The Beginning of Guidance (Feb to Jul 2012)
22 Feb 2012
This book was written by Imam Al-Ghazali to address a male student's concern during that time. The student was asking him how he can scheduled his life more efficiently.
Kak Muna started to summarise the biography of Imam Al-Ghazali.
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) was an Islamic theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist and mystic of who remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Islamic thought. After the death of their father, he and his brother were raised by a family friend who educate them with the sacred knowledge.
Imam Al-Ghazali then became a highly intellectual and high level scholar. Subsequently he was appointed as the Dean of a popular university that time. He would give lectures to a big group of students and his participation in Islamic debates and discussion made him popular. However he had a spiritual crisis when he just could not speak in front of his students. He became speechless. He abandoned his career and went for a spiritual retreat far away from his homeland. After several years of retreat, he returned and wrote many books including this book. This book contains a system of practices called Al-Ghazali's theory of Islamic Guidance; in the light of the Quran and tradition, jurisprudence, sufism and his own thoughts and experiences.
He is also the author of the famed ihya' `ulum al-din (Revival of Religious Sciences) a book that combined mysticism with practical everyday life actions by emphasizing the underlying psychology of daily life practices and its ramification on life in this world and the hereafter.
We will be watching a documentary on Imam Al-Ghazali next session to further our understanding about Imam Al=Ghazali's life.
Beside knowing more about the author of this book, we also discussed on the following pointers:
29 Feb 2012:
We watched the documentary title "Imam Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness". Thereafter we had homberk! We had to reflect on the documentary and relate them to our life and reflect on our position of seeking knowledge now. Other pointers that we discussed:
Homberk: Here is my reflection of the documentary and relating them into my life:
"When I was younger, I could only relate Islam to the 5 daily prayers. My mother would kept on reminding me to pray 5 times a day. As my relationship with my mother is not close, I did not talk to her much and just follow her commandment unwillingly. I prayed for her sake and to stop her from nagging of course.
I learnt more about the rules (halal, haram etc) to adhere to during part-time Madrasah and learnt to recite Quran once a week at a neighbour’s house. Still I did not reflect and follow everything blindly.
I grew up according to the blueprint of the majority in my community- study hard, get a job, get married, have children etc. After a so-called complete family; a dutiful husband, a lovely pair of son and daughter, sadly I felt dissatisfied with my life. There was emptiness in my life.
As mentioned in the film, the tragic aspect of human is that if we remove God from us, we have to find a substitute to replace the hole. How much substitute I used to replace that hollow part of me, I still could not be satisfied, as the substitutes did not match perfectly. Naturally the need to know God is implanted in us the day we were born into the Earth. It is the matter of time that we realize it.
All praise to Allah that I realized it at the moment of my life when I was facing with a family problem. At first, I could not accept the problem and wanted to run away from it. But deeply I know I could not due to marriage, children etc.
With Allah’s blessing, I had a sudden urge to know more about Islam and the Allah who I am supplicating to after the prayers. I began my journey of learning Islam through the interpretation and understanding of verses of the Quran. I began to reflect on my life and became more thankful to Allah. Then came the experience of realizing the existence of Allah in my life and the beauty of Islam.
During the first few weeks, I was so eager to share the experience with my loved ones. But it was hard to express them in words and most of the time, they could not understand what I wanted to convey and made me frustrated. Beside that, as the months passed by, the struggles intensify to remain in the right path as I learnt more sacred knowledge. This means that I have to focus on myself only during the entire lifetime on this planet.
Indeed we have to experience the journey to know God ourselves. That is the knowledge and guidance blessed by Allah to each individual in their own journey. As mentioned in the film, the certainty of knowledge is the taste of life.
I’ve learnt what actually my life need in this infinite journey. Not just the need of a family, a career etc but also a need to be aware of Allah and His attributes. In order to understand his attributes, I have to experience what is it like to be merciful, compassionate etc. I have to start with me first. The side effect is that there is a ripple effect. Without putting much effort to reconstruct my loved ones to be aware of Allah, the positive vibes do spread to them unexpectedly. All thanks and praises to Allah."
7 Mar 2012
We read paragraph 2 of page 19 until para 4 of page 20. Some pointers:
We ended the session by watching about 30 mins of a lecture by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf - "The Critical Importance of Al-Ghazali in Our Times". This lecture further elaborates about Imam Al-Ghazali.
