When Knowledge Becomes Legacy: A Personal Reflection on the Teaching Teacher

By Adeshina Sodiq Aderemi

There are certain dates that appear on the calendar as ordinary days, yet acquire a deeper meaning because of the people and events associated with them. For me, 5 October 2026 is one of such days. As the world celebrates teachers and reflects on their indispensable contribution to the development of individuals, institutions and societies, I find myself reflecting on a teacher whose influence extends far beyond the conventional boundaries of the classroom. Today, I celebrate Professor Mahfouz Adebola Adedimeji, PhD, FCIA, FSPSP, MNAL, fondly regarded as Ọmọwe Agba and, most fittingly, the Teaching Teacher.

World Teachers’ Day provides an opportunity to recognise the people who dedicate their lives to educating, guiding and shaping generations. Yet, from my personal perspective, the significance of this year’s celebration goes beyond the recognition of teaching as a profession. It provides an opportunity to contemplate what happens when teaching transcends the classroom and becomes a lifelong legacy. Professor Mahfouz represents, in my estimation, this higher dimension of teaching. He is not merely a teacher who imparts knowledge to students; he is a scholar whose intellectual influence produces other scholars, teachers, administrators, leaders and mentors. His greatest classroom is therefore not restricted to a physical space. It is found in the lives and minds of the people he continues to influence.

The importance of knowledge occupies a distinguished position in Islam. The Qur’an declares, “Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees” (Qur’an 58:11). This verse captures something fundamental about the dignity of knowledge and those who dedicate themselves to acquiring and transmitting it. Knowledge, from the Islamic perspective, is not simply an intellectual possession or a means of personal advancement. It carries responsibility. It demands humility, preservation, transmission and service. A scholar’s responsibility therefore extends beyond knowing; it involves making what one knows beneficial to others.

This understanding of knowledge is particularly relevant when reflecting on the life and influence of Professor Mahfouz Adebola Adedimeji. A genuine teacher does not simply transfer information from one mind to another. A genuine teacher awakens curiosity, develops intellectual confidence and inspires others to continue searching for knowledge. An exceptional teacher goes even further by producing people who themselves become teachers. This is why the expression “Teaching Teacher” carries such significance. It describes not only what Professor Mahfouz does but also the multiplying effect of his intellectual labour.

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) emphasised the enduring value of beneficial knowledge when he said: “When the son of Adam dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: a continuing charity, beneficial knowledge, or a righteous child who prays for him.” (Sahih Muslim). This Hadith offers a profound perspective on the legacy of a teacher. A person’s physical presence is temporary, but beneficial knowledge can continue to exist through generations. A teacher may eventually leave the classroom, retire from an institution or depart this world but the knowledge transmitted to students can continue to influence people whom the teacher may never meet.

My personal encounter with him make me see his journey from a different perspective. I see not simply the titles, appointments and academic accomplishments, but the example of a scholar whose journey reminds his students that intellectual development is a lifelong process. His story continually reinforces the idea that education should not end with the acquisition of a certificate. Rather, education should produce character, responsibility, service and an enduring desire to contribute to society.

One of the lessons I personally draw from his journey is that knowledge is an amanah—a trust. The more knowledge one acquires, the greater the responsibility to use it positively. This principle is consistent with the Qur’anic prayer: “My Lord, increase me in knowledge” (Qur’an 20:114). The verse is significant because it presents knowledge not as something at which a person eventually arrives, but as a continuous journey. Even the learned person remains a student before the vastness of what remains unknown.

This philosophy becomes even more remarkable when considered alongside the historical intellectual chain associated with the Adedimeji legacy. Our revered father, Sheikh Ahmad Muhaliy Adedimeji, served as Treasurer ; Financial Secretary of the Rabita, the League of Imams and Alfas in Yorubaland, founded by Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory and other eminent scholars. Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, who was Professor Mahfouz’s teacher, also served as General Secretary of the Rabita. Today, another chapter of this historical chain is being written as his student assumes a significant secretarial responsibility within the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.

There is a profound symbolism in this continuity. It demonstrates how knowledge and service can travel across generations. A teacher teaches a student; the student becomes a scholar; the scholar becomes a mentor; and the knowledge and values inherited from one generation are transmitted to another. In this sense, the intellectual heritage of a community does not remain frozen in history. It continues to evolve through the people who inherit, preserve and enrich it.

This historical continuity becomes even more significant when one considers the connection with Professor Emeritus Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, CON, who serves as Secretary-General of the NSCIA and who has also been a mentor to Professor Mahfouz. The connection reminds me of a beautiful chain of intellectual inheritance: teacher to student, mentor to mentee, scholar to scholar and generation to generation. Such a chain demonstrates that great intellectual traditions survive not merely because books are preserved but because people are prepared to carry knowledge forward.

