The Education of Young Muslims in the UK

Islamic Educational Needs and Possibilities in the UK Educational Context

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

INTRODUCTION

Salaamu aleikum

I should begin by saying that the compression required to fit the topic of this paper into a twenty minute talk is a serious impossibility, hence this document which I hope may be useful for reading and discussion.

Two years ago, I gave a short talk to a group of non-muslims, in which I tried to summarise the muslim criticisms of the secular system, and the alternative muslim understanding of education. This was in the main excerpted from one book in the series issuing from the First World Conference on Muslim education at King Abdulaziz University, `The Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education' by Syed Muhammad al-Naquib al-Attas, and I will begin with a transcript of part of that talk, and follow it with considerations more specific to a muslim audience, and particularly those muslims for whom this paper was prepared.

CRISIS IN WESTERN EDUCATION

"At the moment we have a crisis in our secular/humanist so-called education system, not just for the children of believers, but for all of western civilization. When rational man discarded his faith he lost touch with an essential element of what is required to truly educate a man - values.

There is a difference between education and instruction. Education helps in the complete growth of an individual personality, whereas instruction is training to do some mental or physical task efficiently. A man may be a fine doctor or lawyer, engineer or accountant, and still be ill mannered, unjust, amoral, cruel, dissatisfied, unhappy, and obviously only partially educated.

When we see an educated man what we recognise is his "goodness". A `good' man does not mean a `complete' man, as there is no end to human growth throughout a life, so an educated man is outward looking, modifying his understanding and behaviour as his life is enriched with knowledge and experience. This knowledge and experience, as well as the basic values and assumptions on which it is based, man learns from the society that surrounds him. He is an individual and part of a structured community, and both are necessary to the survival of each other, as unfettered individualism means anarchy and the breakdown of all systems, whereas excessive social control leads to stagnation, degeneration, and violent social upheaval (as what is rigid shatters like glass, rather than bending like steel).

Education preserves societal structures, conserving basic values and understandings, and transmitting them to the next generation, while at the same time looking to the reality of human needs and interests in all their variety, by nurturing personal growth, helping man to satisfy his yearning for a quality of life through the understanding of fundamental values. A quality of life which satisfies man's yearnings on many different levels. How you understand this quality of life, this aim of education, is basic to the way your education system works.

BASES OF WESTERN EDUCATION SYSTEMS & FAILURE OF SECULARISM

At present we have three main approaches, the Secular-modernist, the humanist, and the religious.

Secular modernists do not distinguish between education and instruction, regarding education not as a conserver of human values, but as a process of change and a venture into the unknown. Organization of new knowledge is more important than the preservation of knowledge. They see education as a process that helps man to live well in this material world, and don't believe in fundamental, unchangeable, moral or spiritual values.

Humanists do accept that there are some kinds of underlying values, but believe that these value concepts are the result of man's own rationality. They see education as the mental, emotional, and moral development, that comes from helping man to see different points of view, and the relationship of these points of view to one another. It means the rejection of dogma, the questioning of absolutes, and the reliance on reason.

Here they hit some major problems, however, as there are a number of areas of human life which seem highly resistant to rationality, matters involving faith.

Thus despite their apparent freedom, (the freedom to challenge accepted knowledge) both secular modernism and humanism place man in the prison of his own rationality.

Religion, on the other hand, places man in a very large perspective - the perspective of infinity and eternity. Man partakes of these through his spirit, which is alone regarded as the custodian of eternal truth.

Religion provides an all-comprehensive norm for man and an all-inclusive goal for his education. The norm has stability because basic values are regarded as absolutes derived from the absolute attributes of God, which are continually being realised in time and space. In different times and places there will be changes in emphasis and focus. There will be the modification of relative importance of certain values, or the way they are expressed, but that does not mean a change in the values themselves.

Religion thus provides a meaningful goal for education, a goal which is revealed, not just derived from man's experience. Yet man's collective experience would seem to verify the superiority of the religious experience as a model. We may still be able to see the material remains of the Pharaohs and the Caesars, marks carved and left for history like initials on a tree, but the men whom the majority of humanity have taken as models on which to shape their lives -Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, can be seen not frozen in golden images or marble statues, but alive and present in the actions of their true followers.

ISLAMIC EDUCATION - AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM

The aim of muslim education is the creation of "the good and righteous man" whose purpose is to worship God in the full Islamic meaning of the word, and build up the structure of his earthly life according to the laws required of God's creation.

