Prophet Muhammad's Method of Teaching

By Dr.S.Dawood Shah,Director, Crescent School, Chennai- 600048,INDIAEmail: sdawoodshah@yahoo.co.inProphet 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...

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...

2.0 Developing Basic Skills – Methods

Having realized the necessity to develop a knowledge based society in a near total illiterate region the Prophet initiated steps to develop the basic skills of learning among Arabs. By the time he started receiving revelations from God he encouraged learning by memory and by commissioning the writing of the revelation through scribes appointed...

2.1 Method of Memorization

Since the Prophet was unlettered, he used to memorize the verses that were revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, which he used to recite to his companions. The companions of the Prophet known as “Ashab As Suffah” who were staying in a platform outside the Prophet’s house used to commit the same to their memory before preserving it in written...

2.2 Method of Writing

The Qur’an refers to God as He who taught the use of the pen, taught man what he knew not.(The Qur’an 96:4-5) The Prophet was highly committed to spread the message of God but in those days there were very few who knew reading and writing. Therefore, when seventy Makkans were held as prisoners of war in the battle of Badr they were asked...

2.3 Method of Reading

The Prophet’s method of reading originated from the first revealed verse of the Qur’an namely “Read! In the name of thy Lord and Cherisher….”(96: 1) which refers to the reading, recitation and understanding of the Qur’an. Even now a Muslim child is initiated into the realm of education by reciting a few verses from the Holy Qur’an. The Prophet...

3.0 Scientific Methods

Among Prophet’s methods of teaching some methods evince some elements of modern scientific methods namely:ObservationCorrectionRepresentation by diagramsPractical demonstration...