Sami' na wa ata' na
So last Friday, those who were going sat in mesyuwarah after Maghrib. Br. Kamran was taking over as a temporary 'amir since our current 'amir, Br. Intikhab was out in masthurat jama'ah for the weekend. It turned out that Br. Tanwir was the only elder brother who was going with the jama'ah, while the rest were all youngsters. As for Br. Kamran, he already did his three days last week. Now the thing I feared the most happened; I was made the 'amir for the going jama'ah. When Br. Kamran was making up his mind, I was praying in my heart so he wouldn't choose me (I believe the others were doing the same too), but Allah wanted the otherwise. The moment he tapped my lap, I felt like a giant rock had just crash-landed on my head. Seconds later, loads of worry and anxiety came surging into my veins, accompanying my newly acquired responsibility. No one among us wants to be made 'amir really, but once decided in mesyuwarah you'll have to do your best to live up to the trust. For any responsibility you take, you'll be held accountable for it on the day of judgement. But nowadays the situation is reversed, people are competing to gain responsibilities. If only they knew...
The Burmese
Four Burmese, three Malaysians, one Indian, and one Pakistani American made up our jama'ah at this point. Among the Burmese, only Akbar and Zakaria speak English while the other two, Hassan and Saleem don't. Unlike Akbar and Zakaria who have been here for four years, the later two just arrived from Burma a few weeks ago. The military dictatorship in Burma is forcing more and more people to migrate out as refugees. As a result, these people have no choice but to live apart from their beloved homeland.
Our jama'ah left with a poor preparation and somewhat in a hurry. As told by Br. Kamran, we needed to get there by Isya' prayer or else the masjid would be closed for the night. We left in two cars. The Malaysians, Akbar, and Hassan filled up one car while Br. Tanwir, Farouq, Zakaria, and Salim were in the other. I sat through the journey feeling all worked up about what's gonna happen over there. The fact that this masjid we're going has somewhat restrictive rules to coming jama'ahs made me even more restless. I was thinking I might end up getting the jama'ah into a mess. But then I reminded myself that sooner or later, if Allah keeps me in this effort, I will have to shoulder this responsibility of being an 'amir anyway. So I tried my best to be pleased with what He had decided for me, reassuring myself that there must be a blessing behind this. There was this kitchen issue during the stay of some other jama'ah that has made the kitchen not accessible to any jama'ahs now. Jama'ahs can stay but they cannot use the kitchen. Since cooking was out of the question, we had to bring our own home-cooked food, hoping that it would suffice for the entire khuruj. Br. Kamran suggested us to bring a microwave so we could heat up the food, but we forgot to put it in the car before leaving. -_-")
Imam & Son
We made it in time. There was a class going on by the Imam upon our arrival. After the lecture, I talked to the Imam (in the best way possible), consulting him on the dos and don's of the masjid along with introducing our jama'ah. The Imam's name was Yassir, and he's from Egypt. He was very receptive and welcoming. And guess what, he even left the kitchen opened for our use. More surprising, he let his son, Ammar stay with our jama'ah for the khuruj. Most of the time there were a lot of kids playing around in the masjid especially when events were taking place. They have Saturday and Sunday schools (comparable to "sekolah agama" back home) every week in this masjid. So if the schools are on, we are advised to do our 'amal in a separate room so we don't interfere with the school activities and stuff. But last weekend the classes were canceled and we got to do our programs without a hitch. Yet another favor from Him, I came to know that the president who set the no-kitchen rule was not around..I was pretty much relieved I didn't have to face him. Alhamdulillah, from this point on everything was made easy for us.
More Burmese
We started out with nine people in our jama'ah from Rochester but then ended up with fifteen. Ammar made the tenth, and four more local Burmese joined us the next morning. This was quite a big number to handle, especially when not all of 'em speak English.
Newborn Sumaiyyah
During jaulah time after 'Asr, Hafiz Ali invited us over to his place for some food, in celebrating the birth of his new baby girl. He named her Sumaiyyah, after the name of the first sahabiah who was martyred in Islam. After he did azan and iqamah on the baby, he requested me to do tahniq on her. Now Mael held Sumaiyyah in his arms while I put honey in her mouth. She looked so little and delicate. Had I been the one who held her I would've squeezed her flat..hehe. From Mael's face, I could read what's on his mind at that time: "I wish this were my daughter." ;D
I left Syracuse feeling bad that I could not spend more time with the local Burmese and that I did not fulfill the rights of this effort. This was pretty much an all-play jama'ah I brought. However we didn't come back empty handed. We did learn something throughout the khuruj and had new relationships established as well. May Allah accept our khuruj and choose us again to come out in His path next time..ameen.
P/S: When you wanna go out on khuruj, syaitan will make it seem very hard to your mind. He will try his best to put all kinds of feelings in your heart so you would feel reluctant to leave your home. But once you've made it out, things will become a lot easier than they were. Over time I've realized that no matter how reluctant I was to go out on khuruj, I always came back with a smile of satisfaction and contentment. =)
