Not Without My Children (275)

cultural problems my endeavor has been to find my place in the Muslim community to bring my children and my family with me so I told them a good title would be for that not without my children reminded me somehow is the same when brother Hanna asked me to give my state of the convert address he can ask me to give one of these just about every year I told him have it I'm tired of giving speeches I don't want to give any more speeches just let me crawl into my corner let me just be a regular everyday molester mom I'm through giving speeches he said well you know people are interested in what you have to say etc etc I said why I mean I am compared to all the rest of the Muslims in our community I am definitely a square peg I mean my point of view has to be the probably the most peculiar most singular point of view of every any Muslim in a community just to explain to you why I say that almost everybody reacts that way anyway once I was interviewing for a job in Saudi Arabia I just wanted to go there for a year take a year's leave leave the University of Kansas teach in Barron and you p.m. for a year and I was discussing this with the Dean of upm University of petroleum and minerals found in not too far from here down in Texas Houston Texas and I walked in I showed him my resume you have to put down your family background your wife's background etc and said how many children you have your religion etc your education looking at my application and I'm sitting there in front of them he's looking at it again he starts looking at it kind of funny he looks at me and looks at that now I'm looking at him wondering what's going on here he said what's the matter and I said I should be asking you to him very surprised he said well what do you think how many times do you think I interview people like you he said blond-haired blue-eyed American professor a Muslim married to a lady from Saudi Arabia he said I don't think there's another person that fits that description anywhere in the world and that sort of presents my dilemma I mean my circumstances are so vastly different in my perspective than from almost any member of our community that I feel that you know the problems that I face the issues that concern me the dilemmas that I try to tackle my personal struggle is so very different from most of the other Muslims that what difference does it make whether you know we know of that or not because it really doesn't fit into the general pattern but nonetheless brother Hamid told me that it would not be a bad idea and hopefully in the effort to serve our community and to serve God here I stand today hopefully I keep telling him it for the last time I just want to go back and write I don't like talking so much especially since I ramble so much I'm a rambling sort of speaker well so let me begin I guess if I had to characterize my childhood I'll try to sum this up fairly quickly in two words I was only allowed two words to recall my childhood the two words I would use would be number one fear and number two violence because when I think back on those days when I was growing up those were the most powerful feelings that I was experiencing I one thing those were just turbulent times in America the late 60s and early 70s we had race riots we had a president killed we had presidential candidates killed we had presidential president kicked from office a vice president kicked from office Martin Luther King got assassinated this country seemed like it was going bananas we had underground terrorist groups I can't remember their names now but the one that captured Patty Hearst the SLA I think it was called or something like that Symbian Symbian Symbionese Liberation Army we had the Black Panthers I remember that I remember we had the Weathermen they were planning bombs they were capturing buildings people are being killed and city streets like mine we had burnings and lootings and race riots and gang fights and him I gained the gang I was associated what's called the TC gang stands for a telephone company we used to fight for used to hang around down by the telephone company and we would fight other gangs and people would get hurt couple of people got killed some got in prison but they were just extremely violent times and of course we always had the specter of the Vietnam War before us every night on television the endless body kind counts night after night hundreds on each side getting killed body bags taking our young men home and I was getting ever closer to that age when I would have to be drafted into the Vietnam conflict so I mean life was just extremely violent and there was extremely chaotic time in America but the worst violence and the worst fear I knew by far and I won't go into detail was the violence and the fear I knew at home in some ways that violence in that fear was so much worse because it penetrated so much more deeply and has left scars that seems so much more permanent than the type of violence and fear that we were facing in our society in any case I guess I obtained a very jaded and pessimistic and cynical view of life I thought life was nothing but suffering and torment and struggle I came to hate so many things I came to even hate the virtues when people talked about love compassion mercy forgiveness and all the rest of the virtues generosity I thought those are just the fictitious fabrications of our minds something that we just invent to give ourselves some legitimacy when actually all human beings are after is money power greed selfishness lust material benefits Ross struggling to survive and we're all beating each other to the whatever we're searching for whatever we're after and I thought all those things love compassion they just don't really exist we just make them up in our mind got to the stage when I couldn't even say love oh I would say it does a girlfriend or two over the years or you know to someone else if I felt a relative if I felt I had to but I certainly didn't feel it I just felt that it was the thing to do at that time the expected thing I came not to trust anyone and not to care about anyone I just wanted to get through this life and get it over with and if it got too difficult along the way I thought I'd pull the plug I didn't trust anybody except well there was one exception and of course that was my my mother because of all the people I ever knew that was the only person that I knew that I could count on that would stick by me through thick or thin that was always there my mother was a very special woman she was a strong woman she was a loving woman she was a gentle on it and she was a religious woman I didn't believe in her religion I came to became an atheist but I felt a little bit envious of her because I felt she was one of those few deluded people that had actually believed in these religions that we fabricated believed in it so strongly that it actually affected the type of person she was and how it is she related to other people and I wish I used to wish that I could brainwash myself into accepting those teachings but I couldn't I saw too much violence in the world around me I saw too much suffering in my life and so many other lies and I thought how can our merciful all loving all-powerful God who had the ability to pop us into heaven who had the ability to create angels but yet who created us how can he create such a flawed creature such a corrupted creature and then put him in an environment where he could wreak such destruction and suffering like he does here on earth why didn't he just pop us into heaven in the first place they used to tell me he wants to save you he wants to save you just do this he will save you I used to say it well let him save me now for God's sakes Here I am I didn't put myself in this predicament why am I here so I became a very strong and committed atheist but nonetheless my the religiosity of my mother I think did affect me and I was always impressed by religious people the few I really met in my life the few I ever really felt were religious but I was always also quite interested in the religions of others I don't know it's a fascination and when I think about why I was always fascinated about that I think it goes back to just and whenever I'd study another religion I'd always think of my mother in mine and how this it's universal teachings were reflected in the way she lived I looked at Eastern religions Buddhism into his Taoism Confucianism Harry Krishna's I thought about for a while but it seemed too weird strange for me but I looked at them and the one and one thing I did was also converse quite a bit studied those religions in converts by quite a bit with people from those religions that I found that when I conversed with various Muslims students are not Muslim students students from all over the world and met students from various backgrounds I felt that the students from the Far Eastern religions the ones I just mentioned although they didn't have many answers and are bought on although they often confess that they didn't couldn't deal much with the type of questions I had the ambiguity the uncertainty of their responses their own self doubts made me at least appreciate and respect their point of view sometimes not having an answer is better than giving a foolish answer and so rather than try to answer my questions they would simply express their point of view what they believe without trying to really approach the type of questions that I had you know I sort of appreciated and respected it it didn't compel me to believe in their systems be they didn't answer my needs and my questions but nonetheless I developed a healthy respect for them and appreciated