The Straight Path Convention 2015 - most valuable memories

Alhamdulillah.. the Straight Path Convention ’15 was a great learning experience for me, and many others. But the learning and experience extended far beyond the talks / lectures themselves.

Quite a few things happened offline which I found were quite some eye openers, and here are the significant top #7 in my perspective :

#8 Huge Volume of Jemaah Prayer

Put into perspective that “the larger jemaah is more beloved to Allah”, this is an extremely undervalued experience of the event; when over 500 people pray together in jemaah for Asr and Zuhur prayers - an experience one can only witness in Friday prayers or taraweeh in Ramadhan – this is truly something special.

The Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said

“وَصَلاَةُ الرَّجُلِ مَعَ الرَّجُلِ أَزْكَى مِنْ صَلاَتِهِ وَحْدَهُ وَصَلاَةُ الرَّجُلِ مَعَ الرَّجُلَيْنِ أَزْكَى مِنْ صَلاَتِهِ مَعَ الرَّجُلِ وَمَا كَانُوا أَكْثَرَ فَهُوَ أَحَبُّ إِلَى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ”

“A man's prayer with another man is greater in reward than his prayer alone. And a man's prayer with two other men is greater in reward than his prayer with one other man; the more people there are, the more beloved that is to Allah, the Mighty and Sublime."

(Narrated by ibn Majah, graded  “Hasan”)

If a convention like this is what it takes for us to have this excellent degree in addition to the ‘default 27 multiplied rewards’ in congregational prayer - even if it means enduring some warmth due to the air conditioning malfunction - then we could certainly use more events like this.

On a side note, organizers especially Islamic events - should organize the jemaah prayers to allow as much people as possible for the jamaah. Designate an appointed Imam, an iqamah time, a person amongst the jemaah to "echo" The Imam in case they can’t hear, etc.  

If you think about it, why did Allah specifically  reveal the khusuf prayer in times of war? War would be a perfectly legitimate reason to take ‘shifts’ to pray, so that we can stand guard – let alone an event, wedding, or a conference, which no one’s lives will get threatened if you pray in congregation. Yet Allah intended that despite the circumstances, here is a method that can allow you to pray all at once, and stand guard at the same time. Yes, it’s that important.

#7 An Unexpected Surprise Gift

When it was mentioned onstage that “if you want extra good deeds, you can buy pizza for the volunteers – we don’t mind”, that remark was half serious. Half because we would like it, but the other half because we knew people would take it jokingly and probably not expecting to do it.

A few minutes after the announcement was made on the second day, 2 young boys came up to us, aged between 5-9 and handed me a bag of raisins and dates. They said, “We would like to give this to the volunteers. It’s not as good as pizza, but we hope you like it anyway”

Aww… Masha Allah.. so nice!

It gets better. After the lunch break was nearing its end, Lo and Behold – at the volunteers dining area – 2 large pizzas dedicated especially for the volunteers. Allahu Akbar!

Even if they may not consider it as “a big deal”, we couldn’t help but feel touched and very grateful for their contributions nevertheless. May Allah reward you all with abundant goodness.. Amin!

“لاَ تَحْقِرَنَّ مِنَ الْمَعْرُوفِ شَيْئًا وَلَوْ أَنْ تَلْقَى أَخَاكَ بِوَجْهٍ طَلْقٍ”

“Do not belittle (consider insignificant) any good deed that you do, even if it is to meet your brother with a cheerful face” (Narrated in Sahih Muslim)

Here’s hoping that it starts a chain of inspirational events for volunteers of future events to come. =)

The Prophet said,

“مَنْ سَنَّ سُنَّةَ خَيْرٍ فَاتُّبِعَ عَلَيْهَا فَلَهُ أَجْرُهُ وَمِثْلُ أُجُورِ مَنِ اتَّبَعَهُ غَيْرَ مَنْقُوصٍ مِنْ أُجُورِهِمْ شَيْئًا”

“Whoever starts a good tradition/act which is followed, then for him is a reward, and the likes of their rewards of whoever follows him, there being nothing diminished from their rewards.” (Narrated by At-Tirmidzi, graded Sahih)

#6 Reciting Khutbatul Hajah in a Crowd

This one may not seem like much, but it's something very personal and close to my heart. Since i first started to be educated on the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad several years ago, I've always had grown a fondness and liking towards the Khutbat-ul Haajjah - it's the "standard" introductory speech that most islamic lecturers would use, one that was taught by the Prophet to be delivered in the beginning of an important speech.

It is the speech that would remind me of the lectures that Allah had guided me to the true teachings of Islam - the Qur'an and the Sunnah - because of how consistently this khutbah was delivered in those lectures. 


