Maryam Amir – Quran Journey from Bosnia Ustada Amina Mujela Butic
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AI: Transcript ©
Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Akbar, subhanAllah, Alhamdulillah,
illallah, Allahu. Akbar, subhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, Allah,
ILAHA, illallah, Allahu, Akbar Wa Alaikum, asmaahi, wabarakatuh,
waalshi, wa rahatu, subhanAllah, alhamdulillahim. Jihad, Ahn Imam.
Jihad, such a blessing to have you here. Imam Baraka Lo Fi, Abdullah,
your comments are not welcome at all. You are welcome to be blocked
after this. Subhanallah Alhamdulillah, Allahu. Akbar.
Subhanallah Alhamdulillah, Allahu. Akbar, so great to see you. Masha,
Allah, Wa Alaikum, Asmaa, Salahi, what I get to Subhanallah
Alhamdulillah. We have our staff with us. This is Subhanallah
Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, finally, this day has come,
a blessing to see you. Masha, Allah, how are you doing?
Alhamdulillah, I'm fine. I'm just currently at my workplace. So this
is the library where I work in so at hand, I'm kind of getting in
touch from here.
Awesome. Let me introduce you. Inshallah.
Alhamdulillah, we have such a blessing of having said that amino
that's today, mashallah from Bosnia. This is so exciting. A lot
excited to hear her story Mashallah. She has spent so many
years working with Quran, working with scholars and memorizing
Quran, teaching Quran Mashallah. She also teaches Arabic. She has a
master working towards in Islam in Europe, and she already has a
bachelor's in Islamic studies. So mashallah, she comes not only from
the place of working with Islamic knowledge, but also someone who
focuses on Islam in Europe, specifically, and Bosnia has such
a long history with Islam in Europe, so Subhanallah, it's so
wonderful to be able to speak with you in person and Inshallah, learn
about your journey, and to hear about the Journey of Bosnian woman
and their process with the Quran. So can you share with us today
about your journey to the Quran? Inshallah,
oh Subhanallah, when I was thinking about, what would I say
if you asked me about my journey with the Quran, I would just say,
like one common place where we were both Bosnians here and the
Europeans and generally the Americans, that all of those non
Arab people come from, this the same baseline is that we do not
know Arabic. So all of us who want to learn the Quran, who want to
read the Quran, the first kind of place, the first dot that we all
have to start from, is to learn how to read,
and that is a struggle by itself. So all of those who have been on
this place know how it is. So my journey on first reading the
Quran, because to learn the Quran by heart was not my first option.
It was just to kind of get to know
was about eight years eight years old. However, because it was
because we have here in Bosnia, it is called the maced it is kind of
like the basic Islamic education for children, and it is organized
by different Imams here in Bosnia. So every child who wants to learn
the basics of Islam, they can go to a mactab and to learn the
basics of it. So I started there, and I started with my first
teacher in the MEK school. Her name was Fatima May Allah, bless
her.
And unfortunately, I had this kind of
tendency to kind of give up easily on things. So my journey took of
learning only the Haru learning only the letters. My journey took
more than about even, I think, six years. Was it six years, and it
was like, every year I would start, and I would go for about a
month or two months and three months, and I would just like, oh,
I cannot do this. I would give up. And then when I was, when I was
about 12 years old, a new teacher came to us, and his name was
Professor Nazif, may Allah bless him, and may Allah accept from
him. And he said, like, No, we are not going to do this again. You're
not going to start this all over again, and then, like, stop at the
in the middle. We're going to start and we're going to finish it
so that.
He kind of made the intention straight from the light from the
beginning. So then, like we started, and then like we came to
the, I think the tenuine was the sign that we did together the last
and then a new teacher again came. And then with the third teacher, I
just finished my journey of how knowing, knowing how to read the
Quran, and her name is admira. And
I then realized that in order for me to be able to learn the Quran
and to be kind of able to read it properly, I would need a tough
teacher, so not someone who is like too calm and generous and
like too sweet and like kind of
respective, etc, I would need someone who kind of says, you have
to do this. You do not have choice, yeah, to get it up.
So that's what I went when I finished. It was like, No, you do
not have a choice. You do not have an option here. You just have to
finish it. And then, then, I had finished my the Arabic letters. So
anyone there who has the same struggle, I know how you feel. I
know how it is, because it took me for so much, so many years, and
when I finished it, then the real fortune came to me, because I then
realized
how beautiful this book that I was reading was, and how kind of, even
though I was a child, I was kind of aware of how beautiful a
feeling it came to me when I read it. It was like whenever I read
the Quran. I kind of felt like this calmness in my heart that I
never felt in any other book. So even though I didn't know what I
was reading, I didn't know the meanings of it, I didn't know what
was behind all of those letters and words and the sentences and
ayat I was just reading it and just the
the process of reading the Quran only the reading was really
enjoyful for me.
So yeah, it is not easy, but it is worthy of it, because, like, after
that, I never kind of forgot the letters. And
this journey of this hard journey that all of us can come through,
and I know my I have a lot of students, and they kind of have
the same struggles, especially, it is especially when we come, for
example, for for the al haruf, al musakham, for example, the HA and
the rain and the ain, when he come to the rain, it is like, Oh, we
cannot do this. Where is this sign gonna come? Where did is this
sound gonna come from? Where Where should I put my tongue? Where
should I do this? So, yeah, it is a struggle, and I know how you
feel, but it is worthy of it. Because, like, the pleasure of
reading the Quran afterwards, and what, what it comes from to you
with, with all of its messages, etc, is it's, it's much more
worthy than the struggle that we come through during the reading of
during the learning of the letters, etc. So I'm sorry,
because maybe this answer took too much of the time. I'm sorry.