their systems of thought the one exception of course were the Muslims unlike all those people I've just mentioned the Muslims seem to have many many answers anytime you ask them a question they always seem to shoot out and answer and although they had many many answers I could never relate to them I found that of all the people that I discussed religion would they by far at least from my Western standpoint made the least sense nothing they do make the least sense but from somebody from my type of background and my upbringing in my past it's extremely difficult to relate to oftentimes I found their answer is strange and absurd I found that we would get into roadblocks time and time again get caught into corners that we couldn't get up after so many conversations with Muslims that was the only religion I never explored beyond the level of conversation because it just seemed to me to be so filled with so many contradictions through the so many problems that I just couldn't take it seriously so I pretty much ignored huh I graduated that my PhD went to California to teach at the University of San Francisco fell in with some very nice Muslim friends and to tell you the truth the one thing I have to say for Muslims and I'm at it I didn't say what I just said to put down I'm not saying they don't make sense they just didn't make sense to me the one thing I really appreciated about of us their kindness of all the people in the world I really found that the Muslims were at least the ones I met truly kind generous hospitable people there was something about them that attracted to me did that some sense I think it was almost like their innocence their naivety you know other people when I spoke to them seem to understand the questions I was asking and the difficulties involved the Muslims didn't there was sort of a naive almost childlike quality about them on this side like they were unaware of any difficulties with life they just lived it and went along and got by and enjoyed it then a very positive attitude towards life though this brooding pessimism that we have so much in the West it was attractive to me I found it quite quite attractive quite interest and I enjoyed their company I tried to avoid asking too many questions I didn't want it to ruin our friendships but finally with one Muslim family one night we got into a real deep discussion and I told him about my problems with life told him the problems with human suffering told him about my problems with the idea of God they asked me why I was an atheist so I explained it we'd get into some discussions they would go no we're good on this Ally and get trapped go down this one and get it right into another trap finally the next day one of them brought me a copy of the Quran to my office at the University of San Francisco put it on my desk and looked at it and then I got this I was told this you know I can't ask answer your question personally I have never even thought about it's a matter of fact I don't think any of us ever really thought about but I do know this if there is at all an answer somewhere to the type of questions you have I know and you could have any chance at all of finding it I know you will find it here and I said look tonight I just sort of shift my head and he told me please please read it I said okay okay I'll look at it no no make sure you read it because if I know one thing us you're suffering and you're confused and your torment if you had any hope at all I think you haven't here and I didn't know whether it'd be grateful or to be angry I didn't know whether to be moved or to punch first I don't know if I was insulted or somebody was reaching out to me but in any case I thought to myself if the time comes I'll look at it someday I don't know what spurred me on but a few weeks later I did look at the Quran so I was picking it up I was thought what a strange idea to hand somebody a copy of your scripture and say this is the way you're gonna learn about my religion I mean think about it I mean would a Hindu or a Buddhist hand you a copy of one of their scriptures just give you the scripture and say here this will answer all your questions I I doubt it because when you think about the scriptures of other cultures they're so culturally fixed they so much reflect the culture from which they came the language the logic which might not be Aristotle's logic which we sort of inherited in the West the logic the terminology the language the experience behind it is so foreign to you if you come from the West that the worst thing you could do is hand somebody a scripture from that culture I mean could you imagine if you pulled somebody from China this is a true story somebody from China was given a copy of the New Testament the Christians had read this please and you'll understand the truth but I did go ahead and read it I read about a 50 60 pages into it then one night at a dinner in at the University when the different foreign students were together all these Chinese students were laughing over at another table what were they laughing about the scripture the New Testament they destroyed the felt was laughable because they couldn't relate to it it was so strange to them a whole different perspective but what a strange idea to end somebody a copy of look for I expect him from the West to relate to this document I thought from the Middle East 1,400 years ago and yet when I picked up the crime I felt like somebody had written this for me to me you know every generation of Muslims has felt that the Quran was particularly suited to the mentality of its time and if you read the main scholars they could always tell you how this Quran is particularly suited to the situation and the mentality of the people of their time we will find that Western converts to Islam are no different how many of us read the Quran didn't have any trouble relating to it all thought that it was particularly suited to our mentality you know when you read the Quran for the first time it's a strange experience it's like a it's not like you're just reading it's like you're communicating with the Divine Word it's like you're having a veritable dialogue with the Quran it seems to anticipate your moods your situation your anxieties your fears your problem and start addressing those right away and then you start reacting to the verses and then the next verses seem to pick up your train of thought and then you start reacting to those and the next verses seem to anticipate your reaction and keep taking you along as if the author somehow knew the direction you would go page by page line by line the Quran seems to be anticipating the direction you're going and responding to that and taking you in a certain direction it's almost impossible for me to describe how others have felt that communication from outside my culture but for those of us who have become Muslim through the reader through our reading of the Quran that was a dialogue that was a communication that takes place at the deepest level of being deepest truest level of being it's a communication from what from the very essence of what we are a communication of attributes of love mercy compassion forgiveness kindness wisdom meeting together perfect and imperfect human and divine creating and created giving and receiving of God and man coming together in a terrific and tremendous and powerful encounter when one reads the Quran how many of us who read it for the first time when we were adults as Americans recall that experience what's the first question you have when you pick up a scripture well what's it gonna guide me towards the Quran promises you in the first surah that will guide whatever it is your need it will guide how will it guide you you open up the second surah Alif LAAM Meem this is the book we're in no doubt is the guidance for those who just made that prayer all right who made al-fatiha a prayer for guidance then as you read on what's the first question that every Westerner has in his mind what's the purpose of life why are we here why is there suffering how many of your friends they're agnostics or atheists and put that question to you and the quran very quickly takes it up quran and the most dramatic way takes it up it has the Angels the angels in heaven ask their creator why create this corrupt being who will spread violence and shed blood why when you could create us it's the Western dilemma but before the reader in the most dramatic way in the most beautiful and concise way out of the mouth of the Angels comes the atheist objection and then the Quran begins to give you an answer piece by piece verse by verse an answer begins to unfold and the ground will guide it to guide you to it if that's what you seek in the first surah second surah surah al-baqarah it doesn't complete the end doesn't take you to the end of that journey but it begins it gives you enough to get to capture your attention it's excite your entry but the Quran never gives you a complete and full discourse just you know because as if I was writing a thesis it interweaves its themes because all these things the Quran is telling us are connected okay you don't separate them out and dissect them and put them up with this one over here and this theme over here they're all interconnected and interrelated so throughout it it's interrelating its theme okay so you get something of an idea the Quran is sort of captured your attention on those ultimate questions that wait so many of us had and then you read on and some ideas naturally pop into your head okay I've just heard about the story of Adam what's the natural question well where does the crown fit in the judeo-christian tradition it's a natural question then surah