A spiritual scoop on things

OMG he scolded a kid from the pulpit

2011-12-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

Kids around the Shia world are quivering in their beds after Syed Ammar Nakshawani unleashed his fury at an unfortunate tyke during a lecture in Toronto on Thursday.

If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. Just fast-forward to 49:10.

Okay, maybe children aren't peeing their pants just yet, but Syed Ammar's recent episode involving a curious young man bravely exploring different parts of the centre has some people spitting nails at the Iraqi speaker.

"Sit him down, I beg of you!" said a visibly irate Nakshwani towards the end of his talk on Thursday night in front of a packed audience at Bathurst. The seconds that followed must have been more awkward than fishing for meat in the birayni thaali on Eid day, only to find a handful of soggy potatoes.

So here are a couple of pointers that I feel need to be brought up before fatwas calling for the Syed's head on a silver platter are issued by the ulema -e- youtube wa facebook clan.

First of all, men of knowledge, wherever they be from, warrant a certain level of respect. In most cases these people have dedicated a good part of their lives, if not the entirety of it, in servitude to Allah and the Ahlul Bayt.

Didn't Imam Ali (as) say, "To respect the learned is to respect God"? Whether he's studied in Qum or not, one would be hard-pressed to say that Nakshawani does not come under the category of 'learned.'

I have a problem when your average Khalil, Hassan, and Musa come out and say stuff like, "His akhlaaq makes me sick." And believe me when I say, worse has been said about the man.

Suddenly, all those 'nare Haidari' moments are forgotten, and so are all the lives he's changed for the better through his lectures. All we think of is that 'arrogant and rude' speaker from London, who's always asking for money.

Now that I've touched on that often touchy subject of money, let me just say this - you can't put a price tag on changing the course of a youth's life from one of wastefulness, to one of religiosity. It's something only He can calculate.

Money is a small reward for it.

It's also worth remembering that some speakers' main form of livelihood is delivering lectures. Let them charge however much they want for their services! Come to think of it, what a beautiful way of making a living - spreading the message of God and His loved ones to the masses.

And let's not forget the hours of research and preparation that goes into each lecture.

I can imagine that composure and concentration are two key factors when it comes to public speaking. Who knows what's going through Nakshawani's mind when he's dishing out ayats and hadiths quicker than I pray Maghrib when I'm fasting.

The smallest thing could make him lose his train of thought, and as a speaker, he has the right to eliminate (no, not eliminate in that sense) that hindrance as and when it occurs.

Could he have dealt with it better? Probably, but it just wouldn't have been Nakshawani-esque for him to go like, "A humble request to please make that child over there assume a sitting position."

To cut a long story short, I just think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion, and feel something as small as his scolding a kid from the mimbar is not a reflection of the Syed's 'demonic attitude.'

Something like making pillau out of pakoras.

But one thing is for sure: from now on, parents'll be holding onto their kiddos during majlis tighter than ever.

Just my two dinars.

dua Mashlool

2011-10-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

"And your Lord says, 'Call upon Me, and I will respond to you,'"

- Holy Quran, Chapter 40 (The Believer), verse 60

The concept of dua is a fascinating one.

A lowly, weak, and humble servant approaches his King. He stumbles into his Master's courtyard, pleading, his back heavy with the weight of petty sins. As his eyes leak with tears of remorse, he cannot help but be reminded of the vastness of his Creator's mercy.

One dua that is special in nature for several reasons, is dua Mashlool. This dua is taught to us by none other than Imam Husayn (as), through his father, Imam Ali (as).

The circumstances through which Imam Husayn (as) learnt this particular supplication is narrated below.

Once when Imam Ali (as) and Imam Husayn (as) were doing tawwaf around the Holy Ka'ba during hajj, they saw a young man clinging onto the cloth of the Ka'ba and weeping profusely.

On the orders of his father, Imam Husayn (as) approached the man and asked him what was going on.

The youth told Imam (as) that he was a son who had been rude to his father. He would talk to him indecently, and never showed respect towards him.

Once, the young man told Imam Husayn (as), he pushed his father away from him in disgust. To this, his father told him that he would never forgive him and that he would read a dua against him for what he has done.

That dua that his father read paralysed his son from waist down. The grief stricken youth begged Imam Husayn (as) to help him. So Husayn (as) returned to Imam Ali (as) and told him the story of the youth who was paralysed because of his father's supplication.

After Imam Ali (as) asked if the youth was sincere in his remorse, the Commander of the Faithful advised the following.

He said to Husayn (as), let him recite this specific dua, called dua Mashlool. "Whenever a person is ill, or in grief, or in a bad situation, let him recite dua Mashlool after the salaat of Isha, and you will see the illness will be removed."

