The Chance to Serve

This time last year I was probably sitting in a dorm room, hurrying to finish those last minute assignments before spring break began a week from now. Either that or I was watching a movie or writing. I always managed to get my homework done by Friday so I could spend the weekend lazing around and doing absolutely nothing. But now, I’m at home, studying Islamic creed instead of psychology, studying the history of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wassalam instead of college writing.

Currently I am enrolled in an Islamic academy that goes by the name of SunniPath (or Qibla as it is now known). SunniPath is not a normal, traditional Islamic academy; rather, it is based completely online. Each course is constructed of weekly live sessions as well as other learning activities, such as pre-recorded lessons, journaling, quizzes, and so on. The instructors, some of which are well-known scholars, can interact with their students during the live session through an instant-messaging type text chat. This online approach allows scholars to reach students from all over the world: Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia, Jordan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Columbia, and the list goes on.

But this post is not to advertise SunniPath. Instead, this post is about one of the classes I’m involved in with this semester, which started today. This course is unlike other courses. Rather than simply being a student, I am a teacher’s assistant. I help the students in their learning as well as helping the instructor in her teaching.

Every single Muslim should work to teach people – whether they teach hundreds of students or their four children. Teaching has much reward in Islam. Unlike other deeds, teaching is one of the deeds that keeps on giving. The Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wassalam said: ‘When a man dies, his good deeds come to an end except three: ongoing charity, beneficial knowledge and righteous offspring who will pray for him.’ [Sahih Muslim: 3084] The knowledge a Muslim learns and then passes on to others continues to give him reward despite his death. So long as that knowledge continues to pass from generation to generation, the reward continues.

Of course my list of duties does not really include teaching. All I really do is answer administrative questions, field academic queries to the right person(s), help the instructor grade papers, and truthfully that’s about it. Plus, the class is not very tough; in fact it’s probably the very first class most SunniPath students take. So in truth, there probably is not much reward in that respect.

However, I am still serving my fellow students. I am still answering their questions and I am still helping them out however I can. In some ways I am making their learning easier, taking some of the instructor’s burden so that she might spend more time actually teaching and answering the students’ academic questions. Insha’Allah I will receive a reward for even this minor assistance. And while today was only the first day of the course, insha’Allah I would like to serve as a teacher’s assistant in the future as well.