al-baqarah immediately takes up that issue starts talking about the children of Israel their history and then the people of the book the communities that evolved from all that the to keep major communities that evolved from that then it talks about Prophet Ibrahim and the son Ishmael and the establishment of the Kaaba and how that's the pure faith the true faith that all prophets preached and that Islam is the restoration of that true pure faith puts it all in perspective the very question you and one of us Americans would naturally have and then we would naturally ask once we get that general idea well let me see now what about all those things I hear in the news the treatment of women is Islam Muslim practices practices the pilgrimage etc etc etc what about Muslim practices in general and the rest of surah al-baqarah starts talking about that men's and women's roles families roles rules and regulations fighting in a just cause not committing aggression etc etc etc there's no compulsion in religion and on and on right the very type of things that would naturally come to a person's mind when he first approaches this religion are immediately put forth for him in the second surah but in the end of the second surah he's already obtained a fairly good knowledge of the direction that Islam tanks towards life he's contained a summary knowledge of the faith of course the many questions have arisen you'd like to know more he or she more details perhaps you'd like to see things elaborated on the rest of the Quran will elaborate on those details on those themes the second surah the third surah will talk primarily about the history of religions and fight oh no can't remember now what was the third set al Imran will talk again about the subject of Islam's place in the religious history and also about fighting an unjust cause the fourth surah will talk largely about women's issues and families issues the fifth surah we'll come back to the question of the people of the book how they corrupted the religion and how Islam came to purify and perfect religion and restore it to its proper place these themes will be into woven throughout the Quran as you go deeper and deeper it will give more and more details the stories will get lengthened the stories of the prophets will become lengthening the parables will grow the crime provides more and more parables as you get to the middle of the Quran the style of the Quran the meter the rhythm the poetic is not the poetic but the literal beauty of it grows and grows and reach starts to obtain a sort of a rhapsodic quality as you merge to the middle of the Quran it's growing in intensity not just intensity of expression not just that it's focusing on many different themes that you had that it introduced you to in the first surah not just because it's starting to concentrate more and more and more as you go to it on you and your relationship to God and other individuals and their relationship to God the human individual and his relationship to God the many signs that manifest God's creative activity in the universe in nature the beautiful and powerful parallels that are coming at you but even the music of the Quran if you'll allow me is growing in intensity and beauty as you move to the middle of the Quran by the time you come to the end of the Quran what do you have there now as you come to the end of the Quran it is you the reader and God facing each other in the end of the Quran it's the reader and its relationship to God which is the subject the rules and regulations are put back we're no longer given any more rules and regulations that's not the concern here now the concern is the choice that ultimately faces you as you reach the end of the Quran heaven and hell's are brought together toward as you move towards the end of the crime this life and the next life and their organic relationship well this is stressed the last day in the last hour this creation and its end the many signs of God and how this will all come to an end all this this great apocalyptic Cataclysm all of this is merging together coming together and focusing on one supreme single ultimate choice that the reader must face and the Quran demands of him as he moves closer and closer to the end of the Quran so finally the Quran tells him the words that his tortured soul longs to say the grundle put in his very heart and try to connect them and shock him to the to the deep inner soul of his that's crying out for what it needs it'll tell them say he is God the one and only the eternally sought by all few verses later say I seek protection and believe me you feel like you need protection I seek protection in the Lord of every new day's dawn say I seek protection in the Lord of mankind as if God is reaching out from you from heaven and revealing it to you in these words that are right before you just say it it's as if God is calling out to you just say it and I will come to you just say it and I will comfort you and I will protect you just turn to me and say it and I will shower you with my love mercy and protection and you will experience it to ever greater degrees just turn to me just say it timeis 1221 many of us have reached that point and I've faced that decision and stood on that bridge of indecision I have stood on that bridge of indecision between acceptance and rejection between our worldly needs deliberating between our worldly needs and our ultimate needs many of us have been frozen there not a believer not a disbeliever anymore just suspended at a point where we just couldn't make a choice many of us have known the agony of that indecision I've tossed and turned at night looking at the ceiling that thought about our sanity I've wondered about our future have been haunted by those verses and some of us have stayed with that agony and then finally walked away and others who faced those verses and faced that Quran knew the ecstasy of surrender and knew the joy and the peace that comes with throwing themselves into that ocean of mercy that could only come from God of reaching out with open arms and running to their creator I decided after I was struggling with that choice and I needed to talk to somebody so I went to the Masjid at the University of San Francisco I just thought prove I told myself I wasn't going in there to do anything rash I was just going the talk in 30 minutes later I emerged from the message and I real can to realize something very quickly middle-eastern way of thinking and the Western Way of thinking the Muslim way of thinking and the Western Way of thinking are there two different worlds you often hear an expression in the West that this is a simple example that a picture is worth a thousand words well the ancient Muslim scholars used to say an Arab writers used to say that a single word has tremendous power and is capable of producing a thousand images in men's minds so in the West you see the religious art for example expressed in beautiful bold visual imagery for the Muslim they're their most religious art is expressed in what else but words beautiful letters of Arabic alphabet in interweaving and beautiful patterns reaching up the Infinity towards the heaven and if you look between B at the beauty very carefully if you penetrate through and search for the inner meaning for the truth hidden behind the beauty there you'll find verses from the Quran and prayers to God and eternal truths because for the Muslim this is what life is all about it's beautiful in its dazzling but if you penetrate it and look carefully enough into it you will find an inner truth behind it this tremendous power of words I learned that day I went to the Masjid I walked out a half hour later I suddenly discovered just how great a single word could have on people you see that day I accepted a word into my life that got a tremendous onyx unexpected reaction from myself somehow somebody heard about the designation I accepted and it spread throughout this Catholic University I was teaching like wildfire everybody knew about it the friends I had were suddenly distancing themselves from me and becoming acquaintances acquaintances are now somewhat like enemies people were scowling at me at the hospi Pillai would say good morning to would now just walk straight by students I would have walked down the hall and hear students saying he's the one that's the one who did it yeah yeah did you hear about that other students from the Middle East from Muslim countries are coming up to me congratulating me for what I couldn't figure out why they were congratulating me left and right it's a personal choice I thought why does it have to do with them but nonetheless some in the eyes of some I was some sort of hero in the eyes of others over some sort of traitor to my country my parents when they heard about the news had to call him and it's a nervous wreck I had to tell them what I did just get it over with I thought I called it my mom exploded my dad a car is he really exploded you know just it took me four or five weeks to tell him but that my choice was an intelligent one an irrational one as well as a spiritual one and I think I did a good job at convincing on that of course you know that single word that changed me so dramatically in the eyes of others was a simple word Muslim I took on the word Muslim into my life I became a Muslim the strange thing was I thought everyone else was going crazy I mean I didn't feel like I changed I was the same old person I always was Jeff lying I'm teaching my classes I don't feel any different I didn't suddenly become some sort of saint I didn't become perfect I didn't become holy I didn't become great or even very good still had so many weaknesses