What is Adzan? It is Creepy!

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

A person who calls for prayer is called as Muezzin. The first Muezzin was Bilal bin Rabah, a black man from Abyssinia and black were exhibited in democratic European human zoos during colonial time as animal for the Jakuns Europeans.

Peace be upon everyone and blessings of the God be poured on those passing by. I have had heard this issue for long about adzan where some in Europe believe as scary since they do not understand what has been uttered from the minaret. They said, bell at the church tower is not scary as the adzan. Everybody has his own opinion.

Some of my Muslim brothers and sisters also said that listening to church bell or Catholic church organ makes them feel creepy like listening to some ghostly rhythm or being in creepy scenes in vampire movies. People are always afraid of things which they are not familiar with or things which they are not sure about. 

Now I am here to help people especially Muslim ourselves understand what is adzan and at least when 'some' people who do not believe do research, and they are lazy to do interview; they may perhaps checking some information from a practicing Muslim. 

What exactly is adzan??? Adzan  is a special utterance practiced by those who submit themselves to the God as the sign that a prayer service to honor the Lord of the time will happen. It urges the faithful community and people around who hear it to come into the congregation and together performing the prayer service. It is a phenomena for five obligatory prayer service time at every masjid worldwide. It will stop only when the world comes to its end. 

Where Does the Word Islam Comes From?

Before that, why I don't use the word Muslim instead I am using people who submit themselves to the God? Because people only take the word as it is. They have no effort to understand what exactly the origin of the derivative nor eliminating ignorance.

-------------------------------------

What??! Islam means peace?!!!! WTF are you talking about?! If Islam means peace, why "you" slaughter this and that and s**t and **** bla... bla... bla...

I know all of these s***s will come out of certain red necks and those who suck them up in Asia. Make sure to brush teeth after meals and balun beer ya, hehehe. I am familiar with those kind of barks and do I care? Na'ah... LOL... 

-------------------------------------

People have their right to say anything they want. Those filthy words we could see everywhere in comments of many sites. We talk about religion, path of life, and matters which cleanse our souls but in the same time we throw out filthy words, thinking that we are holy amongst others, and we had forgotten to purify ourselves of evil thoughts no matter in what condition we are... ironically : ) This applies to all human-being... No matter whether a person calling himself or herself Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Jain, Taoist, and what else the name that people identify themselves as adherents in the world?

Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew are all sister languages. They are of Semitic origin, the children of Shem bin Noah. The origin of the word Islam was actually spelled as Sleem. We have Sarf for phonology of words linked to Nahw or grammar in Arabic but too bad English, French, Italian, German and other European languages has no well built phonology subject. Ancient and well-developed languages like Arabic and Sanskrit has well-built grammatical systems. Most of Arabic speaker students fail this subject. However, we in South East Asia had preserved this lessons and most of South East Asian religious studies students no matter whether they are of Arab descents or natives memorized the lessons and practicing them in speeches. 

This word "sleem" which forms the word Islam and later Muslim to signify a person who embraced Islam or choosing Islam as their path to reach the God. Islam is actually derived from the Name of the God. The God possesses Most Glorious and Holiest Name. It is mentioned in the glorious Quran. I still remember when I was a young child maybe around seven to nine years old, we always recite His Holiest Names before we begin lessons and I was first introduced at home with Arabic alphabets and not Roman alphabets so when I entered National School I also had problems to spell and write, so do my younger sisters. We recited : "He is the God, there is no gods but only Him the Most Compassionate, the Most Loving-Kind, the King of the universe, the Most Holy, the One Who grants Peace, the One Who keeps promises.... and so on..."

We are also encouraged to pray for each other as a greeting with assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu which means may be peace descends upon you and with His boundless Compassion, and His boundless Blessings. 