14 Mar 2012 - Absence
21 Mar 2012
We started off with Q&A. One of the sisters was asking how should we react when things did not go as planned. Kak Muna shared the stages of Allah's answer to our supplications:
Kak Muna decided to go through Part Three: Association with God and Man. We read page 97 only. God is always withs us. We have to enjoy secret converse with God each day & night.
28 Mar 2012
We went through the rules of companionship with God on the top part of page 98. We were advised to at least do one of the rules daily.
Other pointers that we discussed:
4 Apr 2012
Kak Muna shared with us her answer to a sister who was depressed for not able to conceive a child. What we actually want is the feeling of happiness of having the child, husband, studies etc. These items are just our tools to gain happiness. Look beyond the surface. Do we really need these items to be happy? Why are some people still unhappy although they have children, husband, educational certs?
Society made us believe that at the age of 25, we must get married. Or else, we will be call "anak dara tua". Society made us believe that after married, we must have children. So on and on.
She also shared with us the 4 questions that she would ask herself;
So we have a choice to let go of the thoughts or continue to suffer with that thoughts.
We then continued to read the book on page 98; Association with students. There are 17 rules altogether for a teachers to adhere when associating with their students.
Other pointers that we discussed:
11 Apr 2012Homeberk: Read Surah Khaf (18:71)
Website: http://harunyahya.com/en/books/1630/Signs_Of_The_End_Times_In_Surat_Al_Kahf/chapter/12523
This book was written by Imam Al-Ghazali to address a male student's concern during that time. The student was asking him how he can scheduled his life more efficiently.
Kak Muna started to summarise the biography of Imam Al-Ghazali.
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) was an Islamic theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist and mystic of who remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Islamic thought. After the death of their father, he and his brother were raised by a family friend who educate them with the sacred knowledge.
Imam Al-Ghazali then became a highly intellectual and high level scholar. Subsequently he was appointed as the Dean of a popular university that time. He would give lectures to a big group of students and his participation in Islamic debates and discussion made him popular. However he had a spiritual crisis when he just could not speak in front of his students. He became speechless. He abandoned his career and went for a spiritual retreat far away from his homeland. After several years of retreat, he returned and wrote many books including this book. This book contains a system of practices called Al-Ghazali's theory of Islamic Guidance; in the light of the Quran and tradition, jurisprudence, sufism and his own thoughts and experiences.
He is also the author of the famed ihya' `ulum al-din (Revival of Religious Sciences) a book that combined mysticism with practical everyday life actions by emphasizing the underlying psychology of daily life practices and its ramification on life in this world and the hereafter.
We will be watching a documentary on Imam Al-Ghazali next session to further our understanding about Imam Al=Ghazali's life.
Beside knowing more about the author of this book, we also discussed on the following pointers:
- Islam is more than what we understand.
- Do not just ask our teachers about halal & haram. Ask them these questions:
- How do I live my life?
- How do I love human beings?
- How do I become a good human being?
- How do I connect my soul with God?
- Thick ego will not let us relate to God. So crush those ego!
- We should not just focus on the ritual aspects of Islam, sholat etc. Look beyond and at the spiritual aspects.
- Observe our daily emotions to get to know ourselves more. Thereafter it eases the path to know God.
29 Feb 2012:
We watched the documentary title "Imam Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness". Thereafter we had homberk! We had to reflect on the documentary and relate them to our life and reflect on our position of seeking knowledge now. Other pointers that we discussed:
- Imam Al-Ghazali told his family and friends moment before he passed away, "The corpse that you see is not me as I am a spirit."
Homberk: Here is my reflection of the documentary and relating them into my life:
"When I was younger, I could only relate Islam to the 5 daily prayers. My mother would kept on reminding me to pray 5 times a day. As my relationship with my mother is not close, I did not talk to her much and just follow her commandment unwillingly. I prayed for her sake and to stop her from nagging of course.
I learnt more about the rules (halal, haram etc) to adhere to during part-time Madrasah and learnt to recite Quran once a week at a neighbour’s house. Still I did not reflect and follow everything blindly.
I grew up according to the blueprint of the majority in my community- study hard, get a job, get married, have children etc. After a so-called complete family; a dutiful husband, a lovely pair of son and daughter, sadly I felt dissatisfied with my life. There was emptiness in my life.
As mentioned in the film, the tragic aspect of human is that if we remove God from us, we have to find a substitute to replace the hole. How much substitute I used to replace that hollow part of me, I still could not be satisfied, as the substitutes did not match perfectly. Naturally the need to know God is implanted in us the day we were born into the Earth. It is the matter of time that we realize it.