So awesome. That's why you started with just being introduced to the
letters in the Arabic language. But so people learn Arabic, and
they don't memorize your Quran. Why did you want to memorize Quran
after that, if you
still wonderful, but why did you especially because you didn't
understand what you were reading? So why did you choose to memorize
so my memorizing process started when I was in my high school. So
here in Bosnia, we have the so called Islamic high schools,
meaning, like, you can go to a madrasa, which lasts for four
years, and then you can go, like, to learn from, like, the basics of
aqidah, of fiqh, of Sierra, of history of Islam, of many
different aspects of Islam. So to go to there. It was a little bit
of a struggle, because my parents were not for going to this Islamic
High School, and because in that time, my parents were not really
religious, so I had to kind of
struggle to get into it, and kind of to get their trust in that I'm
not going to go extreme, that I'm not going to start bombing myself,
etc. So it was like a struggle, because they were afraid that
something might happen to me. That's not a problem here, but
kind of, they're afraid that their religion, their main concern was
that religion is going to close my not to, kind of to close me in a
box, so to say, not to give me the freedom that they thought I
needed. They were afraid that I'm gonna like, stay stuck and not
being able to educate myself and not being like many different
things. So it was just any other parents. They were concerned that
their child, their their their daughter, you.
It's the best education that she has to so I just told them, it is
my biggest wish. It is what makes me happy, and I will not be happy
if I do not go to this Madras and learn about Islam. And I think
then the love and the accepting part of my parents kind of stood
there, and they told me, of course, if you wanted to go, we
respect you, we respect your decisions, and it's okay. It's not
that we agree upon that, but we respect your decisions.
And
yeah, it's so powerful, because they're just talking to a
teenager, but they're listening to you and work with you. Yes, and I
had really opinions in that time. I know that when I wanted to do
something in my life, then I would just do all. I would go through
walls, but I would do it. I was like, oh, there is no other
opinion for me. It's gonna make me happy. I know that this is
something that I need, and it was something that I need, because
during the madrasa period, I put on my hijab, I started, like,
learning about Islam. I started praying regularly, and I started
kind of getting to know about things about Islam. It's the
basics of it can be really good, well known here in madassa in
Bosnia,
but when I wanted to maybe this would be interesting for some of
the viewers
the second like struggle because and the third one is going to be
the Quran. The second struggle that I had was, again, how to put
my hijab on. I was only 15 years old, and I was about in that
school for only about two or three weeks, and I then I immediately
wanted to put my hijab to be, to be the hijabi all the time. So
until then, we had, like, the opportunity to put on the hijab
during the classes, but outside the classes, we didn't have to.
We're on the hijab regarding the rules in the madrasa. And
when I when I wanted to start during the hijab, I was like,
concerned. Oh, what's gonna happen now? And I kind of felt it in my
heart. I remember sitting one day, and
I remember, like reading a an Ayah from like there was a board and
there was the ayah when, and it says, Well,
no, I cannot remember one by one word. So it said about the hijab,
ayah, meaning the cover the hijab, that kind of
says to the women to kind of put the hijab on and it I read that to
Aya a lot of many times before, but that time when I was reading
it, I just kind of felt in my heart that, oh, this is Allah
talking to me. This is something that Allah wants for me. I am his
believer. I am someone who wants his mercy. I want I'm the one who
wants his forgiveness and and he's the one who gives me the best of
this life, and He is the one who wants to be the best for me. And
when I realized who was talking to me in that ayah, I kind of right
away felt in my heart now I want to be someone who is a real Muslim
to him, meaning like
someone who kind of wishes what he wishes for someone who desires in
his his life, what He desires for us. And kind of I felt the
comments in deciding that I want to swear the hijab. And there was
no other opinion in that period for me. And then when I came home
and I told my parents, I wonder, I want to start wearing it, they
kind of said, Oh, but you're too young. How can you wear the hijab
and you're only 15? What's good? What? What the other people will
say? What if you change your mind later on? What will happen then?
And then I said, I will not think about that. I will just hear it
now, and I will start doing it right now, because I I know that
this is something that I want. And then, yeah, I remember my mother.
She was so angry at me because she was, like, so scared what is going
to happen next?
And then I started wearing it. And later on, and now, when I talk to
her, because about 10 years or more have passed since I started
wearing it, and now she says,
What if only I knew what is going to come next, and how happy you're
going to become because of that, and how happy you're going to
Islam is going to how much happiness and beautifulness in
your life Islam is going to get you. I will never, kind of be
angry at you, I would never, kind of stop you from any of those
things, because now she kind of realizes how,
how this religion is really a source of happiness for us, even
in this world, even though we go through many, many different
struggles and we have
many insecurities, we.
Have so many things that we go through, but because we have
someone who really rely upon and whom we can talk to, and whom we
can kind of ask from to give us what we need. And kind of it gives
so much calmness, and it gives so much joy and happiness that it
cannot be compared to anything else, and we can go and buy things
the kind of new things can give us some joy, but
from those new materialistic things that we buy or get, etc,
they give us a joy or happy feeling for a couple of days,
maybe, or even the weeks. But after that, we kind of get bored,
we kind of get over it. We do not feel any more the joy. But this
would have the faith in yourself. It's something that kind of
gets you more and more if you're going to go go deeper and deeper.