so many insecurities so many scars from my past I wasn't any different and so now everybody was reacting as if a single half hour I had suddenly become something I never was they all thought I was visit going berserk I thought all day well then work over the months I thought back on it and I tried to think well weekend 60 million Frenchmen be wrong i mean if everyone sees you as somehow dramatically different maybe you did change in some way just you weren't conscious of so I tried to review what happened what did I do and what way did I change I change did anything really change in my life and the only thing I could think of was for the first time in my life through the reading of the Quran and my initial experience of Islam for the very first time in my life and I know this might seem strange to you but for the first time in my life I experienced or felt and came to believe in but I can only describe as as love because when I read that Quran I felt a love a mercy forgiveness a compassion all the things that I no longer wanted to believe in I felt it in a way that was more real and more powerful and more true to me than the very ground I'm standing on right now and somehow through feeling that it opened the door of mine towards those feelings but I had shut long long ago i I just felt such a power such a beauty such a caring through my first experiences of Islam and through my study of the Quran but it's impossible to describe believe it when I read that grind it was a war inside me I didn't want to trust again I didn't want to love again I didn't wanted to pen again I didn't want to know mercy I didn't want to know compassion I just wanted to be left alone to be buried in this earth some day and had become long-forgotten dust but the Quran and God's calling just wouldn't let me with all my imperfections with all my humanity he just wouldn't let me and a Muslim um this isn't the end of my speech but I will say this that every convert know is that from the day he makes that choice he is going to face it that question again and again and again for the rest of his life why did you become a Muslim believe it I was asked at 15 times yesterday why did you become a Muslim and I just want to say this but the simplest truest answer that any convert could give and every convert knows it because there's so many ingredients that went into that that even he or she can't really figure it out probably the best answer you could all forgive and I think it was the truest and sincerest is that one moment in our lives a moment that we could have never foreseen in the past a very special moment God it's infinite mercy and kindness and goodness simply had mercy on us maybe he saw a need so great a hurt so terrible an emptiness so vast maybe he just saw a readiness but in His mercy he made it happen as a new Muslim I decided I needed to learn to pray I wanted to learn to pray the Quran mentions prayers the Quran motivates you I was desperate to know how so I immediately the day I became a Muslim went to the Oscar my girl and I show prayer the next day I went to the five prayers the day after that five prayers I moved my apartment I moved to an apartment very close to the message so I can make all five prayers you have to remember I was working on campus so three of them are automatic anyway new Nasir migrant but now the Federal Fair was easy because it was only a few blocks from my house Basia prayer was also pretty easy to make say day after day after day I would be going to the prayer and I found that if discovering the Quran was like discovering love and compassion and mercy all over again if it's like the intellectual emotional experience of love then the prayer for me was like the total expression of it the prayer for me was like a divine embrace it was intoxicating it was beautiful it was like nothing I ever experienced before there are moments when I cried and sobbed so deeply when I prayed just was so moving it took me heart and soul one brother who saw that I was used to come to the fire and the maghreb it nasha prayer day after day after day it said to me brother take it easy I mean why do you come to these prayers the recitation is it in Arabic there a little bit longer than the others you have to stand there longer it's in a language foreign to you and especially since it's in a language foreign to you why do you possibly come when you don't even really quite cannot even translate what you're hearing right away and I told him I don't know brother but I just responded just instinctively I told him why does a how come it's a baby comforted by his mother's voice he doesn't understand the words but somehow it's a voice he's always known in the distant past and that's always known him when he hears it even though he doesn't understand it word by word he gets the feeling and he gets the emotion and gets the comfort there are other features of going to the messages that were also extremely important to me for one thing in the Masjid I could see Islam worked out and implemented on a community level this was extremely important we would fight and argue about issues and try to work out an Islamic lifestyle in America it was like going through the Hydra all over again when the Muslims had to face this challenge and that challenge and we would get out our books and we would read and research and deal with this problem and that problem and I could see it on a community level and then listen to the Quran this was a powerful experience and a great learning experience ground was a place of learning for me I mean the the messages I would listen to the discussions we have and go back into the libraries and dig up volumes and volumes and volumes in the family's history and Sahih Bukhari Sahib Muslim go through look up the works of urban Tamiya the great force scholars of these four great scholars most of whose works have been translated translated into English legal scholars and dig through those and we would discuss and discuss and discuss and in that supercharged intellectual environment I was able to learn a lot it was a real growing experience and the message was even more than that was a place of refuge for me a place where I could go and get away and get my spiritual balance again and it was also a place of tremendous peace and support community support for me the message it was my life well a couple years later I got married to a lady from Saudi Arabian as the Dean said I think I'm the only personal American Muslim blond-haired blue-eyed professor that's ever accomplished that I didn't realize I was such a big thing then but now I do it was a beautiful experience my wife and I have a drag her to the message it quite often and it was just a wonderful experience to have my wife there and the two of us committed to God and to each other in the message at night after night listening to the beauty and the power of God's call to mankind it was like something I always wanted but never thought I could have never even thought existed and then we began having children one right after another a year later we had our first child jameelah telephone and it wasn't long before there we were to me and I was holding her in my arms and my wife was in the messages and we were all praying together with the brothers my wife was the only female there and jameelah many year later Sarah came and then it was jameelah and Sarah to me though crawling around by my legs and Sarah in my arms and then about a year and a half later two years fathom K and then it was fasting in my arms and Sarah and Jamila clinging to my legs and that was just I couldn't have asked for more that was the greatest moment in my life but little by little we ran into trouble when my wife and my children began coming to the message of my daughter so a lot of the other ladies in our community became anxious to come especially the American converts and a lot of women started coming to the messages no not a real lot but four or five six and it became an issue in our community a lot of brothers really it for one reason or another just didn't like it one time and it mushroomed in all sorts of ways one time two ladies a daughter while she was a student actually at the university I was teaching and her mother came to the message' to ask about Islam they're actually interested maybe possibly in converting they came to our message and knocked on the door the brother opened it saw two women there and slammed it in their face they walked away and they never considered Islam again one of the brothers just got really infuriated by the fact that my wife and my daughters and the all these other ladies were coming to the message even though they were praying in the back line you know in the usual sort of universal style he's threatened one time in a loud voice in the message that if he saw another woman in the mosque ever he would personally throw them out bodily well my wife ignored it but a new American convert didn't she had only been a Muslim for about four or five weeks she took the brothers seriously and she left her religion and today she's a Buddhist huh these sort of problems would continue to arise over the time went on my wife just became more and more reluctant she got tired of going she preferred to pray at home she didn't wanna have to deal with that my children kept coming with me for a while but strangely enough little by little they got the impression that the mosque was not friendly to women I'm not saying it's true brothers and sisters I'm not saying it's a fact but I'm saying it's the way a match of normal American person got to perceive it I remember once my oldest daughter when she was five or six years old said to me daddy