Friday night discussion topics

We discussed an anonymous online medium for contributing discussion topics for our weekly Friday night program. I think it's a good idea and we can give it a try for a few weeks to see if it works out. Leave your suggestions as comments to this post for topics to be discussed on 10/16/09.

(8/28/09) Purification Before Learning, Part 2

A few Saturdays ago, we had continued our discussion regarding purification before learning. The notes are as follows:

Our theme was based upon the following segment of verse 2 from sura Jummah (62):

 ...وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ...

...to sanctify them, and to instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom... (Yusufali)

And we had asked ourselves how the act of purification can take place without having a class or instruction of sorts regarding processes, methods, etc. 

We mentioned the example of a child, who has no previous knowledge of methods or procedures and how the child is raised and how the child's environment is instrumental. We also made an analogy to how plants grow and noted how our atmosphere is like the grounds from which we extract our nutrients. Just like how if a plant is in a good location and receives the "good stuff" it does better aesthetically and biologically than one which is in a  less desirable atmosphere. 

Likewise, within ourselves we have spiritual properties which come about when they are nurtured and strengthened. With an appropriate atmosphere and environment we are able to bring out the best of those properties. 

It is important to mention that here, atmosphere does not simply denote location. We are not merely talking about being at a masjid versus a bar. We are talking about a higher and more complete level. 

If in our environment we have for example unnecessary and disadvantageous types of encouragement, engagement, boastfulness,... it creates an unhelpful form of growth for us. 

For example if we continuously receive advice along the lines of: "if you don't have a lot of money you wont get anywhere... you have to get rich above anything else", we find that our existence shifts in order to heed to that advice. On the flip side, we could be put in an atmosphere that allows us to be balanced through better types of encouragement. 

Going back to the example of the child or novices in religion, we find that the best form of support is not the person that wakes them up for prayer by force or develops it into a chore for them, or fills them with constant instruction on how to do things. The best form of support is the person who provides an atmosphere of balance  and harmony. 

What can look and seem very righteous and helpful but be worse than poison are encouragement and advices which, regardless of what they are about and for, remove the person who is receiving them from an atmosphere of peace and harmony. It is only within the atmosphere of peace and harmony can the individual be made prepared to receive instruction and thus follow the procedure of purification before learning. An atmosphere of peace and harmony is the first step. 

Another example of a negative atmosphere is one in which the individual is dependent on the advices they receive. So as apposed to this person striving to reach their harmony, they are constantly trying to fulfil the advices they receive and are always looking for the next advice to move them forward. 

Yes, there are those that take advantage of this atmosphere of security and harmony as was mentioned in the previous session. There are the Amr ibn Aas', the Muwaiya ibn Sufyans, etc. However, as the saying goes, "you don't close the doors of the masjid because of 1 person who doesn't pray". 

So, in the way people are dealt with and treated, the utmost care must be taken to make sure we don't create an atmosphere of insecurity for that person. The persons mind should not be preoccupied with matters of attention. "Why am I not received warmly" or "Why am I shunned", should not be thoughts which preoccupy individuals. Many times it's those that are most active and apparently religious that are the most destructive. A key move in ensuring a healthy atmosphere is to forgive people with haste. Don't preoccupy people at your door of forgiveness. Our job is to create an atmosphere of harmony. It is for Allah to be the preoccupation of the minds.

Sometimes purification before learning is the act of giving. The we we supply each other and relieve each other of preoccupation is the main point. We have example from Ahlul Bayt in this as well. The way Ahlul Bayt would supply people was in a way such that they would shed their preoccupation. Ahlul Bayt would always be asked why they would give so much to the poor, and the reason would then be so that being poor does not become a preoccupation for persons spiritual growth. 

Another method is to honour each other:

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَى كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلاً

[Yusufali 17:70] We have honoured the sons of Adam; provided them with transport on land and sea; given them for sustenance things good and pure; and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of our creation.

So if someone makes a mistake, there shouldn't be an atmosphere where the person needs to worry about how he will now be perceived. 

What does this have to do with anything?

If we remove preoccupation for other people and we help facilitate them, we allow them to concentrate on their connection to Allah. 

There is also a difference between those who have to create a good atmosphere and those that need to be given one. Those who pray, fast, etc. should let Allah be their shield and atmosphere, AND let them be the shield and atmosphere for those who need some assistance. 