And it's SubhanAllah. And even when we read this book, this
beautiful Quran at Allah sent that sentence.
If you read it, you read an ayah, and you read it in one way, one
day, and you kind of understand it in one day, and then you come in a
couple of days or months or years, and you kind of read the same
ayah, but you are not the same, and you kind of look, look into
the same ayah. It's completely differently from how you saw it in
before. So, so this is, yeah, this is the joy of our of our religion,
and this kind of the joy and the beautifulness of our Islam. And
then after, like, putting the hijab my first year of classes, I
started, started from going to the second class, and then I met one
of my then one of my friends told me that she was starting to learn
the Quran by heart. And I like, Okay, you were learning in
Mashallah. It's beautiful, it's nice. But I kind of was, No, it's
not for me. I'm not like, I'm not worthy enough to learn the Quran
by heart. That's what was one of my main thoughts.
I cannot do it. I cannot do it. It's kind of, yeah, I am too like,
sometimes I get lazy. Sometimes I get like, stuck in my thoughts and
stuck in many things. Sometimes, like, I cannot even I hardly get
up and pray at all. And how will I be if I'm not like praying every
night the Lail and how am I going to be half alive? I'm not like all
this additionally, additionally, additional, additionally.
And I was kind of getting, I was like, feeling it like
I had to go, I have to get to a certain degree of my Iman, of
everything about me. And then I will be worthy enough to learn the
Quran by heart. And like I was, I had to be something in order to be
able to learn by heart. And then Subhanallah, I realized, and you
do not have to get into any point to learn the Quran by heart. Allah
has sent you the Quran to benefit from it, subhanAllah, and you do
not have to get to any level to learn it. It is open for you if
you really want to learn it. And then I kind of,
I kind of stopped thinking about, where should I be in order to be
able to learn the Quran, and what should I know before it? And what
should I accomplish? All of these accomplishments such, I know the
Quran is there for all of us in all times you do not it is there
for you, even though, if you're in the baddest in the worst place in
your life, as it is for you in your if you are in the best place
in your life, meaning, like in the happiness in the sorrows. So
kind of when I kind of stopped thinking about where should I be
in order to be able to learn the Quran by heart? Then it kind of
came and I started learning it. And by learning it, then many
different than many other struggles came in. But yeah, just
to start learning it, it was kind of from there. I do not have to be
anyone to be able to learn the Quran or to recite it, or to come
closer to Allah, right? Is so inspiring, and it left me with
chills, and my heart feels fuller, and my eyes just feel like I can
feel the love of Allah's Panama Tala that you have just brimming
over your tears. Mashallah, may Allah, bless you. You talked about
learning the Arabic. You talked about how you, you know, felt
unworthy for the Quran, but felt like, Okay, this ayah is talking
to you and how it impacted your life and the happiness that your
mom even sees in you after this. Masha Allah,
what did you go to actually trying to understand the meaning of what
you're memorizing. Was that part of the process of you memorizing,
or was it like, you know, separate? How was that for
you?
Understanding the meanings of the Quran is something that I'm still
kind of working on, and I think about working.
Work on it. As long as my life goes and I will kind of work with
my whole life,
to be honest, my Arabic Now is not on the place where I wanted to be
like it is I'm like on the some place where I can understand it.
But my my speak level is not like my level of how to communicate and
speak it. It's not on the place where I want it to be. However, I
do not let it to stop me from understanding the Quran, because,
yeah, I just kind of think that
understanding the meanings of the Quran, meaning like understand
each word or many words from the Quran, can benefit us as well.
I started learning the grammar from my high school, and then I
continued learning grammar very begin during the faculty period as
well. And then I, when I started working, I came Alhamdulillah,
here in nahlah. We, kind of,
they gave me the opportunity to teach the linguistic tafsir
meaning like we can go word by word, translating some Surahs and
understanding them deeper. And my first course that I taught there
was the linguistics tafsir, word by word, meanings of the surah
class, like they were the basic surahs, so to say. And so many,
many people here in Bosnia know these Surahs by heart, but I think
if they, if you ask them what the surahs mean, and how do you kind
of practice these Surahs in your everyday life? Unfortunately, they
wouldn't be able to kind of translate them and understand what
they mean. But they'll, for example, recite them every day in
their prayers as like a sort of a protection in the mornings, in
life, in the evening, etc. So I was thinking, why do we not know
these surahs, these words, they are not basic, they're advanced,
if they if we understand the meanings of them. And then I
started kind of going through one by one word. And how does why
Allah chose this word in order to to start this surah, and how the
different meanings kind of complete the overall message of
the Surah, etc. And, wow, when I started doing that, it kind of
bring my it brought my my level and my connection to the Quran to
a completely new level, Subhan Allah, to know one by one word and
to know kind of a deeper meaning of what we read and recite in the
Quran. It is completely subhanall. It's something so beautiful. It's
kind of
when you see, for example, why Allah has when you read it in, for
example, we have the translation of the Quran here in Bosnia. And
everyone who, everyone who wants to know the meaning of the Quran,
we you can read it in you, and you have many different translations
of the Quran in Bosnia.
