Ilm Fest Session 3

Strength in sadness

by Sh Abu Eesa Niamatullah

Sadness and grief; happen to everyone. When we cry, it is an expression of sadness that we feel. When we face trials and tribulations, we grieve. However, there’s cultural difference towards how people deal with grief. Some would be very expressive, cry a lot. Some other would be very stoic. But the moment you cry for the fear of Allah SWT, in private — that’s so blissful.

The example about solat jenazah that he gave, was beautiful and indeed it touched my heart.

Solat jenazah itself, is not like a normal prayer. It’s when you make a doa to Allah. The doa that you unconsciously already ask for guidance, in dealing with your grief.  It’s for us to be strong and then only we pray for the jenazah to be placed among the mu’minin.

Allah has taught us how to deal with the grief, and even when we visit those who pass away, we’re prohibited from crying out loud and mourning about it. Because the responsive action that we tend to do when we grieve, somehow could be unacceptable and may harm us. Thus, Allah guides us through the prayer.

It’s okay to be sad, sadness is also a feeling from Allah. But we have to remember that the way we express the grief is what brings us to Jannah.  Change your perception of life, then there won’t be anymore grief.

Ilm Fest Session 2

Positivity : A Quality of The People of Paradise

by Sh Navaid Aziz

Truth is, all we have now is nothing. Even so, the believers always have something that we look forward to; the Hereafter. Our verdict in the Hereafter determines the real journey of ours. This characteristic already makes a believer an optimist.

There’re 4 things that we need to do in order for us to be positive.

1. Getting to know Allah

The basis of our relationship with Allah: Allah is more merciful towards His slave than a mother towards her child. When you’re happy, your mother is happier than you and when you’re sad, she cries more than you do. And Allah is more loving and more merciful than that. SubhanAllah.

Next is, we need to know how forgiving Allah is.  A lot of examples in the Quran has shown how Allah forgives so many people and in one of the stories of our Prophet Muhammad is that, if someone is ever repenting, truly repenting from the bottom of his heart, Allah will forgive him, and exchange all of his bad deeds with good deeds. That’s how forgiving our Creator is.

And the next sub-point is one of my favourite. Allah is the Most Wise. He knows everything that we do not know. And have we ever heard the word Qadr, the fate that Allah has written for us since before we’re born to this world? Yes. And Islam is so wonderful, Allah has made it so wonderful as there is no absolute evil in Islam. It’s either the thing He creates brings an absolute good to every of His creations or the good will be greater than the evil.

Even the creation of Syaitan brings something beneficial to us, that is whenever we feel that syaitan is controlling our lust and influencing us to do something bad, we istighfar, that is when Allah will reward you. There’s no situation that is bad, except the good outweighs it. And if we know that we’re in the hand of Allah SWT, we’ll never be pessimistic.

2. Understand that everything that happens in life is temporary.

No sadness, no happiness will remain forever.  If you’re an individual that can be content, with the circumstances, you will be happy with what you have. Satisfaction is in the heart.  Happiness — when you’re satisfied with what you have.

Life is about peaks and valleys.  Indeed, with hardship comes ease. When you face calamity, remember that tomorrow will be a better day.We as human beings, we always remember our golden days, but we forget that our future is still there, and it can even be brighter.

3. Know that Allah is near.

Indeed Allah’s help and victory are close. Allah is controlling our affairs and only Allah is sufficient for us.  We have to recognise this relationship. That is, Allah is strong, we’re weak.  He is independent, we’re dependent. Allah is the master, we’re His slaves. Therefore, when we feel sad, go back to Allah, seek for forgiveness and talk to Him. He’s there when everyone else leaves.

4. Remember the ultimate victory.

The ultimate victory is when you step in to the door of Jannah.  Allah has prepared victory for all of us, the believers that is stated in Surah Buruj. Remember, when it comes to tribulations, it brings you to Jannah.  Greatness of paradise is so great, that makes us forget difficulties in life.  Whenever you grieve, remember the joyance of paradise that you’ve been promised.

Be patient. Cause Jannah is when you’ll see Allah and He will congratulate you for your patience.

When we feel negative, 

1. Count your blessings. Thank Allah for all of them, even the little nikmat in life that you’ve never asked for.
2. Always turn back to Quran. The more we read Quran, we will be more positive.
3. Embrace every challenge and difficulty.

Every challenge is custom made for you and it will make you stronger. Truth is, we do not know what’s good and what’s bad for us, He’s the only one who knows.

Think the best of Allah, He will never disappoint you and when you put your trust in Him, that is the highest degree of worshipping, insyaAllah.

