Forgot, Recruitting, Interrupted

This morning, I woke up at 5.07 a.m. Thinking that I'm late for Subuh prayer, I slept back. I just realized that I set my clock 10 minutes faster than the actual time when I heard the azan from the surau, given by Uncle Rashid. Without brushing my teeth, I ran to the surau, did not want him to pray alone. Poor him, woke up early but no one coming.

Luckily I managed to come at the time.


Then, as usual, I became the imam. After reciting al-Fatihah, in my mind I planned to recite Surah al-Furqan Verses 21 - 31 for this morning prayer. However, after reciting Verse 21, I completely no idea what is the next verse.

Crap. I totally forgot the Verse 22.


I paused for a long time before reciting Verse 27 - 31 for the first rakaat (unit of prayer). Hish, embarrassing me.

***

After Zuhur prayer, an ustaz from Bahagian Agama dan Kaunseling (BAKA - Religion and Caunselling Department) had a chat with a 'servant of Allah' (the name is kept in secret to protect his privacy. Well, actually I forgot his name). The 'servant of Allah' complained about the behaviour the department-in-charge of the surau, just like they 'abusing' it.

Well, it's almost true if I, Uncle Rashid and Uncle Nuar are not around.

He also suggested that the BAKA should appoint the people from the nearest surrounding area to become the bilal and the imam for other prayers. Well, it is unavoided that my name was mentioned as the imam.


After that 'servant of Allah' went to work again, the ustaz asked me if I can name a few teenagers (well, most likely he want to recruit a few teenagers as the additional staff of the surau). Unfortunately, I can name not even one person.

***

Well, today, after having a talk with the ustaz, I was planning to give a short kuliah hadith after Maghrib and Isyak prayers. Not for gaining fame, but holding the responsibility to spread the knowledge (since science of hadith is my favourite study). The book I was going to use is the Riyadh as-Solihin Volume 4 written by Imam Nawawi (I just bought that book last Sunday with the price of RM20.00).


However, it always interrupted with the jamaah stood up after the imam supplicated the Almighty. Well, it's already become the habit after Maghrib and Isyak prayers previously. And I haven't told them about that.

Well, I'm going to talk about it with the ustaz tomorrow.

The schedule will be informed later. So, watch out for the latest update of this blog.

Hadith Collecting and Recording

This entry is for my future reference. Before understand this entry, first, we need to know what is hadith and what is the main structure in a hadith.

Hadith and Its Structure

Hadith (pl. ahadith; lit. "narrative") are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Hadith collections are regarded as important tools for determining the Sunnah, or Muslim way of life, by all traditional schools of jurisprudence.

(Wikipedia)

One example of hadith is:

Narrated by Umar ibn Al-Khattab, "I heard the Messenger of Allah s.a.w. say: Actions are but by intention and every man shall have but that which he intended. Thus he whose migration was for Allah and His messenger, his migration was for Allah and His messenger, and he whose migration was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was for that for which he migrated."

The red one indicates the narrators, while the blue one indicates the text of the hadith.

Collecting and Recording Hadith
Just like Gospel for the Christians, the Muslims also have their own main books telling the story of our prophet. The only difference is, the Christians have 4 main Gospels (Mark, Luke, John, Matthew), whereas we have six main books of hadith, named Kutub as-Sittah (The Six Books), which consist of:

1. Sahih Al-Bukhari by Imam Al-Bukhari;
2. Sahih Muslim by Imam Muslim;
3. Sunan At-Tirmizi by Imam At-Tirmizi;
4. Sunan Abu Daud by Imam Abu Daud;
5. Sunan An-Nasa'i by Imam An-Nasa'i;
6. Sunan Ibnu Majah by Imam Ibnu Majah.

However, every book was compiled in a number of volumes, makes the price for the books become expensive (even for the translation). And I (as a student who are planning to take hadith courses at the university) need to know hadith well, including the science of hadith.

About the hadith collection, I do not have the authentic hadith books (for example, The Six Books) at my home as my reference. Therefore, I took the iniciative to collect and record the hadith in my own books: At-Targhib wa at-Tarhib and Al-Musnad Lukhman al-Yusufi.

My Ways in Collecting and Recording Hadith
Since hadith is uncountable, so it is very hard to collect all hadith. Please note that.

My reference to find the hadith are these:


I have my own criteria in choosing the hadith from these books to be collected and recorded:

• There must the the original text in Arabic and the translation.
• In a hadith, there must be the second narrators (after Rasulullah s.a.w.), the hadith text, and the last narrators of the hadith.

On the authority of Abu Abdul Rahman Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Islam has been built on five [pillars]: testifying that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, performing the Prayers, paying the Zakat, making the Pilgrimage to the House, and fasting in Ramadan."
Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim

• If the status of a hadith are known (authentic or weak), state its status.

