Q43 :In my village in India, a young woman who is
not a Muslim was appointed by the government as a primary school
teacher and was given the task of teaching Arabic, since she is a
graduate of Arabic. Muslim parents have refused to allow her to teach
their children the language of the Qur’an as they claim this is not
allowed by Islam. Is this true?
A43 : It is examples like that which strengthen my
belief that the most important thing Muslims need these days is a good
knowledge of Islam. You have here a situation where Muslim parents
prefer their children not to learn Arabic because the teacher is a
non-Muslim. From where did they get the notion that a teacher of Arabic
must be a Muslim. I do not know. The notion is highly mistaken. It
cannot be supported by any logical reason. These parents may think that
because Arabic is the language of the Qur’an, it is sacred. There is no
such thing as a sacred language. Indeed, Islam does not speak of
anything as sacred or holy. These parents may think that an Arabic
teacher will have to teach their children passages of the Qur’an. As a
non-Muslim, their teacher is not allowed to read the Qur’an, or so they
think. Little do they realize that Allah has addressed the Qur’an to
non-believers on every occasion, so that they might listen to its
argument and realize the truthfulness of its message. If we were to
stop non-Muslims from listening to the Qur’an and learning its message,
how do we expect them to have a favorable view of Islam? Nor is there
any evidence to support the view of these Muslim parents. Indeed, we
have evidence to show the fallacy of their view. After the battle of
Badr, the Muslims were left with 70 prisoners of war. The Prophet
decided to allow their relatives to buy their freedom. However, to
those prisoners of war who were able to read and write, he made the
offer that they could buy their freedom by teaching ten Muslim children
to read and write. Obviously those teachers were teaching Muslim
children Arabic writing and reading. They worshipped idols and
associated partners with Allah. They indeed were polytheists. But that
did not stop the Prophet asking them to teach Muslim children their
Arabic language. Some of these polytheists accepted the Prophet’s offer
and netpleted their task of teaching Muslim children writing and
reading, and then they were set free. You may tell those Muslim parents
in your village this example, to help them benefit by the services of
the Arabic teacher. Otherwise, their children may not be able to learn
Arabic. Having said that, I realize that if the Arabic teacher in your
village was a good scholar of Qur’an, he or she can be an infinitely
better teacher. But if such a person is not available, let us make use
of the facility which is available.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )