And just like that, we’re 7 days into Ramadan already. Let that sink in for a bit, a whole week in the blink of an eye. It’s scary how fast our time passes from us.

But as with all things, my brothers and sisters, reminder benefits the believer. When life moves as fast as it does, always remember to stop – full stop. Take a breather, take a few minutes of silent contemplation, remember where you came from and remember what you’re here for. And once you re-calibrate your heart and mind, charge back at world full speed.

Allah subhana wata’ala says in the Qur’an:

وَذَكِّرۡ فَإِنَّ ٱلذِّكۡرَىٰ تَنفَعُ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ

And remind, for truly reminder benefits the believers.
[51:55]

So remember the words of Allah about our fasting:

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيۡڪُمُ ٱلصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِڪُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ

O you who believe, the fasts have been enjoined upon you as they were enjoined upon those before you, so that you may be of those with Taqwa.
[2:183]

Taqwa. Fear of Allah, piety, remembrance of our Creator and consciousness of Him – wherever we may be. A beautiful quality to have, and a beautiful state of mind to be in.

Allah subhana wata’ala mentions Taqwa and its people in numerous places:

ذَٲلِكَ ٱلۡڪِتَـٰبُ لَا رَيۡبَ‌ۛ فِيهِ‌ۛ هُدً۬ى لِّلۡمُتَّقِينَ (٢) ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱلۡغَيۡبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقۡنَـٰهُمۡ يُنفِقُونَ

This Book has no doubt in it – a guidance for the People of Taqwa. Those who believe in the Unseen, and are steadfast in Salah (prayer), and spend out of what We have provided them.
[2:2-3]

وَتَعَاوَنُواْ عَلَى ٱلۡبِرِّ وَٱلتَّقۡوَىٰ‌ۖ وَلَا تَعَاوَنُواْ عَلَى ٱلۡإِثۡمِ وَٱلۡعُدۡوَٲنِ‌ۚ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ‌ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ شَدِيدُ ٱلۡعِقَابِ

Help each other in Birr (righteousness) and Taqwa (piety), and do not help each other in sin and aggression. Fear Allah, surely, Allah is severe in punishment.
[5:2]

وَسَارِعُوٓاْ إِلَىٰ مَغۡفِرَةٍ۬ مِّن رَّبِّڪُمۡ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرۡضُهَا ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتُ وَٱلۡأَرۡضُ أُعِدَّتۡ لِلۡمُتَّقِينَ (١٣٣) ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ فِى ٱلسَّرَّآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَٱلۡڪَـٰظِمِينَ ٱلۡغَيۡظَ وَٱلۡعَافِينَ عَنِ ٱلنَّاسِ‌ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُحۡسِنِينَ (١٣٤

Race with one another towards Forgiveness from your Lord and towards a Paradise the width of which spans the heavens and the earth. It has been prepared for the People of Taqwa. The ones who spend (for Allah’s sake) in prosperity and adversity, and those who control anger and forgive people. And Allah loves those who are good in their deeds.
[3:133-134]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us the concept of Taqwa and reminded us of it:

عن أبي ذر الغفاري رضي الله عنه قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم :
اتق الله حيثما كنت. وأتبع السيئة الحسنة تمحها، وخالق الناس بخلق حسن
رواه الترمذي

Abu Dhar Jundub bin Junadah and Abu Abdul Rahman Mu’adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with them) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
“Fear Allah wherever you may be; follow up an evil deed with a good one which will wipe (the former) out, and behave well towards people.”
(Narrated by Tirmidhi who graded it hasan.)

And he (peace be upon him) reminded us of Taqwa in the context of our community relations:

عن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال :
” المسلم أخو المسلم لا يخونه ولا يكذبه ولا يخذله ، كل المسلم على المسلم حرام عرضه وماله ودمه ، التقوى ها هنا ، بحسب امرئ من الشر أن يحتقر أخاه ”
رواه مسلم

It was reported from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“The Muslim is the brother of another Muslim; he does not betray him, lie to him or forsake him. The whole of the Muslim is sacred to his fellow Muslim – his honour, his wealth and his blood. Taqwa (piety) is here. It is sufficient evil for a man to despise his brother.”
(Narrated by Muslim, no. 4650)

And our righteous predecessors in faith, those who were amongst the earliest generations to the Revelation helped us understand Taqwa:

A man once asked Abû Hurayrah – Allâh be pleased with him, ‘What is al-taqwâ?” He replied, “Have you ever taken a path filled with thorns?” The man replied, “I have.” Abû Hurayrah asked him, “What did you do?” He replied, “When I saw a thorn I would dodge it or pass over it or behind it.” Abû Hurayrah said, “That is al-taqwâ.”
Al-Baihaqî, Al-Zuhd Al-Kabîr p351.

It is reported that Abû Al-Dardâ – Allâh be pleased with him – said:
You will never be pious (a person of taqwâ) until you become knowledgeable, and you will never be beautiful with your knowledge  until you act [by it].
Ibn Ábd Al-Barr, Jâmi’ Bayân Al-’Ilm wa Fadlihîarticle 1239.

It is reported from Maymûn b. Mahrân – Allah be please with him – that he said:
A person cannot be a taqîy (pious man of taqwâ) until he takes account of himself like he would with his business partner; and until he knows where he gets his clothing and food and drink.
Wakî’ b. Al-Jarrâh, Al-Zuhd Vol.1 p270.

Source

The late Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him) commented beautifully about the references to Taqwa:

At first, whoever ponders over the relevant reference to Taqwa in the Book of Allah (the Glorious Qur’an) and the Sunnah (whatever is reported from the Prophet) of His Prophet (peace be upon him) knows for sure that it is the main reason behind every good in both life and the Hereafter (…) Misfortunes, afflictions, ordeals, and punishments are only caused by negligence of or failing to observe Taqwa and not practicing it as a whole or in part. Taqwa is the cause of happiness, salvation, relief of hardship, dignity, and success in life and the Hereafter.
Source

And so, with these few references amongst the many, recharge and rejuvenate. And remember the magnificence, the power, and the honour of this station we seek.

