Memorable stories from Mubarak's TPA

[mubarak_is#1]

Asalamu alaykum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatuhu,

As Sh. AbdulBary Yahya said...."As soon as he says that he has a story, we all of a sudden have big smiles on our faces."

Mashallah...Ustadh AbdulBary Yahya has a great sense of humor and always adds flavor to the class by throwing in a few stories here and there.

So what stories stuck out to you all.....

[mubarak_is#1]

When T.V. first came to one of the Muslim countries, one of the families there just got there T.V. Of course, there were some Muslim women in the household who are used to covering up in front of non-mahram men.

So when the T.V. was turned on...all of a sudden some men appeared in the television screen and the woman all ran to get there hijabs because they thought that the men could actually see them :)

[mubarak_is#1]

Ibn Mubarak, one of the greatest scholars of his time, had some students. One of the students said that Ibn Mubarak does what we do...he prays how we pray, fasts how we fast, etc. But what is it that makes Ibn Mubarak better and differentiates us and him?

They discovered the answer in the following situation that occured....

It was a windy night one evening and the wind blew out the candle. The students hastened to get the light back on and when they did, they found Ibn Mubarak's beard was wet with tears and he was crying. They asked him why he was crying and he said that when the candle went out, the first thing he thought about was the darkness of the grave.

The DIFFERENCE: The first thing that the students thought about was how to get the candle back on whereas Ibn Mubarak's first thought was the darkness of the grave

LESSON: The scholars when by themselves would have even more fear of Allah (SWT) and work harder to gain His pleasure and reward.

[John]

I recommend people put these stories down in their extra spaces of notes (If you have them!!) as a sort of journal. Then you can save them. There are so many stories, Alhamdullilah.

Someone ought to put that on the gem board: "Crusty Underwear: 'You never know where hidayah will come from!" (Shaykh said that :) )

The lights were turned off in my house, and I thought of that man crying. Allah forgive us and save us, ameen.

I love his stories about taking the Cambodians on hajj, and you all probably remember this one.

The cambodians would make wudu on the airplane with the door open. They just did, and the floor was so soaked all around it. And there was this man doing wudu in the sink, and he had his foot in the sink washing it. An airline stewardess saw him and said "Ewww! That's disgusting!!" The man stopped and asked her, "How many times do you wash your face?". She said "Two." He said, "I wash my feet 3 times, 5 times a day... My feet are cleaner than your face!!"

Shaykh said he felt sorry for the airline stewardesses. Those stories are so funny though.

[Xavier Jr.'et]

I love his stories about taking the Cambodians on hajj, and you all probably remember this one.

Salamu Alaykum All,

I couldnt agree w/ you more. The stories about the cambodians are sooo hilarious.

The story that sticks out most in my mind is when they were making tawaf. The cambodians followed the Shafi'i madhhab which said that if you touch a woman than your wudu is broken. So you can imagine how hard it will be to make tawaf during hajj seasons whenover a million muslim are jamp-pack around the ka'bah.
After almost 3 hours, they return to meet each other but no one has completed their tawaf b/c they kept making wudu over.
Then one of them spoke up and said i have and idea lets make the intention to be hanafi and make our tawaf (they r of the opinion that touching a woman doesnt break wudu).
Finally, they all finished and met again. And the same person spoke up and said now listen this is very imp. dont forget to change your intention and be shafi'i again. HEHE

[springRoll]

Finally, they all finished and met again. And the same person spoke up and said now listen this is very imp. dont forget to change your intention and be shafi'i again. HEHESubahanAllah.. that story about changing madhabs definitely strikes a chord with me. I remember when my parents went to haj, years ago, and this was exactly what they did!
I don't know if its an asian thing or what (and asian is not strictly confined to cambodian, viet or chinese), but I was a young punk back then and didnt know any better. I was kinda confused but just dismissed it as an adult thing which i would have to learn later. Astarghfirllah.
Im definitely trying to bring this issue up with the parents but like Sheikh Abdulbary said, we need to use wisdom when giving da'wa, to know the right time and manner, insha'Allah. Siggh....

But I digress.. The story which I found kinda funny was the one about the guy who went to Madinah University and the villagers made him become the Imam for tarawih prayers.

Anyways, this guy went to University of Madinah to study and after 6 mths there, he went back to his hometown for a vaca break. The villagers were really proud to have someone from their village going to Madinah for studies.

Since it was Ramadhan time, they appointed him to be their imam for tarawih. Poor Muslim boy was really nervous since he didnt really have much knowledge then. And so he tried to dodge the villagers but he finally gave in and started to lead the prayer.

After the second rakaa' i think and they were all in their sujud. They were in sujud position for such a long time and one of the villagers decided to check if everything was ok with the imam. He sneaked a peek and found out the the boy had jumped out of the musallah's window while everyone was in sujud... :D kuak.. kuak..kuak....

Asalaamualaikum!

[AZikria]

I like these stories, keep on sharing them. JAZAKA ALLAH KHAIR.

[Bint Moussa]

KEEP THOSE STORIES COMINGG INCHA ALLAH,
I am taking the class soon, now I CANT WAIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mubarak_is#1]

Asalamu alaykum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatuhu,

Although Sh. Abdulbary Yahya shared with us many funny stories....he also shared stories that really made us reflect.

He narrated to us a story about a roomate of his when he was attending Madinah University. This brother was a very righteous brother and one day, news came that Israeli Jews had entered a Palestinian village and killed some of our brothers and sisters. After hearing this news, the brother couldn't eat for days nor sleep at night. In a period of two weeks, he lost a lot of weight and began missing classes due to his poor condition.

So when the dean of Madinah University noticed his absences, the brother was called in to explain himself. The brother told them, how can you sit in your comfortable chairs and smile away when this is the situation of our brothers and sisters - this is what made him sick and this is the reason he couldn't attend his classes.

Subhanallah, this brother was a true example of the care and compassion we should have for our brothers and sisters. The Prophet (SAW) taught us that this Ummah is like one body and when one parts of it aches, the other part of it should experience sleeplessness and fever.

But dear brothers and sisters, what has happened to our hearts? Do we no longer shed a tear for our brothers and sisters? Have we forgotten the massacres of Muslims around the world? Have we forgotten about the detained, the oppressed, and the persecuted?

Subhanallah, this is really something we should reflect upon. May Allah (SWT) aid our oppressed brothers and sisters. May Allah (SWT) make it a purification of their sins and grant them patience and steadfastness. May Allah (SWT) make us an Ummah that has compassion towards one another and may Allah (SWT) forgive us for the many times that we have stood by and done nothing.

[mubarak_is#1]

Sh. Abdulbary told us that one time, one of his teachers went to a masjid and he noticed that there was an older man who was not praying. People would kiss his hand as they walked by him but he never joined the prayer. So Sh. Abdulbary's teacher asked about this man and why he wasn't praying. The people told him that this man was above prayer because he saw Allah (SWT) in a dream in which Allah (SWT) said, "Worship your Lord until certainty comes to you." So the man concluded that the didn't have to pray anymore because he reached that stage of certainty so he stopped praying and the haram became halal for him.


"Worship your Lord until certainty comes to you," is an ayah from the Quran and the scholars of tafseer have said that certainty here means death. So we should worship Allah (SWT) until we die.
How can this man say he has reached certainty? Is he better than the Prophet (SAW) who continued to worship Allah (SWT) until his death?
We should seek refuge in Allah (SWT) from such a calamity. May Allah (SWT) protect us and our families from following into kufr and may Allah (SWT) make us die as Muslims.