Sometimes we see that the one who should be creating the atmosphere allows others to create it for him. At this point, we need to evaluate the situation at the broadest level and conclude that when we are dealing with whatever, we should see Allah. When we make someone laugh or when someone cheers for us, it is Allah that gave the person life and breath for them to be able to do so. For those who are responsible in creating at atmosphere and clearing preoccupation, we need to see the puppet-master and not just the puppets.

وَمَا هَذِهِ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا لَهْوٌ وَلَعِبٌ وَإِنَّ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ لَهِيَ الْحَيَوَانُ لَوْ كَانُوا يَعْلَمُونَ

[Yusufali 29:64] What is the life of this world but amusement and play? but verily the Home in the Hereafter,- that is life indeed, if they but knew.

اعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَزِينَةٌ وَتَفَاخُرٌ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَامًا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٌ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ

[Yusufali 57:20] Know ye (all), that the life of this world is but play and amusement, pomp and mutual boasting and multiplying, (in rivalry) among yourselves, riches and children. Here is a similitude: How rain and the growth which it brings forth, delight (the hearts of) the tillers; soon it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then it becomes dry and crumbles away. But in the Hereafter is a Penalty severe (for the devotees of wrong). And Forgiveness from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure (for the devotees of Allah). And what is the life of this world, but goods and chattels of deception? 

 

Goal???

In His Holy Name

Salamon Alaikom to All:

After attending the youth session last night, some thoughts have come to my mind and I would like to share with you several quesions that have been in my mind for some time now:

General Questions:

1. what is my long-term spiritual goal?

2. what am I doing to acheive that goal?

Specific Question:

1. what did I gain from last night's gathering?

I am sure we all have physical, financial, educational, career, etc... goals in our life and we strive to achieve them. All of us know that if one wants to gradaute from college he has to work for it.

I am sure most of us want to be spiritual people like late Ayatollah Behjat. We admire such people. But the question is how many of us are willing to act to become like him.

I think the problem is that most of us have no solid goals and visions when it comes to our spirituality, while it is the only thing that is going to matter at the end of the day.

Brothers: Years will pass by and you are going to be 30 and you are going to realize that you have not move even one step forward to achieve Allah's nearness in the past 10 years or even you have moved back several hundred steps. This is where I am now and I am warning you so that you wont be in the same place I am now.

I remember the days I was at IEC when I was your age. and now when I look back, I see that I have lost a decade of my life. I have lost my twenties, the decade that a person has enourmous power, energy and motivation and can achieve anything he wants to achieve. Now that I have lost this great asset and window of opportunity, I am desperately looking and trying, but the returns are very small while at the same time the level of energy and motivation has gone down. WATCH YOUR 20s. As Imam Ali says: Act while you can, as today is the day of action and tomorrow is the day of accounting.

at the end: Do I have a goal in life? becaue if I dont, Shaytan has several billion goals for me and he will present them to me one by one, until I accept one.

amin

Method of Praying Tahajjud

This week we discussed the method for praying night prayers. A good summary can be found here. Remember to include me in one of the 40.

Method:

HOW TO PRAY SALATUT TAHAJJUD
It consists of a total of 11 raka’ts, divided into the following prayers:
1. Nafilah of Layl: 8 raka’ats (4 x 2 raka’ats)
2. Salatush Shafa: 2 raka’ats
3. Salat ul Witr: 1 raka’at

1. Nafilah of Layl

The 8 raka’ats of Nafilah are divided into four prayers of two raka’ts
each just like Salatul Fajr. With the niyya of Salatul Layl. It is
recommended to recite Suratul Kafirun after Suratul Fatiha in the
first 2 rakats. In the other six recite any small sura or even leave out
the sura after Suratul Fatiha. For Qunoot you can recite salawat or
the recommended duas.

2. Salat al-Shaf’a

Two rakats with Suratun Naas I the first rakat after Suratul Fatiha
and Suratul Falaq in the second rakat after Suratul Fatiha. There is
no qunoot in Salatus Shafa.

