The Term 1, 2013 SeekersGuidance Global Assembly

Term 1, 2013 is well underway. On Sunday night we had our first assembly of the year. We had many students join from all over the world. Thank you to all of those who could make it. We apologise for any inconvenience the rescheduling of the assembly may have had on any of our students.

The assembly had two sessions, a general assembly for students enrolled in the traditional curriculum, and a SeekersSteps Assembly for those enrolled in the new SeekersSteps curriculum.

Our MC for the occasion was Sidi Usman, who is a teaching assistant at SeekersGuidance Global. First up we heard from Sister Michelle, who is the SeekersGuidance Global Academy Director. Beautifully spoken, she gave advice on the important of being the right state of mind, spiritually and physically during our studies. She recalled for us an important intention to repeat each time we intend to seek knowledge. Imam Abdullah al-Haddad:

All praise to God, Lord of the Worlds, and salutations and greetings upon our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions. I intend to study and teach, take and give a reminder, take and give benefit, take and give advantage, to encourage the holding fast to the book of God and the way of His Messenger, and calling to guidance and directing towards good, hoping for the countenance of God and His pleasure, proximity and reward, transcendent is He.

Sister Michelle suggested that we copy this down, place it somewhere visible on our wall and then repeat it as often as we needed to. She also emphasised the importance of good manners (adab) whilst studying, whether that be from home or in the class setting.

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani, joined us to speak about thankfulness and reiterating the importance of having high intentions. We pray that the students benefitted from the recording replayed via the livestream interface.

After a short break we resumed with the SeekersSteps Assembly with Shaykh Yahya Rhodus who spoke about building the foundations to our religion, and that this can be done using the SeekersSteps Curriculum. He asked us to realise the blessing of having this curriculum, and take it seriously, with serious learning and with serious commitment.

“Knowledge is great, if you give it all of yourself, it will give you part of it. But if you only give it part of yourself then it will give you nothing,” said Shaykh Yahya Rhodus.

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani then joined us and advised that whomever Allah wishes well for, He grants him knowledge. Then he mentioned that is not enough to seek, but be consistent, put in effort and in the correct direction.

Shaykh Faraz says that sincerely seeking this knowledge is a declaration of love for the Messenger. We have access to the gift from the Messenger. How do we make most of this??

Below are some articles of suggested reading:

Keys to Successful Seeking of Islamic Knowledge – Advice from Teachers and Teaching Assistants: https://seekersguidance.org/blog/2011/01/keys-to-successful-seeking-of-islamic-knowledge-advice-from-teachers-and-teaching-assistants/

Importance of Intention in Seeking Knowledge: https://seekersguidance.org/ans-blog/2009/05/28/importance-of-intention-in-seeking-knowledge/

Ten Adab of Seekers of Knowledge – Ayaz Siddiqui: https://seekersguidance.org/blog/2010/02/ten-adab-of-seekers-of-knowledge-notes-by-ayaz-siddiqui/

Seeking Benefit as a Seeker of Knowledge – Imam Zarnujis: https://seekersguidance.org/blog/2011/04/seeking-benefit-as-a-seeker-of-knowledge-explanation-of-a-chapter-of-imam-zarnujis-work-on-the-adab-of-seeking-islamic-knowledge/

Advice Regarding Being a Student of Knowledge and Taking Notes: https://seekersguidance.org/ans-blog/2011/08/12/advice-regarding-being-a-student-of-knowledge-and-taking-notes/

The Intentions for Seeking Knowledge: https://seekersguidance.org/blog/2009/12/the-intentions-for-seeking-knowledge-imam-abdullah-al-haddad/

Adab of seeking knowledge: https://seekersguidance.org/blog/2011/09/the-etiquette-of-seeking-knowledge-nur-sacred-sciences/

Ten adab on seeking knowledge: https://seekersguidance.org/blog/2010/02/ten-adab-of-seekers-of-knowledge-notes-by-ayaz-siddiqui/

Using time wisely in seeking knowledge: https://seekersguidance.org/ans-blog/2012/05/16/using-time-wisely-finding-a-teacher-and-the-accountability-of-seekers-of-knowledge/