Assalaam o Alaikum,
I'd say a rather interesting day today when we were invited to meet up with Maulana Sadiq Hassan. I personally had not listened in much on his lectures.. but was aware that there were several issues with his recitation about Khums and Death... several people debated, but since I personally had not heard lectures from him, I chose to stay neutral.
Yesterday was his first majlis here in the Bay Area but with a 1 year old, it is sometimes hard to pay full attention... but the topic was mainly about Sufyani's and Dajjals in this world and Majlis was mainly about Imam Mehdi (ATF).
Today's brunch meetup was a bit interesting. Having met with Sayed Ammar last week, expectations were a bit high on the one-on-one meetup, therefore I entered to room saying Salaam in a humble manner (as one would to a senior maulana)... to which surprisingly did not get much response... maybe since he was amidst several discussions and greetings... later came to knowledge that he responded like that to more people as well.
Some what of a disappointing introduction to him, however I was told he has immense knowledge, therefore hopes were high to learn alot during his stay and lunch. Apart from some interesting situations around his restricted and somewhat personalized diet (he is a diabetic) there was much discussion how his morning food affects his evening majaalis (did not make any sense to me, but I have not spoken in place of these individuals, therefore cannot say much on that topic!
Further, I had some questions (keeping in mind the discussions from last week with Sayed Ammar) which I chose to ask him to seek his viewpoints on Nahjul Balagha and the sermons about women etc. Hoping he would shed some light on basis of his research. I have to admit, I received a very disappointing response that almost shared no information. On the other hand, all that high build up of expectations somewhat went down the drain! I was hoping for a more humble, knowledge filled interaction with someone who I was told was very knowledgable! Sadly, it started out as him not even talking to the ladies and literally it felt like I was back in Pakistan where it is literally TABOO to talk to maulanas!!!!
For me personally knowledge and education revolve around references, discussions and debates with some basis to understand and research on our own. What really put me off was unfortunately that Maulana Sadiq Hasan shared some viewpoints about certain personalities (with names!!!!) which in my humble opinion he should not have done... I respect that he is a well known respected Maulana, who has the right to opinion, but I also do not believe being at that position allows you to literally badmouth anyone... If you dislike someone's style of recitation, that is an opinion, but to come out in public and say "that person should not have said...." or that "this person is known to say.." in my opinion was not a justified act no matter how knowledgable one is!
Experience with Sayed Ammar was just emphasized in my view as even better alhamdolilah.. He sat in my house talking about so many things, but not once did he mention anything negative about ANYONE! I even spoke to him about Sayed Modaressi, but the gentleman never mentioned the entire issue of him not being permitted on Ahlulbayt tv (Sayed Modaressi runs Ahlulbayt tv!). What a humble and gentle human being! MashAllah.. we need more like Sayed Ammar to make the youth comfortable and answer questions.
JazakAllah
Zehra
I'd say a rather interesting day today when we were invited to meet up with Maulana Sadiq Hassan. I personally had not listened in much on his lectures.. but was aware that there were several issues with his recitation about Khums and Death... several people debated, but since I personally had not heard lectures from him, I chose to stay neutral.
Yesterday was his first majlis here in the Bay Area but with a 1 year old, it is sometimes hard to pay full attention... but the topic was mainly about Sufyani's and Dajjals in this world and Majlis was mainly about Imam Mehdi (ATF).
Today's brunch meetup was a bit interesting. Having met with Sayed Ammar last week, expectations were a bit high on the one-on-one meetup, therefore I entered to room saying Salaam in a humble manner (as one would to a senior maulana)... to which surprisingly did not get much response... maybe since he was amidst several discussions and greetings... later came to knowledge that he responded like that to more people as well.
Some what of a disappointing introduction to him, however I was told he has immense knowledge, therefore hopes were high to learn alot during his stay and lunch. Apart from some interesting situations around his restricted and somewhat personalized diet (he is a diabetic) there was much discussion how his morning food affects his evening majaalis (did not make any sense to me, but I have not spoken in place of these individuals, therefore cannot say much on that topic!
