Prophet Muhammad's Method of Teaching

By Dr.S.Dawood Shah,
Director, Crescent School, Chennai- 600048,
INDIA

Email: sdawoodshah@yahoo.co.in

Prophet Muhammad, an unlettered, who the Qur’an says, had been chosen by God as His Messenger to guide mankind, sought to convey the message of God, not in a conventional class room to students of a particular age group but to a variety of people in different settings. In spite of being an untrained and inexperienced teacher in the traditional sense of the word, he employed different methodologies to paraphrase and convey “the message of God” to masses. These methods of teaching are relevant even today. The Prophet based his teachings on three main themes namely “Oneness of God”, “Righteous Conduct of Man” and the “Hereafter” and preached the same through the example of his own practice and oral instructions. His teaching methods were successful because he was a beautiful model for others to follow. The Qur’an and Hadith literature are the two basic sources from which we can study the Prophet’s approach to various topics and his systematic methods of teaching. This paper has identified 22 teaching methods of the Prophet which are classified under five broader topics such as “Developing Basic Skills”, “Scientific Methods”, “Psychological Approach”, “Methods of ‘Mass’ Communication” and “Techniques of Teaching”. This paper explores the approaches in greater depth.

1.0 Introduction

Prophet Muhammad, an unlettered who had been chosen by God as His Messenger to guide mankind (The Qur’an 7:158), sought to convey the message of God, not in a conventional classroom, to students of a particular age group but to a variety of people in different settings. In spite of being an untrained and inexperienced teacher in the traditional sense of the word, he employed different methodologies to paraphrase and convey “the message of God” to the masses. These methods of teaching are in vogue and its effectiveness is still felt in the academic world.

The Prophet based his teachings on the three main themes namely “Oneness of God”, “Righteous Conduct of Man” and “The Hereafter” and preached the same through the example of his own practice and oral instructions. He devoted a considerable time for teaching beside his busy schedule as the head of a state and used to lecture regularly to his companions about religion and way of life, mostly after every prayer. This research work has identified 22 teaching methods of the Prophet which are classified under five broader topics such as “Developing Basic Skills”, “Scientific Methods”, “Psychological Approach”, “Methods of ‘Mass’ Communication” and “Techniques of Teaching”.