Followers

August 14, 2010

Ramadhan journal: Day 4

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. OK here's a little recap of my day.

First off my stomach hurts. We had our normal salad and shorba but I thought, it can't hurt to make some baked potatoes, can it? It can and it did. Add to that, I made a small treat of orange rolls for us to break our fast with (in addition to dates of course!) and now I feel stuffed. I think I've ruined baked potatoes for me for a while! :-)

I did actually pray taraweeh last night so you'll have to forgive my earlier post. We woke up before fajr and I prayed 8 rakaat plus an extra for witr. I know it's not alot but it felt pretty good to at least be doing something.

We didn't attempt the masjid again tonight either. Aaminah was really tired and so were we all. Well not the kids, they were raring to go but A and I were tired. Insha'allah we have plans to go tomorrow night (Sunday). Really I love to break my fast with my family so I am not so interested in going to the masjid for iftar this year.

I guess my score for today is a B-. I know, I keep scoring myself better but I do think I am making progress daily so :-P I engaged in more ibadah and watched other things which could bring me down.

Tonight A told us all a story about a sahabi, Salman al Farisi (ra). Subhanallah the iman this brother had! He was born in Persia, about 20 yrs before Rasoolallah (saws). He was from a family of fire worshippers and one day happened to enter a church. He was awed by the concept of one God. He traveled all over, from Persia, to Shams (Syria) to Iraq to Turkey and finally to Madinah. He was a servant and a slave in the end, having left his wealthy family as a young man because he was so sure there was only one God.

In the end, after having studied with several Christian sheikhs, he met one who told him a new prophet was coming in Arabia. Salman left off and was enslaved en route. He finally, years after he first started his journal to learn more about the one God, met the Prophet Muhammad, saws. He was a slave and eventually was able to buy his freedom.

I was amazed at his perseverance. He traveled 1000s of miles, all for the sake of knowledge and to better himself. He left his family and home and went without the comfort of a wife or children in search of the truth. It was a very inspiring halaqa and I am so happy A shared that with us tonight.

Please look up his story; you will be moved.

Ma salaama!

5 comments:

بنت بيتر said...

assalamu alaykum! beautiful blog mashaa Allah!

Dee said...

Wow, thanks for the info! I've always been interested to learn more about Salman the Persian and Bilal the African. I've been meaning to find out if they were made to adopt the same dress as the Muslims or if they were allowed to wear their own cultural attire as that would tell me if we are obligated to dress in a sixth century Arabian fashion.

Umm Aaminah said...

Walaikum salaam! Jazak(i?) allahu khair. I am sorry I can't read Arabic very much so not sure if you are a brother or a sister. :-)

Shukran for stopping by and Ramadhan mubarak!

Umm Aaminah said...

DD, in Islam it isn't a requirement to wear "Arabian" dress. However modesty is a requirement for all Muslims. Personally I find the abaya to be the most modest form of dress. However a long sleeved, loose
fitting dress of western design (which is basically an abaya!) also fulfills those requirements.

If Bilal (ra) or Salman (ra) wore silk or skin tight clothes or showed their awrah (from navel to knee on men) then yes they would have been obligated to change their dress. Otherwise, no one cared if their favorite design was stripes or stars or polka dots. :-)

I also believe that hijab is wajib or mandatory. This is from my own readings of the Qur'an and sunnah. The fact that no sister will pray without it also tells me they know they are supposed to wear it as well but allahu alim.

In the end we are all responsible for our OWN actions to Allah swt. We read, we study, we ask those with more knowledge than ourselves, and we come to our own conclusions that we alone are going to be called to account for.

Ma salaama...

Dee said...

Cool, i thought so. I too think that the abaya and hijab is the perfect attire for a Muslimah.