إِنَّ أَڪۡرَمَكُمۡ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتۡقَٮٰكُمۡ‌ۚ

Surely the noblest of you, in Allah’s sight, is the one with the most Taqwa.
[49:13]

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُتَّقِينَ

Truly, Allah loves the People of Taqwa.
[9:4]

As-Salaamu ‘alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wabarakatu,

Bismillah, Wa-alhamdulillah, wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasoolillah.

Islam Awareness Week is upon us again, alhamdulillah! A lot of brothers and sisters are really excited to take advantage of another opportunity to do their part and convey the beautiful message of Al-Islam. The purpose of this short post is to, insh’Allah, provide some additional and timely beneficial reminders to keep everyone charged up for da’wah for the rest of the week.

Let’s start from the top; the word da’wah (دعوة) itself refers to calling, or inviting. That’s an important thing to keep in mind, because a lot of brothers and sisters sometimes think IAW stands for Debating-People-Into-A-Corner-Week. Think about it, how do you behave when you’re inviting someone over to your house? Do you make the person feel comfortable and welcome with simple and straightforward speech, or do you try to pull out your tabulated statistical data of past invite declines paired with the mean travel distance, standard deviation (all with sample calculations in the appendix, of course) down their throats? Of course there is a time and a place to debate, but chances are if you try to debate everyone you see you’re going to get frustrated pretty fast and end up eating all of our shahadah candy.

Speaking of shahada’s, it’s easy for us to get overwhelmed when we don’t see the results we’d like. Our duty is very clear; it is only to convey the message as best as possible. Allah (subhana wat’ala) says in the Qur’an:

مَّا عَلَى ٱلرَّسُولِ إِلَّا ٱلۡبَلَـٰغُ‌ۗ
“The Messenger’s duty is but to convey the Message.”
[al-Qur’aan, al-Maai`dah 5:99]

Look at the examples of the Prophets, they went through trial after trial, hardship after hardship, but remained determined and steadfast upon their noble duty. Nuh (‘alayhi salam) spent 950 years calling to tawheed! Take that in for a second, nine-hundred and fifty years! And even after that, Allah says in the Qur’an:

وَمَآ ءَامَنَ مَعَهُ ۥۤ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ۬
And none believed with him, except a few.”
(Al-Qur’an, Hud 11:40)

This should be enough for us to seriously question why we get discouraged so fast after just a couple of minutes of dealing with a philosopher who thinks everything is a dream. Even without direct results, we are rewarded for our intentions; in fact there are countless rewards for the one striving in da’wah.

The Prophet sualAllahu ‘alayhi wasalam said:

من دعا إلى هدى كان له من الأجر مثل أجور من تبعه لا ينقص ذلك من أجورهم شيئاً , ومن دعا إلى ضلالة كان عليه من الإثم ، مثل آثام من تبعه لا ينقص ذلك من آثامهم  شيئاً

“Whoever calls others to guidance will have a reward like the rewards of those who follow him, without that detracting from their reward in any way. And whoever calls others to misguidance will have a burden of sin like the burden of those who follow him, without that detracting from their burden in any way.”
(Narrated by Muslim, 2674)

Allah (subhana wat’ala) has given us a very powerful incentive not only to be very hesitant in our speech, but to also be really enthusiastic in our efforts to spread haqq. Imagine if Allah guides someone to Islam through you, or one brother or sister through you to establish their salah, or to remove a serious sin from their life.  Ponder for a moment, if Allah guides someone to start praying through you, and that person then has the same effect on two other people (and so on), that’s multiplied by a factor of Σ2ⁿ for each kink in the chain, so for 10 people that’s like x2047! This is just loose-pondering and I don’t want to start some sort of reward calculator trend (so don’t try to make an iPhone app), but just reflect on the immensity of the bounties that Ar-Rahman showers us with!

Finally, we can’t forget that da’wah includes educating Muslims as well, so remember to really go the extra mile in being inviting to Muslims you haven’t seen around, or those that you see but don’t know too well.

May Allah accept from us our efforts, and make us amongst those who strive in his cause. Ameen!

Author: Sabour Al-Kandari

Asalaamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatu,

OPEN THREAD! This means you comment, we read, you comment again, and we either pick a fight or learn something.

Reading week is upon us! Of course, it goes without saying that any sort of reading is blasphemy for the next 10 days, but since this isn’t school work, it seems like a great time to get a lot of website news up to date.

First, as you may have noticed, I’ve been playing around with the colours and added a winter effect. I’m a newbie photoshopper so just to let you guys know these things aren’t difficult if you try them, it doesn’t take much skill to google/youtube a quick lesson for what you want and implement it. Anywhoo the idea is to have some colour and thematic changes corresponding to stuff that’s actually happening, like for example the snow effect came on snow day, and something like a student NOT reading would correspond to reading week =).  Constant updates like that sort of give the feel that this website is still alive, and that I haven’t spontaneously fluctuated into another dimension, at least not yet anyway. This is where you guys come in, what do you think of the plan? Do you have any sort of cool effects or days in mind? Do you think such updates are better to be more frequent or less frequent? I didn’t want to make this into a poll because I need a little bit more detailed feedback.

Speaking of polls, can someone please look to the right and tell me WHAT is going on? Over half of our people are officially giving their school progress a death sentence. This is not cool guys, it’s a bit alarming if such a large amount of us aren’t feeling hype for school. Yes I know the education system sucks, but there still are ways to make the most of it. I wrote an article a few weeks back about doing better in school in case you missed it. Obviously that’s not really going to do much, but the point is to start a dialogue and get people to thinking that maybe it’s possible to really enjoy school. Drop a comment, especially if you voted (which all of you should if you’re on the website). What’s wrong? How are we going to fix this? Is there anything the MSA can do?

Another thing on the technical side is I’m thinking about integrating facebook comments on the website. This is really just a thought at this point and I have a bit of research to do, but I think it might encourage people to comment and *share* articles with their friends more. For some reason people are not too keen on commenting or *sharing*, they think you need a log-in account (you don’t need ANYTHING), and some feel overly-formal when writing. I want people to feel a part of a community on this website, but there’s no “u” in “community” at this point – oh wait there it is, err you get what I mean.