3 Salatul Witr

One rakat with Suratul Ikhlas 3x, Suratul Falaq 1x, and Suratun Naas
1x after Suratul Fatiha. Then raise your hands for qunoot and recite:

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
لآ اِلَهَ اِلاَّ اللّهُ الْحَلِيْمُ الْكَرِيْمُ لآ اِلَهَ اِلاَّ اللّهُ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيْمُ
سُبْحَانَ اللّهِ رَبِّ السَّمَاوَاتِ السَّبْعِ وَ رَبِّ الاَرْضِيْنَ السَّبْعِ
وَ مَا فِيْهِنَّ وَ مَا بَيْنَهُنَّ وَ مَا فَوْقَهُنَّ وَ مَا تَحْتَهُنَّ
رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيْمِ وَ سَلاَمٌ عَلى الْمُرْسَلِيْنَ
وَ الْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ وَ صَلَّى اللّهُ عَلى مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِ هِ
الطَّاهِرِيْنَ

There is no god except Allah, the Forbearing, the Generous
There is no god except Allah , the High the Almighty
Glory be to Allah, Rabb of the seven heavens and Rabb of the seven
earths and whatever is in them, and between them and above them and
below them, Rabb of the Mighty Throne and peace be on the
Messengers.
All praise is for Allah Rab of the worlds.
O Allah bless Muhammad and his pure family.

Or any other small dua.

Recite 70 x
اَسْتَغْفِرُ اللّهَ رَبِّي وَ اَتُوْبُ اِلَيْهِ
I seek forgiveness of Allah my Rabb and I turn to Him

Ask for the forgiveness of forty believers who have died or are living,
by saying 40x followed by the name of the person:
اَللّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِ
O’ Allah, forgive……………

Recap 8/21/2009 - Purification BEFORE Teaching

This was the recap Navid put together for his presentation... Enjoy...

_______________________

The theme of last Saturdays talk was "purification before teaching" or "sanctification before instruction" drawing on verse 2 of surah Jummah (62):

هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ

[Yusufali 62:2] It is He Who has sent amongst the Unlettered a messenger from among themselves, to rehearse to them His Signs, to sanctify them, and to instruct them in Scripture and Wisdom,- although they had been, before, in manifest error;-

Here we find that purification precedes the act of learning. An important issue arising from this is if our hearts are not ready, not only can knowledge be useful, it can be very dangerous. We also find that our scholars have reiterated this as well, as exemplified by a quote from Imam Khomeini where he says "a corrupt learned person corrupts the world".

We discussed several dangers that come about from the proper procedure not executed:

1) The heart unprepared is not willing to listen to instruction.

And with additional examples, we found that a prepared heart was key in being able to listen.

2) The heart unprepared is not able to extract the wisdom it receives.
In the Quran, we find Allah mentions those who reject the faith:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنذِرْهُمْ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ

[Yusufali 2:6] As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe.

This is followed by the verse:

خَتَمَ اللّهُ عَلَى قُلُوبِهمْ وَعَلَى سَمْعِهِمْ وَعَلَى أَبْصَارِهِمْ غِشَاوَةٌ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عظِيمٌ

[Yusufali 2:7] Allah hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil; great is the penalty they (incur).

Another example we mentioned were those who were able to make use of the experience of others vs. those who had to always use their own experience to learn lessons. Imam Ali in letter 31 of the Nahjul Balagha shows us the importance of being able to use the experience of others to live our lives. If one is not able to extract the wisdom in things, how will that person make use of the knowledge available?

3) The heart unprepared when listening to divine truth will not only reject, but come to dislike or even hate the wisdom. We find a perfect example in history where the Prophet was loved and trusted throughout the community, however the day the Quran was preached he became public enemy number 1.

4) The unready heart when hearing divine truth will create a counter argument in every case. We discussed examples of people who try to make an attractive argument for themselves and even become proud of their ability to create such arguments but Allah says regarding these people:

يُخَادِعُونَ اللّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلاَّ أَنفُسَهُم وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ

[Shakir 2:9] They desire to deceive Allah and those who believe, and they deceive only themselves and they do not perceive.

5) An unprepared heart, when given a proof, will be forgetful of it.

6) An unready heart, when hearing diving truth can't act upon it (or apply it)

7) An unready heart can't connect the dots to other wisdom upon hearing one wisdom (he can't expand on the wisdom he receives). Here we used the example of Imam Ali, where he mentions that while the Prophet was on his deathbed he revealed 1,000 levels of wisdom to him and as he was receiving this wisdom 1,000 more levels opened up for him.

New Blog for Notes and Recaps

Salaam to all,

Alhamdo... with the new found help and continued interest in the sessions, as mentioned before, we want to try and give these sessions a bit more structure. Posting up notes and recaps is a great start in that direction. Before we did everything through email but now all announcements, schedules, outings, recaps, notes, discussions (I think you all get the point ;-)... will be posted on this blog.

Enjoy...

Eltemaseh Dua in this month of Ramadhan....