Hamid Entezam

Session 6: Pure / sound heart is a key requirement for “meeting God”. The Quran informs that Prophet Abraham came to meet God only when he had acquired a pure heart (قلب سلیم). According to the Gospel of Matthew, when Thomas asked Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” Jesus told Thomas,  “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  For this reason, Sufi Muslims view the heart as a sacred place, where the seeker’s journey to unite with God, ends. In this presentation, we will explore Pure / Sound Heart (قلب سلیم) in the Quran.

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Session 5: Gratitude is an important virtue in Islam; it is considered a major component of faith (ایمان). However, gratitude is often misunderstood as uttering certain phrases such as “شكرا لله” (all thanks to God). But gratitude is more encompassing. In this presentation, we will explore gratitude (شُکر) through the verses of the Holy Quran.

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Session 4: All world religions and spiritual traditions emphasize that there is more to ‘existence’ than meets the five ordinary human senses. The Quran divides ‘existence’ into two realms or dimensions: The Seen (الشهاده) and the Unseen (الغیب). The distinguishing feature of these two realms is that one (the Seen) is visible to our ordinary senses, and the other (the Unseen) is hidden from them. God, angels, Heaven and Hell, Afterlife, Day of Judgement and Revelation- they are all realities of the Unseen. The Quran itself is a product of the Unseen. Whereas scientists and philosophers seek knowledge of the Seen (or the natural world), messengers and mystics are champions of the Unseen (or the supernatural world). In this session, we will explore ‘الغیب’ (the Unseen) through the verses of the Quran.

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Session 3: Righteousness is considered the mother of all virtues in Islam’s moral code. The Quran informs that God’s criterion for evaluating human excellence is not gender, race, blood lineage, IQ, wealth, celebrity status or even strong religious beliefs; rather, it is righteousness (تقوا). In this session, we will explore ‘righteousness’ from the perspective of the Quran.

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Session 2: The Opening chapter (al-Fatiha) has only 7 short verses, but it really is a preface to the Quran. Imam Ali says ‘the whole of the Quran is contained in al-Fatiha’, which explains why Muslims read it in their daily prayers. In this session, we will explore al-Fatiha in detail.

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Session 1. We explore the following topics in this session: 1) The history and structure of the Quran. 2) Quran’s descriptions of the Quran. 3) Human perfection: the central theme of the Quran. 3) The outward and inward meanings of the Quranic verses.

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