why aren't women allowed in the message I told her they are I mean if you go back to the earliest days of Islam if you read through sahi Bihari I mean you have constantly are having hadith reports where women where the reports are coming from the courtyard and Medina and women are present I said they were there they were an act of an integral part of the Muslim community you could go almost every other page or I'd say at least every third page there's a report involving a woman in the Masjid in one capacity or another are during a Friday prayer speech for the Prophet and his companion Bilal go and collect charity donations from the women in their section and just on and on I don't want to go through the details but I I told her frankly I don't know how it got that way Jamila but it did but to me when I read the sources of Islam I just don't see it that way maybe I'm blinded by my American point of view maybe I'm reading my culture into the facts that I'm reading but I just didn't see the mosque as an unfriendly place two women in their early days of Islam I tried to look up the earliest scholarly books I could find to see what the scholars thought in those days I mean did abu hanifa was did he have an attitude that discouraged women from the masker mm malik from participating in the community and of course the oldest legal texts i could find was email Malik's text the Moapa that's the really the oldest one that we have that actually comes from the author himself you know all the ones from abu hanifa this is developed by his students later on and stuff and his students recollections of things come to us but we actually have mm Malik's actual production and in it he never seems to indicate that women shouldn't be in our messages or play a part in our community as a matter of fact I remember once he was in one section on the etiquette of eating towards the latter part of the Mowatt it's been translated in english how he mentioned that there's no problem with Muslim family sitting together he said for example he said there's no problem with a woman dining in the company of men as long as her mayor of male guardian is present I thought oh my god damn how did it get this way imam malik says this is the son of the people in medina in those days that early stage of law they didn't Imam Shafi developed the idea of the prophets and exclusively but in the earlier days Imam Malik Stein the second early later part of the second century of after the hijra he was talking about you know this is the way that our community has always done things they used to refer to the standard established practice so I wonder what's going on here what I know that my Muslim brothers and sisters are not wrong so to speak I know that there's good reason for things the way they are but somehow I saw a tremendous income group not tremendous incongruity but definitely something something I just to this day I have never I've always had difficulty understanding but it penetrated it hurt me most deeply one day when I was driving my daughter and my other two children along with the neighbor's daughter to school and the neighbor's daughter said to mine Jamila what church do you go to to me they didn't answer immediately I don't know why and then the little girl began well I go to my church and my church is a very nice church and it's over here and my mommy and daddy and I we go every Sunday and we sit there and we worship together and I love my church and I love and my church is the one of the most best things in my life and he kept on talking about my church my church my church my church and what a central part that was in her life and then she asked a Mila and jameelah what's your church and Jamila responded my daddy goes to the mosque see by that time my children because of their perception of things they no longer wanted to go to the message and I was now going alone but in my daughter's mine that message it wasn't her message it was daddy's mister this little girl had her church my daughter her experience of Islam was through her parents period and I felt deeply hurt I felt deeply hurt because the experience I had the integral part that that message it played in my life the beauty I had nam the music of the Quran that I had heard that call from heaven that had touched me so deeply when I heard it so many times like a mother's voice my daughter will never really know or at least that's a possibility and it hurt when I went to Saudi Arabia to teach I took my daughters to Mecca and Medinah and they loved it because we went as a family and they saw my wife and I their uncles and their grandma they're all sitting together and we would go there and drink some water from Zemzem well and we would eat some Tammy's which is my favorite that baked bread that Afghani bread and some fool and a month or whatever and we would sit there and then when we were done the call I remember we would clean things up and we'd sit and talk together and laugh and joke and the call to prayer would be made and we like every other family there men would go into their sections the women would go into their sections we'd hear the most beautiful recitation of the Quran which echoes up to the heavens in Mecca it seems to reach clear out up to the sky and we would listen to that and my children just used to love that experience daddy when are we going back to the gather when are we going back to Mecca when are we gonna know he went many many times and they made a home row with me well they just followed me along and they thought that was such a cool experience and that was the saddest part about leaving Saudi Arabia because when I left Saudi Arabia behind there were a lot of things I was happy to leave behind but I know I was leaving behind an experience for them that they so desperately needed and for some reason or another couldn't have an American I don't know why it is but that's the way it is I think that it's had harmful effects on our community and I don't think it just has harmful effects on the Muslim converts and I always in Arabia I noticed some very disturbing things and I don't know I'm not complaining I'm not criticizing anybody but I just hope this doesn't infect their community anymore when I was there for example we'd all be at the beach all the faculty would be 400 Muslims along the beach with their families the call to prayer without the austere prayer my grip prayer 99% of those Muslim men I would even say a hundred percent got up when that found a prayer was gone and they would go to the message and go tend the prayer and I'm sad to say that maybe five six women got up and went now I don't think women are less religious than men because I grew up in a Christian background and two women by far the most intensely religious in Christian in the Christian community and in many other religious communities as well I don't think women are less inclined toward spirituality than men but for some reason I don't know what it is women felt less less inclined to go to the Masjid almost as if they didn't feel like if it's really there it's like my daughter said why aren't women allowed in the message who knows these are just reflections I'm not making an argument I'm just presenting perspective I don't want to get into a long argument about effect you could have dr. Jamal better we do that I'm just brother Hammett just asked me to explain my ups and downs the positives and the negatives these days my biggest worry is about the future of my children their religiosity this is my biggest worry and biggest concern and I've had to take some drastic measures to do something about I mean the Quran says to us as parents as believers save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones save yourselves I have to save my children as I say I want to go to paradise if I want to bring my children with all right I shall I hope we make but in any case so what I'm doing as I decided to do two things through three of the prayers I have to pray at school I got to pray at school because I might work that but for the fad relationship prayer I could be at home so I try to be home during those prayers to lead my family in the prayers night after night after night so my could children if they can't experience or don't feel comfortable in the institutions of our community least will feel comfortable in the institution of our family and feel affected by the religion there that's the only closest thing they could have to the type of experience I had I have to do my best to grant them that it does mean that I might have to miss going to the Masjid as much as I would like as much as I would long to but my children also have needs that I have to take consideration my daughters and other things if they don't have the learning experiences I had they don't have the same opportunities I had for learning I sit with them right now two nights a week and we just read through the Quran we begin at the beginning we have already begun moving through it one passage at a time that's my daughter Jamila says daddy at this rate we're gonna not finish it for two years that's okay I said just ask whatever questions you have let's go along the way and invariably I'll read a passage and they'll talk for an hour asking me questions what is this what is worship mean what is sealing the hearts mean how does that happen why does God do this etc etc etc sometimes hum don't have an answer but other but I least want to get them thinking and discussing and living up here in their mind the religion ah'd just in the form of prayer when I pray I want them to have those dual channels of faith that I was so lucky to experience as a Muslim convert male contract I'll end by