2020 October 4 – HH – female age 17 – Class Notes
To class, I was supposed to bring my chapters of the book about the life of the Prophet Muhammad. I was also supposed to have included two ayas from the Quran, one about us being the caretakers of the Earth and the other about the place in the Quran that tells us that a bad decisions lead to more. I didn’t have time to the work because I didn’t have time to look for it and still turn in the assignment on time.
When we started class, we did some meditation/zikr in the sun. It was a nice day out and the sun was very nice while we were meditating. I haven’t meditated in two weeks since our last class. I really enjoy meditating; it helps me relax and focus my mind after a long week. I want to try to start meditating more often.
After we meditated, the level 2 students went over the two ayas and where to find them. We use a green translated Quran written by Yahiya Emrick. The aya on us being caretakers of the Earth is aya 30 in surah Baqarah. In the translation it states, “and so it was that your Lord said to the angels, ‘I’m going to place a caretaker on the Earth’…” In Arabic, the term caliphate literally translates to custodian or caretaker. Meaning, the title of the Muslim leaders follows the death of Prophet Mohamad, their jobs were to take care of the world. It is all our jobs to do so. The job that we have here on Earth is just that, make the world a better place, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Next, we talked about the Ten commandments of Islam. They are different from Christianity’s but have the same general message. The first of it being Do not take any other as his equal. This is one of the basic principles of Islam, that there is one God. It is also the basis of one of the deadliest sins, shirk. Shirk is to denounce God entirely or associate partners with Him. I used to think that if you committed shirk, that it was over for you. But that sentiment doesn’t make sense with what I’ve learned about from class the past two years. The next one was be kind to your parents. While this is seemingly a simple one, it is one we take for granted too often.