"ummati"

I've been a little occupied lately, with dunya of course. I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to post up the bayans I listened to at the Boston Ijtima' Dec 2011. So, here are two of them, by Maulana Nooruddin. This Syeikh is great, and he is young too, and good looking, and..ok enough for now. He is a teacher (uztaz) at this one madrasah in Toronto if I'm not mistaken. And the cool thing was, all his students were wearing uniform white hoodies with the word "ummati" on the back. Man..those kids looked super cool in those self-customized hoodies, especially when they all walked together. I've got to get one of those! Spare some time and do listen to these okay! ^^,

"Meaning of Lailahaillallah"

"Heaven and Hell"

p/s: Hey, click on the play button. Yes. This will be an educational and rewarding 2 hours for you..and me. Well, you don't have to listen to them for straight 2 hours. Have some ice cream or cendol while listening to them! :D

"buddy muddy"

WARNING! This entry is awfully lengthy. Think twice before you even start. Once you have started, you MUST finish it.

Alhamdulillah..home from khuruj in one piece! We had tons and tons of fun and learning from it. Every jama'ah that we went in was never the same; each had its own unique lessons to ponder over, memories to reminisce about, trials to overcome, bitterness to swallow, awkwardness and anomalies to frown at, and keepsakes to smile about. And this one was no exception. It has become my tradition to write a full-length account on my winter-break khuruj. But the thing is, I always had trouble figuring out where to start..and when I did start, I didn't know when to stop..hoho. *See..even the pre-intro has taken up a complete paragraph there* As much as I want to immortalize every single detail of my khuruj on this humble blog of mine, I realize it is as impractical as wading through the snow barefooted. Anyway, I'll try to be as concise and compact as possible this time *cliche huh?*

(12.16.11) Buffalo Markaz Masjid, 105 Woltz Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14212

On Friday evening, Br. Intikhab and Br. Irfan dropped us off at Buffalo Markaz. We spent the week before ijtima' around Buffalo area, starting out with eight people in the jama'ah: Br. Ibrahim from Guyana (amir), Br. Kamran and Br. Anjum from Pakistan, Br. Muhammad from Uzbekistan, Br. Raqeeb from Bangladesh, and the three of us from Malaysia. Only the first three brothers were spending 40 days, while the rest were spending two weeks or less. Saturday morning, our jama'ah left to Masjid Al Huda, Lackawanna.

Masjid Al Huda, 158 Wilkesbarre St Lackawanna, NY 14218

Here, we witnessed an Arabic-speaking, former US airman taking Syahadah. We all waited in line to give him a hug after the Syahadah. Later, he told us all about his conversion story. He was a translator for the US air force. So his job required him to be in close contact with Muslims, which ultimately led him towards embracing Islam. He said his accepting Islam was inspired by a Muslim woman named Huda, who portrayed to him what a true Muslim really is, through her iman and character. He was telling the story both in English and Arabic, since most of the Yamanese brothers there don't understand English well. My jaw just dropped when I heard how fluent his Arabic was. An American speaking Arabic..impressive huh? May Allah make him a means to spread more of His guidance. We also met the community's newly appointed imam from Egypt. The new imam introduced himself to the people in the masjid. Subhanallah..his recitation of quran was beautiful. Once at bedtime, we had a conference-like muzakarah, and we were doing muzakarah on marriage..hoho. Ok, that's always a topic of interest. We also had a proper ta'aruf session before to make sure that all of us know each other well. These people in my jama'ah..they were just hilarious..especially our amir. He is just an expert at cracking jokes.

Masjid At Taqwa, 1754 Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY

We met Ramli, Azizi and some other Malaysians from University at Buffalo (UB). We didn't get to tasykil any Malaysians though since many of them were attending some other programs. It was sort of a clash. But alhamdulillah, some of them who came to the masjid did sit in our programs. On Thursday afternoon, our jama'ah left for Ijtima', while Muhammad, Raqeeb, and Br. Kamran stayed behind. Muhammad and Rafiq could not proceed with us since they got work to do. As for Br. Kamran, he left a day later and took some students with him who later joined our jama'ah at the ijtima'.