Worship in Islam is not restricted to performance of rituals, but embraces all man's activity - faith, thought, feeling, and work, and to give man the tools to carry out this purpose, worship, his education must achieve two things. It must enable man to understand his Lord, and it must enable man to understand creation.

Islam makes this goal something balanced and comprehensive. Man is regarded as the vicegerent of God on earth. God has given man authority over creation, and in order to realise this authority in actual life man must acquire wisdom, which transforms him into a good man, and turns him into a wise master. It is therefore a comprehensive process, training emotional, intellectual, and sensual faculties simultaneously. God has revealed to man his nature, and the laws that lead man to the complete flowering of his personality. Man is expected to learn through experiments and work out the details of the process whose broad foundations are given to man in the Qur'an and whose human example was seen in the life activities and sayings of His messenger Muhammad.

Thus Islam has a supreme ideal and an unshakable norm for educationists to aim at when working out education systems and methodology. These normative values save man from vague humanist secularist drifting, yet these universal norms are eminently compatible with rationality. It provides the concept of One God, one humanity, and one religion from the days of Adam, the norm of human values being considered to be the same for all humanity in all ages.

It teaches man humility by showing him that all power over Nature or himself is power delegated to him by God. It is not his own. This leads to a better understanding of others and happiness among nations and races.

Last but not least, the framework of values depends on the concept of faith in the hereafter. Man is to consider this life not as an end in itself, but as a process leading to a complete and better life in the hereafter, cultivating acceptance of faith and action according to a revealed norm.

In order  that action may lead to the betterment of man and society, a methodology of self-analysis and social criticism is taught which generates sensitive individuals aware of rights, duties, and responsibilities, and conscious of their own shortcomings.

Love of God and the Prophet are the major means of acquiring this sensitivity necessary to balance the purely intellectual. Science and values are made to play complementary roles, with values providing guidance and aims. This is far more satisfying than the dry intellectualism of humanism because it gives cardinal importance to love, and hence to human sensibilities." (M.A.M. February 1988)

"Modern educational theories and practices indicate that the functions of the school as a social organization can be summed up as: transmitting heritage and shaping it to suit the needs of the day; and self-actualization of the individual, who is the nucleus of the society, so that he may utilize his talents and capabilities in the service of his society by improving his educational, social and material status. The individual can thus participate to the full in his responsibilities as a citizen (which include cooperation with other citizens, loyalty to the authorities, as well as protection of public property and defence of the country)" S.A.Abu Aali - Islamic Education: A Means Towards Self-Actualization (from Curriculum and Teacher Education ed.M.H.Al-Afendi & N.A.Baloch)

So we can understand Islamic Education as an integrated system, but we must consider how we can achieve this for young muslims being educated in the UK system. There would seem to be two approaches that can be taken, separation or conversion, and as conversion may seem unattainable to some I will begin with considerations of a separate Islamic Education system.

A SEPARATE ISLAMIC EDUCATION SYSTEM

It is clear that an independent muslim school will still need to be capable of integrating its education with that of the state system for a number of reasons. There are practical reasons, such as children changing schools when their families change their circumstances and need to move home. There is the need for children to compete on re-entry into the system if the muslim school does not provide continuous education through all school ages, or at college or university level, presuming that we will not be building Islamic Universities here for some time at least. Then there are the legal reasons of needing to comply with state curricular requirements.

National tendencies in curriculum matters highlight problems of integration, however, problems coming not so much from the system as from a muslim intellectual malaise. In the present political climate, there is really no barrier to muslims opening a school or becoming governors, it is more a case of what do you do after you've got that far. What model of an Educational system are we to suggest or offer as a replacement for what is there? It is clear that the education systems current in muslim countries do not approach the high ideals of Islamic Educational theory, let alone qualify for use in the UK context.

CRISIS IN MUSLIM EDUCATION

To deal with the problem it is essential to face up to the clear failure of the present Muslim Education system to educate and strengthen the faith of its pupils and the community. The mosques are used by only a tiny fraction of the nominally muslim community, and when muslim children turn into muslim youth and grow beyond the stage of compulsory visits to the mosque, they are rapidly lost and Islam soon becomes as irrelevant to most youth as it is to their parents.

A survey of muslim families shows many young muslims consider Islam to be completely unintelligible. They still become teachers or doctors or engineers, so they are not necessarily stupid, yet it seems that they are interested in some of their education, but not in any aspect of Islam.

