The Human Cycle

point

In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful

Being a relatively new father, I wanted to make sure I understood the Islamic way of raising children. Therefore, in the fall of 2009 (Shawwal 1430 A.H.), I decided to call our beloved teacher, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Jalali of the Open School in Chicago, IL. I asked him for some advice in regards to raising children as well as some specific questions concerning disciplining children. While we were discussing, Sayyid Jalali gave me the option of taking a full class on the subject, and I took that option.

Soon afterwards, I participated in one-on-one lessons with Sayyid Jalali on Sundays. The main text for the class was an Arabic text authored by Sayyid Jalali himself. He would go over passages in Arabic with me, and then we would engage in analysis and discussion in English.

Sayyid Jalali encouraged me to always think and not to accept notions blindly. The class required that I submit a weekly written homework assignment summarizing the respective lesson (entailing our discussions and analysis) for Sayyid Jalali’s review.

This book is merely a compilation of my homework assignments. The purpose of the book is to

p: 1