Reality Check: The Tide is turning

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RealityCheck: The Tide is turning

by Maryam

Ivividly remember almost two decades ago when I was a first year pre-clinicalmedical student in my home country. I had many Muslim friends in variousdepartments - Education, Pharmacy, Arabic and Islamic studies, Agriculture,English, Biochemistry, and so on. Back then in those days, most parents gavefull recognition to majors such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Architecture, Dentistry,Engineering and other “highly reputable” majors. If you were studying ArabicLanguage, Education, or Islamic studies, you were looked down upon. The looksentailed that you were not smart enough or studious enough to be admitted intothe “reputable majors” mentioned above. In fact, subconsciously, I also had thisfeeling whenever I met a Muslim sister studying one of the “less recognized”majors at the university. It was really a subtle cultural flaw that many of usignored for a long time until…

… thetide started turning. Personally, I never realized this issue until I returnedto the United States for further studies. And as Allah would have it, I endedup not even pursuing my own childhood dream: Medicine. The moment I became adiaper changer, laundry-machine assistant, and a self-made arbitrator in themidst of my kids’ chaotic dramas, my life completely changed. However, I stillcontinued my studies but this time in a less “reputable” field that was moreflexible and not too demanding.

Justa few years ago, I also realized that I needed to do more than just reading theQur’an without understanding what I was reading. Learning the Arabic languagebecame my next task on my “to do” list. Then, I began to go down memory lane,thinking about my friends and my days at the university in my home country. Istarted thinking of those sisters whose majors were Arabic and Islamic studies,or Education. It was such a deep and sober reflection that I had had for a longtime. I started regretting why I had not declared a major in Arabic and Islamicstudies, and why on earth would I have even look down upon such majors? Irealized that our destiny is not and will never be in our hands. We have plans,dreams, aspirations, and fantasies, that we all tend to run after as if theworld will never end. I wished I was more experienced and culturally competentto correct the ridiculous misconceptions people hold about specific majors. Iwished I had been more open minded to those sisters I had met many years ago.They were my friends yet I had showed no interest in what they were studying.It was just the feeling of “I wished, I wished, I wished”.

Now, fast forward almost twenty years, andyou will see that things have really changed. Gone were those days when suchmajors were viewed as “unmarketable” in the cultural sense. Gone were thosedays when Muslims did not realize the importance of such areas of studies. Now,the tide has completely turned back home and here in the west. For example,many private and non-profit organizations, as well as the federal government,have scholarships and fellowship programs to fund students who are interestedin learning Arabic or anything related to Islam. There are now Islamic learninginstitutes, here in the United States, encouraging and recruiting Muslims tolearn the language of paradise. Muslim students in the States are seizing anyslightest financial opportunity to travel abroad for a summer or two semesters,for Arabic language studies. As a matter of fact, the number of non-Muslimstudents declaring Arabic language, Islam studies, or Middle Eastern studies astheir second major or minor is astonishing. Some of these students also applyfor scholarships to travel to the Middle East and/or North Africa. Some gothere to experience a completely different way of life that seems natural tothem, sometimes returning to the States as Muslims. Or, they come back feelinghumble and at the same time guilty that they have allowed the western media tobrainwash them.

Inregards to the field of education, Muslims in general are becoming more awareof the importance of Muslim educators in their children’s lives. Hence, the tidehas completely changed as well. It is a fact that some Islamic schools are notas fully funded like their public school or private Christian schoolcounterparts. Many Islamic schools, at least in the US, depend on privatedonations and fund-raisings. Despite the meager amount of money some Muslimteachers receive at some Islamic schools, they continue to touch lives, onechild at a time. I have a friend who is a teacher at an Islamic school inTexas. She tells me that although the pay is not good, she still feelscompletely pleased with her job as a Muslim teacher. She can pray at the righttime without much ado when it is time to pray, and there’s no fuss or outcryabout her Islamic dressing. To her, these two issues are worth more than themoney she receives. MashaAllah!

Asfor me, it was a reality check. It finally dawned on me after many years ofignorance, that acquiring Islamic knowledge is a must alongside our variouseducational pursuits or careers. Islamic knowledge should never suffer at theexpense of other academic vocations. For at the end of the day, what will countis our knowledge of the deen and not necessarily the worldly degrees we attain.

Posted in: Islam