"When we talk about religious education, the formal and the traditional lessons on religion immediately come to mind. And even if our imagination flew beyond the normal limits of the rigid religious lesson, it would seize on a sermon or a religious speech, not more, and there it would come to a halt. We do not, in fact, impart education in our schools, particularly Islamic education.

"If the schools set up in most parts of the Muslim world are reluctant to carry out religious education, or if they are willing to adopt it but do not know how, the final result is the same in either case - we do not, in actual fact, bring our children up according to the ideals of true Islamic education. The impact of the genuine Islamic spirit on our school curricula is hardly noticeable. We ought to consider, however, that a formal and traditional lesson on religion will not be sufficient to meet the desired human requirements, particularly in contemporary life. An overdose of a religious speech or sermon would, instead of rendering religion pleasant, interesting and likeable, create a repellent and damaging effect .................... Religion as we feel and approach it now, has dwindled from the integrated inclusiveness known to earlier Muslim generations into something more or less akin to the Western ecclesiastical approach, namely, an emotional relationship between Lord and servant outside the sphere of actual life. This fact, which we ought to acknowledge frankly and unequivocally if we are to deal with our subject honestly and seriously, casts its thick and impenetrable shadow over our entire lives; besides, it is closely relevant to education curricula." Muhammad Qutb - The Role of Religion in Education (from Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education ed.S.N.Al-Attas)

What the present system of muslim education produces is an education not to be treasured but to be discarded, and anyone considering starting a new muslim school should seriously consider whether more of the same is likely to produce any better results. It would seem that the problem is the inevitable result of the lack of a fully integrated curriculum and the inadequacy of the partial education provided in most mosques and schools in most muslim countries as well as the UK.

"Islamic education .............. fluctuated in periods of prosperity and periods of decline, the latter being caused by the weakening of spiritual values, the disintegration of the Islamic Ummah, political and military disorders, and the weakening of the social and economic structure in most Muslim countries.

A number of factors brought about educational decay, the painful repercussions of which are being felt to this day:

(i) The Muslim mind lapsed into inertia and dropped creativity for imitation, and the substance for ephemeral appearances and style. In some Muslim countries, the purpose of education became the learning of texts by heart whether understood or not. Learners became content with the repetition of what older scholars had said, and confined their interest to interpreting a limited number of books and adding comments in the margins. Original and profound thought became rare, and very few would devote time to discovering the mysteries of nature or the laws of society which would contribute to its solidarity and prosperity, and which would help to disseminate the Islamic spirit and foster continued progress.

(ii) Another factor was the failure to promote technical and scientific knowledge although it flourished at one time in the Muslim world, and the renunciation of the branches of knowledge which were formerly studied by the Muslims, such as medicine, mathematics, chemistry and astronomy, on the erroneous assumption that they would lead to scepticism, uncertainty and unbelief.

(iii) Failure to educate women in a planned and regular manner as required by Islam.

(iv) Colonization...........................

If Islamic education is to revive and resume the role it played in the past, it will have to reconsider the way teachers are trained and qualified, to infuse a religious spirit into every subject and course, to adopt suitable Islamic teaching methods, to organize student brotherhoods, to acquire the necessary techniques and skills for the advancement of society, to foster spiritual and moral values among both teachers and students, and to fill their hearts with the love of God and reliance on His support to serve Islam and humanity." A.H.Khaldun Kinnany - Producing Teachers for Islamic Education (from Curriculum and Teacher Education ed.M.H.Al-Afendi & N.A.Baloch)

WHAT IS MISSING?

Firstly, a Curriculum and Educational Material, though one often gets the impression that many muslims consider both unnecessary. But it is hard to run an educational establishment of any kind if what is required to be taught is not defined. A curriculum lays out the educational requirements to teach a system of thought, defining its principles, aims, objectives etc. As the Scottish Education System is the specific subject of a separate paper I will avoid it, but to draw examples from the UK system I will make use of recent research into the English National Curriculum with excerpts from Curriculum Matters documents recently produced by Her Majesty's Inspectorate for the Department of Education and Science.

THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM - DEFINED OBJECTIVES

The White Paper `Better Schools' (1985) suggested that what children learn between the ages of 5 and 16 should help them, among other things, to develop lively, enquiring minds; use language effectively; develop tolerance of other races, religions and ways of life; understand the world in which they live; and appreciate human achievements and aspirations.

HMI in Curriculum Matters 2 identify nine areas of learning and experience which will need to be used as a general framework throughout the full range of educational subjects. These are: aesthetic and creative; human and social; linguistic and literary; mathematical; moral; physical; scientific; spiritual; and technological.

"In particular, consideration should be given to the following qualities:

a) Work habits: imaginative, creative, flexible; systematic; independent in thought and action; cooperative; persistent.

b) Attitudes: fascination with the subject;             interest and motivation; pleasure and enjoyment from ........ activities; appreciation of the purpose, power and relevance of (the subject); satisfaction derived from a sense of achievement; confidence in an ability to (work) at an appropriate level.

"But whatever the approach and whatever the age of the pupils there are two main reasons for studying (a subject): its intrinsic interest, and its capacity to increase pupils' understanding of themselves and of the world in which they live."

"A well-conceived course ............ should not only pay scrupulous attention to objectivity and avoid political bias - it will, by its very nature, give young people the means to identify and resist indoctrination."

"To avoid bias and indoctrination it is necessary for young people to acquire an informed and critical understanding of all the views held about ....... issues"

Education "should kindle their imagination, stimulate an informed personal response and demand rigour and precision - in observation and recording, in the analysis of linguistic features and the abstraction of information, and in the disciplined application of ....... judgement."

Pupils should "develop a European awareness through an understanding of their cultural and linguistic heritage; develop tolerant but not uncritical attitudes towards customs and practices unlike their own; develop ............ powers of observation, abstraction and analysis of information, judgement and communication."

"As a general rule no result .......... should be accepted uncritically without asking whether it is a reasonable statement to make in the context of the question."

"The primary objective is not to attempt to dictate ideal solutions but for pupils to be in command of a range of knowledge and understanding so that they can order priorities, predict some of the likely consequences of decisions being made and begin to develop self-confidence in dealing with challenging situations."

SYSTEMS

The education systems of England and Scotland are pupil-centred teaching systems, following pupils' inclinations and preferences, and using this interest to teach them how they can educate themselves in all other areas. A subtle understanding of the difference between systems and content and the way they interreact is essential if we are to pick our way through the Islamicization of western education systems. For example, we have heard a great deal concerning muslim girls in France where they were refused entry to their school due to the wearing of hijab. In a situation where a muslim school chooses to define a form of hijab and enforce it on girls who do not wish to wear it, that school is following an identical system of a compulsory dress-code based on different normative judgements, not a different Islamic way in which perhaps there is no compulsion.

It is to be hoped that when considering an educational system, muslims conservative tendencies would not lead them to utilize only the most outdated of educational systems while those whose system they copy are in the process of discarding it for something better. Islamic education must use the most advanced systems of conceptualization, communication and knowledge processing, otherwise muslim pupils will inevitably remain disadvantaged. In fact, when examining the traditions of Islamic Education, we often find that such concepts as pupil-centred education have been around a long time.

"There are certain truisms about education, regarded as a cultural process, which it is necessary to recall....................First of these is that we must educate our students in such a manner that they acquire the capacity to educate themselves for the rest of their lives." A.K.Brohi - Education in an Ideological State (from Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education ed.S.N.Al-Attas)

EXISTING AND FUTURE TEACHING PRINCIPLES IN UK

Other extracts from National Curriculum documents remind that "The aim that pupils should learn to work in a systematic way does not clash with the aim that they should learn to show imagination, initiative and flexibility of mind; the two aims are complementary."

Education should "kindle their imagination ........ and stimulate a personal response; develop an open and sympathetic attitude towards the ........ unfamiliar; develop a critical and reflective understanding of the world in which they live;"

Islam is rarely seen to be taught this way and such thinking is discouraged. Teachers traditionally tend to enforce rote learning with no concern for understanding, and prefer acceptance and repetition of dogma without question rather than curiosity, and the challenge of the unfamiliar.

HMI suggests that Education should be "an experience from which pupils derive pleasure and enjoyment." Can we imagine Islam being taught this way?

This is the root of the problem, an inability to communicate across that conceptual divide, and incidentally, the reason for a complete lack of da'wah (communication of the Islamic message) in the West. This is the schizophrenic edge on which muslim children live, constantly switching between two opposite systems they choose the one they prefer and forget the other. As long as Islam is taught by means of a different conceptual system to the rest of a child's education and surrounding culture, children will suffer from the conflict.

