2020 Jan Class notes by 18 yr old M DJ for 1/26/20
DJ 18 years old Male Class of 1/26/20
When I first entered into class today, I first prayed my fajir prayer and meditated and that lasted around 15 minutes.
After that, we started class and the first thing we did as a class was our teacher tested out all of us on the 5 pillars of Islam, the 6 beliefs of a Muslim, the name of the 5 prayers and there timings, and the reason why odd numbers are preferred in Islam. We as a class did not do very good on these topics the first time, so our teacher made us stand up on our chairs until we got them right.
The six beliefs of a Muslim are Belief in god, Belief in the angels, and Belief in divine scriptures which is the Quran Torah, Gospel, and the Psalms of David. The other Beliefs are also belief in the prophets, belief in the Day of Judgment, and belief in god’s laws. The five pillars of Islam are Shahada-faith, Salat-prayer, Zakat-Charity, Sawm-Fasting, and Hajj-pilgrimage.
The five prayers and there timings are Fajir early morning, Dhuhr Early afternoon, Asr midafternoon, Maghrib evening, and Isha sunset/night.
We stood on our chairs for about 20 minutes until we all got them.
One interesting thing that I learned during this activity was that the Prophet preferred odd numbers because many people are likely to do things three times and this could be applied to Islamic practices such as Dhikr.
After the activity, I took a Gisla written exam. We had 40 minutes to complete it and it was pretty hard. The questions varied from multiple choice to questions requiring writing. We could not get one question wrong or we would fail, so I doubt any of my classmates including me passed the exam.
But, it was a good try and I got to see what the exam looked like, so next time I could study more and be more prepared for the type of questions that the exam asks.
After taking the Gisla written exam, we started our testing session which lasted around 10 minutes. We did rock paper scissors to decide who would go first and I was lucky enough to go last because I was unprepared. I instead practiced tested out. My goal for next week to be more prepared for my prayer exam.
After the testing session, we had a lecture and watched some part of the movie Mooz-lum . Some things that I learned were that there are seven levels of heaven in Islam and each level has a different meaning. I also learned that the concept I.B.R means Invoking, Banking, and Realization.
In order to achieve this concept and carry it out in an Islamic context, you must first realize that one God only exists. Once you realize that, you must invoke god by giving dua which is asking god for forgiveness, better life, etc. You must also do Dhikr, which is remembrance of god and you must pray to god using the prayers. Once you have invoked god, then you will be able to bank, which means to get reward.
The reward comes in form of S bucks, which are spiritual bucks. The concept of S bucks is a different concept but is very closely related to I.B.R. An interesting thing that we talked about was how in countries like India, people defecate in the fields and bury their waste, so flies could not take fragments of that waste and spread it by entering people’s homes and restaurants and contaminating their food with bacteria.
After the lecture, we watched a small part of the movie Mooz-lum and some things that I learned from the movie was that it is very important to associate this class and this mosque with good and peace and not of fear and anger due to your own bad personal experiences in that mosque.
The main character of the movie unfortunately did not have a good personal experience with his mosque and was beaten and slowly drifted away from Islam. It is important to avoid this for parents by not allowing beatings and other types of abuse to happen at the mosque. In conclusion after watching the movie, class ended and we went home.