Also, we’re in need of blog submissions, so start cracking. If you have something interesting to share, write it, send it in, and as most of the authors have noticed I do give feedback and help throughout the process. Your brothers and sisters will benefit, you can tell your parents you’re a published writer, and they in turn will exaggerate further and tell their friends over dinner that you’re a best-selling author. I haven’t personally written as much as I’d like to, so I’d like to know what type of articles and categories are you interested in reading?

Oh yeah, this is a reading week thread too. Some of us have had our tests before and some will have it after insh’Allah.  10 days is a really long time guys, there’s a lot of potential to get some really beneficial stuff done (both Deen and dunya) and also have a ton of fun, so what do you have planned? Maybe your ideas will serve as encouragement for the benefit of others insh’Allah.

Author: Sabour Al-Kandari

You’ve left high school to finally embark upon the “real-world”. All of a sudden expenses went from field trips, lunch and maybe the bus into thousands per semester and hundreds per book. Classes went from students being an eraser’s throw away (good times) to titanic lecture halls in the hundreds. No doubt a lot of people take hits in their marks/GPA and achieving less may just stick with you well into the rest of your education – but just because university is different doesn’t mean you can’t do as well or even better while you’re here. It’s easy to get comfortable with personal underachievement when following the graduation carrot-on-a-stick, but as a Muslim who has made the decision to become skilled in worldly knowledge and has invested a huge amount of (healthy-life) time and money – it only makes sense to demand the very best from your personal potential, maximize the efficiency of these resources and not let them be squandered.

Abdullah bin Abbas (Radiallau Anhu) reports that The Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: “There are two bounties of Allah wherein most people are deceived, health and free time”.
[Bukhari]

I use the word “personal-potential” to highlight that everyone’s capabilities are different. You’re not here to measure yourself according to Mr. 9.0 (who isn’t just a legend by the way) but according to where you stand. A C+ may either be a great personal success for a D student or a failure for an A student. Although I must say I do believe success in school has much more to do with nurture than nature.

Anywhoo, every time I give advice about school I seem to always get to the same talking points – so it’s about time I sorted it all into an article and saved myself some breath. This article is geared towards university students but a lot of the ideas are general and can be extrapolated for anyone to benefit insh’Allah.

Scheduling

First things first, you MUST know your degree program and all of its requirements like the back of your hand (all the way up to 4^th year). You need this info to plan well ahead and do your best to beautify your semester’s schedule. This thing is going to be your soul-mate for the next three months so choose wisely and be very persistent and stubborn in getting what you want. I haven’t had a single semester where I wasn’t constantly tweaking my schedule and making rearrangements even after school started to get the best lab, tutorial or lecture. A lot of the time students really don’t take this as seriously as they should only to get owned mid way through and get their cash hustled by York on the drop date.

As for what makes a good schedule, that’s for you to decide and everyone is a bit different. It depends on your other activities, your work schedule and your commuting as well. If you live right beside campus coming 5 days a week might not be an issue for you, but if you have an hour and a half commute then having a day or two off will cut you a break.

The main idea though is you want to maximize your efficiency and use of time. You don’t want big holes where you have nothing to do and you don’t want the wrong kind of conflicts either. Some conflicts are OK and recommended because they are doable and give you a nice schedule in the end.

Also, ratemyprofessors.com is your bestest best friend fo eva. Do not be ashamed to internet stalk to oblivion and find out everything you can about a professor and the course you’re taking – and make decisions based on the information you get. Don’t underestimate the power of preparation, even if you find out he has a dog you know what to kidnap in case he pulls a fast one for the exam (muahaha). Seriously though this has made a world of difference for me and I’ve avoided so many headaches and/or prepared myself for them.

Lectures

You’re probably used to hearing the whole “go to every single lecture and take down notes diligently” cliché but that’s not always the most wholesome advice. I completely agree with the attendance part, in most cases, you have to be out of your mind to miss lecture – you will fall behind and you will pay for it. Since this is the clearest advice I can give I’ll say it again, YOUR MARKS WILL BE HIGHER IF YOU GO TO EVERY LECTURE AND TUTORIAL! No exceptions, even if your professor sucks it’s an hour or two spent that you would have otherwise wasted in the MSA comparing beards anyway. Look, I screw up and skip too but don’t justify it – it’s a bad move that results from poor planning, so don’t fool yourself. Learning is much more efficient in class time and tutorial and in most cases you have to spend hours just to get ready to begin learning what you missed. Even if you do learn faster at home lecture becomes your safety net and for a small investment in time you gain more exposure to the material so again, your marks go higher.

As for the actual time in lecture and tutorial, the following advice may seem a little unorthodox to some people. Paying attention and understanding the material in class is a much higher priority than taking notes. I see the vast majority of students diligently regurgitating notes with little to no understanding of the material in question and end up wasting the entire point of going to lecture and tutorial – which is to learn and be exposed to the subject. The textbook and lecture slides don’t need you to rewrite everything again, they are there for a reason and if you don’t know what you’re writing you’re just a printer. It’s more important that you remain human and sit there, pay careful attention, swirl the material around in your head, build neural connections with other knowledge, try to make sense of it, and ask questions if you don’t. I personally don’t take notes for most of my classes unless there is a lot of undocumented material being presented that I can’t access later. Kicking notes completely out the window like I have might be a little extreme because writing good notes is really helpful – just remember it’s not the priority, not by a long shot.

Oh and while you’re in lecture, please turn away from Facebook, your cell phone, and Starcraft (you suck anyway). There’s no point, if you try to half-do two things you end up less than half-doing and double failing. I completely understand some Profs are so horrible they are practically breathing out chloroform fumes when they speak, but you have to do your best to hang on and not give in. Sleep well the night before, bring snacks, and enjoy the show (I will bring popcorn to a lecture one day insh’Allah).

