Hamza Masjid’s Youth Retreat: The Tales of Trials

Hamza Masjid (Valley Stream, NY) ran their yearly youth retreat yesterday, this time on “The Tales of Trials.” It was a really good program mashaAllah, fully loaded with extremely knowledgeable scholars. The program was done by Mufi Farhan’s organization, Children of Adam. I love their idea of full day “retreats,” because they provide a solid overview of one topic.

The day’s topics included stories of Surah Kahf, People of the Cave, Prophet Musa (as), Dhul Qarnayn, as well as discussions on halal and haram and the trials of wealth, youth, and power. All of the lectures can be viewed here: http://www.livestream.com/masjidhamzany or http://www.youtube.com/user/masjidhamzany

Here are some random quotes to give you a glimpse of the talks:

“Today we will eat anything, anything is an excuse for us to eat something. A friend just has to say ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s ok’ and we eat it.”

“Benefits of halal: Clean and sanitary meat, accepted dua, blessed life, spiritual efficiency, rewards, accepted salah…Jannah”

“Will you choose McDonalds, Subway, Taco Bell, or will you choose Allah?”

“Value yourself and value the orders of Allah” 

“Who is the man who apologizes for something definitely knowing he is right? A husband” (haha)

“The greater the test is, the greater the reward.”

“Today we ask people for dua so cheaply, ‘Oh, make dua for me.’ The elders used to say, ‘Don’t ask for dua, earn it!'”

“Every word, every syllable, in the Quran ties into our purpose” 

The thing about Hamza Masjid that I must point out because it is a cause for concern is their two large televisions in the women’s section that show the male speakers. Just like men, women too, have been commanded to lower their gaze. By putting up TVs, isn’t the masjid transgressing the lines of modesty established by the Quran?

Detriment to the Eyes

I don’t know where I heard this story but its worth hearing (/reading). There were two teenage type boys and they wanted to go see a movie. They went to their father to seek permission and the father inquired about the movie, the boys said that the movie was just a regular movie, it may have one or two inappropriate scenes but it will be over quick and they will just look away. So the father replied no. The boys actually kept asking until one time the father didn’t give a response. The boys figured that this was a good sign since he said no before. The boys went to their room and soon the father bought brownies for them, they smelled good and they looked good. The boys were surprised and started to take some, then the father said, “Before you eat these brownies, know that I added a miniscule amount of feces to them.” The boys were shocked and asked why. The father replied,”These brownies are much like your movie, even a small amount of impurity in them will ruin everything.”

Subhan’Allah just like these brownies would be a detriment to the taste buds, so too are movies/tv a detriment to the eyes. There are practically no movies/tv shows that are appropriate to watch for the respectable Muslim. And even if there is such a program, how then can we rationalize staring at the opposite gender for hours?

Even if you cancel your cable service, the internet is really the main issue these days. It poses a constant temptation as everything is free and easily accessible. I’ve heard Shaykh Husain tell us to seriously watch our internet usage in multiple lectures, and he did it very sternly. His reasons definitely included watching things, but also because we tend to waste great amounts of time on it. He recommended very minimal usage or leaving it altogether.

I’ve learned that breaking a habit is a lot harder than starting one. So instead of trying to break a habit of watching television, it’s best to implement different habits in place of it. Try knitting? No seriously. It’s so hard that attempting it will likely send you into a deep depression that will kill your desire to watch anything.

Protecting the Gaze (Part 3 of Retreat Lectures)

“Protecting the Gaze” By Shaykh Mohammed Hafiz Abdullah

In today’s society, hayaa (modesty) is discredited instead of being praised, it is even looked upon as a negative trait. Allah سبحانه و تعالى‎ says in the Quran, “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and protect their private parts, that is purer for them. And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and protect their private parts.” This quote means to restrain our eyes from the unlawful things, and from looking at the opposite gender. It also means to restrain our eyes from other people’s properties (like looking at people’s houses and wealth with admiring eyes). It is zina (unlawful intercourse) of the eyes to look at the opposite gender with lust. The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم even cursed those who go out in public dressed in a manner to attract the opposite gender.

The Shaykh also talked about how much sweeter your ibadat (prayer) will become if you could restrain your eyes from the unlawful. Whenever someone restrains the eyes from the unlawful out of fear of Allah سبحانه و تعالى‎, Allah changes that effort into Imaan (true belief). It is no wonder that today it is so hard for us to obey and act upon the rulings of the deen. Our hearts have not tasted that sweetness. When a person truly starts to taste the sweetness of Imaan, it’ll never leave his heart.

Our hearts are connected to our eyes, when we look at something, we start to admire it and think more and more about it. If that thing is good then alhamdulilah, but if that thing is bad then it could have catastrophic effects on the heart. If we protect our gaze then our hearts become stable, it’ll be easier for us to follow Allah’s commandments. And the more we let our eyes wonder, the darker our hearts will be.

Next time you consider letting your eyes wonder, think about how Allah is watching me, how disliked this thing is by the Prophet of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم. Consider the effect it will have on your heart.

My Thoughts: This is truly an important topic especially in our time, where modesty is practically unheard of. I heard in another lecture by Shaykh Khalid Abdul Sattar I think, that we should definitely avail of these 24/7 stores, and go grocery shopping after Fajr when there are fewer people (that might be tough but I try not to go mall-type shopping at nights/weekends/holidays etc). This is the importance of our environment. Even if you regularly protect your gaze, just consider the television, when else do you blankly stare at people of the opposite gender for one hour straight? Especially people who are made to look attractive. Just the TV in itself is killing our hearts. May Allah سبحانه و تعالى‎ purify our darkened hearts.

P.S. Protecting the gaze is proactive endeavor, we have to walk in a way that we’re not looking around everywhere (not stop ourselves after we’ve already looked).