February 25, 2008
Bristol Uni's Isoc - Islamic Awareness Week
Day 1

Evening Talk : Muhammad The Walking Quran

Me and my mates (Asnida, Azizah, Alifah, Ustat, Anas, Adam, Smap and lovely juniors..holler!) went down to the evening talk at the Physic's Building today, and I must say it was really intriguing. There was a bit of a glitch because the speaker had a bit of a rough and delayed journey down to Bristol all the way from London, so we started off the talk with a bit of video about Islam.

The video is a brief view of the aspects of Islam, more as an introduction of Islam. However, I myself find it quite well made and reminds me of what Islam is truly all about. I've forgotten already what the title of the video is...it explains that Islam is such a beautiful way of life and makes me wonder how all these bitterness and estrangement towards Islam came about in the first place. This was discussed and debated over later on in the evening.

So the video lasted about...an hour and a half and then we had a Q&A session. There was this one particular question which was very much expected - "How can the beauty that was theoretically explained about Islam look so violent and barbaric in reality"....more or less that was the phrase that one of the audience asked. And the term jihad came about as well. Our Isoc president explained that....jihad is to protect your country, your people against oppressors. Purely self defense. It does not mean "holy war". Another woman from the audience added that, jihad literally means "to struggle".....not "to fight". Its more like...to struggle against your own evil, to struggle against oppressors, to struggle against problems. We muslims know this. But its so misinterpreted here in the western world.

The speaker finally made it alhamdulillah and he explained further that, Islam is peacefullness...Islam is what we muslims practice day in and day out to please Allah. Not to make war with. It is the interpretation of the human being, interpretation of the words of Allah not taken as a whole but taken in bits and pieces, especially when it comes to jihad, that causes violence in the name of God. I wish I could remember the exact words of the speaker, but ofcourse I have not a photographic memory. But something he said did strike me. He said that...Islam and our struggle on this earth never was about the land...it never was about Afghanistan, or Iraq or Palestine or any other bits of the earth. Its about the heart. Its about our pure, good and honest intentions and its about pleasing Allah and devoting our entire life to gain his love (or did he say mercy? can't really remember). Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the most perfect example of humble human goodness, devoted totally to Allah. He is truly the walking Quran.

That is all I can really contribute to this struggle for today. I am not by all means a prefect Muslim. Sometimes I make terrible mistakes and sins and forget to ask forgiveness from Allah. I can only hope to Allah that someday soon I'll be a better muslimah than what I am today.

As a last note, the video that I mentioned spoke a bit about Malcolm X and how his pilgrimage to Makkah changed him from a leader who makes "sweeping indictments of all white people" as he phrases it to someone that sees how Islam tosses all these racism aside and makes us all equal. Here's a quote from him thats trully inspiring:

"During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana." 10:52 PM
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