Muhammad West – Exam Season 2021

			Albula administrate Donna rajim Bismillah R. Rahman hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala
COVID Mursaleen st no Muhammad Ali. He was so happy he married my beloved brothers and sisters Sadam
Ali Kemal rahmatullah wa barakato
		

			and hamdulillah horrible Alameen wa Praise to Allah subhanaw taala and I should have Allah Allah,
Allah witnesses and unworthy of worship besides Allah, and we send our greetings and salutations so
beloved Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to his pious, his pure family to his companions
and others to follow his sunnah until the end of time. May Allah subhanaw taala bless us to be
amongst them. Meanwhile, hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah hope you all well, I'm the light is a long
weekend, and always good. If you didn't know that Monday is a public holiday and Hamdulillah I give
you the good news, the glad tidings of voting day, but inshallah also there is an important duty for
		

			all of us to do on Monday, so inshallah do your duty. It is a scary time of year. And I'm not
talking about Halloween, I'm talking about a lot scarier than that. And it is exam time of year. And
while most of the GEMA Looks like you haven't written the exam in a very very long time, this panel
I don't see many of you have been long since you've written the exam. We all know that when the kids
are writing exam the entire house is in exam mode and the matriculants they've started mama granddam
Tofik in success it's a very difficult time for them they have you know COVID And load shedding
spinal on top of all the other normal stresses so I'm I'm gonna make it easy for them and all our
		

			kids.
		

			And so today inshallah we talking a little bit about something relevant, practical, I hope in all
your houses, what can we do? What can Islam guide us in this exam season to make the most of it? The
first point to point out the first thing that I'd like to mention in sort of Iraq, Allah says, the
baraka Libya deal, All Praise be to Allah in His hand is all of creation, or while acquisition God
did and he controls everything, Allah, the Holocaust, melter will hire 30, I believe, you can ask
and what Amala, he is the one that gave created death and life. So as a test, who of you will do
your best. So the bad news is,
		

			get used to this, get used to it, one exam is going to be replaced with another. And even though
many of us he has not formally written maybe an exam in some years, Allah subhanaw taala is always
going to test us. And life the purpose of it is with tests by implication, it's difficult, it's
hard, it's not nice. But Allah says to see who of you do the best. Allah is the only one that judges
on intention, and effort, another dollar doesn't look at the results. Whether you fail the past is
not important, so long as you did your part, and you put the effort in that is what is important to
Allah subhanaw taala. And so for the youngsters that are already tired of this, get used to it, you
		

			have many, many tastes, and life in itself is a taste. And so for us as Muslims, we can't wish away
the tastes, we can't, you know, become angry with it, the best thing we can do is accept it. And as
Allah says, Allah, who will of us is going to approach it in the best way possible, specifically to
this exam season and the difficult time that is for our kids. And I said by extension parents, as a
parent that my kids are still quite young, so they this little speck in winches, but I can tell you,
it is still quite tense in the household. And I can imagine for those of you who have kids that are
in high school University, the entire household is going through that test. And most of course, our
		

			learners themselves.
		

			The first point in how we approach a test, whether it's an exam of school, or the test of life,
		

			with everything in them and amodal Binya, begin with that sincere near and very few of us actually
do that. Did we do that? Why am I writing this exam, I'm just doing it because if I don't do any
writing, but that was why we wrote our exams, but perhaps our younger generation can be better. And
they can sit for this exam and sit during while they're sitting in the studying. And you can tell
yourself, this is an act of worship. While I am sitting here studying my Maths, English, whatever it
is, Allah is pleased with me, because I intend to do something positive with us. The exam is not the
destination, it's only an obstacle, the real destination is that insha Allah one day I will have
		

			some skill, and I will do something good in this dunya that I will leave the world a little bit
better than the way I found it. And Allah says vainly actions will be judged by your intention,
Allah will reward you based on that Nia. So take a moment before you studying before you write that
exam before you open that book, that why am I doing this that for us we have a higher purpose in
life. And perhaps the most beautiful
		

			act of worship you can do is the acquisition of knowledge. And we don't acquire knowledge just for
the sake of having a degree just for the sake of having a good job. So we can go on international
holidays. Those are external hamdulillah not know nothing wrong, one of those things, but we want
knowledge that is beneficial in the dunya and the era. And so for our young learners, if you want
the blessing of Allah, then make Allah part of your journey.
		

