YOUNG MUSLIMS,
PEDAGOGY AND ISLAM
Contexts and Concepts
M.G. Khan
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by
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In memory of my father
Hajji Muhammad Abdul Khan
and my wife
Sevda Inik-Khan
My existence is from you
And your appearance is through me
Yet if I had not existed
You would not have been.
Ibn Arabi (1165-1240)
This book has taken some time to get around to writing, and I am grateful to the individuals who have been there along the way. Colleagues new: Bal Gill and Steph Green for the support and insight they provided (I think you read more drafts than I did), and colleagues old: Gill Cressey and Wayne Richards, who gave of time and thought.
There are individuals who have inspired, read, commented and cussed who are not just a part of this book but also a part of my life: Mehdi and Ingrid Razvi, Charlie Husband, Tom Wylie, Mohammed Shafique, Abdoolkarim Vakil, George and Teresa Smith, Taniya Hussain, Sheikha Halima Krausen (who inspired the relationships model used in this book), Man Yee Lee, Taz Bashir, Zahoor Iqbal and my smuggler of rare and precious texts, Carola Nielinger Vakil, and others who I have missed out, probably because I am rushing to meet a deadline, and who are now breathing a sigh of relief.
This book is dedicated to youth workers such as Phil Hamilton who has been an inspiration in many young peoples lives, mine included, and youth workers such as Adil Hadi, not forgetting the Nibbler and there are many others.
I am very grateful to the students at Ruskin College for putting up with me you are special people and in being a part of your learning journeys I have learnt much about mine.
I am indebted to the patience and support of my family and friends life is short and there is an opportunity cost for everything one does.
Last, but not least, I would like thank The Policy Press Karen Bowler, Laura Vickers, Laura Greaves and Susannah Emery, and others whom I have not come across as yet who have been nothing but patient and supportive and who have made this book possible.
Welcome to the ruins
Welcome to the ruins
Dont get fooled by the exterior
Dont get put off by the cold
There is no need for veils
You can leave your guilt at the threshold
All is visible to the keeper
Nothing of shame to behold
Gone will be the inhibitions that trap you
Gone will be the desire to present
It is not shamelessness that meets you
Gestures and pretence dont frequent
Truth has laid bare the decorations
There is no lean to for the world
No table to put the cup on
Or qibla to look towards
Are you tired of looking through the keyhole
Have you the strength to break down the door
Dont be blinded by the light that greets you
Let it embrace you
Like you were once embraced before.
M.G. Khan
Direction to Mecca.
and places we find
Fuck it all
Fuck it all
Your preaching
Your answers
As if
Youve been where Im going
Seen all Ive seen
Your obvious metaphors
Your crappy analogies
And fuck you
Your pretentious piety
And your sly interpretations
To suit your fetishes
Your uniform of sobriety
Over eyes that leave nothing untouched
Well fuck you
As I have time for everything
But you.
M.G. Khan
If God became an infant in your
Arms
Then you
Would have to nurse all
Creation.
Hafiz (1320-1389);
translated by Daniel Ladinsky (1999)
Idries Shah (1978) explains that the danger of sentiment is that once it is expressed, it becomes worn out, turns into truisms, things repeated without thought or feeling, its speech becomes a mechanical act, devoid or disconnected to the reality that it seeks to articulate. Sentiments are propagated and used for their sign value rather than their use value. Notions around equality particularly come to mind, such as, we live in an equal society or equality of opportunity. Does sentiment reflect reality? Does it mask it? Is there an absence of a profound reality that underpins it? Or does it have no relationship to reality at all? Baudrillard (1994) coined this last stage the desert of the real, a space where the world of film, television and the virtual world is more real and intense to us than our real lives.