The word related to Peace is actually derived from one of the Name of the God. It is not a human name and languages came from Him. We are different from Jews or Christians in this sense where we do not identify ourselves with Muhammad or his tribal identification as what had been written by Western writers. That is why we do not greet people in certain dirty places like in toilet or lavatory and in certain circumstances. The Jews also have this rule because I indeed have some Jew acquaintances. Those Orthodox Jews always greet others with shlom'aleichem and some Syriac Christians who speak Aramaic also greet other with shlumlakhum. All have the same meaning with assalaamu'alaikum which I also use to begin my posts.

Again we emphasize to everyone. The God of all the human, creatures and universe is none other than Him. Human build up concepts to view Him and human have their own religious history regarding dogma and creed. People could be childish all they want but soon... They will realize the reality of life where all of human-being possess negative qualities and not angels. That's why human have religions and why human need the teaching of morality : )   

Background of Adzan

Usually a Muezzin will call for the prayer services from high places, it could be on hills, minaret of the masjids, or any high places. Nowadays we have technology like microphone and if we do not accept technology, won't we be called as backward and could not get along with modernization?

Idiomatically adzan means the herald. It is synonymous to the exclamation. Adzan is a combination of certain words signifying that it is now the time for obligatory prayer services or the herald that it is now the time for an obligatory prayer service. A person will take charge to herald this and that is what we hear from the minaret of masjids or from the microphone in masjids across the world. 

Its Position within the Law 

Its position within the law and tradition is encouraged while we are about to perform obligatory prayer services. I don't know how to translate this concept of sunna muakkada. Our translation and interpretation lecturers never taught us on the language of shariah. We only learned about Nida and Bible translations and later about editing of newspapers and stuffs. Now it is on my initiative and brothers and sisters to make lists of shariah terms and concepts because we have large corpus of shariah terms in Malay but we never do translation and adaptation to other languages. It leaves people in ambiguity and I am not actually supporting the usage of other ritual languages rather than Arabic because Arabic is better but people need to understand or else there would be of no use to embrace something that we do not understand.   

Then, it is obligatory for a person in a community or a group to take charge to call for congregational prayer services when obligatory time to honor the God is coming. We call this as fardu kifayya and I had explained the meaning more or less. If only a person in an area and there is no people for congregation, then it is considered as an observation of prophetic tradition. There are merits for observation of prophetic traditions but no sins if they are not observed. If there are a Muslim community, then one of the community must take charge to call for obligatory prayer services. Women are only encouraged to perform other form of adzan which is called as iqamah only among them as to prevent them from being slandered if they raise up their voice. 

Evidence in the Quran and Sunnah

The Quran, the Sunnah, and the agreement of ulamas stated that adzan has many benefits and its merit is great. The evidence from the Quran surah al-Maidah verse 58 mentioned about the exclamation...

Says the God : "When you are exclaiming to (perform) prayer services, they take it as mockery and something to make fun of; that is because they are the people who possess no mind (to think)."

Evidence from prophetic traditions covering many hadiths. Among them is from the narration of Bukhari and Muslim which sounds : "When the time of prayer services is there, one of you must perform the adzan and the elder among you must be the leader of the prayer service." This is one of the reasons I feel not comfortable to be imam in prayer services in my hostel because there are many elders in our hostel musalla. Unless if it is very very crucial, then I would not question anything.

How Adzan Began to be Practiced?

Adzan was practiced by Muslims in the first period of Hegira. In a hadith narrated by Bukhari and Muslim from the report of Ibnu Umar r.a : "In the beginning of Meccan Muslim migration to Medina, they had assembled and waiting for the time to perform daily prayer services. At that time, there was no adzan yet. One day, the noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w had called all of his companions into a meeting on how to herald the coming of prayer service time and how to call people to the masjid for prayer services. There were few suggestions regarding the herald about the time. Some had suggested that they should show up flag to denote the prayer services time so people who see it will come to the masjid and pray together. Some had suggested the sofar (whistle) being used to call people. Some had suggested bell as a mean to denote the time and to call for congregation. 