Masjid Zakariyya, 182 Sobieski Street, Buffalo, NY 14212

We picked up Br. Mas'ood, an elder, on the way. We met Br. Sajjat, a Malay-speaking Pakistani there too. He was in Malaysia for about 30 years, and was living in Sabah. He speaks excellent Malay, although it is in Sabahan accent. His first wife was Sabahan if I'm not mistaken..and I don't recall who his second wife is..it must be Pakistani though. On the way, we stopped by Rochester at Isyak time to pick up two students, Junaid and Hader, for the ijtima'. We thought that we would cook some Malaysian cooking later on, so we took some spices from our house. Too bad we never got to use it. -_-")

(12.23.11-12.25.11) Boston Ijtima' at Worcester Islamic Center,
248 E Mountain St Worcester, MA 01606

At the ijtima', we met Jahir Rafiq and Ishaq Ma Ming, exchange students from UK & China respectively. They were sleeping next to us in the masjid. I had a lot of fun chats with them over the ijtima', and I got to show off some of my Chinese too..hoho. Actually, that was all I got. ^^" I first saw Ishaq on the very next morning of our arrival. He was serving breakfast with the other khidmat brothers. Among those hundreds of typical faces, his really caught my eye. Seriously, that was the first time I spoke to a Chinese Muslim. Even back home, I never met a Chinese Muslim..and besides, Ishaq is from the mainland. He lives in Beijing. His grandfather travels to Malaysia every now and then for business. As for Jahir, he is originally from Bangladesh. Both of them are staying in the US for six months. Also, we met Abg Halim, a Malay post-doc student studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He's in early 30's (I think) and is newly married. He is by himself for now, but his family is coming over soon. I didn't get to dig much about him..but I bet my other two friends must know more about this guy. We did exchange contacts though. Then, we met Abdul Rafeeq, a Malay-speaking Burmese. About this brother..we happened to meet him at mealtime. He was speaking fluent Malay and I was much impressed with that. He was expressing his delight for meeting us there. He lived in Malaysia for about ten years before coming here..and is currently staying with some relatives in Utica, NY. He's planning to live permanently in the US, and has already applied for his green card. Br. Amin Shah was there too, a Penang-born who can't really speak Malay no more. I first met him at Masjid Noor (Boston Markaz) last year when we were spending time from the same ijtma'. I don't know..somehow..I'm quite upset about his forgetting Malay. I strongly think he should get his mother-tongue back, don't you think? We listened to series of great bayans by great ulama' over the three days, which opened our minds towards understanding this effort. Guess what..we saw a Nik Aziz look-a-like at the ijtima'..haha. I even shook hands with him. Upon leaving from ijtima', we recruited new members in the jama'ah: Hafiz Anas, Asyraf, Uzair, Abdullah (Somali), Br. Kamal, Br. Munawar. Well, we lost two members but got seven back. Br. Munawar was with us only for three days, until we got to his home in Utica, NY. He is..subhanallah..a very elderly elder in this dakwah effort. He's 85 years old now and yet is still steadfast in dakwah. May Allah bless him and accept his years of sacrifice for this Deen.

Islamic Center of New England, 470 South Street, Quincy, MA 02169-8722

Here, we prepared a three-day student jama'ah made up of Iraqi and Afghani youths. These students made intention to spend three days in khuruj. We left them to the local brothers, since our jama'ah was already too big to accommodate them. We already had like 13 people at this point. This community here is blessed with a very good imam, who is very sincere and truthful in his speech. Allah swt allowed us to benefit from his knowledge and wisdom during our stay. Later, we visited a Thai community for Jaulah. It was great..I got to meet some brothers from our neighbor, Thailand. Though I don't know how many Thai families were there exactly, I think they have a pretty much established community to hold on to.

The Muslim Comm. Assoc. of Mohawk Valley,
1631 Kemble Street, Utica, NY 13501

This was where we listened to a multilingual khutbah for the first time. The khutbah was given in Bosnian, English, and Burmese by three different persons. And then there was a fourth person for leading the solat. Near downtown, we discovered the Bosnian Islamic Association of Utica. This is a huge, gigantic masjid belonging to the Bosnian community in Utica. But unfortunately, it's function as a masjid has been overshadowed by cultural practices rather than religious practices. I was thinking, if this building was made into a center of dakwah, thousands would benefit from it. May Allah turn it into a markaz one day..ameen. Br. Kamran, Br. Anjum, and myself once went to pray Fajr at the masjid, and we met the imam, while the rest of our jama'ah had gone there earlier for Jumu'ah prayer. The imam was a little different from the entire community; he had some concern for dakwah effort. But he by himself is too much outnumbered by the entire community. We took the address..insyaAllah, more jama'ahs will be sent here from time to time to work on this masjid. We visited a Burmese Musolla some walking distance away. Amir sab, Br. Anjum, and myself went here for jaulah one day. This musolla was opened about two years ago. It was basically a two-floor apartment, where the first floor is allocated for the musolla. This was where I met again with Br. Rafeeq. I can't really explain it..but it feels really good to know a foreign person who speaks your language. There is this inexplicable closeness between you and him. Ok..forget it if you don't get it. -_-") Now..we had a hafiz of Quran in our jama'ah. Guess who? It's Anas. Anas and Asyraf..these two are close buddies. Anas finished his madrasah not long ago, and now he goes to the same regular high school as Asyraf does. Anas was telling us about his anxiety that he may be forgetting his memorization for not being in the right environment now. Hmm..somehow I think he should continue on with his 'alim course. Amir sab was always trying to separate these two from each other..because when there were together, they would go..untraceable. Whenever we were collecting people for an 'amal, they would always disappear into thin air. Hmm..after all, they are still youngsters. Wait, I was talking about Anas. Ok..he once led the Isyak solat there, and subhnallah..I think he got good qiraat and a beautiful voice. In fact, when we went back to ICR upon finishing the khuruj, Br. Rauf Bawani interviewed him to see if he can lead Tarawih at ICR for Ramadhan this year. Just one thing..this kid speaks really fast..like a rocket. Only pure American ears could fairly keep up with him..huhu. I think many huffaz tend to speak fast?

