A word from the Shaykh with advice and guidance for male and female students.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave, His Messenger, His intimate friend, His trustee over His revelation, and His choice from among His creation. He conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the Ummah, and struggled in the path of Allah with true struggle. He left his Ummah upon a clear, straight path, its night like its day; none deviates from it except one who is destroyed. In the last part of his life, Allah revealed to him [Al-Ma'idah 5:3] May the prayers of Allah be upon him, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them in excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows: O my brothers, this is our monthly meeting, which takes place on the evening of every third Saturday of the month. In this month, Rajab of the year 1415, it will take place on the night of Sunday, the sixteenth of this month. We ask Allah the Exalted to encompass us all with the benefit of these meetings, to bless them for us, and to make them beneficial for us. Indeed, He is capable of all things.
We were about to speak about the remainder of the "Sermon of Need" (Khutbat al-Hajah), which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught his Companions: "All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help..." However, since we are approaching the exams for male and female students, perhaps we should speak about what Allah the Mighty and Majestic facilitates regarding this topic. So we say:
First: We advise every student of knowledge, male or female, that his greatest concern should not be to pass the exam, but rather that his greatest concern should be to digest the knowledge and to establish it firmly in his heart. Based on this, he should strive from the beginning of the year to digest the knowledge bit by bit. Because if a person neglects striving at the beginning of the year, the lessons accumulate upon him, and then when he reviews them at the end of the year, he reviews them as if they were confused dreams or illusions. Therefore, we advise and counsel every male and female student that their striving should be from the beginning of the year so that they digest the knowledge bit by bit. When the time for the exam comes, they will be at ease, having digested the knowledge, and having benefited from the period of study.
As for the one who neglects and is lazy, when the time for the exam comes, he tightens his belt and exhausts himself, yet the knowledge does not become firmly established in his mind. So much so that if you were to ask him tomorrow about what he was tested on today, you would find no result from it. This is a mistake; this is not how exams are studied. In reality, the exam is a test for the male and female student of what he has achieved in his past studies. The exam is not a measure of the knowledge possessed by the male and female student. Some students fail in the exam either because they do not recall the answer at that moment, or because they understand the question incorrectly, or because they think the answer is correct when it is not, or because there is noise around them, or because there is play around them, or because they see a classmate cheating, or for other reasons. You will find their answer to be weak and not reaching the grade that is expected.
The truth is that the exam is not a measure for the student. The teacher knows the students, knows the good ones, and knows those who truly seek knowledge before he tests them. But because it became difficult to evaluate the students merely by the teacher's perception, exams became necessary. Exams are necessary, and in reality, they are approximate and not a definitive measure of the student.
This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.
الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًاAs for what follows: O my brothers, this is our monthly meeting, which takes place on the evening of every third Saturday of the month. In this month, Rajab of the year 1415, it will take place on the night of Sunday, the sixteenth of this month. We ask Allah the Exalted to encompass us all with the benefit of these meetings, to bless them for us, and to make them beneficial for us. Indeed, He is capable of all things.
We were about to speak about the remainder of the "Sermon of Need" (Khutbat al-Hajah), which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught his Companions: "All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help..." However, since we are approaching the exams for male and female students, perhaps we should speak about what Allah the Mighty and Majestic facilitates regarding this topic. So we say:
First: We advise every student of knowledge, male or female, that his greatest concern should not be to pass the exam, but rather that his greatest concern should be to digest the knowledge and to establish it firmly in his heart. Based on this, he should strive from the beginning of the year to digest the knowledge bit by bit. Because if a person neglects striving at the beginning of the year, the lessons accumulate upon him, and then when he reviews them at the end of the year, he reviews them as if they were confused dreams or illusions. Therefore, we advise and counsel every male and female student that their striving should be from the beginning of the year so that they digest the knowledge bit by bit. When the time for the exam comes, they will be at ease, having digested the knowledge, and having benefited from the period of study.
As for the one who neglects and is lazy, when the time for the exam comes, he tightens his belt and exhausts himself, yet the knowledge does not become firmly established in his mind. So much so that if you were to ask him tomorrow about what he was tested on today, you would find no result from it. This is a mistake; this is not how exams are studied. In reality, the exam is a test for the male and female student of what he has achieved in his past studies. The exam is not a measure of the knowledge possessed by the male and female student. Some students fail in the exam either because they do not recall the answer at that moment, or because they understand the question incorrectly, or because they think the answer is correct when it is not, or because there is noise around them, or because there is play around them, or because they see a classmate cheating, or for other reasons. You will find their answer to be weak and not reaching the grade that is expected.
The truth is that the exam is not a measure for the student. The teacher knows the students, knows the good ones, and knows those who truly seek knowledge before he tests them. But because it became difficult to evaluate the students merely by the teacher's perception, exams became necessary. Exams are necessary, and in reality, they are approximate and not a definitive measure of the student.