Daurah Imam Shafiee Part 1 Shah Alam

Alhamdulillah,all praise goes to Allah who grants my wish to attend the Islamic mini seminar today in Shah Alam and thus makes my weekend so much fulfilled, inshaAllah. It`s been a while since I attended last course on Islamic knowledge...i think it was in August and the seminar was about Palestin and Israel. As of late, my weekends were full of attending wedding receptions and balik kampung. So now i guess I`m back on track, inshaAllah. Our body needs food to remain functional; likewise, our soul also needs its fuel, which is the beauty words about Islam and its teaching, without which it makes our hearts ill, just like insufficient food makes our body suffers. This invisible food needs replenishment with the same frequency of that visible food we fill our stomachs with.

The course that I attended today was titled " Prinsip-prinsip Beragama Imam Shafiee" and it was delivered by two scholars originated from Indonesia. It was organized by Perniagaan Bushra and delivered at Al Madinah International University, Shah Alam. Before I delved into gist from course, I would like to introduce the venue where this course was held. University Al Madinah International is a new IPTS, and located at 11th Floor, Plaza Masalam, Section 9. I forgot the launching date, but it is not so long ago, and it has only small number of students in which 90% of them are Africans. Of course it has nothing to do with Madinah University in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

They just sharing the same name, with some similar syllabus. It offers degree in Fiqh, Da`wah, Usuluddin, Aqidah, as well as non Islamic major such as Business Administration and Business Information System and Information Technology. It also conducts short courses on Arabic and English.More information about this new IPTS can be found here :

Today we learned about the biography of Imam Shafiee R.A with Ust Abu Ihsan Atsari, a prominent ustaz who acquired knowledge in Pakistan. According to Ustaz, we have to study the life of great Imams and sahabah in order to instill love on them. Scholars of Islam are inheritors of al anbiyaa`. Allah has addressed these people as the reference for us when we don`t know and need advices on matters regarding Islam. Thus they place an important rank in our life. If we really study their life, we would find many amazing stories about them on how patient, enthusiastic, determined,confident, motivated, passionate they are in acquiring Islamic knowledge. They didn`t succumb to trials and tribulation landed in their path of seeking islamic knowledge and practising it. There are many heart breaking examples we can find reading through their stories, in which upon reading it, we would feel like our own difficulties in practising Islam and learning it is tooo insignificant as compared to theirs. Subhanallah! Imam Shafiee himself, as what I have learned today, experienced difficulties in his journey learning Islam. But he managed to pull through. He has outstanding level of picking up knowledges. Among interesting facts about Imam Shafiiee are:

- memorized whole Quran at 7
- memorized Al Muwatta` by Imam Malik in only 7 nights (the kitaab consists of 1720 ahadeeth)
- Had Imam Malik and Sufyan Ibn Uyainah as his teachers.
- wrote 2 main kitaab : Ar Risalah, Al Umm
- High proficiency in Ilm Hadith, Usul Fiqh
- Very poor during his childhood. Had even wrote lessons on animal`s bone because he couldn`t afford to have note books and pens.

I think that`s all for today. Tomorrow we`ll learn about principles of Imam Shafiiee in practising Islam. Come back soon.