Toward Ma’ruf: Restoring The Standard Constitution of our Life as an Islamic Community

This series of posts entitled Toward Ma’ruf*, is meant to engage any who care deeply about the future of humanity and to share writings on the topic of education, along with this author’s thoughts on how Believers might strive toward establishing a universally recognizable standard of excellence in education.

“So stand firm as you have been commanded, along with those who turn with you. And do not transgress. Indeed, He is watchful of what you do.” (Quran 11:112)

“Our guidance is the teaching of the Qur'an. But if we would select certain principles of behavior – understand that behavior covers more than just how you move physically or how you move morally. Behavior also covers how you think. Muslims have their own way of thinking. And if you are behaving wrongly it's because you are thinking wrongly most likely. So we have to establish what is proper Muslim behavior and it should begin with a rational[e] that holds for us the belief and outlooks of Muslims. The belief and outlook of the Muslims. Because this world is writing philosophies for us. This world is establishing principles for us to believe in, ideas for us to believe in. And then this world is establishing viewpoints for us. They have established a way that we are to look at reality, ourselves and the external world. But we can't buy that from the world. We can't introduce the philosophy of the western society into our school, we won't be Muslims anymore.

“So the heavy responsibility of the Muslim educators in this community is the responsibility to extract from the Qur'an, and from the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) the proper idea, the proper ideology, the proper way to look at the external world of reality, and the proper way to approach whatever you have to approach”. ~Imam W Deen Mohammed. Sedalia, NC 1982

---

---

As a Muslim American parent and educator born in 1975 under the leadership of Imam W D Mohammed to parents who were themselves educators and inheritors of a legacy of commitment to education and the establishment of community life, I have a great stake in, and accept responsibility for the pursuit of the enduringness of the Clara Mohammed School system as a critical component of the flourishing of our Muslim American community life. To that end, I believe that in order to honor the work of our pioneers and those educators and community members who established and who continue to work toward the viability of our school system, we must take an unflinching look at where we are and use the Quran to correct our course so that we can move with assuredness and clarity toward our shared destiny.

Part I of this series begins with an urgent call to reflection and action. It reminds us to consider the sources of our challenges and encourages us to complete the foundational work necessary to make our schools worthy of their namesake and worthy of our future.

Reflecting on the needs of our school system, one of Imam W D Mohammed's devoted students recently shared the following:

“We have Clara Mohammed Schools in various cities. The Clara Mohammed School began in our community as the University of Islam in the time of the Nation of Islam and the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammed. When Imam W D Mohammed became leader in 1975, shortly thereafter the schools that were once called University of Islam were renamed Sister Clara Mohammed School. Now what I'm going to say right now is going to be considered somewhat controversial. I know that there will be people who [will] argue with me or disagree with me, but I believe that it is correct and I would argue the point in terms of defending my understanding of it, and that is that Imam W Deen Mohammed’s philosophy of education has never been established in the Clara Mohammed School curriculum. It has influenced teachers and there have been educators, teachers and administrators who have been directly influenced by Imam W Deen Mohammed, but the curriculum, the foundation of the curriculum that is necessary to establish the institution in the way that Islamic education is to be focused according to Imam W D Mohammed’s teaching has not ever happened and, I would go also as far as to say there have been influences in the form of individuals who have wanted to diminish Imam W Deen Mohammed’s influence in the forming of a curriculum for the schools. Subtle movements have been made, you know, subtle, something that the conscious mind might not register right away.

It takes time, a sensitivity registers these changes, but slowly we have seen schools closing. That’s an indication. It’s not just a financial issue; it’s not just an economic issue with regard to schools not having money to sustain themselves. You see in some cases that's an excuse, but the real reason is that Imam W Deen Mohammed philosophy of education is not supported, and for the most part, there are some very special individuals, very special educators that this does not apply to, but for the most part, the institutions that are referred to as Clara Mohammed schools do not support Imam W Deen Mohammed’s vision of education and philosophy of education. They don’t believe that he offered them a philosophy of education and they prefer and are more comfortable with their own tradition of education and academics and they also prefer the school model of other people.

Now, that does not suggest or mean to say that the products of these schools are not honorable and beautiful products of our institutions. They are, because the products of the school are not just a product of the school influence itself, but also a product of Muslim community existence and life. So what is bearing on the students is not just the school, but the will of the good of the people and what they support and what they live for and what they focus. So in that way these institutions are important and necessary and we should support them.

But going forward, the standard curriculum must be rewritten. The textbooks must be rewritten. And we have to have the courage to literally get rid of what existed before that is not serving the life properly, and challenge ourselves to rewrite the curriculum and to form a suitable philosophical foundation, based on and developed from the teaching of Imam W D Mohammed. Then we will have a viable institution, viable institutions that are really serving our life properly. That’s not to say that those institutions won't acknowledge and take from what is best in terms of philosophy of education, what is best from all over the world that serves the good life of Islamic community.

Human life develops and grows upon the good. So wherever we see the good and the benefit and what G-d intended us to have -we should eat from that, we should take from that. Imam W D Mohammed’s philosophy IS to take from what is best; take from what is good. Take the best of all of that we see but focus it properly. And that which is original to us, emphasize that! Put that in focus.

The scholarship of the Muslim world in some ways is of benefit to us. In other ways it can be damaging, depending on what we are looking at and depending on how it is interpreted. Philosophies of life and education and what is called Islam can be introduced into our schools in the spirit of educational process, but without a core philosophy to filter that information, we might be creating trouble for ourselves. I would say that the decline in our institutions is more a reflection of the spirit of our leadership not to support Imam W Deen Mohammed’s vision for education than it is what they claim - that we don't have resources.

The Honorable Elijah Mohammed’s following was a poor following. They were not people with wealth. They were without material wealth and they were not worldly informed people and for the most part they were illiterate, uneducated people. In spite of those circumstances they produced and lived for the production of and establishment of educational institutions, and those educational institutions were viable and productive and they produced a leadership mind that has influenced positively the direction of the African American people and also America and the world. So, to make the argument that our schools are closing because we don't have the resources to support them, is not truthful.

It is the will and intent of leaders who have abandoned and were hypocritical themselves to Imam W Deen Mohammed’s leadership that is the root cause of the trouble for the decline of our educational institutions in these cities. Have we become less wealthy? No. We’ve become more wealthy. It has nothing to do with educational resources. It has to do with emphasis. Moving away from what is the standard construction or constitution of our life as an Islamic community favoring other things over what is most important, what is the core.”