READ THIS letter from behind the Guantanamo prison walls that will make one appreciate our freedom to attend Lectures and Islamic classes and take advantage of them!!!
BismIllaah ir-Rahmaan ir-Rahiim,
Al-hamdu Lillaah, Allaah 'azza wa jall has blessed us and favored us above many of His creation, and I am not writing what follows to complain in any way about my condition, because I am grateful to Him for all He has chosen to bestow on me or withhold from me. I simply want to describe one of the things which brothers who are serious about seeking knowledge in prison engage in, because I think it might inspire others to take advantage of the resources they have available to them.
On the outside, you have scholars all around you. Some of them live close by. Others are just a click away on the internet. If you want a book, all you have to do is search for it on Google, or maybe you would drive to a bookstore if you want a hard copy. It would only cost you a small fraction of your earnings, so it would not bother you too much to get it the old-fashioned way.
In prison, we very rarely come across a scholar, and almost no scholars whatsoever are willing to even respond to our questions. I have been trying to get in touch with a scholar, any scholar, for more than two years, but the only ones willing to help are not able to, because of their own captivity.
We have no access to the internet. We cannot just go online and look something up whenever we want to. We have to figure out which book the issue might be covered in, then look for it in there. If we do not have a book covering that issue, then we are not able to learn about it.
We can buy books from stores on the outside and have them shipped in, but most of us cannot afford to do this very often. Some of us receive as little as seven dollars per month. Many receive less than forty dollar. Almost everyone receives less than one hundred. After paying for our communications with our families, legal expenses, hygiene and other necessities we have, a book becomes more expensive to us than one can appreciate.
They are like little pieces of treasure, and we guard them carefully. When a brother receives a book in the mail, the entire unit gets excited to know what he just received. We spend hours talking with one another about which books we need in the community, where we can get them from and things like this. We search through store after store to find condensed versions, because we cannot receive more than five volumes at a time and we cannot possess more than this when we are transferred.
Thus, you will find a number of brothers who are serious about knowledge resorting to an even more old-fashioned method of obtaining literature. Forget about the era of the internet. We are not living in that era here. We are not even fully in the era of the printing press. In order to possess certain texts, you will find many of us transcribing them by hand. A brother might spend a few hours copying An-Nawawi's "40 Hadiith." Another might copy the Matn (text) of some other work he wants for himself.
I have personally transcribed "Al-'Aqiidat al-Waasitiyyah" by Ibn Taymiyyah and "Kashf ush-Shubuhaat" and "Al-Qawaa'id ul-Arba'ah" by Muhammad Ibn 'Abd il-Wahhaab. Another brother and I are in the middle transcribing the book "'Umdat ul-Ahkaam" by Taqiyyuddiin Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. Often, the way we do this is by piecing back together the original text from a Sharh (explanation) of that text, which will quote it in a chopped up fashion. If we want to memorize the original texts, we usually have to write them by hand.
One might be thinking with a sort of nostalgia for the past and learning Islaam how it used to be learned centuries ago. However, they should not be deluded. People on the outside have far more ability to learn than we do. Perhaps some of us have a degree of dedication, so we hope to make up for as much as we can, but those on the outside should really understand the blessings at their fingertips. Take advantage of your opportunities.
In the time it took me to transcribe "Kashf ush-Shubuhaat," I could have finished half of the book with scholar had they been available. It does not take that much longer to memorize the text than it does to write it, but in order to do that, we have to transcribe them ourselves, so we can have a copy to review later on. For most of us, purchasing a five or ten dollar copy of the original text along with the Sharh is out of the question. Even purchasing a single book often comes down to making a decision between calling one's family and pursuing knowledge.
Thus, I strongly encourage everyone who is reading this to really buckle down and take advantage of their situation, because nobody knows when their condition might change. If there are online classes, do not hesitate to take advantage of them. Listen to lectures, read books, study, memorize... There are Islaamic universities online which cost next to nothing for you to attend. Some of the biggest scholars broadcast their lectures live. If you want to learn Arabic, there are a thousand ways to do it out there. All it takes is you seizing the opportunities which are before you. If you do not know where to begin, then start by asking a scholar about that.
One thing I have heard about is that a shaykh who used to be incarcerated with some of us has started giving lectures which are available online. I do not know what all of his lectures are covering, but one of them is on the very important book "Usuul uth-Thalaathah," which covers the principles of Tawhiid ul-Uluuhiyyah. The shaykh's name is Ahmad Jibreel, may Allaah protect him. Instead of going to the kabob restaurant tonight, instead of watching the news, instead of chatting back and forth on Facebook, instead of voicing your opinion on some forum, why do you not track down his lectures and start listening to them. That is not a bad place to start, in shaa-Allaah.
May Allaah increase us all in knowledge and make us truly grateful for His blessings upon us.
Abu Talhah al-Amriiki
Guantanamo North, U.S.A.
Ya Allah! Make the best of my deeds my last deeds, and make the best of my life my last moments, and make the best day of my life, the day I meet You-AMEEN YA RAB!!!
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