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How a diversecommunity of Muslims ismaking thisevergreen city amajor hub ofIslamic activitiesin the PacificNorthwest

FAITHFULin Seattle

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DESIGN & LAYOUT BY: Omar El-Haddad, DesignWorksCopyeditor: Jay Willoughby

The views expressed in Islamic Horizons are not necessarily the views of its editors nor of the Islamic Society of North America.

Islamic Horizons does not accept unsolicitated articles or submissions.

All references to the Qur'an made are from The Holy Qur'an: Text,Translation and Commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Amana, Brentwood, MD.

C O N T E N T SVOL.39 NO.6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010

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DEPARTMENTSEditorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6ISNA Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8National News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Food for the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Matrimonials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

COVER STORY:

Faithful in Seattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The growth of the Puget Sound region’s diverseMuslim community is evident beyond mosquesand covers a widerange of activities.

Talking to Neighbors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Student Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 SPIRITF O O D F O R T H E

PAGE 58

s

FEATURE: Marriage Guide . . . . . . . . . . . 17

A ten-step guide to prepare young men and women for the reality of an actual and long-term marriage.Mr. and Mrs. Perfectly Charming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Learning From Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Why Doctors Marry Doctors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26A Tale of Two Marriages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

ISLAM IN AMERICAA Legacy Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Black America’s Path to Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Toronto Forgotten First Mosque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48The Immigrant Imam and his Family in America . . . . . . . 51

PROFILE: Dr. Qaisar Shah - Expert Healer . . . . . . . . . 52QUR’AN: The Early History of the Mushaf . . . . . . . . . . 54

TRIBUTES: Dr. Fathi Osman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 20106 ISLAMIC HORIZONS

D

PUBLISHERThe Islamic Society of North America(ISNA)

PRESIDENTMohamed Hagmagid Ali

SECRETARY GENERALSafaa Zarzour______________________

EDITOR

Omer Bin Abdullah______________________

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Susan Douglass (Chair); Dr. Jimmy Jones;Dr. Sulayman Nyang; Dr. Ingrid Mattson.______________________

ISLAMIC HORIZONSis a bimonthly publication of the IslamicSociety of North America (ISNA) P.O. Box 38 • Plainfield IN 46168-0038 Copyright ©2010All rights reserved

Reproduction, in whole or in part, of this material in mechanical orelectronic form without writtenpermission is strictly prohibited.

Islamic Horizons magazine is available electronically on ProQuest’s Ethnic NewsWatch andLexisNexis, and is indexed by Readers’Guide to Periodical Literature.Please see your librarian for access. The name “Islamic Horizons” is protected through trademark registration ISSN 8756-2367 ______________________

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CORRESPONDENCESend all correspondence and/or Lettersto the Editor at: Islamic HorizonsP.O. Box 38 • Plainfield, IN 46168-0038E-main: [email protected]

Keep Pandora’sBox Closed

During Ramadan, a passenger in aNew York City taxi decided to slash

the neck of a driver with a knifeupon learning that he was a Mus-lim. In Queens, a man walked intoa mosque and disrupted the prayerassembly by urinating on the prayerrugs while yelling “terrorists.” Ten-

nessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramseyclaimed that First Amendment reli-gious rights may not apply to Mus-lims and that Islam may not be a

real religion. At the site of aplanned Islamic center and mosque

in Murfreesboro, TN, Muslimsreported hearing gunshots as theyinspected construction equipmentthat was damaged by an arsonist’sfire the night before. The FBI invit-

ed Robert Spencer, cofounder of“Stop the Islamization of America,”

to train state and federal lawenforcement officers. Terry Jones,

the pastor of an approximately fifty-member non-denominational

church dominated the mainstreammedia for weeks by threatening to

burn the Qur’an on 9/11.The proposed Park51 project inlower Manhattan has provided

Islamophobes with new opportuni-ties to exploit 9/11-related senti-ments. Having failed to stop the

project, they are now asking that itbe “moved” further away from the

“hallowed ground” of GroundZero. In short, they want to create a“no mosque” zone. If this Pandora’sBox is opened, mosque-free zoneswill spread across the nation asmore and more mosque applica-

tions are rejected. To prevent sucha tragedy, Muslims can neither sur-

render their First Amendmentrights nor make any compromise.

This is not the America that theworld knows and respects.In his iftar speech, President Oba-

ma firmly reiterated his support forthe rights allowed by the FirstAmendment to all citizens, irrespec-tive of their color, race, and religion:“As a citizen, and as President, Ibelieve that Muslims have the sameright to practice their religion aseveryone else in this country. Andthat includes the right to build aplace of worship and a communitycenter on private property in LowerManhattan, in accordance withlocal laws and ordinances. This isAmerica. And our commitment toreligious freedom must be unshake-able. The principle that people of allfaiths are welcome in this countryand that they will not be treated dif-ferently by their government isessential to who we are. The writ ofthe Founders must endure.”New York mayor Bloomberg told

the iftar audience members at Gra-cie Mansion: “[L]et me declare thatwe in New York are Jews and Chris-tians and Muslims, and we alwayshave been. And above all of that, weare Americans, each with an equalright to worship and pray where wechoose. There is nowhere in the fiveboroughs that is off limits to anyreligion. By affirming that basicidea, we will honor America’s val-ues and we will keep New York themost open, diverse, tolerant, andfree city in the world. Thank you.”Dean Rusk (d. 1994), who served

as secretary of state under presi-dents Kennedy and Johnson, onceexplained to Congress why it is soimportant for us to live up to ourideals here at home: “The UnitedStates is widely regarded as thehome of democracy and the leaderof the struggle for freedom, forhuman rights, for human dignity.We are expected to be the model.” As Muslim citizen of this great

country, we have the obligation tosee that America retains its statusas a model nation. This is the true“American exceptionalism.”

EDITORIAL

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Mirza, an American-born Muslim withan M.B.A. from the University ofMaryland, is the youngest person everelected to an ISNA leadership position.She currently works as a strategy con-sultant. She also has a track record ofsuccessful leadership in her roles asfounder of the MSA Legacy Fund andas a founding member of GeorgetownUniversity’s “Campaign Civil Rights.”Mirza actively supported ISNA’sgrowth as the 2007-09 MSA presidentand a former committee member onthe ISNA Majlis Youth Committee, theAnnual Convention Program Commit-tee, the Secretary General SearchCommittee (2007-10), and as an ISNAconvention and conference speaker.Dr. Ihsan Bagby, a well-respected

scholar and a University of Kentuckyprofessor of Islamic studies, has numer-ous publications and research projectsrelated to mosques in America to hiscredit. He currently leads the 2010Mosque Study in collaboration withleading institutions of research, educa-tion, and religion. Dr. Bagby has servedthe Muslim community for decades asa committed ISNA member, a previousISNA acting-secretary general, a CAIRNational board member, and a MANAsecretary general. In addition, he sitson the ISNA Chaplain EndorsementBoard and the Fiqh Council of NorthAmerica. Dr. Mohamed Bekkar, an Ottawa,

Ontario-based child clinical and schoolpsychologist, as well as the currentpresident of ISNA Canada, has spentmore than thirty years on various ISNAcommittees, MSA boards. Fully en-gaged at the national level, he still findstime to remain actively involved in thelocal communities of Ottawa and Ed-monton (Canada).

ISNA has elected Imam MohamedHagmagid Ali as its new president.Imam Magid, who acquired his reli-

gious education as a resident scholar atAl-Medina Institute, is the executive di-rector of the All Dulles Area MuslimSociety (ADAMS), located in Sterling,VA. Prior to his election, he served asISNA’s East Zone representative andvice president. The new president has a long history

of public involvement: the PeacefulFamilies Project, the Annual Twinningof Mosques and Synagogues, the Fair-fax Faith Communities in Action, theInterfaith Conference of MetropolitanWashington Assembly, the Buxton In-terfaith Initiative, and with similar or-ganizations. He is also well known forhis family counseling expertise. Hon-ored as a “2009 Washingtonians of theYear,” he has been recognized by theState of Virginia and other governmentagencies for his exemplary communityservice on the behalf of Muslims andencouraging a better understanding ofIslam. “ISNA has grown tremendously un-

der the leadership of [two-term] presi-dent Ingrid Mattson, with whomImam Magid worked closely for twoterms as ISNA vice president, and welook forward to the same kind of dedi-cation and positive direction in leader-ship and organizational changes fromImam Magid in his term as president,”said ISNA secretary general SafaaZarzour. “He will bring consistency tothe organization, as he helped shapemany of the positive changes initiatedby President Mattson, such as term

ISNA President:Imam Mohamed Magid; ISNA Vice President-USA:Azhar Azeez; ISNA Majlis Members Dr. Ihsan Bagby and Asma Mirza; ISNA Vice President-Canada:Dr. Mohamed Bekkari

ISNA Elects New Executive

limits for ISNA leaders, and we knowhe will move forward with thesechanges with the able assistance of hisnew vice president.”Azhar Azeez, the new vice president

of ISNA-US, currently serves as the na-tional head of Islamic Relief USA’scommunity fund development. In addi-tion to chairing the ISNA Youth andother committees, he has been a zonalrepresentative and a member of ISNA’sExecutive Council for the Central Zone.A founder and president of the IslamicAssociation of Carrolton, as well as thefounder and past president of CAIR’ssouthwest chapter, Azeez has workedwith the Muslim Community Center forHuman Services, been the founder andmoderator of the weekly “GlobalNewsletter,” and authored articles forseveral newspapers and magazines.The elections returned three new

Majlis al-Shura members: Asma Yaqub

ISNAMATTERS

ISNA has growntremendouslyunder the

leadership of presidentIngrid Mattson, with whomImam Magid worked closelyfor two terms as ISNA vicepresident, and we lookforward to the same kind ofdedication and positivedirection in leadership andorganizational changesfrom Imam Magid in histerm as president.”—ISNA SECRETARY GENERAL SAFAA ZARZOUR

‘‘

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010 9ISLAMIC HORIZONS

I ftar receptions hosted by the WhiteHouse and various federal agenciesand departments and state govern-

ments are now a regular feature of Mus-lim American life.The first one for 2010 was the iftar

hosted by President Obama on 13 Aug.,where guests included [outgoing] ISNApresident Dr. Ingrid Mattson and ISNAvice president Imam Mohamed Magid.Muslim diplomats from around theworld, as well as political, religious, andcommunity leaders, also attended.President Obama informed the gath-

ering of a little-known fact of Americanhistory: President Thomas Jeffersonhosted the first White House iftar over200 years to honor the first Muslim am-bassador to America — he was fromTunisia — during Ramadan.Responding to Obama’s assurance

that Muslims have the same right of allother Americans to practice their reli-gion, Dr. Mattson thanked him for mak-ing it “clear that the right to religiousfreedom for all, including Muslim Amer-icans, is supported by our President.”In New York, Mayor Michael

Bloomberg used his iftar speech to re-mind everyone that Muslims are entitledto the same protection of their religiousfreedom as are all other Americans.

In Washington, DC, the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture (DOA) and the Co-ordinating Council of Muslim Organiza-tions (CCMO) paired for an iftar on 31Aug. This event was preceded by a work-shop at which leaders from Muslim or-ganizations around the nation, particu-larly social service organizations, wereaddressed by representatives from,among others, the DOA, Faith-Basedand Neighborhood Partnerships, Healthand Human Services, the White House,the Department of Education, and theDepartment of Homeland Security.They learned how Muslim nonprofits,mosques, Islamic centers, and social ser-vice organizations can strengthen theircommunities through acquiring more di-rect access to those opportunities provid-ed to federal-level social service agencies. Also on 31 Aug., Imam Magid and

Monem Salam (West Zone Representa-tive, ISNA) joined a select group of Mus-lim leaders for an iftar hosted by the U.S.Department of Treasury. They met withTreasury Secretary Timothy Geithnerand discussed issues facing the Muslimcommunity. In Indianapolis, Gov. Mitch Daniels

hosted the state’s sixth iftar, which wassponsored by the Muslim Alliance of Indi-ana at the Indiana Statehouse on 26 Aug.

