Peace n The Hood

I attended the Peace in the hood 2 festival a couple of weekends ago. After all the hype I was expecting it to be a lot better then it actually was. As my family and I approached the venue we could hear a whole load of people singing hymns, shamefully I knew the words to this particularly hymn (having attended a CofE school) so found myself singing along to them!. My hubby and I began to wonder whether we’d arrived at the right venue, we soon saw a load of hijab, niqab wearers and stopped panicking. To be honest there weren’t many people around so we were debating whether we should all go in or not – but since this debate went on and on until we stood right in front of the brother and sister who were giving out tickets, so rather then embarrassing ourselves we coughed up the money required and all went in to a very empty hall.

The first talk had already started, unfortunately it was all in Arabic so we didn’t’ understand a word, actually judging by the vast audience’s body language it seemed as though no one understood a word!

The kids however were having a ball of a time, running to the stalls and purchasing magic rings, halal sweets and even going crazy over at the henna table. As I began to sink low in my chair bored out of my brains the next speaker came on. He began his talk in Arabic and I immediately thought, ‘ Oh no, here we go, how long is this going to take, bring on the nasheeds….’, and then the speaker began to speak in English, his opening line was, ‘ We are all in trouble…..’ Brillant open line, absolutely brilliant, definitely got me intrigued.

He started his talk by reminding us of one of the most important gifts Allah has blessed us with….’Air’. He rightly said that we pay for our gas, electricity even for water, but how much do we pay for air? Exactly, nothing, we pay nothing at all for the air that we breathe. It’s free, Allah has given us free air to breathe, so do we thank Allah?

Alhamdu’Lillah this speaker was superb. He had so many inspiring stories to share with us all, most of them related to da’wah. He knew of hundreds of people that have become Muslim, and most of the time all it takes is for a Muslim to openly practice his religion so that others, non-Muslims especially, have the opportunity to see the beauty of our deen.

I sat and listened to almost every word and wished that I had encouraged all my siblings to attend this talk too. My hubby later said that it was definitely worth spending a fiver to hear this guy speak. I wholeheartedly agreed.

All these stories are of the Sheikh’s experience with delivering dawah and the ultimate results. (The stories are in my own words as I understood them and Allah Knows Best)

Story 1
The Sheikh and his wife had to travel by tube one evening. As they descended on to a platform, he spotted two ladies sitting on oneside of the platform and two men sitting on the other side. He turned to his wife, who wears full niqab, gloves etc, and told her to go give dawah to the ladies while he approaches the men. His wife walked over to the ladies and as she approache them, the ladies turned around saw her and gasped. His wife said, ‘ Don’t panic, I’m a lady just like you’, and she lifted her veil to show them her face. They both said, ‘ Why are you covered up from head to toe then?’, to which the wife replied,’ because I am a diamond for my husband’s eyes only’. The ladies were emotionally struck by this answer and continued to ask more questions, after a while both ladies wanted to take shahadah. The wife turned and clapped her hands to get her husband’s attention (clapped her hands so that the men that were with her husband would not hear her voice). Her husband came hurrying across to his wife and Alhamdu’lillah the two women took shahdah and became muslim.

This was a lovely true story and May Allah reward both the sheikh and his wife abundantly insha’Allah.

I later said to my husband that I would like to wear a nikab and cover myself from head to toe coz after all, ‘I am his diamond’, to which he cheekily replied, ‘ I’d rather just have you in a glass case for everyone to see but not touch’.

Story 2

The sheikh had just arrived back from a dawah tour in Pakistan. So there he was standing at the arrivals terminal in LHR when the time for salat occurred. So he found a space within the arrival section, put down his briefcase, completely ignoring the people around, stood up right and began to very loudly recite the call to prayer, ‘ Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar..’. When he had finished he turned around to face a female police officier who was all red in the face. The officier poitely said the the sheikh, ‘Sir, please come with me, I’d like to show you were the prayer room is’. The sheikh was amazed, he had no idea there was a prayer room at heathrow. He followed the officier and completed his prayer there.

The sheikh wanted to highlight the fact that almost everywhere we look today, there are prayer rooms. The mere existence of these rooms are fabulous opportunites for all of us to do dawah one way or the other.

Story 3

The sheikh had gone to the post office. Whilst there a kind man called David held the door open for the sheikh for a few minutes. The sheikh was so overcome by David’s kindness that he wanted to give something back as a thank you. The best think he could give back was dawah. So he asked David, ‘Tell me, have you heard of a man called Prophet Mohammad?’ David replied, ‘ Who?, you mean the greatest man in the world?’. The sheikh was taken aback by this comment obviously and asked, ‘ Are you a Muslim?’. David replied no. The sheikh then said, ‘Then how do you know of Mohammad?’. David said that he had recently finished reading a book on the 100 greatest men in the world of which Mohammed was included. The Sheikh then gave David a small booklet on Islam to read and suggested that he call him on Sunday once he had read the book so they could discuss further.

The sheikh swears that he gave the book to David on Friday and Saturday morning, whilst at home having breakfast with his kids, the sheikh’s phone rang. The sheikh answered the phone to which the reply was, ’ Hello, this is Sandra, may I speak to Sheikh Jiani please?’, not used to receiving calls from females he replied,’ Astagfur’Allah who is Sandra?’. Sandra explained that she was the wife of the David whom the Sheikh met yesterday. The Sheikh quickly remembered who David was, Sandra had called to say that David had read the book the Sheikh had given him and was interested in taking Shahadah – Alhamdu’Lillah. The Sheikh was overwhelmed with this news, he quickly gathered together his belongings and rushed to David’s house.

Story 4
One man became Muslim just by learning about istanjah!

A non-Muslim was curious why his Muslim collegue kept taking a bottle of water to the toilet. One day he just had to question him, ‘ Are you having a shower in there or what?’ was the man’s polite way of asking. ‘ No, our religion requires us Muslims to keep clean, even when we use the toilet, that’s what the water is for’ The man exclaimed, ‘Your religion is so pure’ – He later became Muslim

What we can learn from the Sheikh?
The sheikh openly recites the Quran when travelling, especially on the tube.
When the time for prayer is upon him, he will pray anywhere.
He always salams his fellow muslim brother (once he was on the tube and he salaamed a brother, the brother sheepishly looked away and walked away from the sheikh without replying. The sheikh wanted his reply back, so followed the brother through the croweded tube. When he was finally standing next to the brother the sheikh said, ‘Brother, I said Assalamu Alaykum’. The brother quietly looked down and replied, ‘Walikum Salaam’. A sister told me that salaaming your fellow brothers and sisters is a FARD – so don’t ignore it.