05.22.08
Chambers of Etiquette, by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed at BU *PART (1/4)*
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Assalamu Alaikum,
I am totally typing up these notes to avoid doing my English paper. My excuse is that my English paper is about something Islam condemns, so I am actually doing something better. =)
Anyway, THESE ARE NOT MY NOTES. I did not have the blessing of being able to attend the lecture, but my friend did. (I had the blessing of being sick-no sarcasm intended this time.) So here are my friend’s notes, starting with a nice greeting (I am omitting names due to the privacy of the people =) ) What ever is in square brackets is me, the rest is my friend’s:
Salaamz ***** and *****. Here I am, sitting at BU. It’s 7:07 pm, so naturally it didn’t start yet. [The lecture was supposed to start at 7:00 PM] They made us move twice, so I’m just getting settled in my seat again… I’m really excited because right outside this room is a really big window and you can see the moon =). [There was a lunar eclipse that night.]
Shariah is divided into 5 parts:
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Belief
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Ibadah/a’maal-prayer, fasting, Hajj, zakat
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Dealings-contracts, buying/selling
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Akhlaq-character, humility, sincerity, not being arrogant [I'm screwed in this category]
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Social Etiquette-how is society supposed to be [Really screwed in this one too.]
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—if we don’t follow this, the whole society can fall apart. Read the rest of this entry »
A Note From My Younger Self
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Assalamu Alaikum,
I found this in my room, and I thought it is worthy enough to the world to read.
I found my old journal that I had from 3rd grade. (It isn’t a real journal; it was more like observations and thoughts.) And I found this one page that was folded and written in bright blue ink. Apparently, my 3rd grade self had a message for my future (now present) self. I found it very interesting and a deep insight to child psychology. I think my younger self had a very thought provoking and intuitive message for the world of *adults.* I am taking an excerpt and I am copying it exactly the way it was written (so please forgive any grammatical errors):
“When ever you are reading this book, you might think of old memories and feel happy, sad, mad, or confused. But I realized something as a kid that I hope you never forget in the future. I may be in your past, but here is some advise: NEVER GIVE UP YOUR DREAMS! No matter how crazy, impossible, or weird they may be. Never give them up! As long as they are for Allah, and you mean well, NEVER THINK IT IS IMPOSSIBLE! DO IT! Say Bismillah and BELIEVE! If you think you can’t, then you really can’t. Think about all the great people in history-Aisha ra, she was an amazing teacher, without her, the image of women in Islam would be bad and we wouldn’t have all the knowledge we have. Think of Mother Terisa and all the good she did by taking care of people and helping other people be inspired. Think of Imam Al Ghazzzali and all the research and studying he did! These people changed the world and they were gifted by Allah, but they too, were like you. They were kids at some point, they had hope, and they prayed to God and Allah blessed them. If you believe, you can do it too. I’m in 3rd grade and kids are saying I can never be a great scholar, teacher, or engineer or that I am too dumb to help the world or that there is no hope for me. You have to kick them all out of your mind. If you cannot find hope in other people, find hope in yourself, find hope in me. But the ultimate source of hope is Allah. NEVER FORGET HIM. Everything will vanish, and only He will saty! He will will help you, I promise. Even is you keep messing up, He’ll help you. Listen to me, if anything you should take from your past, if anything you should ever learn from your memories, if anything you should take from childhood, it is hope. HOPE. BELIEVE YOU CAN. DON’T LISTEN TO ANYONE ELSE. ONLY ALLAH. Just remember to NEVER EVER GIVE UP. HAVE HOPE AND REACH FOR YOUR DREAMS!”
…Essentially, that was the important part. I think there are many things to take home from a 3rd grade version of myself. But that is up to you to determine.
Forgiveness in Islam-Hadiths
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
***Disclaimer: I found this in books and websites. I don’t know the authenticity of the hadiths, so I ask forgiveness if I portrayed incorrect information and I thank Allah for blessing me what is good from this information.***
On the authority of Anas, who said: I heard the messenger of Allah say:
Allah the Almighty has said: “O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as its.”
