Syrian Professor Explains the Quran Faith and Islamic Education Omar Alshuhima

This is from English Club Malaysia. Today my guest is Umar from Syria. He is professor. He teaches Sharia the obligatory aspects of Islam to his students. Now let's talk to Omar so that he can let us know what does he teaches to his students and what motivated him to become an Islamic professor or Islamic teacher. thank you so much Uber for joining us today. it's pleasure having you on English Club Malaysia. how are you feeling today? How was your day? Thank you. I'm very pleased to join with you with this meeting and feel good to speak with you. First try I'm trying to to learn English for one reason. world is in English because you know that the foreign the English language is the language of science and lot of studies and books it's written on the holy Quran and the Islamic religion. So I'm trying to improve my English to know what the other people think about Islam, what they wrote about Islam. for that I'm trying to improve my English for my students. Yes, as you said now these days I'm studying in the Damascus University Sharia and preparing PhD in Quranic studies. I'm trying to describe the unit and the surah of the holy Quran and deal with the surah as unit not as only one verse you interpretation only one verse then you inter interpretation the the next verse. No, in my studying will try to improve that the surah in the holy Quran are unit. The surah it's talk about one issues the surah we say coherence and cohesion. was just trying to get hold of everything that you have said as you mentioned that you are planning to complete or proceed with doing your PhDs in Islamic studies. my question is everything that you are studying about the subject are you is the entire material in English language or Arabic language mean the source of all the material that you're studying. Unfortunately in in Syria in the college we studied we studied English only four subject in the first year we studied two subject and in the second year we studied two subject and when graduated from university I'm trying to improve my English byself and now in the master on the PhD we only studying unfortunately in Arabic. But my my my title or which wrote about he needs to know about English because as told you when you dig when you treat the surah as unit it's we said textual textual studies and the textual studies textual are in the United Spain and Germany and they all wrote in English in English language. So want to improve my English to help me in my PhD. Interesting. Omar, can you please talk to us about what motivated you? Because as as Syrian you every Syrian speaks Arabic and when it comes to Quran, Quran itself is written originally in Arabic language. So that gives you sort of think that might help you to understand Quran better or it eases your path to understand understanding Quran. because you speak Arabic as native language. Now what motivated you to become an become an Islamic professor or study Islam on such deep level that you are pursuing master's or then PhD in Islamic studies? mean were you always curious about Islamic studies when you were young boy or or child or or do you think that it has been implied on you to be to study Islam deeper or is it your own personal choice? Okay, thank you for this question. As you said, said in the holy Quran, we say the Quran in Arabic language and Allah said Allah he sent the prophet in his Bible language. This one side Allah also said in the whole Quran Allah said Allahel he revelation the holy Quran to to change the all the humanity from the from the dark to the light from the non-Islam to the Islam way. So as you know when our prophet Muhammad was born the world was not good all dark the world are dark the moral are not good and it's not good way so allahel send our prophet Muhammad peace be upon him with the holy Quran to change the world. So I'm trying to understand the holy Quran to change the world to be the world in good way to to treat well with God and to treat well to treat well with the other people. So the holy Quran is Allah's message. If we read it and understand it and work in it, we will happy in this life and in the hereafter. We will happy to ourself and to the to the society to all the people. For that I'm focusing only the holy Quran. You know in the Islamic religion we have lot of subject lot lot of science. We have the holy Quran we have alith our prophet Muhammad peace be upon him saying and we have we said it's like pray and fasting and pilgrimage and zaka charity. Yes. And we have Jordan let's say how you deal with God. It's about Allah's name and Allah's deeds. So I'm focusing only the holy Quran because because know that it's if we would understood the holy Quran we will have in this life and in the hereafter in the in the in the the day of judgment. So I'm focusing on the holy Quran and as you know as as you told you that there are lot of books are written in English and some of it it's good. So because I'm Muslim, have to know what the other people written or write about the Holy Quran. If it's useful, so can understand it and can do it and if it's wrong, can criticize it. So for that, I'm focusing on the Holy Quran and I'm trying to improve my English. So Omar do you think there is need to not for the English not for business not for money? No no no English only for the agree with you. Do you think that there is need to verify when something is written in English language about Islam or about Quran? Does it need to be authenticated or verified that whether it it it matches or it com or it complies with what has written what has been written in Arabic language or in Arabic scriptures because at the end of the day English what's written in English is just translation because the origin of Islam is in Arabic language not English language. Everything all the material all the Islamic education in English language is basically translation not original. So