Assalamu Alaikum Shaykh,

JK for your encouragement and support. We have just confirmed that our teacher and Shaykh Dr Muhammad Akram Nadwi will also be delivering durus at the Meadows of Paradise Halaqas Insha'Allah.

Keep us in your prayers.
Your brother and student Abdullah

Once, an American man went missing in Australia. After three months or so, he emerged from the other end of the Australian desert, wearing an ordinary shirt and pair of trousers, with leather sandals on, and a big bottle of water in his hand. Asked why he had braved such a frightening desert alone and with so little equipment, the man said: "I just wanted to discover God." Personally, I couldn't believe my eyes and ears as I saw those TV pictures, having read about the times when Afghan camel leaders took European settlers through the uncharted deserts of the Australian continent.

But does one really need to go to a dangerous place like the Australian desert to "discover God"? It's true that most probably you won't "find" God in the stadium, in the cafe or in the shopping mall--because a lot of things will overshadow Him in there. But just go to the woods or open countryside round your town. Go there alone, with no cam, no walkman, no cigarettes. Just go in your jellaba, or jeans, or shorts, or pyjamas. Go and sit ban,g on the ground, and stop TIME for a while. Open your eyes wide, and your ears, and your heart, and you'll see how small you are and how great you are! Small, because you belong to a planet that is just a drop in the ocean compared to the Universe and you are but a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of creatures that live on this planet. Great, because you belong to a species that has turned this once deserted planet into prosperous cities, ever-growing towns, beautiful villages, nice farms and fields, with lots of good people in them--despite all the evil, all the horrors this same species has caused over time.

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A sahabi (companion of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)) was once travelling with other sahabis in the Arabean desert when he said to them: "Let's sit down and believe for an hour"! these sahabis were all believers, they worshipped God night and day. But that's not like sitting down in the heart of the desert and thinking silently and wondering aloud. The image of God is then clearer, much clearer, and the greatness of God is brighter than the sun, sweeter than the moon in the eyes of young lovers.

So how long will it be before you go to the woods (with no cam, no walkman, no cigarettes), with just a mind and a heart, and two feet willing to go from place to place, and eyes willing to look at beautiful flowers -small flowers- hiding behind small rocks that few people care to glance at? In the woods look at the fallen leaves, and touch them, scrutinize them; look at the insects, look for migrant birds, listen to their twitter, and remember God's words:

"And with Him are the keys of the invisible. None but He knoweth them. And He knoweth what is in the land and the sea. Not a leaf falleth but He knoweth it, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, naught of wet or dry but (it is noted) in a clear record." (Al-An'am : 59)

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Imam Suhaib Webb, I am writing an article today for ur site.