Last Friday,  me and Mr went to a talk by Shaykh Abdulbary Yahya in Taylor's University. The title of the talk was "The Shepherd's Path'. It was about the story of our beloved Prophet Muhammad S.A.W.

This was our second time attending an Islamic talk together, the first was Imam Suhaib Webb's talk about 8 months back. Its always a good feeling, attending Islamic talks with him. Like for an hour or so, we were both on the same page, gaining the same knowledge on Islam, telling each other "Eh write that!" or giving eye contact or signs that say "Hah! Listen to that!"... and I love the follow up discussions we have in the car later after the talks.. (although it may sometimes turn out to debates and fights haha)

I notice that most of the attendees came in groups, probably a usual thing for them, to attend these seminars with a group of friends who share the same interests. I'm sure they often get invites to attend these seminars to improve their knowledge in Islam, how lucky!

As for me and Mr, I have to say that it has never really been our top priority, but I'm glad that we remind each other, that sometimes, we need to attend Islamic talks, in order to remind ourselves too. "Eh jom! There's this talk on... yadda...yadda...yadda..."

We can be a bit picky and bias though. Honestly, we love it when the foreigners talk. First of all, its because its conducted in English. Secondly, because they're easier to relate to our modern practices and it really gets to the heart. We don't get reminders on how we'll be punished if we disobey, instead we're being taught and reminded on how we can improve ourselves and purify our hearts - a more overall positive approach.

There was a moment during the talk, Shaykh talked about the day of the death of our Prophet S.A.W, and while he was telling the story, he teared. I looked around and I saw another 5-6 others, bringing out tissues from their pockets/bags, and wiped their tears too. Me and about 50 others in the hall just listened to his story, just like it was another story.

At that moment, I felt ashamed. Ashamed that I didn't love our Prophet as much as these people did. If we love someone, when we talk about them or their deaths, we can feel the sadness in our hearts. But how can we love someone, if we don't know the person well enough? I was ashamed.

Here we are in this modern world, trying our best to know every single thing about Beyonce's life and her pregnancy, go hysteria over Justin Bieber, and mourn on the death of Steve Jobs, and we read books of top international footballers, and we don't even bother to know our Prophet a little better? Other than stories being told by our Ustaz/Ustazah?

In order to love someone, we need to know and understand the person well. What have we done to understand and know our Prophet Muhammad S.A.W well?

Oh. What a reminder.



To keep updates on other related seminars/talks in Malaysia, you may check out:
1. Al-Kauthar Institute
2. Al-Maghrib Institute
3. Young Muslims Project