The first khutbah:

The gist of the Deen is to learn and to teach:

 Dear brother, we tackled the topic of final exams in a previous khutbah and I promised you to talk about it again. Hence, this khutbah is related to the previous one, so those of you who have nothing to do with this issue will have to excuse me, but I'm sure we are all aware of the fact that many students are in desperate need of instruction in this respect.
 Dear brother, the gist of this Deen is about learning and teaching, without which Islam will never thrive or succeed. Consequently, people are of two kinds –those who learn seeking salvation and those who are knowledgeable and who try to expand the scope of their knowledge; and there is no good in any other kind (of people). So, be knowledgeable men, seekers of knowledge, listeners of knowledge, lovers of knowledge, and don’t be the fifth (sort) lest you be doomed.

Knowing Allah is the reason behind man’s existence:

 Dear brother, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

((The teacher and the student are partners in goodness, and there is no goodness in the rest of people.))

[Ibn Majah, on the authority of Abi Imamah]

 This is because you are brought to this life in order to get to know your Creator. Therefore, seeking knowledge, getting acquainted with the Creator of heavens and earth, with His Messengers and Prophets, and with His Righteous Way is the reasons behind your existence in this life.
 Consider the example of a student whose college is well provided with canteens, magazines and newspapers. Yet, the reason behind attending it is to study and graduate. Thus, if he goes to the college but doesn’t attend lectures and doesn’t do any follow-up work, and instead goes to the gym or one of the cafeterias, and forgets the reason behind his existence in the college, then this student is far away from the purpose which brought him there in the first place.

We should realize the secret behind our existence:

 Dear brother, the reason behind our existence in this life is to know Allah and to draw closer to Him by performing good deeds with which to earn Paradise, and that is why, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

((The teacher and the student are partners in goodness, and there is no goodness in the rest of people))

[Ibn Majah, on the authority of Abi Imamah]

 I simply can’t imagine someone who just eats, drinks, follows the news, meets his friends, holds parties, and goes on picnics while the big issue of the reason behind his existence never crosses his mind. Consider the example of someone who has arrived in Paris, and then asks a passer-by about the way he should take. We will say to this person: What kind of question is that? The question to be asked is: Why are you in Paris? If you are there as a student, then you should go to colleges and universities; if you are there as a tourist, then you should go to parks and restaurants; and if you are there on business, then you should go to markets and factories. Your movement can’t be in the right direction unless you know the purpose of your existence.

Seeking knowledge is binding on every Muslim:

 Dear brother, the Creator of this Universe says in the Qur'an:

((And I (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone).))

[Adh-Dhariyat, 56]

 The first reason behind your existence is to worship Allah. However, it is a fact that people move in this life heedlessly. According to an accurate survey, only 3 people out of thousand know their objectives and seek the means to fulfill them, whereas the rest are eating, drinking, watching the news, having dinners, going out on picnics, attending meetings, then going back home, and they repeat that again and again until death comes. Why have you been created for this life? Why has Allah brought you to existence? What is after death? There will be eternal life, so what have you prepared for it?
 Therefore, dear brother, it is an individual obligation of every Muslim to seek knowledge as the only means to get to know the structure of the earth and to be able to benefit from its resources. And this is the reason behind the superiority of the western world over us and this is what has established them so well and made them claim everything on Earth, and after having succeeded, they have started to force their culture, with all its deviations and free thinking, on other nations through what is called now “globalization” (cultural invasion), which is more dangerous than a military invasion.

Science is power in our era:

 Dear brother, mastery of exact sciences has resulted in the discovery of the earth's formation and led to digging for its natural resources, making use of its potentials, overcoming the barriers, and providing the means in order to fulfill Allah’s Words in the following ayah:

((He brought you forth from the earth and settled you therein))

[Hud, 61]

 This ayah means that Allah has brought you to this earth in order to investigate its structure, to learn the two branches of science, the first one being the knowledge of sahri'ah, of the Qur'an, of the hadith, of fiqh, of the causes behind the descent of the Revelation, and other countless issues with which the shari'ah deals; the second branch being the scientific knowledge provided by physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, archeology, geology, and many other exact sciences which grant superiority to the nation that excels in them and which should have been achieved by Muslims in order to face their enemies, the enemies of the truth, goodness and peace, and in order to put into practice Allah’s Words:

((And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war (tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.) to threaten the enemy of Allah and your enemy.))

