Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Sacred Months
Classes held on TUESDAYS listed below at 7pm.
Starts Tuesday 5th Sept.
By Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood (OTKF, CEI, Ha-Meem Foundation)
The Lunar calendar has been used by many traditional people's like the ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Hindus. However, due to the lunar calendar being 11 days shorter than the solar calendar, they would intercalate the difference.
Making them better defined as lunisolar calendars.
Time, is always of a great significance to any society and people, and this could not be more truer for the tradition of Islam.
Calendars were the result of observing astronomical events, which meant the organising of time into measurable units.
This helped in calculating and being able to predict and observe; seasons, planting times, optimum times to hunt, religious and major events, and planned meetings.
Islamic and Hebrew calendars are focused on the moons cycle.
The moon circles the Earth in the same time it takes to rotate once, the moon always shows one face to the Earth. That's why you never see its far side.
Ibn Rajab al- Hanbali an eighth century Islamic scholar, compiled a work, Lata'if al-Ma'arif Fima 'l-Mawasim al-'Am min al-Waza'i -
‘The Subtleties in Knowing a Year’s Seasonal Acts of Worship’ in which he covers each Islamic lunar months importance, by way of highlighting devotional acts that are particularly suggested for each month.
It is hoped and prayed for that in going through this text it will give us a greater appreciation of how time is to be understood and availed, in being more aware that each Islamic month present a different opportunity in drawing closer to God through certain acts of worship.
Classes are intended to be interactive, allowing for questions and encourage active participation.
Brothers & Sisters welcome.
Class Dates:
Tue 5 Sep 2017
Tue 3 Oct 2017
Tue 14 Nov 2017
Tue 5 Dec 2017
Further dates to inshaAllah.
A translated version of the text will be made available if possible.
About the instructor - Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood
(taken from www.hameem.org)
The impetus to his seeking sacred knowledge belongs to Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, whom he studied under during several deen intensives in the mid to late 90’s. This resulted in him journeying to the blessed valley of Hadramawt to the village of Tarim in the winter of 97.
Here he sat at the feet of the spiritual Masters and jurists including Habib Umar bin Hafiz.
In mid 98, he travelled to Morocco where he attended a monthly intensive on religious instruction as an attendee and organiser. In the winter of 98, his journeying took him to Damascus where he began a concentrated study of the Arabic language by attending the University of Damascus’ programme for non Arabs wanting to learn Arabic. While completing this programme, he arranged private tutoring to assist him in the various subject areas of the language. He also studied Shafi Fiqh, grammar, morphology and Hadith Terminology under Shaykh Muhammad Darwish.
In 99 he was blessed to meet the traditionist Shaykh Siraj ud Deen the great lover of Allah and His Messenger, who gave him a verbal license to transmit from him. In late 99 he travelled to Mauritania from Damascus to read the blessed Shaamail of Tirmidhi on Murabit al Hajj who is no less than an embodiment of the book.
In 2000, he travelled to Damascus to pursue subjects of sacred knowledge including Arabic, Aqidah, Fiqh, and Tajweed. Towards the end of the year, he journeyed to the city of Liverpool to study Hanafi Fiqh under Shaykh Siraj until the summer of 2001.
His next destination was the area of chashambarah, Istanbul to the feet of the Gnostic and friend of Allah, Shaykh Mahmood Effendi; there he studied under one of his student’s Shaykh Ehsaan Hojah Rhetoric, Grammar, Fiqh, and Aqidah. He also sat with Shaykh Muhammad Ameen Siraj in the Fatih mosque (said to be one of the last students of Shaykh al Islam Zahid al Kawthari) and studied a text in hadith terminology, who then gave him a written license to transmit from him.
2002 saw him returning to Damascus and studying under the grammarian, shafite and Quran expert Shaykh Abdul Wahaab, he completed various texts in Aqidah, logic and Tafseer. He then settled in Damascus for the next four years to study various subjects and disciplines under Shaykh Muhammad al Yaqoubi, Shaykh Adnan al Majd, Shaykh Abdul Wahaab and Shaykh Maree al Rashid and Shaykh Khalil al Sabbagh.
In 2007 returned to the UK to become involved in the instruction of sacred knowledge and continue his studies under Shaykh Akram al Nadawi.