2021 October 31 — FH — female age 14 — Week 8
Today I woke up early thinking that I would be late to class as the class time changed to 9:00 AM, but I ended up making it to class ten minutes early. I first said hi to LG, and then headed to the musallah to make zikr, I first did my 2 cycles of prayer and started meditating. Then LG came and told me that I need to pray for a bit longer and apply zikr to the prayer. So I practiced my 2 cycles of prayer again, I also noticed that LG was trying to distract me and everybody else doing zikr. This lasted for 30 minutes, well 40 minutes for me since I got there early. At 9:30 exactly we headed back to class to get started. LG asked 2 students to lead us on the 3 pledges, I noticed a couple mistakes, for example how they speak at a fast pace and the other students can’t keep up with the pace and it sounds like little kids yelling everywhere. After this we talked about how being a leader we should read each other’s essays. Then me and another level 1 graduate student were asked to explain about either the homework format or the purpose of the program, I picked the homework format and went over it, honestly I was nervous because there was two new students I really hope it didn’t show but I tried my best to present and explain it the right way. Then the other student explained the purpose of GISLA to the new students and to the students who didn’t really know what the program was about. LG then told us that we have two pieces of homework I was like “ughh not again” hoping no one heard me. The other homework is the join me essay which is an essay to any of your friends or just an imaginary person and you explain to them why they should join the programm. As most of you know BS in GISLA stands for belief and sincerity, and most of the new students that join don’t really know that yet and so LG takes advantage of that and the students most of the time in fact all the time are very confused until we explain it to them. I remember the first time I joined I was asked if I was full of BS. Honestly I didn’t even know what that was like, not even the bad meaning of it, so I didn’t get the joke till a couple of years later.
Then LG reminded us to use common sense with any and everything that we do, in my opinion this is our weekly reminder and I like it because this is a topic that I feel is very important.
Then LG explained to some students that they have six weeks to finish memorizing the paper and test out. I then remembered him telling me this when I first joined and at first it sounded hard but it wasn’t after all.
He also explained that the program is trying to help you unlock your soul. Another thing he explained again this week is how in the program we should all be goats, and how sheep just follow along and get killed easily, whereas goats are leaders and very hard to kill.
We then started talking about taking Islam seriosly. For example when we make Wudu and don’t and we miss something we are not really picky about it,but when we get asked about halloween we become very picky. The point was that as young adults or teens we can’t yet chase perfection. Then we started talking about how halloween is celebrated in some muslim contries, like saudi arabia, and pakistan. Then LG made a comment which was to gradually lift yourself.
After this one of the teachers talked to us about our essays, like how a paragraph is about one thing, and then you move on to the next. They also suggested that we share our essays with each other and give each other feedback because it’s easier to notice somebody else’s mistakes. We also talked about having drafts before we submit our final product. They also told us to use a spelling check before submitting our essays. After they were done talking, LG said that we should ask who the person presenting was. Most of us already knew the person but some people were new and didn’t ask. Then we talked about how the world works on etiquette. After that we came back to talking about how writing is very important, and that it’s a bug topic and that people get paid just for writing. Also how your Introduction should tell the reader what they will be reading about, which you could also call a thesis statement.
After a long talk about writing we went back to testing mode, I started reviewing what i tested out in the morning with teacher O. I was really hungry and impatiently waiting for the pizza.After a couple minutes we started eating and then one of the teachers started talking about being ethical in what you do just like LG requested, it was hard to focus as I was too busy enjoying my pizza. Then we played a hangman game and learnt a couple of new words like purist, and ethical. Then a lady came in with books and LG refused them because he said that he doesn’t know what the book is about and you can’t just accept and trust anyone. After that he asked us about what’s going on in the world, and once again I didn’t know anything because I kept forgetting to check the news. Then he told us that we can’t be iliaturate.
Another important thing we talked about today is judging we tend to judge others a lot just because they are not tmuslim and that it self is a huge sin because only god is allowed to judge.
For next week inshallah I will revize what I did today and hopefully be able to test out on LG.