Mohebban Fatemeh

Salam to all, our website hasn’t been updated lately, so im going to start it out so we can we can continue updating,

As we all know Ramadan is a month of worship and Dua’s, it’s the month we all should raise our hands to Allah(SWT) and ask for forgiveness. Its a holy month that we get tested and if we pass we open many doors for the future and out afterlife.

This year Ramadan is really special. Last year we learned about the life of Imam Ali(PBUH). This year we learn about the life of Imam Hussein(PBUH). We not only learn about him, we also learn about his companions and Hazrate Zainab(PBUH) and her sons, Imam Hussein’s sons and Hazrate Abbas(PBUH).

When the Month of Muharam comes do we really know why we hit our chests and yell out HUSSEIN HUSSEIN? Why do we cry for him, his family and companions? Most of our Muslim shia brother and sisters don’t know why. If we want to know why we cry on that month we should attend these classes that our Mohebban teachers are preparing for us.

If you guys want to attend these classes please come to the class downstairs after iftar, we should start about 9:20-9:30. We have many different speakers and many interesting topics to cover. Please pray for everyone in this holy month, pray for your family, friends, your self and also for us. Pray that our group insha… stays together for a long time. Have a great Ramadan.

Today, Saturday, February 6, 2010, was the second time Mohebban-e-Fatemeh (SA) sessions had to be canceled within only two months.  For those visiting our website outside of Maryland, we were hit with over 20 INCHES of snow today.  Some of us lost power, some of us were shoveling snow all day, others were at home with their families.  It was an event that the news very colorfully called “SNOWMAGEDDON!”

On a Saturday that we would normally meet and be together, today we are all separated.  Out of curiosity, what was everybody doing?  Please post any interesting “Blizzard 2010″ stories you may have in the comments section…

Until next saturday insha…. (given we don’t have another snow storm …

Our class started with a nice indoor soccer. Once again we played something that looked like soccer but it was not exactly soccer.

After our “soccer game” we went to class for a discussion about Haj (Pilgrimage). As you know right now, we are all in the month of Dhul-Hijjah which is the month of Haj. So, we started talking about what the concept of Haj is and what is it that Allah (SWT) is teaching us throughout this journey. We spoke about what Haj is like really like and every single person came up with a different perspective about Haj. Throughout this journey, Allah (SWT) teaches each of His servants a different lesson, according to the needs of each individual. At the end, every person who returns back from Haj, returns with a new lesson and a new experience that is useful for his life. The challenge for us is to remember that lesson and try to apply what Allah (SWT) taught us throughout this journey in our lives. Haj is like real life and for us to live in this life ( to be alive), it requires us to be dynamic beings. And to be dynamic, it requires to understand the importance of our existence and our responsibilities in the world.

After our discussion, we joined our Mohebban Brothers for our Imam Hassan’s(a.s) presentation. Next week is our sisters turn to present; so, we all are looking forward for this Saturday to come. So far, our mohebban girls performed an amazing job on their presentations. Nice Job !

At the end, we finished our class with reciting Quran and its Tafseer. Look under Quran class recap for more details.

Recently we have combined our beginners and advance girls. We decided to start reciting the holy Quran from the first chapter and do the Tafseer based on (Tafsir-e Nemooneh) along the recitation.

So the first chapter which we all recited together was Surat Al-Fatiha. Inshallah next week we will be starting chapter two, which is surat Al-Baqara.

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Eid parties, birthday parties, movies, prizes. jeapordy, charades, and most importantly JUNK FOOD, that was our day in one line.  Check out the album here: EID PARTY

The day began with the reciation of the Holy Quran by Br. Amir O. who recited the first few ayahs of Surah Muzzammil. We then talked about our plan for upcoming weeks and began recaping the month of Ramadhan through the eyes of our members.  Alhamdo… we were very happy to hear of the many spiritual experiences, lessons learned, and good times our members had during the month of Ramadhan.  The nightly Imam Ali (AS) classes were a great success and we thank all those that participated to learn more about their great Imam.  We have lived a whole life and talked a whole month, yet still there is much to learn.  We look forward to seeing what the future holds…

After our times of reminiscing about the month of Ramadhan, we were able to feast on cookies, chips, cake, and drinks (ironic isn’t it?) that were brought for the Eid celebration and the birthdays of Br. Abdolhamid, Br. Leigh, and Ali/Amir O.  Congratulations to all of them on their birthdays, for they have come one more year closer to Allah (SWT).

