Event Review: The Believer’s Mark #1

When the billions from humanity stand on the plains of their reckoning, on that appointed day there will be only one way to identify them via the believer’s mark – the signs of shining light from the parts of their bodies that they had purified for their worship of Allah, the Most High.

The Believer’s Mark   was an excellent not to be missed course that focussed on the fiqh of tahara.
AlKauthar Academic Institute  hosted a 2 day course in Johannesburg as well as Durban in December, presented by Shaykh Bilal Ismail.  The course criteria was very well structured, with key points of illustration to make it easy for the student to internalise.

The course was very interactive and engaging. Shaykh Bilal Ismail surprises and amuses the students with his experiments to indicate the purity of water. A very apt way of depicting whether water is tahara or najis, and how its properties are defined within this criteria.

‘Can you make wudhu with orange juice or coca cola?’

” Is water with teabags still water or has the properties changed? Is it tea water?”

These are practical illustrative examples where the student has to engage with the lesson visually as well as mentally.

In totality the course covered 11 extensive chapters. The sections roll out well, with many questions from the students as regards the permissibility / impermissibility of substances in relation to food, purification, clothing, and many more. Excellent session to educating and removing alot of cultural mindsets instilled within the South African climate.

Rulings on utensils and other objects – whereby the use of gold and silver as well as use of utensils belonging to non-muslims. Principles with regards to the permissibility of food, including the ettiquettes of eating.  As a student you may be of the mindset that you know everything in relation to halaal and haraam foods and manner of eating, however this course allows you to reflect on your own habits, and you feel inclined to better yourself for the pleasure of Allah and to reap the rewards thereof.  Alhumdulillah.

We take for granted that our bathroom manners are correct, this refresher section enable you to adjust your mindset to different scenarios like shortage of water.

Whudu, using the siwaak, wiping over the khuffs, socks as well as the turban are interesting topics. We perform whudhu but in knowing the finer details of permissibility, this too becomes a point of ease.

Alkauthar Academic institute was kind enough to hand out miswaaks to all the students as gifts. Alhumdulillah, really great gifts in keeping with the theme of Tahara

The final chapters of tayammum and ghusl draw on alot of examples where the students apply their minds to scenarios.  The concluding chapter on Menstruation and Post-Natal bleeding address alot of the sisters questions in relation to female concerns.

By far one of the most interesting AlKauthar courses, where newly substantiated knowledge becomes applicable and implementable as soon as one heads off for salah on the break.