			If it's just about me passing an exam and earning a good living and hamdulillah nothing wrong with
that, but if you have this conversation with Allah before you open that book so your Allah, I'm
doing this for you, I'm doing this to please you you're Allah, so assist me and help me. Then you've
made Allah a partner in your in your studies, and therefore in sha Allah, there is the blessing and
the baraka in it. Number two, Allah subhanho wa Taala designed a world with cause and effect, that
if you want something, you have to do something to get something. And if you are sick, you must take
the medication. If you want to pass and you want to succeed, and you want to have prosperity in this
		

			life, Allah subhanho wa Taala has shown the path to get there. Now when it comes to knowledge, I've
said this many times before, that Allah is very generous when it comes to giving blessings. Allah
gives wealth for free. Allah gives your life your health for free. Allah gives even kingdoms for
free people up one princess Amin, ated kingdoms, but he does not give knowledge for free. Allah does
not ever, ever give a piece of knowledge for free. This is a law with Allah subhanaw taala he can
give you the dunya for free, because in the sight of Allah, these things are insignificant. But
learning one sentence, learning one I have the Quran learning one math problem. This is truly
		

			valuable in the sight of Allah. And so if you want it, you must trade something for it. You must
give something back for it, you must work for it. And that is why whenever you see when you hear the
Hadith about Bollywood students, we call them students in Arabic. It's a Bollywood invalidates the
seeker, the searcher the one who's looking, searching for knowledge, but one the the metalhead
Jouvet means to struggle means like jihad, jihad, it comes from struggle, effort, the muda them
which then hit is the ILM who comes up with new laws. Why? Because he must struggle. So what
knowledge unfortunately, for the acquisition of knowledge, they will be effort, they will be
		

			sacrifice, they will require long hours and practice. And there's no shortcuts. Unfortunately, you
can shortcut anything in the dunya you can even shortcut to be the President's Bartonella but you
can't shortcut your way to knowledge. That is how Allah subhanaw taala has made it and that is why
Subhan Allah, this is very famous saying that the the ink of the scholar is more valuable in the
blood of the martyr and the efforts of learning. Our young brothers and sisters as you're studying
in this time. It's an act of jihad Subhanallah you are in the service of Allah visa vie de la, of
course if the NIA is is sincere, and so with that sacrifice, you're giving up your free time, you're
		

			giving up your enjoyment, you're giving up sleep, your comforts, in acquisition of knowledge, and
there is nothing more Blizzard than that. We know the first lesson we learned the first lesson Allah
taught in every item, that even though you are made of dirt of clay, if you have knowledge, even
Gibreel makes it do to you because that is how Allah values knowledge. The one who knows in the
sight of Allah is elevated above that the one who does not know and your opportunity in learning and
studying and going through the exams. Is you elevating yourself in the sight of Allah subhanaw taala
		

			in terms of practical steps, how do I approach this exam from the Sunnah we're doing a little series
called moments with an abuse of Solomon will continue Inshallah, on Monday and on Mondays and
Thursdays, I think every day was about much for me and for everyone else. People said I can't so
heartless will do points a week in sha Allah. But if you look at the visa Salam, even though he's
Nia was, of course sincere, and he had the support of Allah and Allah, he put his trust in Allah,
you have to be practical, and you have to strategize. How did you strategize when it came to very,
very difficult problems? How do you strategize your exam,
		

