Assalamualaykum and hi everyone! My name is Marsya Amalia binti Mohd Isa (211800) but you can call me 'Amal’. I'm from Malacca and I love reading books. Reading can really make me feel relaxed and calm! I'm taking course BAR in IIUM Gambang.

 Here, I'll share about my Usrah journey; monitored by Sister Natasha and Sister Athikah :)

Topic: Adab

Hi and assalamualaikum everyone! In week 6, we didn't have usrah session so we bring these topics into week 7. So this is my last usrah session with sister Natasha. So sad :"(. I've learned about adab towards parents,, adab towards neighbours, and society and adab as a student.

Adab or good manners are about respecting your parents, elders and neighbors and showing love and compassion to the young. It also includes visiting the sick and abstaining from evils such as back-biting and slandering. The good manners and the sense of morality can prevent us from falling into sins


What is Adab?

Adab consists of spreading words of peace and mending broken relationships between people. It involves praying for your brothers and sisters in Islam, advising and calling each other to do good and to stop that which is evil. Adab or good manners are about respecting your parents, elders and neighbors and showing love and compassion to the young. It also includes visiting the sick and abstaining from evils such as back-biting and slandering.

The good manners and the sense of morality can prevent us from falling into sins. It is narrated from Hz Abu Hurairah (RA) that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: [2]


Good Manners and Islam

Narrated Hz Abu Hurairah (RA) that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: [1]

The perfect believer in respect of faith is he who is best of them in manners.

It is impossible to practice Islam if we neglect the importance of good manners. For instance, we cannot be true Muslims if we disregard cleanliness (which is said to be half of one’s faith). Imagine losing out on half of faith just because someone is too lazy to take a bath!

By implementing good manners and Adab we are actually reinforcing our faith. Furthermore, it is not only Allah’s Love that you gain but also the love and respect of those around you. Even the disbelievers of Mecca who wanted to kill Muhammad (PBUH) acknowledged his truthfulness. None could deny his noble character and good manners.


What is Adab?


Good Manners and Islam

Narrated Hz Abu Hurairah (RA) that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: [1]

The perfect believer in respect of faith is he who is best of them in manners.

It is impossible to practice Islam if we neglect the importance of good manners. For instance, we cannot be true Muslims if we disregard cleanliness (which is said to be half of one’s faith). Imagine losing out on half of faith just because someone is too lazy to take a bath!

By implementing good manners and Adab we are actually reinforcing our faith. Furthermore, it is not only Allah’s Love that you gain but also the love and respect of those around you. Even the disbelievers of Mecca who wanted to kill Muhammad (PBUH) acknowledged his truthfulness. None could deny his noble character and good manners.

Topic: Appreciation for the nature and environment in Islam

The Islamic perspective on environment protection reflects a positive image about Islam and how it embraces every single matter the humans face on earth. 


The beauties of the earth are, the Quran tells us, a "reminder to mankind", a reminder to those who are disposed to remember their origin and their end. For such as these, the natural world sparkles with light. It is not some chance agglomeration of atoms, unrelated to our innermost being. It gives, if we are receptive to the gift, and it receives if we, in our turn, offer it the care which is its right. The objective world around us and our human subjectivity might be compared to two circles which intersect rather than float, separate and divided, independently of each other. This is implicit in the Islamic principle of Tawhid, the Oneness of God and the unbroken unity of all that He has created. It is implicit also in the word "cosmos" (as opposed to "universe", a neutral term that implies nothing. The "cosmos" is, by definition, an ordered and harmonious whole, in which the parts are inter-dependent. "No man is an island", as the poet Donne said, and the human creature - totally dependent on God, but dependent also upon the environment - is for ever in the bonds of need and the net of love.

Rediscovering the Signs of God in Nature

The importance of which the Quran attaches to the environment, the natural world, as a "reminder" which helps us to keep God always present in our awareness. Nothing in our surroundings is quite what it seems, or rather nothing is only what it seems, and, for the Muslim, it is a part of faith to look upon all things with "seeing eyes". But to perceive, even dimly, these inescapable "signs of God" requires a child's eye preserved into maturity. The Prophet is reported to have prayed: "Lord, increase me in marveling!" This is how a child sees the world, fresh from the Hand of God and full of wonders but, with the passage of the years, the vision fades. Yet, in the words of the Quran, "It is not the eyes that grow blind but the hearts within the breasts that grow blind". Imbued with faith, the heart may still regain its sight, its insight.