However, Umar al-Khattab had suggested that it should be more appropriate and natural with just the announcement through human voice and just saying 'it is now the time for prayer service.' Muhammad s.a.w accepted the suggestion of Umar al-Khattab but he changed the wordings with 'let us perform prayer (charity).'

One night a companion whose name Abdullah bin Zayd had dreamed about more better way to announce the prayer time with the beginning of the word are God is the Greatest and so on... The morning after that, Abdullah bin Zayd went to see prophet Muhammad s.a.w and talked with the meeting. Prophet Muhammmad s.a.w said that his dream is a true dream. The prophet Muhammad s.a.w ordered another companion, Bilal bin Rabah to proclaim the herald. After listening to wordings of the adzan, Umar al-Khattab then came to the meeting and said that he dreamed the same thing and his dream was the same dream as Abdullah bin Zayd."

Al-Bazzar narrated from a report that : "The messenger of the God s.a.w during the night of Isra' had been shown and listened to the adzan at the seventh heaven. Then the archangel Gabriel a.s came to him and he became the imam for the members of heavens. Among those members of heavens are Adam a.s and Noah a.s. The God had completed the noble value of him on the inhabitants of heaven and earth."   

What Is Uttered in the Adzan?

Straight to the point without Arabic parallel texts because it might make monolingual people dizzy. People in Middle East are actually bilingual people and I believe around the world there are many bilingual or trilingual people. Usually Christians in Middle East could also speak Arabic, Syriac, and Greek and they use all three languages in parallel in their prayers. 

For us Muslims in South East Asia, some of us would do supplications in native languages and only obligatory rituals in Arabic. Like one of a Malay brother in musalla had also recited supplications after obligatory prayer services in Malay, and it is not wrong. People who could not understand Arabic also understood what he said. Adzan in Arabic that everyone listens from minarets of masjids means....

The God is the Great.... 

The God is the Great...

I bear witness that there is no gods but only the God... 

I bear witness that there is no gods but only the God...

I bear witness that Muhammad s.a.w is the messenger of the God... 

I bear witness that Muhammad s.a.w is the messenger of the God... 

Let us perform prayer...

Let us perform prayer...

Let us all achieve success (in the world and hereafter)...

Let us all achieve success (in the world and hereafter)...

The God is the Great...

There is no gods but only the God...

Shi'a Muslim brothers might have a slightly different adzan but just one addition regarding Ali k.w. Nothing really different. So, when we understood things we won't be paranoid right? Or some people love to scare others away with something which does not really happen? Its like a creation of negative perception for example don't go to the forest lest you will see a monster, a demon, a ghost, and etc negative by some village folk parents to scare away their children from going to certain area since they are lazy to answer questions that will be posed to them by their children after they know what happen in the forest while the parents are lazy or just perhaps became chickens since they are also influenced by their imagination, hahahaha.

Then we have supplications after the adzan which means in English.......................

Dear the God our Lord, please be in contact with our prophet Muhammad s.a.w and his family as You had been in contact with our father, Abraham a.s and his family. Dear the God our Lord, please bless our prophet Muhammad s.a.w as You had blessed our father Abraham a.s. and his family.

Dear the God Who Dominates the perfect exclamation and the prayer service which is being performed. 

Please make the prophet Muhammad s.a.w (for me) as a rope which connects me to You and a priority for me. 

And raise prophet Muhammad s.a.w with the appraised position as what You had promised for him.  

(Supplication from the report of Bukhari)

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!

Zulqa'ida : Pilgrimage Month and My Return

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

 

Perhaps people might feel weird if stumbled around here and seeing that I keep talking and posting videos about Hajj pilgrimage in the Holy City, Mecca during this coming season. Although I am not joining the pilgrimage this year, I feel like our patriarch Abraham a.s is calling me to join the season. It is the place where I made my vow and asking the God and His angels witnessing me with His commandments.