National Recognitionfor Muslims

President Barack Obama delivers remarks during aniftar dinner celebrating Ramadan in the State DiningRoom of the White House, Aug. 13, 2010_________________________________________________

Ft. Hood VictimsHonored

S afaa Zarzour joined Abed Ay-oub (CEO, Islamic ReliefUSA), Dr. Mohamed F. Ash-

mawey, and Azhar Azeez on 29 Ju-ly for a visit to Ft. Hood, TX, thenation’s largest military base. Ac-

companiedby ChaplainLt. Col. Ab-dul RasheedMuhammad,the groupwas wel-comed by Lt.Gen. DonaldJones (ret.; aformerdeputy sec-retary of de-

fense under Reagan) and Ron Tay-lor (president, Association of theUS Army; AUSA). While touringthe base, they visited the chaplain-cy, the spiritual center, the hall ofremembrance, and other facilities.They also met with Egyptian-bornWagdy Mabrouk, a 27-year armyveteran who now serves as a layleader at the base. He leads theFriday congregational prayer, pro-vides counseling, and conductsRamadan-related activities. Senior military officers, city

council members, local leaders ofthe Killeen mosque, and otherAUSA members joined them forlunch at the clubhouse. Chaplain Abdul Rasheed stated

that there are currently 5,000Muslims in the US armed forces aswell as eleven Muslim chaplains.The officers lauded the Muslimservicemen and women and ex-pressed their highest respect andregard for them and their faith.They also remarked upon theirgreat pride in the diversity of reli-gions represented in the US army. Ayoub and Zarzour presented

checks on behalf of the delegationfor the victims’ families of the Ft.Hood tragedy and spoke aboutthe work of ISNA and Islamic Re-lief. The delegation from theArmy thanked both groups fortheir support. The group also visited Masjid

At-Taqwa, Killeen, and met withmembers of the local community.

Safaa Zarzour

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO

BY PETE SO

UZA

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T he nation’s top faith leadersjoined ISNA at an emergencyinterfaith summit on 7 Sept.

to address the surge in anti-Muslimrhetoric and Islamophobia. Followingthis event, Christian, Jewish, Muslim,and other faith leaders held a widelycovered press conference — telecastlive on CNN and C-Span— to informthe general public on how they plan toaddress these worrying trends, whichhave only intensified during the de-bate over the Park 51 project. They al-so discussed the threatened burning ofthe Qur’an in Gainesville, FL. Attor-ney General Eric Holder also met withthem to address the same issues.

ISNA convened the meeting to raisea shared religious voice underscoringthe clergy’s moral responsibility tocommunicate the need for solidarityand compassion, devise a plan of ac-tion for interfaith collaboration, anddiscuss the state of interfaith solidari-ty and solutions to these trends. Theirstatement declared: “Religious lead-ers denounce anti-Muslim bigotryand call for respect for America’s tra-dition of religious liberty. As religiousleaders in this great country we havecome together in our nation’s capitolto denounce categorically the deri-sion, misinformation, and outrightbigotry being directed to the Ameri-can Muslim community. We bear a

sacred responsibility to honor Amer-ica’s very favorite traditions and topromote a culture of mutual respectin assurance of religious freedom forall. In advance of the ninth anniver-sary of the September 11 attacks, weannounce a new era of interfaith co-operation ... silence, silence, silenceis not an option.”Safaa Zarzour remarked: “Ameri-

ca is a country built on [the] freedomof religion, and it is unfortunate thatso many Americans are now afraid toenjoy that freedom and pray. Themeeting with the attorney generalsends a message that intimidation,hate, and violence against any mem-ber of any religion is intolerable [to]the U.S. government.” Participants included Cardinal

Theodore McCarrick (ArchbishopEmeritus of Washington, DC), BishopMark Sisk (Episcopal Church Bishopof New York), and Rabbi David Saper-stein (the Religious Action Center ofReform Judaism). Leaders from theUnited States Conference of CatholicBishops, the National Council ofChurches, the Evangelical LutheranChurch in America, the Greek Or-thodox Archdiocese of America, theUnited Synagogue of ConservativeJudaism, the Reconstructionist Rab-binical College, the Foundation forEthnic Understanding, the Archdio-cese of New York, and the Archdio-cese of Washington, DC.

Faith Leaders Join ISNA to AddressIslamophobia

ISNA’s Timely and Effective Response to Bigotry

T his year’s Ramadan came with many chal-lenges. “As we examined our lives as Mus-lims, we also had to worry about events in

New York, Tennessee, Florida, and elsewhere inthe country that are impacting upon mosques andMuslim communities,” said Safaa Zarzour. ISNAsought to be proactive and positive in its response. ISNA’s leadership held several consultative

meetings to search for a better way to address thegrowing anti-Muslim bigotry. In the spirit of bring-ing America’s faith leaders together to discussthis alarming phenomenon and to form a unifiedresponse to it, ISNA organized an emergency in-terfaith summit in Washington, DC, on 7 Sept.The resulting turnout represented the largest andmost diverse religious gathering around a singleissue in recent memory. The joint statement ex-pressed profound distress and deep sadness overincidents of violence committed against Muslimsand by the desecration of Islamic houses of wor-ship. Religious leaders shared this statement inlocal diocesan and ecumenical agencies nation-wide. All media outlets carried positive accountsof the summit; CNN and C-Span provided live cov-erage. The media coverage decidedly changed thenational scene from one of Muslims having to de-bate the merit of a given project into people offaith in America standing together in support ofreligious freedom and the right of Muslims to befree from bigotry and hate rhetoric.U.S Attorney General Eric Holder declared:

“Americans of every faith have the right to wor-ship and practice their religion in peace, and theDepartment [of Justice] will continue to workwith its state and local partners to ensure thatthis right is upheld.”From Vatican City to small farms in Georgia,

our fellow citizens began issuing statements sup-porting the Muslims’ religious rights. Theylaunched their own initiatives in their local com-munities — all the while looking to ISNA as a re-source. Also, many state-level Muslim communi-ties organized similar interfaith gatheringsinspired by our summit. In Illinois, Zarzour partici-pated in a gathering after the Eid al-Fitr prayer,where sixteen speakers from different religiousdenominations voiced their support for MuslimAmerican rights. In addition, hundreds of articles,blogs, and requests for interviews with ISNAleaders were made. By undertaking this emergency interfaith sum-

mit, ISNA answered the call from our community tosafeguard our rights to practice our religion freely.ISNA, however, must now implement the next stepsand actions suggested by the summit’s partici-pants, which requires continued financial support.

ISNAMATTERS

_______________________________________________

BEYOND PARK 51: Religious leaders denounceanti-Muslim bigotry and call for respect forAmerica’s tradition of religious liberty

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The PresidentWears a Hijab

T oronto-based Queen’s Uni-versity Alma Mater Society(AMS) has elected Safiah

Chowdhury (class of 2011) presi-dent for the 2010-11 term. Chowd-hury, along with running matesvice-president (operations) BenHartley (class of 2011) and vice-president (university affairs) ChrisRudnicki (class of 2011), captured54.5 percent of the undergraduatevote, even though they were allfrom one faculty. She is the secondMuslim woman to serve in this ca-pacity — Taz Pirmohamed (classof 1995) was the first (1994-95).Now responsible for a Can$14

million budget, she hopes thatpeople will come to know her forwhat she accomplishes during hertenure rather than for her religion.An involved person since her highschool days, Chowdhury has alsoserved as MYNA-Canada presi-dent (2006-07) and volunteeredwith the campus MSA and theAMS Social Issues Commission.She hopes to use the society’sleverage to induce a positive at-mosphere on campus, one that re-flects students’ views in adminis-trative decisions.Chowdhury told Jane Switzer

(class of 2010) (“Queen’s AlumniReview,” 2010, Issue #2): “I thinkthat there are certain things youcan do by ensuring all program-ming is accessible to everyone, andensuring all students feel represent-ed in AMS programming. Whenthe AMS president sits on so manyboards and attends so many meet-ings, I think it’s important that heor she knows what the students’ in-terests are and keeps them as theirNumber One priority, beyond anyof the other bureaucratic stuff.”

S ome twenty Muslim American lead-ers representing national Islamicorganizations met in New York City

on 19 Sept. to discuss the rising wave ofIslamophobia and how to protect thecommunity’s constitutional rights. Organized and hosted by the Majlis

Ash-Shura of Metropolitan New York(the Islamic Leadership Council of NewYork), which comprises more than fifty-five area mosques and Islamic organiza-tions, the group drafted and approved asix-point “Core Principals of Coopera-tion.” The participants included ImamMohamed Majid (ISNA president), Dr.Ahmed Elbendary (president, MuslimAmerican Society), Dr. Zahid Bukhari(president, Islamic Circle of North Amer-ica), Nihad Awad (executive director,Council on American Islamic Relations),Imam Siraj Wahhaj (amir, Muslim Al-liance in North America), Dr. MuzammilSiddiqi (chairman, Islamic Fiqh Councilof North America), Imam Ashrafuz Za-man Khan (president, North AmericanImams Federation), Imam Mahdi Bray(executive director, MAS Freedom andJustice Foundation), Abdul Malik Mu-jahid (board chairman, Parliament ofWorld Religions), Imam Asim A. Rashid(amir, Majlis Philadelphia), Haris Tarin(director, Muslim Public Affairs Coun-cil), and M. Salim Akhtar (executive di-rector, American Muslim Taskforce.Zaheer Uddin (executive director, Maj-

lis Ash-Shura NY) urged attendees to

find ways to deal with bigotry and Islam-ophobia as a short-term goal and figureout how to pool their resources and coor-dinate their efforts effectively. Imam Al-Amin Abdul Latif (president, Majlis Ash-Shura NY) stated that the last time sucha high-level meeting had been convenedwas in 1991 to discuss the first Gulf war. There was not enough time to formulate

the specific shape of unity platform. How-ever, some points of cooperation werediscussed and approved by the attendees.One of the important points that relatedwith the cooperation that was adopted,reads: “We agree to an enhanced level ofnational communication, cooperation,coordination and support for each otheron issues of common concern that impactthe Muslim community.”The leaders also expressed their out-

rage and condemnation of those who areintentionally engaging in this “un-Amer-ican” bigotry. One after the other, theyall emphasized that Muslims must beproactive, present an accurate picture ofIslam and Muslims, and invite non-Mus-lims to mosques and community centers.This latter effort will be inaugurated on17-24 Oct. by a “Week of Dialogue,” dur-ing which the country’s mosques will or-ganize open houses and feature specialseminars and programs. The 20 Sept. press conference held in

front of the Park 51 project site was cov-ered by more than fifty media organiza-tions. The leaders met with projectmembers and assured them of their sup-port and reiterated the Muslims’ right tobuild their mosques in places of theirown choice.

Muslim AmericanLeaders Stress Rights

UNITY: Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, second vicepresident of Majlis Shura,calls for unity amongMuslim organizations tocounter Islamophobia

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S affet Abid Catovic (ISNAEast Zone Rep – US) willjoin the 2011 class of the

GreenFaith (greenfaith.org) Fel-lowship, America’s only compre-hensive education and trainingprogram designed to prepare layand ordained leaders for envi-ronmental leadership. This classconsists of twenty-five Jewish,Muslim, Evangelical, Pente-costal, Roman Catholic, main-line Protestant, and UnitarianUniversalist fellows. Always ac-tive in his community, Catovic isthe founder and current chairand chartered organization rep-resentative of Boy Scout Troop#114, New Jersey’s first officialMuslim Boy Scout Troop; it ischartered by Noor-Ul-ImanSchool and the Islamic Societyof Central Jersey. The program includes educa-

tion and training in eco-theolo-gy, “greening” an institution’soperation, environmental advo-cacy, and environmental justice.

Each fellow writes a personaleco-theological statement andundertakes a community leader-ship project that will mobilizereligious leaders around an en-vironmental issue. Upon gradu-ating, he/she will join the fellow-ship’s alumnae network andmentor other emerging leaders.Catovic, who serves on the

board of several religious andcivic institutions, including theIslamic Society of Essex County,said: “We need to contextualize‘green activism’ in our own reli-gious traditions and, more im-portantly, explore areas wherewe can work together in concreteways towards a more sustaian-able environment for our cominggenerations. As they say in scout-ing, ‘Leave more wood on thepile than when we found it.’” Founded 1992, GreenFaith is

an interfaith environmentalcoalition dedicated to educatingreligious communities for envi-ronmental leadership.

