I wish I had a mentor

Have you ever wished you had a mentor? A person to look up to and seek advice from? Someone you could fully trust and go back to for guidance?

To me, this was a desire I had deep inside my heart since childhood. It's been a dua I made to Allaah for since long. And today as I sit in Madeenah, the city of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), I feel my duas are answered.

Walter Levin once said, "A teacher who makes Physics boring is a criminal". If we take this quote literally, I will have to count all the Physics teachers I had from the earliest years of my schooling up until graduation to be criminals. This might sound plain-spoken and rude, but it's the unfortunate reality.

I loved studying Physics from an early age. Binge-watching lectures of Professor Stephen Hawkins, Carl Sagan and Neil Degrees Tyson was one of my favorite after-school hobbies. I loved LEARNING Physics until I was TAUGHT Physics in school. My teachers made sure to teach it in the most possible boring and uncritical way by merely impelling theories down our throats. I loved LEARNING maths until I was TAUGHT maths. The same goes for Chemistry.

The more I analysed the reason for this, it became clear even at that early age that teachers merely taught their subjects to earn money and not because they were passionate about teaching or raising the next generation of global citizens. For them, teaching was nothing but a profession like any other. They seemed to have very little care about the development of the generation to come. Value-based pedagogy was literally non-existent (Except in the case of very few teachers of my school. Shout out to Geetha mam, Nazim Sir and Mujeeb sir from BHPS, Qatar).

The same happened in my Madrasa too, although to a lesser degree.

As I grew up, I realized that I cannot depend upon these ‘teachers’ to find my path in life. I had to self-navigate. How I wished I had a mentor who could hold my hands and walk me through the challenges of life. My parents did their parenting well. They were a phenomenal source of support and guidance in my life. But, that couldn't suffice the need for a mentor from whom I could seek expert advice each step of the way. This void was always there in my life which I tried to fill with people who I thought I could look up to. But the more I got acquainted with them and learned about their life, the less mesmerized I became of their actuality. Many who looked extremely brilliant and remarkable on the outside were not so on the inside. Many people who preached values didn’t seem to have those in their personal lives. Their pietistic affectations seemed hypocritical to me. Many who claimed morality in front of society didn’t seem to be that moral in their own lives.

I continued my search to find a guide who could help me continue with my seeking of knowledge. On the way I met many teachers, but not a mentor. While in college, I found Ashif sir, the academic head of PM Institute, who astonished me with his value-based personality and intellectual proficiency. We used to have conversations during the after-college hours on various topics ranging from politics to sociology. His insights were profound. I continued studying with him by working as a research analyst on one of his projects. People like him are rare. He is a gem. Unfortunately, very few students in the college ever knew of such a gem being present there. As I moved to Egypt for studies, our connection decreased, and we still had weekly meetings online.

After I went to Egypt, this search continued until I met Shiekh Usama Abdul Aseem Hamza, a former professor of Azhar University in the Department of Jurisprudence. I stayed with him inside his masjid. His level of spirituality was unparalleled. He used to finish reciting the Quraan every six days in the five daily salah! Any time I looked at him, I would see him sitting on his ordinary chair in the masjid, reading books. I used to eat food with him and slept on the same masjid carpet he slept on. His humility was astounding. Even though he was one of the most renowned and sought-after scholars in Egypt, he was never arrogant about it. He was a simple man. I learned with him in his masjid. He used to give me direct tarbiyyah on character and conduct. It was a huge blessing to be able to study with him in his masjid along with students of knowledge from across Europe to Asia. It is really a precious memory. But, this happiness was short-lived. Allaah called him back while he was leading the fajr salah.

The search continued. As I finished my studies in Egypt, I travelled to Madeenah, Saudi Arabia to continue seeking ilm. This is when I had the opportunity to meet Shiekh Ahmed Al Hafidh As-Shinqeeti, the student of the former grand mufti of KSA, Shiekh bin Baz (r) and the renowned madeeni scholar, Shiekh Abdul Muhsin Al Abbad. Shiekh Ahmed is unlike any other person I have ever seen in my life. His humility is incomparable! He was a phenomenal Mauritanian scholar who had mastered all nine books of Ahadeeth and all four schools of jurisprudence. He spent all his life seeking knowledge in different parts of the world. His intellect and wisdom are absolutely mesmerizing. His farsighted vision is unlike I have ever seen in any person throughout my travels.

And now, as I sit in my study centre in Madeenah near Shiekh Ahmed Al Hafidh, I feel like my search has finally come to an end.

He is an extremely calm and deeply spiritual person. He always reminds us of the importance of cleansing the heart and purifying the mind against having any hatred for other creations. He always speaks about the importance of honesty, humility and the need for kindness when dealing with people. He gives so much focus on keeping his intentions clear that you won’t find any videos of him on the internet. He protects his intentions by staying away from posting any of the dawah activities he does on social media. He says fame is a poison. His classes are audio recorded and only sent to students of knowledge.

His perceptions have affected me so deeply that it has changed my perspectives on the world. He is against groupism and sectarianism. He always reminds his students to focus on bringing the hearts together and uniting the ummah under Tawheed rather than dividing the community on trivial matters and spreading communal hate. I seek advice from him on all matters. His insights are a source of great guidance.

This experience has reinforced my realization of the importance of having a mentor. Having someone to look up to. Having someone you could seek advice from. Having someone who could enlighten my path with his torch of knowledge and wisdom.

Sadly, most children don’t have such a person in their life. The ones who they look up to are the movie celebrities or the K-pop stars who are leaving extremely sad and bad influences on their lives. Our education system has failed badly in guiding the next generation. Our madrasa systems have also failed to a degree in imparting the deep spiritual aspects of our beautiful religion to the students. It has proved very incapable of dealing with the issues that the current youth face. It has failed to an extent in countering Atheism, feminism and LGBTQ activism.

It’s the need of the hour to change this.

This was the aim I had when I set out on my research project on education systems. I completed a graduate research dissertation on the topic of classroom morphology and spent close to two years studying the education systems across the world, specifically focusing on Islamic institutions. The research has not yet come to an end and there is a lot of work to be done.

I strongly believe we need a paradigm shift in today's education field. We need teachers who can be mentors, who are value-based and well-trained to guide our children, who are well acquainted with the psychology of the youth and are aware of their problems deeply, mentors who the upcoming youth can connect with without fear or skepticism, mentors who are principled internally and far-sighted externally.

We need a system that amalgamates the current advances in technology with the deep-rooted traditions of our religion. We need a system that is grounded in the rich intellectual Islamic traditions with updations of this contemporary world. We need a system that combines psychological MENTORing with madraSA tarbiyyah. We need MENTORSA.

الحمدلله.

Project mentorsa has started and is progressing well. Each time I look into its future, I feel a rush of happiness and hope. I am sure Allaah will help to build this project just like he supported in building COJ. Any initiative brought forth with the best of intentions for His sake alone is destined to leave an indelible mark on human history. There is no doubt about this. This is a divine promise Allaah has guaranteed through the Holy Quraan.

May Allaah make this project a grand success, a source of guidance to millions of youth and protect our youth from all fitna.

May Allah accept project mentorsa as a sadaqah-jariya from this little, sinful and weak slave of His who is filled with shortcomings.