			you need to know what you know, and what you don't know, perhaps the most difficult part of
studying. And this is from somebody that Alhamdulillah I've been at three different universities,
I've had my fair share of exams Alhamdulillah I've had some difficult times some easy taste some
exams I didn't do so well in Hamdulillah. The most difficult part of studying is when you begin, you
know, if you can't even see the mountain, you know, I don't even know when you say come on. Like, if
the guy shows you this is what I mean, then you know, okay, this is what I'm in for. And most of our
learners, I find that we struggle between knowing what you know, and knowing what you don't know,
		

			because it's the unknown that tells you I have so many chapters 10 chapters, 2030 chapters, how many
chapters I need to study. And so take a moment to go through your syllabus. Go through your syllabus
and say or your textbook, which chapters sit with your teacher or that person that is always getting
full marks in class, ask them what was I studied for the exam? Which chapters which pages, then you
know, okay, this is this is the elephant. This is what the elephant looks like. Now we're going to
eat an elephant
		

			One bite at a time.
		

			You then plot your timetable for your exams, you know, okay, I'm writing maps in five days, I've got
20 chapters. So, you know, everything being equal. I've got four chapters a day, four chapters, how
many pages, okay, that's 30 pages a day is Pinilla. That's what I need. That's what's up. That's
what I'm up against. And so I have a timetable with your exam. Now, you know, long before you guys
were doing COVID, I was stuck in Saudi Arabia Alhamdulillah, the only person in the Middle East
studying a certain degree online with UniSA. So I've been learning online, almost 15 years before
online became in fashion. And with UniSA. It's not like UCT if you bunk a class, okay, you're not
		

			learning, that's bad haram, but you have a friend that can pull you through you have your tasks and
assignments that can save you UniSA you don't study, you're not studying anything, you're not going
to know anything. So you need to face your own self, you need to work out from day one, to get to
the end, how much must I do every single day, every single night. So that I don't have a problem to
which the end. And this is the discipline. So brilliance that gets you over the line, it's
discipline. This is the trick to learning is discipline. So I have a study timetable. Look at what
you need to do and how much time you have. And of course, there's the common thing is thought the
		

			best advice is start early. Start early. Every day you lose out everyday you miss out, you just
adding another batch of chapters to that list. And in prioritized. Now, for those of us who, and I'm
also one in that boat, you begin to realize that look, I'm never going to do 10 chapters a day, this
is not going to happen. So I need to choose the big ones. And make dua for the small ones that I
leave out.
		

			That's just how it is. And that's like Subhanallah that's how life works, that you're not going to
get everything 100% And Hamdulillah. You aim for 100% but we'll we'll be happy with 75 80% and we
just make dua we get past 50%. So prioritize the big things. And this is from the Sunnah that ivisa
Salam looked at the problems that he had many, many problems. And even the Sharia looked at all the
problems, from small things to big things. We start with the big things, the priorities, let me get
these things right, at least I guarantee the boss, then we move forward from there. And as you find
from an Elisa Lam, very famous Hadith. The deeds Allah loves the most are those that are small, but
		

			consistent, be consistent, and do little bits at a time. Don't do all nighters, you know, it's not
sustainable, it's not sustainable. So break it down into manageable pieces each day to three hours,
this time to three hours, often to three hours in the evening. Hamdulillah, six hours was more
manageable when sitting from 12 o'clock to Fudger. Trying to do six hours of work.
		

			Part of of the Sunnah is that you should never be extreme meaning even extreme Ibadah you must take
breaks and you must pace yourself. And maybe it's the sum of some of you take too much breaks, you
always want to break at five minutes of work half an hour break. And there are others who are
stressing for that extra fact that lost 95% is not good enough. As the saying goes even a bus I
believe said this, The rider who does not give his animal, a drink of water will not get to the
destination. If you push yourself, you're going to break yourself. And that's the last thing you
want to see. Worse than failing worse than not doing well is the person that breaks down during this
		