The Islamic Medical Association of NorthAmerica (IMANA) installed its newexecutive committee during its 43rd annualconference in Istanbul. Dr. Abida Haquehas served on its executive and othercommittees for several years. A professor ofpathology at Houston’s Methodist Hospital,she has dedicated her professional life toeducating medical students and residentswhile practicing pathology. She has to hercredit more than 100 publications, manycoedited books on pulmonary pathology, and close to 100 papersand abstracts presented at national and international events. Inaddition, she has served on ISNA’s Bylaws and Election Committee.In her new capacity as IMANA’s president, she will be a member ofISNA’s Majlis al-Shura for the duration of her term (2010-11).

A charitable, nonprofit, and educational organization of MuslimAmerican physicians and allied health professionals established in1967, IMANA promotes the understanding and appreciation ofIslamic medicine and encourages collegial professional interactionamong all health professionals.

IMANA Installs New President

13ISLAMIC HORIZONS

Catovic JoinsGreenFaithFellowship

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Attorney and long-time met-ropolitan Phoenix activistZarinah Nadir has been se-lected to participate in Val-ley Leadership’s Class 32Leadership Institute.Nadir, managing attorney

and founder of Mesa’s (AZ)Zarinah T. Nadir, LLC lawfirm, is secretary of the Is-lamic Social Services Asso-ciation-USA’s board of di-rectors; a member of theexecutive committee of Al-Mu’minah, Arizona’s longestrunning Muslim youth asso-ciation; first vice-chair ofLegislative District 21; andsits on the committee of theArizona Muslim Police Advi-sory Board. She previouslyserved as the director of ad-missions at the Sandra DayO’Connor College of Law atArizona State University,where she earned her lawdegree (2006). Most re-cently, she joined the Uni-versity of Southern Califor-nia Center for Religion andCivic Culture’s AmericanMuslim Civic Leadership In-stitute as a fellow in its2010-11 class. Valley Leadership, metro-

politan Phoenix’s oldest andlargest leadership develop-ment organization, engages,educates, and challengescurrent and emerging leadersto actively strengthen andtransform their communities.Each year fifty individuals areselected through a competi-tive process to participate inthe nine-month institute.

NEWS BRIEFS^ Alton, IL has recognized Dr. Sadiq Mohyuddinby dedicating an oriental garden in his hon-or. Laid out in five-acre lot landscaped anddeveloped by Dr. Mohyuudin to benefit thebi-state Illinois-Missouri residents, the esti-mated $300,000 twenty-year project wasopened on 9 June by Alton mayor TomHoeschst in the presence of Rep. JerryCostello, St. Louis mayor Francis Slay, andIllinois state senator William R. Haine.

^ The Chicago-based Muslim Women’s Al-liance (MWA) continued its Ramadan Rush forRewards campaign. Launched in 2009 bySabina Abdul-Qadir (director, community ser-vice), participants in its five events logged over1,000 hours of hands-on community service. The alliance again partnered with the UMMA

Center’s “Adopt a Refugee Family Initiative”by welcoming the Iraqi Mutual Aid Society’sthirty refugees in early June and helpingthem become familiar with their new country.Anisha Ismail Patel (founder and executive

director) applauded the volunteers for rollingup their sleeves and actively contributing tothe community.

^ Salma Arastu, a Berkeley-based artist, hadher works exhibited in Russian and Americangalleries. Her 3’ tall aluminum sculpture, “TheFamily,” was displayed during the Sept. open-ing of an international exhibition organized byRussia’s Ekateringburg Art Foundation. Initi-ated in Russia by the foundation in 2005, thisexhibit focused on “In Family Unity — Unity ofthe Nation.” Arastu’s 6’ tall steel “Allah” is currently part

of Sonoma Valley Art Museum’s “Visions ofParadise” exhibition, which will run from 21Aug. to 7 Nov. Her 8’ tall steel “Dancing with

NATIONALNEWSZarinah NadirJoins PrestigiousInstitute

“Islamic Horizons” welcomes letters about any article that has ap-peared recently in the magazine. A letter must include the writer’smailing address, telephone number, and e-mail. We may edit lettersfor clarity, civility and accuracy, and they may be shortened for spacerequirements. We regret that we are unable to acknowledge letters.E-mailed to: [email protected].

Tips on Writing a Letter to the Editor:• Write concisely and clearly.• Keep it to 150 words at most.• Letters are not rejected for publication because of their politicalcoloration. On the contrary, Letters to the Editor is a forum for a va-riety of voices. Some criticize, some seek to set the record straight,some want to add a different perspective or expertise to an issue.We welcome them all: the agreers, the dissenters, the critics, thecurmudgeons, and even those who are happy with us.• “Islamic Horizons” and its parent, the Islamic Society of NorthAmerica (ISNA), reserve the right to include a response to any let-ter they deem.• We do not accept open letters, and we do not publish letters sentin a coordinated letter-writing campaign.

How to Submit a Letter to the Editor

Stars” was installed in Sept. by Urban Trees 7 atthe Port of San Diego, and her four pieces of Ara-bic calligraphy are featured in a group exhibitionat Berkeley’s Doug Adams Gallery.

^ Faithful Democracy, a national interfaith coali-tion that promotes appropriate civic participationamong people of faith and religious organizations,has joined the interfaith coalition. Stronglygrounded in the firm belief that its members’Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Unitarian Univer-salist values call for them to be “respectfully andresponsibly involved in public life,” it providesguidance about appropriate electoral activitiesand offers helpful resources and opportunities forcoordinated action. The full statement, as well asresources on civility and civic participation, areavailable at www.faithfuldemocracy.org.

^ Michigan State Universi-ty’s (MSU) Muslim StudiesProgram is now endowed.Created as the MuslimStudies initiative shortlyafter 9/11, it quickly grewinto an undergraduateMuslim Studies Specializa-tion (2004) and a MuslimStudies Program (2006).The Muslim Benefactors of

the Muslim Studies Endowment was started todemonstrate support for Muslim Studies at MSU.The endowment will support program and facultyresearch. At least sixty students have graduatedfrom this program; seventy students are currentlyenrolled in it. Dr. Mohammed Ayoob (DistinguishedProfessor of International Relations; MSU JamesMadison College, Department of Political Science)serves as the program’s coordinator.

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Imam Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad of Masjid Al-Ikhlas,Newburgh, NY (third from left) has received the OrangeCounty (NY) 2010 human rights award for “promotingcommunication, cooperation, and respectful coexistenceamong faith-based religions” in the county.In addition to serving as chaplain at the Fishkill, NY,

medium-security correctional facility and president of theNewburgh Community Action Committee, his active en-gagement with others has been recognized via the OrangeCounty Legislative Outstanding Community Service andCommitment to Human Rights Award, Certificate of Spe-cial Congressional Recognition for Outstanding and In-valuable Service to the Community, and the New YorkState Assembly Certificate of Merit. Imam Muhammad,59, is a doctoral candidate at Hartford Seminary.

A nonprofit organization thathas provided broadcasting andeducational resources to north-west and west-central Ohio andsoutheast Michigan for morethan fifty-five years, WGTEPublic Media operates The Edu-cational Resource Center andThe Early Learning and Out-reach Center.Dr. Hussain is an award-win-

ning photographer, internation-ally recognized explorer, award-winning author, and asurgeon-teacher-researcher. Forthe past sixteen years, he hasused his op-ed column in the“Toledo Blade” and other Ameri-can and international newspa-pers to bring a moderate voice ofreason to otherwise contentiousand polarizing geopolitical is-sues. He currently holds an emer-itus professorship in thoracic andcardiovascular surgery at theUniversity of Toledo and is amember of its board of trustees.

New Chairman for Ohio Public TV and RadioThe board of directors of ThePublic Broadcasting Foundationof Northwest Ohio (WGTE Pub-lic Media) has elected Dr. S. Am-jad Hussain chairman of its gov-erning board.

Imam Receives Human Rights Award

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Mr. &Mrs.Perfectly

CharmingHere’s my ten-step

guide to a real successful marriage.

Yours truly,

Hiba Masood

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tatistics on the state ofMuslim marriages in NorthAmerica, even if readily avail-able, would not represent a

complete picture. If theyshow that divorce israpidly increasing,what they do notshow is the countless

individuals trapped inunhappy marriages. Such

statistics would also proveto be pointless because our

first instinct is to say “Not in myhome” or “Not to my children.”When I graduated from university,

many of my friends and colleagueswere recently married, about to getmarried, or looking to get married.Soon enough, I began hearing of all theweddings that took place and happilyattended the requisite bridal showersand gushed over the pictures of wed-ded bliss. It seemed as if they had allfound their life partners and were set-

ting up house and beginningtheir families. In the in-

tervening six yearsbetween thenand today, morethan eight of

the girls I

A G U I D E T O R E A L S U C C E S S F U L M A R R I A G E

had known were divorced. No real rea-sons were given, but in the generalscheme of things that did not matter.The reality was — and is — that MuslimNorth American marriages are morevulnerable today than ever before.For Muslims, marriage is the second

most important relationship of life; thefirst and most essential is one’s relation-ship with God, for that relationship di-rectly affects every other relationship. Ifthey are steadfast in faith and obey thedirectives of God and His Prophet (sallaAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), then theywill be more able to embody love, kind-ness, honesty, and justice in their dailydealings with others.This narrative can be applied to mari-

tal relationships. If a couple’s marriageis thriving, each spouse will be a positiveforce in all other human and divine rela-tionships. A healthy and thriving mar-riage makes the world a beautiful place.When they feel loved by the other, theylove their children even more. Whenthey feel respected by the other, they re-spect their parents more. When theyfeel appreciated, they pass on their joyto the larger community. Unfortunately,the converse also holds true. In short,each spouse must strive to make themarriage survive and flourish.Islam views marriage as being based

on the following premises: (1) marriageis highly encouraged and considered anobligation that fulfills half of one’s faith;(2) the stronger one’s relationship withGod, the better one’s marriage; and (3)the keys to a long-lasting and healthyrelationship can be found in theQur’an, the Sunnah, and the ways ofthe scholars. Thus, much of what hasbeen said will be familiar to the aver-age Muslim. We know the requisiteQur’anic verses and hadith; however,mere familiarity is not enough for theday-to-day, mundane, rollercoaster ridethat is marriage. Though our youthmay be well versed in the theory and

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one-quarter end within two years. America nowhas the highest divorce rate in the world. Expertsblame this on an instant-gratification, throwaway-mentality culture that serves up such matchmak-ing rubbish as “The Bachelor” as well as an adoles-cence that may extend into one’s twenties.

Not surprisingly, we see the same patternsamong our own young people. As they have in-creasingly made notions of love, soul mates, andemotional fulfillment primary reasons for gettingand staying married, divorce rates among us arealso shooting up. The exaltation of romantic lovewithin a marriage also makes them hesitant tomarry for fear of making a mistake. “Better to besingle than miserably married” is a common re-frain. When Muslims place such a high premiumon love, so much so that they are willing to leavewhen the feeling is absent, it breeds a selfish indi-vidualism that is contrary to Islam’s teachings.Islam encourages controlling the self (nafs) andplaces a significant value on communal well-be-ing. The doctrine of love leads us to forget that weare servants of a higher power, that there arerules and higher values to which we must bow.

Our children can be guided to pursue the kindof stable love that results from long-term commit-ment. We can gently warn them against strivingfor the intense, hormone-driven, exciting love inthe beginning of a relationship and gladly ac-knowledge that feeling while it is there — and thenjust as gladly and wisely make way for a deeper,quieter love that develops over time and throughshared experience; a mixed bag of respect, appreci-ation for the other’s positive attributes, and a con-certed effort at forgiving the negative qualities.

Questions to Consider: Is the decreased in-tensity of the initial feeling of love a good indica-tion that your marriage is in trouble? Should itend because there is no feeling? Can one increasethis feeling? Can loving actions help rekindle it?How can you look for more lovable qualities inyour spouse?

WE WILL HAVE CHOSEN TO SPEND OURLIVES TOGETHER.Ask any marriageable young peo-ple today if they would rather havea “love” or an “arranged” marriage,

and almost instantly the former is chosen— deci-sively. What exactly are these two types of mar-riages and what are they in the minds of ouryouth? It may surprise us to discover how verydifferent the answers are.

