Religion and Education: The Struggle for an Identity
By Abdul Nasir Jangda | 2026-01-19T07:37:50.486842+00:00 | Topic: Knowledge
Religion and Education: The Struggle for an Identity
Speaker: Abdul Nasir Jangda
Institution: AlMaghrib Institute
Opening
"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."
"All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the most honorable of prophets and messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his companions."
Main Topic: Religious Identity and Education
The issue at hand is religious identity and the role of education in religious identity. What's very interesting when you talk about religious identity, I'm going to share with you something from the aspect of social sciences, sociologists. From the perspective of social sciences, they explain that there are three stages of religious identity development.
Three Stages of Religious Identity Development
Number one is that when religion is an ascribed identity, that somebody loosely affiliates themselves with a particular religion.
The second stage of that development, where we try to get people to, is religion as a chosen identity, where somebody actively, consciously, has chosen a religion by means of which they identify themselves.
And thirdly and finally, where we're trying to get to, is religion as a declared identity. That not only have they chosen this identity of their religion, but they have declared it to the world around them. This is how they introduce themselves. This is their primary function within life, is the realization of this religious identity that they have.
Religious identity is a very specific type of identity formation. There are many, many different types of identity formation that have been talked about, you know, at length in the social sciences. Ethnic identity, there is obviously the aspect of gender identity. Nationalistic identities are something that are very prominent today. But religious identity formation is a very specific type of effort and initiative within the social sciences.
Historical Perspective on Religious Identity
What else is really fascinating about this, and this is really, really fascinating, and that is that when you actually study the social sciences and the history of the development of the social sciences, I would say roughly over the last 200 years, when this really became a focus amongst academics and scholars. I mean academics and scholars in the broader sense. They initially were of the idea, religious identity was something they talked about, they focused on, because in the 1800s that was still a very strong reality.
But as time progressed on, the closer that we came to the 20th century, the closer that we came to the 1900s and into the 1900s, the idea amongst the academics was that religious identity was something that was waning, something that was dying, something that was deteriorating, and something that they predicted would no longer be of any consequence in the next coming few decades.
Statistical Evidence
What's really fascinating about this is that when they came to these particular conclusions, they were actually proven to be incorrect even within their own communities. The majority Christian community that was prominent in the United States and North America, and in the UK and even other parts of Europe, they were proven to be off the mark when it came to this issue. Some statistics from 2004 talk about how, specifically talking about American youth aged 13 to 17, about 95% of them in 2004 said that they believed in God in some capacity, that they did identify, acknowledge the fact that there is a God.
- 75% of them very much or somewhat agreed with the statement that I try to follow the teachings of my religion
- 42% of these youth said that they occasionally to frequently pray, some type of prayer, whatever it is that they ascribe to
- 36% of them said they regularly attended a church youth group
- 23% were participating in faith-based service projects in different parts of the country
So much so that in the 1970s, 47% of high school seniors reported that religion was a very important factor within their lives. So at that particular point in time, they couldn't have been farther from the truth, but religion was something that was still ingrained within people, and was definitely a part of their identity and how they identified themselves.
The Reality of Fitrah
We of course are able to relate this back to the fact that there is a fitrah that is buried within each and every single human being. And that was that fitrah that at some level was manifesting itself, albeit incorrectly, but it was manifesting itself in some capacity. But here's the real tragedy of it.
The real tragedy of it and not to give any credence or any validity or validation to these academics who might have come to this particular conclusion of religion no longer being of any consequence, no longer needed to be focused upon as a part of the identity formation of coming generations, is that in the last 10 years, things have drastically changed. In the last 10 years specifically, things have drastically changed.
We're looking at, in some instances, in some cases, the complete inverse of these percentages. We're looking at the polar opposite scenario that was available before us as recently as 10, 15, 20 years ago.
Defining Key Terms
Before we actually get into talking about the problem at hand and then the solutions, which is most important, I'd like to define a few terms, again, from a more general academic sense. These are not Arabic translations. These are not Islamic terminology. These are more of the terms and how they are defined within the social sciences so that we can understand exactly what they're talking about.