			exam period. The end of the day. This is not life and death. It's not life and death. But it is
important. And so give yourself the time. Give your heart to your body. Give your heart your mental
well being and take your break and put your trust in your systems in those around you and remain
positive of course remain positive all the time. Even if you realize Subhanallah you woke up the
moment before the day before the exam and you realize oh my goodness, I didn't study anything. Now
with Allah subhanho Alhamdulillah if you die, and you woke up five minutes before you died, Allah
will accept and forgive you with Nila. The teachers won't do that maybe, but at least remain
		

			positive that I'm going to give them the best I have now Okay, look. I'm not going to do this 30
chapters in one day, but let me take the five big ones and Bismillah I'm going to do my best I'm
gonna do my best so remain positive, remain optimistic because that is the Sunnah we know that
beautiful Hadith. What are the numbers on says if Kiana was upon you, and you had that plant in your
hand planted, even though you know there's no way this thing is going to grow because Qiyamah is now
but we are uma optimism Allah rewards the near but there is a will the three becomes a three or not
that's in the hands of Allah, I do my part. So that's part of studying before the time and again
		

			from someone that has written Alhamdulillah many, many exams, doing two degrees at the same time.
You have to write quite a number of papers. I think I was writing like every semester like almost 20
exams in university level to one side and the other side.
		

			A big part of it is
		

			You can never cover everything, you can't cover everything. It's just you're not practically it's
not possible. It's about having a technique in the exam. And you see it that people who understand
how to write exams do better than those who are better prepared in the exam. There's a way of gypo
image gypo in the exam, but a way in which you approach the exam.
		

			Number one, your mindset before the exam is very important. If you're panicking, you will never make
good decisions, you're not able to think the blood isn't in your head, your heart is racing. So take
a moment to calm down. And the best way for a Muslim to calm down is again that little conversation,
do Ah, yes, but more maybe personal is have that conversation with Allah. Now when you're sitting
the and the teachers were the examiner examiner says, you know, five minutes before the exam, you
cannot say to Allah, Allah, I've done what I could do.
		

			I've done my part yet Allah, I can't do anything now. Now it's purely in your hand. And I put my
faith and trust in you, yeah, Allah, I could I did what I could control, but the rest is in your
control. So make it easy for me, and I put my trust in you Bismillah, we're going to go forward,
begin with the name of Allah. And that will give you a sense of calmness. When you get that exam, my
young brothers and sisters read that whole paper. I know the teachers tell you this, and sometimes
you don't listen to them. I'm telling you read that exam. Before you start. I know you want to start
with that first question, because you wanted to run, start by reading the entire exam, cover to
		

			cover, spend about whatever time there is to read and get to know the questions. And a very, very
important skill that people let is time management in your exam time management.
		

			Students and I teach as well. And we have exams, many of them fail not because they don't know the
answer. But because they fixate on the first question, the second question, and they lose out the
rest of the marks, you must be able to allocate. If I have an hour, 60 minutes, and the exam is 100,
put 100 marks, then you have less than a minute for every mark. So if the if the equation is 10
minutes, you can't spend 10 minutes on that question, you must say I'm only going to spend seven
minutes, do my best. And then I'm gonna move on, I'm gonna move on. Every question has its own time
allocation. And it's important for you to have that discipline when you look at that exam. In fact,
		

			what you should do next to every question is a mock allocation. Put down how much time I have, I
only have five minutes, I need to move on to the next one. I'll get back to it. If you didn't
complete it, circle it, I'm going to come back to it. Time allocation is very, very important. The
saddest thing is you see a person who answered the first half of the question beautifully, they got
full marks in all this, but in half the exam is left blank, because they never got the that's the
problem.
		

			So allocate time to your to your questions. As I said, Read carefully. And when you on say that even
the second time, the most important exam, I wrote my board exams is the most important exam for my
professional career. I was also pumped and I went and I wrote and I spent half an hour writing like
an essay, or text or something. When I look back and revise, I realized I must read that question.
Completely wrong. I'm getting notes for it. And you feel that blood rushing to your brain and you
feel really into panic.
		

			took a minute to calm down, put a line through the whole thing. Okay, what does this question want
from me? Start? Don't panic, just put the best you can on that paper. Like I've saved myself a lot
of pain. If I just had to read the question. quickly read the question quickly. So read every
question a second time before you answer.
		