A “love” marriage is limited to the desires andmarital notions of two individuals. After somehowmeeting each other, they establish a connection,eventually conclude that they are “in love,” and tell

have earnestly attended and takennotes at marriage lectures, nothingcan prepare them for the reality of anactual and long-term marriage.

LASTING LOVE

The hope to be intensely in love with aprospective partner is practically uni-versal. Historically, marriage was a ra-tional decision based on tribal alliances,procreation, money matters, and more.

Islamically, marriage fulfills half of our faith,guards us from sin, and is the Prophet’s sunnah.Up until our grandparents’ or even our parents’time, a marriage between two suitable individu-als in terms of age, education, class, and commonvalues was decided by family members. It wasassumed that if both individuals came from a“good family” and had a “good character” and akind heart, then love would develop and the mar-riage would endure.

Today’s youth find this idea abhorrent. Theyare increasingly desirous of marrying and re-maining married for one single reason, one thatthe West embraced just two centuries ago: loveshould be the fundamental reason for marriageand they should be free to choose their spousebased on this feeling alone. Sociologists the worldover have bemoaned this development, viewingmarriage as something far too vital to be left en-tirely to the young people involved, especially iftheir decision was based on something as unrea-soning and transitory as love.

As the reasons behind and demands for mar-riage become increasingly sentimentalized andsexualized, marriage itself suffers. For example, ac-cording to the US Census Bureau nearly 10% of allwomen are divorced by age thirty; 20% of all mar-riages fail within five years; and of that 20%, fully


Ten Steps to a Successful Marriage

When Muslims placesuch a high premium onlove, so muchso that theyare willing to leave whenthe feeling isabsent, itbreeds a selfishindividualismthat is contrary to Islam’s teachings.

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ent. But to presume that differences in race, age,class, social status, education, career prospects,beauty, and language do not play a role in life evenfor the most devout is ignorant. Throwing cautionto the wind, following your heart, and findingyour own spouse irrespective of your family’sopinions — these are all actions that are easiersaid than lived. Maybe the message we can com-municate to our youth is that there is little to gainand much to lose in fighting the custom of a fami-ly-approved marriage.

Questions to Consider: What do you think ismeant by the two types of marriage? How can wecreate an amalgamation of the two, keeping bothof our goals in mind for your marriage?

WE WILL BE COMFORT-ABLE IN TALKING CANDIDLY ABOUT ANYPROBLEMS THAT MAYARISE AND DECIDE ON

A COMMON VISION BEFOREHAND.Young Muslims sustain their relationships bysharing their feelings and thoughts. Some mayeven suggest that Facebook, Twitter, and instantmessaging have made them a generation of over-sharers. As very little is considered personal any-more, it follows that this vision of sharing prob-lems and discussing solutions will form theirapproach toward marriage. In theory this is excel-lent. A husband and wife team in which problem-solving is approached in calm, professional man-ner, where opposing viewpoints are heard andcommon ground is sought, sounds ideal. Howev-er, theory often differs from reality.

First, women almost always want their hus-bands to be of the talking/sharing variety. Themedia has driven this image of a sensitive/strongman, equally comfortable with chopping woodand a heartfelt conversation, to an unrealistic lev-el. While a good and noble man should be com-fortable with such things, a fixation on these re-quirements can cause problems for a couple if theman does not measure up. We can keep this inmind and cultivate this character while raisingour children. The key here lies in guiding youngmen and women to understand that expectationscan frustrate and acceptance can be the key tocontentment.

Second, believing that future contentious is-sues — “Where will we live?”, “Will the in-laws beliving with us?”, “Can I (the wife) work outside thehome?”, “How will money matters be decided?”,“When will we start a family?” — can be workedout by having a few solid conversations is not re-alistic. Perspective spouses must realize that peo-ple and their ideas change, that some might just

their parents that they want to get married. The ba-sic premise is that they have freely chosen each oth-er without any familial involvement.

Defining an arranged marriage is harder be-cause it is a continually evolving idea with rootsin centuries-old practices. It may be easiest tofirst explain what it is not. In the North Ameri-can context, as opposed to other areas of theMuslim world, it is not a forced marriage anddoes not involve beatings, kidnappings, sellinggirls, or marriage to maintain the family honor.Arranging a marriage involves one’s parents let-ting it be known that their child wants to getmarried. Suitable individuals, vetted by the par-ents, are then presented to the prospective brideor groom. Once a consensus has been reached,both families and the principals agree to the pro-posed marriage.

Essentially a social act between two families,arranging this union is a most important socialskill. The burden for finding a candidate accept-able to both the families and their children is nev-er far from their parents’ minds. Consideringeach prospective spouse demands time and asubtle reading of character and insight into theneeds of those involved — not just at one stage oftheir lives, but as it bears on the entire journey oftheir lifetime.

The terms “love marriage” and “arranged mar-riage” present a challenge, particularly to westernMuslim parents. Living in a society saturatedwith notions of love and romance, it is very hard tomake an “arranged marriage,” as it has been his-torically defined, palatable. Everyone involvedneeds to realize, however, that these two types ofmarriage are not mutually exclusive. If one is“love,” the other is not, by default, “loveless.” Ifone is arranged, the other one also needs to beblessed by the parents and families to fulfill the re-ligious requirements. Furthermore, parentsshould discuss how an arranged marriage is flex-ible and adept, malleable and serviceable to timeand changing circumstances. While the underly-ing principles and objectives are always the same,almost everything else is negotiable.

Today, marriage falls somewhere betweenthese two types. If a love marriage is a young per-son’s liberal, left-leaning hope while an arrangedmarriage is the right-leaning, conservative ap-proach, then perhaps we can negotiate a centrist,albeit slightly right of center, approach. Since welive in a culture saturated with notions of individ-ual freedom, having your family find your spousemay seem archaic and “uncool” to our children.Many of our children, firmly entrenched in theMSA culture of their schools and universities,have a slightly naïve impression of the criteria es-sential for a successful marriage. Certainly, a God-conscious individual is held in the highest regard,and no doubt this is the most important ingredi-


Children are always observing

their parents.They pay

attention towhen andhow you

disagree, no-tice how bothof you react

to each other,and form

impressionsabout therules of

married lifeand of being

a parent.

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two roles and encourage the other spouse to fulfillthem; and (4) The Child and Sibling, often themost contentious identity in a marital relation-ship. A good life partner does not forget his/heroriginal family and thus cares for his/her parentsand siblings according to Islam’s teachings. Thiscan be contentious because one spouse often for-gets that the other is also somebody’s child. Menare frequently stigmatized if they do not behaveaggressively enough or are somehow “too at-tached” to their mothers. This latter stigma isbased on North American society’s belief thatone’s “misplaced” loyalties to one’s parents signi-fies character maladjustment. Our young womenmust be encouraged to shun this twisted mindsetand especially to recall the hadith that while awife’s first obligation is to her husband, the lat-ter’s obligation is also to his parents.

MASTER OF OUR LIVES._ Many parents feel that they arekept at arm’s length. The supposedreason for this is that limiting con-tact is the best and easiest way to

avoid any conflicts with or among the in-laws.But this alienating attitude also has its down-sides, such as the loss of possible learning fromthe grandparents’ experiences. This is the resultof generational differences. For exam-ple, young people have an inherentdistrust for the elder generation.Young Muslims are grow-ing up with instant mes-saging, Facebook, andTwitter and thrivingon sharing pic-tures, ideas, rela-

say what they know the other wants to hear with-out worrying about the consequences. For exam-ple, “If my parents become ill or one of themdies, will I still be willing to live by my initialpromise that we would have our own place? Idon’t think so,” says “Faisal,” 31, from Detroit.Too much discussion of these key issues smacksof a prenuptial business agreement.

Furthermore, verbalizing possibly con-tentious answers not only forces a rigid state-ment of a theoretically unknown future, but alsomakes the relationship ripe for argument. “Sha-heen,” 25, from Toronto, agrees: “I made a reallybig deal about my right to work and we had a fewarguments as well. I regret that now because laterI myself chose to stay at home to focus on someother projects. Those tense moments at the startcould have been avoided. I think too much dis-cussion can sometimes provoke people into say-ing things they don’t even really mean.”

This is not to say that communication is a badidea; rather, it is a reminder that opinions andsituations are transient and that any resultingagreements need to be flexible.

OUR RELATIONSHIPWILL BE THE TOP PRIORITY.It used to be that marriage wasa coming together of families,

tribes, clans, and communities. Thus the better-ment of that tribal or communal alliance wasidentified as the primary force. Men and womenwere committed to the family’s overall well-be-ing, and that was given priority. Each person hadclearly defined roles and expectations. But today,there is more emphasis on personal fulfill-ment, satisfaction, stimulation, and gratifica-tion. Today’s youth expect to be the center of eachother’s universe. This single-minded obsessionwith being “the most important” can causeproblems, such as breeding self-absorbed peo-ple, which conflicts with Islam’s emphasis oncommunity well-being, or ignoring the multi-di-mensional nature of each person’s existence.

A good husband or wife has to balance fourdistinct identities: (1) The Worshipper or Slave.The life of this world and its attached loves, hates,relationships, trials, and tribulations are tempo-rary. Our eternal abode is in the Hereafter, and soour lives need to be geared toward attaining theGarden; (2) The Self. Those who do not have ahealthy relationship with their selves are in dan-ger of becoming over-reliant and needy partners.Such people can never be strong spouses. Lowself-esteem or a weak sense of self are just as badas an over-inflated ego; (3) The Spouse and Par-ent. Good partners realize their duties to these


Verbalizingpossibly contentiousanswers notonly forces a rigid statement of a theoreticallyunknown future, but also makes therelationshipripe for argument

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tionship statuses, and answering the arguably in-trusive question “What’s on your mind?” severaltimes a day. The lines between personal and pub-lic have been blurred like never before. Given thiscultural mentality of over-sharing, the contrast-ing closed doors between youth and elders pre-sent multiple challenges to agreeing on a suitablemarriage partner. Muslim youth frequently con-nect more with their favorite sheikhs or scholarsbecause they speak their language. The parentscome across as old-fashioned and unaware ofwhat growing up in the West is like, often con-demned as never-learning FOBs (fresh off theboat). In that sense, parents must find a way tounderstand the feelings and emotions drivingmany of their children’s desires and decisions.Mutual understanding leads to openness to ad-vice; being too quick to judge leads to closing thedoors of communication.

Children are always observing their parents.In fact, most of them are aware of many of theirparents’ “private” exchanges — a small gesture ofcomfort or a hostile glance. While they may notbe talking to you about what they are learning,they are drawing conclusions about “what hap-pens” to people who are married — conclusionsthat they will draw upon when preparing fortheir own marriage. Even very young childrenturn to their parents to make sense of the world.Highly sensitive and reactive to the immediateemotional climate, they are very attuned to any

surrounding conflict and tension.They pay attention to when and

how you disagree, noticehow both of you re-

act to each other, and form impressions about therules of married life and of being a parent.

WE WILL BE BESTFRIENDS AND SOULMATES, SHARING ALLOUR FEELINGS ANDEMOTIONS.

According to Stephanie Coontz, author of “Mar-riage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, orHow Love Conquered Marriage” (Viking: 2005), a2001 poll conducted in America showed that aman who talks about his feelings is more impor-tant to women than someone who makes a goodliving. This is an eye-opener in terms of what to-day’s youth are looking for in a marriage. People,but especially women, expect marriage to satisfymore of their psychological and social needs thanever before. Research has shown, however, thatdivorce rates increase when love becomes thecenter of people’s emotional lives. We are seeingthe truth of this, for more Muslims are getting di-vorced because of one or both of the spouses isemotionally unfulfilled, not because of cruelty orfailure to provide.

Most of us carry a deeply held image of the per-fect partner to which we end up — unfairly —comparing the real people we meet throughoutour lives. This can leave us blind to the opportu-nity right in front of our eyes. “Khaled” from Ot-tawa suggests he nearly made the same mistake:“If I had gone with my gut reaction that she was-n’t ‘the one’ only because she didn’t fit the preciseimage I had been carrying around of my idealwife, I would have missed out on the ‘soul mate’that my wife has become after twelve years ofhard work on ourselves and with each other.”

