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Viewing Life through the Lens of Surat Al-Kahf
View, download, or print the whole lighthouse episode document
CreativeJuice Cave Lens
Surat al Kahf, the 18th surah found in the exact middle of the Qur’an, contains 110 ayaat rich with stories and parables that are constantly engaging the reader. It is a Meccan surah that is full of deep insights and tackles serious subjects that concern us both in this life and the hereafter. The surah gives us a perspective to examine life differently in pursuit of finding its reality. Surat Al-Kahf pertains to everyone, no matter his/her situation. If one is poor, weak, and oppressed, he will find the whole surah addressing his problems, giving him support, and suggesting solutions. If one is wealthy, healthy, and powerful, she will find it primarily speaking to her as well.
It was reported by the Prophet (pbuh) that “whoever reads Surat Al-Kahf on Friday, it lightens what is between the two Fridays.#” How can we best understand this light? This light is a guiding light throughout the week. Since we all face challenges that are both large and small, and we can very easily get confused as to how best to address our issues, we need a frequent reminder of the right perspective. Surat al-Kahf gives us a criterion to make decisions and form opinions. It helps us understand challenges and gives us the ability to deal with them, whether they involve our finances, our personal relationships, or our pursuit to seek knowledge. There is no doubt that this surah will, time and time again, be an indispensable gem in our lives if we use it in accordance with the sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh).
This episode is an invitation (more…)
Objective 2: Expand the Five Qualities – Tarbiya MindMap
The sharing of MAS Tarbiya objectives for the year continues with this post. Below is our second objective:
Objective 1: To increase the contribution of MAS members to the tarbiya effort and resources – Contribute over Consume
Objective 2: To further describe the five major tarbiya qualities
What is this objective?
When we started the term, our team came up with five major tarbiya qualities that we would like to achieve in MAS members individually and in MAS as a society to be able to carry out MAS mission. The qualities can actually be used to describe any American Muslim who wants to engage in a mission like ours. The five overarching qualities are: (more…)
MAS Tarbiya 2010 National Objectives – OBJECTIVE 1: C over C
Objective 1: To increase the contribution of MAS members to the tarbiya effort and resources – Contribute over Consume – C over C
What is this objective about?
This objective seeks to encourage MAS members to become contributors to tarbiya resources and programs rather than mere consumers of them. The national team has decided to leverage the power of the MAS membership and its experience to build a strong and relevant tarbiya offering on the local and national levels. This signifies a shift from programs and resources prepared by a central team to programs and resources prepared by a larger proportion of MAS’s membership. The shift aims at utilizing the power and talent of the membership to create, share, transcribe, translate, edit, publish, and filter tarbiya material. This effort utilizes the tremendous experience MAS members are gaining on a daily basis and makes it part of what MAS can offer to its members and community at large.
Why this objective?
- Leveraging the experience of MAS members. Tarbiya is mainly about sharing experience. People develop by interacting with others and learning about their experiences. MAS members, on the ground and active in many areas of Islamic work, are constantly exposed to opportunities for learning and development. They interact with great mentors, listen to lectures, engage in discussions, work in committees, and go through exciting life experiences within and outside MAS. This experience SHOULD NOT be kept to themselves. It must be shared. This model will make MAS members aware of the importance of sharing and contributing what they have gained to the tarbiya of others, both locally and nationally. (more…)
Introducing the MAS Tarbiya Mini Guides
In their quarterly meeting on April 1st, 2010, the local tarbiya directors requested that we share some of the projects we have help in accomplishing them. Our national team will start sharing some of the projects in the make and demand input and help on them isa. Let this email and post serve as the first. One of these projects is creating a set of practical guides to help all of us in our tarbiya work. Please read this long introduction below. We request you do the following.
- Read carefully and critically
- Think of any general feedback you would like to give our team
- Think of specific input you would like to see in EACH of these guides
- Share this post with your local team or anyone who can contribute to this project and encourage them to contribute
- Contact us to be part of the mt-guides team and we will use your help
As you will see below, the guides will serve all of us from individuals to the local and national leadership. We are sending this email to the tarbiya coordinators, chapter presidents, and my-directors to solicit input and recruit the team who will own this project with us isa.
Please sent an email to mt-guides@googlegr..com if you want to be part of this team, general feedback, or give specific input on what exactly you want to see on these guides
For those who will be part of the team we will send them more information on how to view the tarbiya guides wiki and we will get them in ISA
MAS National Tarbiya Team
Coming up next, MAS Tarbiya Standards Map (TSM) …Why this guide?
Tarbiya is an essential concept and a very important core value in the Muslim American Society, MAS. MAS believes that its success and the success of American Muslims rely on how effective we are in applying this concept in our lives. Developing ourselves in all aspects and enriching our skills and talents are key to our success. We also hold similar responsibility towards people around us and the society at large. Tarbiya can be viewed as the art of dealing with people and helping them to get better and closer to their creator, and to equip them with the needed physical, spiritual, and intellectual requirements to attain success in this life and the life after. “To move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity,” is a mission that can only be held by people who are in a constant development effort and with an ability to change people around them.However, the concept of tarbiya is quite general and often misunderstood or partially understood to say the least. In addition to that, most of what is written about tarbiya addresses it from an intellectual/theoretical point of view and lacks the practical and the implementation aspect. MAS national tarbiya team believes there is a dire need for a practical guide that helps individuals and teams to incorporate tarbiya in their respective work and make the tarbiya effort more organized and effective. These simple guides are a living document that aims at incorporating people’s experience along time. It is by design that these guides change and grow based on the experience added to them by those who are involved with the tarbiya effort on the ground. As its initial version may be incomplete and lacks a lot of crucial components, it will grow into a very practical and very comprehensive set of guides in a relatively short period of time insha’Allah.
Who should read this guide?
Everyone should read this guide. This guide has tips and suggestions for all. It will guide you through your endeavor of developing your own self. It will also help you while developing a small number of people around you such as your family, your halaqah, your MAS Usra, your MY Connect. It will help you become people’s oriented while dealing with your youth committee or with your chapter council, and even with your colleagues at work. The guide will also focus on helping people who are in charge of providing tarbiya programs to others such as the local tarbiya committee members, the local tarbiya directors, and chapter presidents. It will also help people who will join the national tarbiya team and sub teams. It can even go as far as helping the national leadership of MAS to effectively incorporate this concept in the national MAS strategies and operation.
Therefore, our target audience are: (more…)
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