Seminar on 'Our Beloved Mustafa'

I attended this seminar with my husband on Saturday, 3May 08. I was attracted to this seminar for several reasons mainly:
1.wanted to know more about our beloved Prophet saw
2.after knowing more, insya allah, be able to carry out his examples towards mankind.
3.to inculcate and instill a deeper love towards him. insya allah.
4.there were so many esteemed speakers. They were all my 'favourites'.
5.there was Qasidah and burdah recitals too. 'Live' somemore... (what more can you ask??)
6.and this was Ust Saifur's last participation

When we arrived, the Qasidah had already began. There were only back row seats available,that's because we were late. sob sob. We were given a folder with the program outline and the presentation papers inside. Masya allah, the papers prepared were packed with powerful knowledge about our Prophet saw.

The eminent As-Sayyid As-ShaykhAfeefuddin al-Gaylani, the 19th direct descendant of the famous scholar and saint ofIslam, Shaykh AbdulQadir al-Gaylani (1077-1166 AD/472-561Hijrah) delivered the keynote address for the seminar. He had shared with us many characteristics of Prophet saw that we should emulate with stories I never heard before.('cause my knowledge is limited) He talked and talked and everyone enjoyed what he shared, so perhaps it had lapsed into the other speaker's time. He was supposed to stay back but he had to rush off to Malaysia for a funeral.

The next esteemed speaker is our Prof Syed Farid from NUS. He is very good too. He talked about The Image of Prophet Muhammad and Islam today-Where did we go wrong? It's a good subject but somehow, there wasn't enough time for him to share with us his paper. Being a prof, i'm sure his research papers aren't limited to just that 30minutes or less. Anyhow, he still continued talking and asked for additional 10minutes. There wasn't enough time for Q&A either. I wanted to ask a question but couldn't find the opportunity. sad.

Then next was my ex teacher, Ust Mohammad Iqbal. He's well known as 'The convert who accomplished alot'. He presented, 'The Guidance and Counsel of Saiyidinna Muhammad saw.He too, had given us alot of hadith stories about our Prophet saw. And again, he was also prompted that he didn't have much time left, and likewise as the speakers before him, he couldn't finish what he wanted.

We broke for Asar prayers and refreshments. It didn't start ontime as scheduled henceforth, the constraint of time kept snowballing and snowballing from one speaker to another. From Shaykh Mohd Ibrahim(the Message of Rasullulah) to Ust Firdaus Yahya(Scenes from the Prophet of Mercy) (he's good with astronomy at Mjd Al-Falah) and then Ust Saifur Rahman(the Path of Love-Burdah of Imam Al-Busairi), everyone had to be so concerned with the time. Despite having such knowledgeable speakers and their marvellous notes, it wasn't that enjoyable to a certain extent because of the time factor.

Of course, SimplyIslam.sg really have to be applauded for their efforts to bring in so many knowledgeable and esteemed speakers but hopefully with the feedback i gave them, they would not squeeze in so many 'excellent stuff' within such a small frame of time.

Perhaps over the weekend would be fine. I wouldn't mind coming back twice to enjoy such marvellous 'company' amongst these speakers.

Nevertheless, thumbs up for the organisers and the seminar! Keep up the good work!