Bismillahirrahmaannirrahiim.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil-‘Aalamiin.
Assolaatu wassalaam ‘ala asyrafil-anbiyaa’I wal-mursalin
Sayyidina wa Habiibina wa Syafii’ina wa Maulana Muhammad wa ‘ala aalihi wa sohbihi wa sallim
Mawlaya Solli wa Sallim da’imaan abadaan
‘Ala habibika khairil-khalqi kulli himi.
Love.
It makes fire feel like water.
It makes the foul smell like musk.
It makes alloy seem like gold.
It makes pain taste like sweet saccharine.
But it can also make the truth look like falsehood,
Lies like the truth,
Poison like honey.
Experiencing love is the fancy, the yearning of every youth. It is that turbulent period just before reaching adulthood where girls start looking like angels on earth and boys like knights in shining armour. Every youth has that one special person for whom their hearts pound erratically, be it the hot lead actor of whatever movie that she swoons over or the girl in that other school he sees everyday in the bus.
Yet there exists a love more sweet, more grand, more precious, more worth our time and energy sacrificing for.
Love for Allah ‘azza wa jal and love for his beloved Messenger, our Beloved, our Leader, our Intercessor, our Protector Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him.
It was this strong, intense love for Rasulullah s.a.w. that drove Imam Sharafuddin Muhammad Al-Busiri to compose a long poem (10 chapters long, to be exact) which resulted in a dream with Rasulullah s.a.w. helping him to continue where he was stuck at and his half-paralysed body cured completely after being thrown over it the cloak (Burdah) of Rasulullah s.a.w.1
I believe it is also this same love that inspired the ‘Selawat Ke Atas Rasulullah s.a.w.” series, and Alhamdulillah, the response to this effort has been overwhelming.
The fourth installment to this was held recently on 26th March at Masjid Omar Kampong Melaka, as was the first installment. This installment, however, was targeted more for the youths and the Qasidah Burdah was the focus this time round, aptly so in order to help the youths realize to whom their love should be directed.
The majlis started off with Al-Fadhil Al-Ustaz Hasbi Hassan drawing our attention to the recent onslaught of disasters that our Japanese brothers and sisters had faced and are still facing. Only with the power of water, Allah swt shows us His Might, how easily He can destroy everything.2
He then astonished us with a fascinating research made, ironically, by a Japanese scientist by the name of Masaru Emoto on the effects of human speech or thought on water. He proved that the nature of what we expose to water actually affects it in a drastic manner. Photos of water droplets before they are frozen which have been exposed to human speech or photos are then shown on the projector screens. Good speech actually forms beautiful water crystals while foul language throws the water droplets into disarray. SubhaanAllah.
What more then, Ustaz Hasbi says, if water is exposed to the Words of Allah s.w.t. and praises of Rasulullah s.a.w.? I’ve actually stumbled across this research several months ago, and found a video interview of Masaru Emoto and a group of Egyptian scentists whereby they expose water to recitations of the Qur’an and many more and captured a photo of the resulting water crystal. It is beautiful SubhanAllah, you may wish to watch it here:
It has no English subtitles unfortunately and was delivered in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic.
He then also asked, what more the effect of words on us? 75% of our bodies are made of water, hence the more beautiful words we hear, the more pleasant an effect it would have on ourselves. The more foul language we hear, the more we fall into disarray. Perhaps that explains the disenfranchised state of the youth nowadays since we have been overexposed to foul language and even more foul behaviour.
We were then serenaded by Syamil’s rendition of ‘Sifat 20’, other qasidahs and the first chapter of the Qasidah Burdah, which was called ‘Concerning the Love of Rasulullah s.a.w.’ by Ustaz Sofyan Yadi and the line up of youths in the mimbar area before Ustaz Zaki from Madeehul Mustafa gave his speech.
Young, good-looking and soon-to-be a father of two, Ustaz Zaki is more known as one of the duff players in Madeehul Mustafa and often projects a humble, soft-spoken image. It was hence a pleasant surprise to have him share about the history of the Qasidah Burdah in a captivating manner and express his love towards Rasulullah s.a.w. with such heartfelt emotion. I did not know that the Qasidah Burdah was more famous in the Arab countries such as Morocco and Egypt. SubhaanAllah.
One of the most impactful things he said was if we don’t start practicising asking for the syafa’at (intercession) of Rasulullah s.a.w. in this life, how do we expect to be able to ask for in while in our graves, during the Day of Judgement and many other instances in the Hereafter? SubhanAllah.
The majlis then continued with the second chapter of the Burdah, which was called ‘Concerning Restraining Lust and Carnal Desires’ and then a speech by Ustaz Sofyan addressing the parents, calling upon them to start exposing their children to gatherings of dzikr and selawat. He says that the dzikr of youths, even mosque youths now are the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber’s songs which have been proven to have Satanic and occult influences.3
The third chapter, ‘Concerning the praises of Rasulullah s.a.w.’ is then sung, followed by Ustaz Sofyan’s address to the parents once again, to help their children who are already married, and to adopt the parenting style of Rasulullah s.a.w. He then addressed the seniors in the crowd to follow Rasulullah s.a.w. in being a grandparent who had prayed for his grandsons to be the youth of Jannah. SubhaanAllah, I believe everyone present had benefitted immensely from all of the advice given.
We then reached the end of the majlis with the singing of another chapter of the Burdah and some qasidahs as well as a reminder from Ustaz Hasbi that in every gathering of 40 people, there is one person who is loved by Allah s.w.t. We do not know who that is, hence we should not think badly of anyone and should treat everyone equally.
The youth of Perkemas (the Association of Singaporean Muslim students in Egypt), former Madrasah Aljunied students and the youth under Ustaz Sofyan’s guidance were introduced to the audience as potential awliya’ Allah (plural of wali) and future leaders of the Muslims in Singapore. May Allah swt Make their affairs easy and ours as well, in being future Muslim leaders.
Such is the love and concern that our asatizah have for the Muslim youth here to the extent of dedicating an entire episode of the series solely to youth. We as Muslim youth ought to grab hold of and attend such events in order to learn who we truly are, who we ought not to be and to whom we should direct our love to. We should not sink to the low levels that so many youths have sunk to – we Muslim youths have our own identity and we won’t let anyone sway it.
Like Imam Al-Busiri, we should dedicate our hearts and lives in accordance with what Allah swt Commands and Prohibits, and with the Sunnah of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
If we want to love somebody, it should be Rasulullah s.a.w.. for he already loves us, long before we were born.
If we want to adore and look up to somebody, it should be Rasulullah s.a.w., for he is the Insaanul-Kaamil – the perfect human being.
If we want to obey and follow everything someone does, it should be what Rasulullah s.a.w. does, for obeying him means we obey Allah s.w.t.
That is what love means for us Muslims. Allah s.w.t. Alone Knows Best.
I seek forgiveness from Allah s.w.t. and from you in my shortcomings.
Wa SolAllahu ‘ala Sayyidinaa wa Maulanaa Muhammad wa ‘ala aalihi wa sohbihi wa sallim
Walhamdulillahi Rabbil-‘Aalamiin.
1 According to Ustaz Zaki, there are several versions of how the Qasidah Burdah came about. The one related in this article is the most popular.
2 This writer would like to apologise for not being able to relay the full programme as she had missed the first 20 minutes due to going to the mosque in the wrong direction.
3 Visit http://vigilantcitizen.com for more information.
Siti Mahirah Binte Malek
