Be like a saltwater fish
As-salam alaykum folks!
First, I’d like to apologize to you all for the formatting and grammar of my blogs… I type up these reflections in Word and copy and paste them into the blogger home page which causes some formatting problems—apparently some paragraph indentations are not showing up when I paste for some reason. Also, I try to take out a chunk of time to write reflections in one sitting, but it doesn’t really happen. This is why my reflections may be incoherent, or are just a conglomeration of random thoughts/notes/pictures put together in a horrible fashion. (My thoughts, as you all may be able to tell, are ALL over the place. I’m honestly overwhelmed with recalling the information, reviewing notes, reflecting, having epiphanies all the time, realizing how immense the test has been coming back, etc…) I apologize and please bare with me insha’Allah. I’ll try doing a better job. Also, when uploading pictures, my computer for some reason only does one at a time which makes it really difficult when I have over 200 some pictures! Alhamdulillah… Life has been really busy subhanAllah even if I’m sleeping a lot less than before and spending a significantly less amount of time on the computer, alhamdulillah. So, I can’t promise being able to post everyday.. I think it’s worth having better and coherent blogs every other day (ones I can actually read over and edit!) or so, rather than stinky nonsensical blogs everyday, right? I think I enabled a feature on this blog where you can sign up to receive emails whenever I update anything? Let me know if I did or didn’t =)
Before I continue with some more Uhud pictures, I've had some thoughts I wanted to share. On Sunday, my family had some guests over, and alhamdulillah my sister and I had the opportunity to share some pictures and thoughts about the rihla. I realized that honestly, even with all the pushing and shoving to get into Masjid Nabawi, which seriously taught us to be really patient, and with the lack of customer service at certain places, the generosity of a lot of individuals I encountered was just.. subhan'Allah. Total strangers would offer me and others iftar (the food to break one's fast) or du`a books in the masjid—both in Madina and Mecca. Alhamdulillah to think that one's rewards (and sins for that matter) are multiplied by 50,000 in Madina (and in Jerusalem), and by 100,000 in Mecca! SubhanAllah! So many of the shuyukh were really scared of being in these cities. Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah would only want to visit Madina for an hour at a time; whenever Imam Malik had to use the restroom, he would go outside the skirts of Madina to relieve himself! As much as I'd like to live in Madinah, it's such a HUGE responsibility! So for now, I just pray that insha'Allah Allah gives me the gift to visit these cities again, and insha'Allah die in Madinah, so I can also be amongst the first to be resurrected on the Day of Judgment alongside the beloved companions of the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam! Practically every prayer we had in Madina also had a janazaa (funeral prayer) prayer with it! SubhanAllah to think about the amounts of people and ANGELS praying for someone who has passed away! The shuyukh kept reminding the students that you never know who you are praying next to—it may be an angel or a wali! The prophet Muhammad sallalahu `alayhi wa salaam himself has 70,000 angels who rub their wings over his grave everyday, and every day these 70,000 angels are replaced by 70,000 new ones! To imagine this many angels and then the thousands of angels who come to just pray in this blessed masjid along with the souls of the companions of the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salaam who are buried in janat-al-Baqi` (a cemetery in Madina)!
Shaykh Hamza would constantly remind us of being careful in these cities. He relayed a story about a man who came from Syria, and once stated how the cheese in Syria is cheaper than in Madinah. That same night, he had a dream that the prophet sallalahu `alayhi wa salam told him that if the cheese was cheaper in Syria, then to go back. SubhanAllah! The PROPHET peace be upon him told him to go back home! It shows us that we really need to be grateful, because in these cities, Allah is our host; HE is the one who invited us there to take heed and benefit from being in these wonderful cities-- we should never complain, and we should definitely take heed for what we say and even think, because we really never know what can make us end up in the Hellfire, but insha'Allah we also know that just one thing can be our key to jannah!
