Texas Dawah Day 2

TODAY, it ROCKED!
My boys from Delaware are saying, "I heaardd dat!"

Yasir Q.'s lecture on Animal Rights was excellent. He gave the examples of the woman who went to the hellfire due to a cat, though she was a Muslim. While another woman who was a prostitute went to paradise with her compassion, feeding a thirsty dog.

Ibrahim Dremali's lecture on Khushoo in Prayer was amazing. He explained the Surah Fatiha and the hadith on it. And if you learn everything about this Surah we read in every rakah, then it will affect your whole prayer.

Sh. Salah as Sawy talked about the difference of opinion among the madahibs. His lectures were in Arabic, and his classes were packed.

The 2 highlights of the whole Convention were (1) Celebrating their success, profiling high-achieving Muslims of America, and (2) Late night with Irtiza Hasan, who could take on Jon Stewart after tonight's performance.

In celebrating the success of 4 individuals in America, Texas Dawah awarded honors to Larry Shaw, Senator from North Carolina; Cherrif Basyouni, Nobel Prize Nominee; Hakeem Olajuwan, NBA great, and Muslim role-model; Farooq al-Baz, part of the Apollo missions, and recognized at NASA for great achievements. The message from all of them was quite clear: as a Muslim, you have to work double as hard to achieve what a typical American would, because you look different, you talk different, and your name is different. But, they emphasized that knowledge will take you places where nothing else will, and will get you respected.

Late night with Irtiza was extremely entertaining. First up, Irtiza, following Jon Stewart's lead, showed several interesting pictures that threw the audience into fits of laughter. Then, the two brothers: Shariq and Bassam, who traveled all around Texas, documenting Muslims in the state, took the stage and shared interesting stories. After that, Larry Shaw took stage. He shared his experience in that he was supposed to fly to a CAIR dinner (he is on their national board), but didn't feel 'good' about it, and refused despite pleas from the CAIR organizers. And only to find out that this plane crashed, all 48 passengers dead, and the 49th, Larry Shaw, was not on board subhanAllah! Then Reem took stage... this girl memorized the Quran at the age of 7, and Irtiza shared a story about her, where she took her mom's credit card, and bought Finding Nemo over the internet (when she was 5 yrs old). Her dad (moa) took a few minutes to highlight how great Houston was (as opposed to Northeast America), and how we miss Houston. Then, I plagiarized a few notes from Reem's mother about the efforts and reasons for her memorization.

The next guest on Irtiza's show requires special mention. William Rodriguez was the last person to be pulled out of the rubble on 9/11. He gave a moving account of the events of that day. He talked about his efforts to get a proper and true investigation of 9/11, about his testimony in front of Congress, and other achievements and recognitions. Then, he vowed the audience, by telling them that he had recently become a Muslim!! He said that the aim of American media was to criminalize all the Muslims, yet when he went to Malaysia, he received better treatment than he had ever received. He took shahada at the hands of Sheikh Yusuf Estes, Allahu Akbar!

The last 2 guests were Sh. Waleed and Sh. Ibrahim Dremali. Irtiza reminded them of a story from Sh. Hasan Khalil where the imam went to the rest-room with his microphone (and it was on!). Both the 2 guest Shayookhs started laughing hard. It was interesting to hear that both the Shayookh had done a lot of diving. In fact, Sh. Ibrahim Dremali prayed Maghrib underwater (otherwise he would have missed it)! This reminded Sh. Waleed about the Sahaba-- it rained so hard in Makkah that there was flooding, so the Sahaba swam for the tawaaf around Kaba, diving to kiss the black stone. Also interestingly, Sh. Ibrahim also is a 3rd degree black-belt in karate, and loves to hunt! This is besides his doctorates in Islamic Shariah, and geology. Also. Sh. Ibrahim mentioned that he had recently been recognized by NASA for his study of minerals on the West and East coasts of Florida. Mashallah, what a full life, both worldly and for the akhirah!