I Q R A M a g a z i n e
Living the Quran Imam Zaid Shakir
Carpe Diem
Tips on seizing the day
2010 Round-Up A visual odyssey
Philanthropy MUIS helping people
A Monash University Islamic Society Publication
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
CONTENTS In this issue:
I Q R A M a g a z i n e
4 5
Living the Quran Imam Zaid Shakir
Carpe Diem
Tips on seizing the day
2010 Round-Up A visual odyssey
Philanthropy MUIS helping people
A Monash University Islamic Society Publication
6 9 10
Presidents Message Mohamud Hersi
2010 Round-Up Hafsa Zarook
Living the Qur’an Imam Zaid Shakir
I Wonder. But You Know. Dalya Ayoub
Philanthropy Tazkera Sadeq
New Committee President
Mohamud Hersi
Treasurer
Vice-President
Fadli Faray
Nazra Hameed
Secretary Tazkera Sadeq
Events
Da’wa
Musalla
Kamal Abdallah
Tasnim Sammak
Azam Muhammad
Chantelle Radwan
Kasim Latifi
Salwa
Publications
Zara Wajahat
Hamza El Jerbi
Hafsa Zarook
Jibriil Ibrahim
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Message from the President A
Assalaamu Alaikum and Hello!
s the President of the Islamic Society this year, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone back to another year of learning and growing. I hope that this will be a year of dedication to our individual educational goals and to spiritual growth. A brand new year marks a new committee for our Islamic Society. Over the coming year, you should make yourselves familiar with this committee made up of some old hands who have contributed for years, and new contributors who will bring a fresh perspective and new energy to our society. Nonetheless, our committee is only as strong as the community that we represent and serve. For Islamic Society to have a fruitful year, we need the active participation of our fellow Muslim students on campus. Under the leadership of Jibriil Ibrahim in 2010, the Islamic Society has had its most fruitful year in recent memory. We’ve held the regular events we always hold on campus; the BBQs, the Ramadan Iftars, halaqas, etc. We introduced the Game Night as a new item on the Islamic Society’s social calendar. Most importantly, the Islamic Society raised in excess of four thousand dollars for charitable efforts around the year, including the Pakistan Flood Relief, Breast Cancer Initiatives, Sunnah Inspirations and the Green Scarf Day appeal. In 2011, we are aiming to better our performance in all the areas we are active. We aim to better our charitable giving as an organisation, inshAllah. We want to host more sports and game tournaments for our members, to help everyone socialise and nurture our student community. We aim to introduce more educational activities for students on campus, whether it’s lectures by prominent Islamic personalities or halaqas on campus. We will introduce a mentoring programme to help our first year students navigate the University experience confidently and successfully, inshAllah. All these wonderful initiatives will go nowhere without the support of you, our brother and sister members of the Islamic Society. We hope and pray we organise these events well. The rest is up to you! I pray that you, our members, have a fruitful year of learning and self-growth this year and many more such years to come.
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2010
Round-Up
In descending right-left order: (1) Pink Hijab Bake Sale, (2) Islamic Awareness Week BBQ, (3) Pakistan Flood Relief Bake Sale, (4) One of our four Ramadan Iftars, (5) One World Week festivities and lastly, (6) our current Treasurer on the day of his election! =P
We think 2010 was a pretty good year for the Islamic Society. Don’t you?
