ICNA 2009: The Aftermath

Another year of ICNA, I fall in love with it more and more each year It was moved up earlier this year, but there was still a good amount of people hamdulillah. May Allah bless all the organizers and every single person who helped out in any way possible. So you know the drill, here are some notes/an overview of the convention. (*Please note*If there are any mistakes in the notes below they are my own mistake and may Allah forgive me.)

Saturday:

The first session I went to was an YM workshop called Parents: Their Rights, Our Duties. Unfortunately I was late to it so I only caught a little bit of the end.

Shaykh Mohammed Faqih: I walked in when he was telling a story about someone who used to always listen to his mother all the time and his mother never had to repeat herself, and if their was a time where he didn’t hear her correctly he wouldn’t say anything, rather he would sit and ponder what she had asked of him.  He also told us another story of a well known scholar that had students, he was teaching his students one day when his mother called him to go feed the chickens, and he immediately got up and went to go feed them. The speaker asked us to think about how many times we may have said to our parents don’t embarrass me, and this known scholar got up in front of his students to go do what his mother had asked of him, subhanAllah, may Allah make us all obedient to our parents. He told us another story of a boy during the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him said) time who stayed up all night massaging his mother’s feet, and it was said that this is more liked than Quiyyam. The speaker told us some responsibilities that our parents have over us such as respect them no matter what, take care of them remember that it is your duty to take care of them. He told us that no matter what the circumstances may be you must never abuse your parents whether it is physically, verbally etc…  He told us to honor our parents’ friends, maintain ties and relationships. He told us to pray for them, we must always keep our parents in our du’as. He reminded us that jannah is not cheap, only the people that have worked for jannah will achieve it. It is said that if you have one or both parents around you then you have a good shot at jannah. He told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him said) that he who gets the opportunity to be with their parent(s) and does not get into jannah is a loser. May Allah grant all of our parents the high ranks of jannah for all the great efforts that they have gone through for us, may Allah create strong bonds between all of us and our parents and increase our love for the sake of Allah.

The next session was YM’s first main session entitled, The Heart of the Matter. The announcer started off with asking us why do we always talk about reviving the heart? Because we need to constantly bring it back to the right path, our hearts need to be pure.

Imam Jawad Ahmed: He talked about how we need to balance ourselves. We have to work on our hearts; if we have a corrupt heart then our whole body will become corrupt. He described the heart as being a pendulum swaying back and forth depending on the circumstances that it is under. The heart can be easily swayed accordingly to your surroundings. He asked how can a heart fear Allah? The answer, by remembering him.  He also asked what is the purpose of the ghayb [the unseen], to incline yourself, your heart, closer towards Allah. He reminded us how Allah chooses who he wants to get closer to him, such as the people who are chosen to go to the convention and to the lectures, or any other event that helps people get closer to Allah. He explained that the heart for the mutaffifeen is very crucial; if it is not protected then it can not come to the deen. A good du’a he said that I like was “Oh Allah chose me for the servitude of Islam“, we should make such du’as so our life can have a purpose to it, a good purpose inshaAllah. He then talked about how anyone can have a good or bad heart; it just depends on how it is molded. Even a murderer/robber can have a good heart if they are correctly approached. He told us to transform our bodies and our mind through the heart. A great example of this was during the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) time, there were people that would bury baby girls alive. He explained how these fathers changed afterwards, look at how they were able to change their hearts. He said, “It is the heart that gives the encouragement to the mind.” He asked us, “What’s on your mind, why is it on your mind?” When you think and talk about things it is because your heart is on it, thinking about it. He told us that in order to protect your heart you need to prevent sins. He reminded us that all our organs are connected to our heart, and that we must make sure that we have a good input in order to have a good output-he told us that we should make du’a that our input does not have a bad impact on our output. May Allah give us tawfiq to change our hearts and have it full of iman.

Dr. Altaf Hussain: He told us how Allah has willed our presence. When the hearts of the believers align, the nur of their hearts fill the room. He reminded us that evil breed’s evil!  He told us to look around at our world, even the simple things that we do such as playing video games can harm us- if you sit all day in front of a video game playing a game about stealing, killing, taking over the world, do you think that there will be a positive outcome? When you’re on facebook looking at pictures, yes they posted the pictures but that doesn’t mean you have to look at all of them all the time, or whatever it is that you may be doing thinking that it isn’t so bad, imagine-what if your life ends right at that moment? Imagine what state our hearts must be in when we sit around and all we do is talk about each other, other Muslim brothers and sisters, imagine what state we’re in! He told us that what drives you is your soul. He advised us to aspire to reach the state where you see something and your soul says ‘come on, Allah is watching you, how can you do this?’ The greatest severity is having a hardened heart, and the fire of jahannum is made to soften the hard hearts. “If the heart becomes hardened, the eye becomes dry,” there will never be any experiences of remorse. Turn your heart towards Allah; try to reach a state of remorse. He told us to turn towards Allah and make du’a and show remorse, he said that if you have to then pinch yourself! He explained that there are four things that harden the heart:

