Assalamu Alaykum. Hope you are all doing well in shaa Allah. this is part of a lecture delivered by Dr. Usman Bugaje on the S.AI.D pep talk platform(video can be found on their youtube channel)

The speaker starts off by an attempt to raise the conciousness of the minds of his listeners. He asked us how we define life and also what death means to us.

I define death first for myself as the door that opens us up to the other world while I go on to define life, as the door that needs to be closed so we can accede to the other world. I know this is a rather simplistic and even circular definition but as he said, there are no really good or bad answers. the questions are meant to enlighten us on the depth of our ignorance.

About questioning, he talked about how the Qur’an, which is the speech of Allah also asks us questions in a bid to prepare our minds for the message that is meant for us. He sighted this by giving examples.

He further defined life in terms of time; how long have we lived for? in terms of also quality, that is what we would like to be remembered for? and also in terms of the problems you solved in either your immediate community or the world at large.

He goes further to ponder upon some verses with us in Surah Ibrahim verses 1-5:

by way of these verses he touched upon how as much as Islam is seen as a restrictive and archaic religion, it is actually a religion that seeks to liberate us. As  some of the verses in questiion talk aboout bringing us out from darkness to light.

The verses also highlight the difference between a believer and unbeliever in that the former’s focus is on the akhirah while the latter is on the present life.

Notably, the speaker talked about how the Corona Virus Pandemic is yet another sign out of the signs of the Almighty to show the world exactly who is and has always been in charge. despite all our so called scientific and technological advancements, the virus crippled us and brought us all to its knees.

Additionally, he talked about the importance of learning the language of people and also civilisations. He highlighted how there is a disconnect between the language(not literally) that Ulamas speak and the language that lay people speak. Also, how important it is that the Ulamas learn the language of its people in terms of the nature of their living and how fast the world keeps changing.

 

All in all, the pep talk was an illuminating one that I hope we will all take time out to watch as there are numerous valuable lessons for us all in it.

 

Wa’alaykumus salam warahmatullahi wa barakatuh. may the soul of my beloved friend, Abubakar Abdulrahman continue to rest in peace, ameen.