A rare glimpse of Imam Safi Khan (may Allah preserve him) of the Dar us Salaam community in College Park, Maryland and a preview of the two-week evening intensive Strengthening Our Soul shariah program that begins in July on-site and online.
The Mormons are highly organized in their dawah/missionary work and they played a pivotal role in my acceptance of Islam. Two Mormon guys, dressed in their customary dark pants, white shirts, and ties riding bikes knocked on my door, and seeing that I, a female was alone at home, they didn’t come in but offered their services and asked if I needed help with anything, and said that they would send over two sisters the next day.
The next day, two sisters arrived and gave me their highly organized 15 minute dawah presentation. They did this each day for 5 days as I was shy to tell them that I was not interested in their faith and really just wanted to ask them why their church didn’t accept blacks as full members until the late 1970s. By the end of the week, they asked me if I would come to their church the following Sunday and again, I felt shy to say that I really didn’t want to go to their church.
Later, that Friday, I called the two Mormon sisters and left a message on their voicemail telling them that I wasn’t interested in their faith, that I wasn’t going to their church on Sunday, and that they didn’t need to come see me for any future sessions. When they returned my call, they were surprised and kept asking me and pushing me as to why I didn’t believe, why I couldn’t accept Jesus as my personal savior, why I didn’t believe in original sin, etc. And finally, I just replied, that I couldn’t accept those things because I was Muslim. It was the first time I had really admitted it to myself, much less declared it publicly to anyone else. So, I decided that the time had come for me take my shahadah and enter into Islam.
I looked up the English transliteration of the Arabic phrase and meaning of the shahadah online, printed it up, and said it, either at the computer or in my bedroom, with only Allah and the angels as my witnesses. Prior to this, I had been reading about Islam for several months post-9/11 and the essentials of Islam accorded with my fitra. I didn’t know any Muslims except the occasional Muslim cab drivers I met and the random Muslims I met out in the community so for the first two years I mainly learned the religion from books, online resources, and lectures.
Among the earliest issues I noticed that were often presented as obligatory or highly recommended for a convert was the claim that one should say the shahadah in front of two or more witnesses and changing one’s name. From my reading, I was quite comfortable in saying that witnesses were not required for the validity of a conversion and I have blogged extensively about the name issue.
Two years later, I was beginning to integrate into the local Muslim community and after the Friday prayer, some sisters asked me about my conversion story, and when I mentioned the part about taking my shahadah alone sans human witnesses, they were both surprised and expressed concern about the validity of my shahadah. They called the masjid and the office admin or perhaps just a brother that happened to answer the phone said that I would have to repeat my shahadah asap in front of witnesses. So these two sisters and I went back to the masjid, we prayed asr, found the brother and I took my shahadah for the second time, two years after the first one to satisfy my witnesses moreso than to ensure the validity of my shahadah, which I had always believed to be valid.
After my second shahadah, we headed to George Mason University to attend my very first AlMaghrib seminar, Conquest: History of the Khulafaa and my life and my perspective of Islam was forever altered for the better.
Last month, I attended Ilm Week in Toronto and I had the oppurtunity to ask two of the instructors, Shaykh Waleed Basyouni and Dr. Reda Bedeir if my original conversion sans witnesses was valid and both said that it was and that there is no authentic proof to say otherwise, although there may be some benefits to having witnesses but that is a separate issue.
A few months ago, my mother introduced me to one of her colleagues from work and said, “This is my daughter” and then she hesitated and said, “her name is… what is it.., Zainab, right?”
Me: Wrong. My name is Ify.
Mom: You don’t go by Zainab anymore, your Muslim name?
Me: Mom, where have you been, I haven’t gone by Zainab in years. My name is Ify, I like my name, and I don’t intend to change it.
Mom: With a smile and a brightness on her face that seemed to light the whole room, she said, “Yeah, Ify is a good name, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
And in that instant, I regretted ever allowing myself to be pressured by a noisy, insistent, and somewhat ignorant Muslim community into changing my name. Ignorant of the realities and difficulties many converts face when entering into Islam and in maintaining relations with their sometimes hostile non-Muslim families.
It is common sense and simple decency to choose your battles wisely, and so in reverting to my given name, I show the love, honor, and respect for my parents that Islam commands of us. I wonder if respect for parents ever enters the minds of the Muslims I’ve encountered over the years and even until today as witnessed in the Storekeeper & Robber incident, in their zeal and enthusiasm to tell us to abandon our names and so much of our culture and upbringing, which may be perfectly acceptable, when we enter into Islam. We left the religion of our families, isn’t that enough? There are other actions that my parents aren’t too thrilled about since my Islam, some of which, I am not willingly to compromise on like hijab, but in the areas where I can compromise in order to serve them and make them happy, I will.
