UK was a great trip and the graduation went well alhamdulillah. After I was back in Malaysia, there were just too much things to catch up with because the week after my arrival back in Malaysia is the beginning of the new semester. I was given three new subjects and I have taken some times in Cambridge to look for some materials. Yet, when I came back, it wasn't preparing for the lectures that I was assigned to do but other administrative stuff like quality assurance, accreditation, auditing, bla, bla, bla. It actually wasted like a week of my time while combating with the awful jet lag (I literally sat on my office chair and started to snor away in that upright sitting position without any support!).
Anyway, this is the end of the second week of the new semester, so things have begun to get a bit more stable. And it was Christmas holiday yesterday, so took a bit of time off and remembered that I still have a blog to update, after leaving it behind my mind for a long time.
A brief reflection of my visit to the UK. GREAT! No other words can describe it. Though I didn't get to meet everyone I want to but I have met more people than I would have ever imagined in a very short visit. Alhamdulillah. Really appreciate those friends who kindly let me stay at theirs, use their space, eat their food, take their time, etc. May ALLAH reward them abundantly and may they make all these halal for me.
Taking on new subjects is a big challenge for a new lecturer like me. More so, if it is a master subject because I have to prepare for 42 hour of intellectual and academical lectures for the level of a master degree. I have to prepare and deliver more than what I know and read. This can only mean that I won't be able to sleep the night that I am preparing the lecture because I feel like doing an assignment that dues every week! And there are four assignments (four subjects this semester - two undergraduate's and two postgraduate's) with four different datelines every week! Do you still want to be a lecturer?
Anyway, as time passes, we are now already in the new year of 1431H. So, happy belated new year! Today is 9th Muharram and tomorrow is 10th Muharram or the Ashura Day. Don't forget to fast today (if not, take the 11th) and tomorrow because the Prophet Muhammad (saw) had asked us to do so though it is not compulsory. Why 9th or 11th? Well, the explanation should start with why 10th?
10th of Muharram in the Abrahamic faith has a significant history. It is on this day that ALLAH saved Prophet Musa or Moses (as) and his people (most of them are what we known today as the Jews or actually they are the children of Prophet Ya'akub or Jacob (as) or the Israelites). So, when the muslims immigrated to Madinah from Makkah, they saw that many Jews fasted on this day to remember the day that their ancestors were saved. This marks the day they called Yom Kippur - which literally means the day of attonment. The Jews fast for 25 hours on this day. When this news came to the Prophet Muhammad (saw), he said that the muslims are more deserving to fast on this day because Musa is more deserving to the muslims than the Jews.
And it was actually made compulsory to fast on this day before the commandment of obligatory fast for the muslims in the month of Ramadhan in the year 624. So the fast on this day is highly recommended although not compulsory. Later, the Jews started to mock the muslims for following them to fast on the day of Ashura, the Prophet Muhammad (saw) made the determination by saying "inshaALLAH" that he will fast another day together with the day of Ashura in the coming year to differentiate the fast of the muslims from the Jews. But ALLAH took his life away before he met the next Muharram. So, fasting on 9th or 11th of Muharram is recommended as well because it is like a will of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) to his ummah.
If this doesn't get you to want to do some voluntary fast, what about this hadith:
Muslim reported from Abu Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said , "The best of fasts after the month of Ramadan are in the Month of Allah, which you call Muharram. And the best of prayer after the obligatory prayer is the night prayer." [Muslim, 1163]So, it is good to fast anyway in this month. Pick any days that you are convenient to do so. Only that Ashura Day has more signficance than the other days in this month:
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Fasting the day of `Ashura' (is of great merits), I hope that Allah will accept it as an expiation for (the sins committed in) the previous year”(Muslim)So, happy new year and may your fast be accepted by ALLAH, that your fast is counted as like fasting for an entire year and all you sins of the previous year will be expiated. Amin.
It is mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim from Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with him and his father) that he was asked about fasting the Day of `Ashura [10th of Muharram]. He said, "I did not see the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him) fast a day while more avid to seek its virtue than this day, (meaning the Day of `Ashura)." [Bukhari (2006), and Muslim (1132)]
It has been reported from Abd Allah ibn `Amr ibn al-`As (Allah be pleased with him), that "Whoever fasts `Ashura it is as if he has fasted the entire year. And whoever gives charity this day it is like the charity of an entire year."
ALLAHU'alam.
Wassalam.