just simply saying this my brothers and sisters I know I sort of ended this on a pessimistic note I am truly worried about the future of my my children I know that many of the Muslim brothers and sisters are confident that they will do just fine with theirs growing up here in America I could be exaggerating in my own mind it could because of my background good because of my americanist but I proceed to perceive dangers that they don't seem to think even exist the other day I was reading a book by a famous western scholar who's very sympathetic to Islam and he quoted Muslim studies in America the objective Muslim Studies thesis studies in what math and one study said that of second generation Muslims born in America or the next generation not the immigrant generation but the generation that comes after that or the generation that comes after the convert that generation according to muscle studies by Muslim scholars and Western scholars at least 50% have no connection with the religious community whatsoever within one generation after the immigrant generation I don't know seems like it's at least from what I could see our brothers and sisters are doing fine but maybe I'm always around the most religious and committed brothers they said by this next generation or the next generation in them these studies were also done in Europe where there's a longer many more generations the study Aven by the next generation 90% no connection with the community whatsoever our what was the word they used completely ostracized themselves from the mosque and not only that but their lifestyle shows no signs of any religion whatsoever it shows no commitment to any particular religion they may acknowledge that there's a Supreme Being but not much more than that I've heard similar concerns raised by I've heard similar concerns raised by Muslim youth at the Maya conference constantly hear them talk about the great numbers of the felt their fellow Muslim youth that are astray from the religion great the tremendous number that seemed to be away from I hear about this all the time but yet when I see speeches by our older members of our community they seem to either be unaware of it or seem to feel that they can I found a solution to the problem I wish they would share it with me because I am definitely worried definitely worried when I hear our children the Maya conference calling out to us with such statistics and alarm I feel to call for help and I don't see where we're doing much to help I don't think we're taking seriously their hurts their desires their needs the conflicts that they face the obstacles that they face the burdens that they have to live with I don't think we're listening but in any case like I said I don't want to end on a completely pessimistic note we'll do what we can if I can't appeal to the community for help then I'll do the best I can alone I love my children they mean everything to me and we could never give up and I and I'm not bitter sometimes I think to myself that I wish that I could have become a Muslim thirty years from now when Islam is well-established in the States and the majority of Muslims heart also American Muslims might make things a little easier but then I think again and I'm glad that Allah has chosen to make me a Muslim during this very difficult time because with the greater the hardship I hope and I think the greater the reward if we respond to it correctly and yes it's been difficult at times there have been tears of joy and tears of frustration and tears of spiritual cleansing but all in all I am grateful to God for having made me a Muslim and secondarily I am grateful to all my Muslim brothers and sisters who have tolerated and been patient with my peculiar and sometimes strange point of view who gave me the opportunity to share with you my perceptions even though I know that sometimes they are differed very much with the earth who gave me the chance to learn and to experience this faith on a community level and a very intimate an involved way and I suppose my only regret if I had one is that my daughters might not share that same experience that I had but you know ultimately all of us Muslims have to never lose faith and trust in Allah and we have to always be confident that he's doing that the way Allah does things it's always for the best even though it may not seem that obvious to us and with that my fellow and much loved fellow believers Allah is peace and mercy be upon you all Salaam alaikum WA Rahmatullah wasn't that a wonderful lecture tech bead tech beard what we'd like to do now is to go into our second session which would entertain questions and answers and the format which we would like to do is to have people come to the microphones either at the central aisle here or at the far left here and what I like for you to do is if you have a question please identify who you are and if you're affiliated with any organization and ask your question if you have a comment to make please make your comments extremely brief a couple minutes and so we can move the long and give those of you who have questions that we can get everybody had opportunity to ask them so with that I see a gentleman over here please go ahead well your son yeah you can ask go ahead and ask a question if you'd like I just would like each of you to just state your name thank you very much Angela well he's fixing the mic I do oh I just appreciate the cotton to comment yeah that statistic is just one of many I've heard they all seem to end up being around that some ways you might be right that might might that could be based more on the European experience than the American experience or they might be combining their studies I think that from my own experience just by I I've noticed for example when I was in California when I was in San Francisco they told us that we have a Muslim community there of 13,000 but the actual number of Muslims that attended the Friday prayer or were active in the community was just a couple of hundred so you know in Kansas City we have several thousand Muslims living there residents American Muslims and participation in the Masjid community is extremely small so and by the next generation seems that the children almost have no real inclination towards going to the Masjid or being involved in their religion but you know maybe here in Tulsa you have a very strong community it also depends on the activity of activities of the community I think the commitment of the community even the educational background in the community an economic background San Francisco we had a huge hugely vast number of poor Muslim immigrants and I mean almost dirt poor and in Kansas City well the population is somewhat different but in any case I think a lot of that depends on that I've seen in the European studies for example the majority of European Muslim immigrants are laborers I think that their situation is quite a bit more difficult than say the the position of immigrants who are professionals and really I think America has gained tremendously from the brain drain from the Middle Eastern Muslim countries but Europe has gotten mostly a labor population but I did notice in the big cities where our Muslim community seemed to have the greatest population Chicago Detroit San Francisco Los Angeles Kansas City Indianapolis where this a large number of Muslims who are struggling financially and maybe don't have the same educational background as some of our professionals does seem that this problem might wait a little greater there but that's again I'm not sure that would be an interest I would like to see what sort of studies you're doing and how's it going along I I would love to be proven different different and then we could analyze and figure out what we can do to even improve that but I appreciate your comments they're really good yes alaikum Salaam can you speak up just a little bit please vision all [Music] Streetman will you play I know that you gave I had in see and their whole life those two so there's Hannity decided it would be an item on an image and because it is a thing you do like this market we're fishery [Music] Larke is caused by [Applause] I'm sorry to interrupt you but because of lack of time I would appreciate it you can finish up your point or ask a question [Music] [Music] [Music] we ain't lost all of their conservative families of lost children we change society it will have televisions their homes and kept the teachings properties in the field still they have and I'm saying they can happen to us [Music] [Music] I'm sorry sir thank you for your comment and I'd like to once again remind that because of lack of time you if you don't have a question just please breathe make your comments breathe thank you very much I have a question here by I guess came from the sister section and I don't see any uh I noticed that there's no sisters but behind this podium but I would encourage you to ask your questions otherwise given to me on a card if you can the question is what advice would you give to the young third generation parents meaning parents who've been raised here in America who have immigrant parents and who are now after they see how their parents struggled through Islam and how they see their experiences with men on sofa what advice do you give to them as opposed to different advice you would give to their parents Oh third generation Muslims I think they could be really second generation second generation that are parents of children are there people like that in this audience oh that's interesting I think the well like I said it's sort of an individual struggle of mine I would advise sort of the same thing that I'm sort of the same type of