Taken from
www.DiariesofaHafiz.com
It's a cool blog.
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Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah All!
I just came back from the public speaking event. I think, Alhamdulillah, the speech went quite well. If they have it recorded, I’ll consider posting it up here. Regardless, here’s the written. My speech was, of course, a bit modified in the course of speaking, but anyway, here’s the gist:
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Assalamu Alaykum,
My name is (real name) and I graduated from the institute last march. . I initially began this adventurous journey when I was 11 years old. For me, it was a life changing experience and a family project. Each of my family members contributed in their own way. My dad invested in me for the hereafter, my brother drove me to and from, and my mom did the biggest part of making sure every line I memorized was engraved in my heart forever.
My inspirations and motivational means came from my teachers, family, and classmates. They were the fuel for my fulfilling experience. It were those minor and insignificant moments that we shared among the classmates that gradually created our brotherhood. It was the honor of one being defended by all, and the sorrow of one being shared by all.
Part of the experience of Hifdh, however, is sacrifice. And as they say, no pain, no gain. In my case, the main sacrifice was the television. My life literally revolved around Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. But alhamdulillah, Allah guided me and I learned to find alternative interest and hobbies. In the process, I also learned to manage my time wisely because
Hifdh is very time consuming, but at the same time, the end result is very rewarding. Allah puts blessing in your time and effort thus allowing you to achieve the unimaginable. Majority of the older students in my class had graduated from High School earlier than the norm, but there was nothing magical about it. It was how they entrusted Allah with their time, by the memorization of the Holy Qur’aan.
Ultimately, however, the goal is not to simply commit the Qur’aan to memory, but to live the life of the Qur’aan and it’s teachings.
It is related in Hadith that one should “”love for your brother what you love for yourself”. So I sincerely pray that Allah grants everyone here today what He had bestowed upon me. And last, but definitely not least, I express my utmost gratitude to Allah for showering me with such an honor.
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So yeah, that was my speech. Now here’s the interesting part… So after the speech, the ones who graduated, including myself, took our awards and what-not. Soon after, it was announced that a brother had donated an Umrah Package. Those who graduated would be in the raffle, and the winner wins the Umrah Package.
At this point, I had a thousand thoughts go through my head. In my many years of life (heh, couldn’t get my age out of me), I had never won a raffle. I quickly went through a flashback of my elementary, middle school, and high school years. Not ONCE did I win a raffle. And to top it off, this was my first graduation ever. I could never attend my elementary graduation because I started the memorization of the Qur’aan only a month or two before. My middle school was blown off by a pre-planned international trip. And my high school, I took an alternate route.
Well, anyhow, after all these thoughts, I said to myself and prayed to Allah, “Ya Allah, let a special something about me, a good deed, or whatever it may be, go into this raffle.” Now, all these thoughts were going in and around my head in just those couple of minutes.
And then the winner was announced, with some suspense… The winner was………………………………………� �……………………..
…..Me. :’)
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Some people get confused and think it's me, but it's actually my friend Rashad lol.