Each of us has our own image of our “dream”partner, most likely formed from a blend of con-scious needs and unconscious desires. Some as-pects draw us to another person in full aware-ness: “I find her very physically attractive ... He isclearly intelligent ... I like the way he takes care ofme.” All of these are wonderful qualities in anypotential spouse, but any disliked qualities needto come secondary to what is pleasing.

Women fall prey to emotional dissatisfactionmore quickly than men do. W. Bradford Wilcox(director, National Marriage Project, Universityof Virginia) says: “While men tend to be morecontent with the status quo, women now placemore of a premium on being fulfilled in theirmarriages — having their dreams for intimacy,for sexual satisfaction, for challenge, allwrapped up into their marriage. That’s a hard or-der to fill, and these people are likely to end up onthe rocks because they learn pretty quickly that


Interestingly,the more an individualsearches forhope and happiness inside a

relationship,the more one is likely to

become criticaland aware of what it

lacks ratherthan what it possesses.

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Learning fromTheir Parents’ MarriageBY HIBA MASOOD

Watching how parents interact witheach other can be an excellent wayfor young people to learn how to re-spect and love others. Children

learn best by observing what their parents do, notwhat they are told what to do. If they see theirparents treating each other with respect andkindness, they will be more likely to do so in theirown relationships with others.

Ahmed, 28, agrees wholeheartedly: “I think mywife will confirm this to you. One of her favoritethings about me is that I thank her for every-thing. When she cooks for me or irons my shirt orspends the night taking care of our colicky baby, Ithank her. For this habit I owe my father. He al-ways made it a point to appreciate my mother infront of us, and I really respected him for it. It wassuch an ingrained habit with him that even whenthey were clearly upset at each other, he wouldstill say ‘thanks’ for some little gesture like clear-ing the table, and she would always acknowledgethat thanks.”

Some Conflict Is Normal. Very new couplesconsider conflict to be a devastating emergency.While it may be true that some conflicts are seri-ously abhorrent, most tend to be part of any long-term relationship. This is an important area thatparents can model for their children. Tomorrow’sparents need to see how their parents deal withminor disagreements. This is not to say that issuesshould be discussed in front of the children; how-ever, children need to realize that people don’t al-ways see eye to eye and that, despite this fact, theycan work things out and still remain close.

Sometimes people say and do things to theirloved ones that they later regret. Instead ofsweeping it under the carpet and pretending itdidn’t happen or, even worse, holding a long-timegrudge, parents can show their children how tosay a heartfelt “I’m sorry” to each other. Takingownership of mistakes and forgiving others

makes it easier for their children to implementsuch practices in their own lives. Teaching chil-dren how to resolve conflict in a healthy mannerwill be a life lesson for them.

Kareem from Virginia suggests that his parentsmight have missed out on this opportunity: “Myparents argued their fair share. And even thoughthey never got very hostile in front of us, we wereaware of the tension in the atmosphere over a dis-cussion or a decision. However, I never saw themresolve things in front of me. I have no idea howthey solved their problems. Who apologized?Who forgave? No clue. Just two or three days lat-er, everything seemed back to normal. No ideahow they got there, though.”

Good Relationships Take Time. “When Ithink about my parents’ marriage, I always won-der how they balanced their roles and duties. Ifind it amazing that my father was undoubtedlythe head of the household, and yet it wasn’t be-neath him to be scrubbing the floors on the week-end. And my mother, she was the ideal wife —obedient, respectful — and yet when she wantedto be, she was in charge. I find it wonderful thatthey lived like equals in some ways and stillmaintained that slightly uneven relationship thatencourages the man to be one level above thewoman. It made them respect each other a lot, Ithink,” says Fatima from Houston.

Many of us, if we are blessed to come fromhomes in which our parents are happily married,begin our own marriages with a vision of what agood relationship looks like. Without realizing it,we begin holding our spouses to the barometer ofour parents’ marriage, forgetting that they are of-ten twenty to thirty years ahead of us in the game.

Sania, 22, has been married for three years andremarks: “I used to fight with my husband,telling him that my father would never do that,and he would respond that his mother would al-ways do this or that for his father. We were com-peting with our parents’ marriages and, itseemed, failing horribly! It is only when my par-ents heard about this and sat me down for a talkthat I realized how silly I had been in comparing afledgling relationship to a fully developed one.They told me how in the very beginning they hadhad troubles too, but that slowly, over time, theyhad figured each other out and that what I see to-day is the result of twenty-five years of hardwork. I guess I have a lot to look forward to.”


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couple-years), interpret their results starkly:Frustration of one or both spouses that the wife isthe main earner and not the husband, as tradi-tionally expected, is the explanation for the find-ings (“Effect of Labor Division between Wife andHusband on the Risk of Divorce: Evidence fromGerman Data,” IZA Discussion Papers, no. 4515,Institute for the Study of Labor [Bonn: 2009]).

With the advent of women’s “liberation” andthe growing economic advantage of both spousesworking, there was a gradual, if largely unspo-ken, evolution in the terms of the marriage con-tract toward gender equality. As women becameless submissive, the marital ideal shifted some-what in the direction of sharing household re-sponsibilities, including more paternal involve-ment with children. It also led to a shift indecision making and who had the final say.Women, used to recognition and respect in theworkplace, began finding it difficult to acknowl-edge that in the household it is the man who dic-tates and has the final say. That this shift in as-sumptions about marriage paralleled an increasein the divorce rate can be seen as the inevitable“good news, bad news” quality of most changes inlife, whether individual or societal.

Couples are less likely to get divorced if hus-bands help more with housework and childcare,says a London School of Economics study (13 May2010) of 3,500 British couples after the birth oftheir first child. Economists have argued that ris-ing divorce rates since the early 1960s are linkedwith steady increases in the numbers of marriedwomen working. It was claimed that marriageswhere men take responsibility for paid work andwomen stay at home leave both better off (“TheGuardian,” 13 May 2010).

SUPPORTIVE IN HOPES AND DREAMS

A new couple can and does fre-quently pledge this to the othermember. Yesterday’s pattern of

the husband going out and earning money whilethe wife stays home is not a reality for many of ouryouth. Thus it seems quite logical that eachspouse should be free to pursue his/her own goalsand ambitions. It needs to be realized, however,that the birth of a child frequently reinforces oldroles. Everyone falls back into experiencedstereotypes and, at least in the beginning, the wifeis expected to stay at home and care for the child.This situation can breed frustration and resent-ment, which can cause havoc in a fledgling rela-tionship. By being at least mentally prepared forthis eventuality, our youth can begin to under-stand that hopes and dreams are dynamic andcan — and must be — revised as life progresses.

no one person is capable of delivering all theirdeepest hopes for meaning and purpose andhappiness” (“Women’s Health,” Mar. 2010). In-terestingly, the more an individual searches forhope and happiness inside a relationship, themore one is likely to become critical and aware ofwhat it lacks rather than what it possesses.

Parents must tell their children that one personcannot — and should never be expected to — fulfilltheir every emotional need. Not only is this toomuch of a burden for one individual to carry, but italso reduces the first person emotionally. We aremultidimensional communal beings who needmultiple close relationships. Of course the privacyof the marital sphere should be respected and oneshould always avoid bashing his/her spouse toothers; however, sharing in the other little joys ortrials of life can be divided among many people.

EQUALS PARTNERS.

Young couples have to deal with no-tions of equality. As North Ameri-can society places a high premiumon gender equality in the workplace

and the private sphere, both the society and itsmedia outlets consider every aspect of life to beequally the responsibility of men and women. Is-lam, however, emphasizes equity and not equalityand thus does not give identical rights and re-sponsibilities to men and women. This is not be-cause one gender is somehow inferior or superiorto the other, but rather because each gender isuniquely suited to different roles. The resultingvery different approaches to gender has led toconfusion and conflict among Muslim spouses.

Studies have shown that in a society with a highdegree of gender equality, birth rates fall and con-tinue to fall until the culture collapses. One couldargue that the West is moving toward this as wespeak, as our young women are increasingly en-tering the workforce. While this has many benefi-cial aspects, such as higher aspirations, increasedconfidence, a boost to self-esteem and self-respect,it is also creating a troubling reality. Nowadays, itis quite common for married women to work inthe labor market and contribute to the householdincome. Thus one would assume that the tradi-tional division of labor should be less prevalentand, consequently, less relevant for marital stabil-ity. It turns out that some traditions die hard andnot just in Muslim cultures, where it has actuallybeen recommended that women stay at home un-less absolutely necessary. Oftentimes, the womanends up earning more than the husband. A studyof German society has some enlightening resultsregarding this. Kornelius Kraft and StefanieNeimann, who analyzed 1,128 German relation-ships from 1984 to 2007 (representing 8,758 total



Sociologiststhe worldover view

marriage assomething fartoo vital to

be left entirelyto the young

people involved,

especially iftheir decisionwas based onsomething asunreasoningand transitory

as love.

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happiness and peacefulness so profound that aDisney cartoon would pale in comparison. Thekey is to remember that in the language of Mus-lims there is no “ever after” on this Earth. Ourmarriage is important, but far more important isour relationship with God. If we remember thatwe are first and foremost His servants, we gainsome perspective and become more capable ofhandling the troubles that occur in our dailylives. A wise person remembers that the trick isin striking the right balance between his/hergoal of happiness in a marriage and committingnot to leave if expectations of love and happinessare not fulfilled.

A popular T-shirt refrain states that “Happi-ness is a state of mind.” This is even truer in thecontext of marriage. We can choose happinessand contentment, to see only the positive in ourspouse and pray that he/she forgives our nega-tives, and to make loving actions and words partof our repertoire and not chase after that elusivefeeling of love. Barring any serious problems in-volving abuse, infidelity, alcoholism, and the like,we can choose to see the daily ups and downs of amarriage as part and parcel of two good and noblepeople making a home, raising a family, and liv-ing a life together till death do they part.______________________________________Hiba Masood is a Mississauga, ON, Canada-based freelance writer and blogger who focuses on life, marriage, and parenting as a Muslim in the West. Her articles can be found at halfyourfaith.com.

PRIVATE AND PEACEFUL HAVEN

Conflict between spouses is nor-mal and to be expected. Too often,young couples mistake the nor-mal strife involved in getting to

know and live with each other for somethingmore serious. Ego raises its head and compro-mise is forgotten. We live at a cultural time whenwinning the final rose has replaced celebratingthe golden anniversary. “Many people havebought into the eHarmony message that mar-riage will be all connubial bliss — no hard worknecessary — if only they find the perfect person,”says Diane Sollee (founder and director, Coalitionfor Marriage, Family, and Couples Education).She adds: “Couples who understand that dis-agreements are normal are the ones who are go-ing to make it. The ones who think it’s going to bea lifelong honeymoon are hit hard by the realitiesof being married. That’s why the divorce rate ishighest during the first two years of marriage”(“Women’s Health,” Mar. 2010). She quotes mar-riage therapist Michele Weiner-Davis, author of“Divorce Busting: A Step-by-Step Approach toMaking Your Marriage Loving Again” (Simon &Schuster: 1993): “Too often, today’s young newly-weds crash and burn because ‘this generation isclueless about what to expect from marriage.When they hit up against highly predictablebumps in the road, they say to themselves, I obvi-ously made a bad choice. There’s somethingwrong with my partner and my marriage, and Ineed to get out.’ It is one of the primary reasonsfor the early death of a marriage.”

A Muslim’s home can indeed be a sphere ofprivacy, where peace reigns; however, unrealisticexpectations can cause misery. How many moth-ers have received sobbing phone calls from theirdaughters about frequent arguments with theirhusbands? The key here is to teach, after provingthat there is no serious issue, that conflict is nor-mal. It takes time to smooth out the characterclashes that result from two fully formed individ-ual personalities living together.

LIVE HAPPILYEVER AFTER.

Will Prince Charming andPrincess Beautiful ride offin to the sunset? In a novelor movie, yes. In real life,

there is no such thing. That is not to say thatthere is no happiness. On the contrary, a long-term marriage that begins with finding the rightspouse in an approach rooted in our Islamic tra-dition and in which two people make the timeand effort to care for each other can result in a


The key lies in guidingyoung menand women to understandthat expecta-tions can frustrate and acceptance can be the key to contentment.