Bosnian Islamic Assoc. of Utica, 306 Court Street, Utica, NY 13502-4203

Syracuse Masjid, 925 Comstock Avenue Syracuse, NY 13210

This masjid is..I would say..our playground..haha. We've been coming here (Mael, Wae, and me) like so many many times. So, I won't elaborate much on it. We stopped by another Burmese Musolla before we actually went to this masjid for our stay. Amir sab decided half of us to do jaulah at the Burmese musolla, while the rest would do it at the masjid. Our jama'ah then rejoined after Isyak. This other Burmese musolla was located in the attic of an apartment. I could tell they really put a lot of effort into establishing this musolla, despite being poor. And from this musolla they are establishing all the five 'amal of Masjidil Nabawi. Well, these Burmese people may be poor in material wealth, but they are very rich in love and ikram. Me may not understand what they have gone through, living as refugees in a land foreign to them. May Allah elevate them in their status..ameen.

Now, it's time we parted. On Sunday morning (01.01.12), all the kids (Asyraf, Anas, Abdullah, Uzair) and the three of us Malays left for Rochester, while the other five brothers continued on with their khuruj. The night before, we had a long mesyuarah on whether they should let these kids (including us three) drive home by ourselves, for the fear that something "funny" might happen on the way when kids are by themselves without adult supervision (am I not an adult?). As decided, Asyraf was driving Br. Anjum's truck, Wae was made amir for the journey aka co-driver. Me? I was sitting comfortably in the back, enjoying the view along the way. It was an all-youngsters trip home. We reached Islamic Center of Rochester (ICR) at noon, where we dropped off the kids, and then went home, where we dropped off the truck. Uzair's dad came shortly before we left from the masjid to take those kids to Buffalo.

Islamic Center of Rochester (ICR), 727 West Fall Road,

Rochester, NY 14620

In our jama'ah, Br. Anjum was the comedian..aka my "buddy muddy". Don't ask me where the term came from. He was always making fun of our small beards though (unlike us Malaysians, Pakistanis have big full beards). One time after Wae finished his Fajr bayan, he said "Ridzuan, when you were doing bayan, I was counting the hair in your beard..you have 125 hairs altogether." And we were like..*pffft* I was looking at my beard in the mirror..he was passing by. Seeing me he said "What are you looking at man? There's hardly anything there." Again, I was like *pffft* It's OK, I did get my revenge on him sometimes..hoho. Honestly speaking..I think he could use some "speech filter" as his remarks could be irritating sometimes. But anyway, everybody liked him the way he is. In fact, it would've been boring without him around. In this jama'ah we always "forgive and forget"..that's what amir sab always reminded us about. The most important thing to keep in a jama'ah is unity. You can spend time with all ulama' you want, but if you can't keep the unity in the jama'ah, you won't benefit anything from it. Everybody has their own faults and shortcomings..and some are apparent than the others. A successful jama'ah is always the one that goes and comes back united. Think..if we can't keep the unity between 10-12 people, how are we going to bring unity in the entire ummah? Wallahua'lam. THE END. =)

p/s: I'd love to include more pictures, but I didn't really get to take any. Well, this was no regular outing where you get to take pictures all the time. I did have most of the bayans recorded though..and insyaAllah I'll post them up in the next entry for us all to benefit from. Jazakallah khair.

my love at first sight

Alhamdulillah. Things are getting more reasonable over here..with only one exam and one lab report left, I can finally catch a deep breath. As promised, I'm going to write a special post on the Northeastern States Ijtima' I attended in Reading Pennsylvania from 17th to 19th of June, 2011. You see..when I write, I always tend to write too much. I don't know if I can keep it short this time, but I'll try to keep it sweet. Bear with me OK. =)  