1. Food: He asked us when was the last time you heard your stomach growl? Reflect on the Sahaabah and how they barely had a meal that filled their stomachs, and look at the way we eat.  We need to use moderations; we’re not gunna die if we skip a meal. He suggested fasting on Monday’s/Thursday’s or both and you can take the money that you would normally spend on lunch or a meal and give sadaqah with that money.

2. Sleep: He told us that there’s no way we can sleep well while we blast music, watch a movie that makes no sense, or T.V. etc… And then you expect not to get nightmares, not to get agitated. And then after that stand for Salah and expect to feel something?  Food and sleep are not against our religion but remember in moderations.

3. Speech: Sitting back and gossiping, thinking you’re better than others etc… He said that your facebook posts not only get published on your facebook wall but they also get recorded in your own books of deeds. He told us how we always talk about others and point out the bad of others; he said that “When you point, those other 3 fingers are pointing back at you.”

4. Sexual Intercourse.

He continued on with the famous excuse of, ‘Well if I’m messing up so badly then maybe that’s what Allah has already decided for me.’ The Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) said that “Everyone will find it easy to do such deeds that will lead him or her to do what he was created for.” If your heart is in a state of where you don’t care about anything then it is locked- what use is it? He gave the example of imagine you walk along and then you find an i-phone on the floor. Of course you get excited pick it up but then you realized that it is locked, what use will it be for you? It will be of no use at all, it’ll become useless so make sure you heart doesn’t lock you out. Allah said my slave/servant draws upon me on the nawaafil after the fards, sunnahs and waajibs. Make sure that you are consistent in your du’as. An inspiring thing he said was that “you can be the answer to someone’s du’a!”  And remember that you should keep others in your du’as, have preference of others over yourself.

The nest session was a Keynote Session.

Dr. Zahid Bukhari: He started off with saying that you should tell your brothers that you love them, and with that he told Imam Siraj Wahhaj that he loves him. I think I zoned out a bit of something because after this I have my name written down and doodles, I’m sorry….

Imam Jawad Ahmed: He told us what Imam Siraj Wahhaj had told him 15 years ago, that “America is on a crisis like a car going downhill with a blind driver and the Muslim’s are sitting in the backseat.”  He told us how Imam Siraj has inspired him and that he went up to him and asked him if there is hope for him to learn about the deen even after his college studies and he said yes. He told us that Imam Siraj was his inspiration to get involved with the deen and he has made it where he is today because of Imam Siraj. He told us about an Arabic saying that “Whoever teaches one word/letter, you become a slave to them.” He continued talking about an Arab custom that when you love your teacher or mentor, you kiss your teacher’s hand, and with that he asked permission to kiss Imam Siraj’s hand and kissed his hand. SubhanAllah it really was an “awe” moment. He continued talking about how a person can create opportunities when they are inspired! He talked about how the Prophet’s did not give up during the time of crisis, rather they got stronger! He told us to find opportunity in crisis; this is the way of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon all of them). He said “Let the Ummah rise again” (well actually that was in the Sami Yusuf song that was played in the promotional video before he talked) and he said make du’a not juss for yourself but for the entire Ummah and even for the non-Muslims. Make du’a and ask “Oh Allah enlighten them!” He told us to look at what we go through today. The humiliation we get when we walk, the looks we get from people. How should we react? We should make du’a for them; make du’a for those who hurt you. Some du’as he mentioned was “Oh Allah, soften our hearts, molten our hearts, because these hearts have become stiff. Oh Allah join our hearts. Oh Allah use my money for the hikmah of Islam.” Allah gives tawfiq to the insaan. He told us that we should put everything on line for Allah.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj: He started off with talking about his health. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and this was his first appearance since he was diagnosed. He told us that we should always be thankful to Allah for your life. He talked about how no one ever asks to be sick, no one ever makes du’a to get sick. He talked about how he is thankful for all the du’as that everyone made for him, and we should never underestimate the power of du’as. He called himself to be “America’s Imam,” he said “I am a part of you.” He said all the du’a and all the help that everyone made for him and his family has made him a part of us. He gave us another reminder that whatever life may look like, no matter what the situation may be, Allah is always watching and is always there for you. He briefly reminded us of Muhammed Ali [the famous boxer, if you don’t you can ask shaykh google] he told us how he had it all: riches, fame, good looks, and look at the test he went through. He told us that wealth is a more difficult test than poverty. He told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said the majority of the people of jannah were poor. Back to Muhammad Ali, he said that when people would ask him for his autograph he would give them a card that said “Who is Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)?” and then he would sign the back and give it to them. SubhanAllah, look at the amount of dawah he made, but then look at his test that Allah gave him. He told us that he has learned three things, 1.Thanks Allah for his life 2. Whatever it looks like, Allah is always there for you and 3. Eat healthy and exercise. He continued talking about how you don’t become brave by not doing anything. Ex: You can’t call yourself generous juss because you say so, you can’t call your self brave juss because you say so, get up and do something and then say so. He told us to aspire to be like Prophet Yusuf (peace be upon him). He said, give the best of yourself to Allah when you’re young. He said that the mental health of our nation isn’t so good, we need help and we need to do something to help.

