AT-TAQWA BOYS SCHOOL
A SISTER’S LAMENT
With regards to the Durban At-Taqwa Boys School, a Sister from Durban laments:
ISLAMIC SCHOOL OF ‘SIMPLICITY & AFFORDABILITY’ RIPPING PARENTS OFF
As salaam mu alaikum.
Moulana Yunus Patel Saheb (Rahmatullah alayh) had endorsed the establishment of AT-TAQWA BOYS school in Overport, Durban with the sole purpose of alternative education for boys and grooming them for becoming Ulema. He’s formula was “keep the school simple, affordable for all”.
But during the last 5 years, the school has taken a U turn under the Ameership of Ml Yusuf, a mureed of Moulana Yunus Patel (Rahmatullah alayh), and a Khailifa of Maulana Mazhar.
While using THE PR STUNT of always bringing up Moulana Yunus Patel’s name at every occasion, and always self-praising the institution, the school fees have sky-rocketed. Those who can’t afford it, ZAKAAT IS ALWAYS THE MAGIC WAND OF HEELLAH.
School uniforms have to purchased from the school.
Swimming lessons were normally optional, but now compulsory on Saturday. The charges are accrued to the fees. Brand new text books have to be purchased every year from the school. No second hand books are allowed. What has happened to the “willing buyer and willing seller fatwa”?
A lady driver is employed to chauffeur children.
Aapas parade on the top floors with no parda while parents and teachers watch on.
Sports day is now an aapas’ fashion show day, where appas show off the latest Abaya and water bottles.
The school appearance has improved manifold, together with the syllabus, but the quality of education has deteriorated due to unskilled, unqualified aapas who spend time on cell phones trying to purchase flysafair R10 tickets.
Will AT-TAQWA BOYS BECOME A FAMILY BUSINESS where husband and wife and later son, milk the community of funds and use heelah to launder Zakaat funds?
Will the community and parents, and teachers remain silent out of “respect for Hazrath”? Please comment on this issue. JAZAKALLAH KHAIR
A Concerned community member.
(End of the Sister’s Lament and Complaint)
Comment
The lament and complaint are fully justified. The deterioration of the school founded by Maulana Yunus Patel (Rahmatullah alayh), the erosion of spirituality and the accretion of glaring sins as described by the Sister, while lamentable, are not surprising. All Institutions of the Deen decline, deteriorate and become deflected from the Haqq. They become Islamically lifeless, spiritless and metamorphose into mercenary institutions pursuing worldly and nafsaani objectives.
Almost all Darul Ulooms initiated by sincere Buzrug Ulama have also undergone shaitaani changes. Such evil metamorphosis is of the ways of this dunya. Nevertheless, it does not follow that silence has to be maintained in the face of corruption. The obligation of Amr Bil Ma’roof Nahyi Anil Munkar demands that admonition and advice (Naseehat) be proffered.
The acts mentioned by the Sister are evil and haraam. On the basis of the issues stated by the Sister, the school is no longer a Deeni institution. It is an outfit with worldly objectives being pursued in the name of the Deen, and this is among the Signs of Qiyaamah mentioned in the Hadith:
“The dunya will be pursued with the amal of the Deen.”
The Heelah trick is a shaitaani/nafsaani stratagem for money-making. Many institutions are mismanipulating the ‘heelah’ mas’alah. It is not permissible to halaalize Zakaat for this type of school by resorting to the heelah strategy which the Shariah has devised for extreme cases of Deeni need. Such need does not exist in the boys secular school, hence it is haraam to employ or mismanipulate the heelah latitude. It is to be reserved for extreme cases pertaining to advancement and protection of the Deen. But, lamentably, institutions are employing this mas’alah as a trick for legalizing Zakaat for use in projects and ways for which this Fiqhi device is not permissible.
Making swimming lessons compulsory and even levying fees for it are haraam. The parading of the Aapas described by the Sister are the stepping stones to zina. Their antics are haraam and come within the purview of the Qur’aanic Prohibition:
“Do not come NEAR to zina…”
The employment of the female driver is haraam and most despicable. It is doubly haraam because the haraam employment is by a so-called Islamic institution initiated by a pious Aalim who has departed from this dunya.
The external appearance of the school having improved, and its improved syllabus are actually Islamically retrogressive. With material prosperity, the usual consequence is spiritual retrogression. The Rooh of the Deen is sacrificed for the Jeefah (Carrion) of the dunya.
The exorbitant fees must be expected. The institution has become a mercenary one, hence the focus is on monetary gain. The object is not the Deeni and Imaani welfare of the pupils. The Aakhirah is furthest from the minds.
Uniforms are the custom of the kuffaar. There is no school uniform dress for Muslims. It is haraam for the school to compel pupils to adopt a uniform, and it is zulm to compel parents to buy such haraam uniforms.
Sports are haraam. Have a sports day in the name of Maulana Yunus Patel is damnable and pure shaitaaniyat. Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said:
“Every sport of the Mu’min is haraam.”
Riya (show), Takabbur (Pride) and Hubb-e-Dunya (Love of the world) are the attributes of these institutions. They are set to further decline.
13 Sha’baan 1446 – 12 February 2025