assalamualaikum wrb
bismillahirrahmanirrahim
alhamdulillah, all praises and thanks belong to Allah, Most Glorified, Most worthy of praise and thanks, Most Merciful.
(i started writing this at the end of 2011, but now it's 2012 hehe.. subhanAllah.. how time really flies.. may Allah bless our time in the dunia for the best in Akhirat ameen)
(i started writing this at the end of 2011, but now it's 2012 hehe.. subhanAllah.. how time really flies.. may Allah bless our time in the dunia for the best in Akhirat ameen)
:D :D :D i went to the divine speech course by Nouman Ali Khan, so there's no way i'm not going to write about it! hah. one of the best weekends to date. one of the best holidays spent ever. alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.. grateful that Allah allowed me to experience such a mind blowing take on the Quran, sometimes I just didn't know what to feel, the level of awesomeness of it all, to be able to taste a bit of understanding Arabic and how Allah chooses certain words over another... was just crazy overwhelming and something the heart just cannot contain. every moment was almost you feeling like burying your head and thinking subhanAllah how did I not learn about this waaaay earlier. it was amazing, super amazing and duper amazing. and i only ask that the whole experience brings me closer to Him ameen ameen ameen.
i'll share some gems of the weekend later on, i just have to say that nouman ali khan. is like the coolest guy. he's so cool. i say this about mufti menk; i think he is the coolest scholar. i think that remains, you guys should check him out. but nouman ali khan is just another cool guy. islam really makes them cool. cause our teacher, Rasulullah SAW was the coolest man <3. anyway. yeah nouman ali khan is just so good at what he does. the weekend was so amazing. he was just an icing on the cake, so gooooood. by the mercy of Allah. this guy just..gets it. to a tee! by the mercy of Allah. he's so relevant and really knows how to engage with the audience. and it's just surreal to watch him in person, if he's amazing on video, he's 5x more amazing in person. he was the most hilarious i've ever seen/heard him in person. he had us in stitches almost the whole weekend. brilliant and greatly inspiring, can you imagine that this guy during some point of his life didn't even pray regularly... and where is he now? being a student of the Quran himself and teaching it across the states. subhanAllah. it could be OUR story too, really, with our own different versions but the point is that we can make that turn too. insyaAllah. may Allah grant him sincerity in his speech and action, may Allah strengthen him in his work for the deen, may Allah bless him and his families dunia wa Akhirat, grant them His love and pleasure and make us all people of Jannah ameen ameen ameen.
although he's pretty bad in british accents. ha ha ha. but excellent in texan! "you from izlam, boiiiii" lolz (ok that can't be explained)
ok so this is what i would like to share but maybe this doesn't really depict a lot of what we did in essence throughout the whole weekend, it's kind of more like a reflection but still it's one of my favourites if not the, and whatever it is, i would just like to share it, and definitely i must say, doesn't do justice to its beauty but if we are able to appreciate even if a bit.. may Allah help us to benefit from it and become closer to Him ultimately...
"Then your hearts hardened after that, so that they were like rocks, rather worse in hardness; and surely there are some rocks from which streams burst forth, and surely there are some of them which split asunder so water issues out of them, and surely there are some of them which fall down for fear of Allah, and Allah is not at all heedless of what you do."
(al-baqarah:74)
what a beautiful ayat... flawless... this ayat illustrates how Allah uses examples. cause you know how when we're trying to explain something, it's a lot better to use examples it helps us to understand better. and that the audience are able to relate to it. So, here, Allah compares hearts to rocks, hardness of hearts like rocks, or harder (in the above ayat) and He proceeds to describe three types of rocks... but really, He is talking about three types of hearts.
1. it bursts open and water comes out (like riverfall)
2. among the rocks, there are ones which crack open due to force hit them from the outside and when they do, you discover there's water found inside
(first one has more water inside than the second)
3. out of them all, there are ones which fall from the fear of Allah (rocks tumbling down) - no mention of water here
what we can take away from this is that people have different characteristics and different 'pulls'... some people are attracted to knowledge and they're easily moved by that.. they hear something that increases their knowledge and immediately it increases their faith.. but some people may be different. they are not easily moved by lectures on the deen, and the academic details etc. maybe those things are lullaby for them. some people need to be rattled, shaken by something that wakes up the heart.
an interesting parallel with the sahabah... abu bakar RA and umar RA...
how did they come to islam? which one do you think is which? :)
abu bakar has been thinking about it all this while; immediately embraced islam, took the syahadah. some rocks open on their own.