Whenever i would hear this at a masjid - or anywhere in general - i would surely steal a glance to see "Who" is delivering it. I've always wanted a chance to deliver it myself to a group of people.

So when the opportunity came to start off the event with this, in front of a crowd of thousands, i took the opportunity. And it felt great, walhamdulillah!

The khutbat-ul Haajjah text is as follows:

إن الحمد لله [نحمده] ونستعينه ونستغفره ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا [ومن سيئات أعمالنا] من يهده الله فلا مضل له ومن يضلل فلا هادي له وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له] وأشهد أن محمدا عبده ورسوله]

"Verily, all praise is for Allaah, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our own souls [and from our bad deeds]. Whomsoever Allaah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allaah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allaah, [alone and without any partner] and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger."

#5 Volunteer T. K. O

Now one would think that, being a volunteer for an event like this, especially working as an usher or stage crew, that it’s virtually like “getting a free ticket to the event”, right?

Well, not really. This was a typical scene you would see backstage of the volunteers, especially on the first day: They would come in, with the Shaykh/Speaker, they would provide the Shaykh with exceptional hospitality, smiles never leaving their faces.

And when the shaykh finally comes onstage to give the talk, the volunteers finally have time to catch their breath, out of their tiredness, they immediately face a total knockout, and go to sleep; unable to listen/benefit from the lecture.

Many of the brothers I met, the efforts they poured into to make this event a success was just phenomenal; just to allow the audiences for a smooth event, and without earning a single cent doing so, and even depriving their own sleep in the process. 

The work behind the scenes often go unthanked and unremarked, but without these unrecognized efforts, perhaps we’ll never have the polished final product that we see. So let us all make du’aa that Allah accepts all their deeds and blesses them – and that they’ll get to eventually benefit from the lectures via the DVD.

The Prophet said,

من لم يشكر الناس، لم يشكر الله عز و جل
"Whomsoever isn't thankful to the people, isn't thankful to Allah 'azza wajal" (Narrated in At-Tirmidhi)

#4 Participants and Attendees BHD *

You would think that an Islamic event, with Speakers from all across the world, and a 3000-strong large gathering of Muslims, with such modest clothing, that people would have the additional conscience to be on their best character and best behavior, right?

What we experienced was rather unfortunate, as many of the participants displayed some rather poor behavior and attitude:

- A particular soft spoken middle aged brother was told by the usherers to move seats to allow others to come in. He put his fingers to his ears, closed his eyes shut, and said, “I’m not going anywhere! I refuse to move!”

- As the airconditioning system failed on the morning of the second day, several volunteers suffered ruthless complaints and verbal abuse from the attendees; forgetting that contrary to popular belief, these volunteers aren’t trained air conditioning maintenance technicians, or that their complaints would make any difference in helping the situation anyway. So drama.

- A particular sister booked seats despite repeated instructions not to do so; when reminded, she just said “takpe lah”, whatever. Another sister sat in reserved seats, despite not having authorization to do so, repeatedly ignoring all instructions to move.

- At lunchtime, a senior sister waited quite a while for her food to arrive, due to the huge crowds. When the waiter – a Muslim – was carrying some food, she rudely remarked “bring that here – I think I deserve my food after my 40 minutes of waiting”

And these are only a few of the many examples of bad behavior that we witnessed across the event. To put it bluntly, Participants *Buat Hal Doe  (BHD)..

The Prophet said,

“إنما بعثت لأتمم مكارم الأخلاق”

“Verily, I have only been sent to perfect good character” (Narrated in the Muwatta of Imam Malik)

Think about this message: the whole purpose that Allah sent the Prophet Muhammad to mankind – the message of Islam in its entirety – is to perfect good manners and character. Now if we came to an Islamic conference without our behavior being improved, then have we lost the plot?

If we can’t listen to simple instructions of a conference, then how will we have the discipline to follow more difficult instructions, under more difficult circumstances to obey Allah?

If we can’t be patient for some simple matters, how can we be patient during the time that Ad-Dajjal is unleashed upon the Earth – when we are deprived of the basic necessities for survival? Which volunteers will you blame then? Which waiters will you attack now?

If truly strive to be better Muslims in any way, then strive for improving our character – with ourselves, with Allah, and with other human beings and creation of Allah.

#3 Filtering out Questions for Q&A

The Questions and Answers sessions was one of the best I’ve witnessed in a conference such as this, as the organizers worked hard in prioritizing and filtering to endeavour their very best to allow for the most benefit possible to the attendees.

And the whole process was quite an eye opener, as we saw all sorts of questions being asked – it gave you a broader perspective to understand what people’s primary concerns were, and what perspectives they see / like to see things. 

