Assalam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

The following is my email I sent about 1 week after Eid 2007. As such its a bit rough and it was sent without much editing but here it is.

Eid Mubarak to each and every one of you.
I apologize for the lateness of this email, but alhamdullilah your email box won’t be full of these emails right now since I’m probably the only one sending it so late.

I wanted to send an individual email to each and every one of you, but lifestyle unfortunately does not permit me to do such a thing, which is sad indeed.

We have only 2 celebrations a year, we have our own identity and we stay away from all these batil celebrations - Halloween, Christmas, etc..
we know that a lot of them have their roots in pagan and evil celebrations but the rulers in fact took these polytheistic rituals and made them part of their deen..

We reject all such celebrations.

Even there are some Christians who refuse to celebrate birthdays, and refuse to celebrate Halloween, and even some who wont celebrate what is now known as “Christmas” because of the roots of how it started..

do some research and learn the truth. Isa alaihis salam was not born on December 25th.
see item 5 on Was Jesus really born on December 25th?

but we have to stand strong and realize that Islam is the deen of truth. And we have our own celebrations, our own EID.

Thus, it is very important, especially for those of us living here in the non Muslim countries, to make a big deal of Eid. We have to celebrate, have parties for our kids, buy something nice for our families, and make it super special and remembered.. if we don’t. we will be assimilated…..

may Allah accept all our good deeds and fasting this month, ameen

I just came back from 5 days of Itikaf (voluntary retreat for the purpose of worship)

The masjid that I was at, Masjid Al-Farooq was just recently opened (it used to be like a small house, now its a two million dollar facility (partially finished) just in time for Ramadan. The old masjid is 18 years old so far.

It was a beautiful experience. I urge all of you who have the opportunity to go, to go!
First of all, you will meet wonderful people, insha’Allah, who are more practising than yourself. You will have the opportunity to sit with them and to see them waking up for prayers and constantly reading Quran and making personal sacrifice for the sake of Allah.

You will also meet those who are not so fortunate that they can take time off for itikaf, yet they still are willing to sacrifice their sleep and come to pray at night. It is amazing and heart warming to see those who come and stay for the entire taraweeh prayer, leaving around 11pm, and then returning the next day between 3 to 5am to worship Allah, AND THEN to go to work between 8 to 10am.

Now, I was also amazed at the sheer number of people that come for Qiyam and Suhoor and Fajr during this week. It was outstanding. There was literally at least 60-100 people every night. It makes you realize that if you don’t wake up to pray, then tons of others are going to do it and replace you. There were also kind souls who brought us Somali tea everyday at taraweeh and qiyam

I also learned something I didn’t know about being in the masjid - namely one that worldly talk is not allowed.

I was also sad about a few things…

I also felt that itikaf is not really the time to be listening to the Quran, say, on your MP3 player, or iPod, but rather, it’s the time to be in active worship of Allah.

That also, Allahu Alem, it is better for you to stand up and pray at night rather than sitting at the back and reading Quran along with the imam.

Even reading the Quran in prayer is not recommended, and Ibn Uthaymeen even said it is contrary to the sunnah to hold the mushaf during prayer because it means you are fiddling and making more movements, and also because you will not be concentrating on the place of sujood (prostration).

I am taking a vacation for the sake of Allah. I took 1 week off work, and for the next days I will be performing itikaf at the masjid. This means I will be sleeping there and eating there, and inshaAllah waking up to pray qiyam ul-layl.

The feelings that go through my mind as I prepare for this. Shaytan attacks those that want to do good deeds. You start to get doubts, to wonder, why am I doing this? Can’t I do something better with my 1 week vacation, such as go for a trip with my wife, or stay home and look for a new job, or improve my technical skills, etc, etc..

Also I have concerns, will my wife be okay with the kids, doing the shopping, take care of the house, and so on… ?

Infact, the feelings that go through my heart is that this is a small glimpse of what the companions felt when they had to go for jihad. And it was even more scary, because they didn’t know what food they would eat, they didn’t even know if they would come home, or when.

And it was fardh for them to go out. The deen’s very survival necessitated such a struggle.

O you who believe! What is the matter with you, that when you are asked to march forth in the Cause of Allah (i.e. Jihad) you cling heavily to the earth? Are you pleased with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? But little is the enjoyment of the life of this world as compared with the Hereafter. (Interpretation by Muhsin Khan)

(Quran 9:38)

A mighty test indeed. May Allah make us of those who remember the struggle of the companions and the Prophet, their sacrifice, and help us to return to the sunnah (way of the Prophet, SAllahu alaiyhi wa salam which was prescribed by Allah) and the correct understanding of the deen, ameen. May Allah make us of those who willingly give our lives and our properties in return for jannah, ameen.