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The evening then continued with an Arabic movie about Imam Ali (AS).  The movie really summed up all of our classes throughout the month of Ramadhan well.  Be sure to check out the link above to watch the movie for yourself.  It is definitely worthwile. 

We then played a quick game of charades to choose our contestants for jeapordy.  Kudos to those folk who were able to act out a mosquito so quickly and had the heart to act like a chicken in front of everyone.  Some of the topics were very hard but masha… we truly have a talented bunch.

We then headed to the masjid to make Salat and hand out the prizes/Eid gifts.  Congratulations to Brothers Mohammadamin, Ali T, Milaad M, Ali Akbar, and Reza B for receiving the special Ramadhan class prizes, as well as to Sisters Alla T, Maryam S, and Parinaz for receving the prizes of making the best use of the month!  May Allah (SWT) always keep you all as well as your team on the right path…

The night was supposed to end on a high note with a great game of jeapordy, but unfortunately, all we can say is ”FAIL!”  The guy trying to run the show (wink wink) kept forgetting to hit the “Begin” button and assigned points to the wrong folk.  Insha… next time we’ll have the real Alex Trebek there so that this dude can retire.  But Kudos to all those that played the game, thanks for not yelling at me …

EID MUBARAK TO ALL!

Congratulations on the Birthday of Imam Hassan(a.s). This week we started our class with another discussion on the topic of Usool-e-Deen( look under Islamic Debate Section) for more details. Nice job to Dori, she was able to count and say what the Usol-e-deens are. We also had a nice discussion on other various topics that day. The girls were full of energy, they asked a lot of good question and we were able to look and examine some of them. After discussion, we started Quran, the advance Quran girls read the meaning of Sura-Al-fath and as they were reading the meaning of this chapter, they recalled the story of “the peace treaty of Hudaybieh” . They were trying to match the verses in this sura with the event of Hudaybieh. Now that the girls knew the story of Hudaybieh, Alham… it seemed this time they had a better understanding about the meaning of this chapter, and the verses made more sense to them. After Quran, we joined our Mohebban brothers to continue the recitation of Duaa-Iftitah and also a nice program about Imam Hassan(a.s).

The principle of Tawheed is such an important concept is Islam, that if it’s not fully understood, gradually doubts and uncertainties can enter our hearts and eventually it will lead us towards disobeying Allah (S.W.T). So this week we decided to talk about Tawheed in more depth…

We asked this question that why some people worship idols, and where does the desire of idol worshiping comes from?

So we said that all human beings have a need to worship something and at the same time they like to touch, see and sense their surroundings in order to understand and believe in something.

So we start examining both of these needs and desires, asking the question where dose the need of worshiping something comes from. Last week we said that Allah (S.W.T) has given us an innate nature to worship Him. This nature has been given to us before we entered this world. As Allah says in the Quran “that no creation is in this world, except that its worshiping Allah”. So this desire to worship a God is part of our creation and all beings are sensing it. That’s why people in the past and even today, were always looking for something to worship;as some worship the sun, the moon, rocks and some worship the true Allah.

At the same time people want to describe what they are worshiping, because it will be easier for them to understand it. Thats where the idea of making a God out of rocks comes from; the same reason Christians need a sculpture of Jesus when they want to pray. They need to see what they are worshiping at that TIME and at that SPACE, they need to describe it in order to believe in it……

When we want to define an object, that object is limited to time and space and that’s the reason why were able to describe it. For example we can think of a cup. The reason we see this cup is because that cup is occupying a certain amount of space at a particular time; this is what it means by being limited to time and space. Whatever we see around us is because it is limited to time and space, and since its limited we are able to describe it. The moment we are describing a cup, we say for example its blue, meaning that it will not be red, yellow etc anymore, so the moment we describe something we are limiting that thing. But for Allah, He is infinite, meaning we cannot describe Him, because He is not limited to time nor space. The reason we see objects around us is because we are able to surround that object; but the case of Allah is that He is the one who is surrounds everything….

Another example is that if we are setting in a room and a continuous rhythm (like as your tapping your finger on a table) is being played…. The tapping will create the same rhythm each time… if we are in a room that this sound is being played all the time, we will not be able to notice the sound, because the sound is continuously surrounding us… and that is the case of Allah who “surrounds everything” and He is present everywhere and all the times… that’s another reason why Allah says “believers are those who believe in the unseen”.