Imam Zaid Shakir: I was so excited to hear Imam Zaid speak, this was the first time I ever got to hear him speak live, it was very nice. InshaAllah he’ll be back next year and maybe he’ll bring along more of the Zaytuna gang J Anyway back to the notes! So Imam Zaid started off with stating how we should voice our principles, he said that “we have beautiful principles.” He said that there are four problems in our world today:

1. Collateral Damage- He talked about how Muslims don’t believe in killing anyone and we also look down upon killing to affect political outcomes. He said that there might be Muslims that are doing this but they’re not following Allah and his messenger. He said that [I can’t remember if this was from the Qur’an or Sunnah] “Don’t kill the innocent life that God has created.”
2. Nationalism/Pride- This is self explanatory, when I think of this in my head it goes like this: It makes sense that there is no nationalism in Islam because if you look around and see all the Muslims it’s beautiful how there are so many people from every part of the world, we don’t submit to a single culture or country we submit to Allah and that is what ties us together in a bond much stronger than any other countries sense of nationalism.
3. Economic Inequality- He said that this comes from usury, interest. It comes from the random bonuses that are given to people who don’t really deserve it, the trillions of dollars that are being given to people who don’t deserve it, the ones who have more than enough but figure out how to skip out on taxes. My dad always says, ‘If I could change one thing, it would be to make education tax deductable,’ I like that idea, maybe one day it will work. May Allah make us honest in all of our dealings and prevent us from getting involved in haraam transactions.
4. Unfortunately I missed number four because I had to leave to go catch Maghrib; if anyone has it please let me know inshaAllah.

The next Session was YM’s second main session entitled The Heart: Your Inner Radar.

Dr. Obaidullah Chaudry: He started off by saying, “don’t reveal your moves to your enemy [shaytaan].” He continued on saying that “if you don’t like the way you feel, change the way you think.” He asked us, how do you know if you have a diseased heart? He told us that Allah put it in our nature to submit to him [Allah]. He talked about how people talk about the youth being our future, he said that you [the youth] are not our future but you are our now! In Islam there was never a time where the people said that the “youth” have to wait, we have the potential to be leaders at any age! He told us, “be better than me!” He told us that the disease in our hearts can be burned up with the goodness of Islam. He told us to come to Islam whole heartedly, not part time. He said that success by Allah is taqwa.

Imam Zaid Shakir: He started off by saying “May Allah continue to keep us being enthusiastic about this religion.”  He also reminded us that “the fact that we were created, that we are here, makes us eligible for eternal bliss.” He told us that this life that we have right now is only a platform then we will travel to eternal bliss. He told us that the effects of sin can be eradicated. Allah tells us, “Oh you believers turn to Allah with sincere repentance.” He told us something which kind of made me change my outlooks a little, that the fact that we sin shouldn’t depress us, the only thing that should depress us is when one sins and fails to repent! He told us that “repentance eradicates the effects of sin,” and reminded us that “Surely your Lord will wipe out your sin.” He told us to imagine the beautiful days/scenery we have here and then reflect on the fact that jannah is so much better than that. I love the water, sunsets/rises, the trees and sky when you drive down the high way, and it all looks so beautiful and perfect, I can’t even imagine them better but subhaAllah jannah will be so much better than anything we have on here. Keep those in mind and then make dhikr, I find that to be helpful for myself. He told us to think of any sin that we may have engaged in and express deep remorse and sadness. He told us that if we have hurt someone then ask them for forgiveness, if you have something/used something of theirs tell them and ask to give back the value. He told us that one of the greatest sins is jealousy, and said do not envy one another! He told us that the disease of the nation, diseases that destroy a nation, is jealousy and hatred. We can look around and see examples of this in history and even in people, look at how quickly jealousy can change someone and then lead to other bad actions, may Allah protect us all and clear our hearts of any sign of jealousy and make us all content with all that we are blessed with. He reminded us that Allah said, “If you reject My blessings, then know my punishment is severe.” He told us that “jealousy consumes good deeds like fire consumes wood.” He told us to give thanks and don’t be ungrateful. That the greatest way to reverse sin is repentance, and that this keeps your tongue busy- dhikr preoccupies the tongue. He told us that little things can make a difference, such as shaytaan does not bother people who are in a state of Wudhu, so always try to remain in state of Wudhu. We need to perfect ourselves, stay in prayer, fast, dhikr etc… “Our Lord, perfect our light.”

Imam Mohammed Magid: He told us that shaytaan is arrogant and that humility is key, never feel like you’re better than others or that you’re ‘on top of the world.’ He told us how shaytaan does things in stages, he makes you do the sin and then says that is was all you. That shaytaan gives you false hope, wants you to be friends with wrong people. A good analogy that he gave was, “Don’t let shaytaan use your minutes.” MashaAllah he was a very different and entertaining speaker, his way of speaking was juss so sweet that he was able to capture everyone’s attention and get the message through quickly and simply, May Allah bless him for all he does.

The next session was called Tafseer of the Heart. This was an YM session that was also with Al Mishkat Institue, Al-Maghrib and I think that’s it [?] It was like an intensive workshop, if that made any sense, but you had to sign up for it because there were limited seats. MashaAllah, may Allah bless all the YM organizers, volunteers and anyone else who helped them out. YM continues to amaze me every year with all of their amazing hard work and I really think that they are underestimated. May Allah continue having the youth interested in Islam and continue creating young Muslim leaders inshaAllah. I hate advertising things on my blogs, and never thought I’d do so in my notes but YM deserves a spot on my bog and in my notes. They can’t do this without support, so visit the YM website continuously and make a small contribution if you can. Think of it this way, anything they do you will be a part of, and anyone who gets changed and becomes closer to Allah, you will become a part of J inshaAllah! Now back to the notes…. The speaker started off by saying that our heart is more than juss an organ. He said that in med school, or was it college, they learned about the heart as being “juss a dumb old pump,” this may be true anatomically, but not spiritually. Trying to get the heart to work with you spiritually is a life long process.

Shaykh Ahmed Kobeisy: He told us to read ayah number seven of Al-Imran constantly: “He it is Who has sent down to thee the Book: In it are verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning); they are the foundation of the Book: others are allegorical. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in the Book; the whole of it is from our Lord:” and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding.” He asked us where is your heart? He told us that Allah said “They have hearts which they do not understand.” Imam Ghazali said that the heart is not juss a pump machine but a “subtle of gift from Allah” [al-Ghazali]. He started talking about diseases of the heart. He talked about how kufaar and munafiq weren’t always at the stage where they are at currently; they slowly got to that stage over time, gradually. But how did they get there? In Surah Mutaffifin ayah number fourteen it says “By no means! but on their hearts is the stain of the (ill) which they do!” When a servant commits a sin there is a dark spot that appears in the heart, if he/she repents, it goes away. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that all hearts come in two categories, clean and pure vs. rusted, upside down. He talked about a ceiling over the heart, “khatama.” In surah Baqarah it says, “Allah sealed over their hearts.” Allah has sealed their faculties for reasoning. Why does he do this? Don’t think that Allah reverts someone out of guidance out of no where or for no reason; Allah seals the heart because there was never any true intention to believe! Ya Latif, this scared me so much, may Allah give us hearts that only beat for his sake! He gave us some reasons for why Allah seals the heart. The first one is the one mentioned before; there was no true intention to believe. Another one is rejection, transgression, trespassing boundaries, or simply not following the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He told us that “there is a reminder for the one who has a heart-a living heart.” During the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) time there was a battle called the Battle of Tabook, and there were men who made excuses and didn’t go, the Prophet excused them but Allah has rights to the people who didn’t go and he sealed their hearts! Another one he mentioned was arguing and debating verses of the Qur’an with out knowledge. The value of the deen of Allah is much more than your own value. He then continued on saying that when one gets heart problems, one goes to the cardiologist. But when one gets spiritual heart problems where should we go? Go to the Qur’an! He said that when you’re heat doesn’t move when hearing the Qur’an then you should say inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un, the heart is dead! He told us that Imam Malik wouldn’t give a lot of fatwah’s because he was afraid that he might change his mind and then he would have to answer Allah for the people that started following that ruling. He talked about how sometimes we feel stressed, over whelmed and he mentioned that a man once came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said that “the branches of Islam have come overwhelming for me, can you tell me one thing to help me?” and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said “Keep your tongue busy with the remembrance of Allah,” I love this advice I first heard it from Shaykh Faraz Rabbani who said “Moisten your tongue with the remembrance of Allah”; and honestly it works, juss keep doing dhikr all the time. When you do this it juss makes you so much happier too, sometimes when I can’t pay attention in class I juss start doing simple dhikrs and my friends turn to me and say “Why are smiling?” subhanAllah juss try it out please! He told us that the heart feels the remembrance of Allah; embody it with your tongue! He talked about Surah Kahf which mentions, “Do not listen to those who make your hearts unaware of remembering Allah.” He then talked about the harshness of the heart, being hard hearted. He said that your heart must be connected with Allah, that being said look at Allah’s traits: caring forgiving, loving etc…we must have such traits as well. He said that some people get hearts even harder than rocks! “Woe to those who have hard hearts!” The Qur’an says that real blindness is hearts that are harsh! He said that the matters that we discussed can come and go by starting off to be very small but they can grow to a stage where they can be no return. Ex: being a little jealous of something can incline to becoming blind of all the blessings that Allah has given to you and all you do is continue to become jealous of everything and anything. So how can we help ourselves? The scholars said there are three stages: [sorry guys I missed the third stage again, apparently psychology is wrong for me, most people remember the beginning and the end and miss the middle, apparently I’ve been missing the ends of some of these, khayr] 1. The first stage is Al-Ijaad- the creation and existence. It is he who established you from nothing! 2. Idaad- Allah prepared you to be Muslim. Gave you messengers, his revelations, scholars…. 3. Anyone got it?

Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui: He told us that the longer we wait, the harder it will be to get better, and we are depriving ourselves of goodness. He told us that when you’re alone, you feel the greatness of Allah. He talked about Imam an-Nawwawi, when he was only 7 years old and all he wanted to do was sit down and read the Qur’an instead of playing, the other kids would tease him and he would ignore them and juss sit and read his Qur’an, he chose Qur’an over playing at juss 7, subhanAllah! He told us a very cute story which I will try to re-tell. There once was a fisherman and one day he took his daughter with him. He would catch the fish and give it to his daughter, and his daughter’s job was to put them in the pail or whatever it was that they were going to keep the fish in. So the fishermen was catching all these fish and giving them to his daughter, when he was done he looked down and was surprised to see no fish, the whole time he was giving the fish to his daughter she was throwing them back in the water! The father was surprised and asked his daughter why? She said that I remember you once told me a story that the only fish that are caught are the one that are not in dhikr of Allah and I don’t want to take home a fish that’s not in dhikr of Allah. MashaAllah, once you get through with going aawww, look at how beautiful this little girl’s heart is. He talked about an inner eye, the eye that sees the deep meaning of the things that Allah has created. Our eye of our hearts don’t see very well. Our inner eye sometimes gets distracted by our surroundings and this causes us to not have a very good perception. He said that “we are like donkeys that carry a load of books.” We need to get hearts that can process the knowledge. He asked us, don’t we all have hearts? There is a lesson for those who have inner hearts which spiritually beats. These hearts pump spiritually in the person. It is so difficult for some of us to see the beauty of Salah, it is not a physical object. It is a meaning, feeling, a state. We’re not grasping the true meaning, the true beauty of Salah. He told us not to be close to those who may influence us badly- “Do not obey the one whose heart is oblivious to dhikr.” He told us that the best way to change ourselves is to make dhikr with the heart and this is something that we need to learn. He advised us to get companions that will give us happiness in this dunya and in the akhirah! He told us my favorite thing, “Verily in the remembrance of Allah, hearts find peace!” he told us how this gives tranquility, he compared this to becoming a couch potato. Today when we want to relax we sit down surrounded with junk food, watch T.V./movies continuously and continue eating until we grow into the couch… we’re all guilty. Myself included, if I have a bad day I go straight to ice cream, inshaAllah we’ll all learn that turning towards Allah is much better than clogging our arteries.  He talked about how when one is in a place where Allah is mentioned, ex: in a masjid when people are praying, but one continues about their personal lives that is a lack of adab, he said that perhaps we are lacking something inside. He told us that we must struggle to be obedient towards Allah and his Nabi (peace and blessings be upon him). He told us that anything other than Allah must be exterminated from our hearts. He told us that even our etiquettes with the creatures of Allah must change, do good things externally and do them with good pure intentions.