So Imam Husayn (as) took this bit of advice to the young man and taught him the dua of Mashlool, instructing him to recite it after Ishaa that night.

The next day, Imam Husayn (as) saw the man walking beside the Ka'ba. He asked him what had happened and the youth told Imam that the previous night he saw the Holy Prophet (s) in his dreams.

The Prophet (s) approached the man and said come towards me, for you have recited dua Mashlool. The Prophet (s) then proceeded to touch the man in the area where he was paralysed and when the awoke, his paralysis had been cured fully.

There are lessons to be learnt from this painful, yet beautiful story.

How many times do we find ourselves being disrespectful to our parents? An impulsive comment here, a snide remark there.

The station they occupy is so high that we cannot even come close to comprehending it. The Prophet (s) said that paradise lies beneath the feet of the mother. Just imagine, heaven lies underneath them.

Another point we can take from this story is the sheer power of dua. These passages we recite on Thursday nights or Friday mornings are not just ordinary readings from old books.

Rather, they are special, divine formulas for us to turn to.

Duas carry within them weapons with which we can shed the curtains that separate us from our Lord. God loves it when a servant, especially a youth, turns towards Him.

Therefore, let us attempt to appreciate these beautiful methods of communication our Imams have taught us.

An old madressa teacher of mine back home always used to say, "If you want Allah to talk to you, recite the Quran. If you want to talk to God, then recite dua."

"Oh people of Bahrain: Your pain is our pain!"

2011-03-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

"A believer is the brother of another believer, like a single body. If any part of him suffers, he will feel its pain in his entire body; and their souls are also made of one soul," - Imam Sadiq (as)

With the situation in Bahrain getting uglier by the day, a demonstration was organized here in Ottawa for us to show our support for the oppressed people of Bahrain.

So on what was a lazy Saturday afternoon, me and a few friends turned up on Parliament Hill for the demonstration.

The atmosphere there was anything but lazy.

A fair few people had already assembled on the Hill, waving Bahraini flags, hoisting graphic images of scenes from Bahrain, and holding posters that read things like "Stop killing civilians," and "Down with the Nazi like regimes of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia."

The plan was to demonstrate in front of Parliament for a while, and then march to the Saudi Arabia Embassy to make some noise there.

A couple of people in the front had megaphones and were belting out chants (which unfortunately weren't even close to rhyming on some occasions) both in Arabic and English. The crowds responded passionately, making their feelings of anger and frustration felt.

Many of the slogans were directed at Saudi Arabia's corrupt rulers, and their decision to deploy military power to help quell the protests in Bahrain.

"Where were these forces when Gaza was being pummeled by Israel? Where were they when Lebanon was being attacked?" asked one of the protesters in a speech.

Under surveillance from local police, we marched to the Saudi embassy in Ottawa, located on 201 Sussex Drive. It was about a half-hour walk from Parliament and as we walked, we continued to chant our slogans. Some cars hooted their support as they passed by us.

Heres a video of us making our way through downtown Ottawa, to the Saudi embassy.

Once the green of the Saudi flag was visible from a distance, it was clear that the police were taking no risks. Several police cars were parked in front of the building, and police officers on foot were present as well.

We were ordered to stay on the opposite side of the street, and do our stuff from there. Aside from the chanting, Sheikh Obeid, a Lebanese scholar from Montreal, addressed us on the megaphone. He gave a short, yet stirring talk on how disgraceful the actions of the Saudi government were, and how we as Muslims should take a stand against it.

Heres a video of us protesting across the Saudi embassy. And another one.

Before the event, there was an idea going around that people should bring shoes to throw at the embassy. Thankfully, everyone kept their old sneakers at home.

Somehow the thought of me lobbing my old Reeboks across the road with a whole bunch of police officers for an audience doesn't seem overly appropriate.

Unbeknownst to us, the organizers had planned a detour to the embassy of the United Arab Emirates as well, which was just around the corner from the Saudi one.

The UAE, along with Oman and Qatar, has also sent military support to Bahrain in order to help its government. "Down down Emarat!" was the call once we reached the embassy. Security was assembled there as well,

It seemed as though we were successful in our goal to make our voices, and the voices of the people of Bahrain, heard.

It was a fantastic experience for me personally as well. It made me happy to see Muslims unite in a common cause, as not only Shias turned up for the protest. In todays day and age, solidarity is so very important.

How fortunate we are to have the right to protest, or the right to freedom of assembly, was another thing that I was reminded of. Back home in Dubai, a demonstration like this would have had us shunned by the coppers faster than you could say "Khalifa."

