Marching to a different drummer

There was a time when the Queen of England ruled over what was called the British Empire. It ranged across the Atlantic to America towards the West, and across the Pacific to Australia in the East. There was a proud quote that "the sun never sets on the British Empire", and yet it did, although that is not the point of this blog.  The title is inspired from the British marching troops, a handsome sight as ever there was to see. However, every now and then, there used to be someone marching out of step, and he was reprimanded for looking like "marching to a different drummer", an expression meaning being out of sync, or different, in a negative way.

Today, the Islamic schools have come so far from the precepts of Islamic Education, that they seem to be marching to different drummers as well. Not only that, they seem to be marching in a direction quite far away from where they should be marching. It is not for lack of effort, or funds, or support, or enthusiasm, or abilities although each one of them might be a problem of sorts in different locations.  Rather it is a fundamental problem in understanding education in general, and Islamic education in particular. Let us see how.

There are four principles which would define success in a Muslim's life, and the contemporary Islamic education systems run contrary to all four of them, creating an environment in which teachers and learners, instead of achieving these principles of success, leave no stone unturned to oppose and diminish these principles, despite perhaps not really intending to do so.

The first principle is Character. The central goal of an Islamic educational system is to graduate children of good character,who can go out into the world to make it a better place.  Instead of this goal, undue emphasis is placed on marginal goals of the culture of Islam, as opposed to the religion of Islam, and children end up being taught to be hypocritical as a by product of this process. Having multiple faces in front of different people, parents, teachers and friends, so as not to upset the delicate balance between "worldly life" and "religious life".  So a child who jams with his friends and uses rap jargon, transforms into a "masha Allah, alhamdulillah" kid in front of a shariah compliant audience.  The use of skimpy outfits day to day, but a hijab at the Islamic school is perfectly normal. Although the two quoted examples maybe construed as oversimplification, they serve merely to illustrate a problem that has many shades. This seamless transition is much appreciated in our culture which values appearances over mettle, over and above the inherent goodness of character.  The challenge is not to be good intrinsically, but "why can't you be like so and so?" and "you are expected to behave like this in front of so and so".

The second principle is that all human beings are different, and this diversity is not only appreciated in Islam, it is enshrined in the Qur'an, that we should recognize and know that (Hujurat 49:13). Also, every individual is respected in Islam and grants us exclusive and personal relationship with the Creator, without need for mediation or intervention, regardless of our beliefs. And are given the opportunity till our last breath to come to terms with our beliefs and practices, and our situation in general.  Despite this, contemporary Islamic education systems, or for that matter any so-called Islamic system is based on conformity and homogeneity as its essential and overarching foundation. Either you are one of us, or you are a deviant, misguided wretch destined for hell-fire, and they are not talking about non-Muslims either, who, according to them are going to hell without doubt.  This problem is so widespread that one of my acquaintances recently concluded that if we take the fatwahs from all the differing opinion-holding groups across the Muslim thought spectrum, then the conclusion would be that all of us are bound for hell-fire. As if they believe that God destined all humans for hell-fire, except a select few.

Leaving aside the belief structure, the education system itself is focused on what learners can do across a very narrow spectrum. Examples of parents goals in an Islamic schools:

"I am happy if my child can get a 100 in Math and Science, and can read the Qur'an. Success in dunya and akhirah (this world and the Hereafter)" 

"I don't mind what my child's scores are, as long as he is Hafiz (has memorized the Qur'an)"

"I want my child to be as far from the kuffar (disbelievers??) as possible"

"Art and Music? Don't you know that they are haram(forbidden) in Islam"

 "Only Hanafis are on the right path, and the curriculum must be Hanafi" (you can replace the italicized words with a range of epithets, Shafi'i, Sufi, Shia, Salafi, Sunni,you name it.)

So if your stakeholders (and hence your paymasters) have demands like this, for sure the institution will have no interests in a holistic model of education, that is inclusive of diversity.