Labs

(If you don’t have labs you can skip this section)

When I think of students in the laboratory the only words that fit perfectly that I can think of is a phrase in Pashto, “war khata”. I really don’t know how to translate that, but it’s a lot like being a chicken with your head cut off. It’s when you’re confused, nervous, inefficient and just plain not using your head. No worries it happens to everyone, but sooner or later you should figure out the vibe of the laboratory and realize how repetitive and similar most labs are. Everyone wants to get out of there asap, so in order to prevent this confusion and inefficiency, reading the lab manual isn’t enough. You have to understand the lab in question and it’s not that hard to figure them out. Take for example this part I took right out of my CHEM 3030 lab manual:

Dissolve 2.5 g of [Co(NH₃)₄CO₃]NO₃ in 25 mL of water and carefully add concentrated HCl (2 to 4 mL) until all of the CO₂ is expelled. Neutralize with concentrated aqueous NH₃, and then add about 1 mL excess. Heat for 20 minutes, again avoid boiling….

To me that just translates into “take this thingy and put stuff in it” – and that’s most of the lab. The rest of the manual goes on to say “put funky stuff in machine and press print graph”. Remember you are actually going to reread the lab manual a zillion times again during the lab so there’s no point in getting tangled with the individual measurements and specifics. Just understand the jist of it, the important stuff/precautions and simplify! Oh and try to understand the actual science behind what you’re doing so you can actually learn something and appreciate the awesomeness of what you’re doing (unless you’re in bio1010 – nothing to learn in those labs lolol). Also, try to get away from negativity and the “oh man labs suck” attitude as much as you can, it just makes your life harder.

As for writing reports, I must have pumped out about 20 reports this semester alone (alhamdulillah I’m still alive). You get faster at them as you go along and each class and TA has their own style for the level of detail (read: redundant explanations and overkill of the subject) they expect. It’s really helpful to actually know what you did in the lab. Also, my gr.12 physics teacher taught me a technique where he would just run through every section (intro, results, discussion) and jot down quick points for what needs to be there to make it easier to fill in later. If you understand the lab just tabulate the results/calculations nicely (I usually do this first) then have quick explanations of what went down in the relevant sections and if your marker wants wordy jargon you can build that around this core.

Essays

(If you don’t have essays you can skip this section)

One of my biggest criticisms of the current school system is the weakness of the writing skill it pumps out in its students. The issue with good writing is that it’s an art and a science at the same time. It requires a lot of core logic in the skeleton but a lot of stylistic sense to build around it. Nobody is born knowing how to write by the way, and so these are skills that you have to practice with, take continual criticism with and nurture throughout your life alongside with strong speaking which is connected closely. This is something that you will reap the benefits from your whole life. The secret here is to thrive off criticism and constantly push yourself to figure out where you can get better – don’t ever get comfortable with the level you’re at.

Learning by observation is excellent for this, and so you have to develop a personal love of reading. There are zillions of topics out there and many blogs on different subjects from Islamic studies to useful/interesting worldly knowledge, so you have to figure out what you’re interested in and indulge into the world of the pen. A lot of the time people who are usually good at writing read more than others.

Aside from this work at the personal level, for actual assignments you have all the resources available to you with professors/TA’s/peers that will edit and give you the feedback that you need, but then another problem sprouts up…

LAZINESS. The vast majority of weak writing (and speaking) does not have the proper time and effort put into it. You need to edit, edit, edit and then edit again. This isn’t just about spending hours and hours but actually spending hours and hours efficiently and targeting the right issues. If your core skeleton is weak and you don’t have strong and clear arguments and research to back up your thesis, pulling an all-nighter to rephrase all your paragraphs isn’t going to help. Similarly, if you have all the research and arguments to support a well-defined thesis but your writing has no natural flow, is confusing, hard-to-understand and riddled with grammatical and spelling errors more research isn’t going to help either. Again, you need to get feedback from others because a lot of the time things sound good in your head but don’t read the same when most people are looking at it.

Evaluations: Tests and Exams

Here it is, crunch time! Regardless of how hard you worked and how much you know the material, it all goes through the filter of how well you perform on the evaluations. This is why, and most people still don’t get this, test taking is an art and science in and of itself.

I should have put this in the “scheduling section”, but aside from labs/assignments this is where the beauty of having an agenda really shines. I personally use the calendar part (with two months on one page) of the York agenda to fill with all the due dates, tests and assignments (and other reminders) to really see and plan ahead. You know, having three exams in two days isn’t as big of a surprise or an issue when you’ve been seeing it on your desk for a month and a half beforehand and can figure out where the open spaces are for good studying.

On top of this, you really need to find yourself a nice place to study. A nice, comfortable, quiet zone of awesome where you can concentrate on your work and have all the resources you need (books, paper, internet) to do any and every kind of studying and/or plan for world domination. A lot of people really love studying at school and in the library which I don’t quite understand to be honest, but hey whatever works best for you. For me personally my optimal studying place is in my room at my desk with the door closed. I have all my books and utensils and can go to my computer to access online resources (like googling subjects and looking for helpful websites/videos) and I can take enjoyable breaks and grab food without having to pack everything or make time and money wasting trips to the student center.

As for studying itself, I always say there’s a difference between studying hard and studying right. You can study hard for a zillion hours and pull all-nighters but it won’t make any difference if you are inefficient. What defines efficiency depends on the nature of the course, the material and the professor. Some courses are really heavy duty memorization (I’m disgusted by this more than you are) so you need to be able to list out all the important stuff you learned from going to lecture and asking the professor and learn memorization techniques like association, grouping, and repetition. If you try this with other courses however that are heavy problem-solving you’re going to be turned into road kill. For those you need to actually learn to solve problems ON YOUR OWN and develop those skills which you’ll only get from doing the assigned problem sets and going to tutorials. I can’t count the number of students in chemistry/physics courses that think they can get away with reading the textbook for hours and walk into the exam. Or, they do the problem sets but only through LOOKING AT EVERY ANSWER without learning to do it on their own. The formula for success is very simple; you’re not going to have the answers on a test. Figure out what you’re going to have to do for the exam (remember stuff/solve problems etc) and practice doing that on your own in a simulated test environment.

This is actually one of the reasons organic chemistry (CHEM 2020) has a reputation for being such a hard course, because it requires serious memorization, understanding the concepts and being a pro at problem solving at an even higher level than most people are used to. What happens is a lot of students (especially biology noobs) walk in and see the stuff as simple and easy to remember at the superficial level but don’t fully understand the high degree of actual comprehension, ingenuity and problem-solving skill it requires to answer the questions on the test. So please, if you’re in organic chemistry, do all the problem sets and be able to solve the questions on your own.