Allah’s Apostle said, “Whoever establishes the prayers on the night of Qadr out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards (not to show off) then all his past sins will be forgiven.” Narrated Abu Hurayrah Read the rest of this entry »
Thankfulness to Allah-IFS Girls Halaqah #4
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Assalamu Alaikum,
SO… this halaqah just popped itself out of the normal schedule and not many people came. But it was still really good and really beneficial. I personally thought it came at the perfect time for me. Actually, I think that topic can come at a *perfect time* for anyone. This halaqah’s topic was about thankfulness to Allah.
Due to the respect of the speaker, I can’t really type up the personal things she talked about, so I’ll type up the general stuff. And a lot of it was emphasis and repetition of being grateful, so my notes are a bit short. And I’ll probably add a bit of my own personal commentary. =) (uh-oh….)
Thankfulness to Allah:
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There are children BORN with physical ailments-some that can be fatal, lifelong, paralysis, and other major ailments.
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—From this, our lives could have been so different-even from birth-and those of us who don’t suffer physical abnormalities or *exceptionalities* should be grateful. We owe it all to Allah.
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Are the things we consider *normal* (i.e. the ability to see, use our fingers, hear, breathe) actually *normal* or gifts from Allah? He doesn’t owe us anything and He gave us all these physical and mental abilities. Read the rest of this entry »
The Shahadah
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The first pillar of Islam is to state the Shahadah. Sad to say, but many people just take the Shahdah for face value. Many times, even born into Islamic family Muslims, never really contemplate the Shahadah. Not only is it the doorway in which a human being steps onto the formal path of Islam, but it is the entrance to the spiritual world with Allah.
أشهد أن لا إله إلاَّ الله و أشهد أن محمد رسول الله
Ash hadu ‘anna laa illah ha illah-allah wa ash hadu anna muhammadar rasulullah
There are couple translations:
Literal:
“I witness verily, there is no god, but God and I witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
***Better translation***
“I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship [ilah] except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the [last] messenger of God.”
What I (and scholars) are trying to get at is the term ilah [إله ] that is used. Ilah means something (deity) that is worshipped. This can be fire (for Zoroastrians), Jesus (for Christians) or other figures that are rendered as God. But ilah can also refer to what our inner selves turn to. [Following is from my Rumi notes:] Read the rest of this entry »
Islam: Blind Belief or Rational Evidence-Shaykh Yusuf Estes at IFS
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Assalamu Alaikum,
Shaykh Yusuf Estes came to IFS and did a lecture called Islam: Blind Belief or Rational Evidence? I won’t lie it-when I heard the title, I had a bad feeling about the lecture because to cut Islam into black and white pieces is really dangerous. But the lecture was entertaining and a bit informative. It wasn’t very structured (that isn’t an insult; lectures aren’t meant to be perfectly structured, but his was harder to organize than other lectures I have attended before.) So forgive me if my notes seem rather spontaneous. (And I am a pretty bad note taker as I was doing salawat while taking notes. haha)
Islam: Blind Belief or Rational Evidence?
Quran is IN Arabic
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Translation of the Quran isn’t the REAL Quran; you need to learn Arabic to truly understand it. [So don't go running around thinking you understand God's message with a translation-that is why we seek knowledge constantly]
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Allah sent it down in Arabic for a reason… so learn it.
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Every scholar MUST learn Arabic (I mean really, how can you learn hadith, Quran and other sciences without Arabic?)
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In prayer, we must recite in ARABIC. [If you don't know Arabic, you say subhanallah, alhamdulillah until you do. We cannot read translation in salah]
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And translation of the Quran can’t just be word for word-it must be based on tafseer as well [because words can have many meanings and context must be taken into account]
Taqleed: To blindly follow——opposite of seeking rational evidence Read the rest of this entry »
Scripture and Science Paralleled: Kamran Riaz IAW at BU
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
BU was kind enough to offer an Islamic Awareness Week that was packed with lectures, and I had the privilege of attending one called Scripture and Science Paralleled, by Kamran Riaz. Don’t get me wrong, the speech was amazing, but I will still hold a grudge against BU. For more info why, email me personally. =)
Kamran Riaz is a very knowledgeable speaker He said a lot of important stuff in a short amount of time, so it was hard to catch all of it. But here is what I have. BU plans on putting up the recordings, but they still haven’t put up the Surah Kahf lecture series yet. So it might be a while… =)
So I am going to type this while hearing a commercial downstairs with the song Move Along playing. Wait-who is watching TV at this hour?
