Getting help of figures on my into Islam

• I'm trying my way into Islam via figures.

Sometimes it isn't easy to do recite things. There are so many ways ! Recitinting kalma or Durood seems so old school. "Me ? With a tasbeeh ?! I do this ? I'm not that cheap !" Know that it's not cheap at all. Speacially for the beginners it's not easy to figure out what to recite, how many times and for how long ? To motivate ourselves, with a friend we set a goal for duroods and the first part of the kalma. Every day we enter our scores and monitor our progress. It motivates and keeps you going.  If you like this idea, I advice you to convince as many friends as you can, set a goal and then collect figures to monitor. This is amazing. 

• I've forgotten my friends names.

Along with our durood competition we also set a goal to read Quran, encouraging us mutually. You may know that Quran is divided in 30 parts. People use the first word of each part to designate them. Thus Quran can be found in a collection of thirty parts or a more copact book with all of them combined. I happen to have a Quranic app on my mobile. It's all written together. No distinction are made for divisions. While reading I realised that I could make difference either. In Pakistan, there were inaugurations of shops, of houses and the death anniversaries of our ancestors upon which family memebers and neighbourhood would reunite to read Quran. At these events there were the these 30 parts. so at the end you know, everyone ended up knowing names. 

It was so shameful for me to not recall their names. As if i'd forgotten the names of some beloved friends. 

• I'm trying to read Quran and compare it to the reading Lesly Hazelton gave it. 

Sometime ago, I had a chat with a friend about how hard reading Quran is. Does it make any sense ? Do you understand something ? And we both did understand nothing. 

So what to do about it ? I've already started several time to read the translation in english or in urdu or in french but it doesn't work. You can just catch one verse every four. The rest just passes over your head. If you also are having these thoughts there's an easy solution. 

There are very amazing easy explanation by Noman Ali Khan on YouTube. You can find surat Fatihah and Surat Baqarah. Explained verse by verse. This is just amazing how doors open up to a new world. 

I've shared few post ago a Ted talk given by Lesly Hazelton, who set a goal also to read Quran. She's from jewish background so my thoughts goes to her naturally. You know, in the second chapter of Quran, Surat Baqarah, the story is about Jews, how they continously disobeyed their Lord but still Allah gives them one last shot with  Quran. And this door is open as long as the Earth is. This is amazing. Inshallah, if you start you will understand also. 

• Quran is full of love stories. 

You all know that Quran is a religious book. But did you know that it's also a love story. As I mentionned before a love story between Allah and it's creatures. Like Allah giving one last chance to the jews. 

But here's a particular story I wanna tell you. It enchanted me so much that for days I've been telling it to every single person I met. To understand the story you can see the screenshot below. The story resides in the begining of verse 144 of Surat Baqarah ( 2nd chapter). It says :

We have certainly seen the turning of your face, [O Muhammad], toward the sky(heaven) 

What's behind it ? In fact, at this point in Surat the change of Qibla ( direction where to turn your face  to pray and worship). When the Prophet (saw) was in Makkah and started praying, he used to pray in the direction of Masjid Aqsa, which is located in Jerusalem, as the jews did. But he (saw) would pray in a way that his back was never toward the Kaaba either. The Kaaba is in Makkah, the hometown of the Prophet (saw). He (saw) could do this because both monuments were aligned. He (saw) could face the Kaaba and the Mosque Al-Aqsa at the same time. On the screenshot follow the orange line with a blue arrow. 

But then, muslims had to migrate to Madina. There, the Prophet (peace be upon him) couldn't but to turn his back toward the Kaaba to pray toward the Qibla of the time : Masjid al Aqsa. Now follow the pink line with pink arrow. This would make the Prophet (saw) sad but he (saw) never complained. He (saw) just use to turn his face toward skies when it was prayer time. This action is mentionned in the verse I just quoted. Allah says that I know you wanted Kaaba to be Qibla. Here I change it for you. This is such an amazing gift. This is such an amazing proof of love. The prophet didn't say anything  yet Allah knew and changed it. SubhanAllah.