And it is on one level, so to say, really nice and useful, etc.
However, when you go and kind of start reading it and trying to
understanding, to understand it word by word, and kind of try to
find the connection between the words and what is the kind of
what, what meanings can we get behind these like letters and
words that are connected, one after the other, the connection to
with the Quran becomes really more beautiful. And I know my students
used to tell me, like I kind of, they said, I kind of have the
connection with these Buddhas on a completely new level, because now
when I recite them in my prayers, it is like I'm talking to Allah.
Now that when I'm reciting in my prayers, I know what I'm saying
and know what I'm seeking, the protection from, and who am I
talking to, etc. So yeah, even you, even from when you go, from
the basics, you can go to advance if you understand and know how to
go to get into it. And then I didn't stop the journey there. So
this year, Alhamdulillah, we, I had this course called The and I
am having speech is still ongoing. And having this course of
linguistic, again, a tafsir of Surah Mariam. And it is a
completely, again, a journey. It is a beautiful journey. And we
cover, for example, each week about three to four ayat, and it
is only about one by one word, and then we cover the whole page of
the Surah Mariam for a month. So we do one page a month, and it is
really slow, and our students are learning the hips of the surah as
well as the the meanings and wow it is. Their hips is strong. Their
their
understanding of the surah is is beautiful. So it is completely new
level to learn it this way. And my Inshallah, my goal, let me, Allah,
make it easy for me and all of us who want, want to do it this way,
is to kind of understand the whole Quran in these like small levels,
like.
Understand it word by word going you go into this. It's deeper
meanings like that. So, yeah, it is a completely different
perspective, and it is a completely new level of of
connection with the Quran. Because you kind of get, I know, when I
start reading the swaram Now,
I kind of get, like, triggered by some words that are that I didn't
but that I wasn't triggered, not what, what? What's the meaning of
trigger? Meaning like, it gives me the chills. It gives me the
warmness in my heart. It gives me the tears. It gives me the feeling
of, wow. This is, this is what Allah has told us, in the in the
in the Surah Mary, I mean, this is his choice of the words and kind
of these, what this like, read so many small words so to say, of
suramarium, they kind of give me these new feelings that I have
never had before, and that's all because of these kind of
beautiful, beautiful meanings that I have learned throughout this
year. And may Allah bless him, Shaykh abd Nasir, I have learned,
I have listened to his Surah, Maryam, it was a must for me in
order to prepare my own So may Allah bless him, and may Allah
accept from him for doing the linguistic perspective of the
surah as well. So beautiful
that someone can teach the tafsir and not realize that maybe in
another country, they're going to be using it to understand the
Surah, Subhan, Allah, JazakAllah, khairan, that, Oh, beautiful.
You've been talking about people learning the meaning of the Quran
in Bosnia. Can you share with us what is the culture of Quran for
women in Bosnia? Do women actively take classes for and memorize
Quran? Is it? Is it? Is it something that is you know, a lot
of women do. What is the culture there?
So women here learn and recite the Quran just like on a daily basis.
And they learn, they teach, and they kind of recite the Quran that
on the same level, so to say, as men. So just from the beginning,
for example, when we start from the Mecca period, the basic
Islamic education period. Altogether, women and men like the
children go together, and they learn the letters. They learned
how to recite it as well. And then the high schools usually there as
many men. There are women as well. There are girls and boys, and they
continue their journey. And one interesting point, and this is
maybe something that some some can benefit from. We have this kind of
yearly competition in reciting the Quran. So my first kind of public
reciting, or my first kind of the competition in the Quran, was when
I was about 17. I think I was 17 years old. And then we learned
five Jesus of the Quran by heart.
And then, kind of, we came to this competition, and it was like, wow.
What is going to be beyond this competition? Who am I going to
compete out against? And there were so many different half a lot
or men and women who were competing and who were like, Oh,
am I going to make a mistake here? Or I'm not. So the competition was
like, if you're on the five judges, a competition that you get
two to three pages that you have to recite in front of the of the
board, so to say in front of the board of their recitation. And
they said they kind of choose a random page, but by random I mean
like the hardest pages,
like you never get the easy ones, you get only the hardest.
So, yeah, and then they just want to test their your hips, how we're
going to finish the ayat, how we're gonna kind of,
how we're gonna connect it between different ayat, etc. And on that
competition, Alhamdulillah one, I was the second, and that on the
state, state competition, together with my two colleagues, and one of
them won the first play, the first place, she's now Hafez. She is
Akia kawabat. And the third place was, again, my my colleagues,
because we were really good group, and we were a really good team.
And our half of was our teacher was kind of preparing us, the
whole like here, and he was like pressuring us, you can do it. You
can do it. You don't. You cannot give up. You have to prepare, and
we did it, and Alhamdulillah made a beautiful scores, and like the
whole school was so proud of us. And so there is no limitations for
women to kind of participate in these events. There's no
limitations for women to participate in learning the Quran,
in reciting the Quran.
In teaching the Quran.