Honestly, it's not the people of Madinah or Mecca who lack adab, or respect, it's all the foreigners who come and go. It's no wonder why the state of the ummah is in the state it is in! If these Muslims can push and shove and yell at each other in Masjid Nabawi and whilst doing tawaaf, how can we ever expect them to behave kindly towards one another when they're at home? In his farewell session, Shaykh Hamza told us how so many people ask him why he became a Muslim; but that’s not the question, it's why he remains a Muslim, especially through seeing how Muslims are-- we are not correctly practicing our religion, and we know it. The farewell session was very emotional, and I'll insha'Allah delve further into it in a later post-- but subhanAllah is all I have to say. He also made a great analogy in class-- in the world, honorable and noble animals are the ones becoming extinct—the killer whale (I think it is the killer whale), great birds, etc... we don't hear about cockroaches or rats becoming extinct! Similarly, the good qualities in people are no longer there and honorable shuyukh who are beacons of light are dying off, and no one is able to replace them. What are we left with? You answer that question, and enough said. SubhanAllah. Even then, the animals are better than we are because at least they are doing what they’re created to do. Even when I went to the kabah, you could see the birds flying around the kabah in circles making tawaaf!
So, you may be wondering why I titled this blog "Be a salt fish".. so a sister who was at my house reminded us how some of her teachers would say to be a saltwater fish in this life. (She said this more eloquently than I can ever say this...) Saltwater fish live in water that contains a high concentration of salt. When humans eat or cook them, they have to add salt to them because they lack taste without it-- thus, the amount of salt in the water has no affect on the fish itself. "So, what?" you say, "Where's the analogy?" Humans need to live in this dunya and not have it affect them. WORD?.... Microsoft...
Alhamdulillah though, the same sister made me feel better by reminding me that when you have a fever, your sins are being washed away (same as when you physically get hurt). To think I was in Madina with a 100 degree fever and I was sad because I couldn't do anything!! What BETTER place to be cleansing myself of my immense amount of sins! And another thing that totally made my LIFE... I found out that regarding the hadith about praying 40 consecutive prayers in Masjid Nabawi to be protected from hypocrisy and the hellfire (if you want the hadith, let me know and I'll inshaAllah type it up for you), women apparently can pray in their hotels and get the same reward! Sorry brothers! SubhanAllah I think I did my 40 then!! (inshaAllah!)
Khayr, here are some more pictures that were taken at the site of Uhud. Our buses took us to the site where the “v” is in the mountain. The brothers had the opportunity to climb up to a cave where the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salaam and his companions retreated in. The sisters were not able to as the steps were pretty steep, and there wasn’t much space for 150 students to climb, so he recommended that sisters climb up when it was a tad more safer, alhamdulillah. Instead, Shaykh Abdullah al-Kadi who is SO caring masha`Allah took us to a site of an old masjid where the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salaam prayed in. Unfortunately, there’s only ruins of it left. I’m also including some pictures of these cute little kids who were selling water to us. They noticed we were taking pictures of them from the bus, so they even got together and struck a pose! Masha’Allah! =)
Close up of the cave. Sorry for the blurryness as the zoom on my camera ain't all that grand, but alhamdulillah
Above: I think those are goats, or ram? I don't know my animals... regardless, isn't that so amazing? Just imagine the amount of blessing these animals have to be living first of all in Madina, and secondly on Mount Uhud!
There is a hadith (totally paraphrasing) that states that the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam stated that he loves Mount Uhud and Mount Uhud loves him. The shuyukh commented how we should be careful not to take anything from there as we wouldn’t want the rocks or dust to cry and yearn to return to its rightful place; we wouldn’t want it to testify against us on the day of judgment! SubhanAllah
Once, the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam, Abu Bakr (ra) and Umar (ra) were on Mount Uhud and the mount started shaking a bit. The prophet (saw) told the mount to be still as no one else was on it but a prophet, a siddiq, and a martyr.
Below: Brothers climbing up to the cave in Uhud.
This area used to be a masjid. What is depicted in the picture is the minbar where the prophet (saw) would pray in.
Shaykh Abdullah al-Kadi relaying stories to the sisters as the brothers were in the cave. If you look closely, you can see his cool camel-colored loafers! Shaykh Yaqoubi told students last year that the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam would wear yellow-colored shoes, and this is known as good luck.