All praise to Allah that I realized it at the moment of my life when I was facing with a family problem. At first, I could not accept the problem and wanted to run away from it. But deeply I know I could not due to marriage, children etc.
With Allah’s blessing, I had a sudden urge to know more about Islam and the Allah who I am supplicating to after the prayers. I began my journey of learning Islam through the interpretation and understanding of verses of the Quran. I began to reflect on my life and became more thankful to Allah. Then came the experience of realizing the existence of Allah in my life and the beauty of Islam.
During the first few weeks, I was so eager to share the experience with my loved ones. But it was hard to express them in words and most of the time, they could not understand what I wanted to convey and made me frustrated. Beside that, as the months passed by, the struggles intensify to remain in the right path as I learnt more sacred knowledge. This means that I have to focus on myself only during the entire lifetime on this planet.
Indeed we have to experience the journey to know God ourselves. That is the knowledge and guidance blessed by Allah to each individual in their own journey. As mentioned in the film, the certainty of knowledge is the taste of life.
I’ve learnt what actually my life need in this infinite journey. Not just the need of a family, a career etc but also a need to be aware of Allah and His attributes. In order to understand his attributes, I have to experience what is it like to be merciful, compassionate etc. I have to start with me first. The side effect is that there is a ripple effect. Without putting much effort to reconstruct my loved ones to be aware of Allah, the positive vibes do spread to them unexpectedly. All thanks and praises to Allah."
7 Mar 2012
We read paragraph 2 of page 19 until para 4 of page 20. Some pointers:
- Imam Al-Ghazali suggested that we write our own books after extensive reading.
- Prophet Muhammad urge men to transform their knowledge into action.
- Beside focusing on the benefits of seeking sacred knowledge, we have to remember our Prophet's sayings on the four points (top part of page 20).
We ended the session by watching about 30 mins of a lecture by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf - "The Critical Importance of Al-Ghazali in Our Times". This lecture further elaborates about Imam Al-Ghazali.
14 Mar 2012 - Absence
21 Mar 2012
We started off with Q&A. One of the sisters was asking how should we react when things did not go as planned. Kak Muna shared the stages of Allah's answer to our supplications:
- Get the thing in a different form or shape.
- Get something better.
- Allah use the supplication to protect us from worldly disaster.
- All unanswered supplications will be substitute into rewards in Paradise.
Kak Muna decided to go through Part Three: Association with God and Man. We read page 97 only. God is always withs us. We have to enjoy secret converse with God each day & night.
28 Mar 2012
We went through the rules of companionship with God on the top part of page 98. We were advised to at least do one of the rules daily.
Other pointers that we discussed:
- We should not focus on the problem but instead focus on the blessings behind the problem. What is good for one person may not be good to another person. Our definitions of bad and good differ from Allah's definitions.
- Whatever we want in this life, make it as a tool to make me be aware of God.
- My name is just a label on me. What if I am not Mastura? Who am I?
- Be the minority that will find God and not just the rules & ritual aspects of Islam. Experience God, not defining God.
- We also ended the session with a 5-min silence and train our mind to push out unnecessary thoughts.
4 Apr 2012
Kak Muna shared with us her answer to a sister who was depressed for not able to conceive a child. What we actually want is the feeling of happiness of having the child, husband, studies etc. These items are just our tools to gain happiness. Look beyond the surface. Do we really need these items to be happy? Why are some people still unhappy although they have children, husband, educational certs?
Society made us believe that at the age of 25, we must get married. Or else, we will be call "anak dara tua". Society made us believe that after married, we must have children. So on and on.
She also shared with us the 4 questions that she would ask herself;
- Is the thought true?
- Can I know for sure if it is true?
- What happen to me if I believe in that thought?
- Who am I or who would I become without that thought?
So we have a choice to let go of the thoughts or continue to suffer with that thoughts.
We then continued to read the book on page 98; Association with students. There are 17 rules altogether for a teachers to adhere when associating with their students.
Other pointers that we discussed:
- To be in the highway to Paradise, we have to bring happiness to another person.
- Prophet Muhammad loves to joke but there was no lies in his jokes.
11 Apr 2012Homeberk: Read Surah Khaf (18:71)
Website: http://harunyahya.com/en/books/1630/Signs_Of_The_End_Times_In_Surat_Al_Kahf/chapter/12523