Education

Endorsement by the GTF

The Islamic Institute of Toronto is pleased to announce that it has been granted Recognized and Endorsed status by the Graduate Theological Foundation (GTF) in the United States.

The Graduate Theological Foundation is a learned society of ministry professionals committed to continuing professional education. The Foundation is committed to the wide range of traditional and emerging forms of ministry in faith communities in their quest for deeper senses of unity both among themselves and in their developing relations with other religious traditions and secular society. For more, please visit www.gtfeducation.org

The Graduate Theological Foundation is affiliated with the Department of Continuing Education, Oxford University, United Kingdom and Rome, Italy.

Students who are enrolled in programs at the Graduate Theological Foundation may take courses at the Islamic Institute of Toronto in fulfilment of their Requirements for Units of Study. Students should check with the GTF on the details of these procedures.

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Shaikh Ahmad Kutty, Islamic Scholar and senior lecturer at the Islamic Institute of Toronto responds to a question about the importance of education for Muslim women

Every Muslim, whether male or female, is obligated in Islam to seek at least the basic education in religion.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, Seeking knowledge is a duty of every Muslim. If women had been excluded from this exhortation, the Prophet (peace be upon him) would have certainly said so. In fact, in another version of the same hadith, it is said, on every Muslim, male and female. Allah tells us in the Quran: Ask those who know, if you have no knowledge.

Based on many such evidences in the Quran and the Sunnah, Muslim scholars have ruled that seeking essential knowledge of the beliefs and practices of Islam is an obligatory duty of every Muslim-regardless of gender.

It is common knowledge that as Muslims we must practice Islam in order to gain salvation. Scholars tell us that our practice of religion is not valid or acceptable unless it is based on sound knowledge. It follows from this that seeking knowledge about the essentials of religion is an obligation on both males and females.

Religious education aside, Muslim women must also strive to acquire essential life-skills that would make them self-reliant. If we take into account the volatile nature of social circumstances in this time and age, it would be suicidal for Muslim women to ignore such training; Allah warns us against dragging ourselves into perdition.

Still another factor to consider: In Islam, womens roles in rearing future generations of Muslims are far more crucial than that of men. It goes without saying that we cannot rear intellectually and physically healthy children unless mothers are educated and can, therefore, educate children. Based on this fact, it is not at all amazing when we see that all of the great scholars of Islam had educated mothers who planted the first intellectual seeds of greatness in their lives

For more questions and answers by the Shaikh, please visit Ask the Scholar.