2020 October 11 – HM – male age 14 – Class Notes
Today I came into class almost fully prepared, because I had my notebook and books but i don’t think I studied enough in the car to be tested first thing. When I walked into class and said hello to everyone then started on my nufil prayer. After I finished I started meditating for the next 20 minutes before we started class. Then we started the class with the pledge of allegiance, pledge of faith, and surah fatiha english translation.I didn’t know the full pledge of faith before today so he made me and the other level one kids practice it over and over to memorize it. We got it pretty quickly and I think i’ve memorized it now.
Next we started the class and instead of testing first we stood up on our chairs and we went straight into a speed questioning with the teacher about different topics. First we talked about the 6 beliefs in islam, The first belief is beliving in one god. The second belief is believing that there are trillions of angels. The third belief is believing in the holy books. The fourth belief is believing in the prophets who the holy books were sent to. The fifth belief is believing in the divine laws that are written in the holy books. The sixth belief is believing the last day/the day of judgment. Then we got questioned on the five pillars of islam which are belief, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage. Then we tested on the five prayers and their times which are fajr which is at sunrise, duhr which is at noon, asr which is at midday, maghrib which is at sun down, and isha which is at night. Next we talked about the four books which are the quran, the gospel, the torah, and davids poems.
Then we went into a lecture, we started with an example of innovation that happened recently. There is a new tool to use instead of a stethoscope for doctors. It is a miny x ray machine that has many uses. He told us this as an example to show what other people are doing to help the world. Then he asked us what are muslims doing to help the world. All we’re doing is becoming doctors and engineers but not doing anything to help the world.
Next he started on a different topic about a man in the prophets time. The prophet said that this man was going to heaven, so all of the prophet’s best followers wanted to see why this man was going to heaven so they watched him. They saw that he didn’t do anything different then them so they asked the prophet about it and he said watch closely. Then they realized that every night before he goes to sleep he tries to clear everything up with everyone so no one has grudges and so he is ready to die in peace. This example shows that you should always try to not hold grudges against people because you don’t want to leave the world with a grudge.
The next topic in the lecture was about Alfred Nobel. He woke up one morning to see his obituary in the newspaper (it was actually his deceased brother’s obituary) and it was saying bad things about him in the paper that made him have an idea he wanted to change himself to better help this world. So he decided to create the nobel peace prize and give money to those who helped the world. He told us this example to show how we can change the world instead of not doing anything to help. We can be the ones who create an award or get an award for doing something beneficial to everyone. Next we talked about the muslim guy who created the 5 hour energy drinks. He created the 5 hour energy drink and started to produce and sell a lot of them and he had so much money that he actually made it so that all the other 5 hour energy bottles get sold and all their profits get sent to charity. He showed us this example to show that you should keep a little money for yourself but you should also give in charity to those who are in need. The main concept is that give what is sensible to give.
Next we talked about formative years again because some of us missed it in last class. You are always in some kind of formative year in your life. You could be a college student or a novice dancer or you could be new to your sixties. Basically you are always in your formative years developing something. Then we talked about how you should try to follow an imam’s way of reading the quran because it should be done well not something done poorly. Then we went back to another topic from last class about the questions you will be asked in your graves and how you will answer. The questions are who is your lord the answer is Alah, the second question is who is your prophet and the answer is Muhumad, the third and final question you will be asked is what is your faith and the answer is islam. These are all easy to answer but you’re not the one who gets to respond. It is your soul that responds so you have to engrave all of these answers on to your soul and follow them.
Then we went into the prophet’s life and how hard it was for him. He lost most of his caring family members and his wife but he also spread the message of islam wich was his purpose. In the end we talked about how we all should be a cg (change agent) because all of us as cg’s should be doing our part to make the world a better place for everyone. A cg shouldn’t wait for others to make the world better, they should take it into their own hands and try to make it better.