Before that mum had actually registered my name as her legal companion to the holy city. But she did not mention anything to me. She had already talked about this since many years ago. Only around the end of 2005 she began to suddenly tell me that I was named as her companion. I was so outraged. I didn't have enough preparation and I just said my witness on my faith to the God and prophethood of Muhammad s.a.w again. At that time I did not properly performed repentance and still analyzing Quranic exegesis and teachings while I am alone.  I had done nothing in a year time except looking at Quranic exegesis written by various teachers such as al-Hajj Abdul Malik Amrullah from Indonesia. I read Quran and Quranic translations. By the time I performed pilgrimage, I was 19 years old of age.

The event where I failed my SPM (O-Level) had actually affected me and made me think after I tried to commit suicide. I tried to perform tapas according to Buddhism and Hinduism and I locked myself in room just after I returned from taking my SPM result. I didn't drink nor eat for many days. I didn't mix with people around anymore. I hope to be born in the land of Brahmas (spirits). My family didn't realize it. Few days later mum first realized it and she tried to open up my room with an axe after they can't find me anywhere. After that, I slowly began to open up religious books. I mean Islamic ones. I had been reading and silently practiced Buddhism for more than 3 years which began since I was 13 years old.

Many things happened since the past and it keeps going. I was ignorant at that time I performed pilgrimage. Even I prayed falsely, recite everything falsely as I had forgotten many things and that was by my own choice. I started again from the scratch and teaching myself. Then I memorized again everything including recitations and pronunciations of supplications.

I remember I met a Pakistani guy whose name is 'Arif and he is a nice guy. At that time, I guess he is around 25 years old and he suddenly talked with me in Arabic. I could understand him because I still speak some Arabic with myself after I stopped religious schooling when I was 16 years old. He did not answer me where he live when I asked him. I tried to find him after I performed tawwaf (circumambulation) to mingle longer with him and he just fade away like wind. We talked about faith which relates practices and how faith could prevent us from disgusting acts in the gap time between Dzuhr and 'Asr prayer services in Masjidil Haram. I learned from him that ijazat (certification) and standard of knowledge do not really have to be imprinted in paper. It is in our understanding, memory and practices : )

I have many nice experience and mingled with people around the Holy City. I talked with Patanese driver uncle who becomes our guide. I also talked with the guy at the muassasah (foundation) who was a guard there. He is not a native Saudi but a Bangladeshi or perhaps an Indian. I talked with few Keralite Indian workers at the construction site of muassasah in Ajyad Road. One of those workers is Ashraf. We exchanged some cultural common traits like languages where I know few Tamil words and he taught me how to count in Malayalam. I didn't really talk with those uncles who were my roommates. I always went out from the muassasah to the Masjidil Haram and looking at environment around. I actually performed the strictest pilgrimage observance which is called as Hajj Ifrad and many of those who performed another medium observance of Hajj Tamattu' had wear normal attire. I was in my ihram until the day of 'Arafah. Ihram is two white garments. We can not wear any other sewn clothes unless if we perform tahallul (legalization acts) and completed all manasik according to our intention. I know that prophet Muhammad s.a.w had forbidden his nations to perform strict observance but I felt guilty that I had gone astray from the path of father Abraham a.s. So, I wanted to seek for forgiveness from the God. 

I found that food hardly rotten in the Holy City Mecca. Perhaps it is because of the climate at that time. It was winter there but no snow. The temperature in the day was like 23 degree celcius and 16 degree celcius in early evening. I met many Muslim Chinese brethren no matter they are from Gansu or from Xinjiang. Some of them are from Shandong. I mingled with their groups during I wandered alone in the Masjidil Haram. They are very high in discipline compared to other brethren from Western part of the World like Afghanistan, India, and etc. I also find Taiwanese brethren groups. They are all nice and polite people. I think that both China and Taiwan should be proud of their Muslim communities. They are ambassadors of Eastern Asia where I wish that His assistance of Mercy and Peace would come from the East. I also pray for Japanese brethren may the Lord protect them and their motherland.