"It is difficult to resolve this conflict if the traditional religious attitude is either discarded or ignored in favour of the empirical, because this will magnify conflicts and lead possibly to further bloodshed. Those disciplined in the old system and not fully aware of the complexities of modern civilization, and those disciplined in the new system who have never cared to appreciate their own heritage, can never come together or resolve the conflict. All attempts in the past have proved false and hypocritical. The traditionalists either exploited the name of religion for irreligious purposes or were exploited by the modernists for their own secular ends. What is therefore necessary is the emergence of a third group who are acquainted with their own traditions but are willing to acquire any wisdom that modern civilization can offer. Only then will it be possible for a modern Muslim to integrate the principles of moral and spiritual behaviour with current intellectual knowledge. ................. People belonging to this third group, however, are still to a large extent disjointed and extremely limited in number. As they have to work within the context of modern life, they have to `reconstruct' protective philosophical and theological systems and reinterpret religious thought in terms of modern life. .............. Only by doing this will they be able to save modern Muslims from the tension and insecurity in which they are living today."

"Unless an attempt is made now to Islamicize the humanities, social, and natural sciences by producing basic concepts and by changing the methodology of approaching them or teaching them, it will not be possible to create a viable group intellectually capable of resisting the onslaught of secularist teaching." Crisis in Muslim Education - Syed Ali Ashraf & Syed Sajjad Husain

IS IT POSSIBLE TO TEACH ISLAM THIS WAY?

"Training in the mosque university was a combined activity in which both student and teacher took part. The student had to be persuaded rather than instructed and the teacher had to argue his case rather than dictate it. In this way the personality and the intellectual ability of the student was allowed to develop and grow..........traditional Islamic education measured its activity by the fact that it stimulated the community as a whole to take an interest in the higher issues so fundamental to its nature and survival." Traditional Islamic Education: Its Aims and Purposes - Zaki Badawi (from Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education ed.S.N.Al-Attas)

" Islamic education must build into the minds of Muslim youth a resilience, an adaptability and a mechanism for adjustment in worldly matters other than fundamental beliefs. The Arabs were the first people to demonstrate such a resilience and adaptability during the heyday of Islamic intellectual effervescence. They acquired the Greek learning, subjected it to investigation, experimentation and expansion in such diverse fields as algebra, geometry, astronomy, navigation, chemistry and medicine and evolved the scientific principles of empiricism. The essence of empirical scientific attitude consisted of moving away from dogmatic beliefs and practices in worldly matters and raising healthy doubts about all propositions. By questioning everything that could be questioned, by asking at every step: `is that so?' this empirical attitude gave immense freedom to human curiosity and became the cause of major scientific discoveries. Scientific beliefs came to be held tentatively rather than dogmatically, in the hope that further investigation and experimentation would lead to alternative beliefs. The Arabs carried this new empirical scientific attitude to Spain among other places and from there this attitude burst out into Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and caused the Renaissance.

The Islamic education system must now adopt the same scientific empiricism in worldly matters which the Muslims had themselves invented but had forgotten during the past five centuries. The values of adaptability, experimentation, and tolerance (as opposed to dogma) must be embodied in the new system. This will, in all probability require the institution of ijtihad or interpretation of the Islamic law..............The new educational system must be an integrating force and must prepare men for ijtihad where it is due." Dr.A.M.Khusro - Education in the Islamic Society

WHAT IS NECESSARY TO TEACH ISLAM THIS WAY

Apart from an established curriculum, the essential requirements would seem to be three: Educational Materials (including source texts); Suitable Teachers; and Parent Education.

i) Educational Materials: Much of the difficulty of introducing Islamic aspects of knowledge into the present system is due not to lack of will, but lack of Educational Materials on which to base a class. 

"In many schools the study of traditional patterns, such as those associated with the Islamic faith, led to the analysis of their symmetry and form, and an appreciation of their mathematical elegance. Nevertheless, teachers often expressed concern at the general lack of resources available to support the multicultural aspects of primary mathematics; a factor which frustrated their wish to do more."   [PRIMARY EDUCATION - THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS (HMI/DES)]

In any muslim school, this lack of material will also make the task extremely difficult, despite the finest of intentions.

Before any reasonable education can be given, Source Texts, Text Books and Resource materials for the different subjects will need to be produced. At the moment, these hardly exist in English, and this is not just true of the school I just quoted, as the sum total of all the English language books in all Glasgow's mosque libraries is pathetically inadequate, let alone sufficient to the task of providing the resources for a reasonable Islamic education. Some individual authors have written more books.

