05/09/2026
The Teachers We Remember
There are some people we may forget by name, but never forget by impact.
Teachers are among them.
Every year, when Teachers’ Day comes around, we are reminded to send a message, post a photograph, or write a few words of gratitude. But perhaps the real meaning of Teachers’ Day is not in the greeting. It is in remembering the people who, in one way or another, helped shape the person we eventually became.
I often think about the teachers of an older generation. Teaching was not always gentle. A mistake in homework could earn a rap on the knuckles. Poor handwriting could invite a scolding. Talking in class could mean standing outside, and sometimes the dreaded punishment was a ruler on the palm.
Today, many of those methods would not be acceptable. Rules have changed. Child protection standards have changed. Teachers are expected to guide, counsel and correct without causing physical or emotional harm.
But while we reject the beatings, we should not lose the respect.
That is an important distinction. The old classroom may have had its harshness, but it also had an almost sacred understanding of the teacher. A teacher was not merely someone employed to complete a syllabus. The teacher was someone whose words carried weight.
Islam has always placed extraordinary importance on knowledge and those who transmit it. The Qur’an repeatedly elevates knowledge and those who possess it. And in the teachings associated with the Ahlul Bayt (ع), the relationship between a student and teacher is not merely academic; it carries an ethical responsibility.
Imam Zain al-Abidin (ع), in his Risalat al-Huquq the Treatise on Rights speaks about the right of the one who educates a person. Among the responsibilities of the student is to honour the teacher, listen attentively, and protect the teacher’s dignity.
That idea feels particularly relevant today.
Because the modern teacher faces a different classroom. The teacher now competes not only with textbooks but with smartphones, short videos, social media, artificial intelligence and an endless stream of information. A child can access more information in a few seconds than a student of previous generations could find in a library.
Yet information has never been the same thing as wisdom.
Google can provide an answer. A teacher can teach a child how to think about the answer.
Artificial intelligence can generate words. A teacher can recognise when a child has lost confidence.
A textbook can explain mathematics. A teacher may be the person who tells a struggling student, “You can do this.”
That is why, despite all the changes in education, the teacher remains irreplaceable.
I say this also from a personal place.
Even today, when I meet an old teacher, there is something inside me that changes. The years between us seem to disappear for a moment. The classroom returns. The voice returns. The lessons return. And sometimes, surprisingly, even the old scolding feels like part of a story we can smile about now.
Perhaps that is the strange power of a teacher.
A teacher can remain a teacher in our memory long after we have stopped being a student.
And today's generation, despite everything we sometimes say about it, is not necessarily incapable of respecting teachers. Young people may speak differently. They may be more informal. They may call teachers “friends”, and modern teachers themselves often build relationships with students that are much more open and approachable than before.
But being friendly does not have to mean losing respect. In fact, perhaps the best modern teacher is more than a friend.
A friend may listen to you. A teacher may challenge you. A friend may tell you what you want to hear. A teacher sometimes tells you what you need to hear. A friend may stand beside you when you succeed. A teacher may stand beside you when you fail, and then make you try again.That is a different kind of relationship.
The teacher of today may not carry a ruler, but carries something far more demanding: the responsibility of influencing young minds without breaking them. And students, in return, owe their teachers more than examination marks. They owe them attention. Courtesy. Gratitude. And the simple recognition that behind every lesson is a human being who has chosen to spend a part of life helping someone else's child become a better person.
Teachers’ Day, then, should not be merely about remembering our favourite teacher.
It should make us ask whether we still understand the place of the teacher in society.
We can modernise classrooms. We can change curricula. We can abolish corporal punishment.
We can introduce smart boards, tablets and artificial intelligence. But we should never modernise respect out of existence.
Because generations change, technology changes, classrooms change, but the value of someone who teaches us remains. And perhaps that is why, even today, when I think of my teachers, I do not remember only the lessons they taught.
I remember the people who stood in front of us and believed that there was something worth bringing out of us. For that, there can never be an adequate thank-you.
May Allah reward every teacher who teaches with sincerity, every teacher who patiently corrects, every teacher who encourages a frightened child, every teacher who stays late to help a struggling student, and every teacher whose influence continues long after the student has left the classroom.
As we learn from the spirit of the Ahlul Bayt (ع), may we never take lightly the rights of those who educate and guide us.
اللَّهُمَّ احْفَظْ مُعَلِّمِينَا وَبَارِكْ فِي أَعْمَارِهِمْ وَعِلْمِهِمْ، وَاجْزِهِمْ عَنَّا خَيْرَ الْجَزَاءِ، وَارْفَعْ دَرَجَاتِهِمْ، وَاجْعَلْ مَا عَلَّمُونَا نُورًا لَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ، بِحَقِّ مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِ مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ.
O Allah, protect our teachers and bless their lives and their knowledge. Reward them with the best of rewards on our behalf, raise their ranks, and make the knowledge they taught us a light for them in this world and the Hereafter, by the sake of Muhammad and the Ahlul Bayt (ع).
To every teacher, from the ruler-and-blackboard classroom of yesterday to the smart classroom of today: thank you. May your students always remember not only what you taught them, but what you taught them to become.
