"Verily Actions are by their Intentions, and for every person is what he intended..."

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the name of Allah, The most Gracious, The most Merciful

الحمد لله رب العالمين

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds,

وصلاة وسلام على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين

And we ask him to send his peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad, and upon his family and companions.

Before coming to Egypt, I was debating with myself for a long time as to whether to keep a blog whilst out here. Many people encouraged me to do so as they wanted to see how it all went. However, my worry has always been that it distracts me from my studies and the spiritual experience this is meant to be. Wasn’t the purpose of coming here that I live life completely isolated from things back home in order to absorb the environment around me?

After much thought, I decided that having a blog would be of enough benefit to merit it being set up. Travelling abroad to study Sacred Knowledge is something many people dream of doing but few get the chance to ever go. Also, many of those who do go have very little knowledge of what to expect. Having been here for less than a week, I can truly say that the image I had in my mind is certainly very different to the reality. My aim through keeping this blog is to share some of my thoughts and experiences over the short time that I am here; what things I learn, feel and experience as the time passes by.

My hope is that this this is as informative to people as possible. I will try and be as honest as possible throughout to really try and paint an image of what things are like out here. My aim is then to inspire many others to take the leap of faith and follow in the footsteps of the many great scholars that have taken the path of sacred knowledge before as the west is truly in need of a spiritual revival. Abu Hurayrah relates that the Prophet said;

"For him who embarks on the path of seeking knowledge, Allah will ease for him the way to paradise." 

[Related by Imam Muslim]

So my intention is that my writings here will hopefully be of some benefit to people back home in the hope that others may be inspired to do the same. Any comments and thoughts would be appreciated. I will try my best to reply but please be patient with me insha’Allah. Please pray that I am accepted onto this path, because truly knowledge is only granted by those whom Allah accepts. Imam Shafi’ says in his famous poem:

شَكَوْتُ إلَى وَكِيعٍ سُوءَ حِفْظِي

I complained to Waki’ about my poor memory:

فَأرْشَدَنِي إلَى تَرْكِ المعَاصي

“Give up your sins!” was his advice to me;

وَأخْبَرَنِي بأَنَّ العِلْمَ نُورٌ

“For knowledge is a light from Divinity,

ونورُ الله لا يهدى لعاصي

and the Light of God is veiled by iniquity!”

Jazakumallah Khair and peace be upon you all.

"Verily Actions are by their Intentions, and for every person is what he intended."
[40 Hadith Nawawi]

Talha Ghannam