But usable books in good English are rare, and more need to be written. Good translations of Source material are even rarer, so requirements need to be outlined and translations made. Resource materials are unco-ordinated or non-existent, and these will have to be created to suit the system. Computer programmes, Educational Games, and suchlike will all need to be prepared.

ii) Teachers trained in system: These will have to be knowledgeable in the Islamic background to their subject, at ease in the surrounding culture, and committed to living in it, as a foundation for involvement in the establishment of the system and training within it.

iii) Parental Education: A major part of a children's Islamic education comes from their parents in the home. For the school to successfully function as the educational centre for the community, it would seem necessary for parents not only to involve themselves in the running of the school, but actively participate in a course of self-education in order to understand more fully the principles involved in the teaching.

OTHER ISSUES

Priorities:

When considering the good of the whole community, it is important to consider matters of priorities, and consider whether we can ensure that the advantage of the few does not disadvantage the many. Just when the School system is giving unparallelled scope for parental access and contribution to the syllabus, should we be giving priority to a small group of children over what can be done for the overwhelming majority. We must remember that the coming of the Islamia primary school to Brent, serving approximately 60 pupils seriously delayed, if not permanently halted, all and any other muslim education initiatives that might have been more relevant to the approximately 10,000 muslim schoolchildren in that catchment area. 

As opposed to the typical muslim approach, perhaps a school to deal with the loss of muslim youth should be starting with teenagers and working down. Then we would also know that we are not just opening a primary school because it is apparently easy, and hoping that by the time they are teenagers we will have found a way to deal with the true nature of our childrens' problem. 

I would suggest that there are four essential areas where work must be done before we can provide a relevant Islamic education, and make no apologies concerning bias in that two of those are areas in which I am working myself:

Firstly, research into the integration of Islamic knowledge through the UK curriculum. 

Secondly, production of educational material for use within the UK system, to suit both the English National Curriculum, and the Scottish Curriculum. Work needs to be done in that area immediately, as without curriculum work there can be no integrated system. Without more Educational material, it will not be possible to put that curriculum into teaching practice.

Thirdly, without more translation of source texts, that teaching must be severely limited in its range.

Fourthly, without teacher training you have no qualified teachers and no school.

Approach:

I also think it is of crucial importance to consider whether we have friendly or hostile relations with the system, examining the practicalities of our minority situation, and deciding whether we are to live in the culture that surrounds us as explorers or as warriors behind enemy lines. For those who wish to treat the situation as one of war, I seriously recommend that they look carefully at the odds before they sound the charge. Bluster wins few battles. Either way, I would suggest that the language of confrontation is unlikely to produce the desired results.

CONCLUSION

I leave you with the end of the lecture with which I started.

It is a truism to say that everybody wants to be loved, but more than power and achievements it is the thing that gives satisfaction to our beings. Wouldn't we all like to feel that everyone we knew loved us, that they would give up all their  possessions for us, and that they would die to protect us. Surrounded by friends like that would we not be satisfied and happy.

So whose example can we take as an example of this kind of life. The example that muslims take was patient, honest, just and chaste. He was the most generous of men, never asked for anything but that he gave it to the asker. He would prefer the seeker to himself and his family, and often went hungry because of it. He patched his own sandals and clothing, and did household chores. He was shy and would not stare into peoples faces. He attended feasts and funerals, visited the sick, and walked among enemies without a guard. He was the humblest of men. He sat and ate with the poor. He tyrannized nobody and accepted the excuse of anyone who begged his pardon. He was always joyful and never awed by the affairs of this world. He joked, but only spoke the truth. He did not eat better food than his servants. He refused to curse his enemies, saying "I was sent to forgive, not to curse". When asked to wish evil on anyone he blessed them instead. If there was a bed he slept on it, if not he reclined on the earth. One did not argue in his presence. He spoke only the truth. He was the most smiling and laughing of men.

His companion Ali said "Of all men he was the most generous, the most open-hearted, the most truthful, the most fulfilling of promise, the gentlest of temper, and the noblest towards his family. Whoever saw him unexpectedly was awed by him, and whoever knew him intimately loved him." His answer to his name was "At your service". His name was Muhammad.

Astaghfirallah - I beg forgiveness of God for such mistakes as I have made. The Truth belongs to God alone.