Being able to predict what type of questions you’ll get on the test and understanding your professor’s style is another skill that you have to develop as you go along.

Conclusion

As stated in the beginning, I am convinced that doing well in school usually has more to do with nurture (putting in the time, effort and work to grow) rather than nature (being born smart). Again, are you here to pay with time and money to be a sub-par version of yourself, or are you here to reap the benefits and grow from being challenged? Get motivated, and get rid of laziness and procrastination because those are diseases that will affect everything you do for the rest of your life – not just school.

The final point I want to make is one of the most important things I learned about work-ethic and ties the constant theme of efficiency together. A true lazy student never procrastinates. Laziness stems from the desire to minimize work, but procrastination implies you have to do it sooner or later (choosing later). The contradiction here is that procrastination actually increases the work load you have, and makes things more difficult and punishing and the only way to balance out the increase in work load is to do a worse job. Efficiency is really just a fusion of laziness and the desire to do a good job. As a result, you use your brain to target the right things to minimize the overall work load but maximize results. So if you’re in school, get efficient! Get your schedule organized, don’t procrastinate and think critically about how to get the most out of your time. You’ll do a better job, have less work to do and actually enjoy the time you spend at school!

Oh, and learn to relax and enjoy play time as well. Believe it or not, a lot of people who truly don’t know how to work don’t know how to have fun either because of inefficient wasting of time. Honestly, if you spend 6 hours for a 1 hour study session because of distractions and piling up studying, you just lost 5 hours of free fun time.

Like I said on the marriage article, I’m hardly an expert. So please, add to the discussion with your own knowledge, experience and study tips so we can all benefit insh’Allah.
May Allah grant us all success in this life and the next and make our education full of barakah, easy and fun. Ameen!

I sat there watching a flask of green liquid attached to a strange looking contraption. Still amazed, despite seeing the same thing before already, I stared curiously as the solvent in the green potion bubbled and crept up into a glass tube filled with streaming water, only for the gas to liquefy again and drop slowly back into the flask. It was a pretty cool way to heat up a reaction to make it go faster without letting the solvent fly away as gas. I was basically just trying to make the green stuff turn purple, but the whole process took a few hours. I turned away and looked at the time – and remembered I had to pray ‘asr – so I went to my TA.

“Hey the stuff is over there bubbling, I have to go pray.”

“You have to go what?”

“I have to go pray.”

“Ohh okay.”

“Can I pray somewhere in here?”

“Yeah sure anywhere!”

Easy enough! I don’t know why telling people you have to pray is a hard thing for Muslims to do sometimes. If you’re mentally sane and past the age of puberty, there’s no excuse for not missing salah! I picked a spot in the lab behind the UV-VIS machine so I would be out of people’s way. I prayed near the window facing the observatory where people searched through the nearest heaven looking for answers as I stood there in remembrance of the answers I’ve already been given.

Praying in a lab-coat became a regular thing (hey it sorta looks like a thobe) and nobody really came up and asked or commented about it, but I’m sure it was an interesting sight for them to see.

That’s just my little contribution, and it’s not necessarily the most interesting place I’ve prayed (I’ll share more in the comments as I remember) – but this is an open topic, sharing is caring! Cool pictures are also welcome!

Where are some memorable places you’ve established the salah?

Author: Sabour Al-Kandari

Due to popular demand, I postponed writing an article about the academic part of University life to write this one about marriage, why am I not surprised? Without further adieu, I present an over-simplified guide to life leading up to marriage.

Intention and Preparation

First things first, you have to get your niyyah (intention) in check. Are you looking for a spouse to improve your deen, move forward in your life and start a new page? Or is it all about raging hormones (brothers) or showing off to your friends (sisters). I can’t begin to stress how serious of an issue this is, if your intentions are bad, everything else will crumble. A lot of brothers are really into the idea of marriage because of one thing – and it causes a whole mess of crap with their judgement. Don’t get me wrong, getting married to prevent haram and fitnah is a good thing, but if it’s the only thing on your mind you’re going to find yourself looking for the wrong things in a spouse, rushing and making poor hasty decisions.

This brings me to the next point, is it even the right time for you to be getting married? Everyone’s different and will have their own unique situation, but you have to figure out how marriage fits in to your life with your level of maturity, behavioural preparation, academics/graduation, financial situation and family (everything you’re actually going to be dealing with while you’re married).  Here are just a few questions you could ask yourself about your level of maturity:

• (Brothers) How independent are you? Does your mom still do everything around the house for you and/or is your dad still your ATM? If you’re still a lazy slob, all you’re really planning on doing is an umbilical cord transfer from your mom to your wife.
• Are you sinful in certain areas that you really shouldn’t be? Are you not practicing? Do you have bad akhlaq, weak communication/compassion, a poor temper and are constantly bickering in your own house? These are things you have to settle before you get married, because they will just be compounded later on when life kicks in.
• Most importantly, do you realize the magnitude of the sacred trust with Allah that comes when taking on a spouse? Are you prepared for all the rights and responsibilities your spouse has over you that you will be held accountable for?

One really big question to ask yourself that sums up a lot of this is about the very real possibility of having a child and all the enormous responsibilities and tasks that come along with it (because that’s what happens when people get married, see Birds and Bees vol.1).

So where do you stand?

After careful consideration of all the above factors and more, you’ll find yourself falling into one of the following three categories on a scale of 1-3:

1. Not looking
   “I am not prepared to get married at the moment”
2. Passively looking
   “I would not be ready to get married if I found the right person tomorrow, but I do see it happening in the near future”
3. Looking
   “I am ready to get married, even if I find the right person as soon as tomorrow”

Of course you might be somewhere in between, maybe a 2.8 giving things a month or so.

Not looking

This category is the least problematic in terms of searching issues because there is no searching. However you might find yourself under family pressure to get married soon, especially if you’re a sister. Here’s the thing, don’t be afraid to constantly re-evaluate and rethink yourself and your situation. If you’re getting a lot of pushy sentiments from family/friends and proposals, keep an open mind to what other people are saying and give it some honest thought. Learn to thrive off other people’s feedback.

