“O My Lord, increase me in knowledge” Quran 20:114

Yesterday was a blessed day. I had the opportunity to attend a gathering in Nouakchott where Shaykh Hamza Yusuf spoke for a few minutes.

What can I say? I had never had the opportunity of seeing him in person before; his akhlaks were simply amazing mashallah and his speech enlightening & powerful.

He began by remembering the days when he used to stop in Gueru, on his way to the village of Lemrabott Elhaaj (his Shaykh). At the time, one could hear Quran and mootoons being recited all through the night. But now in Gueru, homes are infested with television, satellite “dishes”, pouring out films made in the USA. Why don’t we take the good things from the West, why do we only take the negative ones?

He emphasized on the importance of our Ulemas and said something very striking: the Ummah has generally strong Iman (faith) but it is acquiring stronger knowledge that will ensure our continuity. He spoke about tragic killings perpetrated by muslims and gave the example of a woman who had fled the war in Syria and went to Turkey. When she was asked how she was, she said something like: “I’m fine, God is Present (mawjud) and in His Mercy He sent us Erdogan to welcome us in Turkey.” Wow what a beautiful example of iman!However, if this same woman who displays such beautiful iman (faith) had fled to the UK instead of Turkey, it is not certain that her grandchildren would still be Muslim…

The Shaykh reminded us of the Quranic verse (20:114):” And say: O my Lord, increase me in knowledge” but does not say increase me in Faith….

The message conveyed was clear; we are in dire need of more knowledge…

I am grateful to Allah (SW) that the Shaykh’s words found an echo in my heart. I had been waiting for this conference with trepidation, not knowing what to expect. I have been watching his lectures online since I was a teenager but now a live lecture! How would it be? The man has always been my self-chosen Shaykh and as said one of my brothers: if Shaykh Hamza Yusuf had a Zawiya , we and many other people in the world would be queuing to take bay3a with him…my sister, my brother, many of our friends and of course myself, have been coached and uplifted by his words for quite a few years now, Jazahullah Khayran.

Getting back to yesterday’s lecture, it was like the Shaykh was telling me that all my precious Islamic serenity would be threatened if I didn’t acquire more knowledge. I shivered and I looked around at all the well dressed audience and wondered how could they not seem frightened like I did? I wanted to tell them : don’t you understand that our happy peaceful Mauritanian lifestyle (based on Islam) might one day be challenged by this hemorrhage of deep Islamic knowledge our society is experiencing?

Yesterday when I came back home, my mind was swirling : I thought about knowledge as the peaceful adversary of terrorism, knowledge as the rampart against the despair that leads to social unrest and finally knowledge to combat all forms of oppression around the world…
 

It became clear to me that the rampart against the afflictions of this modern age was knowledge and that I, poor slave of Allah should do my outmost to acquire that knowledge asap. I did have plans, but they were for a long way down the road (when I’m done with corporate) and now that Shaykh Hamza has highlighted the urgency; sacrifices must be made. I can no longer wait for the right moment, I must use whatever spare time I have to study NOW!

Speaking to my sister, I also realized that we should stop being observers and get involved in something related to islam, no matter how much we hate debates, polemic and bold display of ignorance… it is true that we have a role model who’s gotten involved without going against his peaceful nature : Dad.

Our Dad is a historian. In his soft gentle way, he’s an academic super hero fighting against the forces of evil that strive to bring one community against another, one tribe  against the other and one country against the other. :-)

With his research, he shows how we are all brothers and sisters from another mother by reminding us of past historical alliances based on faith.

I remember one of his lectures he concluded by saying “I hope that my work has given you something that will put your heart and mind at ease for now you know that we are truly “descendants one of the other”  (transliteration : thurriyatan ba3duha min Baa3d”  Quran verse 3:34)

It was while he was preparing one of his conferences, that I had the chance to reflect on a Quranic verse that consoled me of something I’ve had in my heart for the last few years…

I sometimes dream of a homogenous world where we would all have one skin color, one language and no borders, for it seems to me that instead of seeing what a wonderful gift from God diversity is, man uses it as an excuse to declare war.

