Bloom developed a taxonomy for other domains, contemporary secular education focuses only on the cognitive. What is the focus of education in the Qur’an?

The Qur’an focuses on the qalb (hear). The word Qalb is mentioned 132 times in the Qur’an. Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ is reported to have said that in the body there is a piece of flesh which, if it is sound, the entire body will be sound, but if it is corrupt, the entire body is corrupt, verily it is the heart. Teaching is indeed a work of the heart!

Many of us use cognitively informed strategies in our classrooms. Can we directly apply strategies that focus on the development of the brain to the heart? In other words, will we be comfortable allowing the heart surgeon to operate on us using the tools of a neurosurgeon? But that is what we do on a daily basis with our students!

Education must emancipate

Examined how Paulo Freire emphasized the emancipatory role of education in his book Pedagogy of the oppressed. He argued that the purpose of education was for learners to gain agency to challenge oppressive systems and improve their lives. He contented that we need to break away or realign the way we teach because the very tools we use to teach were developed to maintain the status quo that is oppressive to us. The role of education in Islam is also to free us from oppression and all kinds of darknesses and bring us into the light of Divine Guidance (See Quran, Chapter 2, Verse 257).

The Triple-T Tarbiyah Framework

We then spent some time exploring the question, “What verses in the Qur’an describe the steps the Prophet ﷺ took to transform his people?” We identified steps, 1. Tilawah (تِلَاوَة), 2. Tazkiyah (تزكية), and 3. Ta’lim (تـعـلـيـم). These three steps form the overarching steps of the dynamic tarbiyah framework. We then examined how Allah used these steps to train the Prophet . We also looked at how these steps align with some popular theories of learning in education such as the Bloom’s Taxonomy and the 5E Learning Cycle.

The presentation concluded with a message of hope citing verse 40 of Chapter 9 in the Quran.