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WHYDOCTORSMARRY

DOCTORSAre parents truly helping their children find the perfect

spouse by placing “doctor only” advertisements?

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BY MAJID MOHIUDDIN

I’m no longer in academics. The “Islamic Horizons” ads make me

wonder if we fell into the same naïve trap.Most ads come from immigrant parentslooking for suitable spouses for their chil-dren. Along with their good intentionscomes their imported cultural baggage:mainly the perception that medicine is astable, lucrative field with a more presti-gious social status. This viewpoint seemsparticularly true of South Asians. SomeMuslim parents are more broadminded,expanding their views to the “Holy Trin-ity” — a physician, engineer, or corpo-rate lawyer.

Cultural DataIs this a good way to choose a spouse? Arewe defined by our professions? A globalsurvey conducted by Synovate (www.syn-ovate.com) in 2008 of 5,500 people livingin Brazil, Canada, France, Malaysia,South Africa, and America seems to con-firm this current perception (or miscon-ception, depending on your view). Whenasked from which “single profession aperson would choose a life partner” (see“Which Profession for a Life Partner?”chart), most chose medicine (16%). Whenasked “who they trust,” people chosemedicine (86%) and education (87%);

homemakers (84%) was also popular.Another interesting question showed

that different cultures defined them-selves by their work differently. On theextremes were Malaysia and America.

The data (see “Perceptions fromAbroad” chart) indicates that Malaysiansplace far more emphasis on how jobsaffect their perception of their spouses(highest among the five countries sur-veyed – Malaysia, and then, in decreasingorder, South Africa, France, Canada, andAmerica). Where do South Asians fit intothis spectrum? Likely somewhere close tothe Malaysians, but certainly higher thanthe Americans. Assuming that SouthAsians think like Malaysians, they definetheir son/daughter-in-law by their profes-sion. Their children (who are Americans),however, might share the American view-point that their spouse’s (and their own)job does not define the person nearly asmuch. Basically, we don’t define ourselvesor our spouse by our jobs as much as ourparents do. My aunt might describe myfriend as “Asma, that doctor from Michi-gan.” Meanwhile I might think “Asma,Kashif’s younger sister who ran themarathon last year.”

So while parents certainly want thebest for their children, are they truly

into the crook of my elbow, he will soonbe snoring on his pacifier. I am tired. Forthe past three days his mother has seenhim only while he is sleeping angelicallyin the crib at the day’s end. A few hoursearlier her pager went off ... again. Rightnow she is at the hospital peering into theeyes of a motorcyclist injured in a drunk-en brawl. After our son falls asleep, I willwatch television and periodically call ortext my wife to make sure she is okay. Ican’t sleep until she’s safely home. Shewill come home around 4:00 a.m. andthen head back the next day for an eight-hour stint. She is a resident physician,and this is a typical weekend for us.

I am also a physician. Some days welook at each other and wonder how thisis working out — did we know what wewere getting into? The first year we weremarried, we lived apart. She finishedmedical school in Chicago and I finishedmy residency in Boston. Last year I left aproductive academic practice on theEast Coast when my wife found a posi-tion in Texas. Currently, having no im-mediate family support in Texas, we aretrying to find a balance. While workingmany hours at the hospital, she worriesthat our son will forget “his mother” andthat she will miss his first “anything.”

Some people claim that “Islamic Horizons” is the only English-language periodical read from right to left. The reason — mat-rimonial ads that run like this: “Sunni Muslim parents of slim,fair, US-born daughter, (age), (height), who is a medical stu-dent, are seeking US-born/practicing Muslim physician ormedical student.” Why do so many Muslim doctors seek other

doctors for marriage? Are they trying to form a clinic? I wonder about this while I rock our two-year-old son to sleep on a Satur-

day night. I have given him dinner, a bath, and a bottle of milk. As he nestles


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One reason why physicians may havemore psychosocial problems than otherhigh-stressed professionals is that beinghealers themselves, they are less likely toadmit and seek help with personal prob-lems. To do so sounds like an admission ofprofessional failure (M. N. Miller et al.,“The painful truth: physicians are not in-vincible,” Southern Medical Journal 93,no. 10 [2000]). Over time, sleep depriva-tion, working long hours without com-plaint, and coping with intense patientemotions on a daily basis may cause doc-

tors to become emotionally dis-tant. The harm of ignoring thesestresses can be seen in the manystudies of physicians that revealhigher rates of depression, sub-stance abuse, suicide, and mari-tal problems. The rate of depres-sion among interns has beenreported to be as high as 30%,with 25% having thoughts of sui-cide (R. J. Valko and P. J. Clayton,“Depression in the internship,”Diseases of the Nervous System36 [1975]: 26-29). Physicians aremore likely to commit suicidethan other professionals. Womenmay be particularly vulnerable;51% of all female physicians willreport a lifetime incidence of de-pression (A.Welner, S. Marten, E.Wochnick et. al., “Psychiatric dis-orders among professionalwomen,” Archives of GeneralPsychiatry 36 [1979]: 169-73). What to expect from the young,

would-be suitors in some of these“Islamic Horizons” ads? TheSotiles, in their article that ap-peared in the “Journal of theAmerican Medical Association,”227 (April 1997): 1322 (based ontheir above-mentioned book), re-ported that half of all medicalstudents marry during medicalschool and residency, but that60% of them divorce within tenyears of their residencies. Mari-tal discord is often the result ofwork-related stress and the in-ability to wind down after workor the lack of energy to engage insocial or leisure activities. Thetraining years, in particular, arenot a time for marital growth;rather, this period requires amartial mentality for personalsurvival in the hope that the mar-riage will somehow survive alongthe way. “Their reactions tospouses are not due to their hav-

ing married the wrong person, but arenormal reactions to stress,” they write.Married doctors need to seriously read-just their expectations about balancingtheir career, family life, and leisure —even after their training finishes.

Doctor-Doctor DataOne imagines that such difficulties onlycompound when doctors marry otherdoctors. So why are so many doing so?Dual-doctor marriages used to be rare inAmerica, for male doctors had home-

helping them find the perfectspouse by placing “doctor only”advertisements in “Islamic Hori-zons”?

Generational DisconnectMany successful immigrant doc-tor-doctor couples have thrived inthis country. Based on their expe-rience, they feel confident thattheir doctor kids can also succeed.Unfortunately, they fail to ac-knowledge that while both genera-tions are indeed doctors, their tra-ditional understanding andacceptance of their spousal rolesmay have changed dramatically.

Our parents had more tradition-al expectations of their spouses.What made them happy was rais-ing a family in which each parentfulfilled his/her expected role ashusband and wife, father andmother. While we also strive for abalanced family life, we place a pre-mium on companionship and com-patibility. I would rather go joggingwith my wife than watch her cook awarm meal for me after a long dayof work. Undoubtedly, every par-ent wants what is best for his/herchild, but if immigrant parentsthink they know what is best fortheir child, they may be seriouslymistaken.

Studies suggest that the ten tofifteen years training regimen ittakes to get from college to actualpractice creates a psychology ofpostponement. As the physicianstrives to make it to the next level,the supporting spouse is drawn in-to the imbalance as well — boththinking that all difficulties willmagically vanish when training isdone. This may be a misconcep-tion, as a certain pattern has beenset. Divorce rates for physiciansare 10-20% higher than the generalpopulation, and couples with aphysician spouse that do not divorce re-port more unhappy marriages, write Drs.Wayne and Mary Sotile, codirectors ofSotile Psychological Associates and coau-thors of “The Medical Marriage: A Cou-ple’s Survival Guide” (New York: CarolPub. Co., 1996). A Johns Hopkins studyfound that the cumulative incidence of di-vorce for physicians was 29% after thirtyyears of marriage (B. L. Rollman et al.,“Medical specialty and the incidence ofdivorce,” New England Journal of Medi-cine 336, no. 11 [13 Mar. 1997]: 800-03).



Which Profession for a Life Partner?

Perceptions from Abroad

Relative Work Hours

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maker wives who supported them andbore the brunt of child rearing and home-related issues. Other male physicianstended to marry the women they inter-acted with most in professional or socialsettings, like nurses. Today, however, halfof all medical students in America arewomen. In 1999, 22% of all male physi-cians and 44% of all female physicianswere married to other physicians. Trendspredict that soon half of all physicians willbe married to each other.

Women. Interestingly, twice as manyfemale than male doctors are married toother doctors — it seems like they are adriving force toward the MD-MD mar-riage! A closer look at these marriagesshows that female physicians garnermany benefits from such a marriage.Aside from sharing in an overall joint in-come, they work fewer hours, have morechildren, and are generally more involvedin childcare (N. W. Sobecks et. al., “Whendoctors marry doctors: a survey exploringthe professional and family lives of youngphysicians,” Annals of Internal Medicine,130 [1999]: 12-19). Female physicians,however, have additional stresses and ahigher risk of divorce. With most femalestudents graduating by 25-26 years of ageand residency entailing another three toseven years during their child-bearingyears, the reality of medical training isthat delays or gaps can become major set-backs for reaching professional bench-marks. Some choose to finish their train-ing without “distractions”; others do nothave a real opportunity to find a spouse.Parents assure their daughters that de-spite their advancing age, the more edu-cated and qualified they become, themore eligible and bigger “pay-off” theywill find in a comparable spouse.

Men. The benefits of marrying a physi-cian are very different for male doctors.The New England Journal of Medicinestudy mentioned above also showed thatwhen male physicians choose to marry fe-male physicians, they generally work thesame hours and have fewer children, andyet are still required to be more involvedin childcare. Unfortunately, many menare intimidated by female physicians whomay potentially earn more than they do(an unfair “disadvantage”). Conversely,the women and their parents wish to findan educated breadwinner equal to orgreater than themselves, thereby disqual-ifying many potentially good candidates.This scenario may lead them to concludethat only another physician will suffice,further winnowing the field of perfectlygood, potential spouses.

29ISLAMIC HORIZONS

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Like all things statistical or based onlarge groups, there is a grave danger ofmaking particular assumptions about aperson based on the generalized results ofsurveys or studies. An understandingspouse is an understanding spouse, re-gardless of profession. Many dual-doctorfamilies do not work; others succeed be-cause both spouses have a healthy under-standing of give and take. The issue at

hand, really, is that the marriage of twodemanding professionals may result inparticular and undue stresses upon themarriage — to the detriment of bothspouses and their children. Being mar-ried to another physician can either easethat stress through shared understand-ing, or exacerbate it through career de-mands. While the homemaker spouseprovides some flexibility for the profes-sional, both are still vulnerable to thesame emotional pitfalls and burnout thatcan ruin a marriage.

My baby is asleep. As I said before, it’sbeen a good weekend so far. My wife ex-presses her “mother guilt” and “wifeguilt” when she comes home, and I try toreassure her. She wonders if I can take aday off next week to take our son to theplaygroup, but I can’t. I rant about myhospital CEO’s short-sightedness, andshe sighs. Our joint clinic involves a lot ofdiaper changing, and neither of us is apediatrician. _______________________________Majid Mohiuddin, MD, is an oncologist and author of “An Au-dience of One: Islamic Ghazals in English” (Olive Media Ser-vices: 2004). He is happily married to a physician-resident inophthalmology, largely because both of them constructivelyhelp each other (having become aware of these issues).Meraj Mohiuddin, MD, an anesthesiologist and Ironmantriathlete in Scottsdale, AZ, contributed to this article and gen-erated the graphics.

works too much?”; and “Am I okay withhelping my children raise their childrenbecause they are at work all the time?”

Young Muslims seeking marriage needto ask themselves several questions: “Whatdo I want out of my life?”; “How impor-tant is my career to me?”; “How muchmoney do I need?”; “How much help do Iexpect from my spouse?”; and “Howmany children would I like to have?”

In addition, they need to engage in se-rious discussions with their significantothers. Consider the following: “Is it fairto ask your spouse to curb his/her careeraspirations after logging in a decade oftireless work?”; “Is it fair to tell your hus-band that you do not want to start a fam-ily until you have finished your residencyor been made partner?”; and “Is it fair totell your wife that you don’t want her toapply to a specific medical specialty be-cause it keeps her away from the family oreven postpones having children?”

