Read To Lead

  

Reading is a human activity that God bestowed humankind with. It's reading that makes us different from other creatures. Had not there been reading, there would have not been reason and explanation, and therefore no distinction between humans and animals.

Through reading we can convey messages, express our feelings, and impart knowledge and experience to other generations. It's reading that we were first ordained as Muslims to conduct: "Read in the name of your Lord.." 1/96. We clearly understand through this divine order how important reading is in our life as Muslims. It's a matter of everlasting learning process that never stops at any stage or for any given circumstances. It's more than a hobby because hobby is only done during leisure time, but reading is done, or say should be done, all the time.

Nevertheless, reading is a job that requires certain skills. Surprised? Yes, it's a job, in the full sense of the term. If you want to get the utmost out of any book you need to deal with reading with this mentality, otherwise the outcome of your reading would be of no weight. Adler in his book "How to read a book" talks elaborately on this point.

Since reading is an activity you may wonder: is it just that easy; e.g. you pick up a book and start reading? Well, you might have noticed in the previous paragraph that reading is a "job" that needs some skills. Thus, reading is three types: literal; reading the abstract words on the lines, inferential; reading between the lines, and evaluative; reading beyond the lines.  

The first type doesn't require that wit to be able to understand what's meant. The meaning is found directly in the text. You can put a finger on the answer as it answers questions "who?", "what?", "when?" and "where?"

The second type, as it could be inferred from its name, is more complicated. Your role here is more than just reading, rather, you interpret what is in the text. You look for what the passage represents or suggests. Therefore, the answer can not be found directly in the text. You have got to do some work between the lines.

The third type is deeper than the last two. You, as a reader, move beyond the text to connect to the universal context; either on the personal level or the global one. Through this reading you answer questions like: why does it matter to me? Does it have something to do with my family or my fellow human beings? Etc.

With that said, we need to push ourselves to read more and more, and to raise our children by this principle. Reading is the food of mind, and you wouldn’t deprive yourself and your loved ones from this food, would you?!

   

O God, You have given me this new little gift, thank You so much, my words stand mute to express my gratitude. 

I humbly ask You to preserve her, her parents, grandparents and all relatives and to make her a seed of change for the betterment of Islam and Muslims, and to make her a comfort of the eye for me and for her mother.

Do It Anyway..!

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
LOVE THEM ANYWAY.


If you do good, people accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
DO GOOD ANYWAY.


If you are successful, you win false and true enemies.
SUCCEED ANYWAY.


The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
DO GOOD ANYWAY.


Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY.


What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.
BUILD ANYWAY.


People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY.


Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY.

how do you respond..?!

    Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life

was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as

one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with

water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to

boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and

ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil,

without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he

was doing. After twenty minutes, he turned off the burners. He took

the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the

eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and

placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked, "Daughter, what do you see?"

"Potatoes, eggs, and coffee," she hastily replied.

"Look closer”, he said, "and touched the potatoes”. She did and noted

that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the

shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile

to her face.

"Father, what does this mean?" she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs, and coffee beans had

each faced the same adversity, the boiling water. However, each one

reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water

it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile with the thin outer shell

protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then

the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were

exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created

something new.

"Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on

your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee

bean?"

In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only

thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Let it go..!

  Is it true that we suffer from violence even with our family members or our close friends? How vulnerable are we to the verbal attacks or assaults we get from some people who pretend they say that just for our own good?!

Well, the answer is quite clear “yes it’s true”. The violence doesn’t necessarily need to be from outsiders; rather it could come even from those who you trust, those who have always been considered to be your harbor in the time of trials and tribulations.

It’s just the way of life. If you did not get it yet then you’d better wake up and live the truth. Stop your blind trust you put it everyone..! However, this doesn’t mean that you abandon all your friends just because they were abusive at some point in the past..! If you tend to do so then get prepared to live alone the rest of your life..!

It’s not about people being harsh or abusive, as this is the nature of human beings unless they work on bettering that, it is all about how you react... Are you short-tempered? Do you get angry so fast? Do you think deeply about everything you hear?!

We should realize one essential thing about those guys who don’t monitor their mouths; you're not the only victim of their smut, it’s very likely that they put down many people on daily biases. Hence, the best tactic with such creatures is to ignore what they say. Once their words get in from one ear, immediately let them go out from the other one.

Make sure not to reconsider or rethink of what they said… don’t let their words play in you head… don’t double your agony… yes, it wasn’t your fault to hear that, but it becomes so if you give them a room in your mind.

By the way, such people are not always bad, you may find good ones but they need a sincere advice. If you think you could be of any assistance then hurry and pick them up.. and don’t forget, even at this time you may get something undesirable form them, but it doesn’t  matter if you’re to get nice results… otherwise save your face..