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Part I
Imam Zaid Shakir
D
uring Ramadan we celebrate the Qur’an. This is fitting owing to the close association between the month of fasting and the Qur’an. Allah mentions in the Qur’an, The month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was revealed (Q. 2: 185). Perhaps this association is connected to the fact that during the month we recite the sacred scripture as often as we can. Reciting the Qur’an is a highly rewarded act of worship. The Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, mentioned in this regard, ‘Whoever recites a single letter from the Qur’an will have a reward, and that reward will be multiplied tenfold. Do not say that “Alif-Lam-Mim” is a single letter. Rather, “Alif ” is a distinct letter, “Lam” is a distinct letter, and “Mim” is a distinct letter’. [1] One cannot begin to imagine the reward of a believer who recites the entire Qur’an in its entirety once, twice or thrice during the month of Ramadan. The scholars of the early generations used to drop their other intellectual pursuits during Ramadan and devote themselves exclusively to the Qur’an. It is related that ‘Umar would order Ubayy bin Ka’b and Tamim al-Dari to lead the people in prayer during Ramadan. They would recite two hundred verses in a single unit of pray (rakat), until some of the congregation would lean on canes owing to the length of the recitation. They would not disperse until just before Fajr. [2] Some of the earlier generations of Muslims would complete the Qur’an every third night in Ramadan, others in seven, yet others in ten. [3] Ibn Rajab further relates: The early Muslims would recite the Qur’an during prayer and at other times during Ramadan. Al-Aswad used to complete the Qur’an every other night during Ramadan. Al-Nakha’i would read at that rate during
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the last ten days specifically. During the balance of the month he would complete it every third night. Qatada would complete the Qur’an every seven days throughout the year, but during Ramadan every third night. During the last ten days of the month he would complete it every night. During Ramadan Imam Shafi’i would complete the Qur’an sixty times, all of them outside of prayer. Abu Hanifa would read at a similar pace. […] Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam relates that when Ramadan began Imam Malik would turn away from teaching Hadith, scholarly circles and devote himself to reciting the Qur’an from the Mushaf. ‘Abd al-Razzaq mentioned that Sufyan al-Thawri would leave off all other [non-obligatory] devotional acts during Ramadan and concentrate on reciting the Qur’an. ‘Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, would recite the Qur’an during the latter part of the night during Ramadan and not sleep until after the rising of the sun. When Ramadan started Zubayd alYami would bring out the Qur’ans and gather his associates together to recite them. [4] He adds: Rather, the prohibition against completing the Qur’an in less than three days is against doing that constantly. As for exceptionally virtuous times such as the Month of Ramadan, especially the days during which the Night of Decrees (Layla al-Qadr) is sought out; or in especially virtuous places, such as Mecca, for those who are not permanent residents there, it is highly desirable to increase the rate of recitation
www.zaidshakir.com
Living the Quran
to take advantage of the [blessed nature] of the time and place. [5] We relate these passages to give the reader a sense of the devotion those early generations had to the Qur’an –and those who have followed their example throughout the long generations during which the saga of Islam has unfolded on the earth. They not only recited the Qur’an, they also studied it, served it, acted on its commandments and prohibitions and lived lives informed by the worldview that it presented. Part of their service to the Qur’an was their preservation of the Arabic language through the development of the various linguistic sciences of grammar, morphology, syntax, rhetoric, phonology, etymology, semantics and monumental works of lexicography. The work of the early Muslims in these areas stands as one of the greatest intellectual enterprises in human history. Hence, the Qur’an was a source of their strength and they were elevated thereby. The Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, stated, “Allah elevates by means of this Book (The Qur’an) nations and He debases others.” [6] They were not elevated by the Qur’an in terms of worldly power and influence only. They were a spiritually enlightened community qualified by exalted manners and noble characteristics. The Qur’an can be the source of our elevation. I have seen a glimpse of that myself. During my first stint as Imam of Masjid al-Islam in New Haven, Connecticut from 1987-1994, the community was committed to the Qur’an. During Ramadan we would do two Khatms of the Qur’an as a community, one during the Tarwih prayers and one during the late night Qiyam during the last ten nights of the month. Families would bring their infant children to sleep in a room adjoining the Musalla during the Qiyam. We would complete the Qur’an in a Halaqa after Fajr on a regular basis. Young men, some of whom were struggling in ‘school,’ would
join the circle and learn to recite the Qur’an in Arabic in two or three weeks. We would seek out the meanings and endeavor to understand and implement the commandments presented by the Book. As a result, the community was strong and cohesive. There is no denying that we had the same social ills present in other inner-city communities, but compared to others places they were minimal. As we survey the current Muslim landscape we see in many places a gloomy picture. Divorces and other indices of social dysfunction are skyrocketing. Many individuals are struggling with faith crises. If we look at the connection to the Qur’an, both at a communal and an individual level, we see a highly undesirable situation. The Qur’an has largely been abandoned. Allah mentions in the Qur’an, The Messenger (Muhammad) said, ‘O My Lord! My people have treated this Qur’an as [something low,] easily forsaken.’ (Q. 25:30) This revelation immediately refers to the Quraysh, the Prophet’s, peace upon him, tribe, and their contemptible rejection of the Qur’an. However, at another level, we are also his people and parts of his complaint to Allah are relevant for us. Unlike the Quraysh, we believe in the Qur’an. However, like them we can fail to listen to it or recite it, we can fail to act on its message and meanings, and we can forsake it until it has no influence on our daily lives. These are all things we should strenuously endeavor to avoid. One of the ways to avoid these things is to realize the transformative power of the Qur’an and then invite that power into our lives. ______________________________________
Part II in the next issue of IQRA. [1] Tirmidhi, 2910 [2] Zayn al-Din Abu al-Faraj ‘Abd al-Rahman bin Rajab al-Hanbali, Lata’if al-Ma’arif fima li Mawasim al-‘Am min al-Wadha’if (Damascus: Dar Ibn Kathir, 1416/1996), 316 [3] Ibid., 318 [4] Ibid., 318-319 [5] Ibid., 319 [6] Muslim, 817 © Copyright 2005 New Islamic directions. All rights reserved.