thing I'm doing at home like because it's proved to be very good this to Quran or Islamic studies programs we have every week originally I told him just it would be 15 minutes but they liked it so much they they won't let me out let me go they keep me there an hour each program and those discussions are very important I want my children to learn what's in the Quran and and I'd like to get them involved in the prayers I think if we could get them that that's how every convert starts right Quran in the prayers this once you get those going then you get motivated to do so much else and that's exactly how I got this idea with my wife we were sitting and talking one day and I'm thinking I said to her you know I'm worried about our children and in what what it's gonna make them be real Muslims what's even gonna motivate them what's gonna happen to that they they just think prayers are some sort of exercise that mommy and daddy goat you know and that they sometimes participate long up and down up and down you know remember my daughter was explaining it to a friend of hers yes her friend got nervous when they saw myself and my wife pray for friendship mmm and she said no no it's okay watch they're gonna go up but today you know it's sort of like a physical thing and you know it's not that doesn't have the same meaning today I really was worried so I told my wife now wait a minute let me try to think um I wasn't born a Muslim I was born in a non Muslim culture I was confronted with all these influences what worked for me the motivate me to get involved in this faith and to work at it well I the Quran I read the Quran by the time I was through I was desperate to do whatever was necessary to get to get more of the feeling and the beauty and the power that Islam has to give to us so I started praying and etc etc and then I did this and I did that and I got more books and I learned but the it began with the ground so I said let's begin to the Quran and that's what we do we take them through it very carefully very patiently very slowly and we encourage them to pray with us and this seems to be really having it's amazing I know it sounds trite and simple but it it's beautiful effect it seems to be having I'm really encouraged I'll let you know the next time I come down here how it's working out if it fails I think it's only gonna be because I get lazy you know cuz the children they seem to having an unquenchable thirst no and they're still at that age when they're anxious simply you know to know what daddy thinks you know ten years from now they'll think daddy doesn't know anything you know or at least typically a typical American children don't but right now they're very anxious to know what I think what are my ideas what do I write about what do I think about and we get in very length in in-depth discussions and they exhaust me sometimes so I would encourage that I've encouraged that regardless of what generation we are I mean I'm even worse off than you guys are I'm no generation I mean I'm to convert yes revert as they like to say but I've heard convert because most Americans could relate to that yes our neck strap face up to the question of if if Aslam is is a social purifier how come there there is so much impurity in Middle East and there is a chaotic world out there social purifier and why is there such impurity in the Middle East oh I don't know there's some purity everywhere you know I mean in the West and in the Middle East I mean God could reveal his guidance to mankind but he's not gonna force you to follow it you know I think you're probably referring maybe to the political corruption that exists there the corruption that I found for example when I try to do business in the Middle East you have to I mean if you don't or if you're not ready to give bribes and to use connections and take advantage of certain situations you know you're gonna really get frustrated trying to do business there or at least I did but I think that corruption exists you know the human being himself is potentially corruptible we all are and societies are no different from than people to the degree they follow God's guidance that will determine how pure that society is just I'd see no difference between people or societies I think that I mean honestly I mean I've talked to many many brothers from the Middle East about Islam and you'll be surprised at this all of you sitting here because you seem like deeply committed Muslims but I find that most of them have never even read the Quran I mean most and this is not fifty five percent I mean I beg brothers come up to me after I've given a lecture and said you know I think I'm gonna read that crime I've never read it before I don't even know alright talk to people from the Middle East and they'll tell me something from their culture and tell me it's in the Quran you know in the Quran we believe this a bad or the Quran teaches I don't think that's there ah well so you know I think that the people are quite ignorant of what their religion teaches honestly I think that's what true I don't think Middle Easterners are much different than Americans in that regard most Americans have very little knowledge of what Christianity teaches or represents I think most I found this even to be more true of Buddhists and Hindus etc and I think Muslims are similar yeah most of them really knowing that have not made much an effort to learn I think if you think when they do you can see a transformation take place in their life so let's just hope our communities work harder at obtaining that knowledge thank you for the question I've got a question here question is I'm a high school student I meet teachers and students every day that seem like potential Muslims what is your advice on how to approach these people without seeming without seeing without seeming pushy so that they're drawn away instead of coming toward Islam yeah just try not to be too pushy I don't know in you know what we do in our family and this seems to help this is just personal advice I certainly wouldn't want to hold myself up as a model this is just as one Muslim to another I would what we do our family does is when they eat comes we bring cookies to school children dress up they bring gifts to the teachers etc ah when Christmas comes we always have to explain to them that we don't celebrate Christmas that we this is not one of our religious holidays our children do not want to draw Santa Clauses our children do not want to stuff stockings could you please give them another activity and we do it very politely and very patiently when Ramadan comes we explain to them that you know on the weekends at least because our children are six years old five years old they we clip them fast part of the day that we hope in the future our children are gonna they're gonna make room for our children to pray etc etc we're in constant dialogue with the teachers we don't tell them I want you to believe in Islam we tell them that what we believe what's important to us and would you please try to accommodate our needs as Muslims and we'd like to celebrate we'd like to share with you some of those humanitarian social positives of our faith by sharing with people our celebration of you know giving them cookies if they would so choose when Ramadan comes etc right and and things like this I found that through that continuous communication they became extremely interested in this life you know once you show that you're right you know you're willing and ready to represent your faith and talk about it without asking them to be embrace it and you use such opportunities like the ones I just mentioned and we need to do that anyway to express your religious point of view they're very anxious not all of them but many of them are very anxious to know more and so I know now that you know every member of my daughter's school has asked me or my wife for a copy of a book I wrote you know and they many of them have asked for free prints of my second book and some of the teachers have come to me and asked for a reading list about Islam one teacher told me that she loves the religion very much but she hasn't reconciled the idea with her parents and etc but the point of it is is is that you know just trying to be a Muslim you know stick up for what you believe in don't be shy about expressing what your needs and what your desires are as a Muslim and I think people will naturally want to communicate with you if you make it look like you're trying to sell them something no but if you just make it this is part of my life it's an important part of my life so extremely important that I want you to be aware of this and that so you will not violate things that are important to me then people are quite anxious to find out what you believe because they don't feel threatened in that contact they feel that you're coming to them you're being upfront with them you want you're trying to get certain type of response from them as far as your needs go so they're quite willing to discuss I found this is a very effective way to open the subject of Islam with people okay and we'll take two more questions from that side salaam aleikum dr laying out the question i have is related with your last night's lecture and you briefly mention about the Eastern philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism and as I understand you can draw a parallel between these two philosophy between the philosophy of Islam and the philosophy between these Eastern philosophies now you said that the only thing that was missing from these philosophies were the concept of God I was wondering what exactly is that is the is the factor that necessitates the introduction