Ilm Fest Session 1

Be Successful, Be Blissful

by Sh Waleed Basyouni

All of us want to be successful, we all want to strive for the best things in life but somehow, we’re just stuck in the middle of nowhere don’t know where to begin or we don’t know how to undo certain things in life cause they delay our progress.

So here’re the 10 tools of success.

1. Note that mistakes and failures are not the enemy of success.
1. We can either give up or get inspired by it
2. When Allah puts us in the midst of hardship, know that He wants to strengthen us. 

2.  You can be successful by using the ability to use talents that Allah gives to you. How do you utilise your talents is how you give back to Allah.

3.  Success is based on the principle  of excellency.

We’re here to thrive, not only to survive. We’re here to live. Don’t live the life if you want to pass by.

4. Victory is attained with patience. The analogy of body builder is given. Well, if you’re to have muscle, the first thing is that your instructor will tell you to stretch your muscle, you’ll feel the pain, for few days. But it’s okay because in order for it to grow, you need to stretch it first. So, to attain success and victory, pain must be felt in some way or another.

5. Success is based on you attitude in life.  “Attitude leads to latitude, how far you go in life.”

6. Success is based on action. We have to work hard to achieve something, then only Allah’s mercy will come along.

7. Be clear on you planning.

8. Have good role model in life. (Despite all the Muslim scholars, I still adore my parents and despite them, I adore Vivy Yusof still)

9. Trust yourself.

10. And remember that success is a gift from Allah SWT. With this wonderful thought, you will have humility, you’ll be humble and most importantly, you will thank Allah for everything you have in your life. You have nothing, Allah has everything. And if He gives you everything that you’ve ever desired, He still have loads to give.

InsyaAllah.

Ilm Fest 1.0

Ilmfest : The Festival of Knowledge 

Definitely A Great Experience  

16-17/5/2015

These two days, were definitely two of the greatest days in my life. 

Let me tell you what made me want to go to this festival.

Well, I’ve always wanted to join a talk or conference; Islamic conference to be specific because I feel the need to go there. My lack of knowledge in my own religion makes me feel embarrassed and humiliated sometimes. Not towards the society, but towards my Creator, Allah SWT.

When the notice was put up, 20 seats will be sponsored for this festival, I was so excited, then without thinking of anything, I signed up for it, Alhamdulillah I got a place!

I did that without even thinking of what people might think of me and I also didn’t have the heart to tell anyone.  Because for me, one of my dreams, to listen to Yasmin Mogahed live was coming true that time, so I didn’t care much.

Then when the names were put up on the board, I received so many different reactions.

“Seriously, Aliah?”

“Alhamdulillah”

etc

I told Qim about it. Was it that weird, a person like me, wanting to go for an Islamic conference?

Oh maybe yes. I also wonder, why did I want to sign up in the first place?

But then I realised, it’s Allah who knocked my heart that time.

There’s something great about our heart. It’s simply like glass. It can be really hard, or really fragile. But most importantly, it’s definitely its nature to be moulded into shapes, different kinds of shapes. It can be moulded. Same goes to our hearts. And subhanallah, alhamdulillah, I just feel that, Allah listens to my intention, or the wish that I’ve never told anyone about it. I want to attend an Islamic conference so badly, at least once before I leave KMB for good. Alhamdulillah, He grants my wish.

Oh yeah, I just notice one thing about wish. If something you wish and hope for is for the sake of Allah SWT and His deen; He will definitely make it easier for you.

It’s my great gratitude to thank Kak Elly and Brother Amar Razali for finding sponsors to give us the free tickets, may Allah bless all of you.

And I feel that it’s indeed my responsibility and obligation to share the knowledge I gained from the festival to all of you.

16 great scholars were gathered in this festivals; they’re from all over the world, having great background in Islamic studies, and they definitely have inspired me in so many ways.

When it’s an Islamic talk, people often think that it’s all about hijab, ikhtilat etc. But no, it’s something that is very basic that I think our societies, the Malay Muslims nowadays are lacking of.

That is the fundamental thing about Islam. The understanding about our own religion, the kalimah that we tend to take for granted of and when all of these basic things are not mastered and fully immersed in our hearts ; that’s when our ibadah is not complete and religion duties become a burden to us.

Thus, we shall go back to the basic thing in Islam.

Two things that I learn from this festival.

1. Never lose hope, never give up because Allah never loses hope in us.
2. Doa connects us with Allah and it helps building strong bond with our Creator.

To be honest, there’re so many things I want to share but this will take me hours to write about it. Maybe I will update it from time to time and you just have to stay tune  :P