And there are many, but for example, it is usually. It is
usually divided, like women teach women, the Quran and men teach
men. Usually it's like that. And we have, for example, many
different schools of Quran. Here in Bosnia, we have like female,
specified, so to say, School of schools of the Quran in In which
the focus on, the focus is teaching the women the Quran. And
these schools of Quran have made so many good results, and they
kind of have 10s of half a lot a year. So for example, last year,
we know, for example, now in Bosnia we have around 300 Hafez
hafaz, we have, like, those are both men and women together. And
the last year, for example, was one of the best, not one of but
the best year in the number of hafas, or number of half elders
who learned the Quran by heart. And after you learned the Quran by
heart, here in Bosnia, for example, you have to go to recite
the Quran in front of the so to say his board. It is called the
heifs board, and it is kind of consisted of what for the whole
country,
yes. Yes, yes. So you have to, like you have to, if I understood
it well. So they have, if you want to kind of understand the if or
not, if you finish the
Quran, then you go to the kind of to recite the Quran in front of
the hips of the board. And this hip to the word is consisted of
eight members. So they kind of sit and listen to your recitation for
15 days. And you recite two Jesus of the Quran each day, and you
have to recite them. I think the flat here recite these juices in
about an hour or so, in our hour, hour and a half. So they have to
recite really quick. And their Tajik kind of goes off during
during that period. But yeah, they have to recite it pretty quickly.
And they finish it in about 15 days. And there are even her flat
who had finished it in about three days. They recited the whole Quran
in three days, for example. And there is all there is also one
hafillah. It is. She's female, and she recited the whole Quran in one
day. So she kind of sit in front of the board, yes, and she sit in
front of the board. And she started in the morning, and she
was like finished until salatul magibadi in the evening. We also
have half of there, our half a lot, or from all from different
ages and backgrounds. For example, we have, we had one half of that
he he finished the the recite, recitation in front of the board
yesterday, and he's like, 59 years old, and he was like, like, almost
in his pension days. And he finished it. We also have half a
lot that are 1516, years old, and they all kind of committed into
reading the Quran, learning the Quran by heart, and reciting it in
front of the board. So it is not like limited there are, I think
one of our youngest have. Her father was about 12 or 13 years
old. So now there is no age limit. Allah chooses whom he wants to and
we can only pray that Allah chooses us to kind of be the
carriers of his book, and to kind of carry it, not only in our
minds, but to carry it in our hearts. Inshallah,
so incredible and interesting. So there's no way that we would in
the United States be able to have. We don't have, like a system to
see who memorize, how many people memorize. So, so you're, you're,
you're, is it like expected that any person who finishes memorizing
with their teacher, they go to this board, and then the board
will kind of keep a record of all the have felt in the whole country
that is yes, yes, yes. And not only that, you kind of have these
kind of periods of your memorization process. So the first
period is like just memorizing, learning the whole Quran by heart.
And then the second kind of step of the process is to get your hips
so strong that you can recite two Jesus of the Quran in one hour or
in one hour and a half. So you'd have to kind of get just really
good.
Not everyone can go to that board and kind of just recite after they
finish, etc. So it is challenging. It is really stressful for the
HAFA, but it is really worth it, because when someone goes to the
board and they recite the Quran in these 15 or days or less, for some
they kind of their hips. You know that their hips is on a level. You
know that it is a really strong cubes that they not cannot, you
kind of are you can lean on their hips, etc. So, yeah, so the first
kind of goal.
Is to finish the Quran in front of your teacher. And then the second
one is to finish it in front of this board. And yes, they keep the
record of how many have finished it in each year. And kind of,
yeah, there are eight of them. Unfortunately, we are missing a
woman in the board, but Inshallah, it's going to be
inshallah. It's going to be one day. So let's hope to it inshallah
that it gets soon that we have nine member boards, of the members
of the board, etc. So it is a really, really prestige title here
in Bosnia to be a hassle. And you know that someone, when someone
recites that in front of the in front of this board, that you know
that he's a really good half feels, that his half his really
strong, and that, yeah, we can, you can just end like it's with a
prayer that he, that he continues to to kind of maintain his, his
his as strong as it was during that period. And then later on we
have kind of a gather, gathering that where we kind of,
kind of congratulate the the new Hefa, that they're the they're
finished their realization of the heaves. And then, yeah, that's
kind of, that's kind of it so. And then we can just pray that they
have stays the same strong during their whole life. So that's kind
of their process of, of
of learning the Quran here, so beautiful Mashallah. It's like
people who memorize Quran are so honored. And are, you know, it's,
it's something that people seriously, take it seriously the
way that they memorize Masha Allah, um, can you give us any
advice, because mashallah, you've already given us so much, so many
gems and so much advice in the way that you are speaking about
approaching Arabic and approaching Quran. What if someone like you
starts the Arabic letters and they're like, oh, no, I just
can't. I don't want to keep going. Or they start memorizing and they
say, Oh, this is just so difficult. I've been trying for
three years. I can't I can't do it. What advice do you have for
them to keep going, to feel motivated? How do they keep
feeling motivated to go to the Quran?
Oh, subhanAllah, I think it's something that it is individual.