Specifically speaking, the ijtima' was held at Greater Reading Expo Center, 12th Street Reading, PA. It is a HUGE indoor facility that can fit thousands of people at one time. I was surprised myself to see how gigantic this place was - for such a scale of gathering, I thought it was gonna be in an open field or something, like we have back home. The halaqahs that participated in the event include Buffalo, Boston, Connecticut, Manhattan & Bronx, Li, Queens, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Springfield, and Raleigh. Our city Rochester falls under the Buffalo halaqah. Five groups came from Rochester, excluding the Burmies who had their own arrangements. I was in the first group that left after Fajr on Friday. The other groups joined us later in the ijtima'. The journey there from Islamic Center of Rochester (ICR) took about 5-6 hours of driving.

The purpose of attending an ijtima' is (correct me if I'm wrong) to listen to the bayans and to send out jama'ahs. Alhamdulillah from this blessed gathering, about 30 jama'ahs were sent out all around the place, including the Malaysian masturat jama'ah that was sent to Rochester. For the convenience of the event, the attendees were requested to sit in their respective halaqahs. There were signs pasted at different spots, designating the different halaqahs. Apart from the typical bayans that we listened to throughout the ijtima', there were also:

a gathering for the ulama'

a gathering for old workers

(brothers who have spent 4 months, or regular 40 days) 

a gathering for the youth 

an Arabic ta'alimi halaqah

I met all those I'd wanted to meet here in this ijtima', among whom were Syeikh Hassan of the last Boston Ijtima', Syeikh Abdul Badi' and Br. Fuwad of Boston, Br. Amin Shah of Penang, and the Malaysian masturat jama'ah that came to Rochester recently. I even had lunch once with the Malaysian jama'ah in the foreign jama'ahs room. Speaking of foreign jama'ahs, there were also jama'ahs from England and Pakistan that were stopping by at the ijtima'. On top of that, I talked to a lot of great brothers throughout the two days. I met two Moroccan brothers who really look up to us from Malaysia, and this American revert who just came back from spending 4 months. There were times when I would just stand in the midst of the crowd and started looking around from one far end to the other, just to see if I cold find familiar faces among those thousands of people. All kinds of people were there, and from their expressions I could tell they all were as happy as I was. I remember one brother was saying. "This is the kind of gathering where you meet the best of people.." I couldn't agree more.

My moments in the ijtima' got into full swing on the last day when our halaqah, Buffalo, was put on khidmat (serving) along with the other halaqahs that had not done it. We were divided into several groups, each of which was put in charge of one serving lane. And for each group there was an 'amir. Lets see, if I can remember it right I think I was in group 15. Though it was my first time serving at a huge ijtima' like this, I had so much fun with it. We were even kinda competing with each other to give the best serving. Then, I saw Maulana Abdul Muqeet. He was on khidmat too since he is from Buffalo. I was thinking..he has the status of an 'alim, yet he is serving the other brothers. And most of the people there don't even know him. Apart from the ulama' in this world who live in comfort, he is among those who strive in the path of sacrifice..like most of the ulama' in this effort do. I remember someone was saying..in this effort, we all have our own sacrifice to give..and for the ulama', they have to give their honor by meeting the people, instead of waiting for the people to come to them. Likewise, the speakers who gave the bayans, people don't even know their names - no titles, no achievements, and no recognitions are announced prior to a speech. They speak and they go, just like that. Here, you may be sitting next to a doctor, a lawyer, a millionaire, or a minister even..without you realizing it. They all sit shoulder to shoulder, eat the same food, use the same washrooms, and sleep in the same place. As Br. Kamran was saying, "If you can't find ikhlas in this effort, then you won't find it anywhere else."

"my love at first sight"
courtesy of tvtube777 (more videos on YouTube)

At the end of the day, all who attended this gathering went back to their cities with their own unique experiences to keep. As for myself, no worldly words can describe what I felt inside every second I was there. As Br. Kamran was saying, "you can hear all kind of stories about an ijtima', but it is never the same as your own first-hand experience." I was happy to see a lot of youngsters in the program. May Allah open this effort to those who came for the first time, the way He opened it to me not long ago. I fell in love with the 'simplicity' of this effort, and it's closeness to the effort of Prophet Muhammad saw. Lastly..I'd like to leave you with this saying from Br. Nasiruddin to ponder over; "This (effort) is not an organization, with a president and board of directors..no registrations, no membership fees, no fund raising..this is just an 'amal." Wallahua'lam. May Allah keep us all in His blessing..always.

*halaqah - a designation for an area that is manageable to a markaz (center) masjid

p/s: Hurm..It seems I've been falling in love a lot lately..=)