Passively looking

Most people in school would fall into this category, and it’s the most complex and capable of causing problems (gotta’ love being a youth)! The issue is you’re somewhere on the border of a social dynamic that tends to be more black-and-white. For example, what happens when you get an expression of interest from a potential candidate? Are you going to go through the meeting process, which is something someone who is “looking” would do, or would you tell them you’re not ready yet, which is almost a kin to a rejection and “not-looking” behaviour? There are a lot of details you have to iron out here, and you have to be especially vigilant in keeping your intentions in check, because there are so many fitnah causing behaviours you could fall into.

• Are you justifying lustful gazes at the opposite gender? “Hey I’m interested in marriage” you might tell yourself, but then what’s the difference between you and everyone else if you spend years doing that and never actually propose?
• Are you becoming more and more excessive in inappropriate inter-gender conversations?
• Do you find yourself hanging around the wudhu area at YorkMSA even when you still have wudhu!?
• Do you have a problem with poking non-mahrams (on facebook or in real-life)!?
• Do you fantasize about your “future marriage” with someone you see as “potential”? You should know something’s seriously wrong when your pre-named future kids Asma and Dawud get into the picture, and even more so when you’ve already decided their careers…

Despite all the opportunities to get on the wrong side of things, there are a number of positives that can come out of being in this category if you do things just right. For one, you can actually enjoy your last bit of time in single-life before you have a lot of responsibilities to handle. When you’re married you’ll have a lot less time to chill with the guys and play Call of Duty without getting a slipper thrown at you (Starcraft 2 +Black Ops = rethink marriage). You can make really special and productive use of this time and learn more about the deen, go to more courses and lectures and volunteer around the community. This will also give you a chance to learn about the fiqh of marriage and speak to other more experienced brothers and sisters so you can learn more about others’ experiences with married life as background info. Then, you’ll know what to look out for so you can improve on your own bad habits that you might get away with as a single, but will make your married life a headache.

The Priming Technique ©

Here’s something that I’ve seen work wonders. You might have parents that are oblivious to your future marriage intentions or are not on the same page about certain things. Use this as an opportunity to test and slowly mould the territory! Bring up very casual and gentle conversations about marriage in the future and your ideas, and figure out what you’re going to be dealing with on their side. This is the perfect time to slowly work with issues like how you want a spouse who is strong in the deen, what disagreements you may have with their culture, and other issues like moving out to your own place. The secret is to not be too aggressive and slowly give time for things to settle with them, which is exactly the resource you have! It’s easier to deal with things slowly now then all at once when you’re about to get married, which could explode in your face. They’re sure to suspect that you’ve already found someone, but once they realize you’re just being very transparent and open with them, it’s a brownie-point bonanza!

Looking

So you’re ready to get married but you’re not sure what to expect. You have to be clearly defined in what you’re looking for. Don’t ever pick someone based on what they “could be”, marry them for who they are. I don’t want to just copy and paste, but there’s an extremely useful article on “4 Rules to Picking Your Spouse Quickly” by brother Siraaj Muhammad whom I have a lot of respect for, here’s the link on his blog and be sure to check it out:
http://muslimbestlife.com/blog/?p=140

A big issue is that a lot of brothers/sisters are actually looking, but are still in passive mode. There are a number of factors at play here, parents being one of them. You’re going to have to make use of the priming technique but tweak for less time. Another thing is people don’t know where to look, but you really have a ton of places to choose from. Connections can be made through family, local masjids/imams, school and Islamic conferences just to name a few. Another reason for the lack of action stems around fear of rejection, which definitely needs to be dealt with. You have to be extremely comfortable with getting rejected and handing out rejection. The worst-case scenario is not getting rejected, it’s two people getting married who aren’t right for each other – so keep your priorities straight.

The other big one keeping people hesitant is haya (modesty/shyness) that’s naturally built into people. This is an awesome thing, but it shouldn’t be hindering progress and paralyzing Islamically appropriate interaction. One thing you can do is practice recreating the scenario in your own head with different potential outcomes (keep things realistic please, no flying/web-slinging/invisibility/super sayin 4 etc). If things are still difficult, there are a number of workarounds:

1.      Ask around and relay the expression of interest through someone else.

2.      Send an e-mail.

3.      My personal favourite, write a letter on a piece of paper and throw it at them as hard as you can (get your aim right), or make du’a and throw it blindly into the brothers/sisters section. Your projectile might need a little mass to fix its trajectory, so try filling it with rocks.
LOL just kidding. Seriously please don’t do that, I don’t want to have to answer on the Day of Judgement for paper-proposal madness.

Conclusion:

You’ll notice that most of the advice about such a huge social step targets your own heart and actions, and that’s really where the foundations are built. Be real with yourself and then you can be real with someone else.  You’ll also see how parents play a role in just about every step. Knowing how to keep things positive with your parents is a huge skill that you have to learn not just for marriage, but for your whole life. I’m hoping to write another article just dedicated to parental relations, “Parents Just Don’t Understand, but Neither Do You” insh’Allah.

Of course, I’m far from being an expert in this field. So please, share your own experiences/advice in the comments, alongside with any other sources of knowledge or potential reading so other people can benefit insh’Allah.

May Allah bless all of you and your families, grant you success with your marriages and bless you with righteous children. Ameen!

The history of science has always been based upon the cooperation and disclosure of ideas between mankind. Every notable scientist and every remarkable achievement has always been grounded upon the work of predecessors. As Isaac Newton, the father of physics and calculus said, “If I have seen further than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” These “giants” that Newton spoke of are recognized to be the pioneers of the scientific revolution, which is known to have began with Copernicus and continued through brilliant minds such as Galileo, Kepler and Descartes. These men are all known to have set the stage for Newton to end the revolution with an exclamation mark and shape modern science in the way it is known today.[1] The flaw with this historical model is that it fails to address the shoulders of the giants from the Islamic world whom Copernicus himself had stood upon. The contributions of Muslim scientists were so ground-breaking from previous global traditions and such foundational keystone ideas that the true revolution of science began in the Islamic world, and the incorrectly named revolution by Europeans was in fact an extension of their effort.