of the concept of God while those goals are already being met with with those philosophies well I can't say what with that what matters for all people as far as that goes I could only speak about me personally why that was such an important concept like I was just saying today I grew up in a with a very pessimistic cynical view of life and I thought that there was no God and that because of that there was no such thing as virtue or justice or anything like this okay so this was my my feeling so you know when I studied those Eastern philosophies I thought these are nice programs of living these are nice balanced philosophies when I studied them from a philosophical standpoint I felt that they preach on me of the universal golden rule that all religions seem to advocate but without if they couldn't convince me that the idea of God was not in itself a contradiction or if they just obscured that issue entirely then there was no need for me to change my perception you see what I mean I understand if there's no God and they have a nice idea or way of thinking about living or a nice sort of formula for living that's great so first of all I know most people aren't there following second there's tremendous suffering in the world it's not going to relieve it because most people won't do it the only thing that's gonna make people most people change their way of living is because they believe they have the only concept in religion that's gonna force people to perform themselves and kill themselves to live a better life and to strive to do that it's because they have something at stake you see what I mean and for me that would be the idea of God without that these would be just nice systems but frankly there's no reason why I should go to it I already have I didn't think I was a terrible person I couldn't think that but I frankly for me if there was no God this is just a nice invention by human beings could work for some couldn't work for others no reason we need to get very into it not only that but from a foreign culture I couldn't adopt that foreign cultures perspective why should I bother and not American you know it's like asking me to adopt yeah I'm not arguing with you would be like asking me to adopt Nicci's perspective well I mean that was his idea it has some compelling features it has some flaws but why really waste the time you know you can't base your life on somebody else's opinions you know so without God it's just another man's opinion or not or a people's opinion something they formulated and you know fine there's no major reason why I should be compelled to embrace it you see so if a religion really couldn't come to terms squarely with the idea of a god right a creative a source for the existence of this universe and our being here I wasn't really I just wasn't moved I thought it was nice but there was no major reason to embrace does that make sense definitely thank you okay thank you Salaam alaikum my name is Mohammad but I'm from Houston Texas and I'm a surgeon and I'm associated with Darrell Arkham full-time school I'm the superintendent thanks for dr. lang for his presentation I really was listening to him who is to thinking in the same times at the same time one of them has from the point of other education how he himself developed the attitude of learning and exploring maybe without a half is or without the share or taken himself an attitude of an the way an adult should teach himself or should layer this is the way I was listening to him this is my personal perception the second one as a person involved in child education but really will be listening be very attentive to the needs of the child to make my point clear we went through a long process in Houston to materialise the full-time school everybody blame us why we don't have a full-time school but once we develop full-time school I found that response is not as it was expected and we met a lot of problems from the adults from the mothers and from the rich the rich said that we cannot give you our children because your school is not that fancy as good as the public school system and that was one solution even though we have beautiful mosques hamdulillah the mothers and the fathers were unable to convince their children because they already out of their hand their kids no longer listen children to their parents I'm sorry because that's the way they've been brought up they lived him for some time that the point that even the parents started to fight with each other because one wants to take the kids to the school the other doesn't want because the school has yet to be tested I think the point I'm driving to is the problem we are facing is not in children education it is in adult education I feel strongly after going through this experience in Houston that the way we teach adult is no different the way with each children all of us as other became very dependable on the share and on the half we cancel our mind when we came sorry to say puppets in many ways the fairy the ferris negligence that we will be accountable for is the education of our daughters the education of our wives and our systems this is one of the most neglected I come every time to the lecture and learn and my wife will go to the babysitting and take care of the children or since the kids will call all the time I have to they have to go outside in another way there is a major negligence we have to put points someplace I will I see the times over thank you I like remembering the attention of adult education and I use multiple more expression than neglected species it's very important thank you very much I do see a sister standing up here so I'm gonna allow her just either one question or a very brief comment under a minute anyone to listen further playing game about suggestions of my schoolers are starting to add studies of the Arab nations or study of Islam into their social studies of history classes and or geography and teachers love to have speakers right so as a parent or even as a student offer to your teachers on when you get to that subject to speak on it you know what date but they Belov it yeah you're right um my wife gave a speech at my child's my children's school already and my daughter is jameelah and Sarah each have given the speech on the meaning and purpose of Ramadan and Muslims life I mean my little six-year-old kid up there in front of the auditorium reading a speech but you know I wrote it for her but in any case she did a great job the teachers were really impressed after that speech as a matter fact that's when they all asked for the book so you know you're right that's a great advice I missed it well with that comment I'd like to thank dr. Jeffrey Lange or coming to our conference and particularly to this session and I just want to make a brief comment about what I believe some of his special qualities and contributions are too sorry I just think that it's very very important to have dr. Lang's his own impression of what a Muslim goes through in terms of conversions because many of us are technical I think take our own religion culture for granted simply because we developed it developed it from our own parents and to see somebody go through a spiritual transformation like he did just makes me feel like wow I wish I can went through some of that because I was just kind of born with it and I just kind of took it for granted so I think that's very special and also the point that he made about our family as a whole should study their religion and different aspects of Islam is so crucial because oftentimes you send kids it's at one place the brothers and the parents go or the adults go to this person and the women sit at home and I just think that it's very important that you pointed out that if you learn together as a family it's very special not only in terms of knowledge but psychological and mental because you feel as a family that you're developing I just want I didn't want to thank him pointing that out so important and crucial a couple of comments you've all received these comment forms here please fill them out and what's more important write the comments in which you think the conference or the session that you attended or saw could be improved or the things that you didn't like and so forth we would really appreciate them so the next time we can learn from you one final thing dr. lang has written this book it's out there on the tables I'm not sure the price but if you'd like please purchase it and come over here and you can sign them for you this is your opportunity this is your opportunity to get a photograph autograph and we're gonna have a suhoor prayer at 1:45 and then for a wool hat we'll break for lunch from 2:00 to 3:45 and the next session will be at 3:45 with dr. Jamal but we thank you for attending and brother here has one more announcement so I wanna cook many of our brothers and sisters asking about the ring and that first one was our gratitude you had to draft and every time I hear you have to give this book like every time I hear to speak I always get something superior squad as opposed to a step up or something and I appreciate that no I think that's very important for you to bring out which is element and be able to articulate especially a family aspect I always feel like I'm standing up here or isolating them alone I think that you never hear that idea pilot majority thank you so they're not communicating to me continue to appeal and speak out like that

Channel: Speakers On Islam

Views: 17,403

Rating: 4.9300699 out of 5

Keywords: Islam, Jeffrey Lang, Jeff Lang, Muslim Youth

Id: xxG7shlHjMk

Length: 102min 16sec (6136 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2018