Adab With Teachers and Classmates: Rehearsal for Adab With Allah and His Messenger

Watch a classroom for five minutes and you will learn a lot. One child stops talking when the teacher walks in. Another says "thank you" without being reminded. A third quietly hands over a pencil, or lets a friend finish a sentence. None of it is dramatic, yet this is where character is actually built.

At Darus Saulieghien Quraan Academy, we teach the Qur'an, but we also teach how to carry it. DSQA does not see adab with teachers and fellow students as a school rule. We see it as training.

The classroom is the rehearsal room

A student who learns to rise for the teacher, listen without interrupting, and say thank you is learning how to receive knowledge. A student who greets classmates, shares, forgives quickly and never mocks is learning how to live with people. The Prophet (SAW) said:

أَكْمَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِيمَانًا أَحْسَنُهُمْ خُلُقًا

"The believers with the most complete faith are those with the best character." (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Sunan Abi Dawud)

He (SAW) also taught:

لَا يَشْكُرُ اللَّهَ مَنْ لَا يَشْكُرُ النَّاسَ

"Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah." (Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

So the child who thanks a teacher is practising gratitude to Allah (SWT), whether they know it or not.

The same adab, aimed higher

Allah (SWT) tells the believers how to behave with the Messenger (SAW):

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ

"O you who believe, do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger." (Surah Al-Hujurat 49:1)

The next ayah tells them not to raise their voices above the voice of the Prophet (SAW). Not pushing ahead, lowering the voice, listening before speaking: a child who has practised these with a teacher already knows how to do them with the Messenger (SAW) and with the Qur'an. Surah Al-Hujurat 49:11 adds that people must not mock one another, which is the same lesson with classmates.

A take-home for students and parents

Students: this week, pick one habit. Greet every classmate, or thank your teacher at the end of each lesson, or make du'a for them by name after salaah.

Parents: ask at supper, "How did you treat your teacher today?" before asking about marks. Children copy what we ask about, and what we notice.

O Allah, make us people of beautiful character. Beautify our manners with Your Book and the Sunnah of Your Messenger (SAW), and bless our teachers, our students and our homes. Ameen.