Small yet profound gift =)

Firstly, Happy Teacher’s Day (belated =P) for all teachers out there. You might be known as a teacher, lecturer, xifu, mu'allim, lao shi and whatever terms related, but at the end of the day, it is you who take up the arduous task of educating and nurturing minds of our future generation. Barakallahu fikum !

I myself is an academician. I’ve been in this field for more than a year which I didn’t expect that I will survive up to this point. I believe, it is due to my passion that I’m enjoying this profession so much. Having students from various background both Muslims and non Muslims is truly a blessings for me. Alhamdulillah.

Talking about teaching, I’ve been teaching this one subject related to Islamic Studies for a couple of semesters including this semester. Teaching about religion of course has a mounting pressure because you cannot simply talk, but you must also walk your talk. May Allah forgive me.

This semester, for the first time all my female students in this class do not wear hijab. Can you imagine, all female students bare head and yet I’m teaching this subject about Islam. For me, there’s something wrong about this. In fact, I feel it is not right if this thing continues. I used to tell this to my colleagues with the hope that maybe I can get some sort of advice and know what would be the right step that I should take. After talking to a couple of colleagues, senior and so on, I finally convinced that all these while what I had in mind was not really correct. All these while meaning previous semesters, I have this thinking in my mind that, maybe if I didn’t ask them to wear hijab, then it should be ok since I don’t want to be too ‘preachy’ and somehow ‘force’ them to wear it.

To my surprise, I have a completely different outlook after talking about this to my dearest friends. They simply say that I just have to ask them to wear it because you’ll never know they might end up wearing the hijab at all times. This thought had really changed my perception and for the the first time, this semester I’m determined to correct my wrong perception over this hijab issue.

As the issue goes, since this class is only once in a week, last week I’ve decided to meet all the female students in this particular class and met them up after the class ended. I met all the female students only because I know that's the right thing to do.To tell them what I felt at that particular moment was really difficult . Blurting out the wrong words added with the wrong ways of expressing it probably might give them a hard time to accept whatever I will tell them . Yes, some of the students seemed to be uncomfortable after I told them what i was supposed to tell them. Nevertheless, I was so relieved because at least I have done my part to tell and remind them about their duties. For me, as long as I hold on to this one prominent verse mentioned, InsyaAllah, things will be easy for me. Allah says:

"Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious."    Qur’an 16:125

 

Alhamdulillah, yesterday, we had our class. The moment I entered the room, I saw all the female students were lovely clad in hijab. The way they reacted as I started my lecture showed that they can accept whatever I have told them a week prior to that. They seemed to enjoy the class too =). Alhamdulillah !

I was so delighted and I believe that is among the best gifts that I have ever received on Teacher’s Day =)

May Allah bless them and make them Istiqamah. Ameen !

Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.