Tuesday, January 21, 2014

MUFTI ISMAIL MENK


May Allah bless him, Ameen.

I had no idea who this Zimbabwe man was, until an encounter with Mawaddah at the college's surau last year. It was the lunch break and being IB students we were, going back to our room would only mean not coming back to class (because obviously, there's the bed and the rest is history),  so we girls, whom the hostel blocks are ten minutes walking distance away, preferred to laze around the Surau's women section instead. I was playing games on her iPhone (temple run, if I'm not mistaken, which is best played on iPhone or iPod touch considering the screen touch sensitivity was way better than SAMSUNG; and no, I do not own either of them hence everytime I meet Mawaddah, I'd spend 30 minutes with her phone alone). Mawaddah was doing something else while I was preoccupied with the game until after what seemed like forever, I gave her the phone back, telling her that there was no way I will be able to beat her high score (she's a real game-junkie, you have no idea).

She could have bragged on about it, at least, that's what I would have done. But no she didn't. Immediately after she got the phone, she began to click on an Eventbrite app and was busy checking a few online tickets. I was of course, impressed; not knowing a thing about the 2D barcode paperless revolution, so I asked her  about it and there and then she spilled on about the gadget info and also about who's-coming-to-town.


"I thought you knew," she said.

Hah-ha. Nope, I don't. Who is this man. Mufti Menk? 
No. Never heard of him.

"Well then, maybe you should come. I'm not sure if there are still tickets, but it's worth checking them out. They're free,"


I said okay and booked 4 tickets to one of the talks that was available for the weekend. Everything else was fully booked. (Whoa, this man must be famous)! 
Honestly, I only considered going because I wanted install the Eventbrite app and see how the barcode thingy works, hehe. 

I don't know what I was expecting when I attended the talk, but my Lord, was I surprised when I listened to his lecture.
Mufti Menk is an incredible speaker.
He talks like he didn't need to catch a breath. Every word was clear, powerful and energetic. His Quran recitation was flawless.
You know how when you listen to talks sometimes and the man in front was  saying something and suddenly three quarter of the room laughs, and you and your friends went 'What just happened?', well you won't have to do that when you listen to the booming voice of Mufti Menk. I tell you, his lecture just snaps. Word-by-word smacking your face, stabbing your heart; and it is all the truth. He was not shouting at the microphone, but it did feel like some kind of Friday sermon. A powerful one that just build you and make you sit upright. Yeah, like it's meant for the army and every word just leave you nodding and shutting up.

He have this thing that makes you disciplined and listen to what he have to say for as long as the talk takes.
And you won't even complain, because it wasn't boring. At all.

So, you could tell, my family and I enjoyed the lecture; very much. It was only about two hours but it was excellent.

I wasn't really into online lectures then, so I didn't bother to look him up on he internet after the talk. I was more like, That was one good talk. super. Which might explain why I had trouble recalling his audio when I heard it at the As-Safwa Mall at Makkah, a few weeks ago. The audio was very engaging. It was talking about one of the prophet and how he was mentioned in the Quran and the story behind it. 
I asked the man in the bookstore and he said that it's the CD collection of Mufti Ismail Menk: Stories of the Prophet, which were daily lectures at a Masjid in South Africa for the Ramadan nights some years ago. 

"You mean all the prophets?"
"All the prophets."

Cool! The last time I bought a book about the prophets, I came home feeling extremely excited and was immediately disappointed about no less than ten minutes later when my Dad tells me that particular book is full of Israeliyat (adds-on that aren't necessarily true), so I had to be quite careful in differentiating what was the truth and what was not. (which of course I thought, how would I bloody know, and decided not to read it anyway and stick to my childhood knowledge)

So, of course, knowing that Mr. Menk here is gonna tell the; story mentioning that it will be in a manner that is deemed to be the truth as agreed by the muslim scholars; this, my friend, is like a gift for all of us seekers.

I've searched online for the lectures. And Alhamdulillah, it wasn't hard to find the mp3 version of it. Although I did stumble upon a few self-recording that wasn't very clear. Hurt my ears a little from all the background noises. Still, the effort to upload it online is very much appriciated mr. whoever =)

Here's the link to the best website (with no background noise) I found that complied Mufti Menk's lecture including the Complete Stories of the Prophet. Right click and Save As and if your internet line have no problem, you can actually download 'em all in a few hours.





p/s: I tried listening to the stories of the prophets in the train once while I was busy instagramming. It didn't work out.Unless you're like a real multitasker, plug in something else if you wanna go double on the gadget.
This guy is no Eric Clapton background music; well at-least, for me. Since I comment and like instagram pictures like anything. haha.




4 comments:

  1. tak boleh download kat phone eh iman?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. its mp3. klau android should work. lol.
      weh taktau

      Delete
  2. Imanggg- changgg~ Wiwiwi. Write some more!
    - Yes. I iz public dah.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahaha busy settling downnn.
      yayyy dah publicccc at lasttttt

      Delete