Sure, we have some filler stuff like “Can I please take a photo with Mufti Menk”, but there are also many serious issues that need serious answers.

Some of these questions, most people would be too shy or too afraid to ask, but the anonymous way in which it was conducted made it easy for their concerns to be addressed.

It’s a valuble lesson for organizers to facilitate this the best they can; find the best possible way to benefit the people instead of just delivering what “they feel is the best” – and in this case, allow them to ask the tough burning questions. The Prophet said,

“أَلَمْ يَكُنْ شِفَاءُ الْعِيِّ السُّؤَالَ”

“Is not the cure of ignorance, to ask questions?” (Sunan Abu Dawud, graded “hasan”)

#2 A Conversation To Remember

If you’ve spent 5 minutes in a conversation with Shaykh Ismail Menk, you would know that Shaykh is a sharp, quick-witted individual. Couple that, with being onstage during a Q&A session with a British public speaker – Abdul Raheem Green – and one would expect some exciting results. And boy, it was:

Question: “I am trying my very best to uphold the sunnah of the Prophet by keeping my beard. However my father is forcing me to shave it off. What should I do? This question is for Mufti Menk”

Mufti Menk : “Actually you should direct this to Abdul Raheem. His beard is longer than mine”

Abdul Raheem : “No, shaykh, yours has much more volume (pointing to the cheeks)”

Mufti Menk: “Volume… no, ya akhi, I don’t have the volume.. it’s in the shampoo”

And in another scene:

Question: “This is for Abdul Raheem Green. How do we answer the argument that Hijab is an Arabic culture and not from Islam?”

Abdul Raheem Green : “That is a very good question, which I will pass to Mufti Menk”

Mufti Menk : (After answering the question). “I will now continue the tradition that was initiated by Abdul Raheem Green by now passing the mic to Muhammad Salah”.

And there are many more memorable moments. Witnessing the Shuyukh onstage interacting was a truly memorable moment; and it’s worth noting that despite some of them having only met each other for the first time and coming from completely different parts of the world, the chemistry they had was amazing, and a genuine warm atmosphere of brotherhood.

#1 Personal Encouragement and Advice from a Da’ee

This is the most personal memory I have from the event, which comes across as rather surprising considering the circumstances. During one of the lectures, prior to going onstage, Abdul Raheem Green sat beside me.

He then leaned toward me and signaled me to come closer, which he said : “You should be a speaker one day. I’ll teach you how”

He then gave immediate tips we can implement to improve our public speaking skills :

“Relate to little children. Tell them stories, stories of the Prophets, stories of the companions, whatever.

Children are the most brutally honest critics ever – if they get bored, you’ll immediately be able to tell from their faces. If they like you, they won’t take their eyes and ears off you. And if you caught their attention, you know you’ve achieved something.

Leading Halaqaat and lessons are good and all, but you are addressing a mature, adult audience, who want the knowledge. They will probably focus on the content more than the actual delivery style, and will listen to you even if you’re bad or boring. So they’ll never give you the feedback you need to improve as a speaker.”

Amazing advice, Shaykh – masha Allah!

#theStraightPath

Poor health amongst poor famillies

As we were doing our zakat rounds during Ramadhan last year, we noticed that many of the poverty-stricken families were inflicted with various diseases and health problems: Diabetes, High Blood pressure, stroke, gout, etc..
It was particularly surprising at first, considering that most people would consider these diseases to be common amongst the more affluent and wealthy parts of society that would afford more luxury.

As we did our rounds, though, I noticed a similar pattern amongst these families – and many of them are associated with poor bad lifestyle habits: and nothing have to do with the fact that they have shortage of wealth. These habits are
1) Lack of exercise, physical inactivity
2) Not drinking enough plain water
3) A psychologically unhealthy environment
4) Smoking

When these habits drag on for decades it’s no surprise why they would lead to such chronic health issues as they grow older. 

1) Lack of exercise.

A big number of the families live very inactive lifestyles, confined to their houses on entire weekdays and weekends.
Poor or affluent, this issue a serious concern, particularly amongst the Muslims today. I’m no exercise expert, so I’ll just say this: just do it and stick to it. Jog, cycle, take a walk, look up the thousands of simple cardio exercises on YouTube.. there are so many free options.

