Only 9 days Hajj to go till now. We attended a seminar organised by al-Hidaayah - our Hajj guides - last Sunday, and it was really helpful. They told us what to expect at the airports, pointed out our hotel from an aerial map, gave us an idea of where we would be staying in Mina, etc. It looks like we have a good spot: we're going to be camped only "5 minutes" away from the jamaraat insha'Allah, although, i'll qualify the "5 minutes" when i get there ;)
I bought two sets of Ihram material there and a book in urdu for my mum.
I've also finally got round to working on my will. One of my friend's wife is a solicitor and she confirmed that the will doesn't need to be made all official and stuff by a solicitor's firm, only that there be two witnesses who are non-beneficiaries to the will and that they sign it at the same time.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Friday, December 24, 2004
Preparations for Hajj
Me and my family are going to Birmingham this weekend to attend a seminar arranged by our Hajj travel agents. My in-laws and cousins have been with the same company in previous years and have come back with rave reviews concerning the whole trip and the organisation of it. A lot, i think, is down to the fact that the Hajj guide assigned to them was Abu Ammar Yasir Qadhi, and i am really hoping that he will be our guide as well.
Whats really convenient for me is that just as my Hajj preparations were taking off i started studying the chapter on the Fiqh of Hajj with my teacher - so thats been really helpful.
And fiqh is an amazing topic. There are issues which previously i thought were clear cut, and having an obvious ruling, but which my teacher went on to show were the opposite. You can have an issue in which scholars over the ages have carried opinions that go across *nearly* the whole spectrum of haraam to waajib.
So i've learnt that its best not to shoot off my mouth when i think i know the definite answer to a question.
But thats not to say that every one of those opinions has strong evidence to it. Some of those opinions are based on very weak evidence when you compare them to the evidences of the other opinions. And what i really don't like is the attitude of some people that if there is an opinion somewhere out there that supports some controversial act (e.g. music), then its acceptable and we should accept it as a legitimate opinion. In that way we can justify just about anything from going to the pub to listening to music to buying a home on riba. And i think it was Umar b. Abdul Aziz who said "whoever gathers within him the allowances of the scholars, gathers within himself all evil."
Whats really convenient for me is that just as my Hajj preparations were taking off i started studying the chapter on the Fiqh of Hajj with my teacher - so thats been really helpful.
And fiqh is an amazing topic. There are issues which previously i thought were clear cut, and having an obvious ruling, but which my teacher went on to show were the opposite. You can have an issue in which scholars over the ages have carried opinions that go across *nearly* the whole spectrum of haraam to waajib.
So i've learnt that its best not to shoot off my mouth when i think i know the definite answer to a question.
But thats not to say that every one of those opinions has strong evidence to it. Some of those opinions are based on very weak evidence when you compare them to the evidences of the other opinions. And what i really don't like is the attitude of some people that if there is an opinion somewhere out there that supports some controversial act (e.g. music), then its acceptable and we should accept it as a legitimate opinion. In that way we can justify just about anything from going to the pub to listening to music to buying a home on riba. And i think it was Umar b. Abdul Aziz who said "whoever gathers within him the allowances of the scholars, gathers within himself all evil."
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Update
About time i updated this blog.
I'm nearly at the end of my notice period now, but it hasn't been all that stressful really. I had an eye infection which allowed me to take a week off work, and then i caught a cold which got me another week off. It isn't that i've been meaning to get off work, but the new style of management is really crap, and i just can't be asked to go in now.
I've got an ongoing application with another company at the moment, which i hope can all get sorted out before i go to Hajj, because that would take alot off my mind.
I've also been busy looking for some painters and decorators to do up the new house. We're gonna go for light pastelly colours. I've also had the chance to de-register some 16 cars that some Eastern European had registered to that address. When we walked into the house, there were over 100 letters from bailiffs wanting to reclaim money from this guy.
Below are links to pictures from a recent camping trip to the Lakes.
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
It was another good experience, alhumdulillah, though we got lost at Maghrib time one day and ended up scrambling down a scree for 2 hours in complete darkness (aided only with a few torches) before we worked out where we were again. Definitely scary, but the sense of adventure was awesome. Also, the opportunity for reflection on the ayaat of the Qur'an was great. When we were off the path, and lost in the dark, all we had was the light of the torches to light up a small part of the path ahead of us, and all around us was darkness. It reminded me of this ayah:
"the Day that Allah will not permit to be humiliated the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their Light will run forward before them and by their right hands, while they say, 'Our Lord! Perfect our Light for us, and grant us Forgiveness: for Thou hast power over all things.'" [al-Qur'an 66:8]
because this describes the crossing of the bridge over Hell on the Day of Judgement when there is complete darkness and only a person's imaan and good deeds will bring light to help him get across it. And some people will have such little good in their accounts that the light will emit only from their fingertips lighting up perhaps only one footstep worth of space ahead of them!
I'm nearly at the end of my notice period now, but it hasn't been all that stressful really. I had an eye infection which allowed me to take a week off work, and then i caught a cold which got me another week off. It isn't that i've been meaning to get off work, but the new style of management is really crap, and i just can't be asked to go in now.
I've got an ongoing application with another company at the moment, which i hope can all get sorted out before i go to Hajj, because that would take alot off my mind.
I've also been busy looking for some painters and decorators to do up the new house. We're gonna go for light pastelly colours. I've also had the chance to de-register some 16 cars that some Eastern European had registered to that address. When we walked into the house, there were over 100 letters from bailiffs wanting to reclaim money from this guy.
Below are links to pictures from a recent camping trip to the Lakes.
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
It was another good experience, alhumdulillah, though we got lost at Maghrib time one day and ended up scrambling down a scree for 2 hours in complete darkness (aided only with a few torches) before we worked out where we were again. Definitely scary, but the sense of adventure was awesome. Also, the opportunity for reflection on the ayaat of the Qur'an was great. When we were off the path, and lost in the dark, all we had was the light of the torches to light up a small part of the path ahead of us, and all around us was darkness. It reminded me of this ayah:
"the Day that Allah will not permit to be humiliated the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their Light will run forward before them and by their right hands, while they say, 'Our Lord! Perfect our Light for us, and grant us Forgiveness: for Thou hast power over all things.'" [al-Qur'an 66:8]
because this describes the crossing of the bridge over Hell on the Day of Judgement when there is complete darkness and only a person's imaan and good deeds will bring light to help him get across it. And some people will have such little good in their accounts that the light will emit only from their fingertips lighting up perhaps only one footstep worth of space ahead of them!
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