Cuteness! =) MashaAllah
First, I’d like to apologize to you all for the formatting and grammar of my blogs… I type up these reflections in Word and copy and paste them into the blogger home page which causes some formatting problems—apparently some paragraph indentations are not showing up when I paste for some reason. Also, I try to take out a chunk of time to write reflections in one sitting, but it doesn’t really happen. This is why my reflections may be incoherent, or are just a conglomeration of random thoughts/notes/pictures put together in a horrible fashion. (My thoughts, as you all may be able to tell, are ALL over the place. I’m honestly overwhelmed with recalling the information, reviewing notes, reflecting, having epiphanies all the time, realizing how immense the test has been coming back, etc…) I apologize and please bare with me insha’Allah. I’ll try doing a better job. Also, when uploading pictures, my computer for some reason only does one at a time which makes it really difficult when I have over 200 some pictures! Alhamdulillah… Life has been really busy subhanAllah even if I’m sleeping a lot less than before and spending a significantly less amount of time on the computer, alhamdulillah. So, I can’t promise being able to post everyday.. I think it’s worth having better and coherent blogs every other day (ones I can actually read over and edit!) or so, rather than stinky nonsensical blogs everyday, right? I think I enabled a feature on this blog where you can sign up to receive emails whenever I update anything? Let me know if I did or didn’t =)
Before I continue with some more Uhud pictures, I've had some thoughts I wanted to share. On Sunday, my family had some guests over, and alhamdulillah my sister and I had the opportunity to share some pictures and thoughts about the rihla. I realized that honestly, even with all the pushing and shoving to get into Masjid Nabawi, which seriously taught us to be really patient, and with the lack of customer service at certain places, the generosity of a lot of individuals I encountered was just.. subhan'Allah. Total strangers would offer me and others iftar (the food to break one's fast) or du`a books in the masjid—both in Madina and Mecca. Alhamdulillah to think that one's rewards (and sins for that matter) are multiplied by 50,000 in Madina (and in Jerusalem), and by 100,000 in Mecca! SubhanAllah! So many of the shuyukh were really scared of being in these cities. Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah would only want to visit Madina for an hour at a time; whenever Imam Malik had to use the restroom, he would go outside the skirts of Madina to relieve himself! As much as I'd like to live in Madinah, it's such a HUGE responsibility! So for now, I just pray that insha'Allah Allah gives me the gift to visit these cities again, and insha'Allah die in Madinah, so I can also be amongst the first to be resurrected on the Day of Judgment alongside the beloved companions of the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam! Practically every prayer we had in Madina also had a janazaa (funeral prayer) prayer with it! SubhanAllah to think about the amounts of people and ANGELS praying for someone who has passed away! The shuyukh kept reminding the students that you never know who you are praying next to—it may be an angel or a wali! The prophet Muhammad sallalahu `alayhi wa salaam himself has 70,000 angels who rub their wings over his grave everyday, and every day these 70,000 angels are replaced by 70,000 new ones! To imagine this many angels and then the thousands of angels who come to just pray in this blessed masjid along with the souls of the companions of the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salaam who are buried in janat-al-Baqi` (a cemetery in Madina)!
Shaykh Hamza would constantly remind us of being careful in these cities. He relayed a story about a man who came from Syria, and once stated how the cheese in Syria is cheaper than in Madinah. That same night, he had a dream that the prophet sallalahu `alayhi wa salam told him that if the cheese was cheaper in Syria, then to go back. SubhanAllah! The PROPHET peace be upon him told him to go back home! It shows us that we really need to be grateful, because in these cities, Allah is our host; HE is the one who invited us there to take heed and benefit from being in these wonderful cities-- we should never complain, and we should definitely take heed for what we say and even think, because we really never know what can make us end up in the Hellfire, but insha'Allah we also know that just one thing can be our key to jannah!
