2025 Oct OT M 12 Week 6 Oct 12, 2025

When I got to class today, everything went as usual. We practiced pledges together, and there weren’t any problems. After the pledges and going over the papers, we ate cookies and got to juggle, which was all fun, then the actual class started.

When class actually started, the first word LG mentioned was news illiterate, meaning, not knowing the news. The pizza came and LG reminded us to feed our soul with the food that we were eating, by saying bismillah, as not doing so will result in your soul being quite hungry. Then Dr. F came into the class.

When Dr. F came into the class, he asked us why we exist. What is our purpose? He said that in the Qur’an Allah said that He will create us to love Allah. Dr. F also brought up a new word (for me) which is Ibada. He said that Ibada is the highest form of love for Allah, and to show Ibada, you must pray with intent and knowledge. Dr. F also said that we should always ask for Allah’s greatest mercy, because we always do bad things without realising, so we should always ask that Allah is being merciful and forgives, even though it is already said in the Qur’an.

Secondly, Dr. F asked us how we can love Allah. He said that we should put our time into Allah’s cause, bring peace into the lives of others, and feed the hungry. We should also be respectful to our parents and not argue, in order to bring them peace and happiness, therefore we are fulfilling our purpose from Allah. Allah does not want us to leave people depressed, with no one to talk to, so Allah made one of our purposes to bring peace into others lives. One example that we gave was we don’t cut down a tree just because we want a bonfire, we can cut it down only if it is dead, because it has more to love for, more ahead of it.

Thirdly, Dr. F said that teachers should be open minded as well, if teachers don’t know answers to something, they should tell their students that they will try to find out. He gave an example which happened to him. His son was about 10 at the time and they were driving in a car. There was a genocide in Rwanda at the time. He said what is the purpose of Allah’s mercy if all of these innocent people are dying.

So Dr. F read the Qur’an and the Hadith, and found that someone who is innocent and died for good reason will go straight to heaven because there is no need for them to go into the hellfire. So the answer he was able to give to his son was that all of these innocent people are dying so that people could be tested on whether or not they would raise their voices for a good cause, and see these innocent people in heaven. He also said later on that if these wars would not have happened, these countries and or people would not have been recognized. Like now, Palestine only has 2 enemies, but if the war didn’t happen, then Palestine would have not been recognised. So for us, sometimes Allah’s ways are very confusing.

Going back to number two, Dr. F said that Allah said that we should always give to the needy whenever possible. Not the muslims, the needy, so anybody in need. He taught us something that goes as, Innalillahi wa Innalillahi rojiun, which means everything comes from Allah and everything goes back to Allah. Dr. F said that upon saying that, Allah will uplift you, which is why it is said by muslims upon hearing death or when something bad is happening with or around you as a sign of divine acceptance.

Fourthly, we talked about endowments which are continuous charities, like for example, the rent from those townhouses will go to the masjid. Dr. F said that someone who keeps their name for the cause of Allah for hundreds of years will definitely receive Allah’s blessings.

When Dr. F left, we talked about surah’s that came down for different reasons. For the story of the first Surah that we covered, Muhammad (SAW) had one son, and at the time, having a son was extremely valued. Later on though, The prophet’s son died. As a normal parent, he was mourning and was in extreme distress. Then, Surah al Kawthar came down as, Oh Prophet, surely we have gifted you the fountain of abundance, meaning Allah has gifted Muhammad (Saw) the divine knowledge, which is far more crucial than his son, so he should be grateful, and still offer prayers and sacrifices.

The next Surah, Surah al Ikhlas, the story was, a dude from somewhere far away came to Muhammad, (Saw) asking about his religion, and the prophet wanted to see if he would get an answer from Allah to help answer this dude. “Say, God is one, the only one. God is eternal and absolute. God has no children nor is anyone’s child, and no one is like God.” Then, Muhammad (Saw) used that newfound information to answer this guy.

After that story, the next one was Tashahud. The story was, Muhammad (SAW) fell asleep one night, and when he woke up, he claimed that he was in heaven. No one really believed him. As proof, he said that there was a caravan coming from out of town which will arrive in Medina in 3 days, and on the 15th camel on the right hand side, they will find an article.

Using that evidence, Muhammad (SAW) managed to get them to believe him. To summarize, he said that he went to the first heaven, second heaven, and he saw thousands of prophets on each level. His guide, Gibrail, was leading him through the levels of heavens. The prophet said that they were in one position of prayer each and will stay there for the rest of eternity, praising Allah. Muhammad began to walk forward with Gibrail, but eventually, Gibrail stopped, because he knew that he would be punished or vaporized or some sort for passing that area. But, Gibrail was told that Muhammad is the only guy that is able to cross that area.

He passes, and sees a crazy beautiful light. None of the angels could see what was happening, they could only hear. They heard Muhammad(SAW) say, All prayers and worship through words, actions and good deeds are for Allah only. Then, Allah says to Muhammad, Peace be upon you, Oh prophet, and all of my mercy and blessings. Everyone in heaven was amazed. Then, Muhammam(SAW) said, peace be upon all of us who are Allah’s righteous servants, which shows Muhammad is not selfish, Muhammad thinks about others before himself. Then, everyone in heaven simultaneously said the last two lines of Tashahud, just out of pure amazement. Then that led to the creation of Tashahud.

I have quite a lot of words, so I think I will stop right here. Today has been a very informative class as always, so hopefully I was able to cover enough topics and reach the word requirement and hopefully anybody reading this likes my essay! Assalamualaikum!

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