Manners With The Teacher

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

It is incumbent on the student of the Quran to respect and honor their teacher. In a hadith related by At-Tirmidhi, the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said,

"He is not of us who does not respect our elderly, is not merciful to our youth, and does not know the rights of our those who teach us."

Our righteous predecessors used to greatly emphasize respect and kindness to their teachers. A famous saying from many of the righteous predecessors is: "I am a slave to he who taught me a letter." The student of knowledge should have awe for his/her teacher and should respect him. Rabee' bin Sulayman was the companion and student of the famous scholar, Ash-Shaafee'i and he [Sulayman] said, "By Allah, I was not so bold as to drink water when Ash-Shaafee'i was looking at me, out of awe of him." Ash-Shaafee'i himself showed great awe of scholars and he said of himself, "I would turn the pages very gently in front of Imaam Maalik, out of awe of him, so that he would not hear it."

The student of knowledge should not address his teacher by their first name, calling them, ya sheikh, or teacher, instead they should call them by saying, my sheikh, my teacher, or our sheikh, our teacher. The teachers shouldn't be called from a distance except in a compelled situation. The teachers should not be addressed with the ta' al-khataab (you singular). Allah, the Exalted in the Quran, pointed out the manners with those teaching us khair when He said in surah An-Noor aayah 63: ((Do not make the calling of the messenger among you as your calling one of another.)) It would not be proper to call your parents by their first names, and in the same respect teachers of good should not be addressed by their first names.

The following is advice that Amir Al-Mu'mineen Ali bin Abee Taalib, may Allah be pleased with him, gave: "From the rights of the learned over you is that you do not ask too many questions, you do not divulge his secrets, you do not backbite about him to anyone, you do not look for error in him, if he made a mistake you accept his excuse. It is incumbent upon you to respect and magnify him as long as he keeps Allah's orders; you should not sit in front of him; if he has a need the people should race to serve him." Related by Ibn Abdulbarr, with the addition that "You should not point to him [teacher] with your hands; you should not say, 'So and so said something different than what you said' ..."

May Allah make us the best of students and the best of teachers. May Allah purify our intentions and make all we do for Him alone. May Allah grant that we will be "ahlu-l-Quran" or the family of the Quran (those that read it, study and apply it) those who are Allah's people and special ones. Aameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.

Wassalaam