Knowing God: Reason, Revelation, and Intuition - Yasir Qadhi

Here is a recent lecture by a shaykh I greatly respect, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi. He delivered this speech, Knowing God: Reason, Revelation, and Intuition, at the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London.

Deadliest Warrior

Who will win in a match up between a Ninja and a Spartan? Well according to the boys, on The Deadliest Warrior on Spike Tv, the Spartan will kill the Ninja in a 1v1 combat. These results came in after testings of both party's weaponry and a simulation of 1,000 match ups between the two. The Spartan was shown to win 65% of the time over the Ninja's 35%. I however disagree with this result. From the weapons shown as well as the fighting styles of the both, I feel that the Ninja would have a greater advantage at taking his opponent in surprise as he attacked him through a stealth manner. The simulation portrayed a muscle v muscle match up. However, if these two were actually to fight up the Ninja would never allow this to be a muscle v muscle match up, he would use his techniques to catch the Spartan at his most vulnerable moment and then go in for the kill. The Ninja had a great weapon the black eggs, which were hard eggs filled with glass shards. If the Ninja threw these into the Spartan's eyes, the Spartan would be blinded for a good 1-2 min minimum giving the Ninja plently of time to come up from any angle to deal the final deathblow to the Spartan. However, the simulators did not take into effect this fighting technique, only in the effectiveness of each weapon in terms of killing the opponent, so obviously the black eggs wouldnt kill the enemy, this is why the Ninja's kill rate was greatly lowered. Therefore I claim this matchup was inaccurate and needs more extensive research to be taken place, adding the fighting techniques, to allow for the simulation to be more realistic.... We will have to wait and see who will be next week's deadliest warrior between a pirate and a knight. As of now I am not sure who will win in this matchup. I'll have to read up on both of their weapons, armor as well as fighting styles to come up with an informed decision. Hopefully I can do this before next week's airing of the show.

Surah at Tareq

Today I completed my memorization of Surah at Tareq. I'm on my way taking one surah, ayah by ayah, towards memorizing all of juz ama. Follow me along my path as I memorize all of juz ama. Inshallah I will include a mini tafsir of the surahs I am currently memorizing. I will continually keep you all updated on my memorization count of the surahs of juz ama.

Shepherd's Path

Today was the last day of the Shepherd's Path, a seerah class on the prophet(peace be upon him) taught by Shaykh Abdulbary Yahya. Many of the stories I had already read or listened about, but Shaykh Abdulbary delivered it in a well constructed manner giving details I hadn't heard about on the biography of the prophet. He also was able to make interesting connections between events the prophet and his companions went through and modern events, something that allowed us, the students, to connect in a different way. A popular seerah book that I have been reading in connection with this class is Raheeq al Makhtoom. However, there is definately a difference between reading the seerah and listening to it from a scholar. The difference is that the scholar is able to direct his lecture towards his audience, rather than in a book where it must be written towards a general audience. Also the scholar is able to answer questions the students may have. Learning about the seerah of the prophet and his companions is very beneficial in the sense that it helps us get more of a humanistic view of them allowing us, expecially the youger generation, to have a stronger conviction that we can follow them in their footsteps and improve our current situations. It is time that we get more serious with our inner Islam and our outer Islam. Meaning we need to improve ourselves in our personal religious actions, such as having more khoshoo(concentration) in our salat and connections with the Qur'an and the sunnah of the prophet. Also we need to improve in our social and communal actions in order to allow for muslims to connect and become a more unified ummah, unlike our current situation where it seems Islam is basically a bunch of smaller ummahs. With Allah's help inshallah we will improve in our inner Islam and our outer Islam. We must never forget our strongest tool, the power of du'a. This seemingly simple action, which many of us feel is not that important to do frequently or that heartfelt, is infact an enourmous act according to Allah and our strongest ally in helping us individually and socially. May Allah help us and protect us from all evils.

Welcome

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركته

Welcome all to my brand new blog. This is my first step into the world of blogging. I intend to keep this blog frequently updated and to be a vibrantly interesting place that will keep you wanting to come back for more. If I make any mistakes in the future or I say something that you may have taken offense to I wish you to forgive me. You may send me an email stating your concerns and comments and I will do my best to respond to you in the utmost manner. Thank you and again welcome.