At-Targhib wa at-Tarhib (The Recommended and the Intimidation)

In this book, 20 hadith which are chosen as students' analysis are recorded in this book. suitable to the title, every hadith are explained in the form of short notes for my use.

This book will be used for kuliah hadith next year. So, if you want to the result of composing this book, you are welcomed to the lecture at a surau in St. Joseph Secondary School, every Saturday morning. I will announce the starting date, insya-Allah.

Al-Musnad Lukhman al-Yusufi
This is not a copy of Al-Musnad Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal. This is my own version of musnad.

In a musnad, the hadith are arranged according to the name of the second narrator, either according to the alphabet or the Sahabats' rank.

For my own musnad, I planned to arrange the hadith according to the name alphabetically.

Quranic Guardian

Previously, when I changed the display name at my Friendster profile, a girl asked me: "Does A.H. means al-hafiz?"

Oh my goodness. I am not that smart to memorised 100 000 hadith complete with their narrators and chains of transmission.

But, I know, to her and most Malays, al-hafiz is a title given to a person who memorised the complete 30 volumes of al-Quran. Well, Malays. =.= This misunderstood need to be corrected. She should call me 'Hamil' (literally means the one who carries).

Anyway, thanks to her for reminding me to do important mission to me: memorising surahs (chapters) of al-Quran for the next year's competition. Well, to be more specific term, guarding the Quranic Verses.

I have joined the Majlis Tadarus al-Quran competition since Year Three. From Year 3 to Year 4, I was under Quranic memorizing (Hafazan Al-Quran) category. Then, from Year 5 to Year 6, I was moved to Quran reciting (Tilawah Al-Quran).

When I was in Form 1 at SAS, I was placed in Syarahan Agama category managed to represent Sarikei to Sri Aman. However, since the SAS student for the hafazan al-Quran was going to finish his secondary education, so the teacher-in-charge put me under that job.


So, from Form 2 until last year, again I participated the Quranic memorizing category. I managed to represent Sarikei again to Samarahan last year. Until now, the memories at Samarahan still frsh in my mind.

But, memorising al-Quran is not as easy as you memorise Biology facts for SPM. In fact, the verses that you have memorised must be maintained in a your mind. And you must always do special revision, in order to prevent any forgotten verses. Talk about strictness.

According to most scholars' tradition, they memorised al-Quran at a very young age, at least before 17. Ibnu Shihab Az-Zuhri memorised Quran before he was seven in only eight days. Huh, sounds impossible.

Back to our main topic. For hafazan al-Quran secondary school, the list of chapters needed to be memorised are:

• Surah Yaasin (Ya-Sin Chapter) : 83 Verses
• Surah as-Sajdah (The Prostration Chapter) : 30 Verses
• Surah al-Waqi'ah (The Event Chapter) : 96 Verses
• Surah al-Jumu'ah (Friday Chapter) : 11 Verses
• Surah al-Mulk (Dominion Chapter) : 30 Verses
• Surah Nuh (Noah Chapter) : 28 Verses
• Surah al-Insan (Man Chapter) : 31 Verses
• Surah as-Saff (The Row Chapter) : 14 Verses - added last year

And according to rumours, this year the organiser added another chapter, that is:

• Surah al-Dzariyat (The Scattering Winds Chapter) : 60 Verses

The total number of verses need to be memorised is 383 Verses - about 6% of total number of Verses in al-Quran.

Honestly, I had memorised a few chapters previously, but because I'm too lazy to revise, some chapter are forgotten. Even the 11-Verses Surah al-Jumu'ah.

I have made up my mind: the way to memorise the Verses.

First, I have to listen to some recitation about a chapter from different reciters. The list of reciter in my choice are:

1. Sheikh Mahir Al-Mu'aiqely - imam of Masjid al-Haram;
2. Sheikh Abdur Rahman As-Sudais - Grand Imam of Masjid al-Haram;
3. the Late Sheikh Ali Jabir - imam of Masjid al-Haram previously.

However, I'm now imitating Sheikh Mahir's style.

Second, I have to memorise 3 Verses in each day. However, for Surah al-Waqi'ah, I have to memorise 9 Verses in a day. Don't worry, the sentences in each Verses of Surah al-Waqi'ah are short.

Third, I have to do revision for the verses I have memorised. To do this, I have to hold my position as the imam (at Surau Darul Ibadah) for Maghrib, Isyak and Subuh prayer for a longer time. Also, I have to wake up at the night to do recommended, optional night prayer. Then, I have to ask my friends or Muslim teacher to check my memorisation.

Duhh, what a hard work. :(