They talk about three particular terms:
1. Faith
Faith is defined as more of just a realization of maybe one's meaning and purpose in life at a very intimate, individual, private level. When somebody has some idea about what the meaning of their life is, what the purpose of their existence is, that is defined as faith by these social sciences.
2. Spirituality
Spirituality is when somebody takes that faith, that loose idea of what they have is the purpose or the meaning of their existence, and they realize it and actualize it into practices. That is defined as spirituality.
3. Religion/Religiosity
Religion or religiousness, being religious, religiosity, is defined more as actually taking part in some type of a community.
4. Religious Identity
Then where does religious identity come into play? Religious identity among social scientists is again more of a newer idea, and it is being pushed and promoted by people who straddle both sides of this issue and this discussion. People who have a thorough, proper understanding of these social sciences, but are also ingrained, are also rooted within some type of a religious tradition.
Religious identity is when somebody ascribes themselves not only to an organized, an established set of principles and ideas and morals and ethics, but somebody also identifies themselves as part of a group.
The Islamic Perspective on Community
This part is very troubling. And we see all this turmoil in the ummah, the Muslim community. I always tell my students that whenever we see things going outside in the world around us, and we like to say they have these problems and this is going on with them, that's indicative of a problem that we have and how we perceive things.
We perceive ourselves to be either within a bubble, or we perceive ourselves to be immune to all that which is going around us, and it could not be further from the truth. The reality is quite the contrary.
But what we have to understand is that whenever we live, whenever we exist within a particular dynamic, I'm not saying that we assimilate or that we will completely be overwhelmed by that dynamic, but we will be affected by it. When it's cold outside, you feel cold. And when it's hot outside, you will sweat.
The Concept of Ummah
Being a part of a group that does not strip one of one's individuality, one's uniqueness, one's talent, one's ability, but being part of a group is an essential part of realizing the religious identity of people. And that is basically the concept that we call ummah.
That is why when we look at the central ayah that talks about our identity as Muslims:
"Indeed this, your ummah, is one ummah, and I am your Lord, so worship Me." [Quran 21:92]
Most definitely Allah says, this ummah, this community of yours is one singular community. One singular community, and I am your lord, I am your master, I am your creator, your sustainer, your provider, your caretaker, says Allah.
فَاعْبُدُونِ - So worship only me. Exclusively worship me.
Problems in Separation
The combination of faith, spirituality and religiousness or religiosity, the development of this thought, the furthering of this idea is what realizes religious identity. What's a detriment to us, and social scientists themselves admit this, that when we separate these terms from one another, and we try to make them stand individually on their own, it will be extremely problematic to the realization of a religious identity.
So when we strive for faith alone, isolated from spirituality and religion, it will be problematic, the religious identity will not be realized. If we solely are striving for spirituality, that is our call, that is our sole objective, we will again come up short in terms of realizing a community, and realizing true faith.
But it must be a holistic approach that tries to establish not only the core beliefs, the principles, the practices, the morals and the ethics, but also the sense of community. That is the religious identity.
Factors That Erode Religious Identity
Now when we talk about what factors affect the development, or what contributes to the erosion of religious identity, we have a huge problem with this. What are the factors that traditionally were seen to be contributors, but in reality can oftentimes even be factors or elements that erode the religious identity and the formation, the development of that religious identity?
1. Ethnic Differences
Number one is ethnic differences. According to social identity theory, when individuals of an ethnic minority feel that their identity is threatened, it's under attack, it's eroding, it's slipping away, they oftentimes end up emphasizing other aspects of social identity as a means to preserve some type of a positive self-concept, self-image. And in the pursuit of that, oftentimes ethnic identity is emphasized over religious identity.
Ethnic identity, and what we can slip under this as well, is cultural identity. Ethnic or cultural identity is oftentimes emphasized when people feel something is slipping away, and they're not completely sure what it is that we're losing. But all I know is that we are losing our sense of self.
There's an erosion, there is a decline in the self-vision, the self-image, the self-concept. Then they end up grasping onto whatever is the lowest hanging fruit, whatever is within reach and within grasp, and a lot of times that can be ethnic or cultural identity.
What we have to understand is that in the long term, what ends up happening is that not only does religious identity slip away because it is not solely based upon, and it is not intimately or permanently or intricately connected to ethnic or cultural identity, we lose our religious identity, we end up holding on to something that will erode with the coming generations, with the passing of time, and we're really left knowing nothing about ourselves. And there is no sense of community that is preserved.
