Pretty cool lesson today.

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (the living one, son of the awake) searches for his Lord by Ibn Tufayli al-Andalusi.

It's interesting because it's a story that explores a philosophical concept: how do we come to a knowledge of Allah, our Creator? (I think the concept is called gnosis in philosophy. Possibly.) In the section we studied, the author explored how the boy, Hayy, drifts onto an island and is raised a female gazelle who recently lost her baby. The boy compares himself to the animals around him and notes a lot of differences between himself and them. Then his mother, the gazelle, dies. Hayy tries to figure out what happened to her and goes through a whole series of logical deductions to eventually conclude that something has left her body, and won't return. And he wonders: who is the one who put that thing inside her body in the first place, and then took it out?

Like I said, a unique way of exploring philosophical concepts, although the section in the book was kind of long. Yeah, really long.

I am really going to try me best to work on my conversation skills before I leave. All the words are there but I just have to drag them out by force and use them, and try to get my conversation speed up to the same level as English. As usual, "I want the impossible" (i.e. it's only been three and a half months) but if you aim for the stars, you'll at least make it to the moon. Insha'allah.

~Ameer