Enough excuses. Our bodies are a trust – an amanah – from Allah. If we don’t care of something we are entrusted with, that speaks something of our integrity. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said,
نِعْمَتَانِ مَغْبُونٌ فِيهِمَا كَثِيرٌ مِنَ النَّاسِ، الصِّحَّةُ وَالْفَرَاغُ ‏
“Two blessings which most of mankind are cheated (i.e. fail to capitalize or make full use of when they still have them) : good health and free time” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari)

Be proactive and maintain your health while you still have it. Don’t wait for the doctor to warn you of your cholestrol levels, BMI, or high blood pressure before you dust off those running shoes.

Go go go!

2) Not enough plain water
Another apparent common issue amongst our people is the habitual affinity towards sweet drinks : sirap, milo, teh tarik, ribena – but not water.

When I was a kid I used to wonder why my Chinese friends would carry these huge tumblers of plain water to school (as if our school bags weren’t heavy enough); it looked goofy and inconvenient, and what’s the big deal with water anyway?

Fast forward till today, after several gout attacks at a very young age (which is shocking news even to the doctor), attributed to the high uric acid in the blood and low water diet, it makes perfect sense now.
Again I’m no health expert but suffice to say, an important aspect of maintaining our good health is to drink lots of water every day. ~2 litres a day seems to be the prevalent recommendation.
So keep them flowin.

3) Psychologically unhealthy environment

Sress affects the body in many ways – modern health experts have linked stress with cause for diabetes, heart disease, anxiety/psychological disorders, and even cancer.
In fact it’s interesting to note, many even advise that a happy, positive and stress-free lifestyle can go so far as to cure cancer.

Many of the families we noticed seem to watch TV a lot. A lot. Now, think about what this does to you in the long run : you are aren’t that well off, you don’t go out of the home much, and here you have this machine consistently feeding you with constant advertising, dramas of attractive men and women, fictional stories of fantasy, depressing news (seriously – when is news actually ‘uplifting’, optimistic or motivating?), and ridiculous ‘reality shows’ – what do you think this will do to your overall psychology?

To top that off, many of them aren’t very motivated to alleviate their current conditions, seemingly ‘give up’ on changing their circumstances.
It was interesting to note that, perhaps due to the prevailing negative influences, rarely do we hear positive words being exchanged between their family members.

So make your home environment – in fact every environment that you’re in – a positive and happy one. We can blame the environment as much as we want, but we are part of the environment too – so what impact have we had upon it?

Another startling finding is also a serious lack of spirituality and religiousness amongst these poorer families. Some don’t even perform the obligatory 5-daily prayer (we didn’t speculate, they admitted to it). Some of them smoke during daytime in Ramadhan (fasting) month.

Poor spirituality will eventually effect our psychology. Without anything to look forward to in the Hereafter, this life will seem like a hopeless dead end.

Religion and faith should be a built-in internal mechanism to keep ourselves happy. For Muslims, keep ourselves motivated with our good deeds, and the Qur’an – knowing that we are working towards a beautiful destination – that we look forward to Meet our Lord, to reap the rewards He Promised, and to finally enter His beautiful Paradise.

4) Smoking

Of all the ikhtilaf (differences of opinion) in science, we can all safely say one thing – there is undoubted ijma’ (universal consensus) that smoking is absolutely harmful to our health, in many more ways that one.

So it actually pains us to see these families – who barely earn enough to pay rent or the electricity bill – still continue to waste their money on these health-wreckers… AND infect the little passive smokers living in their small homes, including the infants.

When one diabetic uncle - who recently had his leg amputated - was advised to quit smoking, he replied simply by saying “Smoking has been part of my lifestyle. I can’t stop!”. The year after, when we went to visit hiim again, he was not at home. He died.

Smoking is a serious concern, and the irony is despite national and international fatawa being issued on the fact that it is absolutely Haram (prohibited)- up till today, the big portion of smokers in this country are… well, it goes without saying.





Allahu a’lam… There are other issues, but these are the prevailing 4, that can really be remedied by discipline, and by simply changing our attitude, regardless of our income bracket, and applies to every single one of us.

Brothers and sisters, we need to be serious about taking care of our health. Our health, our bodies, are a trust by Allah. It is with this body that we worship Him and seek His Pleasure, and it is with this body we prove our amanah.

So let’s get out there, get some exercise, drink some water and be happy in this world and the Hereafter.

May Allah make us amongst those who take care of our health - physically, psychologically and spiritually. Ameen.

Powerful Tips on Public Speaking – by Mufti Menk, Abdul Raheem Green and others

وَعِظْهُمْ وَقُلْ لَهُمْ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَوْلًا بَلِيغًا
“Admonish them and speak to them an effective word to reach their inner selves” (Surah An-Nisa 4: verse 63)

1. Give the people what they need in the way that they want (Mufti Menk)
As speakers, you want to get a certain message across – sometimes that message is particularly difficult to accept, or painful for some individuals to receive. It’s just human nature, sometimes people find it difficult to accept direct feedback. But you still need to give it.