Shaykh Mohammed Faqih: He started off by talking about the issue of purification of the heart and how it should not be taken lightly. He told us that shaytann has a lot of experience, he’s been around for a while, and shaytaan wants to get through our hearts. So how does a person maintain a pure, healthy state of heart? We were told what will ruin the heart and how we should preserve and protect ourselves. One has to pursue this and it is a lifelong struggle. We don’t realize that simple things can help us out, ex: 5 pillars can make us better people. The best way to purify one’s heart is to be mindful and practice with diligence. A Bedouin once came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said teach me and he (peace and blessings be upon him) told him the 5 pillars, the Bedouin asked do I have to do any more and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said no unless you’re inclined to do so. The Bedouin said that I will do these and only these and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said that you will be successful if you commit to them. Allah said that “My servant will not get closer to me then doing that which I have obligated.” He reminded us of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, how we give our best of our years to the dunya. The one who connects to Allah at a young age, then at the old age will have a special connection with Allah. He told us to spend our youth pursuing the happiness of Allah. He talked about Salah, it means to pray, supplicate, du’a. Du’a is the essence of ibaadah. No one deserves your heart other than Allah. Allah only accepts that which is pure, so purify your heart and then devout it to Allah. The 5 prayers lead you to more and more! Make sure you get your priorities straight, pray all 5 of your prayers not 2/5 4/5 but 5/5- establish ALL of them and commit to all of them! Allah doesn’t say those who pray, but those who establish Salah-those who are committed, surround themselves and create a culture of Salah. Salah can not be established without: 1. Learn the rulings of Salah: the technicalities are important. Learn the Salah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), “pray as though you have seen me pray.”  Learn the du’as of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), follow his (peace and blessings be upon him) example. 2. Khushur: Humility. We must be inspired, empowered… by Salah. Some people get tired from the speed of praying Salah! Understand what you are saying. Ali (ra) used to tremble when he would make Wudhu, he would say “Do you have the slightest idea who I am going to face?” We don’t, that’s why we don’t feel it when we go to pray. You can’t establish a connection with Allah without Salah! Your secret code should be 2,4,4,3,4! Did you figure it out? MashaAllah, it took me a while, it’s the fardh rakahs of the 5 Salah’s. He asked us, how can you survive without Salah? How can your life be messed up with Salah? There is something missing there, you need to evaluate yourself. He then talked about Saum: fasting. The Sahabah used to prepare themselves 6 months ahead of time spiritually for Ramadhaan. Today we find out a day or two ahead because of all the fighting between the communities on when it will start. He asked us how should we prepare for Ramadhaan? He told us how some of us go raid the super markets and buy almost everything. He said, “It’s not a moth of famine,” we’re juss fasting. He told us that if we spend our nights staying up and praying, remaining in dhikr, you will come out a different and better person. He gave us some tips: 1. No eating or drinking [of course] 2. Refrain your body from haraam, ex: the tongue needs to fast too! your eyes, ears etc… 3. Heart and mind must fast as well!

The next session was a small session about the Qur’an. I came in late because it started when the YM session was still going on and then there was no more chairs left and even the floor was crowded, so the amount of time it took me to finally get settled Shaykh Faraz already started talking.

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani: There are two people that I consider very important to me, Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. Both have helped me very much in my deen and both have helped change me for the better. May Allah reward them for everything that they do and may they continue coming to these conventions to help others benefit from them. May Allah preserve them both. Shaykh Faraz was talking about recitation of the Qur’an. He said that before we even begin to recite we should reflect on what you’re going to learn while you will be reciting, this is from the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said that when you read something that is beneficial to you, ask Allah for it and if you read something harmful ask Allah for forgiveness. He told us that we should try to get an interactive recitation going on when we are reading. When you recite the Qur’an don’t make your focus the quantity but the quality. It was said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once repeated one verse all night because he was reflecting on it. If you pay attention to the quality instead of the quantity, it will make your recitation more meaningful. He told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that a good deed is worth 10 folds up to 700 times. He talked about “Qur’an Khanees”-something in the desi tradition where people get together and read Qur’an [I think, correct me if I’m wrong]. He said that he can’t understand how some people read so fast, he said that some of the people can read a page faster than he can turn a page! He told us to have a daily connection with the Qur’an. [I think a good time for this is after Fajr but that’s juss me.] He told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to “recite the Qur’an in a month,” but he reminded us that there is a Sunnah of following the Sunnah. You should make a consistent effort and set standards for yourself. He said that “The concern of the righteous is not the quantity of their actions but of their quality.” He told us to listen to the Qur’an, it’s so easy to do that today, whether it be while we drive or while walk or whatever it may be technology has made this so easy for us. He told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once said, “Recite the Qur’an to me,” and the companion said “it was revealed to you” and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said “I like to hear it.” He told us to continue reading so you can improve your accent. He compared this to accents, he said that when people move to the country they don’t juss wake up one day and decide I’m not going to stop having an accent, over time they change, he actually said “that even Guyanese people who have thick accents change their accents”, so we can adapt to the Qur’ans accent as well! I actually also learned some new information about Shayh Faraz in this small session, he grew up in Spain with an English accent and then moved to Canada, that’s pretty cool mashaAllah. May Allah bless him for all he does.

