After returning to the UK after a month in the USA, I felt compelled to write a brief summary of what I observed during my trip. After returning to the US after 23 years, I am able to compare my observations this trip with my previous visits. Firstly, it is always a joy to visit my brothers for the sake of Allah, many of the brothers in the states I have known for many years and there exists nothing but genuine love between us. On this trip we drove through the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida. It was a wonderful eye-opening trip, I learned so much about the United States throughout the journey but more importantly what I observed of the da’wah of Ahlus Sunnah brought nothing but joy to the heart.
We started out in Newark New Jersey where we were fed a delicious meal of American ‘Soul Food’ at a Muslim owned restaurant in the Newark area. In Jersey we delivered a lecture series with our beloved brothers in Masjid Rahmah, a community that I have known for twenty odd years and have been close to many of the key figures within the community, at the head of them my beloved brother and companion Shaikh Mustapha George – Hafidhahullah.
It was beautiful to see the extensive Arabic and English public library Maktabah Ibnul Qayyim that Shaikh Mustapha set up, a joy to sit in and benefit from, an excellent resource for the community, while sitting in it I was reminded of the libraries in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Islamic University that we used to benefit from during our studies, a place of refuge for the students of knowledge in the city. I ask Allah to reward Sh Mustapha for establishing this source of khair alongside the beneficial duroos being established there.
From New Jersey we travelled to New York to participate in a seminar in the Malcolm X centre in Harlem, which was the very stage Malcolm X was assassinated on.
The hall was filled with all nationalities of varying age groups, many of them vibrant young people of Sunnah striving to establish the dawah in the city of New York. I believe we witnessed the inception of a bright future for the dawah in the area. As we left the building, we faced the very same hospital Malcom X was rushed to after being shot.
We then travelled to Philadelphia to the well-established Masjidus Sunnah of Germantown. After more than 20 years the growth in the area is manifestly apparent, many of the businesses in the area are Muslim owned and some of those businesses run by the Masjid, the proceeds of which maintain Masjid operations. Due to this, we see minimal requests from the community to donate for the dawah, a model all of our communities can take benefit from. There are regular lectures that are well attended with good crowd participation. It is clear that the community is well acquainted with benefiting from duroos as the general level of the students is impressive. Not to mention the fact that we were lead in salaah by an imam that had memorised the qur’aan in the masjid. May Allah reward Shaikh Hassan for his great efforts within the community over the past 20 years and his continuing work and concern, not to mention those who work alongside him such as Shaikh Anwar Wright, Shaikh Abul Hasan and Shaikh Jameel Finch and fundamental back-bone brothers such as our noble beloved brother Jaleel Meekins, the editor of the beneficial ‘Al Minhaaj’ Magazine.
In the house we were staying in, we witnessed a large beaver-like creature foraging in the garden that none of us have ever seen before, we later discovered it was an American Ground hog, the first we have ever seen.
We then travelled to the city of Camden to visit the community of our noble brother and companion Shaikh Abul Hasan Maalik. Another well-seasoned community that have been upon the Sunnah for many years. Shaikh Abul Hasan has put in years of work nurturing the community upon knowledge and the Sunnah and the fruits of that work are clear to see among the brothers who attend the Masjid. It was heart-warming to see familiar faces and many new faces in a masjid that was filled to capacity with students of knowledge and elders. We were amused by the chubby resident raccoon that lives on the grounds of the masjid. Clearly comfortable in the presence of the people of Sunnah, he would nonchalantly walk beside the brothers as though he was about to join the row for Ishaa. May Allah reward Shaikh Abul Hasan for his ongoing good work. I do not meet our noble brother except that he presents me with a new authorship or work
We then drove 7 hours to the community of North Carolina, a community that is dear to me. Shaikh Rasheed Barbee and the brothers there have been active within the community and they have, since the last time I visited, purchased a new masjid with a large plot of land ready for the communities growth. Our brothers there have a lovely warm hospitable community that is always a pleasure to visit.
One really feels the spirit of ‘Southern Hospitality’ love and brotherhood while there, Allahumma Baarik ‘Alaihim.
From North Carolina we travelled to Dallas Texas. This was to be the first long haul journey across states. As we left Carolina our navigator informed us that the our next exit was 1,757km away! We took a solid visit to a Seven Eleven convenience store, filled up the tank and left out! Driving through South Carolina, Georgia (We took a pit stop in Atlanta), Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and finally arriving in Texas. The drive there (with pitstops) was a long 21 hours and we were taken aback by the beauty and greenery we witnessed state to state.
In Dallas we delivered a three-day seminar attended by the community of Dallas and the surrounding areas. Our brothers there have been involved in dawah for over 20 years and had old cassette tapes of popular lectures to prove it. During the course of our stay we travelled to Houston Texas to deliver a lecture to the shabaab there. The lecture was well attended by youth of different backgrounds. Houston has a diverse mix of brothers of varying ethnicities who have a thirst for knowledge and benefit.
The day before my lecture a local soofi approached Sh Hasan after his lecture and raised some issues regarding istighaathah (seeking relief and rescue with the prophets and men of righteousness), Sh Hasan repelled his arguments with simple principles of salafiyah. To my surprise he returned for my lecture the following day, raising the same issues. Sh Hasans sitting with him was sufficient but due to the fact he was claiming he was not given enough time to explain his points, I made sure not to give him that excuse again. Im not an advocate of drawn out debates but I wished only to remove the excuse from him. Some of the brothers were shocked as the individual is a teacher at a local masjid and his real beliefs were unknown to them.
