Hadith and Fiqh Test DUO 2017 – 2018

Salam alaykum.

Earlier this year we talked about the difficulties teachers experience in measuring a students understanding through examinations. I gave more open ended questions in order to really see what you all learned from my classes, and the books we studied. My exams were mostly practical questions about things you absolutely need to know for this purpose. During the next month or so before the next semester starts, please get in touch with me in order to come to an understanding of what you need to focus on. Make sure you actually learn the material and don’t just study and take classes to get grades. Make sure your aqidah is firm and proper, make sure you are understanding and practicing the Arabic, make sure you are acting on the hadith you learn, make sure you are practically reciting the quran. We make tests to see if our students are paying attention, but we can be deceived. The true test comes on the day of judgement and Allah cannot be deceived. May Allah make all of your future endeavors successful, save us all from unbeneficial knowledge, grant us beneficial knowledge and save us from the fire.

Please keep me in your Duas

The following is an answer key of sorts to the examinations I held throughout the school year

Hadith Final Summer 2018

1. I asked the students to define the ayah (2:177) using the ahadith we’ve covered in the second half of class. The point of using this ayah for the hadith examination was because the book that we were studying uses that ayah to frame and order the hadith that are mentioned. The students then were expected to explain the ayah while mentioning/summarizing the ahadith that were covered.
2. If you matched a chapter heading with a part of the ayah and mentioned/summarized the ahadith mentioned there you have received a passing grade. Your grade will be higher depending on how much you actually explained.

Hadith Midterm Winter 2017-2018

Students were asked to define Iman, Islam, Ihsan, and a muslim character in detail using the ahadith of imam nawawi’s 40 hadith compiliztion

1. Islam refers to those actions that we take based on our belief and intention, actions cannot manifest without preplanning and effort and are a sign of things inside the heart. Any answer to the subquestions based on this line of thought is correct. Zuhd literally means abstention, but it is an action taken based on the idea that I should use less to get more in order to make Allah happy.
2. The important thing to note here is that Iman refers to all forms of belief about Allah, the prophet, and what Allah and his prophet made mandatory and prohibited. Our beliefs are not mere opinions, they are convictions and must have a strong and firm basis, this is the love of Allah, through which we obtain the love of the prophet, and because we love Allah and his prophet, and they tell us to love our family, we love them and anyone else Allah and his prophet tells us to. Any explanation using the fact that we don’t really love our families if we don’t love Allah and his messenger first is correct.
3. The discussion of Ihsan is always interesting because the hadith surrounding it call for self reflection about the previous two topics. I asked about zuhd here again, because the hadith that talks about it deals with abandoning the world in order to obtain the love of allah. Zuhd is a response to the self-reflection a person goes through when assessing their relationship with Allah.
4. The outlook of a Muslim needs to be shaped by the above concepts, not his Geo-political environment. We live between the hope that Allah gives us, that the Muslim is rewarded, and the fear that we might not be doing enough to be counted among them.
5. We know that Allah created everything, therefore everything we do is for him, our purpose is to do what he wants us to do while we are here. We perceive things as being good or bad to us, but good is what makes us closer to Allah, and bad is what keeps us from him.  Wealth, disease, death, family are all things that become trials for us. They are good when we use them to get closer to Allah and his prophet, and they are bad when they don’t. Our test is to use them to get to Allah, and don’t let them take us away from him. Allah promises forgiveness for those who put in effort, and in this lay the purpose of all life and the world we live in.

Some hadith could be used in multiple places, As long as hadith were referenced in the proper place you received a passing grade.

Fiqh Midterm Winter 2017-2018

This exam was less analysis and more copy/pasting. As Muslims, especially in this modern era of information, we need to be able to look into a piece of literature and get the information we need. For those whose native language is english, should’ve already taken many english literature classes where the goal is reading comprehension. When studying to become an alim, your biggest responsibility is knowing what you are reading, who wrote it, and who translated it(if applicable). As you get further into the alim course, you will start translating, your translation will suffer if you don’t know how to translate what you are reading, or if you don’t even know how to read what’s in front of you.

For this reason your test was to prove that you could open up the book and explain to me what was inside. Grading was based on how thorough the information was.

Once again, number grades don’t define you, or your understanding, over the next month or so once again i would like to connect with the students individually to talk about their progress, but use the above to self assess in the meantime.