2020 October 11 – MZ – male age 15 – Class Notes
This week, I came to class with most of Ayat Al-Kursi memorized. I had been assigned this two classes ago, but I couldn’t memorize the last few lines. I also struggled to get the pronunciation right, which made me figure out that listening to someone else recite it is a much better way to memorize it for me.
I arrived to class at around 9:00 am, and headed straight into the usual practice prayer and meditation session after greeting the teacher. I noticed my memorizations being much quicker than the previous class, and also noticed myself becoming more focused. However, I did struggle with my posture. I had forgotten how to position my legs and feet while praying, which was quite easy last year. This showed me that I need to practice and stretch more.
After prayer, we discussed a couple important numbers in islam. These numbers were 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. 1 was important because there is only one god in Islam, 3 is important because Prophet Muhammad said we should do everything 3 times, four is important because of the 4 books (Quran, Torah, Bible, Psalms of David), 5 is important because of the five prayers/pillars, and lastly 6 was important because of our 6 beliefs. The five pillars are Faith, Prayer, Charity, Fasting, and Pilgrimage. These are what we as muslims follow to make the world a better place. The 6 beliefs are God, Angels, Books, Prophets, Day of Judgement and Accountability.
We then discussed a couple of concepts and topics, the first concept we discussed was not leaving things for tomorrow when you could do it today. This concept is explaining how you don’t know what things will come up tomorrow, and how you might not have the time to do things tomorrow or the day after. However, you also shouldn’t try to be tomorrow if you haven’t mastered today. Meaning that you shouldn’t try to do things too quick, because that could result in failure. Then, we discussed the bricks and sponges topic. This topic is about how there are some things you should absorb like a sponge, such as things you are taught in school, and how there are other things that you shouldn’t absorb like a brick such as things from the internet.
Then, we watched a movie on the prophet’s life. This movie explained how the prophet was an orphan, he lost his parents, grandparents, and uncle at a very young age. Where he lived, the rich ruled and took control over the poor. It also explained how many people were angry at him for trying to spread word of there being only one god.