I am currenltly extremely fortunate to be enrolled in the HADJ course presented by Shaykh Ebrahiem Abrahams ,of Cape Town.
In the past going to any islamic institution to further my knowledge meant sitting for two hours while an Imaam talked . Notes would be handed out and these would be filed away ....forgotten until the file had to be taken out when time arrived for class again.
In this current class we have a interactive ,ongoing relationship with our teacher ....he demands thinking and answers to all his questions !!! Whether the answers given are right or wrong .....that is of no importance .His sole purpose is to activate our minds ......
We also have excursions ......
Let me elaborate .....Our first excursion we were not told where we were going and found ourselves blindfolded standing in a qabrstan ....The Shaykh explained that our family and friends had brought us to be buried , they had perform their duty and were now walking away from our graves .We were alone surrounded only by darkness. When they were forty steps away the angels would come to question us .....Who is your Rabb ?
Would u be able to answer this question ?????(the imaams voice roared).
Each of us, scholars was standing on our own, we could neither touch nor hear one another , blindfolded .....and u could imagine the thoughts running through our minds and emotions through our hearts.
The imaam then continued to explain what would happen and with each explanation ,every detail you realize how many things in life u need to change , how you may be focussing on things which are not really important to you ,how u wasting time , u think about the relationships u have with your family and friends ......all your faults comes to mind etc and u realize that u are not ready to meet ur MAKER.
The greatest realization is to realize how much we need ALLAH.
The imaam then asked us to reaffirm and pledge our allegiance to ALLAH .
He placed a stone in our hand and each student had to make a commitment to change at least one thing in their life .....This commitment had to be made verbally .....and boy were their tears rolling now !!!
Thereafter we all called on ALLAH to helps us ,guide us ,save us ,have mercy on us .....
Becos without ALLAH we are lost .
We were then allowed to remove our blindfolds and all the woman sisters immediately embraced one another .The men too embraced .
To me this experience ......brought into perspective my life on earth .It is so easy to lose our way ....to be distracted ....by life itself that we tend to and may ALLAH forgive me for this ....PUT ISLAM ON A BACKSEAT .....EVERYTHING IS PUT OFF FOR LATER .....WE MAY NOT HAVE LATER .....( couldn't the imaam just have asked us a question ....YES ..he could have but there is nothing that teaches you like experience )
May ALLAH guide us all on the right path ....Insha-Allah
Shukran for reading ( I was not sure it would interest others but this class has allowed me to grow in so many different ways ,I HAD to mention it somewhere )....and for ur comments .I cannot agree more ...it is quite an interesting way to bring a point across ....shaking us at our roots ...our heart .
Shukran that was excellent, i couldnt angry less with the method. They say experience teaches the donkey. I think such method of teaching is what is lacking today in our lives contributing to the reason why we take religous matters lightly.
Allahu Akbar.
Mashallah thatw as soo good i think i would have fainted if i was in your place...my heart is too weak and i am very emotional...Mashallah what a gr8 teacher he is.
Mashallah! What an interactive class. I would be petrified if I went through the same thing. I'd probably try to grab on to a friends arm or something...
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