The Evolution Of The Madarasah

Salaams all.

If I have put this is in the wrong section, apologies, moderators please move the thread.

I was talking to my nephew the other day and he told me Madrasah's no longer run on a Saturday morning. I thought he might be making it up, so asked my brother who confirmed this. Saturday morning Madrasah was a special day. It was when your learnt your Kalimahs and 40 masnoon duas amongst other things that you never had time to do during the week. Why have they changed this? Has this happened everywhere in the UK or is it just where I am?

Also, without being thick, why do Madrasahs now give holidays at Easter and Christmas? Have I missed something? When I was little, you HAD to go to Madrasah when it was Christian festivals, there was no two ways about it. Schools don't give holidays when it is Eid, so why are Muslims giving holidays for Christian festivals? If so, why are they discriminating against other religions and festivals? Sorry if I am being really thick here, but I just can't get my head around it.

وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته

I think it it might depend on which city you're from.. We've never had Saturday lessons at our Masjid here in Birmingham and students still do well alhamdulillah. Many Huffaz have graduated from here mashaAllah.

As as for holidays, we've recently introduced holidays around those times too. Nothing to do with Christian festivals, although I can see why it may seem like that. Schools are closed and with the recent measures in schools to prevent pupils missing days (£60 fine per child, per day at some schools!) most parents prefer to take their children to other cities to visit relatives or maybe arrange trips abroad. Also teachers (mostly the female ones) need to spend that time with their children. Some teachers prefer to go for Umrah or jamat too.

I hope that helps inshaAllah.

Jazakallah AISHA.

Many thanks for repling to my thread.

I am originally from the Leeds area and that is where they have stopped saturday classes. I am sure there is a logical reason somewhere, but I don't yet know what it is.

The holiday thing makes sense, as does the Aapa / Aalimah suggestion. When we were little it was only male teachers but now they have at least 7 Aapa / Aalimahs too. I will explain that to my Christian colleague who was asking why Madrasah's give Easter and Christmas holidays. He lives near a Madrasah and picks up on these things.

Thanks again for your time.

That's really sad to read. My kids do Saturday madrassah and it is a really important part of their Islamic education - I would be mortified if it stopped. Must be a local thing. Regarding stopping for non-Islamic festivals, there is no way this would happen in our madrassa, in fact the kids are forbidden from even mentioning them.

Ummshareef said:

That's really sad to read. My kids do Saturday madrassah and it is a really important part of their Islamic education - I would be mortified if it stopped. Must be a local thing. Regarding stopping for non-Islamic festivals, there is no way this would happen in our madrassa, in fact the kids are forbidden from even mentioning them.

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Salaams.

Well personally, I was unhappy when they stopped Madrasah on Saturday for whatever reason it was. But that's my personal view and I guess if the staff want weekends off or if parents disagreed with Saturday classes, then that is up to them. When I was a kid, we had to be in bed for 9pm on a Friday as Madrasah was at 8.30am. It stopped us watching from watching tv programmes on Friday night. There were some naughty children that would watch Friends / Helen (shame on me for mentioning these things) or whatever was on back in those days and they would discuss it at Madrasah but it went over my head as I never watched Friday night programmes. These days the weekend for children starts as soon as Madrasah finishes on a Friday.

My main concern was that Saturday was solely a day for learning 40 masnun duas and kalimahs (one person would stand at the front of the class and pray each kalima and everyone else would pray with him). I hope this is now done on another day and they have not skipped it altogether. That would be a huge shame.

hisnameiszzz said:

There were some naughty children that would watch Friends / Helen (shame on me for mentioning these things) or whatever was on back in those days and they would discuss it at Madrasah

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I remember a few years back being told that if any of our kids were caught talking about TV programmes at Madrassah they would get the cane.

Ummshareef said:

I remember a few years back being told that if any of our kids were caught talking about TV programmes at Madrassah they would get the cane.

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Really? Wow. No canes are allowed in our Madrasahs. Students and Parents have phoned the Police a few times too many. There was a court case for one of the Molvis too.

Back in my day, we used to get beaten up black and blue for doing something wrong. I guess time's are changing.

Jazakallah

hisnameiszzz said:

Really? Wow. No canes are allowed in our Madrasahs.

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No, nor in ours any more, but this was quite a while back. To be fair the cane was only used occasionally for formal punishment, usually as a symbolic reminder to boys to respect our religion, only after consultation with parents, and always within Shariah limits. It was never used to punish honest mistakes. It is still kept in the classroom and used as a pointer by some teachers, but has not been used for years. Nowadays, any misbehaviour is dealt with through a system of warnings, detentions and ultimately expulsion, though I know quite a few mums who would be happy to see the cane or slipper re-introduced.

Jazakallah and shukran.

Funny to see just how disunited we are as ummah (well actually not funny at all). Every community is independent of the other..

Sad.

eace:

I do hope and pray that all the madrassas in the west decided to keep going through the Christmas holiday period.

In two minds about this really.

Hard question for OP to answer..

He should go see the imam or something.. Figure out the reasoning behind it.

...then demand a seven day working week.

...take over the mosque

...and then campaign to have Fridays off work.


Or just build a private school.