Week 10. Bye..!!

   What a nice feeling when you come to the end..! Patience is the key to relief. When I look back to this course I see how short it was, yet very busy. All participants in this course are involved in many things and that is a key factor for making this class hectic.

Needless to tell how squeezed my schedule was during the last couple of months, you believe it or not, I did not even have time to cook. I was supposed to join an intensive Japanese class. It would take me all the time. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that it was the most overwhelmed period I have ever had in my life.

When I got an email from Oregon I didn’t know what to do..! How could I catch up with these things..?! How could I stand up to all my responsibilities..!? I did not give them a reply until the last moment. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle all. Eventually I said to myself “Why don’t you give it a try, you’ll lose nothing, if you could keep up with the others that would be fine, otherwise you can just drop out..”.

But it was quite the opposite, once we started the course I got a different feeling, it turned to be an oasis that I come to after a long and tiring day. I wouldn’t though ignore the fact that it was also demanding. When I look back I say “wow, I just made it.. how come..?!”. It seems like the saying I used not to believe in became true “If you want something done, ask a busy person”. Of course Allah’s help is in the first place, it was there all the way long.

We learned so many things; Delicious, which is really delicious. It’s like a backpack; you just put your stuff in and go wherever you want. I personally got to know many websites I wish I had known at certain early stages in my life. The blog we made at the beginning, which will continue to be my reflective blog in the future, is also a fruit of this course. We made our own websites, ANVILL accounts.. etc, the list goes on and on. Those tools are the fertile soil where you can plant your ideas, and then keep watering these plants with a constant technological update.  

Finally, I want to thank all my classmates from whom I got a lot of benefit. It’s my great pleasure to get to know all of you guys. I wouldn’t have gotten this chance hadn’t been in this course. Thanks also to our guests who shared with us their experience and expertise. Last but not least, thank you Robert.. thanks for your comments, feedback and ENCOURAGEMENT.

Best Wishes 

Week9: Our study habits..

    This week’s discussion made me recall the question that I often raise with my friends “How much a student learn from the typical studying?”. I always try not to impose my opinion even if it’s right.. Hold on a second.! What do you mean right?! Right to who..!?.. Oh yeah, I am sorry, it’s just right to me.. It could be wrong from another’s point of view. But anyway, diversity of thoughts is always a healthy phenomenon.

The experience has proved to me that most of our study habits are, unfortunately, old-fashioned. How do we call it then when the student spends 12 years of his life at least, starting by the elementary school up to the high school, and when you ask him/her what are you good at, or what are your strengths? They just stand mute not to know what to answer..! Who is responsible for that?! Isn’t the educational insinuations and teachers?! Why do they insist on giving the same dose with the same amount to all students..?! Didn’t they realize that everyone is different form the other?! That’s how we were created, and based on that we should be working with people around us including our students..

You imagine with me, how would it look like if we just focus on our students’ talents and help them use those talents the right way?! I can imagine a society full of thousands of  people like Al-Khwārizmī, Ibn al-Nafis, Edison, Shakespeare..etc. Kids are like a clay, you shape it the way you want, you make it the shape you want. It’s our responsibility, whether we are parents or teachers, to try to find those kid’s talents and offer them to the world, and get the rewards and words of thanks for offering that genius..  or the opposite could be done quite easily “bury it” and get the condemnation and humiliation forever.

In school, Edison’s would often wander that made his teacher call him “addled” and that was the last straw that broke the camel's back. He left the school just after three months of official schooling. He recalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother homeschooled him. It’s his mother who got the credit for that and it’s his teacher who’s still blamed for wasn't able to identify his talent.

Like Edison, the cornerstone of the modern Arabic literature “Mostafa Saadeq Al-Rafe'ie”, he dropped out the official schooling because of a hearing disability, but that fact did not stop him, rather his dad who was a learned man, put a huge library in his hands that he would spend most of his time in, and eventually the most famous Arab poet of the early twentieth century came out of that library.

Examples are endless in this regard, in every society and every culture, and I’m not against official schooling, this is an extreme that I am not in favor with, however I don’t like either the end of the other extreme. We want to hold the stick form the middle, to give a space to our children and students, to find exactly what everyone is really good at. As I said in one of my posts this week “what fits X student doesn’t necessarily fit Y” and based on this fact we should move. If you see your student has sort of tendency towards something, whatever that might be, don’t be a stumbling block on his path, rather, be a bridge to the area where he/she fits best. That way we can guarantee perfect education, perfect generation and obviously perfect outcome.

We got our projects done too, and we had the chance to get to know Tom and Max, Editors of the FORUM. Big thanks to both. They reminded us this valuable magazine.