I also made friend with an Uyghur who sold tablecloth at another side of Masjidil Haram. We have to speak in Chinese due to that he is from China and it makes us more comfortable rather than using Arabic. We are not even Han ethnic whose language we used to begin with and it was very weird, hahaaha.... I didn't eat much during rituals were going on. I only grab my Quran and recite it when I was in my room. I managed to memorized a parah (section) of Quran or Juzu' no.16. It consists of stories about Moses a.s and Jesus Christ with his beloved mother, Maryam al-'Adzraa. I still recite those suras in the juzu' after I return to homeland. Many places that we visited in both respected and legal areas. We had also meditated in 'Arafah and I also discussed and asking for kitabs (books) regarding fiqh jurisprudence from religious polices there. Some of them were nice to me, and polite. It is different from other stories that I heard about them. Maybe different person experience different things : )

I had no camera with me because my pilgrimage suddenly happened. Well, someone had asked me whether I wanted my pic and mum to be recorded in camera during in 'Arafah but I refused it. Let it be a memory in my mind and practices of noble life. I actually could grab meanings of the manasik (rituals) we observed in the Holy City, Mecca. All of them make me fall in love with father Abraham a.s and Ismael a.s. I also learned about Hagar hardships to survive in a wild condition. How our forefathers resist satan tried to deceive them from their Love to the God with the attachment to the world. 

I had got a feeling that I must continue my STPM (A-Level) when I was in the Holy City. It just came passing by my mind and I spontaneously called my younger sister at home to help me with registration. Before pilgrimage event, I was registered for about a year in the so-called Sekolah Bestari, Putrajaya Precint 8th where I was blasted by a teacher and I tried to shift to another class but it took me time while the teacher was always targeting me for no reason. 

I had stopped from the school and did nothing at home until mum notified me about pilgrimage that made me feel so afraid as I did not properly repent from my deflected 'aqidah (creed) and practices. That's why I was so angry. After I returned home, I registered for the examination with Shari'ah and Arabic as the addition. I registered that in order that I perhaps could get a place in Mecca again or maybe I could go to Egypt or Yemen to receive proper religious science knowledge again. But I didn't manage to do well as I didn't do that properly and I only registered for the subject after a year which means I had no enough time for preparation. However, I was satisfied because I could do something which is beneficial for myself. I could understand what is Shariah Islamiah (Divine Islamic Way of Life) and I finally understand what is sunnah and traditions of prophets. I was also interviewed by two ustads for my Arabic oral test and they were both fun to talk with. I enjoy discussing matters with them and I recited few Quranic verse for them to listen and I talked about how to save money according to the topic given by them. Too bad I didn't pass my Arabic poetry paper and I slept after I can't answer them, hahahaha.

After that I also began to read ancient and classical Arabic poems of famous Arabic poets such as Qiss bin Sa'eda of Najran. He was a Christian wise man of Southern Saudi today. I'm not sure about what denomination he was because he live before prophet Muhammad s.a.w being raised and those in Najran perhaps were Nestorians or Myaphisites. Nestorians were those with Hristo Tokos controversy. Hristo Tokos is a reference to Maryam al-'Adzraa, the mother of Jesus Christ which means the mother of the Christ. Early Christians were arguing about whether referring to Maryam as Hristo Tokos (mother of the Christ) or Theo Tokos (mother of God) in their prayers. I had read few parts of Christological arguments among Church Fathers and Bishops including those being sent by some Orthodox Christian friends. Those thing were just a waste of time to be debated until it became so dogmatic, hahahaaha. It is also mentioned by the God in surah Maryam verse 37-38.      