do you always feel or realize whenever you read anything in English language about Islam that it needs to be verified from an Arabic source or Arabic scripture? Do you ever feel that? Yes. Good question. You know, if someone try to translate any book, he have to know about the science and the style to the writer. For example, if don't know about the Holy Quran, and know English very well, can't translate this book only because know English. And there are lot of translator people don't translate in good way. And there are lot if you read the original book you you see difference between the original book and the translate book. this and another thing there are lot of books and encyclopedia encyclopedia of Quran they didn't translate to Arabic and there are lot of text and useful text it has to translate to Arabic from Muslim and Muslim not only Muslim for Muslim who know Arabic very well and know English very well and know about the holy Quran is specific in the holy Quran it's so have one more question which is very much related to what you said earlier you felt that you got the motivation by sharing the ayat that and that inspired you or that gave you the inspiration to pursue Islamic studies thinking that you can actually bring change to the current situation. of the world just like prophet peace be upon upon him tried doing it in his own time so in every age there is there is possibility of improvement obviously nobody is perfect me as Muslim know that I'm not perfect so need to improve myself every day need to educate myself so but so for that need to seek an educator to help me become better so you are trying to become that educator so that you can help out individ individuals like myself or those who don't have great grip on Islamic education so that you can as professor you can help them out right so do you do you do you ever feel or did you ever try to understand that which aspects or which areas of Islam like you are trying to study certain aspects of Islam you mentioned aka which which focuses on obligatory aspects of Islam do you think this age of Muslims or this age of young people are lacking behind. Do you think that that you need to focus more on? do you have did you ever try try to pay attention to which area is more weak when it comes to young generation of this world because lot of this young generation is spending time on social media. lot of activities that they are spending time on maybe previous generation was not involved in on those activities or in those activities obviously. So every era, every time, every age has different problems, right? So what is your assessment personally? Yes. Think about this question. Do you know all humankind made mistakes? All humankind made mistakes. But the the religion the revision said we said in Arabic in Arabic ali mean that Allah's Allah's Allah's book the holy Quran and our prophet Muhammad peace be upon him saying we have to focus on it because they don't make any mistake Allah and his prophet. So the young people they have to focus on the revelation the re the religion revelation it's true mean the Allah's word and his prophet he word not only to read we have to read first then we have to understand then we have to do what Allah allahel told us to do we have to change the the the book from book to work the means that you're talking about that we have to be practical right yes practical only we have to only know we have to be practical yes as you said no you have to be practical you have to to see people like our mother Aisha said When when Camb asked her about our prophet peace be upon him morals, she said his morals was as the holy Quran. He was holy Quran walks with this on the on the ground. So means that if the education is not practical then there is no purpose or there is no meaning of getting the education. Yes. It's not useful when as Allah said that mean if you know Allah's word and we didn't do anything we are not good person we don't do anything useful right so advise the you the young Muslim people to focus on the re revision, the holy Quran and our prophet peace be upon him hadith and they have to to read in every scan only one book or two two books. For example, we can read in Quran interpretation. We can read in the first step and we we can we have to study the Islamic religion step by step. step by step and focusing as told you with the revelation with the Quran carrying holy Quran and hadith. If you are Muslim then it's it's certain that your parents will send you to Muslim school. They will try to make sure that my child as Muslim gets some basic or fundamentals of Islamic education so that he can at least have an idea or some sort of understanding of prayer and charity all the basics obligatory aspects of Islam so that he can try to be practical Muslim. He he he should when he grows up he should know that he has to pray otherwise there will there will be consequences after death right from Allah and there will be punishment after death all of that is on one side but when when he grows up when the same child wants to seek job when the parents want to make sure that he should become successful person in the world now he has to like focus on his career as well. So what advice would you give to someone who is who has to like pay attention to his career and then he also has to stay intact with his Islamic education and Islamic roots. Do you think that studying reading Quran is enough for him or does he has to like keep reading additional books like so that he can keep educating himself? Thank you for this question. our prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said you have to you have to read or you have to go to the schooler to sheh to doctor to learn the basic things in Islam. the basic things. All Muslim should learn the basic things. Then after that we have specialist person who specialist specialize maybe in the Sharia and there are other people want to studying medicine when they study