Thursday, February 26, 2009

.: Chapters in life :.


Starting anew.

The brother behaved indecently. Part of me would love to pummel him *he seems to be a good practice subject* The other wanted to engage him in intellectual preaching sessions. *had a hunch it'll be a horrific experience for him* Leveraging the situation, in doing so may prolong or worsen it, I opted to get off the vehicle.

Note:: There are people that use invocations on a daily basis in their conversations, and I have my utmost respect on them. This post is more of a self-reflection directed on my part, in saying it in speech or having it in writing.
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The whole time, I wanted to launch a tirade on the accounts to someone, anyone. Ended up murmuring invocations, that reduced my fury. Then it occurred to me, just when did I start uttering it as if it is a normalcy? Do I mean it?

Never favor the idea of “just saying it” or “for the sake of saying it”. Simply repeating it thousands of times without a clear understanding of the substance, I suppose removes every single essence it harbored. Hence, I thought to myself, am I becoming the kind of person that I so had despised to be?

Used to reciting certain Surahs by memory while being oblivious to its meanings, I’m trying to set things right by going through materials on top of learning Arabic. *Alhamdulillah, my sister decided to enroll with me, class starts this Sunday*

Citing a partial section of a sermon in a Malaysian congregational prayer, "We are well versed in our recitals. Some can even read like the Arabs yet unfortunately, not many understand the context let alone the gist of it."

It’s like the blind, following the blind so to speak.
4.16pm Malaysian Time

8 comments:

Ms.Unique said...

Yup me knows this very well ... it's not only there ... but here too ... believe me there are many who are hafiz with beautiful voices too but their conduct is contrary to it ... not that they don't understand ... yes some do ... but Allah only knows why the behavior .... and that makes me scared too coz me dosen't want to be a fasiq .... and moreover at the time of Prophet (peace be upon him) there were sahaba's who followed the Qur'an more than learning it by-heart .... Umar Khattab (R.A) took 11yrs just to learn by-heart surat al-baqara coz he wanted to follow what he learnt more than just learning and not following .... one of my teachers said that for them at that time it was easy to follow the Qur'an than to learn it by-heart and now in our times it's easy to learn by heart but hard to follow ..... May Allah guide us and helps us all Ameen ....

Hajar Zamzam Ismail said...

Shame on the brother! You probably did the right thing by just getting out of the vehicle.

I don't like to learn Arabic unless I can learn the language. I see no purpose in making mouth noises if I don't at least have an idea what I'm saying.

Anonymous said...

Salam,

Try the following site for learning Arabic

http://www.80percentwords.com

Hijabee said...

Unfortunately that's very common in the muslim world. We utter words that we don't try to understand and like you said it's like the blind leading the blind. I try to read the translation of every surah I recite so I can know at least what Im saying lol.

lala said...

A lot of people I know pray but don't understand a word of it except for "Allahu Akbar." I think it's so sad considering how moving the actual meaning is. It's sad this type of thing has permeated our ummah so much...

Hajar Alwi said...

Ms.Unique:: Guarding ones' own behavior is tricky, and it is a sad fact that our conduct is not reflected well. Insya'Allah, we shall strive at it. Amin to your du'as sis. ^^

Hajar:: Need I mention he's a Muslim? :(

LoL~ I know how that's like. :)

Anonymous:: W'salam. Thanks. ^^

Hijabee:: Haha~! That makes the two of us. I'll be lugging my Qur'an with English translations, skimming through the meanings before performing my prayers. :)

M.J.:: Such ignorance is unfortunately extended to other aspects as well, contributing further to the worrisome situation. :(

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hajar

Anonymous said...

Yes, I need to understand what I'm reciting also. If we're not supposed to be praying while intoxicated so we know what we're saying (of course, we're not supposed to be intoxicated at all), we should understand what we're reciting as well.

Hajar Alwi said...

Well said. :)