The next session was YM’s third main session called Diseases and Cures of the Heart.

Shaykh Mohammed Faqih: He started off by talking about how hypocrisy was not around during the Makkan period, you were either Muslim or not. In deen, a hypocrite means that they pretend to believe. There can be hypocrisy in deeds, lifestyle, conducts etc… It is “when someone’s pattern of behavior does not reflect what they truly believe.” He asked us, do your actions and deeds reflect your beliefs? We have to recognize the symptoms and rid ourselves from them. There are over 50 different types and acts that are associated with hypocrisy. The Qur’an helps us recognize and how to get rid of them. The basic sign of hypocrisy is those that know but they don’t act accordingly. Qualities of hypocrisy:

1. Ignorance: no knowledge, no understanding.
2. Double Standards: When they’re with believers they act and blend in with them. When they’re with non-believers or friends that call them to the wrong path they’re juss as bad, sometimes the worse.
3. Lazy when it comes to Salah. Salah is very heavy on them. They’re very lazy when it comes to Salah, it is a huge burden for them. The imam says Allahu-Akbar and they drag their feet. Whenever they can, they try to get away with missing Salah. If a person does not pray Fajr and Esha, during the time of Nabi (peace and blessings be upon him) it was a sign of hypocrisy because at Fajr and Esha time it was very dark and no one would no who wasn’t there. Look at our time, everything is lit up and yet sometimes we still have people missing…
4. Lies
5. Breaks his/her promise: whether it be a promise they make to Allah, themselves or others, especially their family members, they can’t fulfill their promise(s).
6. Conditional Righteousness: They turn to Allah/worship Allah only when they’re in a good state.
7. Betrays Trust

They also make fun of believers, they feel insecure around believers. He also said that hypocrite men and women are of each other, they encourage evil and forbid the good. They have a negative, pessimistic mindset and put others down especially by making fun of believers, Allah, messengers etc… It bothers them when they see believers; it makes them feel “Now you think you’re better than me?” “You think you have more hayah than me?” He told us that believers love other believers. So how do we rid ourselves of hypocrisy?

1. Belief in Allah- hold onto Allah’s path!
2. Be sincere and honest
3. Repent- be grateful and thankful
4. Purify our hearts from all ills of the hearts
5. Du’a- pray

Imam Omer Sulieman: He asked us what is the difference between loving someone and being in love with someone? He talked about how the conditions/standards of love have gone down so much. People say “I love…” all the time and juss like that they always say “I love Allah” and take it lightly. It’s very easy to say you love Allah. There is a form of shirk where you love something as you’re supposed to love Allah. Juss hearing the name of Allah should make you break down and cry. He talked about how the end of Surah Hashr makes Imam’s breakdown and cry. Allah did not and will not shut down the doors in your face. He mentioned the hadith of “When My servant draws close to Me by the span of a palm, I draw close to him by the cubit and when he draws close to Me by the cubit, I draw close to him by the space (covered) by two hands, and when he draws close to Me by the space (covered) by two hands, I go in hurry towards him.” The willingness of Allah to develop this relationship is great, so how does this relationship start? There are people who take anything and they turn it into a form of ibadah. How does it make you feel when someone says something or makes fun of Allah? Or the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? What’s the process of falling in love with Allah? Allah says that my servant does not come closer to me with nothing but the faraaidh, we need to fix these first! When people stop communicating, ex: spouses, or a friend that used to be very close, once the communication stops, the relationship is over. Once you start feeling the khushur in your Salah you can’t get enough of it! Once you start tasting the sweetness of Salah you start doing extras! Once you start tasting the sweetness of Saum etc… you will be begin to increase them all on your own.When you do something small and you do it out of love it increases the love in the relationship. He gave an example of a husband bringing home a dozen flowers to his wife, compared to a husband bringing home a single rose everyday- the single rose everyday will be much more meaningful to the wife and it will be a result of the husband remembering his wife and it will increase the love in the relationship as well. He asked us, how honored would you be to get the love of Allah? And he said remember that the door of Allah is still open, that opportunity is still open for us! Allah said in the Qur’an, “And if he asks of me, I will answer him!”  He told us not once, twice but three times, that “It is very easy to fall in love with Allah!” All you have to do is ask and you have someone who will answer you each and every single time. He told us how a believer loves Esha and Fajr so much more because they won’t be seen. He told us a beautiful story that I hope I can re-tell effectively. There once was a servant and there was a time of drought and the servant made du’a saying “Oh Allah I ask you by your love of me to give us water,” and with that it began to rain. I think it was his master that called him and asked him what he said or something of the sort and the servant then made du’a saying “Oh Allah I ask you by your love of me to take me,” and with that the servant died, subhanAllah! He asked us, how bad do you want to meet Allah? Non-Muslims say “live life to the fullest,” and believers feel guilty and try hard to get rid of their bad deeds. He told us that when the believers enter jannah Allah gives the mu’mineen a tour of jannah, and then afterwards he will call the believers to assemble. Once they get assembled he’ll ask them what do you want and they will all discuss and try to figure out what to ask for and they’ll say we are pleased now you be pleased with us. Allah will tell them to return and think of something, once again they will assemble and try to think of something, and this time the believers will say “Oh Allah show us your face so we can start at you!” SubhanAllah! Can you imagine? Ya Latif, may Allah make us amongst those believers! He reminded us again and again that Allah is ready for us to start the relationship; we have to make the effort. He told us how the people of jahanum will not be able to even talk to Allah! Punishments of jahanum are so many, and the kuffar of jahannum will say to the Angels call your Lord so he can lighten the punishment. A person who loves Allah will never miss an opportunity to call Allah! He told us the story of Umar ibn Khatab, before Islam he loved his own honor very much, after Islam he sacrificed his honor for Allah. When you love someone you sacrifice everything for them! He told his son, “Put my head in the dust so when Allah sees me he sees a humble servant!” He told us to make du’a and to ask Allah to guide us while we still can.