The Qur’an instructs believers to recognise and appreciate those who preceded them in faith, saying: “Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith…” (Qur’an 59:10). For me, this verse also offers a meaningful way of understanding intellectual legacy. No generation begins from nothing. Every scholar inherits something from those who came before. Every teacher has been taught by someone. Every intellectual achievement is connected, directly or indirectly, to the labour of previous generations.

Professor Mahfouz’s journey therefore represents more than individual achievement. It represents continuity. He has inherited a rich intellectual tradition and rather than simply preserving it unchanged, he has continued to expand its reach through education, scholarship, leadership and service to humanity. This is perhaps what makes a legacy truly meaningful: not merely receiving what others built but adding something valuable for those who will come after us.

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) also said, “The best of you are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.” (Sahih al-Bukhari). Although this Hadith specifically highlights learning and teaching the Qur’an, its broader spiritual lesson reinforces the virtue of transmitting beneficial knowledge. Teaching is therefore not merely a professional activity; when accompanied by sincerity, it can become an act of service and worship.

As I reflect personally on Professor Mahfouz’s journey, I am reminded that the true measure of a scholar cannot always be found in the number of degrees acquired, positions occupied or honours received. A more enduring measure lies in the people whose lives have been positively affected by that knowledge. A teacher’s greatest monument may not be a building, a plaque or a certificate. It may simply be the student who becomes better because the teacher once took the time to teach.

This is why the title Teaching Teacher is so powerful to me. It suggests multiplication. A teacher teaches one person, but that person may eventually teach another hundred. Those hundred may influence thousands. In that way, a single act of teaching can travel across time and space in ways that the original teacher may never fully witness. Knowledge becomes a seed, and students become the soil in which that seed continues to grow.

The recent appointment of Professor Mahfouz as Deputy Secretary-General (National Affairs) of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs is therefore, to me, another chapter in this broader story of service. It is significant that on a day when the world celebrates teachers, we are celebrating a teacher who is assuming another responsibility connected to the service of Islam and the Nigerian Muslim community. The symbolism is difficult to overlook. The teacher is still teaching but the classroom has become wider. The responsibility has expanded and so has the opportunity to serve.

For me as a student, this development also serves as a personal reminder that education should prepare one not merely for employment but for responsibility. It encourages me to see my own academic journey differently. Whatever knowledge I acquire should eventually become useful to someone beyond myself. Whatever opportunity I receive should create an avenue for service. Whatever legacy I inherit should be preserved with gratitude and enriched with responsibility.

Perhaps this is the greatest lesson I have personally drawn from watching the journey of those who have gone before me: we are all temporary custodians of something that should outlive us. A scholar is a custodian of knowledge. A teacher is a custodian of minds. A leader is a custodian of responsibility. A generation is a custodian of a legacy.

Consequently, celebrating Professor Mahfouz today is not merely celebrating a person. It is celebrating the idea that knowledge can become service, service can become influence, and influence can become legacy. It is celebrating the possibility that a teacher’s work can continue long after the classroom has been emptied.

As a student and mentee, I remain sincerely grateful for the privilege of learning from such a journey. I may not be able to fully measure the extent of the influence of Professor Mahfouz on generations of students, but I can acknowledge what his example represents to me: a reminder that scholarship demands discipline, knowledge demands humility and leadership demands service.

On this World Teachers’ Day, therefore, my celebration is deeply personal. I celebrate Professor Mahfouz Adebola Adedimeji, Professor of English, scholar, author, editor, literary critic, linguist, educationist, administrator, mentor, public intellectual, Islamic scholar, community leader, Deputy Secretary-General (National Affairs) of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and Ọmọwe Agba—not simply because he is a professor, but because he represents the kind of teacher whose influence extends beyond himself. I celebrate him as a scholar, as a mentor and, above all, as the Teaching Teacher.

May Almighty Allah grant him long life in His obedience, increase him in beneficial knowledge and wisdom, strengthen him in every responsibility entrusted to him, and make his new responsibility within the NSCIA a means of greater benefit to Islam, the Muslim Ummah and humanity. May Allah also guide and strengthen his new Deputy Secretary-General assigned to International Affairs of the NSCIA, and make this responsibility a means of greater service to Islam, the Muslim Ummah and humanity.

May Allah preserve the intellectual legacy he inherited, bless the contributions he has made to it, and make his students and mentees worthy carriers of the knowledge and values he continues to transmit. May He bless his children and descendants with excellence and make them worthy custodians of the legacy he is building, just as he has become a worthy custodian of the legacy inherited from those before him.

Above all, may the knowledge he has taught continue to benefit humanity, and may every life positively transformed through his scholarship become part of his continuing reward.

As the world celebrates teachers today, I celebrate the teacher who teaches teachers.

May his pen continue to teach, his scholarship continue to illuminate, his leadership continue to inspire and his legacy continue to speak long after us.

Happy World Teachers’ Day to our own Teaching Teacher.

May Allah continue to elevate him, preserve him and make his life a continuing lesson for generations yet unborn. Aameen.

Adeshina writes from Iwoland, Osun State, Nigeria.