Week 2, Sunday 11/11

This week’s class was very interesting because we started off by a 2-minute prayer and the objective was only to connect with god. It was as simple as just getting lost and trying to speak with god not going through motions of prayer. Then we prepared the chairs in a half circle facing the professor which is a great set up compared to having chairs behind desks in my opinion, it was more intimate and open for conversation than just a classroom setting. We started off class with a debate about who was for and against the kneeling during the national anthem. I don’t think we made too much headway in the debate but what I found interesting is the teacher was trying to get these young teenagers to argue for and against a topic, even if they don’t agree with the side that they’re on, it was very clear that there was teaching of standing up for yourself/beliefs/point of views or thinking critically to put yourself in someone’s shoes that you don’t agree with how they think, wish I had someone teaching me that when I was that age! This led us into a little history and background about the Prophets and how there was 4 Rulers after Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) Abu-bakr, Omar, Othman, Ali.

We learned the concept of 4-5-6. 4 rulers, 5 Pillars, 6 steps of how Qur’an was written. There was a discussing of how PPP (Power, Passion, Poverty) was a determining factor to how you judge and assess situations. I have never heard an Islamic teacher discuss Adultery as anything other than forbidden and against religion (HARAM) however, he asked what if a lady in Afghanistan can’t feed her children and her only option is sleep with someone to be able to feed them? People that out of fear of losing their life did things that are not “HALAL”.

Poverty unfortunately can push people out of necessity to do things they would never do otherwise, it’s a desperation that hopefully we would never experience, and I would never wish it on anyone, and on the opposite side of that most people in power crave more power and if they are not secure in their power they abuse the poor, poverty can also be in self-esteem & knowledge/education. He teaches to not judge people because we are not in their shoes. Islam is not a religion of Black & white I’m starting to realize more and more, there is a lot of grey areas that you must utilize your brain and really think not just is it Halal (permissible) or Haram (forbidden), the religion unfortunately has been watered down through Hadeeth and sayings that people said, they have conflicting messages that confuse followers of the religion and that’s why some choose the ones they like and disregard ones that don’t follow their agenda.

Deferring to the Quran and running the PAPA test will help you filter through what GOD said after prophet Mohamed not before, and do it twice to really be sure, is this GOOD or not and if it’s not then probably this is not what GOD said.

Teacher said that you should always be learning and be creative, use music since it’s not haram but choose what you listen to because it became how you think and who you are, so choose carefully. He mentioned self-development and growing yourself, we should be always learning and growing not watching TV. Things happen to us for a reason, most of the time it’s to teach others about how to overcome things in life or just simply to be grateful for the little things that you grow accustomed to and forget to thank god for, such as your sight, hearing, smell, etc..