Finally, young Muslim couples inter-ested in marriage need to think abouttheir children’s needs as well: “Howmany children do we want to have?”;“How many children could we have?”;“How often do we want to see our kids?”;“Are we comfortable with our childrenspending half of their day with a nanny orat daycare?”; “How important is it to usto raise our kids with a consistent Islamicupbringing?”; and “Is it harder to nur-ture an Islamic upbringing if we are bothworking long hours?”

Muslims need to engage in a real con-versation with their spouses about real-life issues — work schedules, job reloca-tions, finances, childcare, spousal roles,and so on. One thing is for sure: one can’tjust assume everything will work itself outmagically once he/she gets married.

The conclusions of this (see “RelativeWork Hours” chart) and other studiescan be broadly summarized as follows:

^ Male doctors may feel that they are“better off” with non-doctor wives (morekids, more personal single income, lesssharing of childcare);

^ Female doctors may feel better offwith doctor husbands (more kids, moretotal income, fewer hours worked, moreshared childcare);

^ Both are at an increased risk of di-vorce or unhappy marriages; and when itdoes work, both enjoy shared work inter-ests, a perception of greater success inachieving the spouses’ career goals, anequal sense of personal career success(despite the female physicians’ admittingmore work limitations), and a higher to-tal income.

However, is this data meaningful tothe Muslim community — specifically the“Islamic Horizons” audience?

I would be surprised if the ads in “Is-lamic Horizons,” which simply mirrorthe greater Muslim community’s precon-ceptions, come from a detailed analysis ofthe situation as opposed to a romanti-cized vision of dual prestige and makinglots of money. I know that I didn’t initial-ly. The reality is that medical students orresidents wanting to get married need tomake major mental adjustments awayfrom their parents’ preconceptions andthe preconceptions of professional train-ing programs, and toward their ownsense of self, or their marriages may beheaded for the rocks. It is easy to quotestudies that generalize trends, however,for the truth of the matter is that we allknow unthinkable relationships thatwork wonderfully and perfect match-upsthat don’t last. The only thing that can bestated with some certainty is that the bestkey to success is honesty — being brutallyhonest with yourself and your loved ones.

Parents who think they are acting intheir children’s best interests need to becompletely honest with themselves andtheir child. They should ask themselvessuch questions as: “Does my daughterwant to advertise for doctors-only, or is itI who demands a doctor son-in-law?”;“Do I think my physician daughter is ‘tooqualified’ for a lawyer, engineer, teacher,or journalist?”; “What if my physiciandaughter is happy with a non-doctor? Isthat happiness enough for me?”; “Do Iwant my child to marry another physi-cian because I think it will make him/herhappy?”; “Am I okay with having adaughter-in-law physician less involvedin raising my grandchildren because she



The reality is that medicalstudents or residentswanting to get married needto make major mentaladjustments away from theirparents’ preconceptionsand that of professionaltraining programs, andtoward their own sense ofself, or their marriages maybe headed for the rocks.

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gNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010 33ISLAMIC HORIZONS

Growing up in North America today, there is no escapingromantic love. It breathes from every billboard, magazine,song, shop window, and movie. Like other girls, I grew up fan-tasizing about the prince who would one day sweep me off myfeet. Like other Muslims, my dream of living happily ever afterhad a distinctly Islamic flavor. Through volunteer work at con-ferences and executive positions in my MSA, I would be im-mersed in serving the ummah. Through that noble cause, Iwould meet my soul mate. We would slowly and appropriatelydevelop an understanding, and he would ask for my hand inmarriage. Our families would be jubilant at the match, and ourfriends would tell us what a “cute couple” we were.

Of course, you can imagine the thrill I experienced when theMSA president of my college and I, vice president of the same,began developing that sought-after understanding. Ours wasjust another MSA romance and followed the same patterns;but for me it was novel, unique, not experienced by anyone else.Surely no one else had the intense discussions we had. Surelyno one else’s heart fluttered and stomach sank like this. When,one afternoon in the most normal of settings — outside the doorof my chemistry lecture hall — he proposed marriage, I thoughtmy prince had come. Surely no one had a love like this.

A TALE OF TWO

MARRIAGES: ALIYAH

FURQAN’S STORY


Do pot-boiler love stories really lead to successful and lasting

marriages? (As told to Hiba Masood)

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divorce — casually, almost flippantly —but it was not the last time. When he saidit for the last time, I left. Our divorce wasfinalized three months later, and I neverheard from him again.

Two years later I married my cousinfrom back home. Our parents arrangedthe match. I remembered him vaguely

from my childhood. He was good atschool, had a nice laugh, and I thought heliked books. I didn’t know much elseabout him. We talked a little bit betweenour engagement and wedding, but I wastoo wary, weary, and disillusioned to putforth any real effort to get to know him. Itwas decided that he would move to Amer-ica and that we would settle here.

When I first saw him, my heart did notrace. There was a calm acceptance on mypart, and an almost shy hesitancy on his.After our wedding, we spent the nextweeks and months beginning the quietjourney of the slow and almost unbeliev-able process of getting to know the personwith whom we were already sleeping. Itwas painful at times, but his calmstrength and my determination to get itright kept us going. His English was ac-cented and his taste in clothes was moreDanny Tanner than Brad Pitt. Culturallywe were worlds apart. He didn’t under-stand my jokes or aphorisms or social ref-erences, and I didn’t care for any of his in-terests or speak his language very well.But slowly, over time and beyond any ex-pectations, the magic somehow began.

Today I am a happily married woman.My husband still speaks with an accent,

doesn’t buy me flowers or chocolate, andhas never thought to write me a love note.We don’t spend all our time together ortalk incessantly, and he doesn’t make mystomach flutter. But he makes me break-fast on the weekends, takes care of thebills, plays ball with our children, and iskind to my parents and serious about hisresponsibilities. And yes, he also holds myhair and wipes my mouth when I amthrowing up. Our life is not the stuff ofwhich romance stories and Hollywoodchick flicks are made; rather, it is a seriesof small, insignificant, mundane eventsthat weave together the fabric of our lives,making our bond stronger than I couldever have imagined.

This is not an advocacy for cousin orarranged marriages. Instead, it is aboutacknowledging the urgent need to adjustour notions of what “love” really is. Ihave come to understand that what ulti-mately served as the deal breaker withmy first husband was the gnawing real-ization that he would end it whenever hewanted. We fell in love hard, and when-ever the love ended for him the marriagewould end, for there was nothing elseholding it together. The resulting atmos-phere of uncertainty eventually ended it.When I married my second husband, wegrew into love. I knew, without knowinganything else about him, that he wouldstay with me forever, in good times andbad. He would never be looking to tradeup or consider divorce an option simplybecause we were arguing in our secondyear. For him, love really was forever,come what may.

I need that. I need that fundamentalconviction that my partner has my back,is on my side, can be trusted out of sight,and will never leave me. Ever. I need thatknowledge more than I need some twist-ed notion of Disney princess love. Wemay not have the stomach sinking, heartfluttering, romantic falling in love that Ihad imagined as the ideal when I was ayoung girl, but we do have a love intowhich we have grown — and keep ongrowing into. It is a love premised on adeep and unshakeable, unbreakablefoundation of mutual respect, kindness,goodness, and commitment. I knowwhich one I want, for myself and for mydaughters.

And so this is my story, and this is whatI learned: My love marriage, the stuff ofgirlish dreams, proved to be a terriblearrangement. My arranged marriage, onthe other hand, gave me a love so signifi-cant and so satisfying that little girls don’teven know how to dream of it. ̂

I took the proposal to my parents. Butcontrary to my earlier dreams, they didnot greet this news with jubilation. Theyhad reservations: “Irresponsible, unseri-ous, immature,” they said. When they re-lented, we had ourselves a wedding. Thefairy tale had come true. We had a glori-ous first year, full of the kind of love andlaughter that every girl’s vision of mar-ried life is made of. He was everything Ithought I wanted. He brought me flowersand chocolate, wrote me love notes, andtook me shopping. We talked at all timesof the day and spent every minute togeth-er. We were madly in love, as only newlovers can be.

I think it was during the second monthof the second year that the colors of myworld blurred for the first time. My hus-band suggested that I refrain from visit-ing my parents too often because of theimpact it would have on my deen. He saidthat my mother watches Indian moviesduring the weekend — “Why should yousubject you ears and eyes to that? Andyour father, you know he will just ask meabout my job prospects. Let’s not go,sweetheart.” Of course I agreed, for Iwould do anything for my prince.

But then this began to happen againand again. My family became a source ofcontention. I started feeling like some-thing was always stuck in my throat. Webegan arguing — not very terribly, be-cause that was not our style. Mild bicker-ing was all it was, and we would alwaysmake up afterward. I was convinced thatall of this was normal. It just meant thatour bond was getting stronger, right? Butthe shine was wearing off, and both of usknew it. I was still unconcerned, though,for didn’t we still love each other crazily?So what if, when I threw up after food poi-soning, he almost imperceptibly shiftedhis foot to avoid getting any spittle on himand didn’t help me clean it up? It didn’tmean anything.

Then one morning as we were eatingbreakfast — maybe both of us had gottenup on the wrong side of the bed — achance remark led to a little back andforth and my husband remarked that per-haps “if we’re going to argue so often, weshould just get divorced.” I think that wasthe exact instant my world shattered. I re-member that precise moment. We were inthe kitchen. There was a fire truck goingby outside. I remember watching himmouth those words and not hearing him.All I could hear was a dull roar in my head,and all I could think of, again and againand again, was “I do not know this man.”

That was the first time he suggested



This is not anadvocacy forcousin orarranged mar-riages. Instead,it is about ac-knowledging theurgent need toadjust our notions of what“love” really is.

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FAITHFULin SeattleA diverse community of Muslims is making

this evergreen city a major hub of Islamic activities in the Pacific Northwest. BY S. M. OWAIS JAFREY

I S L AM I N AMER I C A

is brimming.” The growth of the Puget Sound region’s Muslim presence is evident beyond mosques — from apreschool to the public-access cable show, a Muslim-owned slaughterhouse and halal restaurants. Le re-marked: “An average of 10,000 to 12,000 people move into thePuget Sound from overseas each year, often from countries suchas Cambodia, India, Pakistan, and Somalia which have largeMuslim populations.”

“The community has established itself. It has its own infra-structure and is honoring its own tradition and culture,” GregGourley, a Bellevue immigration specialist who has observed thedramatic growth of the Eastside Muslim community, told Le.

There is more to Seattle than coffee and rain, and, of course,Microsoft and Boeing. The metropolis is home to major refugeepopulations: the shah’s fall brought Iranian refugees; genocide inCambodia brought Cham refugees, who settled in a mobile homepark in south Puget Sound; and chaos in Somalia and war in Iraqled to thousands of their citizens ending up in the area. Most of theMiddle Eastern engineers came in the 1970s to work for Boeing;they were followed in the 1980s by South Asian Muslims lookingfor high-tech jobs (they even built a mosque in Seattle) and, dur-ing the early 1990s, Bosnian Muslims.

Ten years ago, Phuong Le of the “Seattle Post-Intelligencer” (7Sept. 2000) noted: “Call it a sign of the times. From Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac)to Bellevue, the Puget Sound’s Muslim community is expanding faster thanmosques can accommodate. … Seven mosques built or established in recentyears are already overwhelmed. New ones are planned for Kent andEverett.” Aziz Junejo, host of a public-access cable show “Focus on Islam,”informed Le that “we’re outgrowing every mosque in Seattle. Every mosque


Seattle’s Idris Mosque (left), established in 1981, was funded by the latesheikh Abdul Kadir Idris of Saudi Arabia and was the first Mosque west of the Mississippi River that had the Arabesque architecture style;(right) The Space Needle, a symbol of Seattle, was designed for the1962 World’s Fair and is a major landmark of the Pacific Northwest

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munities in North America” (YvonneHaddad and Jane Smith, eds. [SUNYPress: 1994]): “Estimates of the numberof Muslims in Seattle vary from 4,000 to10,000. Of these, a masjid spokespersonestimates that there are 1,500 ‘commit-ted’ Muslims” and “African Americans inSeattle number only about 50,000, andmany are dispersed throughout the gen-eral population.” There is also a sizableTurkish population, and thus this happychange in demographics has made thisevergreen city a major hub of Islamic ac-tivities in the Pacific Northwest. Thecommunity is doing its best to create theinfrastructural framework needed to en-sure that Islam is passed on to future gen-erations and shared with non-Muslims.

