The Quran

I recently studied 'Balagha' with my teacher... the easiest way to explain it is that Balagha gives you a picture in your mind and as my teacher said when you can see that picture in your head 'it is a beautiful thing.'

In my first Balagha lesson we discussed something that I had heard many times before but had never really thought about it properly...'Al Quran Noorun- The Quran is light.' We hear things like this often but unfortunately we never really think about them. My teacher began by asking me questions which seemed really simple....How would you feel if you were walking along a path in complete darkness? What would be the one thing that you would want to see? Of course the answers to these questions is 'light', he then asked, how would you feel when you saw this light...would you want to leave it or would you follow it and use it as a guide as you walked along your path? We then went back to 'Al Quran noorun'....the Quran is the light that will guide us on our path of darkness - our life. Unfortunately most of us repeat sentences like this often but do not really think about them.

Since I have been here I have noticed the relationship that many people have with the Quran, I have seen people reciting Quran in the strangest of places and situations. Yesterday as I was walking home I saw a man on the street selling umbrellas, he had three umbrellas opened and all were strategically placed on him...in his hands he had a copy of the Quran and was reciting while he waited for people to come and buy his umbrellas. Another example is my calligraphy teacher, whenever we have a break in the lesson or if he is waiting for us to finish some work he has set us he will sit quietly and read Quran. Here people seem to have access to their Qurans...they are not placed on a high shelf somewhere gathering dust only to be opened when someone passes away or once a year in Ramadhan. People also keep a small copy of the Quran with them at all times and take it out whenever they find a minute to recite or revise something.

My flatmates and I went out on Friday, we were near Al-Azhar and took a subway to get to the other side of the street...as we entered the subway we heard beautiful recitation...we soon found the owners of these beautiful voices...they were two poor men sitting in the subway reciting Quran out loudly (a nice reminder for people as they rushed about their busy lives). It made me think...unfortunately many of us have neglected learning 'tajweed' - the art of reciting the Quran as it should be recited - I thought to myself if these men were in England they would almost be a rarity and yet there they were sitting in a subway in Cairo.

May we all be able to develop and nurture our relationship with the Quran.

The stick of Musa in our hands

The other day I was sitting in my class talking to my teacher about the Quran, he explained the miracle of the Quran in a beautiful way. We know that all Prophets had miracles…Allah gave miracles to the Prophets which related to the time they were living in. Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) was giving the miracle of being able to cure people, by the grace of Allah, this was because at his time medicine was a big thing. At the time of Musa (peace be upon him) magic was huge so Allah gave Musa (as) his stick. At the time of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) poetry was highly regarded so Allah sent the miracle of the Quran, no one was able to compose anything like it.

We always seem to be amazed when we hear about the miracles of the Prophets, maybe we sometimes forget that the Quran is exactly like one of those miracles AND we still have it with us today. My teacher said something to me which I loved and wanted to share with you, ‘Next time you hold your Quran, imagine that you have the stick of Musa in your hands!’

“Everything in the heavens and earth worships Allah…”

I was discussing this ayah with my tajweed teacher recently, I am sure that we have all read ayaat like this a number of times but have we ever actually really thought about them? I know I hadn’t until we discussed it.

EVERYTHING in the heavens and earth worships Allah…subhanallah. My teacher (an absolutely amazing person, I feel blessed to have met her) was talking about how Muslims sometimes feel like they are in the minority, probably more so in the West. She went on to talk about this ayah…if we truly understand it, should we ever feel like we are in the minority? We are worshipping Allah as is everything else around us, the trees, the stones, the earth we walk on, the sky above us…she said that it is the people who are not worshipping Allah who are in the minority!

I was recently lucky enough to visit Dahab (in the Sinai Peninsula), it really is a beautiful place…a small, relatively quiet town near the Red Sea, the scenery is stunning…a perfect place to recite Quran and contemplate on Allah’s creation. One morning I was sitting in a restaurant, no one else was about, overlooking the sea and reciting Quran when a cat came and joined me…it was almost as if it had come to hear me recite Quran! (Do you remember the nasheed 'Animals love to hear Quran?')

Later that day I found a nice rock to sit on and read the ayah quoted above, I sort of contemplated over it a bit and looked at the things around me…after that I saw the most wonderful things. It was almost as if Allah was showing me things in His creation worshipping Him in their own unique ways.

