A PEDAGOGIC MASTERCLASS: IBRAHĪM AND LUQMĀN
I’m a father of three: Yusuf, Suhaib and Maryam—and like all fathers, I frequently err. And so, giving them divine pedagogy at times seems hypocritical. But I’m then reminded: ‘Humanity was created weak’ [4:28], ‘Allah loves the penitent and those who strive to purify themselves’ [2.222], and ‘And remind; the Reminder profits the believers’ [51:55].
Hence, I’ve tried to be balanced by owning and admitting my errors to Allāh and them. This approach allows me to offer my children a more honest and authentic version of me, not some saintly fraud. In turn, it helps them admit their faults, too, and keeps us accountable to each other.
Not setting unattainable standards of human perfection creates a more fertile habitat for repentance, purity of heart, and less judgment of each other. It also saves us from the pit of hypocrisy.
I believe the following two pedagogic examples to be sufficient as a creed for parental guidance.
Luqmān’s guidance has two critical warnings, shirk (associating partners with God), the greatest of all sins, and the dangers of pride, which led to Iblis’ fall from grace. In this poignant address to his beloved son, he endearingly shares the highest wisdom:
“Luqmān counselled his son, ‘My son, do not attribute any partners to God: attributing partners to Him is a terrible wrong. My son, even if hidden were the weight of a mustard seed, whether in a rock or anywhere in the heavens or earth, God would bring it [to light], for He is all subtle and all aware. Keep up the prayer, my son; command what is right; forbid what is wrong; bear anything that happens to you steadfastly: these are things to be aspired to. Do not turn your nose up at people, nor walk about the place arrogantly, for God does not love arrogant or boastful people. Go at a moderate pace and lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is the braying of asses'” [31:13 & 6-19].
Abraham, the great Patriarch and father of the prophetic lines teaches his disbelieving father and townspeople, and in turn, us, many centuries later, who God is. In simple yet striking pedagogy, he delivers monotheism at its most clarion. His message is straightforward for all, even children, to understand. So beloved to him was God that Allāh named him Khalīl-Allāh—the intimate friend of God [4:125]:
‘[It is the Lord of the Worlds] Who created me. It is He who guides me; He who gives me food and drink; He who cures me when I am ill; He who will make me die and then give me life again; And He who will, I hope, forgive my faults on the Day of Judgement’ [26:78-82].
PROTECTION FROM SPIRITUAL PRIDE
Saydunā Abū Bakr (ra) loved the Prophet (s) the most. It was an exuberant love that coursed untamed through his veins and scarred a delta in his heart. So fierce was his love for the Prophet (s) that he submitted to Muhammad’s Prophethood without question and never doubted his ascension.
But he loved Allah more.
When the Prophet (s) died, and everyone fell into a stupor, Abū Bakr (ra) said:
‘Whoever worshipped Muhammad, then Muhammad is dead, but whoever worshipped Allāh, then Allāh is Alive and shall never die.’
Afterwards, he recited two verses (39:30 & 3:144), ‘(O Muhammad) Verily you will die, and they also will die’ and ‘Muhammad is only a messenger before whom many messengers have been and gone. If he died or was killed, would you revert to your old ways? If anyone did so, he would not harm God in the least. God will reward the grateful’ [Sahīh al-Bukhāri, 3667].
After the Prophet (s), Abū Bakr (ra) was the best of his generation. He was the first Muslim man, one of the ten companions the Prophet (s) promised Paradise, the most generous, the most complete in faith, and the Prophet’s best friend.
Allāh found it fitting to mention that he was the companion of His beloved Prophet (s) in the Qurān: ‘Even if you do not help the Prophet, God helped him when the disbelievers drove him out: when the two of them were in the cave, he [Muhammad] said to his companion [Abū Bakr], ‘Do not worry, God is with us,’ and God sent His calm down to him, aided him with forces invisible to you, and brought down the disbelievers’ plan. God’s plan is Most High; He is Almighty and Wise’ [9:40].
Yet, when Abū Bakr (ra) asked the Prophet (s) to teach him a supplication to invoke Allāh in prayer, the best of humankind said to the best from his ummah (followers):
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي ظُلْمًا كَثِيرًا وَلاَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ، فَاغْفِرْ لِي مَغْفِرَةً مِنْ عِنْدِكَ، وَارْحَمْنِي إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
‘O Allāh! I have done great injustice to myself, and none except You forgives sins, so bestow on me a forgiveness from You, and Have Mercy on me, Thou are the Forgiver, the Merciful’ [Sahīh al-Bukhāri, 834].
The subject of pedagogy always reminds me of Shakespeare’s Hamlet when Polonius gives his son, Laertes, advice before his son’s departure to France. So, I thought it fitting to end with Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3:
Polonius: There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry,
This above all: to thine own self be true.
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
p.s. My favourite Get-Up-And-Go book for 2024
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