2023 Nov – Week 3 – by female15
Week 3 10/31/23 TB 15 F
Today I went to class, and arrived at 9:45, I walked in and saw people studying and reviewing to test out. I came in with my printed out essay to give to the teacher. I sat down and started reviewing my Quran translations. As more people came in, we started class with the 4 pledges, and some of the students led it. Normally we’d go right into class talking about metaphors, but instead we took most of class reviewing our paper that had the English translation for the Arabic surahs. I wasn’t testing out but the others were, I still did practice so I could finish faster. I learned most of the translations on the front of the page like surah Fatiha but also jumped to the back of the page and started with surah kawthar, and asr, those weren’t that hard because I just flipped what I knew in Farsi to English.
Later the teacher brought up some stuff we wrote in our essays. I did miss up on a part talking about the moon and got the stories mixed up with different words but I’m glad my mistake was caught so I can look back and fix it. I was supposed to submit my essay on Wednesday but I turned it in on Thursday, which was clearly my fault but the teacher gave a really good lecture on time management. Life’s gonna be tough and not everything is gonna go your way, for example squeezing in a sport with this program and school, which is normal and you need to have a good habit to think ahead, which I say that this program is definitely helping me with. Time management is like having a superpower in your pocket. It’s all about being intentional with your time and making the most out of every moment. When you manage your time effectively, you become more organized and focused, allowing you to tackle tasks with efficiency and ease. By setting goals and prioritizing your activities, you can avoid procrastination and stay on track towards achieving your dreams. Not only does time management boost productivity, but it also reduces stress and prevents burnout. It gives you the freedom to create a healthy work-life balance, ensuring that you have time for both your responsibilities and your passions. Another teacher also gave a great point about asking for extensions and how. Asking for extensions ahead of time is an absolute game-changer when it comes to managing your workload effectively. By reaching out to your teachers or supervisors in advance, you demonstrate responsibility, good planning, and a commitment to producing your best work. It shows that you value your assignments and want to ensure that you have enough time to give them the attention they deserve. Requesting extensions ahead of time also provides you with the flexibility to handle unexpected challenges or obstacles that may come.
Back to the Muslim view we learned about surah maun, and its meaning, one being about not taking advantage of orphans. An orphan being a child who hasn’t really developed a mind that’s matured yet since it’s way different from an adult who’s older and has a job, wife and kids to be compared to a child who doesn’t have any of that and is alone. Allah has taught us to help them and take care of them and to never take advantage of them as they are vulnerable. Another topic we learned was praying for show, meaning when we pray just to be seen or show off to people that we are praying but in our heart we don’t have a clean intention and we’re just doing it for show. One more topic we learned was about short term and long term goals. When we observe the positive impact of long-term thinking on society and the impressive outcomes it brings, we can grasp the significance of forward planning. It teaches us the value of sacrificing immediate gains for the sake of achieving greater goals in the future. This is particularly important when those goals align with pleasing Allah and benefiting the community. It reminds us to prioritize long-term benefits over short-term gratification. The teacher also shared the misconception in a viewpoint where some people say that “you can not pray when others are suffering”. Most of the time these viewpoints are not supposed to be taken literally but with common sense. A single person cannot change the world and end suffering but multiple people can, millions of people can get together and help change the world. The sentence is supposed to give us a bit of humanity, and that is that we do what we can do in our zip code to help.