Knowledge in Islam and Background on Islamic view of knowledge:
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The Quran was revealed and compiled during Prophet Muhammad (saw)’s time. (Unlike the Bible, which was compiled after the prophet’s time)
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The first revelation (first 5 ayahs of surah ‘Alaq) was about seeking knowledge.
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—so from the beginning, Islam is a religion where God is worshipped through knowledge.)
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Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim (i.e. Hadith like: Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave, or seek knowledge even as far as China, support the search for knowledge.) [I know the authenticity of those hadiths are argued, but point is essential.]
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As Muslims, we believe that the Quran is CORRECT and the world should match it. (Not the other way around.)
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Another thing to note is that the Arabs didn’t really record anything. They used their memory.
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With the revelation of the Quran, it inspired Arabs to use science and become knowledgeable to prove God’s existence.
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All the proofs and sciences were to reinforce that one God created everything and when we die, we are responsible for what we have done.
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Science and the Quran are NOT incompatible.
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The Quran came to a people who didn’t value science, but then did.
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1400 years ago, that scripture was revealed (to an illiterate man) and still remains untampered. If you study for flaws, you won’t find any.
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[I wrote: "Quran to study more", but I don't know why....] Read the rest of this entry »
Random Quotes
Random quotes I came across by either procrastinating a paper (ahem, ahem), not paying attention in class, or God knows how I found them. Some of them I found intuitive, others, funny. But I don’t know-any random quote I find, I’ll add it here-
“If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that it will triumph.” —T.S. Eliot
“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” -Ghandi
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.”-Ghandi
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”-Ghandi
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”-Ghandi
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”-Ghandi (found a lot of quotes on him)
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”-Ghandi
“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”-Ghandi
Sir Norman Wisdom
Doug Larson
Eric Bolton Read the rest of this entry »
George Bush quotes and 1984???
So, a friend and I were in a class and we randomly looked up George Bush quotes for a in class story we had to write. And some of the things we found we very… intriguing. Some are *thought provoking* and others remind you of the novel, 1984, by George Orwell. Anyway, read them and tell me what you make of them:
“All of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice.” —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007
“I’m going to try to see if I can remember as much to make it sound like I’m smart on the subject.” —George W. Bush, answering a question about a possible flu pandemic, Cleveland, July 10, 2007
“Bush goes to Hel. That’s what a lot of people want.” —George W. Bush, on his visit to the Hel Peninsula, Gdansk, Poland, Jun. 8, 2007 *No pun intended*
“I’ve been in politics long enough to know that polls just go poof at times.” –George W. Bush, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007
“The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope — an ideology of hate — excuse me —with an ideology of hope.” —George W. Bush, Fort Benning, Ga., Jan. 11, 2007
A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it. —George Bush
I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace. —George W. Bush (OMG 1984!!! WAR IS PEACE!)
Tips to Help Improve One’s Salah
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
***Disclaimer: I have found the following information from at least 3 different sources. I admit that it is possible that they may not be authentic, but may Allah forgive me if I accidentally convey information that may not be true, and for what ever information is true and benefits, it is from Allah.***
Tips to help you improve your salah:
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When reciting the Quran in prayer, in your mind, try to translate it in a language you know to keep your concentration. And when thinking about the translation, contemplate the meaning of the words and how they reflect the beauty and magnificence of Allah. Then hopefully, other distracting thoughts disappear.
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Every time you mention one of Allah’s attributes in ruku or sajdah (‘Ala, ‘Atheem), think aout how grateful you are to Allah and how indebted we are to Him. Think about the greatness behind those attributes. (Blows my mind at times)
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Take the time in a sajdah to make an additional duaa to Allah. There was a hadith that: “A servant is nearest to his lord in sajdah, so increase your supplication in sajdah.” [Muslim] Read the rest of this entry »
