My notes and comments of "Invocations of the heart" CD1 by shyakh muhammad ya'qubi

There ain't nothin' like codin' and darsin' at the same time.

I was actually there when they recorded this (a year or two ago), it was called "spiritual retreat" (deen-intensive), in san jose, and ever since then parts of it have been echoing in my mind. "Ilahiii!" (My Lord!! (or more literally "My God!" but he avoids that translation in order to avoid falling into the cultural usage like "OMG")). Those who were there, ali malik, wali rafique, omar qureshi, etc, know what i'm talking about. ... and of course there was much more to remember than just that. well anyway, as i listen i'll be jotting down some notes, here they are. As always, all mistakes are mine...

"The more you claim to have knowledge the more jahil (ignorant) you are" -- shaykh muhammad

He tells a story of how when he was a child, his father used to encourage him to do certain things, like read the lesson his father was going to teach out loud in front of the students, this was to encourage him.

Then at one point his father (rahimahullah) told him to give khutbah, and young shaykh muhammad (age 14.5) became intimidated to give it in front of all those people, and his father told him to give him self-confidence, that nobody is more knowledgeable than you, no one will outsmart you and embarass you.

And a personal reflection on this is that iA when my wife and I have children, we know that there is no harm in encouraging them to do something good. Like if I say, wow good job son! then he might like the praise, which will get him to do more. that will possibly bring on arrogance and a motive to do good other than for the sake of Allah, but in the child raising process, it would seem to be ok, it acts as a catalyst or whatever. ... but dont' stop reading here, going back to shaykh muhammad's story...

Then at one point, his father started telling him to be careful, you have to believe that you are the most ignorant person, that anybody here can be a scholar, that Allah can send a big scholar that can be attending the khutbah that friday and can come after the khutbah and point out all your mistakes, that Allah can send a child to ask you a question that you cannot answer and embarass you in front of everybody.

"what you don't know is more than what you know" -- shaykh muhammad

"In order to know your ignorance, just go and research that which you don't know" -- shaykh muhammad

that's sooo true, i see this in computer science (and he also mentioned other fields). there are sooooo many environments and languages to study, .NET, java, the C++ win32 api, python, perl, coldfusion, php, flex (and it's copycat by microsoft: WPFE), this new breed of internet programming like AJAX and the server side, within each of these there are new libraries and specialties, like under java there's the standard desktop library, J2EE, J2ME... there are all the version controls like perforce, svn, cvs... and that's not even like a tenth of the list, let alone learning all these. But for those people who stick to one technology, get good at it, and stop, not only do they stay ignorant, get arrogant, but they also get angry at people who propose a change in technology. It's very interesting, and his whole point is that the same principle applies to knowledges in Islam.

"Whoever guarantees (AHM: to guard) for me what is between his jaws and between his thighs, I guarantee for them Jannah (Heaven)" -- Shaykh-ul-shuyukh The Prophet Muhammad pbuh

Tremendous and famous hadith, he mentioned and commented on it, it was worth quoting even though everybody knows it.

"Oh Allah make the best portion of my rizq (sustenance from Allah) from the last portion of my life" -- shaykh muhammad said it's a common dua of the saaliheen

he commented before and after this saying that imagine if Allah gave you all the money that you were going to earn right now, you might invest it somewhere and blow it (for example real estate, the stock market, etc), but it is out of his wisdom that he gives you the amount he gives you at the various points in your life.

All you bollywooders, check out Junaid Jamshed

(if you are seeing this on facebook, you won't be able to see the video unless you click "view original post" above.)

wow, mashAllah, may Allah keep him strong.

in case you didn't know, he used to be some big time singer in PK or India, but then he met some religious people, including some scholars i think, and all the sudden, he started practicing islam and stuff mashAllah.

... and btw, that's from the paki TV station "Jeo" or whatever (hence the funny background music).

shaykh hamza's breakin it down

(if u are seeing this on facebook, you wont be able to see the movie unless you click "view original post")

The Minara Program is coming to the OC with an event called "Agenda to Change Our Condition"

sign up nowww!!

http://www.zaytuna.org/eventDetails.asp?id=95