The Perlis Mufti has never been known for cozy relations with Malaysia’s non-Muslim community, so when Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin – better known as Dr Maza – comes out praising Chinese schools while tearing into tahfiz schools, it is bound to raise eyebrows.
This is not a minor remark. Tahfiz schools are usually championed by the very clerical class that Dr Maza himself belongs to. But in a rare moment of candour, he admitted that many of these schools are “half-baked” institutions, set up less to serve children than to provide livelihoods for jobless religious graduates
His critique was blunt: too many ustaz, fresh from their overseas studies and unable to find proper teaching positions, open up makeshift tahfiz schools. They gather pupils, advertise through ceramah, and quickly build enrolments into the hundreds or even thousands – often while the actual facilities remain woefully inadequate. Boarding conditions are poor, classrooms are ill-equipped, but the founders somehow never forget to buy themselves a car.
Dr Maza did not mince his words, calling such practices “cheating public property.” He urged the Education Ministry to intervene, warning that the ultimate victims of this system are Muslims themselves. And in a striking contrast, he held up Chinese schools – often the target of Malay-Muslim political attacks – as an example of educational institution that is able to produce results.
“We tend to criticise Chinese schools when we should actually give them credit for ensuring their schools are able to deliver the highest quality in terms of teaching environment and products of their education.
“This enables them to produce pupils with extraordinary brilliance … while we criticise them, we should look into ourselves for entrusting our own children with an ustaz who can hardly focus on his school’s development because he’s busy giving ceramah everywhere,” the cleric observed.
His larger point is damning: many tahfiz schools are little more than personal projects of their founders. The ustaz are too busy collecting donations and giving endless ceramah to pay serious attention to their institutions. This neglect has had predictable consequences – bullying, abuse, sexual misconduct – which are routinely swept under the carpet.
Clad in robe and serban, the founders go around amassing the wealth of others yet unable to harness quality in the children entrusted to them.
“On the other hand, parents from city who face rising education cost might think that enrolling their offspring in a calmer rural surrounding can reduce their expenses while enabling them to better memorise the Quran.
"But they will be in for a rude shock when their kids return home ill-equipped with Quranic knowledge, having little hadith foundation or even poor in their maths or possess little or no knowledge of history, physics, chemistry, add maths and eventually ending up as scum of society.
“This is a phenomenon that I (seriously) want to address whether one agrees or disagrees, ”Dr Maza remarked.
Not only questioning the intent of the founders, Dr Maza also laments the quality of the products.
With such poor-quality education given majority of tahfiz schools are only meant to fulfil the personal desire of their founders, the school leavers hardly excel in their SPM or are equipped with little knowledge.
“Undeniably, the victims are Muslims themselves … these so-called tahfiz school products are the ones who are likely in the future to declare others as infidels or to insult and condemn people of other faith, he lamented.
The irony here is striking. Urban parents, faced with rising education costs, often send their children to rural tahfiz schools, thinking they are providing both spiritual grounding and financial relief. Instead, many end up shocked when their children return with neither strong Quranic memorization nor basic academic competence – in short, wholly unprepared for modern life.
Dr Maza’s words cut deep. It is a searing indictment not only of the individuals involved but also of a system that has allowed such mediocrity – even abuse – to flourish under the cover of piety.
By pointing to Chinese schools as a model of excellence, the Perlis Mufti has not only risked the wrath of his peers but has also exposed the uncomfortable truth: that quality, discipline, and accountability matter in schooling, and no matter how godfearing, tahfiz schools are found wanting in these departments, and their shortcoming is leaving their students and graduates in an exposed and unfavorable position in life. Until the tahfiz industry confronts this hard truth, it will will continue to disappoint the very community that it serves.
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