July 24, 2026

Dear Believers, Friends & Fellow Students,

As-Salaam Alaikum!  Last week we studied Faith: The Essential Quality and how faith allows us to endure a trial long enough to rise above our emotional reaction and reach understanding. This week we walk in the shoes of Mary, Joseph and Mary's father, who were tried by circumstances they could not explain and judged by a law they did not yet fully understand.

Like Hagar, Mary depended upon her Lord for relief, and relief came. How many times have we judged our own circumstances, or the circumstances of others, by the only law we knew, not knowing that Allah (God) was operating on a higher plane? Let us continue to examine, analyze and correct ourselves, remembering that our understanding at any given moment is not the full picture.

May Allah continue to bless us with Love and the Light of Understanding!

Assignment:

Read & Discuss:

Study Guide 18: Rising Above Emotion into the Thinking of God
Section titled Study Guide 18: Mary and Joseph.

This week we will read this section in its entirety.

Discussion Questions (*these are not official questions from the Study Guide):

1. Share the aspects of the reading that made you reflect most deeply on yourself. What did you see?
2. At the height of her pain, Mary said she wished she had died and been forgotten, yet Allah answered her with a stream and fresh dates. Have you ever reached that point in a trial? What did Allah provide that you did not expect?
3. Joseph, Mary and Mary's father all suffered the Emotion of Fear and great Distress because of what they believed the law required. Have you ever been gripped by fear over something you were certain was wrong, only to later learn Allah was working on a level you could not see?
4. Walk in the shoes of Mary. She knew she was not an unrighteous person, yet her own people said to her, "thou hast indeed brought a strange thing." What would that feel like, and how would you carry yourself under that kind of accusation?

Resources

Words from Minister Ava on Study Guide 18
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8KjhN5mMKak1yspkSzZKVMgREmgSgPWc&si=Z6dv4i7k7gVzuS1u

INSTRUCTIONS FOR STUDY GROUP COORDINATOR
https://study.noi.org/instructions-for-sg-coordinators/

We All Must STUDY
https://study.noi.org/fcn-v6-number-2-hmlf-editorial-1/

How To Conduct The Self Improvement Study Group Circle
https://youtu.be/De0qjtn6PIc

Self-Improvement: The Basis for Community Development (study circle training)
https://youtu.be/wXV7vnmFWDI