Before one can argue why the work of Muslim scientists changed the entire realm of science one must understand what modern science has become and what it had previously been, thus defining what can be classified as revolutionary. Without such a criterion to judge by, any advancement throughout history can be argued as a part of the scientific revolution all the way back to the invention of the wheel. One must understand that the scientific method today is built upon empiricism, which includes measurements, observations, experimentally testable hypotheses and at the very core mathematical models. This equipment allows for scientists to make their aim mathematically accurate and descriptive theories whose truth can be evaluated with more measurements, observations and experiments. The entire realm of physics is based upon the application of the precision and tools of calculus to describe the observable world. Chemistry is essentially the application of the models derived from physics, and in extension biology is the application of the rules governing chemistry. So in essence, mathematics is the ultimate tool from which all disciplines of science are built. This along with empirical observations and paired with the experimental design allow for initial discovery, constant critique of ideas and reshaping of theories to fit the perceivable world. Theories that are found to be more accurate than previous ideas may be seen as innovative, but these are simply the fruits that are gained from the more important methodology. Even today, centuries after the “revolution” in Europe, there are many breathtaking mysteries and inconsistencies with our scientific models, thus correctness cannot be the heart of what shapes modern science.[2] The ultimate quintessence of science is this scientific approach itself, and the pinnacle of revolutionary insight is what has molded it to take its present form.

The work of the medieval Greeks, Chinese, Persians and Indians however do not contain this rigorous empiricism and mathematization of the world which is characteristic of modern science. In fact, the predecessors of Muslim revolutionaries vehemently opposed the idea of a mathematically describable universe. The Greeks, despite their massive advancements in the field of geometry, were of the Aristotelian view that the powerful math they were already aware of was divorced from the real world. They felt that the world of geometry was an abstract realm composed of perfect shapes of squares, circles and triangles and that the natural world was filled with imperfection and irregular, odd shapes.[3] This Aristotelian view was so widespread and globally accepted that even with Islamic philosophers and scientists it was the dominant view. Also, the scientific theories themselves describing the natural world were not proposed in the form of an experimental and empirical approach, but were tightly knit with philosophical ideas and mythical traditions. Philosophers had created their own personal metaphysical ideas about the nature of the universe and then attempted to fit their observations into this understanding, rather than use observations to shape their understanding of the universe.[4] Such crippling ideas were so far off from a fruitful analytical approach and stood as a complete roadblock eclipsing the true scientific methodology.

Even if the philosophy of the Greeks did not tamper with the worldview of the relationship between science and math, they did not have the tools necessary to unite the two fields. The math required to describe the world relies heavily on the manipulation of equations and the usage of multiple variables – algebra. The term algebra has notable Arabic etymology; its original pronunciation would be Al-Jabr, meaning restoration. The name was coined and the discipline first established by the 7th century Muslim scientist Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in his book, Al-Kitab al-mukhtaṣar fi hisab al-gabr wa’l-muqabala, “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.” Because of the massive translation movement pioneered by the Abbasid caliph Al-Ma’mun, a massive wealth of knowledge was brought directly into the Islamic world from all over the globe.[5] This along with the centrality of the Islamic empire in the known world allowed for Al-Khwarizmi to learn the intuitive geometry necessary from the Greeks and pair that knowledge with the precise arithmetic of the Indians. The Greeks themselves could not advance their arithmetic to the level of the Indians because of the clunky nature of their Roman numeral system. The Indians however had established the immensely useful decimal (base ten) system of numerals and were able to quickly speed through multiplications, divisions, additions and subtractions in a few simple steps that would require the Greeks pages of work. Yet at the same time, important geometric calculations and properties of shapes were unheard of for them. Al-Khwarizmi did not simply just put the two together, but it required a very ingenious and revolutionary way of thinking to make use of the two disciplines and create an entirely new one. Beforehand, mathematicians would simply state something such as the square root of one hundred was ten, and ten multiplied by itself was one hundred and then go through the same process with more and more numbers. All of a sudden, Al-Khwarizmi came along with a completely different thought process that the number itself did not matter, and was indeed the least exciting part of the math. The most important part of math would be the usage of all the techniques necessary on the path to the final calculation of an unknown. Now the thought had become something such as any number, regardless of magnitude, would be equal to itself if the root was taken of it and then squared. This, as one can recognize, is also the basis of a very simple algorithm.[6] The name itself algorithm is a failed Latin translation of Al-Khwarizmi’s name and the idea of an algorithm has become the foundation for all of the techniques of algebra, calculus, and even modern computer science.

At first hand, one may not fully grasp the immenseness of this discovery, and the massive centrality of algebra in every aspect of science. With the power of Al-Khwarizmi’s book, scientists finally had the tools necessary to use logical mathematics to describe the behavior of nature. One was able to use geometry to establish precise models based on several variables for the previously thought irregular universe and then seek out and make a few simple observations to grasp hold of a much larger and previously unattainable description of the world. The easiest example for someone to truly appreciate the wonder at hand would be to imagine how a scientist would measure something as impossible as the size of the Earth. Without algebra, the only silly and unfeasible method for determining such a value would be to stick ruler after ruler across the entire world. Using algebra however, the 9th century Muslim scientist Al-Biruni was able to calculate the size of our massive planet using four, and only four, simple measurements that can be replicated within ten minutes. Three angles were measured using a normal astrolabe and one distance using a ruler. With some quick trigonometry and algebra, Al-Biruni was able to calculate the radius of the Earth to awe-inspiring precision, less than one percent off from the known value today![7] This revolutionary idea of being able to describe immensity and complexity previously beyond our reach using mathematical simplicity is truly the endeavor of modern physics. The fruits of this groundbreaking algebra are witnessed with countless marvels throughout time such as Einstein’s famous e=mc², an algebraic equation so simple it only contains two measurable variables and one constant, yet so powerful that mankind can use it to create nuclear weaponry capable of destroying the entire planet.