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I wonder. But you know. I wonder what you think of yourself when you have those ‘me’ moments. I wonder if you’ve settled for 20% of what your true potential is as a Muslim (where’s the 80% of you stored??) I wonder if you have any new dreams for the year ahead or will it be similar to last years? I wonder if you are one of those people who dwarf their ideas and live a ‘life on demand’; you know the one that leads you around, the life that makes you belittle yourself, the one that makes you fear failure and settle for achievements that are in your ‘comfort zone’. I wonder if you have plans of where you want to see yourself in 5 years- Insha’Allah; in terms of your Deen, personal development, education, contribution, achievements, family, etc. I wonder why you would ever complain if you don’t plan thoroughly. Allah (swt) Is Just! Each day is a blessing from Allah (swt). You wake up in the morning with a ‘white’ page in your personal book of life; no one else but you has the authority of writing on this ‘day- of your life-page’. This is a reminder dear brothers and sisters to myself and you to utilise, invest, use, and benefit from each day that you wake up to; starting from this moment; for your own interest in this world and the hereafter. I recommend those few steps as a powerful starter:
unique kind of happiness that leads to more and more success Insha’Allah. t "DDFQU BOZ DIBMMFOHFT XJUI QBUJFODF BOE MFBSO from your experiences. Remember that there is no such thing as failure; the results you’ll get are either success or feedback to achieve success! t &OKPZ UIF KPVSOFZ "MMBI TXU $SFBUFE VT because He Loves us and Gave us Islam so we live the best life! The destination is not in this life; it’s in the hereafter, in Jannat al-Firdous insha’Allah.
t #FHJO JOUFOTJWF XPSL PO ZPVS NBJO DFOUSF your heart. When was the last time you thought about your heart and the practical measures you can take to purify it? Your university will judge you on what you write in exams and give you a grade accordingly. Your Lord Allah (swt) Will Judge you on what is in your heart; and the results you�ll get are a reflection of what is stored in this centre. t 4FU B CJH JOUFOUJPO GPS FWFSZUIJOH ZPV EP ɨF prophet (pbuh) said that ‘actions are (judged) by motives (niyyat)’ (Forty Hadith). What a waste to do anything without a good, specified intention! t Take courageous action this year. Set a goal and ‘just do it’. The feeling of accomplishment will be priceless. You’ll gain remarkable self esteem, a higher sense of success, and feel a
I wonder if you will be amongst the 1% that will convert those thoughts into real action. I wonder. But you know.
Dalya Ayoub, is a wife & a mum of two children. She is the director of Life Matters; a training & Life Coaching practice based in Sydney. Dalya has a BA (Political Studies & Media, Auckland University NZ), a Graduate Certificate in Management (Victoria University), she is a qualified Life Coach (The Coaching Institute), a Professional trainer (Train the Trainers Certification), and is currently training to become an NLP practitioner (Neuro Linguistic programming). Dalya is passionate about advancing the Ummah through personal development from an Islamic perspective.
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Reporting on MUIS
Philanthropy Tazkera Sadeq - Secretary
Pink Hijab Day Bake Sale On the 19th of October 2010, sisters Yasmin Elsawi and Chantelle Radwan organised a bake sale in conjunction with the Pink Hijab Day initiative to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation Australia. They recieved overwhelming support from MUIS Sisters and the Monash Community. Sisters wore pink hijabs and donated baked things with lots of pink icing!
Muslim Patient Support In 2010, several MUIS sisters regularly visited a severely ill Muslim patient in a care house, may Allah protect her. InshAllaah, for 2011, we are looking to form regular groups of MUIS members to visit Muslim patients at the Monash Medical centre. If you would like to get involved, please send your expressions of interests to:
muis@monashclubs.org
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Prison Resource Progr am MUIS workeed closely with the Muslim Chaplain from the ICV to provide Victorian correctional facilities with Islamic resources. Through the generosity of MUIS members, we managed to raise sufficient funds to sponsor essential items like Qur’ans, prayer mats and tasbeehs.
Olive Kids Clothes Drive MUIS worked closely with the Olive Kids organisation to collect and distribute clothing to Palestinian people, both in Palestinian Refugee camps and in Gaza. Only new clothing could be sent into Gaza due to overly burdensome Israeli regulations. Second hand garments were sent to the Palestinian refugee camps located all over the Levantine countries. For more information about Olive Kids, please visit: http://olivekids.org.au