How to Deal with Errors Found in Educational Curricula
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Your Eminence! What is obligatory for a teacher who finds some errors in the curricula? Should he clarify them to the students, or should he leave that lesson and move on, even though the supervisor says: Do not leave anything out, and do not alert the students to any error, but rather submit it to the Ministry so they can discuss it?
As for matters of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), if you find in the curriculum something that contradicts your own reasoning, do not change the curriculum; because you do not know whether the truth is with you or with the other party.So you are not a messenger to whom revelation is sent, so that you would say: [It is not the case that] your statement is the truth and the other is an error; rather, you are a scholar exercising independent reasoning, and it is possible that the truth is with you or with the other party. So you do not change such things.
However, if it is something that does not involve independent reasoning, such as matters of creed, then you must clarify it. But it is not sufficient to just clarify it to the students; you must write about it to the officials in the Ministry. If they do not rule on it, write to other scholars. This is in the case of creed—for example—if you find in the prescribed book that Allah created the Qur'an and did not send it down. This is absolutely not permissible, although, praise be to Allah, I believe that there is nothing in the elementary school curricula that contradicts Islamic creed.
The questioner: There is a song in the third grade: "Allah is greater than my mother and my father and the television." Is such a thing permissible?The Shaykh: I was written to about what you mentioned, and the truth is that it is a great error; because if this statement is instilled in the student's mind, what does he imagine regarding Allah? He imagines that Allah is greater than the television.Meaning: [He imagines that] this door is great, and this is a very great error. And I am amazed! Where are the supervisors who guide the students, guide the teacher, and look into the curricula?You may say: This is negligence on their part, or willful ignorance, or ignorance, without a doubt.
As for matters of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad), if you find in the curriculum something that contradicts your own reasoning, do not change the curriculum; because you do not know whether the truth is with you or with the other party.So you are not a messenger to whom revelation is sent, so that you would say: [It is not the case that] your statement is the truth and the other is an error; rather, you are a scholar exercising independent reasoning, and it is possible that the truth is with you or with the other party. So you do not change such things.
However, if it is something that does not involve independent reasoning, such as matters of creed, then you must clarify it. But it is not sufficient to just clarify it to the students; you must write about it to the officials in the Ministry. If they do not rule on it, write to other scholars. This is in the case of creed—for example—if you find in the prescribed book that Allah created the Qur'an and did not send it down. This is absolutely not permissible, although, praise be to Allah, I believe that there is nothing in the elementary school curricula that contradicts Islamic creed.
The questioner: There is a song in the third grade: "Allah is greater than my mother and my father and the television." Is such a thing permissible?The Shaykh: I was written to about what you mentioned, and the truth is that it is a great error; because if this statement is instilled in the student's mind, what does he imagine regarding Allah? He imagines that Allah is greater than the television.Meaning: [He imagines that] this door is great, and this is a very great error. And I am amazed! Where are the supervisors who guide the students, guide the teacher, and look into the curricula?You may say: This is negligence on their part, or willful ignorance, or ignorance, without a doubt.