Is the practice of sending children away from home to learn the Quran abusive? Is it a form of enslavement as argued by some? In this short clip, a Scholar argues that Almajiranci is not abusive. Learners are obligated to serve their masters in exchange for the religious education they receive. If there is a problem at all, it should be laid at the doorsteps of Governments and communities in Nigeria that have neglected their duties to Quranic schools. His views are translated and illustrated here.

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Enslavement is one of the major problems people associate with Almajiranci. Many people consider the Malamai as subjecting the children under their care (Almajirai) to slavery. What is the view of Mal. Kamilu Hadi Balarabe on this?

Every system has a structure. The structure in the Quranic school system is such that the learner is engaged in menial jobs in addition to his pursuit of Quranic learning. Quranic teachers devote all of their time to instructional tasks. Most of them do nothing else apart from farming. Modelled on the Western colonial system, the government does not regard Quranic teachers as worthy of being supported by it. Therefore, how else do you want them to survive? 

Hence, there is nothing wrong with Quranic teachers asking students under their care to work on their farms. Parents of the learners do not pay anything to the teacher, the government does not support him; it has not built classrooms, dormitories, or workshops where the learners would learn trades and skills. Despite the learners being citizens of the country, the government has not made provisions for their feeding. It has also not supported the teacher in his farming activities. Ordinarily, no parent would like to migrate his child from home to beg or learn under a Quranic teacher without any form of parental support. 

If you go back to history, Quranic schools enjoyed community support in terms of feeding. When parents sent their children to a Quranic school, each would accompany the child with some raw foodstuff. At the end of the day, the Quranic teacher would have enough to feed the children for a year. Because of this, it was not uncommon that households found it difficult to get Almajirai roaming about begging for food. Households may have to resort given their food leftovers to animals. 

It is not that Quranic teachers do not have their problems here and there. There are problems with some of them. However, whatever problems they pose could be addressed if governments supported them. Therefore, before anyone blames Quranic teachers, they should blame governments and communities first for failing to adequately support the Quranic schools. If communities are Muslims and believe in the importance of Quranic learning, that is what they should do. 

Colonialism has harmed the Quranic education system by its neglect of an indigenous form of literacy, Ajami. It also informalized a thriving Quranic school system that had produced many renowned scholars of international repute. If you were to go round Hausa towns and villages, you would be surprised at the amount of scholarly literature you would get written in Ajami and covering diverse fields of knowledge. This body of knowledge is now inaccessible because colonialism has led to the abandonment of the language form in which it was written and the neglect of the school system that nurtured it.