The last session I went to was YM’s last main session called Revival of the Heart. Hamdulillah the last session was packed, at least it was on the sister’s side.

Dr. Altaf Hussein: He told us how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) heart was always inclined towards Allah. He told us to say that “My heart is struggling Allah, guide me!” He told us that the haraam and halal are clear and anything in between should be avoided. I kind of missed the other part because my little brother was with me and apparently he was “dying of thirst” so I had to run out for a bit to get him a drink.

Arif Hussein: He talked about “a time for change.” He talked about how we are always changing and it will either be for good or bad and that we need to constantly keep ourselves in check to make sure that we’re changing for the better! He talked about Hind and how after the Battle of Badr her heart wanted nothing but revenge and seeked nothing else but to kill Hazrat Hamza. She hired a slave to kill him at the Battle of Uhud but still she wasn’t satisfied and full of hatred she then cut him open and chewed on his liver. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw his uncle and asked who did this and they replied ‘Hind’ and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said let it be known that she is to be put to death if she is found. At the conquest of Makkah, Hind knew that she was wanted dead and she was scared for her life. But the beautiful part of this story was that she saw one of the Sahaabah’s praying Salah and she was so moved when she saw this Sahaabah that she went to her husband and said that I am going to become Muslim. She went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said that she wants to become Muslim and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked her name and she said ‘Hind’ and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said “Welcome Hind.” SubhanAllah look at the change of heart that Hind had and look at the beautiful, compassionate, forgiving heart that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had. Today if someone makes a little mistake, or remark or something that makes us angry, that’s it! It’s like it’s the end of the world and today some people hold such deep and long grudges that you can begin to see why we all need to purify our hearts. May Allah free all of our hearts from such grudges or any other disease from the heart. Br. Arif Hussein said something beautiful that stuck to me, he told us how when he went on one of the YM retreats he said “I wish I had the hand of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to take my hand,” ya Latif don’t we all Br. Arif, don’t we all… We need to make niyyah for change in our hearts in order to get us all closer to Allah.

Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui: He told us that you are a heart from the beginning and meant to be a heart at the end. We get exposed to others and those hearts that are not pure and then we start to change. Some advice he gave us were:

1. Istighfaar: purifying our hearts spiritually.
2. Prevention [Hinya?] especially our eyes! He told us to lower our gaze, guard your ears and don’t pay attention too much to things that wont benefit you in a positive way. He told us to keep our tongues away from being ‘stained,’ ex: lying, cheating, gossip etc… don’t talk too much. He told us that frequent use of the tongue and frequent laughter makes the heart hard.
3. The Right Type of Companionship: Be mindful and be aware with whom you spend time with. If you’re with non-pure hearts, you will start to lose. Instead of hanging out with T.V., i-pods etc… do dhikr, Salah etc… Then you will know what you’ve been missing out on.
4. Taqwiyyah- Growth: Strengthening the heart. Salah, fast extras, prevent attachment to food, etc… Cleanse your heats!

Take care inshaAllah.

-radf

Allahumma sali ala sayyidina muhammadin an-Nabbiyil ummiyi Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim.