Provisions
As parents who are educating their children, how do we reconcile the reality that our life in this world is transitory, and that true realization will be accompanied by understanding when the veil has been lifted (i.e. when we depart from this world)?
No sensible individual would avail themselves to the dangers of travel without provisions and preparation, so why then do we (as the responsible agents of our children) repeatedly send them forth unprepared to the appointed meeting with their Creator?
Indeed, secular knowledge has its benefits; there is no disputing this point. But we must contemplate the following question: “are we preparing our children with the provisions required for the journey that is infinitely more important than their present travels”?
Every individual bares a Divinely legislated responsibility, as made clear by the following Prophetic tradition: Ibn Umar (may God be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardian-ship. The leader is a guardian, and the man is a guardian over the people of his house, and the woman is a guardian over her husband's house and children. So each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardianship". (Bukhari, Muslim)
As parents we need to transcend the myopic approach of adhering strictly to academic issues and testing based solely upon compulsory educational standards. With regard to our children it is imperative that we return to the primary objective of education-- providing the tools and opportunity for students to develop into complete human beings who can engage the world with integrity, virtue and compassion, and who will be well informed and comprehend the transitory nature of this abode.
Thus, I remind myself of this timeless advice: “the knowledge which secures salvation and felicity in the Hereafter is immeasurably more significant and useful than any science whose purpose is mere immediate physical well-being”. “Knowledge, then, used appropriately becomes wisdom…wisdom is the force of penetration and discernment of the mind, the ability to place everything in its precisely appropriate location, in the precisely appropriate manner, at the precisely appropriate time. It is also the ability to put first things first, never to allow the ephemeral to obscure the path to the eternal, nor the contingent to take priority over the essential”. [1]
No sensible individual would avail themselves to the dangers of travel without provisions and preparation, so why then do we (as the responsible agents of our children) repeatedly send them forth unprepared to the appointed meeting with their Creator?
Indeed, secular knowledge has its benefits; there is no disputing this point. But we must contemplate the following question: “are we preparing our children with the provisions required for the journey that is infinitely more important than their present travels”?
Every individual bares a Divinely legislated responsibility, as made clear by the following Prophetic tradition: Ibn Umar (may God be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardian-ship. The leader is a guardian, and the man is a guardian over the people of his house, and the woman is a guardian over her husband's house and children. So each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardianship". (Bukhari, Muslim)
As parents we need to transcend the myopic approach of adhering strictly to academic issues and testing based solely upon compulsory educational standards. With regard to our children it is imperative that we return to the primary objective of education-- providing the tools and opportunity for students to develop into complete human beings who can engage the world with integrity, virtue and compassion, and who will be well informed and comprehend the transitory nature of this abode.
Thus, I remind myself of this timeless advice: “the knowledge which secures salvation and felicity in the Hereafter is immeasurably more significant and useful than any science whose purpose is mere immediate physical well-being”. “Knowledge, then, used appropriately becomes wisdom…wisdom is the force of penetration and discernment of the mind, the ability to place everything in its precisely appropriate location, in the precisely appropriate manner, at the precisely appropriate time. It is also the ability to put first things first, never to allow the ephemeral to obscure the path to the eternal, nor the contingent to take priority over the essential”. [1]
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[1] Badawi, Mostafa, trans. [Fusul al-‘Ilmiyah wa-al-usul al hikmiyah], Knowledge and Wisdom. Chicago: The Starlatch Press, 2001
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