بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله مدبر الليالى والأيام،
ومصرف الشهور والأعوام،
الملك القدوس السلام،
المتفرد بالبقاء والعظمة والدوام،
المتتنزه عن النقائص ومشابهة الأنام، والصلاة والسلام عل خير الانام
Assalaamu alaykum warahmatullaah wabarakaatuh
You are all welcome to this session of the Halqah. May Allah make it beneficial, rewarding and blessed for all of us, aameen
We have seen two halaqaats on Classical Learning in Islam and we have discussed the methodology espoused on certain principles and guidelines that were used. We also mentioned that they divided the phases of learning into three nd we have discussed the first Phase: Grammar Phase, at the end of this Phase, the child is expected to have put to memory most of the information that we would need in the later years of his study and is now ready to move on.
The Ulamaa would refer to that phase in their Books as:
الطالب المبتدي
That is the Beginner student.
The second Phase is the Dialectic or Logic.
It covers the period within which the child’s cognition begins to grow and develop. Now the child has begin to pick and assimilate. He tries to be inquisitive. Always putting the question mark on everything. It is important here to allow the child or student to gain confidence by making him present his questions. The student must be exposed here to the comprehension of much of what he has learnt in the earlier phase.
In our Madaaris, at this Phase, the Ulamaa would teach and expose the child to the Tools of Scholarship which includes the details of the Arabic Language, the Sciences if Usul Al-Fiqh, Mustalih, etc
It is important here also to ensure that the student gets used to writing, perfects composition, is good at comprehension, and understands texts of both Poetry and Prose.
The Ulamaa would call this phase that of the Mutawassitin. Some Ulamaa place the age bracket between 10 and 13/14
The third phase is RHETORIC.
That is when the student is trained to be able to initiate and engage in deep discussions, to be able to form concrete opinions, and to synthesize information. It is at this phase that he is made to put together all he has learnt in the earlier phases and use the tools of scholarship that he has perfected to accomplish true scholarship. The Ulamaa said:
This training, meaning the training at this phase, continues till death
While others said: The active training phase here – given the solid background that has been given in the two earlier phases – ends at 21 maximum and that any coercive instruction from the teacher to his student after 21 would only make the student feel humiliated and may affect his psychology and confidence.
We have so far discussed the Phases. What is left is an overview of the entire methodology used by our Madaaris, and then to take a glimpse into the lives of some of them.
We shall inshaaAllaah pause here to complete the topic tomorrow.
الحمد لله رب العالمين