We cannot see Allah, but we can see His signs, the signs of Allah are all the things He has created….we are His signs, so if we deny the existence of Allah, we have denied our own existence.

We see that the sun rays approach us during the day, not us approaching the sun rays. and thats how we know sun exists… same with Allah(S.W.T), Allah is the one who will approach us; He will show Himself to us through His signs ; He will give us the nature to know Him, but once we know Him, then it will be our turn…and our turn is nothing but to submit to Him.

As we have all learned, reciting one ayah in the month of Ramadhan is equivalent to finishing the Quran in any other month.

This week the sisters’ Beginners and Advance Quran class joined each other to recite the 30th Juz of Quran. Each person recited more than one Surah while others were following along ….

The brothers continued their endeavor to finish the Quran and completed Juz 8 of the Holy Quran.

This week Mohebban girls were talking about Usool-e-Deen and Froo-e-Deen. We said that Usool-deen is beliefs in Islam, while Froo-e-deen is actions. Shia Muslims believe in 5 Usool-e-deen which are Tawheed( Oneness of Allah), Nabuwat ( prophet hood), Qiyamat ( Day of Judgment), Adl( Justice) and Imamat ( leadership). Sunni Muslims only believe in the first three principles…. We continued our discussion by saying that every Muslim needs to reach certainty about the Usool-e-deen in Islam, meaning that we are allowed to question these principles. Every muslim needs to have a clear understanding of their Usool-e-deen, or else their actions can be easily questioned… because our actions or Froo-e-deen (like Prayer, fasting etc) which are considered as rituals in Islam, are all performed because we believe in Usool-e-deen… so having faith in the oneness of Allah make us to pray and obey His commends as for example we fast during the month of Ramadan…. another example is our belief in the day of Judgment , which make us to become better people, give charity, and once again obey Allah…. If our Usool-e-deen is not fully understood, is the same as if our beliefs are incomplete….

So we continued by talking about the first principle of Usool-e-deen which is the concept of Tawheed or the oneness of Allah. All Mohebban girls were asked this question that why they believe in God and why they believe that God is only one?

Some came up with good answers, reminding all of us about the first debate we had in our Mohebban class,( the Atheist vs theist debate)…Sara said God is like air, we can’t see Him but we feel Him, or love which we can’t see it but all humans can feel it… Marzieh said if there was more than one God then there would be a lot of conflict in creating this world….. Maryam also added to this discussion that this world is so well organized and that s because there is a creator who created this world so perfectly…. All three of them were correct, for example what Marzieh said is based on a verse in the Quran and also what Maryam said is similar to some verses in the Quran where Allah(S.W.T) asks people that why don’t they(the people) think about their creation… meaning that this creation and this world is so perfect that it cannot be made by itself…

so to complete this discussion we said, Belief in God is an innate tendency that Allah has given all human beings… thats one of the reasons why some people and groups start worshiping idols in the past…it all because all humans have this desire to worship something or someone….. so as Sara said we feel God although we can’t see Him… Also we said that if we look at the world from a scientific point of view we would see so much perfection…. no randomness takes place in this world and it’s all because there is a divine power controlling it….This world, our own creation is indeed an indication and sign for the existence of God… as in the Quran says,”but for those who take heed “….

So for next time we will talk more about this principle in Islam, about why some people despite the natural tendency they have to worship a God, still they become atheists or why some people worship idols? inshallah we will compare these different schools of thoughts with Islam’s concept of Tawheed….

What a great trip!  To end the month of Sha’ban and all of its celebrations, to reward the efforts put forth by all the members for the play in Fatemieh and the carnival last week, to have a great ending to an already fun-filled summer, Mohebban-e-Fatemeh (SA) headed out to King’s Dominion.

Instead of coming and completely recapping our trip, I will live that open to all of the attendees to leave their comments on their favorite ride, favorite moment, worse ride, and other comments.  Personally, I think the best ride was the “Volcano!”  and all of those who think differently, you should ride it again…

Check out our album here: King’s Dominion Album

We would like to thank all of the parents and chaperones who came out to help support the trip.  Without your help, this trip would not have been possible.  Sorry to all of those members who could not make it, this was the last Saturday before Ramadhan, so it was either go now or get stuck until next summer.  Insha… we will try and make it up to you …

All I can say about the trip is: