# Is it worth studying at a madrasa?

*The madrasa is awesome with critical thought; why he studied across denominations*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wl7wikke16q/s/3/
- Date: 2018-02-15 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: The Maulana/Madrassa crisis & Why my views appear to be different? - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki (15:16–17:50)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl7wIKke16Q&t=916s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wl7wikke16q/

**Topics:** How to study Islam; The Mufti and the channel

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The madrasa is an excellent place if you bring critical thinking to it, and dogmatising if you do not; studying with several denominations, as he did, helps you see the good and the bad in each.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the madrasa is an awesome place if one can bring critical thought, evaluation and application to it, and that otherwise it will further dogmatise one.

**Evidence, his words at 15:16:** “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” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl7wIKke16Q&t=916s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says that his point is to shed light, and that a student who brings critical thought, evaluation and application can take a great deal from the madrasa system, which has a huge amount of excellent resources; without those qualities it will further dogmatise him. He recommends studying with different people and counts it a blessing that he studied with Sufis and Salafis and in Deobandi, Barelvi and Salafi madrasas, among others. Living with people of the opposite view humanises them, he says, and one comes to see the critical and the good aspects of each. He closes by saying that many maulanas being produced speak from a position of inferiority and naturally feel insecure in dealing with Western matters, which he says is not to mock them but to highlight the real issues.

## Sources and names cited

- madrasa
- Sufi
- Salafi
- Deobandi
- Barelvi
- maulana

## Transcript (machine tier, 15:16–17:50)

[14:37] 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

[15:16] 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

[15:56] 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

[16:34] 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

[17:11] 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

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment Wl7wIKke16Q/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wl7wikke16q/s/3/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.