			After you've read the paper, you get to understand you get to know the environment, you get to know
what's these difficult ones easy ones, start with the ones you know, knock off the easy ones first,
and link every question to a chapter. So you remember when I studied there was a chapter on XYZ,
this question is that chapter and then you sort of read jogging your memory, link them together to
your studies, they're not going to ask you something outside of your textbook.
		

			Now, I've transitioned Alhamdulillah from student to giving the exams now and two weeks ago our our
we have a class on foot on where we you know, other adults come to learn something can't see it and,
and smile. I must say this to all the adults. These exams are for you. I mean, the alpha con
students, no one's going to you're not going to get a certificate to your matric exams. It's purely
self development. But the adults were panicking like they were school children for the exam.
Everyone when you write that exam, you know that feeling of panic. And when you sit down and they
give the exam, they wrote it now I'm sitting back. The worst thing in life is marking an exam. When
		

			you're sitting 10 o'clock at night and you have a stack of papers to mock the examiner you
		

			Like your students, when you have that paper, you really don't want to go through that marking, make
the life easier because will be for your interest, right clearly. Write neatly, point by point easy,
it's easier to have five bullet points with keywords than one big
		

			paragraph sitting there.
		

			examiners are not going to give you marks if they feel they have to struggle through your through
your, your your handwriting. So write clearly and be very when you plan an answer, I need to put
these five points down. Someone asked you what are the pillars of Islam? Don't write the whole
paragraph. The Gibreel came to the masjid. I mean, there'll be some honesty, What is Islam? Right
down the pillars of Islam, I want to see Calima, Salah, Zakka, fasting Hajj, those things I need to
put there, I just have sentences around it. That is the key to making the examiners life easy. And
for you to get more marks.
		

			Attempt every question. Sometimes I don't know if it's just Islamic studies, but people are too shy
to maybe for Islam. I don't want to speak for them without knowledge. So Islamic knowledge exams
they don't answer. But if beyond that, but even new Islamic Studies exams, you have the license to
answer even if you don't know. So if you get to a question where you say to Subhanallah, I never saw
this in my studies at all this is I don't know which chapter this relates to put an answer down the
write whatever you want to write in the at least unless you get negative negative marks. I learned
that at UCT. This is where you actually lose marks for wrong answer then okay, but I don't think we
		

			have negative marks in high school. Put down an answer. Even if you get note, don't be shy. Don't be
shy, just put an answer down. But don't leave any question unanswered, then you must do a second
check. You have to do a second check. I know people, many students, you see they jump up to half an
hour before the exam is over. There's nothing you can do really, that half an hour, you sometimes
you even have to sit in class, you just want to get there. You know, I want to get out of this exam
as soon as possible. Use every minute to review and read through that question paper. Make sure you
didn't forget something, make sure you can add to something. And that's the best you can do. Insha
		

			Allah, how do you manage exam stress?
		

			What this comes to this, because no matter how much effort you put in, and how much work you do, and
how much preparation you have, and in fact, sometimes the ones who stressed the most are the ones
who prepared the most you know your ACE students, they always stressing about the extra one or two.
It's a different kind of sickness, you have the procrastinators, and you have those the
perfectionist, both of it, you need to find somewhere in the middle. For the procrastinator you need
to take own responsibility, do your part, and then Allah will do his part. As for the perfectionist,
you can only do your part and don't worry about that which belongs to Allah. Don't stress about
		

			things you cannot control. What if this happens? What is that that belongs to Allah subhanaw taala.
And this is what Tawakkol is, you tie your camel, and then you don't worry about that camel every
five minutes and check on it every five minutes. Allah says well might get our call Allah and if you
put your trust in Allah, but what Hasbrook then he will be enough for you, Allah will be enough for
you. So now it's enough you've studied, put your trust in Allah. Another important point in managing
stress, manage your parents, because they are the source of a lot of stress. And for parents,
remember, you will also the you know what it's like. And I think a lot of the stress that parents
		

			have is your own fears, what if they don't pass what's gonna happen, or whatever they pass, I'm
gonna have to pay this university fees next year, it's another kind of stress.
		