May the God forgive me my sins if I did anything wrong during the rituals. Please forgive my mum's sins too and bless her. Bless my dad and protect everyone with health. Forgive our grandparents sins and protect them their souls in the life behind the curtain. May the God our Lord bless our ancestors : )

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!

Memorizing Invocations from the Glorious Quran I

With the Name of the God, the Most Beneficent above all, the Most Merciful!

I'm just including the meaning in English. Lazy to type in Arabic and afraid that it would be defecated when printed out. English speakers could just first memorize the English meaning. Later, you may learn Arabic sounds. Don't worry about rituals, they are actually very easy once you grasped basic things. 

When you perform all of the rituals with understandings only you will feel His great love descends on you. You could see it with your heart and soul, but never with your physical eyes. Our eyes are deceiving and environment around us is deceiving us. I am also deceived by my eyes where my faith will also becomes weak if I believe what I see and yet I still believe them :'((((

We actually have two kinds of supplications and prayers to the God. The first one is these kind of prayers from divine letters in the quranic verses while another one is from sunnah or the traditions of the prophet. 

Recite al-Fatihah

With the Name of the God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful 1 Praises be only to the God, the Lord of the Universe 2 The Most Generous, the Most Beneficent 3 King of the Day of the Law (judgement) 4 Only You that we worship, and only You that we follow 5 Show us please the straight path 6 The path where You had agreed upon. Not (the path) of those who had raised Your wrath, and those who went astray 7

Memorize al-Baqarah 127-128

Our Lord please accept us (our services). Indeed You are the One who hears everything, who knows everything 127 Our Lord, and make us the people who submit to You and from our generations the nations of those who are submissive to You, and show us our rituals and accept our penitence. Indeed You are the One who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful 128  

Al-Baqarah 286

Our Lord! Please don't punish us if we forget or fall into error. Our Lord! Please lay not on us the burden like what had been burdened on those before us. Our Lord! Put not on us the burden greater than we have strength to bear. Pardon us we beg You, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us dear Lord, You are our Salvator and Protector and give us victory over the ingrates 286

Memorize little by little and check the translation in your glorious Quran exegesis. Don't burden ourselves but always assume ourselves as the seeker of knowledge. We are now traveling in the Universe and going through many experiences in this travel. Whether they are nice or foul but we are trying everything. 

Don't be shy to seek knowledge because nobody is perfect. This is actually the advice for myself but it may also motivate others. Begin once you had memorized the verses for supplications like after the salaat services. Pause for few moments to think deeply on what are the messages of divine words mean, may Allah helps everyone with His guidance.

May Allah be Merciful on everyone in this period of malefactors and slanders. Sealed with prayers for peace, mercy, and love to brothers and sisters in faith.

Manners for Quran memorization process

Assalaamu'alaikum wa Rahmatullah!

With the Name of Allah (the God), the Most Merciful the Most Beneficent

I am actually a bit disappointed with my self. I suppose to follow one of my sister and parents to Saudi next semester but I had made wrong plan in the last semester. Well, at least this will happen when we do not discuss the matter with anyone. I have no one to talk too concerning my studies even my lecturers are so busy and my classmates, of course I have barriers to talk with girls since they are not my mahram. 

My sister had offered to help me with visa so that we could be together in Saudi. She wanted to move out from the place where she currently works in. She wants me to help her out with her english due to that her level of confidence in english is quite low and i also have to help her out with her final semester thesis as it is in english. She studied nursing and I have to read her books too. Since I could not see anyone cries so I would just agree to help her. She is my sister anyway, I don't want to see anyone in sadness nor failure.  

I had been thinking to get arabic certificate too so that I could possibly apply for translator job in private companies there while hoping that I could perform 'umrah in holy mecca to get better luck and getting His valuable blessings in this life and hereafter. Maybe He wants me to improve certain things more before reaching Him again. I am so sad, but yeah we would never reach Him easily as this life is full of bumps, loopholes and heaps.