2. Gender Differences
Another issue is oftentimes gender differences. There is this huge struggle in our community right now as well about gender identity. What it means, like, you know, we often talk about this restructuring or reforming gender roles and ideas of different genders and the roles that they're meant to play and what they're supposed to do.
Again, it goes back to that same thing. When there is a loss of self-worth, when there is turmoil in terms of how we view ourselves, how we perceive our own self-image and self-identity, self-concept, we might end up grasping on to, well, this problem can be solved through reforming, rebranding, recreating gender definitions and identifying solely ourselves as gender.
What that oftentimes leads to is that this leads to these very strong, overbearing, opinionated, problematic attitudes within the community where women are the problem or men are the problem, and women are the solution or men are the solution. And this ends up only exacerbating the problem as time goes because gender definitions might continue to be redefined and we basically will lose ourselves in the shuffle of these constantly changing definitions. And so religion is still gone.
3. Immigrant Generational Differences
Another very problematic aspect of identity formation that we've dealt with as a Muslim community is immigrant generational differences. There are three generations that are often talked about when it talks about immigration of a people into a new land. First, second and third generation.
The first generation is that generation who was born elsewhere and came to a new place - those people who immigrated to the United States and set up camp over here.
The second generation are their children. Why? Because they still at some level are straddling between two worlds because their parents, their home, their culture, a lot of their identity that is passed down from parents to children is still based upon another culture, another land, another people.
The third generation
are the children of that generation that was actually born and raised there because now they start to kind of realize some type of an identity for themselves.
These immigrant generational differences, a lot of what problems in terms of management and organization, a lot of this is traced back to this immigrant generational difference. And again, as long as we continue to identify ourselves solely to that, latch on to that, try to solve that problem, we're trying to solve a problem that cannot be solved.
Understanding one thing about human beings: Yes, people can change. And the whole concept of embracing and accepting Islam, the generation of the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى عَنْهُم - radiya Allahu ta'ala 'anhum) are an example, a role model for how people can change. But at the same time, even if you were to properly study their generation and you were to pay closer attention, you would see that at a fundamental level, people are where they came from.
Yes, we can reform our ideas about who our creator is. We can realize our sense of purpose in life. But so many fundamental aspects of how we conduct ourselves are rooted within where we originate from, how we were brought up, how we grew up, what we grew up around.
So a lot of times we're trying to solve a problem that really can't be reconciled or solved completely. The situation can be better, it can be helped a bit, but it can't completely be solved. And so we're trying to solve the religious identity problem through reconciling these differences between different generations in terms of immigration.
And guess what? We end up nowhere. We no longer have a religious identity that we can identify ourselves with. And at the same time, these immigrational generational differences aren't going anywhere either.
The Solution: Establishing Religious Identity Primacy
So what is exactly the solution here? When we decide to push, identify, promote, and when we begin to ascertain the primacy, the primary role of religious identity over all other forms of social identity, religion becomes a powerful base of personal identification and collective association when religious identity is emphasized.
Current Issues in the Muslim Community
We have so many issues right now in the Muslim community, hot-button issues. And if you're not familiar with them, you don't understand them, you're not even aware of them, talk to your kids, they will fill you in.
But there are so many causes within our own community right now that are really confusing for a lot of people:
• Whether it be the situation within our religious institutions, mosques, masajid, communities, and how they function and how welcoming or unwelcoming they are
• Whether it be in terms of identifying these gender roles
• Whether it be in terms of reconciling the classical rulings
• Whether it be about reconciling what the scripture, what the text actually says
This is a huge problem for many of our youth. The Quran says this. But that's not making sense to me from the perspective that I'm looking at the world.
The Problem with Other Primary Identities
When we have chosen social identity or we've chosen ethnic identity or cultural identity or any other form of identity, primary as our understanding of who we are in this world that we live in, what ends up happening?
• When there is a problem at the masjid, when there is a fight at the masjid, when I was unwelcome at the masjid, when the youth group was kicked out from the masjid, that challenges my iman. Young people start to lose their faith and their iman.
