Humanity’s Teacher: 21 Teaching Techniques of the Prophet
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Creator: Muhammad Alshareef
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Subject: knowledge
Title: Humanity’s Teacher: 21 Teaching Techniques of the Prophet
Created on: Tue Jan 29 11:02:15 -0500 2008
Updated on: Tue Jan 29 11:02:15 -0500 2008
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Abstract: ... might give an example comparing something to the weight of Mount Uhud, but since many people have not seen Mount Uhud, they will not understand the analogy. But when the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would say it to someone, all that person had to do was listen to the Prophet and he would know what the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was talking about. There was no tall building, no Hilton and no Sheraton blocking the view, so they could look directly and see Mount Uhud and see just how enormous was the reward the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was talking about. It is important to understand that analogies have to given in the appropriate context and with the audience in mind. For example, when I was young, some person came and started giving us an example saying, “Imagine if you are boiling milk.” And then I said, “We don’t boil milk here; they boil our milk for us.” But obviously he had a different understanding because he was coming from a different country. He went on, “Imagine if you’re boiling milk and someone drops a droplet of urine into the milk.” We cried in response, “Ewwwww,” and I said, “Number one, we don’t boil our milk and number two, nobody drops urine into a pot of milk.” I knew what the person was trying to say, but no one could comprehend this analogy because this situation does not happen here. However, subhan Allah, that same situation could have been described using a similar yet slightly different analogy. The analogy is where you are at an iftar or dinner and you finish your glass of coke but there is a little bit of coke left when someone says, “You want some water?” So the person pours you water in the same glass and the water is brown and the person is like, “Oh no! I didn’t know there was coke in that cup.” This is the exact same analogy but stated in terms that the people can comprehend versus something that they cannot comprehend. This will make the difference in them understanding what you say. Technique #5: Use Diagrams or Drawings The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam taught people to use drawings on the earth, or on the dust. Once the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam made a straight line through the sand and after that he made lines to the right and lines to the left, and then he sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned verses relating to the sabeel (way) of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala: “And do not follow the other paths as it will distract you and divide you from the path of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.” The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said the verse and the people were looking down at the drawing in the sand. So, when a teacher is explaining something, if he ever gets the chance to make a diagram of what he is talking about, the chance of the students who are visual learners remembering things will increase. If there is a lecture that is only audio, meaning the people are just listening and not interacting, then the audience will only remember about 20% of what was discussed. If visuals are introduced, your ability to remember might go up to 60%. What keeps up the ability to remember more than that is to do an activity. That little quiz at the end, some people may not think it’s important, but that will increase your retention up to 80% because you are getting involved with what you learn. And this is just an example of how the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would draw in the sand. Alhamdulillah, these things are easily available to us, whether it is a blackboard, or a dry erase board, or even just putting up a piece of paper, or even gathering the students around a notebook. The fact that they have to step out of their chair means that they are getting involved. The students will appreciate getting out of their chairs rather than sitting in their desks. Another diagram that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam drew was a box with a line going from the middle of it to the outside of it and then he drew other lines that were cutting into that line. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said the middle represents a person and the line going out are his hopes. For example, his wish is to live for 100 years and to win a 300 million dollar lottery jackpot. That is the man’s goals beyond the box, and the box is his qadr, for example his destiny to die, and his ajl (appointed term), for example when it is written for him how long he will live. And those arrows that are coming to the person, they are different things that will happen in a person’s life. So someone may have the desire to be a great hockey player and he plays college hockey. But the first minute he goes out onto the ice, he gets slammed into the board, his spine snaps, and he is forever paralyzed. Even though he desired something, those lines came in and cut into his desires. If one of these ‘lines’ misses, then surely another one will hit the person, changing what he was planning for. Technique #6: Use Gestures While Talking The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam used both statements and hand movements or gestures while talking. The first hadith example of this is well known, which is when the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam raised his hand saying: “I and the one who takes care of the orphans are in paradise, like this” (Bukhari). And he joined his fingers. You rarely find that someone recalls this hadith without following the Sunnah of the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam in putting his fingers like that. Another example is when the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was giving one of the companions radi Allahu anhu advice, saying: “Beware of this,” and he grabbed his tongue, which is very descriptive (Al-Tirmidhi). It is not like telling someone, “Watch your tongue.” If you actually grab your tongue and hold it, you will provoke so many emotions in the person’s mind that your message will become ingrained and it will have much more of an effect on the person. Oftentimes, the psychology of hand movements is studied and used in business for material reasons. But when it comes to teaching our kids about Islam, these books get ignored. From this field we find that if I wanted to make you comfortable, I would start imitating where your hands are. If I start imitating the way the other person is acting, then he will feel comfortable. For example, you might find a teacher who is a little bit too unlike the students and so they do not feel comfortable around him. However, another teacher, who just got out of university and is twenty-three years old with long hair and has a hobby of skateboarding and he is teaching Islam would be the most successful da’ee because his students would feel most comfortable with him. If someone starts imitating the way people act, he will make them comfortable, and that happens with hand movements. So, if someone is standing leaning back with his hands on his hips, then maybe I could stand leaning back with my hands on my hips. Similarly, if I don’t want to scare someone when talking to him, I would stand beside him, rather than in front of him. Standing in front of someone gives off the feeling of confrontation, while standing to the side gives a feeling of working together in a problem. Technique #7: Use Tangible Examples, Exhibits, or Artifacts The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would occasionally raise something up that was haram as an exhibit to emphasize it as haram. An example of this is the hadith of gold and silk for men. You may know that gold and silk are haram for men, but what you might not know is that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam raised up actual pieces of gold and silk and said: “These are haram for the men of my ummah and halaal for the women of my ummah” (Abu Dawud). Any teacher knows that if you ever have the chance to bring in a three-dimensional exhibit to the class, it will always have a much more profound affect on the students than does just lecturing. For example, if you tell a child about a parrot and then you pull one out from under your desk, the kids will be amazed and will never forget that class. They will remember it because they were able to see, hear, and maybe even touch the parrot. In another hadith, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was speaking about ghulul, which is to steal from the war booty before it has been distributed by the ameer of the army. When the battle is taking place, the ameer needs people to do different things; he needs these people to stand and guard certain areas; he needs other people to work in communications. If the soldiers or even the townspeople become preoccupied with the war booty, there is the fear of human jealousy coming in. So to take from the war spoils before the ameer divides it is haram. When talking about ghulul, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam actually picked up the war spoils and he began explaining to the Sahaabaa radi Allahu anhum about the intensity of the haram of stealing from the war spoils. He did this holding and standing beside the war spoils after battle. So he didn’t just make a reference to the war spoils; he actually held it up (Bukhari). Technique #8: Answer Questions Before They are Asked When I am trying to explain something to a person, I often think to myself, “To this person, what might be confusing about what I am saying? What questions might this person have?” Then, I respond to these questions that I have come up with before the person asks the questions himself. This technique works well when the teacher is able to relate to the mindset of the students. For example, take the issue of non-Muslims going to the Hellfire. Growing up in this culture, our youth are automatically made to believe that it’s not a person’s fault that he was born into a non-Muslim family and that everybody should go to Jannah in the end. So these aayaat that speak about Hellfire for the disbelievers do not make sense to these youth because they are indoctrinated with a certain view or mindset. This occurs frequently and, although these youth don’t say it out loud, these thoughts are in their minds. However, when they are provoked it will come out. So what happens with a North American audience is that they are living with ahlul-kitab, they hear an aayah that is so strong against the disbelievers, and they think, “What about my friend Johnny at work? What about Sally and Robin? This can’t possibly apply to them.” So when I would prepare for a tafseer class that I taught, these subconscious refutations started popping in my head because I also grew up here. I thought to myself, “If I had not gone overseas to study Islam, I would have rejected this.” However, from my learning I could say that the answer to this is that these aayaat are talking about people who are arrogant; those who have heard the message and have rejected it. Through this way of formulating the refutations myself, I could address the refutations before my students brought them up. So, if one is able to understand the culture of a people so that he can relate to the issues that come to their minds, then he is better able to address these issues before they are even asked. An example of this is when the Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said: “The Shaytan will come to a person and say, ‘Who created this, who created that?’ until the Shaytan finally brings the person to the conclusion, ‘Who created Allah?’ Whoever has this happen to them should recite Surah Ikhlas and should spit three times to the left, dry spit, and say ‘a'oodhubillah he minash shaytan nirajeem.’” Did this happen to someone and he asked the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam about it? No, this did not actually happen. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said that this may happen to someone so when it comes about, do like this. So here, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam answered a question before the situation even came about where someone asked it. Technique #9: Answer With More Than What is Asked The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would answer with more than what he was asked by paying attention to the questioner’s situation and trying to recognize how this person could benefit even more. An example is the hadith, one of the first from the Book of Tahara, about the people who came to the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam and asked him sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam about making wudu from sea water. Because they couldn’t drink the sea water, they were also thinking that it was not tahir. They asked about a situation where they have drinking water, but if it is used for wudu, then there would be none left to drink when they are thirsty. So the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said the famous hadith: “The water is tahoor.” So one can make wudu with sea water, but then the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam also began talking about seafood, that the animals that die from the water are halaal to eat. Did the person ask about dead fish or fish that are not slaughtered from the water? No, these questions were not asked. But the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam responded more than he was asked because he knew that this person, just like he had an issue with making wudu, he would similarly later on have an issue with the fish. So the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam answered the questions plus what would benefit the person even more. It is said that this is a key characteristic of a successful teacher because people do not always ask the questions that are most important to them. So the teacher has to realize that, “Yes, they’re asking about this, but this other issue is more important and will also benefit them.” An interesting thing with regard to Muslim youth, or any time a person is talking to someone else, is that they already have in mind what they want to learn. I’ll give you an example: if someone came into a tafseer class and he wanted to learn asbab-un-nazool (the reasons for revelation), and then the teacher said, “We are not going to learn the reasons for revelation because you don’t know the Arabic in the first place, so let’s learn the Arabic words.” This is important, but at the end of the class the student will feel like he did not get what he came for and he’ll feel like he is missing something. A technique used in some of my classes is that right in the middle of the lecture, I ask the students to take a piece of paper and write on it what benefit they want to get from the class. So the student now has the opportunity to communicate exactly what he is seeking to learn and I might find that a couple of people are saying the same thing. Although what I am teaching may be more important, I can now at least try to incorporate some of the students’ wishes so that they feel fulfilled at the end of the class. That is the practice of good teachers – to recognize what is beneficial to the students while also answering what they want to know and then moving them on to more beneficial things. Often at conferences or retreats there is an open question and answer session where for example, from Maghrib to Isha the shaykh will say nothing; all he will do is answer questions. But after Maghrib after everybody has had donuts so when the shaykh asks, “Are there any questions?” nobody raises his hand. Is it possible that nobody has any questions; they know everything about Islam? No, that is not true, everybody has questions. So what should a person do if he is the teacher and he is expecting questions? He should think of interesting questions that the students should be asking so that if the students do not come with questions, he could say for example, “If you don’t have any questions, I’m sure many of you are confused about the halaal meat issue. Allow me to explain…” So the teacher is already putting questions into the students’ minds. Another example of providing more than what is asked is the hadith of the woman who asked the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam about Hajj for her infant. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam asked, “Who are you all?” They said, “We are so and so. Who are you?” He said, “I am RasulAllah sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam.” When he said that, the woman raised her baby and said, “Is there Hajj for this baby?” The answer is yes, and that was the end to her question. But the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, “And you will have the reward.” Meaning that you will be rewarded for the effort that you put into taking this infant for Hajj. In fact, that addition is something that everybody focuses on when they are taking their children for Hajj because they are always seeking the reward from Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala. They’ll say I’m taking two children for Hajj because I want three times the reward. The woman did not ask about this additional information but the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam replied with more than she asked because the issue would later come up. Technique #10: Turn the Question into Something That Will Be of More Benefit An example of this is the hadith where a person came to the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam and asked, “When is the hour?” The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam disliked this question because it was one of the techniques that the mushrikeen used against the him sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam. Oftentimes when he spoke about the hereafter, Jannah and Nar, the repayment, the recompense, yowm-ad-deen, they would say to the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam, “When is the hour?” They said this to make him look bad in front of the other people and to hurt the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam. We see aayaat in the Qur’an, especially in juz amma describing how people came asking the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam this question. But once a Muslim came, not a companion, but a Bedouin who did not know this situation and he asked the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam, “When is the hour?” The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam did not say, “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ask that question?” But he sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, “What have you prepared for that final hour?” Meaning, it is surely going to come, it does not matter exactly when, but it will come. The more important question is, “What have you prepared for it?” The questioner said, “I haven’t prepared a lot of salah and I haven’t prepared a lot of zakah (in addition to the fard), but I am preparing one thing – my love for Allah and His messenger.” The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, “You will be with who you love.” The companions, radi Allahu anhum, and Anas radi Allahu anhu said that there was no hadith more beloved to him than this hadith. So, it went from a question that did not have any benefit, to the most beloved hadith of the companions, radi Allahu anhum. Another example of this is the hadith where the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was asked, “What should the muhrim (someone in ihram) wear?” Imagine if the question was answered directly: “The muhrim should wear two white towels made in China.” What if someone has a piece of cloth made in India; would it be haram to wear it? No, it would not. So instead of defining what exactly the muhrim shoud wear, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam answered the question by enumerating what the muhrim should not wear. This way, the type of clothing is restricted, so if someone wants to wear some innovative new product, he will have to look at this hadith and see if it is included in this hadith or not. This shows the hikmah of the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam and should increase your love for him sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam. Technique #11: Allow Others to Answer the Questions An issue would come up and the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would occasionally have the question answered by one of the companions in order to train them to answer the questions. For example, there is the hadith of Abu Bakr radi Allahu anhu, which is authentic, that a man came to the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam and said that he had a dream that there were clouds dripping honey and ghee and there was a rope that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam had climbed up. Then the people had come and one person climbed up the rope, and some people were collecting many of the droplets that were coming down from the clouds while others were not collecting that much. Before the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam answered with an interpretation of the dream, Abu Bakr radi Allahu anhu said, “Ya RasulAllah! Allow me to interpret it,” and the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam allowed him to do so. So we see in this hadith that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam allowed Abu Bakr radi Allahu anhu to answer the question and then he sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam told him that he was correct on some points and mistaken on others. There are other cases where a person would come to the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam with a legal issue and he would tell a certain companion to get up and make a judgment between them. That companion would say, “Ya RasulAllah, shall I judge between them while you are here, in our midst?” The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would respond in the affirmative. These are the companions who later became Muslim judges, and they were the ameers that went out to Yemen, Egypt, and other places. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam had trained them in his midst and then they went on later to become the qudaa’ (judges). This technique of having the students answer questions is considered a modern teaching technique. So, if a student asks his teacher, “What is an alligator?” instead of the teacher answering the questions, if he is smart and wants to get the meaning of the word across to the students, he will say, “Students, Suhaib is asking what an alligator is. Does anybody know?” By allowing the children to answer the question, they are being involved in the answer and are more likely to retain the answer. Sometimes ... [Full Article...]
