Dr. Pasha's Arabic Language and Cultural Immersion Sessions -- Lesson 35
Instructions and Guidelines
1. Keep Hard Copy Mu'jam handy for quick reference and consultation, but only as directed.
2. Keep Mushaf ready to go to for reading Aayats as directed.
3. Don't forget that handling the Qur'an requires Wudu. Internet reading may not.
4. And refresh yourself on points and ideas from previous instructions.
5. Fully review material covered thus far from previous sessions and assignments.
6. Read the Qur'an as much as you can, focusing on the script and the words of the Qur'an. Run your Index Finger down the lines of the Qur'an.
7. Do precisely the same with any collection of Hadith that you may have available. Do not panic if you are not able to make out anything. Things will come to you in due course, as Allah has planned for you.
8. Pick out words -- Verbs, Nouns, Other -- as you are able to figure them out. Say those words aloud as many times as you can. At this stage, understanding them is not a requirement for your learning them.
9. Work on your Nafs: try to conquer it. Try to kill it if you can, even though it is almost not an attainable goal.
Remember, life is a fight between your Nafs and your God. If you believe in Allah, your Nafs -- Ego -- has got to go. Otherwise, your Nafs becomes your Ilaah: your God.
The real "god" that you worship.
One way to understand Nafs is to come to terms with your belief, and your attitude, that your feelings and your views and your opinions are supreme in your life and those are the things that really matter.
It is the belief, and attitude, that somehow you are a very important person; that somehow you matter; that somehow the only thing that counts is what you think, feel and say; and that somehow everything does, or should, revolve around you and around what you think, believe and feel.
This is a direct contravention of your claim of La Ilaha Illallah.
And this is what most Human Beings are a victim of today, not the least most of the Muslims.
When I say Muslims, I am referring to Accidental Muslims, those who are Muslim by Accident of Birth.
Otherwise, those Muslims who have embraced Islam by conscious choice, regardless of whether they were born in a Muslim or a non-Muslim home, they realize only too well how life is an ongoing battle between their Nafs and their assertion that the only God they have is Allah: La Ilaha Illallah.
10. Work on your Niyyat -- Motivation and Intention. Remember that human actions are often creatures of Mixed Motivations.
Work on continually reducing the component of your Motives and Intentions where Allah is not the sole object. Where Ridaa-i-Ilahi (Trying to Please Allah) is your only purpose.
You keep working on that, faithfully and diligently, and soon a day will come when, by Allah's will and by Allah's Acceptance of you, you will suddenly be there.
And when you get there, you will realize that all the things of this world simply do not matter to you any more. And that the only goal and purpose you have in life now is to Work for Allah.
And to struggle single-mindedly to establish the Qur'an and its System of Universal Justice and Truth and Freedom and Equality in the World whereby you can serve and help each and every one of Allah's Creation on Earth:
Muslim and non-Muslim; Human and non-Human!
Which was, of course, the real and original purpose of your creation in this world, as Almighty God declared in the Qur'an:
Innee Jaa-'ilun Fil Ardi Khalifah!
"Someone responsible for running and managing
the affairs of this world, using God's Almighty's
own Instructions and Commandments."
And that, from now on, you live for that purpose, and that you wish to die struggling for the fulfillment of that purpose, if you have to.
END