[Al-Anfal, 60]

  Dear brother, science equals power in this era. More than that, nowadays war is waged not between two men, two swords, or two weapons. Rather, it is between two minds, and the nation that excels will have the hegemony over other nations.
 Dear brother, by pursuing the scientific perspective, breaking loose from ignorance and delusions and by adopting objective methods we shall be able to put down all false claims made by the enemies of this Deen in order to enfeeble our potentials and ambitions.
 Our vision will get clearer on adopting the scientific concept, and having faith in Allah and pracitising righteousness in His Path will grant us strength. Allah Most High says:

((If Allah helps you, none can overcome you; and if He forsakes you, who is there after Him that can help you? And in Allah (Alone) let believers put their trust. ))

[Aal-‘Imran, 160]

A few facts about studying and taking final exams:

 Hence, the topic I am going to tackle now is for the sake of our hard-working students, in order to help them excel in their scientific knowledge and their behavior.
 Superiority in science is one of the many elements that ensure our victory as regards the challenges we are facing.
 While speaking to our students, the first important issue that should be mentioned is the necessity to avoid studying on a comfortable chair in the living room among your family, amid all kinds of conversations and with the TV on. This kind of studying is pointless and it comes down to mere reading. Along the same line, it is not recommended to study facing a beautiful view afforded by the living room or on the balcony over a crowded street, as these places are not fit for studying on account of the distraction they cause. They make it impossible for one to focus on one's books and thus render one's studying fruitless as nothing will be remembered properly, except a general idea of the topic. When you have a difficult book to study, its mere reading is a waste of time and energy. This is the kind of studying practised by most students on the assumption that they have studied by reading something twice. However, the final exam puts to the test your memory, which, after having studied in this way, is bound to contain no more than one thousandth of the information you have supposedly studied.

The more you read, the more information you memorize:

 One thing deserves mentioning here. In olden days, science used to be descriptive. Thus, it would be said, for example, that when the plane lands it causes noise. This kind of science has recently changed into mathematical one, which depends on the systems of measurement. So, instead of the above, they say now that a landing plane causes noise of 125 decibel. Hence, this particular unit expresses here the loudness of noise.
 Accordingly, if we were able to set up a unit of measurement of the effort made while studying, I would give you just 1 such unit for studying in the living room, in front of a nice view or a street, in a public place, or among any other distractions. Eventually, final exams are all about memory, so you should sit behind your desk far from any source of noise and all nice views, open your book and read it carefully, highlighting every important paragraph with colored markers, and underlining in pencil the less important paragraphs, summarizing, finally, each paragraph on the page margin. You can also underline every new word in red to add it later to your vocabulary, using another color for each sentence that enriches your composition, and a third color for any idea you haven't understood in order to ask your teacher or a brilliant friend of yours about it later on. After having done all that, you write down what you have read, and then repeat it to the people around you. This kind of reading is effective and much more productive as regards the final test.
 The more effort you put into the analysis of what you are studying, the more information your memory will store; and the less effort you put, the less information your memory will retain.

The recognizing memory and the recalling one:

 Another important point to be tackled in this lecture is related to memory. The student has spent the entire academic year studying physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, and so on, listening to the lessons given by his teachers, and reading about them in his course books. However, it might never have crossed his mind to write an assay on physics, for example.
I am saying this because you usually store information in your recognizing memory. When you read a text with a word such as ”durable relation”, for example, which means “solid relation”, you will be able to recognize this word when you see it again as it is stored in your recognizing memory. However, when you try to use it in a composition, for example, you might fail to recall it as it might not have been stored in your recalling memory, which is another kind of memory. Certain words may be recognizable to you when you see them, but if you have never written or used them, they will never move to your recalling memory, and consequently you won’t be able to use them in the exam.
 This is the reason why the recalling memory is vital for your exam. Thus, you need to move all the information from your recognizing memory to your recalling memory, which occurs when you rehearse and write down what you know while you are studying, and I am perfectly aware that it is a time-consuming process, yet it is highly effective. Hence, reading your books in this way is useful and will pay off in the form of high scores. I am not saying that it is an easy way to follow, but it is the method you apply in your studies that guarantees a satisfactory final result.