I’m now aware that dreaming of a homogeneous world is a terrible lack of Ridha and acceptance of Allah’s decree so whenever I feel saddened by the disputes arising in the Islamic world between Shia, Sunni, Maliki, Wahabi, Salafi, Sufi (for God's sake we’re all one people!) and that the longing for a homogenous humanity with brown skin (in my fantasy world we’re all metis :-) comes back to haunt me, I reflect on this verse my dad used as an introduction of one of his lectures on multiculturalism:

“If Allah willed, He would have made you one nation, but that He may test you in what He has given you; so strive as in a race in good deeds. The return of you all is to Allah; then He will inform you about that in which you used to differ.”

Quran 5:48

This aya says it all.

Finally, I cannot conclude this post without saying a word about the genial people who hosted the lecture.

The lecture was organized the Global Center for Renewal and Guidance an independent research institute focusing on contemporary muslim affairs in the west. The GCRG's board of Trustees has great names such as Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Dr. Abdullah al-Nasseef.

The logistics of the specific event held yesterday was orchestrated by Cheikhna Bin Bayyah (the son of Shaykh Abdoullah Binbayyah) and his lovely wife Habeeba.

As usual Cheikhna was a tremendous ice breaker (mashallah) making everyone laugh by sharing the story of his first encounter with Shaykh Hamza. When they met a few years ago in California, Cheikhna was invited to the Hansons' where he was presented with a gadha, a wooden Mauritanian bowl to drink from he told the Shaykh: "Don't you know I’ve come all the way to California to escape Mauritania and here you are handing me a gadha in your american home!!!” Lol

As for Habeeba, always with a sweet smile and a welcoming word for everyone, she even managed to give the women specific time to meet with the Shaykh (pic of him saying dua3 at the end of the session with the women).

 

Jazahumullah 3ana Khayr Eljaza

 

 

Fulfilling your dreams and transcending this material world

Lately I haven’t been able to write…

Although I have been asked repeatedly by a reader to get back to writing asap ;-) I just couldn’t because I was overcome by emotions which if expressed, would tell a lot more about my private life than I was willing to say.

However, I am no longer concerned about saying a little bit more than I had originally intended to… I realize that this blog allows a much needed catharsis to take place. It  helps me organize the happy turmoil in my soul. When I write, I am never detached, I’m either deeply troubled, giggling or laughing out loud when I'm about to crack up a joke!

For this specific post, let’s say that the words were gushing from a feeling of overwhelming, tear-jerking, gratitude! You know how you can have a dream very unlikely to happen and that you kind of got used to the idea that it never would happen. Well, guess what my friends? I had such a dream,  and it’s just about to be fulfilled, praise be to God Almighty.

Don’t try to guess what it is for you will exhaust yourself without finding out what it is ... “No, my hubby and I aren’t reproductively challenged (God forbid) and about to have a baby...”, “No, no it’s not that we’re going to Mecca either… that Alhamdulillah, has already been planned”. If you really want to know, you’ll have to start working harder to become my BFF, best friend forever ;-)

More seriously, when I add the imminent (insh.) fulfillment of my dream to various other strong positive changes in my life, I cannot but come to the conclusion that it’s all related to the fact that I joined the path of Istighfar and Salat ala Nabi. For me, no need to do the math here, all these positive changes originate from this. Since the Burda, and Qasidah Muhammadiya have been read several times in my house things have happened…. I don’t believe in the Qasidah Burda per se (it’s not magic!) but I believe that if you put in motion a process of expressing the love you have for the Prophet, through outward manifestations such as qasida recitation and salawats, if you are blessed with the chance to organize a Mawlid in your home, if you start focusing on the love so much that the longing would make you gladly welcome death…Nur, Light, will undoubtedly come.

I won’t lie to you and tell you that the struggle to keep the spirit of this Love strong and alive every day is easy, for most of the time I’m alone. Some days are easier than others but sometimes Dunya gets the upper hand and so I get frantic because I feel heedless, I feel WE are heedless. But regularly, God in his Mercy sends me sisters and brothers to help me feel I am not alone in my quest for Truth and so I pick up my weakened resolve and hit for the top of the mountain... once again :-)
I cannot fathom going back...How could I ever stand to go back, when now the reality of angels has become palpable and that I feel connected to those people for whom the Prophet is still alive?
I also cannot go back because I have had this strong, growing feeling that there are no limits to the Horizon, that the Faqir standing in front of his Lord can achieve anything and anything can happen to him, if it be God's will. Discovering this was incredibly liberating, I feel like I’ve been set free. I know I have already spoken about this, in one of my older posts but kindly indulge me for I would like to expand on this.