I have to repeat a paper on political and decision making in Europe this coming semester and the next year I would have to cover another paper concerning the economy in Europe. Wenpei too did not pass the political and decision making paper so I am still lucky to have my classmate with me next semester. 

Economy is not my thing so I was so afraid that I would do it bad so I talked with my classmate, Sivagami. The girl said that she is also afraid since she is also from pure linguistic line. We do not have any ample knowledge about economy.  I also called our senior, sister Rezwana and she suggested me to split the paper in the beginning of this semester if I think that I would not be able to cover the whole thing because she did the same and she is working while doing master. So, basically I and Siva decided to be the only seniors that taking the paper in the fourth semester. I also hope that I would not facing too much obstacles for my research and hope it finish according to the plan. 


The other thing is that I have to take spanish again because I had forgotten to attend my german test. And german is quite tough so I think I better off with spanish. Just to fulfill my certificate requirement and I had already have some basic in spanish compared to german. Only a level more to finish, be patient friend!

I also heard a news which is not so good to be heard last two days where one of my friend from the same course but a bit senior than me had only pass minimum requirement for his thesis. I could not talk with him and I hope that he would not lose his faith in God. I understand how he feels especially when I always listen to friends in sadness if they wanted to share it with me. At least if I could not share their happiness I could listen to their sadness and they would feel a bit relieved. Beg Lord God for the obstacles being removed please! This friend also had helped me when I was in my first degree and he still helps me when I am in this level of study although he never follows me to the mosque when I persuaded him because guidance is only with Him. If I can't return his favor with favor I really feel that I am so evil. Say that indeed everything is from God, and to Him we return.

So, what should I do to cure my disappointment, ja? I think I maybe need to recapture my memorization of muqaddam (beginning of Quran) and juz 'amma suras. Next semester I still have more or less six months, I had wasted times in my life so may He permits not wasting anymore. May God forgives me but I would never have any chance to recover it back. Serves me right anyway for being an ignorant! 

Some friends had suggested me to divide my memorization according to parah or juz (section). I had already finished ek parah (one section) which consists of dvai suras (two divine letters). But to maintain them both is so hard. I maybe need a notebook special for memorization. I had already begin this custom when I was in holy mecca but once i returned home i was so busy with academic studies and distractions around. I tried to ask forgiveness but the distractions still come, my Lord. Maybe I haven't enough focus, may You forgive me. 

Later when I lived with Zaidi who was my second year roomate during my bachelor degree, I practised memorization again. I found that my life was full with energy when I practise a Muslim life according to what we call as sunnah tradition to guard memorization although my daily routine in the campus is so hectic and sometimes quite frustrating. I even could submit my assignments only a week after being issued by lecturer and she was so surprised with what I had done. She said, "I had never seen such a student like you doing this, this is crazy!!!" May God bless Zaidi, I always remember you brother no matter if you had already forgotten me. You are one of my teachers and mentors, how could I forget you? My respect, dear brother.

To begin with the manner of memorizing Quran. I need to first isolate myself from publics because it may distract me. This is for personal recitation for memorization and time with God during Saturday service during Friday evening because it is the time for personal supplications or du'a. 

Take shower with the intention to be in prayer and worshiping Him. Well, each daily prayer time especially for fajr (sunrise), dzuhr (noon), 'asr (after noon) and maghrib (sunset) prayers we need to perform the hadas akbar shower (dipping in water) and I call it as ma'mad in arabic and wudhu' (ablution) after that.  It is actually time consuming accompanied with niyyah (intention) and supplications so around half an hour or 15 minutes before prayer times we need to perform all of these if we have no duty or in free time. 

This is actually an old tradition which is also mentioned in sunnah. Usually I do not care how busy I am or no matter where I am, I would try to perform this and after that being called as an orthodox by few friends. I don't care, let them call me anything they want or how pathetic I look like when performing these. I believe what has been prescribed in Quran and Sunnah benefits us in this life and hereafter. I was just like them or even worse laughing at the sunnah adherents when I was an ignorant.   