Each person kind of has its own,
his his or her zone, like motives or inspirations, or motivations
from the Quran,
I think in my previous period, one of my main motivations was to when
I when I kind of get to through the struggles of, how am I going
to going to finish, when I'm going to finish, and I have so much to
left to to learn I was my my motive or my motivation would
always be like remembering that on the Day of Judgment, my parents
are going to wear a crown on their heads. And it was a really
motivating thing for me, and I really enjoyed it. However, when
the time passes on and when I was thinking about it more thoroughly,
I just came to a realization that
it is beautiful that your parents are going to bear the crown or the
crown on the Day of Judgment. However, I kind of see it now more
as a result, not the reason, if I have explained it well meaning,
like I want to learn the Quran in order to be myself closer to to
Allah, because the Quran is first of all going to benefit you, and
you should first of all learn it for Allah. And kind of
the second thing is like, remember whose word you're memorizing,
SubhanAllah. You remember that he chose, that he chose. He is the
one who taught you, and he's the one who chose you to even be able
to read it, even to be able to be to remember, to kind of be more
inspired or motivated to learn even the letters. There are so
many people who do not, who maybe were not even like thinking about
learning even the letters. So who is the one who gave you the
inspiration to even learn the letters, and who is the one who
gives you like the world in a to even read it in translation, etc?
So pray to Him to kind of make it easy for you to learn it by heart
and continue with your recitations, because it is first
of all benefit, beneficial for you and me. It is first of all
beneficial because it's going to
your heart is going to be melted by its meaning and by its words,
by only reading it if you if you know whose words are those, if you
if you know that it is he who who takes care of you every day. He it
is if you know that he, it is He Who
gave you life in this earth, who has given you, who has been with
you through all of your struggles, through all of your the best and
the worst times in your life and.
Has never given up on you, then you should know that it is an
honor to be able to read his book, and it is an honor, and it is
something that we should do in order to be kind of, it is a sign
of a gratefulness towards our Lord to learn his book by heart, kind
of to say, Allah, I'm learning this because I'm grateful to you
that you have given me my life. Allah, I'm learning this book
because I'm so happy to be
honored to be your slave. I'm so happy to learn this book because I
just want to see your your face, your
to see you on the Day of Judgment. There's nothing else it needs you
to, kind of to give you more motivation than this, your Lord,
your God, who is the one with who is always with you through all the
times. So no not. There is no bigger motivation in our lives
than he to kind of his closeness to us, to motivate us in our
everyday life. So if that is something that motivates you on
your why you're doing good deeds, why believing, etc, then it is
something that should motivate you in your reading process. So yeah,
that's it. I'm not going to I don't want to kind of get too
long. I'm sorry if this is too much.
Hey, all of us are just crying. Masha, Allah, the love that you
speak about doing this for the love of Allah, just out of this
pure desire to just know Him and be grateful to him, is just so
powerful and so beautiful and so inspirational. Subhanallah, may
Allah bless you and honor you and allow us to feel that same love
that you're talking about and increase you and that Allah, Amin,
I love to also ask you about your studies. You are studying
Mashallah. You're doing your masters in Islam in Europe. What?
What exactly is your studies about? Because that's something
that you know, there's so much history for Muslims in so many
different parts of the world, and being able to learn about Islamic
history in those parts, allows us as Muslims, wherever we are, to
feel more connected to our whole ummah. So can you share with us a
little bit about that as well?
So Islam in Europe as a Master of Studies here in Bosnia, in the at
the Faculty of Islamic Studies is something that is a new program,
master program here in Bosnia, and it is in English. It is the first
masters masters program in English. So anyone here who is
like, even from the United States or from the Europe, pardon, and
who wants to join this masters can can join it. I think there is
like, if you, if you like, visit the f i n.pa
This is the website, www, f i n.ba,
so you can visit there, and you can kind of check out the more
information. So what it meant to me?
First of all, it was a new experience for me, because it was
my first master's studies, that it was my first, like, official
studies that I did in English. So this is we do not have, like the
full time programs about Islam here in Bosnia in English. So it
is like, Oh, I saw that this is an opportunity to learn Islam and to
learn it in English, because I love English, and this is and I
love, kind of using it in my everyday life, and I kind of see
it as a really useful tool to kind of spread this beautiful message
of Islam. So that was one of my like first thoughts when I saw
this, like a fly, a flyer about the studies. The second thing is,
when we say Islam in Europe, it is a really weird thing to think
about, because when you see, like, you have friends, you have the UK,
you have the state, you have, like, many different countries
where, where Islam is not really like, recognizable by you cannot
think about, you only like, see the Islamophobia part of these, of
these, of these countries. So I kind of wanted to know, what does
it mean to be a Muslim in Europe. What does it mean to understand
Islam from a European perspective or from a European view? And then
throughout, throughout that masters, I learned that
that the translation, for example, of the Quran, happened so long
time ago, and it was like in the Latin language, and it was like in
from for all different reasons, and then it kind of brought me a
new perspective of the Quran. People will, kind of,
they will read the Quran, but it will not guide them. And we always
asked ourselves, how is that? Some people read the Quran, but it
doesn't guide them. It is by your intention that it is guiding you,
or this guiding you, the Quran is like that. So there are, there
were people in our history who recited the Quran, or who knew,
who have read the Quran, they translated it into different
languages, but they never became Muslims. Why? One of the reasons
that I see is that they didn't want it to be.
Guided by this book. They didn't try to find guidance in it. They
just saw it as a piece of like a paper or a book that comes from
the enemy, or for someone who we do not know, or someone who that
we do not like.
And I kind of always see it that
Quran comes to you the way you want to come to it, the way you
kind of it is always like on two two sides to it is a two way
street, so to say, not only one. So what you expect from it, you
will get from it. What you want give to it, you will get again
from it.