Writing down information is the best way to memorize it:

 Dear brother, you should resort to producing a piece of writing every now and then while studying any given subject. Reading a book once or twice is one thing and the ability to write down what you memorize is another, and more often than not you just can’t do it due to having done the reading alone, which is usually not enough as far as examinations go.
 Hence, if you want to memorize properly, you ought to write down what you are studying. If you try to put into writing the chapter on physics, for example, which you have read, you will find it extremely difficult. Therefore, you have to train yourself in writing down everything you read to be able to retrieve this information during an exam.
 By the way, dear brother, some of the subject matters you study are those which require memorizing, the sh3er being what we can call “aptitudes”, to which language, for example, belongs, whether Arabic or English, together with mathematics, physics and problem solving. This means that unless you solve hundreds of problems during the academic year, you won't be able to pass your exam and unless you parse hundreds of verses of poetry, you won’t be able to pass your Arabic test. Therefore, there are subject matters based on memorizing, such as history, and there are sh3er which depend on your linguistic and mathematical skills.

The student should shift between subjects during the day:

 There is yet another challenge facing our students. This is setting up a schedule for studying physics, for example, on a daily basis. The student embarks on it, and then gets bored. As a result, he chooses to join his family or waste his time reading a magazine, which is a sign of his having got bored. This method just doesn’t work for most students. Instead, you can divide the day into periods for studying different subject matters, starting with the most difficult one and ending with the easier ones, moving between subjects and books, and this method will give you energy to continue studying.
 To elaborate on the idea, consider the example of a dumbbell of one kilogram. When someone is asked to lift it, he will do that once or twice, but can’t do it a hundred times; and when he stops lifting it, it will be noticed that he is tired, his muscles having reached their limit. If we, instead, give him half a kilogram, he will be able to lift it a hundred times. The lesser the weight, the more times he will be able to lift it. We give him now a quarter of a kilogram to lift, then fifty grams and so forth. Along the same lines, and following the same example in your studies, you will be able to study for 10 hours per day. The first hour will be spent on the most difficult subject matter (reading one chapter of it only); the second hour will be spent on an easier book, and so forth. By following this method, you are covering several books in one day, starting at the peak of your energy with the most difficult one and gradually moving during the day to the easier ones, the procedure which will enable you to use your time wisely while studying.

Rewriting the answers grants high scores:

 Dear brother, I want to stress another issue. When you write during an exam, you have to bear in mind two things: the information you want to transmit and the phraseology used to express this information. Those who mark your test are interested subconsciously in both of them. Therefore, you should know that the way you phrase your information may result in higher scores. Consequently, it is important that you should edit your writing, correct your mistakes, and strengthen your sentences, rephrasing them if necessary, using literary words rather than colloquial ones.
 The higher level of your sentences, the higher scores you will be given, even if, in theory, no marks are given for your phrasing. Thus, you should keep in mind that using formal phrasing needs editing and that the latter ensures better style.
 Use a pencil to write (certain) words in order to replace them with more literary ones when you find them; strengthen your sentences when you find them weak; substitute stronger paragraphs for weaker ones; elaborate those which sound ambiguous. Hence, editing is the most effective method to improve your writing. Therefore, read, write down and edit. As long as you are putting all the effort in reading, writing and editing, you will be on your way to prepare the perfect answer in order to be given high scores.

The more variety in vocabulary, the better the sentence:

 Dear brother, if I give you a book on literature to read, you won’t improve just by getting a general idea about the meanings of what you are reading, unlike professional writers.
What you need to do is to pay attention to the phrases, the selection of words and sentences, the metaphors, figures of speech and similes. Only then will your phrasing improve.
“Look” as a word is different from “glimpse”. The latter is used when you can barely see a plane, for example, among the clouds, which means that the plane was spotted and immediately disappeared. In this situation you don’t use the word “look”, you use “glimpse” instead, and there is a wide range of words which express different shades of this meaning, such as “gaze, stare, view, speculate, and catch sight of”, and each of these words has its specific use.
 This concept is reflected in the situation when someone gives you two colors only, black and white, and asks you to paint fine natural scenery. Obviously, your painting will be very poor as regards colors (because you are forced to use only black and white). You don’t have red for the cottage roof, nor blue for the sky, nor yet do you have yellow for the beautiful flower. Therefore, the more colors, the better painting you will produce. The same goes for words. The bigger variety of words you have at your disposal, the better your text will be.
 An experiment was run on an illiterate man, in which a device was attached to his neck with the objective of recording his words over a period of one week. When the week was over, and after all the repetitions had been eliminated, the tape script revealed that this man used only 125 words in the process of his communication. Run on a professor, the same experiment showed that he made use of 1500 words, which means that 1500 words had been stored in his memory and used them in his phrases and sentences. Hence, the more words you know, the more precise your sentences will be.