Along with Al-Biruni, many other Muslim scientists began to separate themselves from the Greek wavelength of thinking. The idea attributed to Copernicus for introducing mathematical models and empiricism was in fact already being developed centuries before him in the Islamic world by the 9th century Muslim scientist Ibn Al-Haytham. He, not Copernicus, originated the revolution of doubt, or shukook in Arabic, of Greek science and philosophy and pioneered the fusion of mathematics, empiricism and experimentation into science. Copernicus is also credited for his fearless challenge of the previously unshakable idea of the geocentric orbit, originated by the Greek Claudius Ptolemaist in the 2nd century. However, evidence from Al-Haytham’s work shows that he was historically the first person to be so heavily critical of Ptolemaist. In one of his books, Al-Haytham challenges the geocentric orbit by saying “Ptolemaist assumes an arrangement that cannot exist.”[8] Although he did not have the observations and mathematical equations necessary to publish a definitive piece destroying Ptolemaist, he was the initiator of future discovery by challenging scientists to do more research and make more observations regarding this illogical geocentric system. The scientists in the Islamic world who would take on this challenge from Al-Haytham would later be the same scientists whose ideas influenced Copernicus.

Along with the revolution of shukook, Al-Haytham is also accredited for being the first man to design the scientific method for experimentation. His ground-breaking work on shukook of Greek optics was not published in the same manner that scientific work was previously published in. Instead of simply presenting his ideas and expecting his readers to believe him, he encouraged reproducibility and analysis of the way he carried out his procedures. He provided testable hypotheses and then sought to prove or disprove them, followed by discussing the results and formulating a conclusion.[9] Such a procedure has become the complete foundation for all the work of science. Every single lab report and scientific research paper is written in the format which Al-Haytham designed. Future scientists in Europe would be so strongly influenced by this methodology that they would use this approach that Al-Haytham had provided them with to carry on their own investigations, leading to the wealth new ideas flowing out of Europe.

As one can see, the fundamental concepts of the scientific approach, mathematization and empiricism, were revolutionized and brought forth out of the crippling style of medieval science originally in the Islamic world and then shared with Europeans. These truly modernizing ideas were poured into Europe through later translations of Arabic work and through the interaction of Muslims and Europeans in Venice, Italy. The strong Islamic influence on Venice can be easily noticed even today with its close similarity to Middle Eastern architecture, notably in the House of the Camel. Shakespeare himself speaks of “merchants and Moores,” Moores being an almost derogatory term for Muslims arriving from the Islamic world to do trade.[10] Texts have been found which show instructions for prospective European merchants looking to travel to the Islamic world to work with Muslims, teaching them how to conduct themselves and even how European’s could attain respect by growing their beards. Many of the foundational works of Muslim scientists were translated into Latin, with Al-Khwarizmi’s book of algebra arriving in the 12th century, approximately 500 years after its initial publishing. The work of another Muslim scientist, Al-Battani, who recorded rigorous observations of celestial bodies in the 8th century, was translated in this time period as well. Even the work of the most famous and influential Muslim physician, Ibn Sina, was translated in the 15th century.[11] At this point, Europeans had the means to acquire knowledge from the beginning of the true scientific revolution in the Islamic world, and they were able to continue this tradition of change with their own magnificent contributions.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence for the continuation of the Muslim scientific revolution through to Europe can be seen within Copernicus’s work itself. In his book which is claimed to have begun the revolution in the 14th century, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” Copernicus made massive use of the observational data tables provided by Al-Battani almost 700 years prior. Even if the modern historical account cannot accept Copernicus to be the intellectual heir of Muslims, Copernicus himself quotes Al-Battani and mentions his great debt to him.[12] As if the influence of rigorous observations and the algebraic methodology was not enough, there is also even pejorative evidence that Copernicus had directly copied, possibly even plagiarized, the work of another Muslim scientist, Nasir al-Din Al-Tusi, without any recognition. Al-Tusi was the leader of the first observatory used as a center for scientific research in the world during the period of the Mongol invasion in the 11th century, and there he made countless observations and rigorous measurements of the motion of heavenly bodies. Most notably however, he is known for his correction of many problems in Ptolemaist’s geocentric model by proposing the mechanism known as the Tusi couple. In his work, he uses geometric and algebraic diagrams to express how planets move in the form of circles embedded within other circles. When compared to Copernicus’ work, one can see an illustration in which there is an exact replica of the diagram Tusi used in his book to explain the Tusi couple. The diagram Copernicus uses is so alike, that even the variables Al-Tusi made use of in Arabic such as “alif, dal, jum” and so on correspond to the exact same sounding letters in Latin, “A, D, G” and so on in precisely the same spots Tusi used in his own diagram.[13] Such decisive proof shows that Copernicus, the “father” of the scientific revolution, was indeed firmly based on the shoulders of previously established Muslim scientific endeavors.

With so many keystone and groundbreaking ideas stemming out of the Islamic world which had direct influence on Europe, one cannot help but question the modern historical account of the scientific revolution. As stated previously, the contributions of Islamic scientists were so crucial because they directly shaped modern science itself, and they were so radically different from previous thought, that the Islamic scientists must belong to the scientific revolution. The revolution more accurately begins with Al-Khwarizmi’s development of algebra, the essence which gives all science possibility. This revolution then continued through many, many notable scientists in the Middle East such as Al-Haytham, Al-Biruni and Al-Tusi. The intellectual movement then bridged to Europe through Copernicus, and continued from there through the ingenious minds of Galileo, Kepler and Descartes for the revolution to be finalized and the shape of modern science to be completed by Isaac Newton. To truly honor the work of pioneers, there is a tradition within science to name units of measurement and new discoveries after past scientists, such as the newly discovered element 112 Copernicium. Since Al-Khwarizmi is still technically recognized with algorithm, it is proposed for scientists to remain true to their historical heritage and upon discovery of element 113, grant it the name Haythamium.

“The bulk of the research for this essay is credited to this very entertaining documentary, which can easily be found online. Al-Khalili, Jim. “Science and Islam” on BBC Four. (Oxford Scientific Films), 2009.

1 Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1957), 142.

2 Henry P. Stapp, ”Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating Observer,” Springer, 2007, 145-146.

3 J. Al-Khalili, “Science and Islam” on BBC Four, (Oxford Scientific Films), 2009.