I saw some amazing things (luckily I had my camera handy!) The most beautiful thing I saw was when the sun was setting…as my friend and I looked out at the sea, we saw what we thought was a wave, it was in fact a shoal of fish! The fish were moving together in unison and jumping out of the water also in unison…this spectacular show/worshipping of Allah went on for ages…I think it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Going back to my tajweed teacher…when discussing this ayah, she told me that the Sahaba said to the Tabi’een, ‘you have neglected an ibada that the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to do. Roughly translated this ibada is the ibada of contemplation/thoughts, when you reflect on things you see. She told me that when the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to see something, he would say '...You did not create this in vain, glory be to you, save us from the punishment of the fire.’

Everything that is in the heavens and earth worships Allah…this is the first ayah of Surah at-Taghabun...it is like a reminder to us: Everything is worshippping Allah...what are we doing?

“Every soul shall taste death”

Last week I had a dream in which I heard a particular verse of the Quran being repeated again and again. In my dream I was with a friend and she had heard a verse from the Quran, she liked the way it had sounded as it had been recited so beautifully, she kept repeating it again and again. The verse was, “Every soul shall taste death.” In my dream I remember thinking I know that she doesn’t understand what the verse means, shall I tell her? I do not think I told her the meaning in the dream but I have since informed her. Death is something we do not like to think about and to remind others about but it is incumbent upon us to do so.

A few days before this I was in Khan-al-Khallili (a market) with some friends, we were buying scarves and were at the stall for a while as we were determined to get a good price. After we had finished bargaining the man at the stall reached into his pocket and gave me a tape which he said I could keep, the title of the tape was, ‘The grave speaks’. On the way home from Khan-al-Khallili I saw a dog get run over and two days ago I was in a taxi by myself and I saw a car with policemen around it, there was something on the ground which had been covered up with bags and newspapers. As my taxi drove past I turned around and saw some feet sticking out from under the newspaper. Subhanallah...all these reminders of death took place within a few days of each other. Let us remind ourselves and each other that Death is something which we will all taste.

A man, a donkey and some broken pots

Yesterday as I was on my way home from Al Diwan (where I study) I heard a loud smashing sound. I turned around and saw a donkey and an upturned cart, on the ground were a number of smashed ceramic pots. The donkey had its leg lifted up, I think maybe the cart had fallen on it. I waited for a while as I did not see anybody, eventually I saw a man get up from behind the cart. I decided to continue on my way...after all someone would stop to help him. After a while I turned around and the man was by himself lifting the broken pots off the ground. I felt awful and decided to go and help him, we started lifting the pieces off the ground and putting them back on the cart. I felt really bad for the man, he was obviously quite poor and now all his pots, which I assume he was going to sell, were broken.

After a while a man who was driving past stopped his car and called the man over to him and gave him some money. Soon after this we heard a voice calling out from a block of flats, a man was standing on his balcony and calling the man over to him. He went to the building and I assume that the man in the building gave him some money.

I can only guess what the man was thinking when his cart collapsed but Subhanallah, look at how Allah provided for this man, I saw three people give the man money.

A particular verse of the Quran comes to mind:

“And He will provide him from sources he could never imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Indeed Allah has set a measure for all things.” (Surah At-Talaq Verse 3)

Contemplations

Why did I decide to start this blog? My flat mates keep talking about their blogs and they kept telling me what a good idea it would be for me to start one. I resisted for a long time, the only reason being that I do not have time! I get so much homework and for those of you who know me well, you know that when I do something I like to do it properly (no cutting corners etc) which is probably why it takes me so long to get my homework done!

Anyway yesterday as I was coming home from my lesson I saw a man and a donkey (more on that later). I came home and told my flat mate, Cow, and she convinced me that it would be a good idea to share these sorts of things with other people. I do not intend this blog to be a diary about my time here in Egypt but more about things that happen that remind me of Allah and the beauty of His wonderful religion Islam. A few things have happened in the past, I have also been given beautiful reminders from my teachers and I have often thought how nice it would be to share them with people at home but I never get round to writing an email, Inshallah, this blog will be a way of sharing these things with everyone. Since I have been in Egypt I feel I have started seeing things in different ways, I honestly believe that there are signs from Allah all around us but most of the time we are just too busy to notice them. My tajweed teacher believes that nothing is a coincidence...everything happens for a reason to remind us of something.