The loss of harmony between man and his environment is but an aspect of the loss of harmony between man and his Creator. Those who turn their backs on their Creator and forget Him can no longer feel at home in creation. "God's Vicegerent on earth", as the Quran describes the man who truly fulfils his human function, is then no longer the custodian of nature and has become a stranger in the world, a stranger who cannot recognize the landmarks or conform to the customs of this place.

Today, whether we are Muslims or Christians -or of any other Faith -we seem to have lost the key to the language of "signs", God's language. That is dangerous, particularly for the Muslim for whom the Quran must eventually become a partially closed book if its constant references to the natural world as a tissue of "signs" no longer coincide with his experience or touch his heart. Since everything has to be spelled out nowadays, there are many who will ask -"But what do these signs mean?" If they could be expressed in words they would be redundant. They touch us at a deeper level than articulate speech.

The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "God is beautiful and He loves beauty". To speak of the natural world is to speak of beauty, whether we are receptive to it or not. And what is this beauty if not an act of adoration? "Do you not see", asks the Quran, "that everything in the heavens and all that is in the earth pays adoration to God, as do the sun and the moon and the stars, the hills and the trees and the beasts?" It is only too easy to see this as a "poetic" statement, not to be taken quite literally. On the contrary, for the believing Muslim this is -or should be -an undeniable fact. When the Quran speaks, as it does on so many occasions, of this universal and perpetual adoration, it is doing neither more nor less than telling us what happens, the down-to-earth reality of the situation. Our subjective awareness -or lack of awareness -cannot alter the facts.

We did not make this world, we do not own it. You cannot, the Quran reminds us, create even a fly. This vast picture-book, filled with the "signs of God", is what it is. Appearances are, as we are so often told, deceptive and, if we float only on the surface of our world, we are indeed deceived. There is always more to it than that, then more and still more until you have plumbed the depths and found beyond all the veils -those "seventy thousand veils of light and darkness", according to one of the Prophet's sayings -the Face of God, the glory that lies hidden behind the things we take for granted. Look, we are commanded, and then look again, until you can see.

Honoring the Animal Creation

Many Muslims seem to have ignored the implications of what the Quran tells us about the natural world and about the importance of the animal creation. Not only the Quran. The recorded sayings of the Prophet, the hadith literature, refer again and again to these aspects of the Faith.

The good Muslim's life is lived in imitation of the Prophet Muhammad's example, and it is in the a hadith that we find the most uncompromising references to animal welfare. They have grave implications for all who fall short in their care for the animals in their charge. Not only are there the famous stories of the woman condemned to hell for shutting up a cat till it died of hunger and of the prostitute forgiven all her sins because she gave water to a dog that was dying of thirst, but there are a number of small incidents in the record which emphasize the same principle. When the Prophet saw a donkey that had been branded on its face, he cried out: "God curse the one who branded it!" A man who was about to slaughter a goat for food was severely reproached for letting the animal see him sharpening his knife. A prophet of earlier times, so we are told, was scolded by God Himself for burning an ant's nest because an ant had stung him -"You have destroyed a community that glorified Me!" and there is, according to another saying, a reward in Paradise for whoever shows kindness to a creature with "a living heart".

So this is our group presentation : Why our Iman is always been tested?

We were also have been asked to give our favourite ayah from the Quran and tell the reason why. For me, I like the ayah from [Surah At-Taubah 9;40] which means “Do not be sad; surely Allah is with us.” 

This ayah is beautiful and gives me peace of mind because I know that Allah’s promise was all that I needed. I became sure that He is there for His servants.

What is Khusyuk?
Kusyuk means peace.

Khusyuk can gained starting from wuduk. We are the ones who wait for the Azan and wait before 5-10 minutes and perform other sunnah like reciting Quran and zikr. Don't make prohibited things before performing Salah. With wudhu', it will give us the consciousness of goodness and it will flow our sins through the water of ablution.

Why we can't gain khusyuk in our Salah ?
- there is no desire or passion to establish prayer.
- eating haram food.
- hard-hearted and arrogant.
- "Lagha" does a lot of useless and prohibited deeds.
- no "feel" > dirty clothes > no spirit > negligent (unaware)

Hence, I really like this topic because it reminds me of the importance of khushu 'and how to meet it in salah. I hope we all can apply these steps of preparation for our prayers in earnest and share this knowledge with all other friends and family members. In Shaa Allah.

The virtues of praying with Khusyuk'

1) become an obedient mu'min
2) be a person who tawadhu '
3) pervasive muhasabah
4) get iffah
5) encourages us to mujahadah (strive)

Virtues and priorities of fasting in the month of Ramadan

1) to teach us sabr
2) cultivate an attitude of respect to each other
3) evokes a friendly attitude in oneself