The third principle essential for a successful educational institution is curiosity.  A system should trigger, support, encourage and cultivate curiosity in learners and then watch how learning miraculously takes place. Sadly, our education systems are operating contrary to the Plutarchian precept of "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." Instead of focusing on inspiring this curiosity in our children, Muslim educational institutions (or for that matter most educational institutions) have transformed into information-delivery (or more eloquently curriculum-delivery) devices, where students are made to sit down and gobble volumes of information with little or no input from the students, and then expected to vomit the said information out at the time of testing.  Any questions are treated disdainfully, with contempt or severe judgement and the student's curious learning instincts are driven into submission, leaving them with little or no interest to pursue lifelong learning in that area.

The fourth, and in this context last principle is that of creativity. Allah created everything, and then vested His vicegerent, man, with the power of creativity.  All through ages man has used this ability (sultan) to traverse across oceans, deserts, mountains and even into outer space.  We have created works of art, music, architecture, literature, math theorems, scientific theories, medicinal marvels, engineering achievements, all due to the driving force imparted by creativity. A much vied for skill in the 21st Century, our modern Muslim education systems tear it out of our learners the moment they step out of line. We often say that children must be taught "how to think", not "what to think".   But in implementing, the students are forced into compliance within the boundaries of a standardized, watered down curriculum, and digression is often treated as transgression.  For example, this Ramadan, try making an orange or red colored Ramadan and Eid card instead of the usual green.  And the standardized learning process, resulting in standardized testing process, are the final nails in the coffin of a Muslim educational system, producing the likes of zombies ambling through their lives on auto-cruise mode, instead of the khalifah of Allah, responsible for administering the world and bringing positive change in it.

May Allah help us:)

A Madhouse, just like any other

The title of the post, inspired by a humorous but enlightening book "Managing the Educational Madhouse" by David Hellawell, may seem a bit out of place when talking about Islamic Education.  However, in my opinion, managing an Islamic educational institution, just like any other educational institution, is like managing a madhouse.  With the added complexity that by default every stakeholder believes himself/herself to be an expert whether they are or not.

Those of us who have been in this field for a decade or more, are humbled in the realization that there is so much to be done, and so much knowledge out there, that we would hardly ever be pompous enough to claim expertise.  However, much to our dismay, the frequency with which we encounter people with fixed convictions which are far from being grounded in fact, is far too high.

If merely being a Muslim would make us an expert in Islam, then by the same logic living in a house would make us an expert civil engineer or an architect. Then there would be no point having institutes of higher learning in deeniyat.

In the same vein, having being educated in a school does not make one an expert in education, much the same way that having fallen sick doesn't make us qualified enough to be a doctor.

Each discipline, whether Islam, or education, and more so Islamic Education needs proper diligence, perhaps including jumping through hoops and burning midnight oil in order to even arrive at a basic understanding, let alone touch the realms of expertise.

Having said that, we come back to the conventional challenges of managing an educational institution.

First of all, the 21st Century populace is enamored by systems, having been the beneficiaries of latest developments in science and technology, driven by complex systems.  Such people assume that every one is supposed to act as rational human beings, and that institutions/corporations/governments always work in the best interests of  people, and are managed by high quality and well-thought of plans and blue-prints, that are executed seamlessly in harmony with other cogs of this mighty and well-oiled machine called a system. However, nothing can be further from the truth.

Such perfect systems do not exist even in imaginal realms, let alone utopian.  In the real world, all institutions are full of imperfections in all processes in the Standard Operating Procedures of life, where emotions rule high, self-interest outweighs other considerations, and complex dynamics are at work that cannot be empirically explained even by the best proponents of chaos theories and the like. In the real world, rather than be dismayed by the effects of Murphy's law, when things go wrong, normal human beings get delighted, and take pride when things go as planned, or when a choreographed plan generally stays on course.

The problem of hyper-rationality is exacerbated in the world of teachers, because teachers are brought up believing that every problem is soluble. With the belief that for every question, there is an answer, and that the answer is at the back of the book (and in the words of Sir Ken Robinson "you cannot look, because that is cheating, even though in real world it is called collaboration").  And since principals are almost invariable cut from the same cloth, or have evolved climbing up the ladder of "teacherness", they hold fast to this conviction that every problem must have a solution, and when they cannot find one, they get stressed out and throw everyone else off track as well.