• When sisters are not being treated properly within the community, that is a huge fitna for the iman of those sisters. The iman is in jeopardy.
• When children come from families where the cultural baggage is so heavy because of that generational difference, when the cultural baggage is so heavy that it weighs them down, then they end up doubting their faith and their iman.
• When there is some type of a social movement that might involve some type of initiative that the Quran, the Prophet of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) prohibits. And so we say that we do not approve of this. Then that becomes a faith breaking, a faith fracturing, identity fracturing experience for a lot of people.
We will not be protected from our faith constantly being on the edge of fracturing and failing and crushing and falling apart until and unless we are able to build that religious identity.
How to Overcome This: Education
In a word, education. This has to become a focus for us. We have to turn our attention, our resources, our talents, our abilities to educate our community, especially our children, our young people and build their religious identity.
Classical Islamic Perspective on Education
From a classical scholarly Islamic perspective, there are two elements of this education in terms of building the religious identity that are emphasized:
1. تعليم (Ta'leem) - Learning and Understanding
Ta'leem is actually understanding and knowing one's religion. Grasping the basics of the religion. What are those basics of the religion? Because you can study the religion endlessly. I conduct, I teach a seminary
program, a full-time seminary program, where we're reading everything from (عُلُومُ الْقُرْآنِ - ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān) to (أُصُولُ الْفِقْهِ - ’Usūl al-Fiqh) to (عَقِيدَةٌ - ‘Aqīdah) to (فِقْهُ - Fiqh)
We're reading through all these things in classical Arabic text. So it's an endless ocean that's there. But what is the absolute basis of that? It is two things:
Number one is the Quran, the book of Allah, because that is the foundation of our religion. That is the scripture, to borrow a more general term.
And secondly, and pay very close attention to this, the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam),which is a part of the sunnah. So it is still Quran and sunnah. But within the sunnah, because the sunnah is also a very broad umbrella, I'd like to emphasize the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam)the prophetic biography, the prophetic experience.
Because when we read a hadith, from a hadith collection, it is extremely beneficial. And believe it or not, it is actually the overwhelming legal source of our religion. Most of our fiqh and our legality is derived from the ahadith, the collection of ahadith. But when we talk about forming a religious identity, it is actually the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam)
The Sahaba (رضي الله تعالى عنهم - radiya Allahu ta'ala 'anhum) Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (رضي الله تعالى عنه - radiya Allahu ta'ala 'anhu)who actually talks about this. Where he says that, we started teaching our children the seerah, the life of Muhammad Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) from the time that we would teach them the Quran. The generation of the tabi'un say, our primary concern was to preserve the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and be able to transfer that to coming generations. So that's the absolute basis.
2. تربية (Tarbiyah) - Training and Practical Implementation
The second part of education is tarbiyah (تربية). Education is more than knowledge.
How would I go about in defining tarbiyah? Tarbiyah is, it's a number of different angles of tarbiyah. It can be translated, it can be understood as training, as mentorship. But in this particular context, in this discussion, what I will call it is, helping people realize that knowledge that they've learned in the practical real life sense.
How do I actualize what I'm learning within my everyday life? How do I actually live everything that I've actually learned?
Ta'leem and tarbiyah.
The Challenge to Students
I'm gonna present a little bit of a challenge here to the community. Specifically the students who take classes, who seek knowledge. Part of the reason why our... Look, we have so much to be grateful for. I don't wanna come up here and just completely, you know, make it sound like we have absolutely nothing to be celebrating here.
The festival of knowledge, right? I don't wanna make it sound like we have nothing to celebrate. We have so much to be grateful for. (الْحَمْدُ للهِ ثُمَّ الْحَمْدُ للهِ - al-ḥamdu lillāhi ṯumma al-ḥamdu lillāhi)
But at the same time being critical every now and then, taking a long hard look in the mirror, and seeing where we can continue to make improvements is a necessary part of our growth, and our development. Part of our shortcoming is that we have woken up to the reality that we have to learn and understand our religion. And we are making efforts to achieve that and accomplish that.
But that Tarbiyah aspect where we actually learn how to live our religion from people who are role models, people who inspire us, people who have figured a lot of these things out and began to live it, that is absolutely necessary.
