The Prophetic Model of Learning

There are many ways to teach and pedagogy has various methodologies depending on the context and the abilities of the students and teachers. Let us momentarily consider a scenario in which everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student,  whereby there are no egos at stake. People learn from the lowest person in society just and they learn from the highest. This is the glimpse of learning and teaching according to the Prophetic Model.

The prophets were humans like you and me. The only thing special about them were that they were inspired more by God to live life based on natural living. So they study learned through insights and formal study of the Scriptures, God sent to "understand" their context what they needed to do in it. This became the mission and they inspired those around them to do the same. The prophets who were given a new, fresh, divine Scripture were called "Messengers of God". A Messenger is always a Prophet but a Prophet is not necessarily a Messenger. Among the most famous messengers we know of from the Islamic perspective are Abraham (AS), David (AS), Moses (AS), Jesus (AS), and Muhammad (SWAS) who were given the Scrolls, Psalms, Torah, Gospel, and the Quran respectively.  In fact, the Quran is not really a book but it is a compilation of recitations that were inspired to the Prophet of Islam (SWAS) over 23 years of his mission to humanity.

When we recite the same Scriptures, the same way, and try to live our lives modelled on those of the Prophets and Messengers we keep learning and teaching like them because our thought pattern become similar to theirs, which were the most optimum as planned by God. Thus we learn through insights but our knowledge is based on our formal study and insights.  With a lack of formal study, insights cannot by themselves fill in the gap completely.  Nevertheless,  much research into the factors in formal fields of study can be a team of "experts" and people of insights with similar interests. 

Learning and teaching is a continuous, dynamic, and fulfilling endeavour that everyone undertakes. There are no egos or status issues which should prevent us from learning directly or indirectly from even a child, nor teaching even a Prime Minister.