As far as problems having solutions is concerned, anyone who has spend a day living life as a mature individual would beg to differ.  Puzzles have solutions, toy problems have answers, real world problems almost never have a clear-cut, black and white answer or solution. That is what makes life what it is, otherwise life could be taught in a class-room instead of being lived. Or there would be an online course for it.

The core challenge in an Islamic Education is to set the course, and then stay the course.  Having specified the goals of an Islamic Education system, we should set the course, and get everyone involved on board, and spend the rest of the year steering to stay on track, and make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction, with the same understanding notwithstanding differences in convictions and strength.

Problems and challenges thrown your way are meant to be faced, just like we would face a storm mid-course. You can imagine if instead of carrying on our journey, we pause in our tracks, and channel our energies to stop the storm? Would that make more sense than carrying on braving the storm?

And any number of setbacks should not deter us from our goals. Allahu musta'an.

The Artificial Dichotomy

In order to fully grasp the nature of Islamic education and its problems in the present day and age, it is important to understand the existing systems of education.

Muslim countries in general have a dichotomous system of education. One, going back hundreds of years, which encompass our religious schools (the madrasah or the pesantren), with the central objective of producing imams, teachers of religion or in the best case scenario, scholars.  The second, a relatively recent by product of the colonial era, in which lie our public schools, and universities, with the central objective of producing a nation's workforce in all aspects of our lives other than religion.  Granted that there have been efforts of one to try to incorporate the other, but in general the efforts, and their results have been rather limited.  The systems have run in parallel, and integration has not yet been proven successful.

Both systems, or approaches, have their pros and cons, but it should be clear that any one of them, alone by itself, has not proven sufficient to cater the needs of Muslims, whether as individuals, or as nations. The traditionalists have tried to hold on to the religious schools, as if being in a position of withstanding an attack on religion itself.  And this, in our opinion, is incorrect, because these systems themselves are not rooted in the pristine Islamic tradition, where there was no dichotomy, but rather if we study closely, they are a late medieval, or in many countries, a post-medieval phenomenon.  The modernists have held on to the so called "secular" systems of education, in hope of bringing us successfully into the 21st Century.  There has been limited success to this end, but the cost, in terms of erosion of our values and creating a chasm between the essential facets of life, has been alarmingly excessive.

Hence, our thesis is that an ideal Islamic education system should not be bifurcated, but rather integrated, and hence be able to completely eradicate this artificial, yet fatal, dichotomy, which is based on a lopsided world-view.

Graduates from our educational institutions should be well equipped to handle their responsibilities as good human beings. This will include good character,  and a holistic approach towards religion incorporating all facets of human endeavor, without separating the "deen" from the "duniya". 

Goals: Student Profle

For an Islamic Education initiative to be successful, the goals have to be clearly specified upfront. Lack of goals, or the improper definition of goals can have a detrimental impact on the success of an Islamic Education system, just like it is with any other endeavor.

One of the most important goals, in our opinion, is what we envision to be the profile of graduates from such a system/institution. A profile can vary from institution to institution, and can be detailed, or brief. We propose the following profile, based on our understanding:

1. Spiritual Health: The first, most desirable and perhaps the most ambitious goal that we should aim for in our graduates is to possess the profile of a mu’min, as per the Qur’anic definition and thus explicitly possessing strong spirituality, demonstrated by a strong positive relationship with Allah, love for the Prophet () and a desire to emulate his character yet at the same time possessing awareness of their weaknesses and limitations, and how to mitigate them.
2. Knowledge of the Deen: Our graduate should possess sufficient knowledge, understanding and internalization of shari’ah, including, but not restricted to, the ability to apply it for daily ‘ibadah, al ahwal shakhsiyyah, and at the same time possess competency in Islamic customs such as doa’, recitation, delivering khutbah, leading prayers etc.
3. Character: Good character or akhlaq, is central to the profile of our graduate student, including personal character such as love, honesty, maturity, emotional stability, social skills, awareness of their cultural and religious identity and overall commitment to perform ‘amal salih individually, as well as for the betterment of the world, including the environment and society as a whole.
4. Thinking Ability: The first trait in what can be construed as academic ability is for the student to be able to think, and be knowledgeable in one or more areas, while possessing a broad range of general knowledge. Our graduates' intellectual curiosity will fuel their passion/goal to seek knowledge, and strong academic/research capability will assist them in achieving this goal.
5. Relationship with Art:  Our graduates should have a healthy relationship with art, including ability to appreciate and enjoy art works, comfortable in one or more fine and performing arts, and skillful in one or more art forms.  They should also be aware of the art forms explicitly forbidden, as well as those frowned upon, and should abstain from them instrinsically.
6. Recognition of their own talents:  Our graduates should necessarily be aware of their talents and dispositions, and also possess a diverse range of interests and vocational skills/soft skills including  business and entrepreneurial skills, communication skills, leadership skills, high quality and achievement standards, decision making and problem solving skills, the 21st Century Skillset, and self-management skills.
7. Fitness: Our graduates should be physically fit, with interest in pursuing and enjoying physical activities and sports, and the same time willing and able to develop competence and achievement in one or more such activities.
   