The Investment Required
And let me tell you where that Tarbiyah will come from. Tarbiyah will require an investment. An investment. A weekend won't completely achieve that. A lecture will not completely achieve that. A conference will not achieve that. You will have to invest more time.
There is a reason why some of your most senior instructors from al-Maghrib are very keen on ilm summit. Having a 10-day, 2-week long retreat where you live, you breathe, you eat, you walk, you talk, everything that you're learning. You observe it up close and personally so that you can start to realize this and actualize this within your life. That is Tarbiyah.
There is a reason why even with the other initiatives that I've been involved with, with Bayyinah. There is a reason why we have a summer intensive, why we do a year-long Arabic studies program. There is a reason why I started a seminary program.
We need to invest ourselves. Now the classic excuses are presented, I don't have time, I'm busy. Everybody is busy. The Sahaba were busy. The previous generations, those giants on whose shoulders we stand, they were very busy. But they prioritized.
If this religion is worth anything to us, and our religious identity is worth anything to us, and the religious identity of our coming generations is worth anything to us, then we will prioritize and make sacrifices where they need to be made. And these opportunities are plentiful.
We are so used to a lot of times being told that it's okay, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy. Sometimes, actually all the time, anything worth anything requires a little bit of effort. It requires investment. We will have to invest ourselves.
The Tree Analogy
If we hope to achieve this goal and this objective, we want this tree to bear fruits. Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subḥānahu wa taʿālā) another ayah about identity from the Quran, where He talks about the tree being the example of faith and belief.
Why that tree? Think about what that tells you in terms of your identity. When the deeper the roots are, the harder the wind pushes, that tree won't go nowhere. But if the roots are not very deep and a little bit of wind come and blows, it will rip that tree right out of the ground.
The winds are blowing out there, folks. We need deep roots. And then what happens when the tree grows, it branches out into different directions and it bears fruit that gives life to future generations.
If we want this tree to bear fruits, we will have to invest ourselves. We will have to make efforts. We will have to push ourselves. And we will have to continue to progress forward and continue to move forward.
So ask yourself, what have you invested? Really ask yourself, what have you invested?
Educational Reform Perspective
From the educational sciences perspective, when they talk about education reform in America, to understand that just because there is education doesn't mean that it's perfect, doesn't mean that it's working, doesn't mean that it will actually survive and it will last. But we have to constantly keep working at it.
Some statistics:
• 69% of high school seniors every year in America, only 69% of them graduate. A third of the people in their senior year of high school right now will not graduate
• 6 million students between the grades of 7 through 12 struggle to read at their grade level
• 70% of 8th graders in this country in America read below their standard, read below their age level
We have to pay attention to these trends, we have to understand that education might still have some problems. Just because we have set up some type of an educational initiative doesn't mean that it's perfect, it's bulletproof. But we have to understand that it's constantly in need of improvement and development.
Three Essential Elements of Education
When looking at it from educational reform and the educational sciences, what's really amazing is that they're emphasizing education needs to focus on three things. Education must include three things:
1. Self-Confidence
One thing that education was meant to provide, classically provided, but is not providing right now is a sense of self-confidence. Self-confidence is not being delivered through education. That means even a math teacher, an English teacher, a science teacher, a history teacher is not inspiring confidence, not building the confidence of the students in who they are.
2. Practical Life Skills
There needs to be an emphasis, there needs to be a revision in terms of teaching them practical life skills. That's fine, I might teach advanced math or I might teach American history in a public school, but that does not take away from the fact that as a teacher, it is my responsibility to, within that subject, within that responsibility that I have, that I still have to communicate and find a way to teach and to build practical life skills that will help them live daily lives.
3. Wisdom
The third thing, which might be the most fascinating, is that they talk about there needs to be wisdom that is communicated. That occasionally a teacher, no matter what they're teaching again, whether it be math, or it be science, or it be history, or whatever it may be, chemistry, biology, you name it, that a teacher has to look up from the textbook every now and then and impart wisdom, impart life experiences to their students.
The Prophetic Model of Education
The reason why this fascinated me, the reason why this fascinates me is look at the Islamic philosophy in terms of education, look at the prophetic model of education.
