Regular readers of our blog may have noticed that we’re quite fond of the lectures delivered by Sheikh Arif Abdulhussain. Me and Ali both would highly recommend hearing these lectures. Most of them are delivered in English and deals with topics that would be interest to anyone who’s even slightly religiously inclined, Muslim or not. Sheikh Arif doesn’t have too many of his lectures available online, below is the complete resource of lectures that I’m aware of that’s currently up for grabs:

1. Lecture delivered at Satwa Imambargha, Dubai, UAE

Link details: Once you click on the above link you’ll have to scroll half-way down the page to find this lecture.

If it’s just one lecture that you hear from this page. Let this be the one. It quite well summarises most of the topics that Sheikh Arif is fond of reciting. His main theme is an attempt to answer, “Why are we here? What’s the purpose of our existence?”

A moving quote from this majlis “I’m confined in this mass of a body today, which gives me the ability to say, “I am.”. But what are you, O man? Have you looked at yourself from the top of a lofty mountain and seen how insignficant you are?”

God is the ‘I’ of the Universe.
Ali mentioned this statement to me after hearing it in a seminar and is one of the more profound statements I’ve heard on God. God is the “I” of the universe. Wow. It’s had my head spinning for weeks since I’ve heard it. But to digest it completely, the context needs to be set. You have to realise who you are or more precisely, who you are not.

Who are you?
If you bumped into somebody who looks familiar at a coffee shop, you’re curiousity is just overtaking you and you’ve just got to ask him, “Buddy, you look really familiar, may I ask “Who are you?” ” How would he reply?

He would probably say, well my name is so and so, I currently work at this place and I have these people in my family etc. etc. Observe. The question asked was, “Who are you?” and the reply we usually give is, what my name is, this is where I work, this is who my family is. Dude, the question was on who YOU are. Sure we may be partially defined by our job, or who we are related with, but what if that changes? Tomorrow, what if you decide to change your name. You change your job (or business), and by getting a divorce (hypothetically speaking only) you can even change your family. But, have ‘you’ changed? You are still the same you. Aren’t you?

I’ve recently upgraded to a Blackberry 8310 from a 8700. And when I did I sorely missed certain applications that I had installed in the earlier phone.

Concise Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus

I do most of my reading at home or at a cafe and I rarely am close to a dictionary then. But that’s when I need it the most. The Mobile Version of the Concise Oxford Dictionary has proved quite invaluable to me. It’s got a very good breadth of words and the quality of explanations is what you would expect from Oxford. Once you actually have this app you’ll be amazed the number of times you actually begin to use it. You see, you never really know when you are in a situation when you begin something to read & you come across a word you’ve not heard before. It could be when your reading the morning paper or flipping a magazine when waiting at the Dentist’s. Most of the time you can guess the meaning, but there are times you want to look it up. If there isn’t a dictionary around you, you just let it go. Having this application in your pocket never leaves you guessing what a particular word could mean. And that’s a learning opportunity one shouldn’t miss. Unfortunately like many Blackberry apps, it’s pricey. It retails at $40, but certainly worth it.

Quran: Chapter 57 (The Iron): Verse 23 So that you may not grieve for what has escaped you, nor be exultant at what He has given you; and Allah does not love any arrogant boaster.

It always bothered me. Why doesn’t God want us to be overly-happy? If happiness is a good thing, being overly happy would mean more of a good thing, wouldn’t it? Honestly, that’s all each and everyone of us is striving for anyway.
I can understand the first part of the verse. That we shouldn’t be overly obssessed in grief over something (even someone) that we’ve lost. That just leads to more stress, worry, anxiety and most of all it’s a plain waste of time. But if you’re overly happy leads to more endorphins, more adrenalin and a more positive, optimistic outlook on life.

Afterall what is it that God wants, (Sheik Arif asks)? Does He want us to bow down and prostrate even more? Offer more prayers? Go to even more pilgrimages? Well if that’s what He wanted then he could have created a thousand more Gabriels who would continually offer such worship. Who would continouly sing His praises more loudly and deeply than we ever can. Why settle for the measely bird-pecking worship that we offer?

If there’s anything that God wants from us, it’s change. It’s to constantly become better and grow from within. Growth physically, mentally and spiritually. One method to attain such growth is to strive for a betterment in the quality of our worship.

Concentration in Prayer is important. Why, because it’s the one single indicator of your taqwa/piety levels. Want to know how’s your relationship with God? your level of faith? Ask yourself how much is your focus during namaaz. Afterall what does God want? It’s not more prayers, but better prayers. Not for Him, but for us.

Here are 15 tips that can help you achieve greater concentration in prayers:

They say that one doesn’t really plan to go for Hajj, but one is called to it by the Almighty. I certainly hope that’s true, because if so, myself, Arifa (my wife) and Ali (my brother) have graciously accepted the Lord’s invitation and would be taking off for Madina from Mumbai 5 AM, Monday morning.

We’re certainly looking VERY much forward to it. No doubt Hajj is an highly spiritual uplifting experience. In fact that’s an understatement. To witness the prostration of two million people simultaneously, each one bowing his head till it touches the ground and that too doing that 5 times a day is an image that can shake one’s inner-self to tears. Ofcouse it’s not all prayers and supplications. There’s a whole lot of socialising too. I think it’s only on Hajj that one actually gets the full flavour of diversity present in mankind. From the Africans, to the Europeaons, to the Chinese, to the Turks….all present in full glory. Each wearing their best attitude…smiling, greeting, hugging at every opportunity. I made some of my very best friends on my last Hajj trip 4 years ago and I’m eagerly awaiting to make some this year.