Asalamu alaykum,

Looking back on my own conversion, there were a number of difficulties I faced. Here are three:

1. Telling my family
2. An ethnic war in my local masjid (MQM-PEOPLES PARTY-ARAB IMAM THAT GOT KICKED TO THE CURB) = Two Jam’a in the same masjid for each prayer.
3. Confusing culture with religion and maintaining my identity
4. Confronted with issues of race when trying to get married

Your turn
Suhaib

Often Overlooked Quranic Evidences Which Support A Comprehensive Methodology of Islamic Work.

The call to enjoin the good and forbid the evil, and to bring benefit to the society, comes to us in comprehensive fashion. Allah (swt) orders the Prophet:

“Say: ‘Oh Mankind/Oh People! I am the Messenger of God to you all’” (7:158)

The simple phrase “ilaykum jamee’a”, which indicates “all of you, together”, shows the collective and comprehensive nature of the Prophethood. His message was for every single segment of humanity - every corner, every nation, and every tribe. Practically, we should take this to mean that no segment of society around us should remain untouched by the call. No person uneducated, no one unaffected.

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This year has been one that I’m certain I’ll always vividly remember, ironically because of things I’m trying desperately to forget. I’ve anxiously anticipated the year 2007 since I was in elementary school; it was to be the year that I turned eighteen, the year that I graduated highschool, the year that I moved out, and the year that I started college. Thankfully, I’ve accomplished all of the above, but neither one in the fashion that I first imagined amid the sandbox in the playground behind my grade school classroom. Now it’s 12:30 am, January 1, 2008; that year withered away faster than that sand did from my fingers.

My brother once told me that the New Year is a time to reflect upon the successes and failures of the departing year, so I am. One thing I recall was constantly assuring myself and those around me was that I was always busy, in fact I felt so overwhelmed that I took a cue from him and started to make to-do lists in an attempt to tailor my time wisely. Nevertheless I still endured nights of sleeplessness and bouts of anxiety over my ‘priorities’. I was too busy many times to pray, too busy to review the Quran I learned as a child, too busy help out the mosque when they asked, too busy to call my parents, too busy to care. What was it that made me so busy?

I realize now that as my lists were vanquished by ambitious checkmark after checkmark that I haven’t really accomplished all that much. In retrospect, what I did accomplish was… rather vain.

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