I'll probably go to sleep tonight hearing choruses of, "Oh people of Bahrain: Your pain is our pain!"

A woodpecker's world

2011-03-08T08:01:00.001-08:00

"The perfection of the human being is the intellect,” - Imam Ali (as)

Waiting for the frustratingly infrequent 148 to Hurdman the other day, my ears were alerted by a rapping drumming noise coming from the trees above me. It sounded as though someone was trying to sever timber with the services of a hammer.

Looking up, I located the source of the ruckus.

It was a woodpecker. Jet black body with a brilliantly red streak on its head, it was pecking away with its beak on a spot midway up one of the trees.

The only other time I had ever seen a woodpecker before was on the telly. Who can forget the legendary cartoon figure of Woody Woodpecker from the 1940’s and his trademark laugh?

He had made good progress. A two-inch deep impression on the bark was already visible, and he didn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

With unwavering determination and almost indecent enthusiasm, Woody continued pecking in his quest for grub.

He was unperturbed by the fact that it was -20 degrees, and that the bark was quite thick. Woody wanted breakfast, and nothing was going to stop him.

Some quick googling later on told me that once the woodpecker makes a hole in the tree, it sticks its tongue (which is almost three times longer than its beak in some species!) into the hole and traps insects with it. A sticky saliva on the woodpeckers tongue is then secreted in order to trap its food, ensuring that they don’t escape.

Watching Woody peck away at that tree, I thought of how I could relate his persistence and hard work to our quest for spiritual perfection in life

Nobody said our path to reach ‘takamul”, or perfection, was going to be an easy one.

Many a times, we come across obstacles that stand stubbornly in our way. Like the thick wood for the woodpecker, or the freezing cold outside. But the woodpecker found a way around those hindrances, and eventually emerged victorious.

In his never-say-die attitude is a lesson for us as well. It kept persisting, and never seemed to despair that after all that pecking, there would be no reward to show for his hard work.

We as humans, trying to reach higher levels, should be like the woodpecker. Persistent, diligent, and hard-working.

As the 148 finally pulled up beside me, I gave my woodpecker friend a final look of appraisal, and secretly wished him the best of luck.

Would we step inside the tandoor?

2011-03-05T12:40:00.000-08:00

Standing outside the Arz Lebanon restaurant a couple of days ago, I could not help but be reminded of a nagging thought that has been lurking in the back of my mind.

Many of you will be familiar with the set-up of most Lebanese restaurants, where the tandoor, or open-oven, is in full view of the customers in order for them to see their fatayers and pizzas being baked in front of them.

Many of you will also be familiar with the famous story of our 6^th Imam, when Sahl Ibn al-Hasan al-Khurasani, a follower of the Ahlul Byat, asked the Imam why he did not rise against the corrupt regime at the time when he had so many faithful Shia’s willing to fight for him here in Khurasan.

To respond to Sahl, Imam Sadiq (AS) heated an oven inside his house and said, "O Khurasani, step into the oven and sit in it."

Sahl al Khurasani began sweating profusely and stammered, "My master, O son of the Messenger of Allah! Do not punish me by fire and make it easy for me!"

At around the same time, Harun al Makki, another follower of the Imam, entered the room. After exchanging greetings with Imam Sadiq (AS), Harun too was instructed to take off his shoes, and sit inside the oven. He did so without objection and closed the door of the oven behind him.

The Imam proceeded to enquire about Sahl’s health, and talked to him as if nothing had happened. After a short while Imam told him to check inside the oven and much to Sahl’s amazement, he found Harun al Makki sitting cross legged in the heart of the blazing oven, as fresh as a daisy, thumbing the sacred tasbeeh of Fatema Zahra (AS).

At seeing Sahl’s expression, Imam asked him, "How many individuals do you know in Khurasan like this man?" to which Sahl replied, "By Allah, not even one."

If our Awaited Savior were to make his second-coming tomorrow, would we hasten to adhere to his every command without a shadow of a doubt? Or would we simply offer rich lip-service to him, but when the time comes to follow a direct order, shy away?

As I watched the flames lick the stone interior of the oven at Arz Lebanon, and saw my cheese and zaatar fatayer slowly getting baked by it, I thought to myself about what I would do if my Imam came to me at that moment and said to me, “O Mohamed, step into the oven and sit in it.”

To believe is one thing, to have faith, is another. Faith and belief must rise together in a stunning crescendo if we are to harbor any thoughts of standing for the truth alongside our Awaited Imam.

Let us attempt to be like Harun al Makki, whose unwavering faith was complemented by airtight belief and certainty in the right path.