Then I may need to have some 'oud (sandalwood), myrhh and frankincense stock in my closet, because we need to respect and celebrate holy words of God with fragrances. He is indeed Merciful and full of Love to lowly slaves and servants by revealing His holy words to us as a blessing among blessings. I had noted a ba'alawi shop in Georgetown when I followed tablighi friends. I may not buy those stuffs with friends because only for my personal use. Malay friends might mistaken me for performing polytheistic worship because last time Mijie had complained that to my friend and my friend had asked me to be careful with certain practices not in common with Malay customs. Now I am lucky because my roomate is only in the room once in a blue moon. 

Then I also need to perform memorization and recitation after obligatory prayers. To begin with memorization I may need to follow the guidelines given by elders concerning memorization. They are in the form of dzikr (remembrance of God), invocations, and supplications before beginning memorization and after finishing memorization. 

I could not type the arabic script for the supplications due to barriers and respecting holy words but only sharing the meanings of those formula for Quranic memorization. They are necessary to guard memorization and cleaning our inner selves after we purified our external self with ma'mad and wudhu' rituals.

To begin the memorization 

Recite the al-Fatihah, mother of the scripture

Recite the ayatul Kursi verse 255 surah al-Baqarah

Recite al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq and an-Naas seeking protection from God from distractions

Chant the dzikr asking forgiveness from God, "I seek forgiveness from You and I repent my sins" 10 x

Chant the salawaat to prophet Muhammad (saw), "Our Lord be in connection with Muhammad (saw), and the family of Muhammad (saw) as You had been in connection with Ibrahim (Abraham) and his family. Our Lord, please bless Muhammad (saw) and his family as You had blessed Ibrahim (Abraham) and his family." 10 x

Chant this supplication to Lord God for our personal recitation and memorization

"O Lord our God, enlight me my view with Your scripture, and clear me my chest (to receive Your lessons), and use my body (to contain Your holy words), and make the words risen from my tongue, and fasten them inside my heart and soul, and make me quickly understand Your lessons and with Your Power and Your Strength thus there is no power except the Strength of God, the Greatest!"

Then chant this supplication

O Lord our God, open to us Your Wisdoms and from  the many blessings O You who is the Merciful amongst the merciful (no one is merciful than Him).

O Lord, clear me my chest (fill it with confidence and boldness), and make me easy in accomplishing my task, and untie the knot at my tongue so that they would understand my speeches (surah Ta-Ha:25-28). 

Indeed We revealed down the remembrance (scripture), and indeed it is with Us the task to guard it! 7 x

Begin the memorization of any surah or part of Quran that we desire to the end, memorize it and chant it slowly about half an hour at any time we feel free to do.

After the process done, chant this supplication dear brothers and sisters

I testify that God the Greatest is indeed true in His message (to me). And had accomplished the task of His messenger the noble one the message. It is indeed revealed by the Lord of the Universe. Our Lord, we believe in what You had revealed and we follow the messenger and write for us (in Your holy tablet) that we are among those who testifies Your truth! And praise be only to the God, the Lord of the Universe. Amin! 

These are some invocations that I use to chant for the process of memorization. I am sorry for the language style because it is in classical arabic and I tried hard to convey the message and try to stick to the meaning without making people misunderstand the message especially when there is no gloss translation with original language. 

Other people might have different prescriptions but this is what I had received and I practised when performing pilgrimage hajj rites and after I returned. Basically not really different, almost the same. maybe some are with additional prayers or simpler. Hope everyone teach our friends and anyone we are close with these supplications and spread the knowledge of scripture to everyone. May everyone being saved from disaster during the Day of Religion. 

I hope it is beneficial for everyone including myself and I sincerely pray that my respective brothers and sisters could also being granted the ni'mah (grace) to receive the honor from God our Lord. Amin! Sealed with love and peace.