CNN: Merciful storekeeper changes robber’s mind, religion
I do not share in the delight and glee that some of our Muslim brothers and sisters have been expressing at this strange situation. While it it amazing dawah to lower one’s shotgun at a would-be thief now kneeling, pleading, and begging for mercy and to give him $40 and a loaf a bread and to allow him to escape instead of calling the police to arrest him, it is also a classic example of a misguided and mistaken attempt at dawah, which only harms the potential or new convert. Speaking from experience, reading and watching this story and listening to the Muslim storekeeper’s words made me cringe. Why?
Point 1: A true shahadah or religious conversion cannot be me under compulsion. The would-be thief was kneeling and cowering in fear, trying not to get shot or arrested, in such circumstances, preservation of one’s own life is paramount and one might say anything in order to extricate himself or herself from the situation.
Point 2: Shahadah requires a certain level of knowledge, you don’t have to be a scholar or even know all the main points about Islam, but one should understand the words in the Arabic phrase and what is meant by those words, what such a testimony entails. Just an empty repeating of the words without any understanding is not praiseworthy and is hardly a cause for celebration to believe someone has truly converted to Islam.
Point 3: The shopkeeper didn’t teach the man anything about his new faith, not the pillars, not the prayer, not how to purify himself, didn’t take the man’s contact info so that he could follow up and help, guide, and assist the man on the road to solidifying his faith. From what I have witnessed, unless a convert is very firm in learning about his or her new faith and/or has good Muslim companions, the convert will revert to a state of disbelief pretty easily. In the storekeeper’s defense he says the man fled when he turned around to give him some free milk.
Point 4: The storekeeper changed the name of the would-be thief to a combination of the names of some Pakistani politicians Nawaz Sharif Zardari, what sense does that make? Name-changing is not obligatory in conversion unless one has a name with an improper meaning and often leads to unnecessary conflict with the convert’s family. I have posted about the pressure from other, often well-intentioned Muslims to change my own name after my conversion and the difficulty in trying to reassert my name, the name my parents so lovingly chose for me, which also has a beautiful meaning. Maintaining good ties with family is an important principle in Islam, much more important than a name change.
Some general advice, if you find a person interested in Islam, ready to take his or her shahadah and accept Islam, make them feel comfortable, be gentle, help them learn the pillars of the faith, which are not change your name as soon as possible to something “Muslim sounding”, a full wardrobe change, or halal meat. Teach them about Allah, teach them who their Lord is, and about the last Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and don’t neglect the other Prophets as well.
Tell them to be good to relatives, particularly their parents, to be patient, particularly when people try to harm them, to learn about the religion, to practice what they have learned, to read good books, to be in the company of good people, and to ask questions and not accept everything they hear.
And you, yourself, take the initiative, don’t leave them to wander and navigate alone on the confusing paths that our ummah has divided into but help them connect to Allah and be patient if they stumble, don’t expect perfection right away, Islam must learned and applied gradually or it might overwhelm the individual.
From the Storehouse:
Growing up, I was a serious news junkie and always felt a sympathy for the Palestinians as an underdog and just out of an innate sense of justice. After the collapse of President Clinton’s last ditch peace initiative, the Ariel Sharon years, President George W. Bush’s ineffectual policy of the last eight years, and incessant coverage and outrage from the Muslim community on the issue to the exclusion of other issues, I had become disillusioned with the Israel/Palestine issue.
So it was with some Gaza-fatigue trepidation that I ventured out to watch a short film shot by Rep. Ellison and his colleague Rep. Brian Baird on their last trip in February to Gaza at the Capitol building in Washington DC. There are links to the film on Ellison’s website and some extended interviews.
Rep. Keith Ellison began his opening remarks with a couple of St. Patrick’s Day remarks and references and then quickly moved to the topic of Gaza by saying three times, “Open up the Crossings!” Ellison also remarked that having the crossings closed and the ensuing humanitarian crisis was not the will of the American people and that it undermined both American and Israel’s own security. He also emphatically stated that settlement expansion must halt immediately. He mentioned that while he and Rep. Baird were processed through the Erez Crossing very quickly he noticed German relief workers waiting at the crossing in the morning and when the Congressmen returned in the afternoon, the relief workers were still waiting to get through the crossing.