We then returned to Dallas for our final day of the lecture series there and we had the privilege of tasting the famous Texan BBQ, amazing huge helpings of seasoned beef brisket, large ribs and other cuts of meat with Texan bbq sauce and sides, we have not tasted BBQ beef like it, period.
We then travelled for 25 hours from Texas down to West Palm Beach Florida, travelling back through the majority of the Deep Southern states that we mentioned earlier down into the state of Florida. We were warned to be careful in those areas due to the presence of the infamous ‘Sundown Towns’ that we have heard so much about (Notorious towns where people of colour are cautioned to leave town before sundown). Al Hamdulillāh we came across nothing untoward other than when we took a wrong turn off the highway onto a country road into a misty remote town and were then closely tailgated for about 15 minutes in one area, which did admittedly cause us some concern, but the driver eventually overtook us and drove off when a lorry started tailgating him, we later discovered it actually was a sundown town.
As we entered West Palm Beach, it was clear that this was possibly the nicest part of the US we had thus far visited. Filled with Palm Trees, and coastlines it was the epitome of what any non-American would think of when they hear ‘Florida’ it is an aesthetically beautiful place.
The community of West Palm is a warm welcoming community with a nice combination of zealous well-mannered youth and noble elders.
West Palm has a tropical climate and is essentially the Caribbean of America. It has many iguanas roaming free and huge Mayfly’s and other insects and wildlife we were unable to identify. We were caught by the occasional rain shower which in that climate is refreshing. Our noble brother Shareef Al Husseini and those with him do an excellent job of running the affairs within the community ensuring all is well and maintaining a strong bond with the other communities across America.
We then travelled an hour to the faster city of Miami to conduct a marriage ceremony there. Miami is a faster pace multicultural city, though still resemblant to West Palm in many ways.
We continued on our travels, embarking upon a 26-hour journey back north to the East coast area.
On the way to Baltimore we stopped off to visit our brothers in Delaware. By the grace of Allah, our brothers there have managed to purchase a church they now intend to convert into a masjid. The brothers there who accompany our brother Anas Waters, have now received the keys for the property and will be in need of aid and support for the project they have before them. I ask Allah to make it easy for them.
We continued on to visit the community of Baltimore.
The community in Baltimore surprised me in many ways since I was expecting a smaller community but was shocked by the size of the community there. Our noble brother Shaikh Raaha Batts and those with him are doing an excellent job educating and taking care of the needs within the community. I was able to take benefit from the expertise of our brother Shaikh Raaha and was cupped in the clean clinical hijama room in an area within the masjid. It was possibly one of the best if not the best hijama I have ever had. I also saw the extensive hijamah coursebooks authored by our brother Sh Raaha. Allah has blessed our brothers there with a large masjid with unused area that the committee members inform me they have exciting future plans for. I was impressed by some of the youth in Baltimore. From those youth an impressive young man named Bilal Ibn Bilal. He memorised the book of Shaikh Mustapha Mabram concerning the ahadeeth that have two characteristics within them, he produces and sells his own handmade soap, alongside the fact that he is a trainee pilot and he is 16 years old!
We left from Baltimore to travel to the capital of the US, Washington DC. In Washington we met our brothers in a masjid similar in size to the masjid in Baltimore. We arrived at the time of Salaatul Maghrib and were welcomed by our brother Sh Kaashif Khan who is the imam there along with our noble brother Abdul ‘Aleem. I met brothers from many cultural backgrounds, some of whom I had previously met in Madinah or elsewhere. The masjid was filled with students of knowledge both young and old on both of its floors, many of the young students asking beneficial questions after the lecture indicating the zeal for knowledge present within the community.
We then spent our final Jumu’ah and weekend back in Philadelphia before heading to the airport for our return.
As I fly back to the UK, I read from ‘Al Hamadhānis Thesaurus – Selected Arabic Words and Usage’ translated by our beloved brother and companion Sh Anwar Wright. A hugely beneficial work and ‘must have’ source for anyone studying the Arabic Language, whether students of the language and/or those who have proficiency in it. Catching those nuances in the language and conveying them into the english language is an arduous task, and Sh Anwar has done an excellent job of doing so in this work. May Allah make it beneficial for its reader and translator.
Conclusion
- Our brothers in the states have grown the da’wah and their communities upon knowledge, brotherhood and love and that is evident in every community we visited from the north to the south.
- The da’wah in the US has grown exponentially over the last 20 years in a manner that is clearly visible to the one who remembers the da’wah in the states two decades ago, and all praise is due to Allah then to our noble brothers working tirelessly on the ground establishing the da’wah in their respective areas and beyond.
- Alongside being busy teaching the community, our brothers there are busy with authorship. I left the US with a number of authorships and translations. Beneficial works around pertinent topics, numerous books written and compiled by our noble brothers there, an impressive portfolio.
- That which is clearly noted is the spirit of hospitality present among the brothers there, whether those in charge of communities and masaajid or the general brothers and sisters within the community. Brothers always made sure we were well taken care of.
- The Da’wah there is going from strength to strength due to the characteristics present among our brothers there. The characteristics of love, concern, mercy, justice and balance, ongoing connection to the people of knowledge, diligent desire to spread the Sunnah, defence of the people of sunnah, unbiased consideration of affairs, the rejection of taqleed (blind following) of anyone no matter how respected, and the absence of politics or competing for local, regional or national control in their da’wah has clearly propelled their da’wah exponentially. We ask Allah to continue to establish our brothers there and to make them beacons of light for the people of the West.
Wa Sallallahu ‘Alaa Nabiyinaa Muhammad
