A visit to my teacher

I came across a device called the liptrainer at one of the fairs held in the Institute. According to the case studies presented by the Japanese salesguy, it has benefitted people who have snoring, eczema, sinus, down syndrome and even stroke patients! But I need to be convinced before I commit to buy the item which was quite pricey. But I’m thinking of this one person whom can benefit from this device, and that is my teacher, who has suffered a stroke almost 2 years ago.

As I hadn’t been well since my trip to Malaysia, I couldn’t arrange for a visit to my teacher’s place the week I returned back to Singapore. I wanted to pass him the device as soon as possible so that he could use it but just couldn’t find time in my hands to do so.

Finally, I got ‘clearance’ from my husband to visit my teacher after our Sunday class. Quickly I called Ustaz’s wife to ‘book for an appointment’. After several calls made, I finally got her permission to visit Ustaz. Alhamdulillah.

I got to Ustaz’s place ard 6.30pm after getting some groceries at a nearby supermarket.
He was already sitting at his usual armchair waiting for us. As soon as we got to our seats, I had noticed that he was in good spirits. Later I was told that he was so happy that we were coming because it has been a long time since his students came. I was feeling guilty. He was also looking much better nowadays. After exchanging questions of our wellbeing, he began asking me if I had been reading his blogs and which one was my favourite. I was actually following all of his blogs but only 3 blogs were often updated. Recently, Ustaz had created a new blog for his daughter. And this blog was only open to invitation to selected students of his. Alhamdulilah, I had this special privilege. Ustaz asked the development of my recitation and I told him I had stopped at surah al-Bayyinah because it was quite tough. So he told me to recite surah al-Qariah. I was so nervous and as usual, I didn’t quite do a good job.

We kept talking and talking despite being reminded by Ustaz’s wife to proceed to the dining area for our dinner. Alhamdulilah, even though the visit was planned at a short notice, she still managed to whip out so many dishes for us. During the dinner, she revealed to us that Ustaz will be conducting a talk at Darul Arqam this Friday, 20 Feb 09. Masya allah!!! I was really excited but yet a little worried about my teacher.

After our dinner and prayers, we continued talking. Ustaz shared a lot of things with us.
1. He completed the story of the student who could not find a place to slaughter a chicken where ‘no one can see him’.
2. He encouraged us to use the audio lessons on Quran recitation that he had took the effort to put it on his blog.
3. He also encouraged us to send blessings and salutations to our beloved Prophet saw and told us the ‘humongous’ benefits and rewards that we will reap from it.
4. He also reminded about our time in this dunya to perform good deeds for the preparation of the akhirah.
Listening to all his advice reminds me of the lessons that I attended with him. It makes me sad. Allah swt had almost took him away from us, and cut off all the channels of knowledge we could ever obtained from him.

But Allah swt is always the al-Compassionate, ar-Rahman, the al-Merciful, ar-Rahim. Although Ustaz is still experiencing the after-effects of the stroke, he continued to help so many people with the blogs that he created. The vast information that he has posted on his blogs are really fantastic. When you read them, you would not be able to imagine that all that was done by a stroke patient who had to perform all computer functions with only the help of the right hand, whereas I could write this post conveniently with the 2 hands that Allah swt has provided me with.

If it wasn’t because the next day was a working day, I wouldn’t want to leave the house. But of course, he had to rest after doing so much of the talking and sharing.

If Ustaz had done so much for his students, why shouldn’t we, as his students appreciate his work and blogs by reading it conscientiously. It is not put up there just for fun, but for the benefit of the weak ummah and one of them is ME.

After this visit, I told myself to buck up and insya allah try to do the things that he had advised us to carry out. And the first assignment I wanted to do is to get the book called ‘Dalail ul Khayrat’ and learn it as much as I can cope. Insya allah.

May Allah swt bestow upon me guidance and istiqamah. Amin.