What else? Maybe. Another really nice part of this master studies
is that you kind of get to know many international students. So we
have students from Bangladesh, we had students from the US. We had
so so many different students. And you kind of get to know new
perspectives. You kind of don't think about how
different is it is to be a Muslim in Bangladesh and in like India
and in Bosnia, and then on the other way of the world, in the US.
When you get to know these people, you kind of get get to know more
of the beauty of Islam. How, how so many, there are so many people
who try to live this, this, this religion, this faith, and they
love it, but they live, they live it, maybe in a completely
different way than you how you see it today, and you have, like, the
same things that that were shared in common, like the prayers, like
the fast, the basics of Islam. However, for example, they their
the look of their hijab is completely different. And then how
the men are like covering and how they are dressed. It is completely
different, but it is all a part of our religion. It is all a part of
our beautiful faith, and it kind of gives you the kind of a
perspective that Subhanallah, this is what Allah promises in the
Quran Wa jalnakum, Kaba, or open waqabah In a little arafu
Subhanallah, so that we can know each other more. And by knowing
each other more, you will get aware of Allah more, because we
will know that this is that's what Allah has created. It is not by
someone else. It is he who
kind of joined us together, and it is He who made a decision to kind
of create us differently. He if he wanted, we can we could all be the
same, we could all look the same, we could always the same, but he
didn't want it. So it is His mercy and it is his wisdom to create us
differently, and we have to respect those differences, and we
have to kind of try to find a matching point for all of us to,
kind of
to find a aid or a place or a thought or a.or that connects us
together, if we, if we manage to find this.or this place, this
topic, this opinion, that kind of gets, gets us all together, then
we can come over all differences. And if you go to a Muslim in
Europe, you go to a Muslim in
in Asia, in the US, in every part of the world, if you ask them, Do
you believe in Allah? Of course they will say, they do. Do you
believe in in the Prophet sallallahu, sallam? Of course they
will say they do so if you share this point of view at the
beginning, if you if they believe in Allah, they if they say Laila,
illallah, Muhammad or Rasulullah, then it is, it is the most
important basic point that you can
that you can start from, if you want to kind of build this sense
of uniqueness and kind of to feel like the part of one Ummah, one
like one community that is all over the world. So this belief of
having Allah and having his messenger in our lives is a
treasure. It is a gem. It is something that is so beautiful and
worthy for all of the Muslims.
And that is something that we should all kind of remind
ourselves, if we share this basic belief together Inshallah, then we
can overcome all of our differences in our opinions, etc,
because we respect each other based on this. So yes, the way
that you speak so much love for the Quran, so much love for Allah,
so much love for this ummah, and it's something so beautiful to
witness, because so many times when we see people talking about
Islam, it's kind of this, like, very negative, like, we have so
many problems, we're so far away. But the way that you talk about is
he's there for us, and we can, you know, reach him, and we can reach
one another through him. It's just so beautiful. Masha Allah,
JazakAllah, khayr, for so such uplifting message and so much
hope. Masha Allah, in our final few minutes that we have,
if somebody.
Is really struggling with their relationship with Allah, because
the way you're speaking about Allah is really based in so much
love, you know, what if? What if they don't feel that same love?
What if they're struggling with feeling love for Allah? They know
they believe in him, but they don't. They haven't developed that
love yet. How to develop that love? What do you recommend for
someone to develop that
they always say, like, in order to kind of accept someone or to
respect someone, you should first of all get to know him. So my
first advice to anyone there who is struggling in their own
relationship to Allah, and this is something that all we get, all of
us get through. This is something that none of us kind of was
saved from. I'm getting through these troubles as well. I think
you do, you start. I hope I think that you are, because this is
something that we, all of the people who want to get to, Allah,
they have these periods of time in their lives where just they do not
feel it they have like it is, like it is as if there is a barrier
between them and Allah, that something that something stopping
them to get there, to get to feel the deepness of that relationship.
And this is something that all we all feel that you are not the so
you're not weird, you're not like different, you're not bad person
because of that. It is just the way we do. It is the basics of our
nature as humans. And when I get to these,
when I have two things that I would recommend, and first one is,
if you are in this, in this, in this spot in your life, then first
of all, get to know your Lord. If you know Him, you will first of
all respect him, and then you will love him. I know what I read
Subhanallah, whenever I kind of try to increase my taqwa, and
whenever I try to increase my awareness of Allah, and read about
it, I first, I always felt like first, this the sense of
a deep, deep kind of
admire, admires of I admired Allah subhanho wa taala, first of all,
kind of wow, what a beautiful creator he is. Wow, what a loving
Creator he is, and how merciful he is. And I kind of always kind of
felt this admire in my heart, in my heart, and then, of like, with
so much respect towards him. And then, like after that respect, I
kind of always felt Subhanallah, if anyone is worthy of being
loved, then it is him, because he's nobody is like him, and
nobody will is you can be compared to him. So kind of when I when we,
when we get to know him better and not know him by information. It is
not about I know about Allah. I know his 99 names. I know about
what, how he creates. I know he created this, uh, he sent this
book. I know he all of that. No to know it by heart, meaning like to
internalize it and to feel it in your heart. Subhanallah, what does
it mean that he is Al Kareem al Rahman al Rahim. What does it mean
in your everyday life? How do you see this Allah's name in your
everyday life? Subhanallah, if you see him his names in your life,
then you will know Him better by your heart. And that's the main
most important thing, and it is doesn't matter how many
information you possess and how many things you know. The the most
important thing is how quality of your information is not the
quantity, not the amount, but of course, it is better to increase
in it in the amount, but the quality is much better meaning
when you learn something, try to internalize it in your heart, try
to kind of connect to it, try to live it, and then go after it. And
the second thing that kind of, that kind of always gets me, and
gives me so much motivation in my everyday life, when I get into in
the in the period. So I love Allah. I try to have the
connection with him. But then this period comes when I feel, when
there is a lot of stress in my life, and there is like we feel
anxiety. We'd have so many obligations to do. We have so many
things that are waiting for us. And we kind of decrease our
relationship with Allah, we kind of decrease our awareness. We kind
of become more like Rafi. I cannot remember the translation. We kind
of do not think about it so much as we should, and as we kind of do
when we are increasing our relationship with Allah. And then
when that that period comes to me, I kind of always like to explain
myself to Allah, meaning to kind of say, Allah, I'm struggling.
