Unscripted #16 | GCSEs are dumb | Usman Qureshi

Maa-shaa Allah, this is an excellent podcast that elaborates extensively on the points made in the article. Brother Usman Qureshi made a really important comment at 24:30 where he mentioned that he home-schools his children because of the strong and dominant youth culture which he feels powerless against and fears could induct his children and make him lose them. He described putting his children in the state education sector as playing Russian Roulette and that he isn’t willing to take the risk.

Alhamdulillah, I’ve seen a similar understanding from many practising Muslims who then decide to put their children either in Muslim schools or home-educate them. However, once the children reach 16 years of age, parents all of a sudden flip their ideas upside down and readily send them off to colleges and universities even though the youth culture there is still just as strong and dominant, if not more so.

Whether it’s to do with wanting financial security for our children and ourselves or due to the prestige and status that some Muslims perceive comes from qualifications (both ideas were touched on in the podcast) all of a sudden we are willing to take the risks that we protected our children against when they were younger. Brother Kamran, in the ‘Youth Crisis’ podcast, mentioned how at three different universities students told him that the head of the ISOCs went to night clubs, and many of us probably know young sisters who used to wear jilbaabs replace them with trousers mainly due to peer pressure as there is no law compelling Muslim women to not wear jilbaabs at universities.

You also hear of the typical argument that as Muslims we need more Muslim female doctors but the majority of people are in universities studying anything but medicine. Also, I don’t understand the logic behind risking my Muslim daughter’s morality and aakhira by encouraging her to study in environments where she has to liaise with male students and teachers for an extremely long length of time (daily and for many years) just so that other Muslim sisters don’t have to be seen by male doctors. Yes, we’re finding ourselves in a catch-22 situation but the terrible state of our ummah here and abroad is our fault and I feel that brother Usman is right to say that he feels that things are looking more ‘bleak’ and that people ‘are right to be concerned’.

Alhamdulillah, the brothers mentioned the idea of teaching our children that rizq is from Allah and that He will provide for them, and that we want our children to do well but like brother Usman Qureshi said, “What are we giving up at the end of that?” Let’s hope it’s not their aakhira.

Finally, alhamdulillah, many brothers and sisters do put their aakhira first so they either leave these things for the sake of Allah or strive to find halal alternative routes. Ultimately, even if we enjoy educational, monetary and job-satisfaction success etc., most likely we will lose blessings in other aspects of our lives by not giving up things that we love for the sake of Allah, by not trying hard to find halal alternatives or by not having the patience and trust in Allah to wait as maybe He might find a way forward for us in the future that may be better for our worldly life and our after-life.