Students are hopefully returning to schools and universities for a new academic year. How can students approach their learning in the best way and with minimum stress?
Firstly, let’s remember the real reason for learning. You have probably been told that we learn in order to pass an exam and if I asked you why you wanted to do that, you might say to go to a good school, to get a good job and to help your family or other people. These are some of the benefits of learning, but these are not the real or ultimate reasons for learning according to Islamic teaching. The real reason is to be able to know Allah. Of course, we cannot know Allah Himself, because He is not like anything we can see or imagine. However, we can know him through studying his creation and learning about the world around us, trying to find out the truth about things and thinking deeply. The Arabic word for world عَالم means something through which Allah can be known – that it is full of signs (علامات و آيات) that point towards Him.
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآيَاتٍ لِّأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَاطِلًا سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
“Indeed in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day are signs for those of understanding. Those who remember Allah, standing and sitting and on their sides, and think deeply and often about the creation of the of the heavens of the earth.” (3:190-1)
There are many verses in the Qur’an which proved an impetus to the development of scholarship in the Muslim world.
By studying the world and trying to understand what you are doing here and what it is all about, we are able to come to know the Creator. It might seem surprising that subjects which are nothing to do with religion specifically might help us to know Allah. For example, language sciences developed in order to understand the Qur’an correctly, and Islam was the first of the Abrahamic religions to develop the dictionary. You might ask for example, how verbal reasoning helps you to know Allah. I would say: through helping you to learn how to think clearly and distinguish right from wrong. If we approach learning in this way, then all learning should be a blessing, even if we don’t pass an exam, and everything that happens to us can be learning.
Allah is our real teacher – our Rabb, Lord – and one of the meanings of this is the One who gives us everything we need to learn and develop. You must not worry about getting into any particular school or university, as if you think that Allah cannot guide you unless you are at that school, or that getting in to that school will solve all your problems. Allah is the one who guides us and teaches us. The Qur’an tells us to say, “guidance is the guidance of Allah” and whoever He guides won’t get misled, but whoever he misleads, nobody can guide him.
This shows the student the real key to knowledge does not lie within himself but with Allah. There are so many stumbling blocks to acquiring knowledge. For example, we could read a book, but not take any of it in, or understand it, or remember it, or apply it. This is clear from many Qur’anic verses:
سَأَصْرِفُ عَنْ آيَاتِيَ الَّذِينَ يَتَكَبَّرُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ وَإِن يَرَوْا كُلَّ آيَةٍ لَّا يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَا وَإِن يَرَوْا سَبِيلَ الرُّشْدِ لَا يَتَّخِذُوهُ سَبِيلًا وَإِن يَرَوْا سَبِيلَ الْغَيِّ يَتَّخِذُوهُ سَبِيلًا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا وَكَانُوا عَنْهَا غَافِلِينَ.
I shall turn from My signs those who wax proud in the earth unjustly; though they see every sign, they will not believe in it, and though they see the way of rectitude they will not take it for a way, and though they see the way of error, they will take it for a way. That, because they have cried lies to Our signs and heeded them not.’ (7:146)
لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ آذَانٌ لَّا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ كَالْأَنْعَامِ.. بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْغَافِلُونَ
…for them are hearts they do not understand with and for them are eyes they do not see with and for them are ears they do not listen with and they are like cattle, nay further astray, and they are heedless (7:149)
وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَسْتَمِعُ إِلَيْكَ ۖ وَجَعَلْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ أَكِنَّةً أَن يَفْقَهُوهُ وَفِي آذَانِهِمْ وَقْرًا ۚ وَإِن يَرَوْا كُلَّ آيَةٍ لَّا يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَا ۚ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوكَ يُجَادِلُونَكَ يَقُولُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا أَسَاطِيرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ
ِAnd amongst them those who listen to you and we have placed covers on their hearts blocking them from understanding and in their ears (6:25)
And some of them there are that listen to thee, and We lay veils upon their hearts lest they understand it, and in their ears heaviness; and if they see any sign whatever, they do not believe in it, so that when they come to thee they dispute with thee, the unbelievers saying, ‘This is naught but the fairy-tales of the ancient ones.
أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَٰهَهُ هَوَاهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِ غِشَاوَةً فَمَن يَهْدِيهِ مِن بَعْدِ اللَّهِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ
Have you seen one who took as his god his own desires? And Allah led him astray despite his knowledge, and sealed his hearing and his heart and made his sight a veil. Who guides other than Allah? Are they not reminded? (46:23)
These verse make it clear that even if we have a lot of knowledge, Allah can seal us from any aspect of learning or misguide us through it.
Imam Shafi complained about his memory, so asked his teacher about it, and the great Shafi then wrote some poetry about his advice:
شَكَوْتُ إِلَى وَكِيعٍ سُوءَ حِفْظِي… فَأَرْشَنِي إِلَى تَرْكِ الْمَعَاصِي
I complained to Waki about my bad memory – so he advised me to abandon disobedience
وَقَالَ بِأَنَّ الْعِلْمَ نُورٌ … وَنُورُ اللهِ لَا يُؤتَاهُ عَاصِي
And he said to me that knowledge is a light – And the light of Allah is not granted to the disobedient.
So be humble, and try to avoid wrong-doing if you want to the veils from your heart which make correct understanding impossible. Ask Allah to teach you, and to increase your knowledge.
If you are a good student, then do not let this make you arrogant. Allah says in the Qur’an,
فَإِذَا مَسَّ الْإِنسَانَ ضُرٌّ دَعَانَا ثُمَّ إِذَا خَوَّلْنَاهُ نِعْمَةً مِّنَّا قَالَ إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ ۚ بَلْ هِيَ فِتْنَةٌ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
When a human being is afflicted with harm he calls on us. Then, if we give him a blessing from us, he says, “I was given this because of my knowledge.” On the contrary, it is a test, but however most of them do not know. (39:49) Education and academic ability doesn’t make you better than anyone else unless it also gives you a beautiful character and makes you a better person. Otherwise your education will be an argument against you rather than for you. Our Prophet, peace be upon him, could not read, but he was the best in character, and was given the most knowledge of all from Allah himself. In surah 13:49, Allah tells us, “We created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you can get to know each other. Indeed, the most noble of you with Allah are the ones who have most Taqwa (respect for Allah and fear of doing bad things).” You can see from this that what makes people stand out from the outstanding is not being male, or female, or from this country or that country, or education, or wealth, but from having taqwah alone. You can also see from this that Allah wants us to get to know each other. From this ayat, the Persians took the Arabic word for getting to know each other, (ta3aaruf) and used it mean good manners itself.
It is interesting that the word docile literally means teachable in Latin. What is the connection between learning and docility? This might sound surprising when we are encouraged to be critical thinkers. The very dynamic of academia is the testing and refinement of ideas and where there is a high premium placed upon originality. However. first we need to listen carefully and with an open mind, avoiding knee jerk reactions. You cannot put anything in a pot that is full. Even if we dislike a theory, or the author of it, we should first focus upon understanding it properly and fairly. Sometimes people try to scare us into not listening to others with an open mind by slandering them. This happened to the Prophet, when the Quraish told Hajj pilgrims that they should not listen to him because he bewitched people. A man called Tufayl was so worried about this that he put earplugs in his ears. However, some Qur’an still got through, and he realised that the message was not scary at all. He went to listen to the prophet and accepted Islam.
Even if we disagree with somebody, we should still listen carefully and try and understand their point of view. Al-Ghazali wrote a book critiquing philosophy called the Incoherence of the Philosophers. However, he only did that after he had researched the philosophy of his age and presented their theories in a book which was used as a textbook by the philosophers themselves, so fair and accurate was it.
Learning is meant to be difficult and to take time. Not all answers can be acquired instantly. وأن ليس للإنسان إلا ما سعى the human only gets what he struggles for (53:39). A good student is someone who thinks about their mistakes, learns from them, and tries to correct and improve. If you fire an arrow at a target, and you miss, then you change the angle and the way you pull at the bow, time after time, until you get closer and closer to the target. Mistakes are steps on the road to the right answer and an opportunity to improve.
If you would like to learn more about traditional Islamic ideas about knowledge, then this is a link to the Book of Knowledge, the first book of Al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ Uloom ud-Din or Revivification of the Human Sciences. It discusses what knowledge is as well as the characteristics of students and teachers.
