enlightening!

Subhanallah..may Allah swt reward you Sheikh for your unbiased clarification. It is hard really to find a pure-hearted 'alim like you nowadays, when the line between the true scholars and the worldly scholars has been blurred. We don't go on TV or YouTube..so all that we hear about this effort are the negatives. Then you came forth giving your truest sincere opinion, despite not being directly involved yourself. This means the world to us..

Syeikh Nuruddin al Banjari:
Penerangan Tentang Jemaah Tabligh (1)

Syeikh Nuruddin al Banjari:
Penerangan Tentang Jemaah Tabligh (2)

None can grant understanding other than Allah swt alone. To those who are stepping into this effort, don't get discouraged by those negative comments you hear around. The criticism has been going on for the longest of time, but Allah swt has kept this effort until now..and by His will millions are benefiting from it. One thing to remember for myself and others insyaAllah; This effort will not be brought down by those outside, because it is in the protection of Allah..but it is those who are inside who are the greatest threat to it. So lets try our best not to be a fitna to this precious effort. To me personally, this effort is a GIFT in this edge of fahsya' and munkar.

Inspired by: GERBANG UTAMA

p/s: Allah swt adalah Pemelihara kepada yang HAK..KEBATILAN tidak akan kekal di muka bumi. Semoga Allah merahmati sesiapa sahaja yang berusaha untuk menegakkan agama-Nya di medan dakwah dgn apa-apa cara pun..wallahua'lam. =)

caught red-handed

Well..I mentioned before that we were going to Lackawanna, but we actually ended up going to Syracuse. There was a sudden change of plan, since some brother in Syracuse was already expecting our coming. He even took a day off work to spend time with us, so we thought it would be inappropriate to turn him down. Khair insyaAllah (as Br. Kamran always says). We left after 'Asr on the 2-hour journey. On our way, we stopped by an R&R and prayed Maghrib at the parking lot there. This is a usual thing in jama'ah since we don't have masjid or surau every 500 meters here like we have back home. We even pray in the snow if we have to. Below are some of the moments captured with my new iPhone phone.

the current look of Syracuse Masjid

The next morning, the other rooms were all occupied for the day's event, so our ta'alim had to be done in a conference room, in the round-table style. We thought our ta'alim was upgraded since we were sitting on the chairs now instead of the floor. But then 'amir sab told us that it has actually been downgraded since it is not similar to the way prophet Muhammad saw did it. But never mind, khair insyaAllah..=)

Sunday school's graduation & prize giving ceremony

This was the event, held to celebrate the kids graduating from the Sunday school here. 'Amir sab decided to stop our ta'alim midway through and join the gathering, upon request from the local brothers. At the end of the event, the kids were all delighted to get their prizes from the teachers. The prizes given were different achievement-wise; the better students got the bigger prizes. One of them was lucky enough to get a remote control car as the grand prize winner (jeles2). Later after the event, we had food with the kids. When I was talking with the kids, I was quite surprised by how bright and sharp-minded they were. If I hadn't been careful enough I would have been made fun of by them..huhu. I've always loved being with kids. This reminds me of my 6-year-old little brother back home. I'm always amused by how he hates talking to me on the phone, just because he cannot see me. I never get to talk much to him before he passes the phone to my mom. How dare he hang up on me, I'll teach him a lesson when I get home.

For jaulah, a local brother took us to several corner stores, where we met some Yamanese and Somali brothers. We also stopped by a Bosnian neighborhood on the way back to the masjid. Some of the kids from above ended up spending the night with our jama'ah. Imam was a little worried about this but then we assured him that everything was gonna be fine..and it really did turn out fine.

kids enjoying late-night supper, aka early breakfast

They had been really helpful in finishing all the food. This is the lower floor of the masjid, which functions as an "indoor court" for the kids. They wouldn't be sitting still down here.

cai (teh), a must-have when Pakistani brothers are around

a muslim cemetery across the street from the masjid

An awkward incident happened to me. I was on khidmah (serving) with 'amir sab. Unfortunately the sink in the kitchen was clogged and had been out of use. So we had to do all the washing in the washroom. One time, the men's washroom was pretty much occupied, so 'amir sab asked me to use the ladies' washroom instead. Since it was late in the afternoon and I was pretty certain no ladies would be coming, I went on with the idea. But then, when I was in the middle of washing at the sink, the door was opened and a girl came in. I was like..hm..and I hurried out right away leaving the pinggan mangkuk behind. I never even looked at her. Later when 'amir sab asked me; "Are you done with the dishes?" I replied; "There is a girl in the washroom." Looking at me, he said half-laughing; "Well, you got caught red-handed huh?" I said; "Yeah..(thanks for the idea)" Luckily he didn't say "khair insyaAllah" this time.

Leaving the masjid, we paid a quick visit to a muslim cemetery just across the street. We made du'a for the muslim brothers and sisters who had left ahead of us. May their temporary dwellings be gardens from the gardens of paradise insyaAllah. Sooner or later, we too, will be joining you brothers. We all had fun..the kids even wished that we could have stayed longer.

Related post:
Youngsters at Syracuse

it's Lackawanna again

Assalamu'alaikum!

