This was posted in the Forums Section of Islamicsydney.com under the Homeschooling thread.

http://islamicsydney.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=634#634

Salams,

I think that the problem in most Muslim communities all over the world is that they fail to acknowledge that the way to move ahead is to start with education. We do not want an Ummah of secularly educated professionals who can sustain a talk on political science and what not, bu t could not relate that science back to Islam, namely the Quran and Sunnah. If we cannot produce an Ummah of people who are God-concious and people who are intellects in the Islamic sciences, then there is little hope for the advancement of the Muslim community regardless of where they are. Most Muslim parents, sad to say, put more emphasis on their children getting degrees from secualr tertiary institutions, although I am not negating that, instead of putting the same if not more emphasis and time to educate their children in Islam. Most of the time, the duty is shifted to teachers who work at Islamic Schools who are just in need of Islamic education as everyone else.

Islamic scholars of the past, who established Andalusia and other major Islamic cities of learning, were professionals in their chosen field as well as being Scholars of Islam at the same time. We can see that during times like these, Islam flourished. There has never been an Islamic renaissance without the people putting much emphasis on Islamic education and turning their hearts sincerely to Allah.

Therefore, this is why I think that home schooling is a step in the direction of reviving the traditional Islamic education and the study of Islamic sciences. If we can't get the knowledge of the Islamic sciences, then why don't we send our children to known traditional Islamic schools in Syria, Yemen, West Africa to gain the knowledge and impart it to society. More than often, this has been adopted by reverts to Islam with the likes of Imam Hamza Yusuf, Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim keller, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al Murabit and other known scholars. These people loved allah and his messenger so much that they went out to seek a path of knowledge and look how Allah rewarded them.

It is sadi that the learning of Arabic grammar increases your intellectual capacity and broadens your mind. It is an educational system that has been working effectively for the last 1400 years. It has only been declared redundant by some only in the last 50 years or so. Now students of these traditional Islamic schools are branded as terrorists and the schools as terrorists training camps. Wallah-u-a'lam.

Salams,

Din Abdul Majid