At some point every community has to reckon with a simple question: are we building something that will outlast us? It is easy to focus on immediate needs — the program this weekend, the rent for this month, the logistics of this event. These things matter and they demand attention. But they can also become the whole horizon if we are not careful, and a community that only manages the present has no particular reason to expect a future. ...
We treat religious education as optional in a way we would never treat mathematics or language. A child who cannot read is considered to have a serious problem. A child who reaches adulthood not knowing who Imam Hussain (عليه السلام) was, or what the event of Ghadir means, or why we follow Ahlulbayt — that is somehow considered normal. It is worth sitting with that for a moment. The first word revealed to the Prophet ﷺ was Iqra — read, learn, engage with knowledge. This was not incidental. Islam arrived with a command to think, to seek, to understand. And yet for many of our families, Islamic learning occupies a distant place in the weekly schedule — if it appears at all. ...