   
   

Challenges in Islamic Education

Every civilization faces challenges, and the Muslim civilization (if we dare say), is no different. The challenges are congruent to the civilization's position on the supposed "graph" / Bell Curve of civilizational growth and decay.

An overview of the world history over the past couple of millennia is enlightening and humbling at the same time. The pattern of coming and going of civilizations, stares at our faces, with the question, why? From the Mesopotamian to Greek , Egyptian and Indian to Chinese, Persian and Roman to Muslim, and not too far back in the annals of history, to an Empire on which the sun supposedly never set - the British.

Scholars like Ibn Khaldun, or Gibbon/Toynbee  to more recent Homer-Dixon argue on various facets of civilization and their role in the decline of civilizations and nation-states.  Whether we agree with their conclusions or not, they have a case in arguing that all civilizations go through phases of growth, development, and decline.

And then there is also hope in civilizational resurgence, defined by a re-examining of worldviews, as well as adapting to a changing world.  For the past several decades, Islamic civilization is facing the labour pains, but is yet to be reborn, let alone shed the umblical cord of the colonial era. The Arabic spring was when it was thought that the water broke, but it is apparent that if the baby of Islamic resurgence is born now, it might be premature.

The recurring cycle shows us that change happens, and perhaps will continue to happen. As illustrated in a famous quote about the imminence of change, "all we must do now, is to lead the world to a brighter day. . . For we have lived in darkness for far too long."

Leading the Muslim civilization, or for that matter any civilization, let alone the world, to a brighter day may be easier said than done considering the enormous complexities of such an endeavour.  It also raises difficult, but pertinent questions. For instance, can we define a civilization as a homogenous monolithic entity, or a loose federation of heterogeneous nation states? Can a civilization insulate itself to create a sense of identity? Should it ? Or can a civilization shed its cultural baggage and embrace the winds of change, at the risk of losing itself in the crowd?

There may be endless debate on this issue, but it is our view that no civilization can survive in isolation insulating its interactions from the rest of the world, and that it has hardly been the approach of successful civilizations across history. It is also our opinion that shedding our cultural genes in the name of progress/embracing change is a death blow not only to our civilization, but to our individuality as well.

We propose that any change in the declining fortunes of the Muslim civilization cannot be achieved without due emphasis on education.  Hence, reforming education in the Muslim world is one of the appropriate steps in the right direction.  In the words of Sir Ken Robinson, a leading educator of our times, there is no country that is not reforming their systems of education, whether for economic or cultural reasons. Change is not only happening, but unavoidable, and we daresay welcome. However, the magnitude and direction of this change needs to be coherently established or if it is there, then drastically reformed.

We put it to our readers that to bring about a resurgence of Muslim Civilization, we need to overhaul the Islamic Education systems, in many ways, notably:

1. The Goals of Islamic Education need to be defined/re-looked at.
2. Educators in Islamic Education need to be re-educated to these goals, whether it is teachers, administrators or the parents.
3. The profile of a graduate from an Islamic Educational System needs to be created, and adhered to as one of the overarching goals.
4. The systems of pedagogy need to be brought up to pace with the rest of the world.
5. Islamic Education systems need to be independent, and self-sustaining.
6. The Islamic Education system must be linked to a society that shares the goals and ideals of this education system. This being the most difficult to achieve, being of the "chicken or egg" kind.

The overarching goal of this blog is to share ideas to this effect.