Every good project begins with a clear gaze. We know who we serve. We know why we started. And then, slowly, quietly, something can begin to pull our eyes away.
This is a short reflection on one verse, one hadith, and one danger that every educator, and every institution, has to keep watching for.
In Surah al-Kahf, Allah gives His Messenger, peace be upon him, a clear instruction. The wealthy chiefs of Quraysh had made him an offer. Send away the poor believers, they said. Dismiss Bilal, Ammar, Suhayb, Khabbab and Ibn Mas’ud, and then we will sit with you. They found the company of the humble beneath them.
And the answer came down from above the seven heavens.
وَٱصْبِرْ نَفْسَكَ مَعَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِٱلْغَدَوٰةِ وَٱلْعَشِىِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُۥ ۖ وَلَا تَعْدُ عَيْنَاكَ عَنْهُمْ تُرِيدُ زِينَةَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ وَلَا تُطِعْ مَنْ أَغْفَلْنَا قَلْبَهُۥ عَن ذِكْرِنَا وَٱتَّبَعَ هَوَىٰهُ وَكَانَ أَمْرُهُۥ فُرُطًۭا
“And keep yourself patient with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His countenance. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring the adornment of worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, who follows his own desire, and whose affair is ever in neglect.”
Al-Kahf (18): 28
Notice what is being asked. Keep yourself patient with them. The word is sabr, and here it is active. Anchor yourself. Stay.
Then the warning. Do not let your eyes pass beyond them toward the adornment of the world. The danger named is not wealth itself. It is the drift of attention. The gaze that slips away from the people who matter, toward the people who impress.
And this was not the first time the instruction had come. In Mecca, years earlier, the same command had already been given.
وَلَا تَطْرُدِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِٱلْغَدَوٰةِ وَٱلْعَشِىِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُۥ ۖ مَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ حِسَابِهِم مِّن شَىْءٍۢ وَمَا مِنْ حِسَابِكَ عَلَيْهِم مِّن شَىْءٍۢ فَتَطْرُدَهُمْ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ
“And do not send away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His countenance. You are not accountable for them in anything, nor are they accountable for you in anything, that you should send them away and be among the wrongdoers.”
Al-An’am (6): 52
The sincere are not a group to be tolerated. They are the very people we are commanded to build with.
So the first question for any school, any teacher, any leader, is simply this. Where is my gaze. On those who seek the Face of God, or on the glitter that pulls the eyes away.
The Betrayal
A noble project drifts before it falls. The verse warned us about the gaze. The Sunnah names what happens if we ignore the warning.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said something that should make every steward pause.
مَا مِنْ عَبْدٍ يَسْتَرْعِيهِ ٱللَّهُ رَعِيَّةً يَمُوتُ يَوْمَ يَمُوتُ وَهُوَ غَاشٌّ لِرَعِيَّتِهِ إِلَّا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ ٱلْجَنَّةَ
“There is no servant whom Allah places in charge of a flock, and who dies on the day he dies still betraying them, except that Allah forbids Paradise to him.”
Sahih Muslim 142; also Sahih al-Bukhari 7150 (narrated by Ma’qil ibn Yasar).
The word is ghishsh (غشّ). We translate it as betrayal, or deceit. But listen to how the scholars define it, because this is where it touches us.
The commentators say the ghishsh of a steward toward his flock is not only theft. It is the neglect of what you owe them in their welfare, in their religion and in their worldly affairs.
Read that again. Neglect is betrayal. A school that takes the trust and then delivers mediocrity has betrayed it just as surely as one that steals the money. Remember the word from the verse. Furutan. An affair let slip through the fingers. Wasted. Squandered.
The steward is responsible
And lest anyone imagine this is only about kings and governors, the Prophet, peace be upon him, made the circle wide.
كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ
“Each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is responsible for his flock.”
Sahih al-Bukhari 893; Sahih Muslim 1829. Grading: Sahih, agreed upon.
The teacher is a shepherd. The director is a shepherd. The trustee is a shepherd. The trust is real, and it will be asked about.
And if you think this could never touch the sincere, the devoted, the righteous, then remember that it once touched the very best of creation, peace be upon him.