Taking breaks during the study:

 Dear brother, whatever method you follow in your study, pauses should be considered, because as they say "when hearts get tired, they get blind".
 Therefore, study for fifty minutes and take a break for ten minutes. You may rest assured that every method of studying that doesn’t consider time off will fail because a little bit of rest restores your energy in order to carry on.

Taking one's time to comprehend exam questions:

 Dear brother, one last important thing that our students should be aware of. I won’t be exaggerating if I say that hundreds, if not thousands, of students fail their exams not because they haven't studied, but because they have misunderstood the question.
 My advice to our dear students, especially those in the ninth grade and those taking their final secondary school examinations, is that in order to secure high scores they should put down their pens when they receive the exam paper, read the questions twice or three times and make sure they understand them, then begin writing their answers.
 Take the example of a question asked in one of the exams about the national literature between the two world wars. As it turned out most students wrote about the social literature between the two world wars and so most of them failed.
 Bear in mind that in every exam there will be questions testing your intelligence, and the best thing to do is to understand all the questions in full.
 I know a student who is very good at memorizing and he wrote something like 10 pages in small handwriting, yet failed, and that was because he hadn't paid attention to the question so his answer was in fact off the topic. Therefore, comprehending the questions is crucial while sitting an exam.

Concentrating on the purpose grants higher scores:

 Dear brother, my last words will be about our students’ potential. When you put a piece of paper in the sun, it won’t burn, whereas if you place a magnifying glass between the sun and the paper, the paper will be set on fire. Why was the paper made to burn?
 That is because the magnifying glass focuses sun rays in one point, thus producing the energy necessary to set the piece of paper on fire. The same example goes for students. When you are determined and your interests well-controlled and directed by your righteousness, you will prosper.
 Once they displayed in all the streets of Damascus the photos of the students who came first in their final secondary school exams. What caught one's attention was that most girls wore hijab, which means that the Deen makes a better student of you. It makes you focus your potentials and hinders you from being distracted.
 Therefore, those who are religious, praying the five prayers, lowering their gaze, and concentrating on one purpose, will prosper, unlike those who are distracted by all kinds of things displeasing to Allah.
 There must be student in each household these days and obviously what every parent wants is their success. It goes without saying that every student who succeeds brings joy to his household because he has put his future on the right track.

People should be particularly considerate in the exam period:

 I have one more thing to say to the parents and this is to request them to turn down the volume of radio or TV, because turning it up will affect the students in a very negative way, not to mention the fact that it has nothing to do with courtesy, morals, or the Deen. Some people are not satisfied unless the volume of their TV sets is full up. They should know that there are students who are studying and patients who require silence.
 The sound of your TV should never trespass on sh3er people's households and you should be constantly aware that there exist the sick as well as the studious, so I do hope that my advice will be taken into consideration.

Supplication:

 We beseech You, O Allah, to show us the way of rightness, together with those to whom You have showed it; and give us good health, together with those whom You have healed; and be our Protector, together with those for whom You have become their Protector; and bless us in what You have bestowed on us and save us from the afflictions that You have decreed, for You rule with justice and You are never judged. He whom You protect shall never be humiliated and he whom You make enemy shall never be exalted. Blessed and dignified are You, and we thank You for what You have decreed.
 We seek your forgiveness and we repent our bad deeds. O Allah! Guide us to perform good deeds in order to draw closer to You.
 O Allah! Give us and don’t withdraw from us, degnify us and don’t humiliate us, choose us and don’t turn away from us, please us and be pleased with us. O Allah, our Lord! Grant peace and blessings to Sayyidina Muhammad, to his Family and his Companions.