This will be just a very short post insyaAllah since I'm leaving for Lackawanna in an hour for this month's khuruj. There is one jama'ah going out next week as well to accommodate the brothers who can't go this week. Alhamdulillah..I'm done for the quarter. Quite a long break I have ahead and as always, I know I'm gonna have a hard time figuring out what to do. The atmosphere here is getting exciting (for certain people) since many have left or are leaving for our beloved home country, Malaysia. And to my friends, Mael and Wae, whose flight is due this Sunday, may you guys have a sound journey home. Hm..it seems like I'll be coming back to their absence..I don't even get to send them fly..huhu. Nevermind, my turn will be up soon..=) By the way, I was talking about how I was gonna fill my holidays..well, I think finishing this novel would be a good start to that;

one dollar bill as a bookmark, how cool is that?

This is a novel by Dr. Laurence B. Brown, a famous Muslim revert who used to be in the US military. He's got an amazing story of discovering Islam, which I find very inspiring and moving. I like reading novels, especially those with investigative genre..I just love the thrill. During my preparation years in INTEC UiTM, I would spend some time in the library browsing novels by Agatha Cristie, a legend in the writing of investigative stories. By far I've read almost a dozen of her collections, and are looking forward to enjoying more of them. This "The Eighth Scroll" is my very first novel that I bought here in the US. I'm just a couple of pages through actually, but it's caught enough of my attention to read it all the way through. It is a piece of writing dedicated to Him swt, so it says in the book. Well you see..sometimes hearing those stories about how people finally found their ways to Islam does help you in your iman. It also makes you realize how a great thing it is to have been born as a Muslim..so, lets do our best to appreciate this treasure we have. I guess that's it for now. Insyaallah I'll write about the karkuzari from my coming khuruj. Till then..Assalam..

jalan mereka

Assalamu'alaikum...

It's week 9! I can't believe myself this distressing quarter is finally coming to an end. No more GE labs! No more staying back late past school hours. No more back pains, swollen eyes, deprived sleep hours etc...(at least for a couple months to come). Owh, I'm gonna miss coming in to GE lab now..I've spent so much time in there that I've thought of it as my second home..huhu. Never mind, like I won't get another chance to have myself tortured..kan? One more academic year to get over with..phew. I'm gonna need the strength of an elephant to ace this one. Hmm..after a stretched, long Winter, the overdue Spring is finally here! The sun finally gets the better of the cold. The weather is really tempting us here to go lepak2 outside.

my apartment's backyard view

Yesterday, we did jaulah after 'Asar with Br. Kamran, Br. Irfan, and Br. Tanwir. Now that the weather is nice and warm, we can do the real umumi jaulah by walking door to door. Otherwise, our umumi jaulah would always take form of a khususi jaulah due to the unfriendly weather. So only during this time do we get to walk from house to house meeting our Muslim brothers, which is the preferred old-fashion way. Subhanallah..what a great feeling to be walking outside in the sunshine. Besides it's been a while since I last had a nice long afternoon walk. The main difference I want to point out between the jaulah I do here and the one I do back home is that, here, we don't know which houses belong to a Muslim. The quickest way to find out is by looking at the name tags on the mailboxes. So when we come across names like "Muhammad", "Mahmood", "Abdullah", and many other Muslim-like names, we would ring the bell and wait for an answer. Oftentimes we don't get to meet many brothers, and there are times when we meet none at all. Sometimes we even knock on the wrong house; we ring a non-Muslim house instead.

Yesterday we left in two groups, to two different apartment complexes. My group went to the one across the street from Br. Kamran's. We've been here last week but couldn't cover all the houses. So yesterday we just picked up where we left off and covered all the remaining units. There were like 20 houses or so. We did meet a couple of Muslims last week from the digging. But yesterday unfortunately we didn't get to meet any more Muslims. We jotted down the numbers of the targeted houses whose residents were not home so we can get back to them later. From there we went to Br. Tanwir's neighborhood to visit an Afghani brother. The brother we intended to meet was not home, we met his brother instead. This brother we met, he is disabled..and his breathing is aided by a ventilator. He could do nothing but lay down in his bed. Br. Kamran did much of the talking..he gave some encouragement and later asked the brother to make do'a for us. After that, we went back to ICR right away to catch 'Asar. We had a short bayan after 'Asar by Mael to wrap up our jaulah. Oh ye..another thing, Br. Tanwir was appointed the 'amir for this month of May.

Alhamdulillah..we're meeting more and more new brothers since the last few months, though the progress is slow. But it doesn't matter how many brothers we meet, Allah swt is The Most Appreciative, He will not let any effort we do to please Him go to waste. It seems nothing is happening, but we never know, Allah swt may be giving hidayah in some other places in this world because of our little effort. Besides, the main target of this effort is ourselves and our own iman. By doing what Rasulullah saw and the Sahabah r.hum used to do, we would get a little idea or realization of how difficult it was for them to spread Lailahaillah Muhammadurrasulullah. This is their path to Allah's pleasure, and to reach the same destination as they did, we have no other choice but to walk down the same path. Only then will we realize how precious this Deen that we've taken for granted all this while. They had nothing, but still, Islam was spread to every corner of the world..and look at us now, we got everything..all the resources are in our favor, but we can't even get our friends to pray, to come to the masjid. Lahaulawalaquwwataillabillah. The same Islam, the same Quran, but different conviction in the heart.

P/S: Btw, here are the closest definitions I could come up with for these two terms..hope they're helpful..=)

umumi jaulah, in which we meet random Muslim brothers, usually going from house to house
khususi jaulah, in which we meet specific people, like the imam or the president of a masjid, etc