About
Alhamdullillahi rabbil ‘aalameen, wassalaatu wassalaamu ‘alaa ashrafil mursaleen sayyidinaa Muhammadiw wa ‘alaa aalihi wa as-haabihi ajma’een
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Think of all the Jumu’ah khutbahs that you’ve been to during your life on earth up to this point. Think of all the lectures, speeches and bayans that you’ve listened to. If you were asked to relate, right now, something that you’ve learnt from one of them, for how long would you be able to speak? If you were asked to write it down, how many pages would you be able to fill? Would you be able to share even just one thing, or would you draw a blank?
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The reality is that many times we attend beneficial lectures, but very soon thereafter we forget whatever we’ve learned. This is a trait of mankind: we are forgetful by nature. In Arabic, man is called insaan, and he is given that name because of the abundance of his forgetfulness (the word comes from the root letters noon–seen–yaa which means to forget). One shaikh, in a talk I was present at a very long time ago, advised the congregation to keep with them a piece of paper and a pen whenever going to a lecture, and to jot down some notes. At that time I thought it very sound advice but unfortunately I did not act on it. Recently, I attended an Islamic conference where all the delegates were provided with pen and paper. This meant that this time, I was able to do as the Shaikh had advised.
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But how many books don’t we have, that are filled with notes, yet they just sit on our shelves, neglected? For myself, if I have something on my computer I find it much easier to refer back to. So from now on, bi idhnillahi ta’ala, I hope to try and take some paper and a pen with me whenever I go to a lecture, and take some notes. And then I’ll upload it to this blog. Firstly, for my own benefit, so that I could easily come back to it. And secondly, so that others might also be able to benefit from it.
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At first I thought of calling the blog “Notes from Lectures” or something like that. But when listening to the speakers and everything that they imparted, I found that it’s not really possible to do justice to their speech and record everything they say. But there are some things that are raised that stick in the mind more than others, some points that are found to be more striking and beneficial. So instead of notes of the entire lecture, what will be shared here will merely be some brief “Points of Benefit”, even if just one thing.
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The tag line at the top reads, “knowledge that is benefited from”. It’s taken from this hadith: “Idhaa maatal insaanu inqata’a ‘anhu ‘amaluhu illaa min thalaath: illaa min sadaqatin jaariyatin, aw ‘ilmin yuntafa’u bih, aw waladin saalihin yad’oo lah – When a person dies, all of his deeds are cut off, except for three: an ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, or pious child who prays for him.” (Sahih Muslim)
May Allah ta’ala accept this endeavour and make it an ongoing good deed, for myself and for all the shuyookh from whom these points are taken.
Points of Benefit 
Mar 05, 2012 @ 12:48:34
Excellent initiative, and one that I hope will be of maximum benefit to yourself and all your readers. I find that many times, I do take notes – but then they sit on the shelf, accumulating dust. Years ago I had the idea of doing something similar to this – typing up those little notes i’d scribbled and putting it into some kind of unified format – but I never got round to it.
I’m glad you’re putting in the time and effort with this, and please remain steadfast on it. A related kind of concept, perhaps, would be a ‘Lesson of the day’ – where maybe you could compile a calendar or diary-type thing where each day, one of these lessons would be the thought for the day – the lesson that the reader tries to remember and implement that day.
In terms of contributions, I can add some insha-Allah. But if you’d like some already, check out the now-defunct blog at: http://palmsofwisdom.wordpress.com/ . That’s a project my wife and I started years ago, to serve a similar purpose to this one – but we didn’t continue. Feel free to take from there if you find anything you can use. (Please include that link for the credit).
PS: I have a suspicion I know you….
Mar 05, 2012 @ 22:15:13
Jazakallahu khair.
This blog almost died. I had a backlog of months worth of notes to post up and wondered whether I’d ever get the time to post them all. Only thing that got me to do it was the hadith about the most beloved deeds to Allah ta’ala being those which are small but consistent. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it going in-sha Allah.
(P.S. I think I know who you are. 🙂 I’ve narrowed it down to two people.)
Mar 06, 2012 @ 07:01:53
Good thing you continued – and i love that hadith. It’s one that should be a prominent motto in life, and one we need to often be reminded of.
And don’t quit on this, even when time is short. You don’t need a lot – because blogs require very little effort to maintain. Once you’re set up, you can even post a very short item – like the advices or quotes here – and it’d count as ‘new material’; no explanations or long-winded discussions needed.
And, since the word “POINTS” is in the title, that’s pretty much what to expect here.
I’m sending a mail to the person i THINK you are…will see it i’m correct 😉