contined

Please remember Im really not good with taking lecture notes, God only knows how I got through university with just text books and printed sheets alhamdulillah. And I did go through phases of writing notes during the weekend and not, so back to the mufti lecture. He was really good masha'allah, he seemed to have an understanding of the topic he was speaking on and it wasnt until my friend pointed out that he looked really young that I realised he was probably going through the same things he was talking about or at least had only recently gone through them. He discussed how the term 'arranged marriage' can be looked at from many different perspectives depending on how you wanted to look at them and your upbringing before coming to the issue. Of course this guy was english too and I dont know whether it was that that made me listen to him more.. I realised that I dont really hear canadian accents anymore because they are all around me now, but I do hear english accents almost immediately. I also realised why I never got bored of accents in England, because they are all different masha'allah.. whereas here in canada i would say there are 3 accents from what i have heard so far, french speakers, people from newfoundland (total irish accent masha'allah) and the rest of canada. I dont mean this to sound derrogatory or offensive.. this is just what i hear, so it was nice and refreshing to hear an english accent alhamdulillah. I wish I had taken more notes during this time but to be honest his accent was confusing me because it was the first time I had heard one in awhile and my friend was telling me he was from South Africa, but what i did walk away with from this lecture was that I liked how this guy thought and I would try to listen to more of his lectures.


Time was moving by at this point and I was beginning to feel sleepy.. how on earth was I going to get through the next 3 lectures?? subhanallah.. in the end the next speaker didnt show up so they had dr Abdal Hakim Jackson speak, masha'allah.. he was another good speaker. He spoke about reconciling power and authority in the muslim family, as a convert this was a big issue for me. I mean, Im sure im not speaking for only me when I say i was brought up to believe that I had as much authority in the house as my male counterparts. Also that Islam was the one thing that opened my heart to actually spending my life with a male for the time that it was allowed for me, alhamdulillah... before Islam I was strongly against marriage and I thank God for opening my heart to that. It was a good lecture that he gave with many facts, that I obviously hadnt written down because of my inability to sit still for long :( but I did like it, i remember that much. He has a good strong voice and although he is older, I think he said he was in his 50s he still has the ability to communicate with the youth of today masha'allah.

After this lecture we found out that the speaker to give the last lecture, which I was so looking forward to, would not be there to talk either. So they decided on a Q&A session, me and my friend sat in for awhile but we were both restless so went to check out the booths and catch up with some friends who we had bumped into. We wandered around checking bits out.. I cant remember exactly what I bought each day, but I remember buying the londonistani and paulo coelho books for $10 each masha'allah...

At the end of the day I bumped into a dear friend of mine after the isha prayer, she filled me in on the coming engagement of her sister may Allah (subhana wa ta'ala) bless them both. We stood around talking for awhile until realised that the 'adult' members of both of our parties wanted to go home.. then he hugged.. agreed to meet soon insha'allah and went on our separate ways. It was late when we got home but we still sat up for a little and chatted about the days events, definately made me feel part of a family alhamdulillah.