Getting Serious About Religion (The Final Lecture of the U of T MSA)

To end an amazing year of events and classes, the Muslim Students’ Association at the University of Toronto held a lecture recently titled “Getting Serious about Religion” featuring the SeekersHub own Dr Bano Murtuja, and Shaykh Abdul Hakim Quick. For me, it was one of the best, most meaningful lectures I’ve ever been to, and I’m enormously grateful to Dr Bano for gracing us with her presence that night!  The event had two major lessons. The first was the subject of Dr Bano’s remarks, that intention, knowledge and service are essential, and the second was something we all felt deep in our hearts: female scholarship is something that is sorely needed to build strong communities.  When you have people you admire in your life, you want to emulate them, and Dr Bano was a reminder for all the women in the room that academic excellence, community service, seeking sacred knowledge and being a wonderful person are all compatible. So alhamidullah for the blessing of strong female exemplars, it truly changes the way you understand yourself and the things you should be devoting your time and attention towards. Notes below from the event, and the talk in its entirety can be found here.

Purifying our Hearts at U of T (Counsels on Good Character)

In our final Purification of the Heart class with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani on March 20th, we had an amazing class filled with beautiful gems about the meaning of good character,  patience, good company, and ways to improve our own character traits. It’s impossible to share everything that was covered during the class, but insha’Allah these notes are of benefit.