So what you need to do, is to repackage the essential message in a way that can be digestible for the person. It’s like, when I want to feed a person with onions when I know he hates it. If I serve him onions, he won’t like it. So what I do, is I make a beef pie, something he likes, I put the onions in between the meat. Then I serve him the meat pie. I still got him to eat onions, but served through that he likes.

Likewise, when you present your advice/speech to others, when you know there are things which may appear as “sensitive” to them – like advising regarding the wrongdoings that they do or the obligations they did not perform – try and ‘re-package’ it in such a way that it won’t hit them in the face directly and hence send them in a state of shock which will probably end up in bad blood between you and that person.

Maybe tell a story about a person you know, create a parable or metaphor, consult the person for advice on dealing with a certain somebody (when in fact it is about that person), package it with good old-fashioned humour. Be strategic and thoughtful about your approach.


2. Use jokes as a tool to get the message across – but not the objective of the talk altogether (Mufti Menk)

Humour is a useful tool to lighten things up so people will be more receptive to the messages to come; plus it’s a good energizer between messages to get people’s thinking capacity powered up back again.

But at the same time, balance it out and make sure it’s only a tool and a means, NOT the goal. Sometimes some speakers get too caught up in ‘winning the audience’, that at times it may seem like the jokes are promoting the speaker and not the content/subject itself, which is a mistake. Sometimes overdone humour can also downplay the seriousness of a subject matter, which in the case of religious speech, advice or lectures, can lead to the subject being mocked or not taken seriously; and makes one wonder what added value the speaker is trying to do.

So use humour as a tool to get the MESSAGE across, and nothing more.


3. Practice by Relating with Children : the toughest critics (Abdul Raheem Green)

Relate to little children. Tell them stories, stories of the Prophets, stories of the companions, whatever.
Children are the most brutally honest critics ever – if they get bored, you’ll immediately be able to tell from their faces. If they like you, they won’t take their eyes and ears off you. If you ask them how well you did, unlike most sensitive adults, children will be able to tell you a straight up answer. And if you caught their attention, you know you’ve achieved something.

Leading Halaqaat and lessons are good and all, but you are addressing a mature, adult audience, who want the knowledge. They will probably focus on the content more than the actual delivery style, and will listen to you even if you’re bad or boring. So they’ll never give you the feedback you need to improve as a speaker.


4. Make du’aa (sincere prayers) to Allah to make it easy for you

When Musa was about to confront Fir’awn – history’s worst tyrant – he made a powerful du’aa to Allah to help ease his burden and lighten his tongue for speech.

As a human being, he also would feel nervous at this heavy affair of confronting this world-class tyrant in public; he too, still made Du’aa to Allah. If this was the case of a Messenger of Allah – in fact amongst the best of them, knowing for a fact that he will be helped by Allah for supporting His Cause – then what does this speak of us, regarding the necessity for du’aa?

قَالَ رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي ﴿٢٥﴾ وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي ﴿٢٦﴾ وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِنْ لِسَانِي ﴿٢٧﴾ يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي ﴿٢٨

“(Musa) said: “My Lord, expand for me my breast,
And ease for me my task,
And untie the knot from my tongue,
(so that) they may understand my speech” (Surah Ta-Ha 20:25-29)


5. Believe in your speech and be affected by it (Al-Bugha and Mistu)

In this way, he can transform that feeling to his listeners and convince them of what he is saying; his expression will bear his conviction in his words. This was the case with the Prophet Muhammad, whose face and overall demeanor would change when giving a speech. When delivering a speech/khutbah/sermon, he would be like a person earnestly warning people about an invading army.


6. Clear your heart of disease and filth (Al-Bugha and Mistu)

Speech that is coming from a pure and sincere heart will flow over to the listeners. Many times, believers can pick up the falseness of a person’s heart when he speaks - if he is a sinner himself or is guilty of diseases of the heart (e.g. arrogance, envy, greed, obsession of dunya, riyaa).

The tabi’ee al-Hasan al-Basri once heard a speaker in the mosque whose speech had no effect on al-Hasan. Afterwards, he went to the speaker and told him,
“There is either a disease in your heart or in my heart”


7. Follow up your speech by action (Al-Bugha and Mistu)

In general, the people who listen to his speech will watch his deeds. If his deeds do not correspond to his words, it is a sign that he does not believe in his own words of he was just trying to fool the audience.


May Allah bless all our efforts and make us amongst those who are effective at speaking and at conveying sincere advice to others. Amin


#theStraightPath