عَبَسَ وَتَوَلَّىٰٓ أَن جَآءَهُ ٱلْأَعْمَىٰ وَمَا يُدْرِيكَ لَعَلَّهُۥ يَزَّكَّىٰٓ أَوْ يَذَّكَّرُ فَتَنفَعَهُ ٱلذِّكْرَىٰ
“He frowned and turned away, because the blind man came to him. But what would make you perceive that perhaps he might purify himself, or be reminded, and the reminder would benefit him?”
Abasa (80): 1–4
Ibn Umm Maktum came sincerely, seeking knowledge, while the Prophet, peace be upon him, was busy hoping to win over the chiefs. And Allah corrected him, gently, but from the heavens.
The lesson is pointed, and it is ours. An educator’s gaze can slip from the sincere learner toward the impressive patron. The Qur’an names this danger, and it names it twice.
So the picture is complete. Education is an amanah. And a trust can be betrayed, not only by stealing it, but by forgetting who it was for.
The Safeguard
If the gaze can drift, and the trust can be betrayed, then good intentions are not enough. We need structure. We need a way to keep our eyes fixed even when we are tired, even when we are flattered, even when the founder is long gone.
This is where three words become more than slogans. Transparency. Competency. Integrity. Each one answers something in the verse and the hadith.
Transparency answers furut, the squandered and unaccountable affair. Open books. Audited accounts. Honest reporting. It turns trust from a private feeling into a public fact that anyone can check.
Competency answers betrayal by neglect. Sincerity that does not deliver still short-changes the learner. Doing the work well is not separate from the trust. Doing the work well is the trust.
And integrity answers the drifting gaze. It is the discipline of keeping our eyes on the learner and on the sincere teacher, and refusing to be governed by prestige, or by the donor whose logic is appetite rather than remembrance.
Why a social enterprise
This is why we choose to run our school as an independent social enterprise, and not on the fragile piety of a single good person. Piety in one leader dies with that leader. It erodes under pressure.
A social enterprise institutionalises the verse. It separates the mission from its patronage. It builds accountability that does not depend on any one conscience. It makes stewardship something you can audit, not merely something you can hope for.
When the money comes from donors who place such heavy trust in educators, the enterprise is how we hand that trust back as evidence, and not only as a promise.
Synthesis
So let me bring the whole reflection into a single breath. The verse diagnoses the temptation, the drift of the gaze toward worldly adornment. The hadith names the catastrophe, the betrayal of a trust, including betrayal by neglect. Surah Abasa shows that it can reach even the best of us. And the social enterprise, built on transparency, competency and integrity, is the architecture that keeps a noble project from becoming the very thing it was meant to heal.
Keep yourself patient with those who call upon their Lord, morning and evening, seeking His Face. And may our eyes never pass beyond them.
رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّابُ
“Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from Yourself. Indeed, You are the Bestower.”
Aal Imran (3): 8
Hasrizal Abdul Jamil
www.hasrizal.com
References
Qur’anic references
Al-Kahf (18): 28. Arabic verified via quran.com. Translation: Sahih International, lightly adjusted.
Al-An’am (6): 52. Arabic verified via quran.com.
Abasa (80): 1–4. Arabic verified via quran.com.
Aal Imran (3): 8. Arabic verified via quran.com.
Hadith references
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. (n.d.). Sahih Muslim, Hadith 142 (Kitab al-Iman), narrated by Ma’qil ibn Yasar. Grading: Sahih. https://sunnah.com/muslim:142
al-Bukhari, M. ibn Ismail. (n.d.). Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7150 (Kitab al-Ahkam). Grading: Sahih (agreed upon).
al-Bukhari, M. ibn Ismail. (n.d.). Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 893; and Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829 (“Each of you is a shepherd”). Grading: Sahih (agreed upon).
Tafsir and scholarly works
Ibn Kathir, I. (n.d.). Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azim, on al-Kahf 18:27–28 and al-An’am 6:52 (occasion of revelation; the poor Companions and the chiefs of Quraysh).
al-Tabari, M. ibn Jarir. (n.d.). Jami‘ al-Bayan, on Abasa 80:1–2 (Ibn Umm Maktum).
IslamWeb. (2019). Fatwa 390883: the meaning of ghishsh as neglect of the flock’s religious and worldly welfare. https://www.islamweb.net/ar/fatwa/390883/
Ibn Ashur, M. al-Tahir. (1984). Tafsir al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir. al-Dar al-Tunisiyyah lil-Nashr.
Qutb, S. (1951–1965). Fi Zilal al-Qur’an. Dar al-Shuruq.