Ellison mentioned that while the Palestinians are not starving, severe restrictions have been placed to limit which goods are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip. Cooking oil and rice are allowed while macaroni and lentils are on the banned list. He asked a senior Israeli official about the restrictions and the official said he did not know specifically about the macaroni and lentils restriction but that he would look into it and that the policy of the Israeli government was to put the Palestinians in Gaza “on a diet”.
Vehicle fuel is also excluded so that both Reps. saw a lot of animal-pulled carts on the streets. Ellison and Baird also visited Sderot, an Israeli settlement, which is less than mile from Gaza, and bears the brunt of rocket fire from Gaza. Ellison mentioned that we should not “pooh pooh or try to minimize the terrifying existence” and fear of rocket fire that is experienced by the people of Sderot nor of Gaza. And that the fighting and rocket fire is having a huge psychological impact on the children on both sides of the conflict.
The Q&A portion yielded some interesting comments:
Ellison emphasized that while there are well-funded constituencies to stand up for rights of either the Israelis or for the Palestinians that there is a great need for a middle way, a constituency to stand up for a “just peace” so that the politicians in Congress feel they are able to advocate their conscience more freely and to help reduce the influence of powerful interest groups.
Ellison, then prefaced his next comments by saying, “Please don’t shout me down” and mentioned that he had never been shouted down by Christians nor by Jews but only by his own Muslim brethren. read more…
Every time I see an eviction, I cry.
There is something about seeing a family’s belongings on the street that always gives me pause, humbles me, and causes me to reflect upon the blessings in my life.
Say a prayer, for this family and for others like them. I saw the family with a tiny U-Haul truck gathering what they could of their possessions that had been quite unceremoniously dumped at the curb. These are the items they left behind.
May Allah (subhanahu wa ta ala) have mercy upon Aasiya Zubair Hassan. Ameen.
Kari Ansari: Restraining order against ignorance
The terrorist smears and attempts to discredit reputable Muslim leaders and organizations never ends, it seems that the more distinguished and reputable an organization or Muslim becomes the requisite attacks on their character and dubious links to terrorism soon follow so that questions can be raised to further misinform the public and voices silenced.
Ingrid Mattson, the President of the Islamic Society of North America is scheduled to speak at President-elect Obama’s inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington DC on Wednesday.
The last time, I tried to visit the Cathedral it was a few minutes before closing time but I might try to attend this function to hear from Dr. Mattson.
IHT: Obama prayer leader from group US linked to Hamas
From the Apple Orchard:
Dr. Ingrid Mattson – Deleted Scenes
Actual Muslim Leaders in the News
ISNA Heading in the Right Direction
Houston Chronicle: North American Muslims elect first female president
When: This Friday, January 9, 2009
Time: 6pm
Location: Busboys and Poets at 14th & V in Washington DC.
Don’t miss it. Review to follow in sha Allah.
UPDATE: No review from me, due to obligations at work, I was not able to attend the show.
Read more about it from the words of the creators:
Common Ground News Service: The Hijabi Monologues resonates through the power of storytelling
Muslimah Media Watch: The Hijabi Monologues
In November, I went to exhibit by the photographer Norman Gershman, which told the little known story of Albanian Muslims that had aided and sheltered Albanian Jews and Jews from neighboring European countries during the Second World War. Albanians from top government and religious leaders down to the ordinary citizen felt a double responsibility to protect the Jews from Nazi aggression through their belief in Islam combined with their social code called Besa.
From the introduction to the exhibit:
“Albania, a European country with a Muslim majority, succeeded where other European nations failed. Almost all Jews living within Albanian borders during the German occupation– those of Albanian origin and refugees alike– were saved. Following the German occupation in 1943, the Albanian population, in an extraordinary act, refused to comply with the occupier’s orders to tun over lists of Jews residing within the country’s borders. Moreover, various governmental agencies provided many Jewish families with fake documentation that allowed them to intermingle amongst the rest of the population. The Albanians not only protected their Jewish citizens, but also provided sanctuary to Jewish refugees who has arrived in Albania.”
“When post-World War II Europe found itself devastated by the loss of its Jewish population, Albania was the only country to boast a larger number of Jewish people than it had housed prior to the Holocaust. Over 2,000 Jews from Albania, Greece, Austria, and Italy were hidden in the homes of Albanian Muslim families throughout the war. Norman Gershman, an American photographer fascinated by these stories, traveled to Albania and Kosovo to chronicle the tales of the righteous Albanians and their devotion to Besa, an Albanian code of honor, which means ‘to keep the promise’.”
These are some of their stories: read more…