			You need to take the lead and talk to them beforehand. You need to have this conversation I'm having
with your kids, telling them that look, this is important. You need to give your best, but it's not
life and death either. Either.
		

			Life, there are second chances. And you if you have if you haven't been studying throughout the
year, do the best you can with what you have now is no point in us having a conversation but a new
study, why don't you go to the extra classes, that's not going to help the situation. We just do the
best work we have now. And you know your child the best. Some children, they need you to micromanage
them. And for the others, given the space, you know that they have their own system it works, you
know by now which ones you need to put pressure and which ones you need to give them flexibility for
the child that procrastinates encourage them and give them those small, achievable milestones. Ask
		

			them today. Okay, what are you studying today? The English Okay, how many chapters do you have five.
So, I'm going to check up each two, three hours that you finish the chapter that you feel that you
just have a conversation so that they are encouraged to meet those little milestones. Don't compete.
Don't ever compare. No one likes to be compete. Don't compare your child to another child because
each one has his own abilities and their own pressures.
		

			Parents, this is the time where you make your kids comfortable. The choice can be parked for now.
Park the choice will now make them the things that they enjoy. make them as comfortable as they can
get there.
		

			Through the exam together, and don't put your stress and fears on them. And at the end of the day,
as I mentioned, after the exam, they might panic Tom, it's okay. Whatever happens, you make dua now,
and then we'll deal with it when we get there. These are two I'd like to end for anxiety. And it's
something that perhaps you should memorize some of these and recite when you go through these
difficulties, both parents and kids. The problem says whatever he cites this and Allah removes that
anxiety, Allahu Mudassar Allah, Oh Allah, there is nothing made easy in the Husa Allah except that
which you make easy, or antigen has an ID. And if you please, you will take away the anxiety and the
		

			sorrow and replace it with ease. May Allah grant us peace and freeness of anxiety. May Allah grant
our youngsters all the best in the exams, may they be our future and they build a wonderful basis
and inshallah may they bring forward great success in this dunya in the market. I mean, got a few
announcements. First one is Pamela as you can see, the projector is not available. projector was
here before when I started so it's in that Eli Rogers project that checked out now we are looking to
purchase a new one. If anyone knows about projectors, you can contact me who would like to
contribute these things about 30,000 I understand very expensive, but Alhamdulillah it served more
		

			than 10 years and inshallah we would like to be part of that selectable geria you can assist in
contribute. We also
		

			two announcements we congratulate Muhammad Thrun, about who's on our who's the vice chairman of the
Bronto. Committee. He was appointed the sidewalk CI in the Western Cape. So we asked them Mohammed,
all the success in his endeavors and to increase the quota for all of us. We don't want to go on
camera with Muhammad and with the use of Al Hamdulillah. As I mentioned, he went for his operation
last week and what to do as Al Hamdulillah was a success 70% eyesight returned well hamdulillah
Masha Allah We then also make dua for Auntie Kia across the road from Bucha use of was in hospital
she's quite sick she's got water on her lungs was allotted granted Shiva. The dose of the Jama as we
		

			said this was the jab mela granted full Shiva and return her to help and we make the offer and the
other we're early with the customers wife who passed away to this day, one year ago. Allah Granta
high place in Jana Rolla grog mercy upon a grantor in the company of the Saudi Hain am Allah make it
easy for potassium to tears and his family or look around him sober immigrant seems to be united in
Jana. mean just like Allah who was ALLAH said no Mohammed will be sending cinematic Mutharika