Allah, having a really hard time. It is really hard for me. I cannot
do this anymore.
I I'm struggling. Is I'm not feeling you.
Close as much as I wanted to, not kind of I feel so far from you,
please, Allah, give me the way out from this. And when I kind of open
my heart, it is like opening your heart towards Allah. When I,
whenever I open my heart, I always feel like, oh, he has given me a
way out. I always, at least like after, just right after the DUA,
even though nothing was changed in my life, I always, I immediately
feel like the sense of relief. I do not know it is what, how Allah
gives it, but I immediately always feel like the sense of relief,
because, oh, Allah will solve it. Everything is going to be fine. Do
not panic. Not do not go like overboard, and then later on, if I
keep on going with that, if I keep kind of trying to explain again,
how am I going? How am I feeling? How am What am I going through to
Allah, kind of
through time. Everything goes on on the right place, not maybe
always in the time when I want it, but on the time when Allah wants
it and when it is with the best for me. So to kind of have that,
not kind of expect respect from Allah, to kind of solve all of
your problems and all of your sorrows when you want it. No,
Allah doesn't work like that. He gives it to you when, when you
when it is the best for you. And we have to accept it, even though
it is not so easy for us all the time to kind of accept this, this
way of thinking in our life. So may Allah, May Allah guide us to,
first of all, remember him, to get to know Him, and to kind of when
we know him, to to know him by our hearts, by our deeds, by what we
are talking and where we are going, etc. The second is, may
Allah give us
when we come to the to the places and times when we do not feel him
as close, may Allah give us open our hearts and our the doors to
him, so that we do not get too much away from him, and that we do
not kind of get that our heart doesn't stuck in that, in that
like feeling of being being away from Allah, because there is not a
greater
hardship in our lives than being aware far from Allah, all of you
can, kind of, you can kind of get all
over, All of the things and all of the temptations and struggles in
our in our lives. But if you are from far from Allah, you you can
never, never be Yeah, I can never be happy. I think those periods
when I feel far from Allah are the worst ones in my life. So may
Allah save me and all of us from it. May Allah protect us from
being away from him and kind of be neglected towards him. And May
Allah guide, May Allah guide us to understand him, to understand his
book and to understand its meanings and to kind of practice
it in our day or day lives. That was so beautiful. And as you were
talking about the names of Allah, there's a beautiful book called
reflecting on the names of Allah, and it's by Gina and Yusuf, the
Jina and Yusuf. And she actually has a journal that you can also
purchase with it, that you can write your journey to the names of
Allah and learning about his names and how they interact with your
life. So I really recommend reflecting on the names of Allah,
by Jinnah and Yusuf. And definitely, if you feel like you
have spiritual trauma, definitely work with a therapist to process
it so that, Inshallah, you can move forward. That is such a
beautiful, beautiful way to close with such important advice for all
of us. Bottle of Fiji, who said that, I mean, this was so
beautiful. Masha Allah, it was just such a gift to hear your
words and to learn about how to come closer to Las montalla. I
know that we started talking about Quran, but as our conversation
evolved, I just felt like there are so many different aspects that
you can teach all of us, and we will continue to benefit from you.
Your handle on Instagram is family, F, A, M, I, L, y, b, o, t,
i, c, and if anyone wants to contact you can they send you a
message through that account? Of course they can. Of course they
can. They're very welcome. Yes, actually, my husband and I,
together kind of use that account because I we do not use Instagram
as much, so we kind of joined, join the accounts together. But if
they are, they want, they can send me a message. And of course, I'm
available on Facebook as well. So it is only my account on Facebook
if they it, if it is easier for them, so we can send it
afterwards, if it's okay.
And mashallah, her husband, is also a huge dairy Masha Allah, He
worker in Dawa, and someone who calls to Allah has shared his
story just so powerful. And subhanAllah, you're a power
couple. Who is calling people to Allah. May Allah bless you and
your relationship. Bless your relationship with Allah, SWT,
bless the work that you both do in calling people to him. Masha,
Allah, I mean, I mean, may Allah use us. May Allah use us as his
tool to kind of call people to him. May Allah uses as his tool.
It is the most, the biggest.
Honor. This whole earth is truly such a huge such honors panel
about alofiki. Thank you so much. And Inshallah, we will see you
again soon.
Inshallah,
for you to come to like Baraka lofiki, and thank you all for
joining salam alaikum. You