anything else but everyone everyone should know the basic the basic thing in Islam and we need we need we need we need medicine people he is good Muslim and good Muslim and medicine. We need that. We need all of them not only scholar in Sharia. No, we need scholar in Sharia in Sharia and we we need lot of things like medicine and etc. And we learn from them to be good Muslim. Only good Muslim are know the basic things and they they can help the people in their information. completely agree with you. If someone has all the education and he doesn't act the right way, if he lies or the same person who has all the Islamic education, he doesn't like do business in the right way or he maybe cheats or he lies or he doesn't abide by his promises. So at the end of the day there is no meaning or there is no mean purpose of his all of his education because Islamic education because he's not doing any practical. as Muslim make any sin knowingly that this is not good. I'm not doing the right thing. And for example to sell something lot of salesmen who are Muslims they might have to lie to their customers. I'm just giving you the example Omar because you are you are very very practical man. so for example you have to lie to to your client that this product is very good even though it's not very good but you have to earn your living. So is that salesman or Muslim salesman going against Islam by lying just to sell product? Mr. Muslim you have we have to to look the Islam as unit as unit. Allah said in the holy Quran no it's not good things you have to you have to believe in the Islam as unit all the Islam not you have to believe in prayer for example and you don't zaka no you have to deal with trade with Islam like whole For example, Allah want from us to to to treat us as as in the the Islam like hole. We not do good in in bad in another area. And as your example, if someone are steal or do something is bad, our we have rule in they said and if the if you want to do bad things, you can do it. And Omar, what would you say? What would you say? Yeah, got your point. got your point. You don't have to you can't be you can't claim to be Muslim and at the same time you keep lying to people just in the name of or under or under the umbrella umbrella of your work saying that this is my job and have to make my living and at the same time you claim to be Muslim. Either you can be Muslim or you can earn you earn your living the bad way. mean you have to make sure that if you want to earn if you want to be good Muslim you have to earn your living the right way. mean otherwise there is no purpose. Yes. You have to look at the big picture. Yes. So have you ever tried paying attention to because everything is economical right now. for even us to communicate right now the internet that we are using is every services is paid right. So I'm just trying trying to get your perspective perspective about banking because banks are also part of our economy and lot of banks in in today's world claim to be Islamic banks and some some are obviously they say that they are conventional banks. So when an Islamic bank says that he it's an Islamic bank. So did you ever try to pay attention or did you ever like think of this these two aspects of banking when when they say Islamic bank and when they say conventional bank have you ever given any thought to to this subject or topic? don't get the the question about the bank if you can repeat it to answer about it. Right now I'm in Pakistan but did work for bank in Dubai and in 2014 and and the bank's name was United Arab Bank and they as because was customer service representative and and never pay attention to these aspects of like Islamic or conventional banking. All had to do was attend the customer's call and give them the information about whether they have loan for the the customer or when their loan is going to mean if they are eligible for loan and things like that and if they wanted to apply for checkbook and some sometime they had complaint so they all like you always make call or people like always make call to the bank and ask for some sort of assistance but When when returned to Pakistan saw that there are lot of banks in the market like conventional bank and Islamic banks. Did you ever given any have you ever given any thought to this subject like why there are two different kinds of banks and when bank says that it's an Islamic bank? Is it actually legit that they are Islamic banks? Do you believe that? I'm sorry didn't get the the question. didn't hear. Can you repeat it in short way? For example, let's say in Syria, are there two kinds of banks like conventional banks and Islamic banks? Yes. And when bank say that it's an Islamic bank, do you believe that it's really an Islamic bank? Do you believe that? Yes, get got you. got your your answer. there know lot of doctors in my in my college in Damascus University. They are they are employer employer in the in the Islamic banks. So they they they say they say don't know the bank how he how he deals with the with the custom mars don't know but the doctors in the Damascus university they are employed in the Islamic banks banks and they they said it's Islamic you can you can deal with it you can buy from it. Right? So we have lot of Islamic banks. We have bank Islam. We have bank. We have lot of Islamic banks. But now these days we the new governments don't have lot of money, lot of Syrian money. So for example, if you have in your account 1 million1 million for if you go to the bank you want for money you want some money they told you that they don't have money because now the situation in Syria we don't have money. Thank you so much Umar for giving all the answers. You have been very helpful. hope audience will really benefit especially the students community in our country both in Syria and Pakistan can learn from the information and the knowledge that you have shared and we wish you all the best. May Allah help you succeed.