Further, I had some questions (keeping in mind the discussions from last week with Sayed Ammar) which I chose to ask him to seek his viewpoints on Nahjul Balagha and the sermons about women etc. Hoping he would shed some light on basis of his research. I have to admit, I received a very disappointing response that almost shared no information. On the other hand, all that high build up of expectations somewhat went down the drain! I was hoping for a more humble, knowledge filled interaction with someone who I was told was very knowledgable! Sadly, it started out as him not even talking to the ladies and literally it felt like I was back in Pakistan where it is literally TABOO to talk to maulanas!!!!
For me personally knowledge and education revolve around references, discussions and debates with some basis to understand and research on our own. What really put me off was unfortunately that Maulana Sadiq Hasan shared some viewpoints about certain personalities (with names!!!!) which in my humble opinion he should not have done... I respect that he is a well known respected Maulana, who has the right to opinion, but I also do not believe being at that position allows you to literally badmouth anyone... If you dislike someone's style of recitation, that is an opinion, but to come out in public and say "that person should not have said...." or that "this person is known to say.." in my opinion was not a justified act no matter how knowledgable one is!
Experience with Sayed Ammar was just emphasized in my view as even better alhamdolilah.. He sat in my house talking about so many things, but not once did he mention anything negative about ANYONE! I even spoke to him about Sayed Modaressi, but the gentleman never mentioned the entire issue of him not being permitted on Ahlulbayt tv (Sayed Modaressi runs Ahlulbayt tv!). What a humble and gentle human being! MashAllah.. we need more like Sayed Ammar to make the youth comfortable and answer questions.
JazakAllah
Zehra
OYEEEEEEE not back in Pakistan, in Pakistan depends on the woman if she wants to go talk to a maulana. I think you meant you felt like a Black in the United States around 1930 =p
ReplyDeleteAnd about the Maulana that is sad. Because once you hear the Seerate Nabi lectures you will be blown by his knowledge and amazed at how much potential the human mind has. Maybe he is aging, but there are two kinds of maulanas na, modern and traditional. Traditionall i think dont talk to women, you have to pass a chit that has your question on it... not cool but practiced. =/
I had high expectations from that meeting in the last half hour too lol but do listen to the lectures!
No i meant back in Pakistan... it is very rare, and only lately that women even interact with Maulanas... the segregation of males and females is so drastic, that women often dont even get anywhere close to Maulana's... take the example of being in a mehfil.. I mean Mehfil-e-Murtaza has a separate building for women! How many women do you think even manage to get questions answered (let alone talk to the Maulanas) during majaalis out there? I doubt many!
ReplyDeleteOn the comment about traditional and modern... my apologies but I disagree! Islam has no concept of being modern or traditional to respond to a SALAAM! You are supposed to respond with an equal or better response to a salaam and if a scholar does not do so due to his traditional thoughts, I am sorry that is not a service to Islam in any way!
Islam actually encourages women to speak up! I dont say such scholars should chit chat, but atleast acknowledge a salaam or the fact that there are some women who are inspired by his teachings and atleast be humble enough to accept positive comments!
The host had to apologize in public for not having his "choice" of food available.. to which he responded "If I mess up at the majlis tonight, it will be your fault and if I do good, that will be because of your breakfast as well"! I mean who says that? It might be a joke, but in my humble opinion one should not make a host feel ashamed like that! I felt horrible for the hosts at that very moment! Sayed Ammar was at our place and had requested not too much food and no oily stuff. He only ate what he said he will, even though I personally had more food out of respect! He actually acknowledged food even if he did not eat it!
I think its a matter of how you conduct yourself. I understand age and traditional thoughts make a difference, but that should not make a scholar speak in such a way that instead of attracting crowd towards your "ilm", you are actually getting them away.
I personally was very neutral throughout the meeting since I personally had not heard many of his lectures. On the same neutral front I brought up the topic of Nahjul Balagha as discussed by Sayed Ammar. He not only did not respond to my question, but also further went ahead to say that it was wrong of Sayed Ammar to bring up that topic when people were not aware of it! I disagree to that as well! There is no harm in letting people know the facts and it is their responsibility to find out the complete truth! It certainly in my opinion does not mean that you do not disclose facts so people dont think! I will listen to his lectures as suggested by you and several others, however I still think he could have conducted himself better to attract the neutrals towards him!