There are entire books dedicated to this hadeeth...

There are entire books dedicated to this hadeeth, so we will focus specifically on the concepts dedicated to Ihsaan and the demeanor/appearance of an educator.

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbalee, a Medieval alim, highlighted how, by stating that angel Jibreel had just taught them their “deen”, then this hadeeth is essentially inclusive of all the individual obligatory acts a Muslim must do, citing that Islam is more directly defined as the physical “submission” of a person, Iman (faith/belief) is more directly defined as the articles of faith with the 7 conditions mentioned previously, and Ihsaan is the highest level of worship of a person consistently always behaving under the acknowledgement that Allah sees them, even though they don’t see Him-this last level is impossible for regular humans to maintain indefinitely, but they are supposed to try their best to reach this high standard (Ibn Rajab, 2007, p.

41-69). Ihsaan is actually mentioned even as the first chapter in ‘raising children’ encyclopedias like the one mentioned above (Mutawalee, 2005, p.11) and it is one of the behaviors that needs to be modeled the most.

Ihsaan linguistically means “to make something better”; one way it is used in the Qur’an for example is to return bad behavior from someone with a ‘better’ response (Qur’an, 13:22) or to even make someone ‘better’ by for example feeding them or doing some other beneficial service for them (Mutawalee, 2005, p.11). These points recall the image of the humble educator that was highlighted before in the Rubbaan.

In short, the ulamaa described Ihsaan as sublime manners, increasing in importance as one goes from a broad social network that goes all the way from the likes of plants and animals to the poor, wayfarers, orphans, visitors, and neighbors, to one’s most inner circle of spouses, children, parents, and then of course one’s relationship to Allah38 (Mutawalee 2005, pgs. 13-20).

If we can raise students to live according to such a set of priorities, then we will certainly as educators have taught them a practical application of how to manage one’s life, which is essentially the key to success: time management. How humans use their time and prioritize is what differentiates between the leaders and the followers, the active and the passive, those who transform their society or are transformed by it.

Moral education is a timeless, necessary aspect of any educational system that values social justice and coherence.