The Maulana/Madrassa crisis & Why my views appear to be different? - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki

I'd like to actually answer as well this was asked I mean it was it taps into a theme which maybe at some point I'd like to do maybe a lengthier discussion on and that is the myth of the molana monolith monolith that we have okay this there is an understanding that why is it when I say certain things these views are not the views that are coming from many ulema okay so people may say well okay if you're saying this why are many other am I not saying this now this to

understand that you can understand that but to do so you have to take a step back and evaluate the whole situation you have to shed a bit of light on this molana' situation this the scholars of the 21st century especially in the late 20th century and and why are they thinking in a particular way and this is in no way to to kind of disparage these Olimar may Allah bless them preserve them but it's just shed light on what's going on okay first of all you have to understand what makes a scholar is

something right what makes a scholar in the right okay I'm just gonna sort of people enough to cut off the tour otherwise this is gonna go on forever right so alright I'm sorry about that it's just that would have been in anyway so the point is what makes an island

sometimes people forget okay obviously there's there in the knowledge but then there is a huge expectation of what allama should be so there is an expectation that an island ought to not only be very intelligent but he ought to be somebody who is very articulate okay which once again comes down to linguistic skills he ought to be somebody that is an orator that can speak in front of masses of people he and this also involves the ability to

public speak it involves an element of charm an element of people skills an element of having that kind of attraction that they can attract people to them this and so there's this expectation there's an expectation that he ought to be he ought to be somebody that is a leader in the community that he can he can do things like manage people he can he can delegate he can take control assume control he has an authoritative personality about him that

he can rise to the challenges of the time so there's a challenge going on and the Allium can detect that this is a challenge he can conjure up an effective argument in response to that contemporaneous very current challenge that they face him and he can deal with it now there is a hell of a lot of an expectation from scholars this is why now is it that's what the desired outcome is people who turn out like that are usually they turn out like that in spite of having gone through the system

not because of having gone through the system so that's one thing to top that expectation so for example there's no there's no teaching of how to leave ship skills they don't teach you leadership skills don't teach you how to develop and hone in on your personality how to have people skills how to be a good orator how to effectively speak in front of public speaking they don't teach you how to have charmed how to do these kind of they don't teach you any of these kind of things so the understanding is well all of these just happen to be in spite of having gone through the system that's one thing the

other thing is yes in some of the Madhuri's I do recognize that they don't push they don't put emphasize critical thinking skills okay now that does lead to a particular kind of because what happens is mattresses they produce scholars you go and replicate them so in the UK and the u.s. our majority influence of Islam comes from certain parts of the world only it doesn't come from like Malaysia or Indonesia it comes from the indo-pak world subcontinent and

it comes from partially Saudi Arabia that is it predominantly where our Islamic influences come from now you have to once you get into the mindset you realize okay well there's these challenges going on that there's a whole skill set which either you just happen to have or you will happen to develop or you will not be given them necessarily in the Institute's the other important thing that I want to highlight is the challenges internally with the student of knowledge okay so the scholars who are the scholars in the making because

every year let's say in the UK there's hundreds and hundreds of olam are being produced hundreds probably about 500 ulema not even one of them will perhaps at best one may have some substance now you have to understand why because this ties into this question of why are older man not echoing sometimes when people ask you know you're saying something but olomana echoing that voice you have to get into the mind of the 21st century Milana now to get into his mind you have to understand that most people who are put into mothers right let's just pause this for a moment pause this whole thing

for a moment I want to ask some questions here the question is if I told you that look let's take a scenario if I told you that a there was a kid who got bullied as a child now he in his later years as I mean as he grows up he becomes a police officer let's say do you think how do you think his behavior will be towards people do you think that bullying will have impacted him let's say I say to you I'll give you another scenario let's say there was a person who saw extreme poverty in their life now they turn out

to become a doctor and as soon as they become a doctor they're given an opportunity to go into the private corporate kind of world of medicine or they can stay within the NHS and the government kind of services but they've seen extreme poverty in their life do you think that will influence the direction they go in let me give you another scenario let's say there's been a let's say there's been let's take a tragic example somebody who's been a victim of abuse let's say a woman who's been a victim of abuse unfortunately and these things do happen you know may

Allah protect people but let's say a woman's been a victim of abuse now she's been brought up she's gone through different abuse or she's a domestic abuse whatever in her later years she becomes a judge who resides over family matters or cases of abuse do you think her perspective will be influenced by her past now most people the reason I put these scenarios out there most people won't take a second to recognize that their current states will be influenced by their past so people will look at certain things based on their own

upbringing now why we suspend that thought when it comes to scholars I have no idea go back to what I was saying most people who enter this kind of domain of seeking knowledge first of all they come from a family which is religious of religious family now religious family already belongs to a particular denomination so this is most people remember not all but most and they have already been brought up in very strict kind of guidelines this is like let's say in the UK so a kid is brought up in Arnall Birmingham