umar came to it not as a direct result of the dakwah of Rasulullah SAW or anyone, it took him about 6 years before he came to it. as a matter of fact, it was a series of traumatic experiences in one of which he discovered that his own sister embraced islam and until he hit her to a point she bled... and then.. crack.. force from outside cracks rock. water. inside. subhanAllah :') took a little bit of work, but eventually it came out :)
water symbolizes faith... purity.. faith inside the heart, water inside the rock.
and then a rock without water. we often struggle with ourselves, sometimes we find that we have 'no water', and it eats us up. for those who are obeying Allah but have not tasted the sweetness of iman... it can be demotivating and sometimes you just don't know how to go on and you feel like you're the only one. but no. this is something that everyone has to stuggle with. Just, still fall from the fear of Allah. we just gotta keep trying.. and be patient.. regardless we get it or not, we should just fall like the rocks, upon the fear of Allah, eventually they will maybe crack and find water inside. but it just takes time. some quicker than others. but probably also longer than usual. but it's okay. it will come, insyaAllah.. the water will come insyaAllah.. we just need to keep trying hard enough.. the iman is from Allah,like everything else. it is a gift from Allah, we will feel it when Allah gives it to us. and Allah will give it to us, when and if He wills it. for us? we should just fall down on sajdah for the fear of Allah. subhanAllah... Allahuakhbar... :')
isn't that beautiful? the parallel between hearts and rocks, the subtle way of comparison, almost.. at least for me.. is just perfect beyond words. suddenly the struggle becomes... light. and the speech of Allah, does so. in the most profound and beautiful way. seriously. and just think, that, if we don't make an effort in exploring the Quran, would the impact be as strong? how perfect Allah's Book is.. and so many people claim to read it everyday.. but we should ask ourselves have we appreciated it as a miracle? because it is... it just blows you over completely and leave you to think what this is so powerful, this is just crazy powerful.. this is just the truth.
the Quran is a miracle,if we take it to our hearts... it is a book if it remains on the shelves. so let's ask ourselves again... how much have we done to understand and appreciate Allah's Book?
and really, Allah's speech is The Best. no contest. no debate. just sheer and utter and absolute perfection.
(it's very difficult to share the essence of what we learned in a blog post, most of it was about the beauty of the Arabic language and how the course was supposed to entice us into becoming a student of Arabic in order to appreciate more in depth of the Quran. and certainly the examples that we went through really showed the precision in Allah's speech and how they are just so perfect and that just transforms our perspectives and views completely. so i'm sorry that i didn't get to reflect that here, but maybe I will share some in the future hehehe insyaAllah)
may Allah open the doors for us all to learn and understand His Book, may Allah guide us into learning and understanding the Quran with our hearts and implementing the divine guidance and divine knowledge into our lives in order to be closer to Him, may Allah help us to teach others the Quran and be able to spread the truth, may Allah strengthen us into building ourselves as the Quran generation and for our future generations too, may Allah guide us into engaging in useful activities in this life for the next and away from useless activities in this life against the next. ameen.
subhanakallahumma wabihamdika astaghfiruka wa atubu ilaik.
wassalam
i'll share some gems of the weekend later on, i just have to say that nouman ali khan. is like the coolest guy. he's so cool. i say this about mufti menk; i think he is the coolest scholar. i think that remains, you guys should check him out. but nouman ali khan is just another cool guy. islam really makes them cool. cause our teacher, Rasulullah SAW was the coolest man <3. anyway. yeah nouman ali khan is just so good at what he does. the weekend was so amazing. he was just an icing on the cake, so gooooood. by the mercy of Allah. this guy just..gets it. to a tee! by the mercy of Allah. he's so relevant and really knows how to engage with the audience. and it's just surreal to watch him in person, if he's amazing on video, he's 5x more amazing in person. he was the most hilarious i've ever seen/heard him in person. he had us in stitches almost the whole weekend. brilliant and greatly inspiring, can you imagine that this guy during some point of his life didn't even pray regularly... and where is he now? being a student of the Quran himself and teaching it across the states. subhanAllah. it could be OUR story too, really, with our own different versions but the point is that we can make that turn too. insyaAllah. may Allah grant him sincerity in his speech and action, may Allah strengthen him in his work for the deen, may Allah bless him and his families dunia wa Akhirat, grant them His love and pleasure and make us all people of Jannah ameen ameen ameen.
although he's pretty bad in british accents. ha ha ha. but excellent in texan! "you from izlam, boiiiii" lolz (ok that can't be explained)
ok so this is what i would like to share but maybe this doesn't really depict a lot of what we did in essence throughout the whole weekend, it's kind of more like a reflection but still it's one of my favourites if not the, and whatever it is, i would just like to share it, and definitely i must say, doesn't do justice to its beauty but if we are able to appreciate even if a bit.. may Allah help us to benefit from it and become closer to Him ultimately...
"Then your hearts hardened after that, so that they were like rocks, rather worse in hardness; and surely there are some rocks from which streams burst forth, and surely there are some of them which split asunder so water issues out of them, and surely there are some of them which fall down for fear of Allah, and Allah is not at all heedless of what you do."
(al-baqarah:74)
what a beautiful ayat... flawless... this ayat illustrates how Allah uses examples. cause you know how when we're trying to explain something, it's a lot better to use examples it helps us to understand better. and that the audience are able to relate to it. So, here, Allah compares hearts to rocks, hardness of hearts like rocks, or harder (in the above ayat) and He proceeds to describe three types of rocks... but really, He is talking about three types of hearts.
1. it bursts open and water comes out (like riverfall)
2. among the rocks, there are ones which crack open due to force hit them from the outside and when they do, you discover there's water found inside
(first one has more water inside than the second)
3. out of them all, there are ones which fall from the fear of Allah (rocks tumbling down) - no mention of water here
what we can take away from this is that people have different characteristics and different 'pulls'... some people are attracted to knowledge and they're easily moved by that.. they hear something that increases their knowledge and immediately it increases their faith.. but some people may be different. they are not easily moved by lectures on the deen, and the academic details etc. maybe those things are lullaby for them. some people need to be rattled, shaken by something that wakes up the heart.
an interesting parallel with the sahabah... abu bakar RA and umar RA...
how did they come to islam? which one do you think is which? :)
abu bakar has been thinking about it all this while; immediately embraced islam, took the syahadah. some rocks open on their own.
umar came to it not as a direct result of the dakwah of Rasulullah SAW or anyone, it took him about 6 years before he came to it. as a matter of fact, it was a series of traumatic experiences in one of which he discovered that his own sister embraced islam and until he hit her to a point she bled... and then.. crack.. force from outside cracks rock. water. inside. subhanAllah :') took a little bit of work, but eventually it came out :)
water symbolizes faith... purity.. faith inside the heart, water inside the rock.
and then a rock without water. we often struggle with ourselves, sometimes we find that we have 'no water', and it eats us up. for those who are obeying Allah but have not tasted the sweetness of iman... it can be demotivating and sometimes you just don't know how to go on and you feel like you're the only one. but no. this is something that everyone has to stuggle with. Just, still fall from the fear of Allah. we just gotta keep trying.. and be patient.. regardless we get it or not, we should just fall like the rocks, upon the fear of Allah, eventually they will maybe crack and find water inside. but it just takes time. some quicker than others. but probably also longer than usual. but it's okay. it will come, insyaAllah.. the water will come insyaAllah.. we just need to keep trying hard enough.. the iman is from Allah,like everything else. it is a gift from Allah, we will feel it when Allah gives it to us. and Allah will give it to us, when and if He wills it. for us? we should just fall down on sajdah for the fear of Allah. subhanAllah... Allahuakhbar... :')
isn't that beautiful? the parallel between hearts and rocks, the subtle way of comparison, almost.. at least for me.. is just perfect beyond words. suddenly the struggle becomes... light. and the speech of Allah, does so. in the most profound and beautiful way. seriously. and just think, that, if we don't make an effort in exploring the Quran, would the impact be as strong? how perfect Allah's Book is.. and so many people claim to read it everyday.. but we should ask ourselves have we appreciated it as a miracle? because it is... it just blows you over completely and leave you to think what this is so powerful, this is just crazy powerful.. this is just the truth.
the Quran is a miracle,if we take it to our hearts... it is a book if it remains on the shelves. so let's ask ourselves again... how much have we done to understand and appreciate Allah's Book?
and really, Allah's speech is The Best. no contest. no debate. just sheer and utter and absolute perfection.
(it's very difficult to share the essence of what we learned in a blog post, most of it was about the beauty of the Arabic language and how the course was supposed to entice us into becoming a student of Arabic in order to appreciate more in depth of the Quran. and certainly the examples that we went through really showed the precision in Allah's speech and how they are just so perfect and that just transforms our perspectives and views completely. so i'm sorry that i didn't get to reflect that here, but maybe I will share some in the future hehehe insyaAllah)
may Allah open the doors for us all to learn and understand His Book, may Allah guide us into learning and understanding the Quran with our hearts and implementing the divine guidance and divine knowledge into our lives in order to be closer to Him, may Allah help us to teach others the Quran and be able to spread the truth, may Allah strengthen us into building ourselves as the Quran generation and for our future generations too, may Allah guide us into engaging in useful activities in this life for the next and away from useless activities in this life against the next. ameen.
subhanakallahumma wabihamdika astaghfiruka wa atubu ilaik.
wassalam