Honestly, it's not the people of Madinah or Mecca who lack adab, or respect, it's all the foreigners who come and go. It's no wonder why the state of the ummah is in the state it is in! If these Muslims can push and shove and yell at each other in Masjid Nabawi and whilst doing tawaaf, how can we ever expect them to behave kindly towards one another when they're at home? In his farewell session, Shaykh Hamza told us how so many people ask him why he became a Muslim; but that’s not the question, it's why he remains a Muslim, especially through seeing how Muslims are-- we are not correctly practicing our religion, and we know it. The farewell session was very emotional, and I'll insha'Allah delve further into it in a later post-- but subhanAllah is all I have to say. He also made a great analogy in class-- in the world, honorable and noble animals are the ones becoming extinct—the killer whale (I think it is the killer whale), great birds, etc... we don't hear about cockroaches or rats becoming extinct! Similarly, the good qualities in people are no longer there and honorable shuyukh who are beacons of light are dying off, and no one is able to replace them. What are we left with? You answer that question, and enough said. SubhanAllah. Even then, the animals are better than we are because at least they are doing what they’re created to do. Even when I went to the kabah, you could see the birds flying around the kabah in circles making tawaaf!
So, you may be wondering why I titled this blog "Be a salt fish".. so a sister who was at my house reminded us how some of her teachers would say to be a saltwater fish in this life. (She said this more eloquently than I can ever say this...) Saltwater fish live in water that contains a high concentration of salt. When humans eat or cook them, they have to add salt to them because they lack taste without it-- thus, the amount of salt in the water has no affect on the fish itself. "So, what?" you say, "Where's the analogy?" Humans need to live in this dunya and not have it affect them. WORD?.... Microsoft...
Alhamdulillah though, the same sister made me feel better by reminding me that when you have a fever, your sins are being washed away (same as when you physically get hurt). To think I was in Madina with a 100 degree fever and I was sad because I couldn't do anything!! What BETTER place to be cleansing myself of my immense amount of sins! And another thing that totally made my LIFE... I found out that regarding the hadith about praying 40 consecutive prayers in Masjid Nabawi to be protected from hypocrisy and the hellfire (if you want the hadith, let me know and I'll inshaAllah type it up for you), women apparently can pray in their hotels and get the same reward! Sorry brothers! SubhanAllah I think I did my 40 then!! (inshaAllah!)
Khayr, here are some more pictures that were taken at the site of Uhud. Our buses took us to the site where the “v” is in the mountain. The brothers had the opportunity to climb up to a cave where the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salaam and his companions retreated in. The sisters were not able to as the steps were pretty steep, and there wasn’t much space for 150 students to climb, so he recommended that sisters climb up when it was a tad more safer, alhamdulillah. Instead, Shaykh Abdullah al-Kadi who is SO caring masha`Allah took us to a site of an old masjid where the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salaam prayed in. Unfortunately, there’s only ruins of it left. I’m also including some pictures of these cute little kids who were selling water to us. They noticed we were taking pictures of them from the bus, so they even got together and struck a pose! Masha’Allah! =)
Close up of the cave. Sorry for the blurryness as the zoom on my camera ain't all that grand, but alhamdulillah
Above: I think those are goats, or ram? I don't know my animals... regardless, isn't that so amazing? Just imagine the amount of blessing these animals have to be living first of all in Madina, and secondly on Mount Uhud!There is a hadith (totally paraphrasing) that states that the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam stated that he loves Mount Uhud and Mount Uhud loves him. The shuyukh commented how we should be careful not to take anything from there as we wouldn’t want the rocks or dust to cry and yearn to return to its rightful place; we wouldn’t want it to testify against us on the day of judgment! SubhanAllah
Once, the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam, Abu Bakr (ra) and Umar (ra) were on Mount Uhud and the mount started shaking a bit. The prophet (saw) told the mount to be still as no one else was on it but a prophet, a siddiq, and a martyr.
Below: Brothers climbing up to the cave in Uhud.
This area used to be a masjid. What is depicted in the picture is the minbar where the prophet (saw) would pray in.
Shaykh Abdullah al-Kadi relaying stories to the sisters as the brothers were in the cave. If you look closely, you can see his cool camel-colored loafers! Shaykh Yaqoubi told students last year that the prophet sallalahu alayhi wa salam would wear yellow-colored shoes, and this is known as good luck.Cuteness! =) MashaAllah
posted by Ruby at 8:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home