Manchester London now he's already in this kind of the family restrict several things around him they put him in a madrasah in which he learns things for the next let's say eight years which are completely irrelevant to the real world for him so let's say as an example to make this example hit home let me give you guys an example there's something called let's say the what do they used to call it the astrolabe I believe the Astro Astro astrolabe but anyway it was

a study it was a study of how to navigate especially through the Seas using compasses okay and in medieval times this was like Golda's knowing this kind of stuff but these books are still around today let's say I I put somebody I put you in a madrasah I put you in an Institute and they taught you how to navigate using the astrolabe using the certain kind of compasses and things like these not modern technology not modern technology compasses and stuff like this and how to navigate the Seas to most people that is irrelevant like

it doesn't have no relevance to the real world but they can memorize stuff you're memorize coordinates you memorize things you go through let's say six years of study like this also you have to remember these people when they go into madras are they usually madras assigned small towns some are in the largest cities as well but these people will always won most of their day is spent in this institute around it just by let's say just for people who think like them they don't mingle with the normal people as much normal regular Muslims who don't pray who don't do stuff to the normal regular

Muslim these people are like the movies they mock them right so we all know this so they'll say oh look movies come o Molossia they'll mock them right so these people will sort they feel kind of like not intimidated but they feel mocked and ridiculed by common people that's common Muslims and I'm not saying this - I'm just I'm just showing a kind of and I'm just putting a spotlight on this I'm not being critical I'm not trying to disparage the situation or be literally now then these people let's

say they go through city centre they always dress in turbans and we're thugs and wear shalwar kameez so regular non-muslims in the UK will look at these people like who you know like immigrants like who are these immigrants especially in small towns there's a lot more racism yeah so they will be they will be kind of mocked or at least look down on and made to feel inferior as they go about their daily business this is not I'm not knocking people here by the way I'm not I'm just shedding light please don't this is not to laugh or anything like this right so now let's whilst they're

growing up remember normal people when they go home normal guys on the streets as they're doing all they they got their bling-bling you know they're some of the older guys have got smooth cars they're checking girls all these guys have got girlfriends these guys are nothing like that because of the way they look obviously I'm not not too despite but they definitely will feel insecure around women because most girls are not going to be interested in them right so these guys are now let's say this is getting into the mind of the making of mallanna's okay that we have today so

you have a lot of inferiority complexes going on so they so for example they're catching a bus they're seeing this every day the societies we live in a hyper-sexualized they seem people they seem Muslims non-muslims everybody dresses different to them they chill out even when they see girls and guys or they might see a couple kissing on a bus they might see some these things for them are as distant as the movies are like it's not a reality so you have to try to see how are they feeling from inside right so they're feeling very kind of alienated

from the world that they are actually in now they go to madrasah and mothers are once again it's all just their teachers who are older versions of them and who are usually from back home India Pakistan reinforcing and very harsh mentality so this this person develops like this he leaves a Madras and all of a sudden he's given a leader kind of role a pedestal then you get for example like I'm not judging these people but I'm just showing you a picture you will get now for example women that will come to remember these are people who never

hardly interact with women they don't share space with them they spend all their days the only time like let's say they've come across women women don't show any interest in them generally speaking just because of the way our societies are now all of a sudden they become like leaders let's say at the age of twenty twenty-five and you get women coming to them open here dress good whatever asking them hey listen is it okay for me to wear nail polish is it okay for me to cut my hair do you not think that their past will influence their decisions you've been naive to

think that it doesn't these very little chance that first of all these people will go out of their way to accommodate for for this other because that other has usually always been very separate to the movie to the Maulana to the lifestyle right so the thing is I'm just trying to get you inside the mind of these people and then you have to remember a lot of the these people haven't been encouraged to do critical thinking they haven't been encouraged to do these things so they obviously are given this position they don't have those other and then naturally we end up

with what we have so that that was look the reason I was mentioning these things is to just shed some light it doesn't mean that if people don't have that if people have the qualities within them you can take a lot from the madrasah system the mother of the system does still have a huge amount of resources that are awesome provided you can get you can bring some of those qualities of thinking critical thought evaluation application these kind of things to the table if you can do that motherís a is an awesome place if you can't it will

further just dogma ties you and this is why I was mentioning today that it's it's worth sometimes checking studying with different people I mean alhamdulillah one of the benefits I say benefits but one of the the the I consider a blessing that I had was to study with different denominations okay so I studied with I studied with Sufis I studied with Salafis I studied in Deobandi madrasah in a Braille V madrasah I stood in a Salafi madrasah and I studied even with a theory somebody who was literally at the head here now the point is you see when you

meet people so clear on like for example they condemn this these people are wrong they bar tilde whatever and then you meet like it's easy to buy into them but when you meet the other people you live with them you humanize them and they have the opposite view it kind of you see you start it and they all critical of each other when you start to see critical aspects but also appreciate good aspects of all so that's something that the motherís our system it's not to be knocked but you have to

stand the mindset of why the mallanna's that are being produced have a lot of this sometimes they speak from an inferior position a position of inferiority that's not to mock them that's not to disparage them but it's to highlight the actual issues that we're facing naturally they will feel very insecure when dealing with Western stuff because they've always kind of seen themselves as they've been you know victims if you like of of just being treated the way they have okay let's move on to some of the questions people right so this group thing about selfies

and these people look on depending on your breadth of knowledge and your skills you can be as good as anybody okay right so okay a quick question is a Mufti meant to be somebody appointed by the state doesn't have to be appointed by the state it can be a muscly can be a voluntary or a professional role you have many data lifters around the world places which give fatwa and they write throughout the Muslim world even in the non-muslim world they are salaried Steiff I mean so you have a salary kind of for doing that oh you could be doing it on a voluntary freelance by free

freelance basis okay