All students, but particularly female seekers, face strong challenges in the pursuit of sacred knowledge.
While seemingly an individual endeavor, the pursuit of sacred knowledge is a selfless one, a quest for the good of humanity and a contribution to the collective corpus of Islamic learning compiled since the prophetic era.
This intellectual philanthropy, the spread of benefit beyond one’s self, is what raises the rank of a scholar above that of a worshipper. Students learn to serve. Teachers teach to become a drop in that ocean.
It is a commonly known problem that scholars, in the absence of state or institution-based endowments, face immense challenges in terms of sustainability and directive. Even as the aims of Islamic scholarship remain elevated to the ethereal, the scarcity of worldly means threatens to ground intellectual freedom.
It is also a concerning trend that most teachers employ their efforts in many of the same spheres of service, often leading to competitive attitudes in an arena where cooperation should reign.
The scholars of old embodied a unique prophetic ethos.
This was transmitted to students, along with sacred knowledge, through direct teaching and by example.
The importance of adab was so strongly emphasized that later generations of scholars began authoring works specifically related to Islamic ethics.
The giants of the past walked upon this earth humbly yet left a deep imprint. Sadly, contemporary times have seen a reversal of demeanor and impact.
True knowledge is the union between the content of theory, the context of the earthly, and the reality of the celestial. Wherein the three converge, sacred knowledge is found.
While the dictates of fiqh produce monotones of black, white, and grey, the Islamic civilization draws upon a full palette of color.
Deep contextual and historical understanding yield an artistic blend of the elegant colors of the Islamic tradition with the bold colors of the modern context.
The role of a scholar is to actualize the celestial in the heart, to absorb theory in the mind, and to envision in the earthly. Lack of proper conceptualization in any of these realms renders a dissonance of the sacred.
When this role is left unfulfilled, communities lack the guidance needed to practically promote religious objectives. When scholarship becomes a merely sedentary pursuit, disembodied from its celestial or earthly context, likewise, it fails to perform its function.
In fulfilling the comprehensive needs of religious communities, both men and woman must be accorded access to the highest standards of Islamic education.
The scholarly human resource is the greatest of our collective assets. Replenishing this reservoir and, in corollary, diversion of means to that end, should be among the highest priorities of the Umma.
Yet, while excelling in almost every secular field on earth, women continue to lag in the field of traditional Islamic scholarship.
Removing obstacles is our specialty.
COMING SOON