Sh: Talal: The Night Journey & Ascension: Recounting the Ultimate Divine Disclosure (Razi & Risalah Foundation)

Sh Faraz: Nasiah-and stitching buttons

In this week's halaqa Sh Faraz mentioned a beautiful analogy. He said Nasiha (sincere concern/advice) in the context of people is a sensitive matter. We have to be careful how you do it. He compared it to trying to stitch a button onto a shirt someone is wearing . Our ultimate goal of stitching a button is noble but the way we do it could leave a person hurt ( our needle could pinch them, etc if we dont do it carefully).

Din adds: We may even need training from good "stichers" on how to stitch a button. We may need to to do it in a place where the person does not feel embarrassed. We may need to give them a "heads up". We need to use the right button. We need to stitch it properly so it doesn't look bad after the button is done. There may be someone else who is more suitable to stitch that button (than you), because the button or the person stitched on requires special care. And after we do it, we attribute the act of stitching the button as something Allah gave us tawfiq to do, not something "I" did because "I" am so "cool", so "good".

So in other words, we need to be careful with how we go about adivising people.

The Razi Institute: Qurba 2008

The Razi institute presents: Qurba 2008!

If you are a student of knowledge and can be in the Toronto area in mid August then this program is worth attending.

There are two streams: Essentials and Seekers. The Essentials program will run from August 15 to 17 and the Seekers program will run from August 13 to 17.

Costs cover food and boarding! Spots are limited to a 100 and 50 for each program so Register quick!

For more details click below:

• Qurba
• Seekers Program
• Essentials Program

Sh Faraz: the sunnah of following the sunnah

At last week's halaqa Sh Faraz said "There is a sunnah of how one follows a sunnah."

If we reflect on the above statement then it is quite profound. There are many sunnahs that one can implement in one's life. However, it is not a mere matter of copy and paste. When following a particular sunnah one may contradict another general sunnah.

For example one may decide at a wedding one is attending that it is sunnah to sit on the floor and eat, so one one decides that one will lay down a mat in the hallway ( right in everyone's way since you cant find any other place). In this case, while it may be praiseworthy that one is trying to follow the sunnah in one matter, one may still be going against the sunnah by inconveniencing others. And there are so many other examples we can probably think of.

The upshot is: there is a time, place and way of doing everything. When one learns a sunnah, it is also worthwhile learning/knowing the adab of applying it.

Death of a beloved

Yesterday was a sad closure to a sad week. It was the funeral of a dear member of the Waterloo community, Omer Fereig, who passed away on Tuesday night when he was hit by lightening during the severe thunderstorms which passed through the GTA that night.

The diversity of people who were at his funeral showed how his presence affected so many around him, be it work, university or the community. He was a few years ahead of me in university but I clearly remember him being very friendly, open and willing to give advice no matter what the issue/s were/was. One really feels sad for his parents--there is nothing more heart breaking then to see the corpse of your own child. At a little get together in his memory held by the MSA Alumni, there were lots of stories of how Omer's friendship affected everyone. so deeply.

A well written obituary was published in The Record yesterday and can be read here.

Please make dua for him, his family and friends.

Duas Site

Really cool complete duas index on this site. Please use these to make dua for me :)

Two cool proverbs

"Fall seven times, get up eight times" Japanese Proverb

Reflections: Many times in life, we intend to do a task or a project. Its inevitable that we stumble as we go about doing that task. If we think, that the goal of completion of that task or project will be a smooth highway then we are probably being self delusional. The success lies not in avoiding all obstacles ( because after all we might just avoid obstacles by not doing anything?) but it lies in dealing with all obstacles that comes in one's path in a patient and effective way. An obstacle may slow us down or stop us in our tracks but it should not make us run the other way. If the obstacle makes us fall, we just get up and start going towards where we were going ( i.e. just get up and keep going after you fall down). Our job is to try, its Allah who gives tawfiq and tayseer.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step" Ancient Chinese Proverb

Reflections: Its better to do a little and keep going on one's journey then thinking about one's long journey and not doing anything about it. If we want to end up on the top of a stair case, we must step on the first step of the ladder. We cant end up on the last step by just wanting to be on the last step i.e. first things first. Again, our job is to take the right steps, its Allah who gives tawfiq and tayseer.