As mentioned earlier, I went to Buffalo yesterday for the halaqah syura. At first Br. Kamran and I were planning to go in one car. Later we came to know that Br. Intikhab's jama'ah that just came back from Trinidad were also going to Buffalo in a van. So, we decided to tag along and went in their van instead.
The Halaqah Syura
Lets see if I can recall some important things from the syura, apart from my being sleepy all the time. Among the things that were discussed include the northeastern ijtima' in Pennsylvania this month, the halaqah ijtima' in July, two months masthurat, youth effort, takazar (needs/demands) from Nizammuddin markaz, and the routing for the next two months for the halaqah members (masjids). To start, we listened to the karkuzari from the 40-day jama'ah that went to Trinidad and Tobago. In essence, they were stressing on how much the brothers there are in need of support, that we have a huge takazar to fulfill. In certain areas in Trinidad, mixed (inter-faith) marriages are still prevalent between the Muslims and the other religions, especially the Hindus and the Christians. In one case, an imam was conducting a nikah for a couple, but then refused to proceed when he found out that the man and the woman were of different religions - the man was a Muslim whereas the woman was a Hindu. The confusion dragged on until some lady came up and said; "My husband is a Muslim and I am a Hindu, but we've been married for years now..so why can't these two get married?" Nauzubillah..see how critical the situation is for the Muslims over there. They are molding the religion around their own interests and desires out of ignorance. How would you have reacted to this? Another story, there was this one masjid that they went to whose imam only knows 3-4 surahs (forget about the tajweed and stuff) and that's the most qualified person they have to be the imam. It's not their fault, no one is there to teach them Islam. Also we heard cases in which the Muslims were converting into other religions through the efforts of the Hindu and Christian preachers there, whereas there's no established dakwah from the Muslims to counteract this. If this goes on nauzubillah, soon enough Islam will fade out from the life of the community. There's a lot more to the karkuzari but I'm just gonna stop here..I'm afraid it'd turn out into a research paper if I were to cover everything. For the routing, our masjid (ICR) has been assigned to Syracuse and Niagara Falls to work at for the next two months.
Malaysian Jama'ahs in Trinidad
To my surprise, the jama'ah met two Malaysian 4-month jama'ahs while they were in Trinidad and Tobago. From what I heard, the majority of the brothers in the Malaysian jama'ahs are senior workers, two of which are 84 and 75 years old even. The Malaysian jama'ahs personally requested the brothers to work on the Malaysian students here, so when they get back they would establish the work in their localities. Huhu..I wish I had been there to see them. But the opportunity is still on insyaAllah since one masthurat jama'ah from Malaysia just arrived in the US, and Br. Intikhab has volunteered to host them in his house here in Rochester. InsyaAllah if we were meant to meet, we'll definitely meet. =)
Madrassa Darul Uloom, Buffalo
In Buffalo, we stopped by a madrasah just close by to the markaz (center) masjid since Br. Intikhab needed to drop some food for his kids, Uthban and Tsauban. The unique thing about this madrasah is it used to be a prison..yup, a prison. You can tell just by looking..with tall walls surrounding the area..and those thorny, spiral strings lining the top. But of course, the students live in rooms, not cells..hehe. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I never would have believed a prison can turn into a madrasah. This is all by the mercy of Allah swt. I've always loved the peaceful and soothing atmosphere in a madrasah, that can hardly be found anywhere else. Seeing the kids reciting and memorizing quran is such a comfort in the eyes. Sometimes I do feel inferior even, thinking that they are spending their days learning the words of Allah while I'm spending my days mostly on the laptop. But still, we have to be grateful with what He has arranged for us..He has placed me here striving for a degree for a reason.
On our way to the madrasah..out of nowhere, this conversation took place;
Br. Intikhab: "What do you call the first night after nikah?"
Me: "Err..the first night of marriage you mean?"
Br. Intikhab: "Yeah." "In Urdu we call it (tak ingat!)" "You see..this is the time in your life when your heart will be really...
Me: "Pounding?" (Gulp..)
Br. Intikhab: "Yeah, pounding!" "When you see your beautiful someone before your eyes.." "Some people experience it once, some people twice..and trice. But in this effort subhanallah you'll experience it many2 times. Every time you come back from khuruj, you'll experience it."
Me: (Speechless) (O..mentang2 lah org tu baru balik 40 hari..ish2..ni kes nak menyakatlah nih)
Hm..is he encouraging me to be steadfast in this effort or is he encouraging me to get married soon? But either way I do agree..hehe