The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did not unequivocally open-ended without any qualifiers, just solely emphasize, just communicate information, just conduct an information dump onto the community, onto the ummah. That is not the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)'s process of ta'lim and tarbiyah.
The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)'s process was to develop confidence within people's faith. You know this is the big thing that is lacking from the ummah today and that is confidence in terms of their Islam. Being able to hold their head high and say, yes, I am Muslim, I believe this and this and this and this, and this is the best way of life, and these are the absolute best beliefs that a human being can have. Our children lack that confidence, our youth are missing that confidence. Islamic education must provide that confidence.
Number two, practical life skills means that the daily, what I like to call when I teach my classes, what I like to call practical spirituality. Practical spirituality, not an esoteric, not an esoteric, metaphysical, existential discussion on spirituality where you don't even know what I'm talking about anymore.
But practical spirituality, if somebody is sitting there reading, digging, tearing through books of fiqh, and they don't know how to pray five times a day, they don't know how to recite the Quran properly, they don't know how to raise their hands and make dua, they don't know how to do their adhkar and their tasbih, it is in vain, it is pointless, it will not bear fruits.
And the third thing that education, the prophetic model of education is it focused on wisdom. Wisdom. The understanding of who we are and where we're coming from and how to continue to better realize our challenges and solve our problems going forward.
That's what Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) talked about in terms of wisdom in the Quran:
"And whoever is given wisdom has been given much good." [Quran 2:269]
The Need for Teachers
As a side note, you want to know about spreading Islam. You want to know about teaching Islam to the future generations of all the people of this nation. We need teachers. And I'm not just talking about Islamic school teachers. We need people who are getting their degrees in education.
We need teachers. And when people go out there and live the Quran, when people go out there and they live the Quran, and they live the prophetic example, and they impart knowledge and education, even if it be quote-unquote worldly secular knowledge, but they realize deen within their lives, that will be the greatest way to pass Islam on to a future generation.
A Personal Example
Now coming back in terms of talking about Islam, talking about religious education, these are the things that we need to focus on if we are to build a religious identity for our future generations. I'm gonna end here by just telling you a very quick little story about how these thoughts were realized for me personally, in a personal experience that I had.
A sister from my community, a young sister from my community, all the other factors that we talked about, the ethnic, the cultural, the immigrant generational, all those other factors were there. Came from a Muslim family, parents were generally practicing, went to the Islamic school, etc. You can check off all the boxes. They were all there.
The mother of this young sister shows up at my door one day, knocking, crying her eyes out, telling me that she just came home, and she's told me, and she said this has been going on for a couple of years, she no longer believes in Allah, she no longer believes in Islam, she wants to renounce all faith, everything altogether. It's gone.
What happened? I don't understand what happened. So I calmed her down, and the sister, the young sister in question, was in the vehicle, in the car, called her up, called her inside, sat her down, my wife was there as well, and started talking to her.
This sister again was getting a degree in microbiology or something, third year of college, since the beginning of high school at the very least, through three years into college, seven years of this person's life they've been studying science.
And I asked her a very simple, I don't believe in Allah because of this reason, that reason, this reason, that reason, all these scientific reasons. So I asked her a very simple question, I said, if you're gonna make a life-changing, life-altering decision, shouldn't you do your research, don't you owe that to yourself?
Absolutely.
So I asked her a question, when's the last time you read the Quran, the translation of the Quran at the very least, from cover to cover? When's the last time you read a book on the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)? An educator should have provided that to her. But an educator wasn't there, so she had to go and seek out this education.
At least I was there in some capacity to guide her through this process. So I told her, I told her, mom, leave her alone, give her space, that's it, don't be breathing down her neck. I gave her a translation of the Quran in a book on the seerah, and I said, read. Just do your research, we'll talk in six weeks. Until then, no talking, just do your research.
Sister reaches out to me three weeks later, saying, problem solved. Problem solved. Today the sister, mashallah, practicing her deen, praying five times a day, attending classes and halaqat, by the shuyukh, married, raising a family. All of that is there. Why? Because of that education. It helps to form the religious identity.
Conclusion
That is our mandate. That's our mandate, is to teach confidence and faith, to teach morality and ethics by means of which they can leave their daily practical lives. And thirdly and finally, wisdom, the practical implementation of the religion.
End of Khutbah