Take the time to reflect on this. Take a step back and think for your whole world can change the day you realize (profoundly) that : God willing there is nothing you cannot achieve with the power of your soul.Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in his lecture “BE GREAT PEOPLE” quotes “Take care of your soul, perfect it, give it virtuous qualities because it is by the soul that you are a human being, not by your body.” You can therefore, rise above that body, reach out for your dreams and for that glorious future of yours. It can be either that of a person of great patience, that of a nurturer, that of  leader of a nation, that of a scholar, that of a student of sacred knowledge, that of a loving parent, the possibilities are endless.

Here is a very short extract of a lecture of Hamza Yusuf that has been very important to me in this regards. I must say that I will never look at Shaykh Umar Farruq Abdallah in the same way anymore... Here is a man who applies what he believes in... May God increase him and give him Jennat El Firdows.
 

 

 

Let me share another inspiring story on how having certainty can change the course of things. This story happened to one of my sister's closest friends.

Mona and her  younger brother were studying abroad, the least we can say is that they had a hard time, their life wasn't easy. Muna was a med'school student and her younger brother was studying to become an engineer. One day, the boy had what seemed to be a sore throat and was asked by the doctors to run some tests. He complied and his older sister went to the lab the next day, to pick up the results. When she opened the envelope, she saw:  "Malignant..." We all know what "malignant" refers to :   The cancer, The C word,  etc…

When Mona read the results, instead of falling apart and despairing, the chronically stressed & overwhelmed med'school student said "And I know from Allah which ye know not" (which is what the prophet Jacob (RA) the very resilient, used to say, verse 86 of Sura 12, Quran) and prayed to God that these results be false, with the certainty that even though this diagnosis was from the most preeminent lab in the country, Allah's decree could make it all come to nothing.

She announced the news to her parents who flew with their son to France, where they were asked to run more tests..... The end of the story is that after undergoing various tests, the boy turned out not to have cancer! Alhamdulillah.

I ask all the people who read this, to raise their hands, now, in this moment to make Dua3 for this sister and her family and that they be blessed with good health and even stronger Iman.

(Continuation.)

Being certain that with Allah’s Mercy there is nothing you cannot achieve & relying only on Almighty Allah  is what will actually make you achieve your dreams.

If you arm yourself with certainty and reliance on God the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate, and quit relying on your spouse, your network, the community or even your own strength and skills (because these are all things by nature limited), you will gradually see your mental barriers falling down, crumbling down.

One day, you will realize that you have left behind you a lot of the petty things of human life that were the foundation of your self-imposed servitude & that you are now reaching out for something that has no limit:  Allah’s Mercy.
And when he sets his Mercy on you… that day, if the odds were against you, if the Djins & the people of this world united to stand in your way, you would get what you had aimed for, because He has decreed it!

So rejoice my friend, you can be the dirtiest, ugliest, poorest forsaken soul on this earth if God blesses you with certainty and tawfiq the limit is the sky! J or more accurately there is no limit!

However, the problem is that if you don’t achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself, you can no longer blame it on the context (your age, your wild progeny, your parents, your neighbor, the heat, the President, the opposition…) if it doesn’t happen it’s just that you didn’t want it hard enough so you didn’t try enough or simply…. that you did try hard but that Allah Subhanahou Wataala hasn’t allowed it because he has something so much better in store for you J

For instance, I know that if I set my mind to it, I can be a Hafiza, a Fikiha, regardless of my age and my french secular educational background...but do I really want it? Of course, I love the idea but do I want it enough to put up with a little bit of hard work?

I have no doubt at all that God willing, if I put a good intention in it and work, one day there will be an opening (see what Hamza Yusuf says about this in the "Be great people" lecture)

 

 

Finally guys, after experiencing what I just told you about,  do you know what the real mind boggling discovery was? Now that I'm achieving plenty of my earthly projects,  surprisingly they don’t seem that important anymore in comparison to the bliss I felt when I was still out there, working hard on my projects and hoping for God’s Mercy.. I'm more and more aware that : the true bliss or blessing lies not in the achievement but in the prayer and longing that preceed it..

 

Wassalamu Aleykum