^ The Muslim Students’ Association ofthe University of Washington (MSAUW;islamichouse.org), formed and mentoredby Ismail Ahmad in the mid-1960s,played a pivotal role in creating a sense of

communal unity. Friday prayers andevening Qur’anic study circles were heldin a rented room at a local church. Thischanged under S. M. Owais Jafrey, a for-mer president of the group, when thecommunity purchased a large fraternity-style house near UW to serve as a mosqueand community center known as the Is-lamic House. It continues to thrive in thehands of young and spirited buddingleaders of our tomorrow, headed by cur-rent MSA president Khaled Zaki, andprovides temporary housing for arrivingstudents and visitors.

^ The idea of the Islamic Center ofSeattle (ICS) was conceived by the few pi-oneering families: Dr. Joseph DiCaprio(professor and lab supervisor, UW Med-ical Center), Adnan Bakkar, MunirQureshi, Khalid Blankenship (now aprofessor at Temple University), Dr.Charles Kunkel, and Siddiqa Kunkel (aformer long-time president), Jamil AbdulRazzaq, (the late) Mohammad El-Mosli-many, and Mushtaq Junejo joined withothers to buy an old house near SeaTacairport on 15 March 1974. Its garage wasused for prayers and the Sunday halaqa.Prior to its purchase, meetings and othereducational activities were held at AbdulRazzaq’s house. ICS continues to thriveunder Imam Sheikh Ali Grad.

As the community continued to grow,ICS pioneers built a new and easily ac-cessible mosque. Fortunately they werejoined by Adnan Idris, a Saudi Airlinesrepresentative at Boeing, and his wifeAmira, who persuaded her philanthrop-ic father to donate some money. In recog-nition of his generosity, the communitynamed it the Sheikh Abdul Kadir IdrisMosque. It became fully operational in

Such demographic variety has creat-ed a unique Muslim experience. A com-munity formerly comprised of a few tech-nology experts, it now includes taxidrivers, cashiers, and other workers.Nazeer Ahmed, editor of the “NorthwestIslamic Journal,” told Le that a study con-ducted by the journal had revealed thatalmost 90 percent of the area’s Muslimsare immigrants. Seattle’s welcomingpresence challenges the community as itsmembers continue on their journey oflearning, sharing, and caring.

Seattle is a young city — the first boat-load of White settlers only docked here in1851. One of America’s most livable citiesand its largest container handling port,Seattle is surrounded by snowcappedmountain peaks, spectacular dawns andstunning sunsets, tranquil lakes and ma-jestic flower gardens. With SnoqualmieFalls (beating Niagara by 100-plus feet) inits backyard, it is also known as “EmeraldCity” and the “boating capital of theworld.” For manufacturing transporta-tion equipment, aerospace, and advancedcomputer software technology — not tomention biotechnology, electronics, andtheir satellite industries — the city main-tains a healthy economy and attracts newinhabitants. Due to its many academic in-stitutions, especially the University ofWashington (UW), it has been ranked asone of America’s most literate cities.

According to the 2007 census, GreaterSeattle’s population rose from 557,087 in1960 to 3,525,000; during the same peri-od, the Muslim population grew from amere 20 families to over 80,000, accord-ing to a conservative estimate. MiriamAdeney and Kathryn DeMaster note intheir “Muslims of Seattle” (Muslim Com-

Community picnic at the Idris Mosque; Muslim sisters at the Seattle waterfront; Jawad Khaki praying at the ceremony establishing a “pillar of friendship” between Christians a


ACCORDING TO THE 2007CENSUS, GREATER

SEATTLE’S POPULATIONROSE FROM 557,087 IN 1960 TO 3,525,000;

DURING THE SAME PERIOD,THE MUSLIM POPULATIONGREW FROM A MERE 20

FAMILIES TO OVER 80,000,ACCORDING TO A

CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE.

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hip” between Christians and Muslims at the Northshore United Church

books, among them “Zaki’s RamadanFast” (Amica Pub House: 1994).

^ The Cham Muslims of Cambodia(fleeing genocide) and of Vietnam (flee-ing war-fatigue and oppression) beganarriving in the late 1970s. Out of the1,000 to whom our country gave asylum,400 families made Seattle their home in1978 and more arrived during 1979-82.Currently over 180 Cham families live inSeattle. Early settlers experienced a ma-jor hardship: the language barrier. Indowntown Seattle’s Pike Place Market,some of them saw a store with an Arabicsign “Souk.” Thrilled to have found cus-tomers from many Muslim countries anddelighted to discover that they were notalone, they were warmly welcomed bytheir coreligionists. By 1982 they had es-tablished Masjid Jamiul Muslimeen(jamiulmuslimeen.org), where Imam Ab-dulbary Yahya looks after their religiousand social needs.

^ Lynwood is home to Masjid Dar-Alarqam (daralarqam.org; the Ever-green Islamic Institute, founded 1991)and its weekend school, which is “com-mitted to providing quality Islamic edu-cation by meeting human needs in con-formity with Islamic beliefs, contributingcompassion, wisdom, and quality lead-ership in society,” writes founder NasirDakhil. According to the City of Lyn-wood diversity report (2006), an estimat-ed 26 percent of the nearly 35,000 resi-dents are minority and immigrantresidents who “are very much on theconservative side.”

^ Perceiving the community’ futureneeds, in the early 1990s Saifur RahmanKhan (president, Sheikh Idris Masjid)raised funds to establish a new mosque in

north Seattle. Fortunately, in 1994 theUnity Church in Mountlake Terrace wasfor sale: it is now the Masjid Umar Al-Fa-rooq (farooqmasjid.org). After SaifurRahman Khan moved to Texas, ZafarNaseeb Khan took over as president dur-ing its early critical years. Later on MohabZaki, Eijaz Samad, and members of theboard of directors (headed by MoosaMehtar) extended and upgraded thisonce-dull structure into a pulsating nucle-us of Islamic activities. The board is nowpursuing a three-phase $1.1 million ex-pansion project designed by internation-ally known architect and calligrapherMamoun Sakkal. It includes two floors,an approximately 2,700 sq. ft. addition tothe existing building, associated parkingand driveways, a larger women’s prayerarea, classrooms, a guest/study room, anew large kitchen, a washroom for funer-al services, and wheelchair ramps. The re-cently added minaret and dome, calligra-phy on the entrance, and elegantly carvedimported doors from Egypt provide addi-tional grace to its attractive architecture.Anwer Mangrio, Murtaza Junejo, NasirJunejo, Shahzad Qureshi, and Zia Khanlook after its daily operations.

Masjid Umar Al-Farooq serves over200 immigrant families. Full-time imamMaulana Ahmed Mujeeb Nadwi, whograduated from Nadwatul Ulema (Luc-know) and Darul Uloom (Deoband), runsthe daily Qur’an classes and Friday studysessions for tafseer, fiqh, and hadith. He isa member of the Assembly of Muslim Ju-rists of America and the North AmericanImam Federation, as well as president ofSeattle’s Darul Uloom. The mosque,managed by the Muslim Association ofNorthwest (MANW), prides itself on ar-

Aug. 1981. Reflecting the traditionalArabesque architectural style, its cres-cent decorated copper-covered dome isflanked by a slender minaret. Tung A.Mudah served as the first president of itsvery diverse congregation. The mosquealso hosts the “Sisters United through Is-lam” association.

Shaykh Hamzah Maqbul, the currentimam who carries an old head on hisyoung shoulders, is a former MSA presi-dent. Listed by UW as an expert on Is-lam, he has attended institutes of higherIslamic learning in Egypt, Mauritania,Morocco, Syria, and the UAE and is thefounder of Bellevue’s Thawr Institute(http://thawr.org/), which seeks “to dis-seminate Islamic knowledge using classi-cal techniques and provide an academicenvironment where traditional Islamicscholarship can thrive in the PacificNorthwest.”

Dr. Ann El-Moslimany and her (nowlate) husband Mohammed helped to re-alize the dream of a group of women bypurchasing the Seattle Hebrew Academyand, in Feb. 1980, incorporating is as theIslamic School of Seattle (ISS; islamic-schoolofseattle.com). This “long-stand-ing jewel in our community … [seeks] tounleash the creative potential of our stu-dents, nurture Allah-consciousness, anddevelop intrinsic motivation and guidethem to global citizenship.” The dailyand congregational prayers are held, andqualified teachers run this exemplaryschool with devotion and dedication. Dr.El-Moslimany, who took direct control ofthe administration after the school wasbriefly closed in 1987, has expertise incurriculum development and has au-thored several scientific papers and


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ing and hiking trips and year-round edu-cational activities. The recently formedMihraab Foundation seeks to bringyoung Muslims from diverse ethnicgroups under one umbrella. AbdelkrimZebdi conducts a study circle each Thurs-day evening on the essentials of Islam,stories of the prophets, the biographies ofthe Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sal-lam) and his Companions. The weekend

Islamic school, initiated by IrfanQureshi, is kept in full swing by its dedi-cated teachers, led by Syed Faisal Ahmed.

In 1995, the Islamic Center of the East-side (bellevuemosque.com; ICOE), pop-ularly known as the Bellevue Masjid,moved to its own spacious facility. Serv-ing about 1,000 families, it has full-timeQur’anic-memorization classes, educa-tion programs for adults and new Mus-

ranging lectures and programs of spiri-tual significance. Its interfaith commit-tee actively participates in events de-signed to create better understandingbetween Islam and other religions.

The youth group led by MohammadSarhan and mentored by Shaykh HamzaMaqbul discusses a wide range of topicseach Tuesday night and organizes regularsporting events, as well as summer camp-

C O V E R S T O R Y

the media’s misrepresentation ofIslam, little did he know that twoyears later 9/11 would push himinto the spotlight. His talk showfeatures interviews that giveguests the chance to define theirfaith and way of life in their ownwords. Junejo uses local Muslimexperts; however, he also hostsyoung Muslims in order to pro-vide an accurate reflection of avibrant and diverse Muslim com-munity. With a decade of com-munity presence, after 9/11 hewas viewed as someone whocould be trusted. Indeed, he isnow flooded with speaking invi-tations by schools, youth groups,and other community organiza-tions. In addition to all of this, hestill finds time to present an Is-lamic viewpoint of faith and val-ues in a regular column for a lo-cal newspaper and a monthlycolumn in “The Seattle Times.”

Mohamed Jawad Khaki Tanzanian native MohamedJawad Khaki (president and afounding director, the Ithna-ash-eri Muslim Association of theNorthwest), has been an activecommunity worker since his ear-ly teen-aged years. He has vol-unteered in community organi-zations in Tanzania, Pakistan,Britain — and now in GreaterSeattle. In Oct. 2003, Khaki, acomputer engineer, was appoint-ed honorary professor of postand telecommunications by Bei-jing University.

Khaki, a speaker and writer, isalways out front defending Islamand Muslims against attacks. Heenvisions an America that, withits rich tapestry of ethnic and re-ligious pluralism, inspires notonly those within its borders butall those who inhabit this trou-bled planet of ours.He was nationally recognized

with the Interfaith Alliance Foun-dation’s sixth annual “WalterCronkite Faith & Freedom”award. Upon receiving it, heprayed: “Almighty God, give usthe inspiration and strength tobuild bridges of understandingbetween humanity — movingfrom tolerance to respect, frommere acceptance to love andcompassion for all that reside onthis planet. Our dignity is in work-ing towards dignity for all in thisglobal society. It is through openhearts and minds that we can ef-fectively communicate and reachunderstanding, strengtheningour bonds and achieving unity aswe focus on common causes.”

Jafar “Jeff” SiddiquiJafar “Jeff” Siddiqui (formerchairman, Islamic School of Seat-tle; founder member of AmericanMuslims of Puget Sound) is aguest commentator on a localtelevision show and a dozen radiostations, where he promotes anaccurate understanding of Islam.He also visits mosques to lectureon the need to vote and how vot-ing helps people secure justice

Muslim Seattleites have alwaysmaintained close ties with theirneighbors by sharing in commu-nity service projects and creatingopportunities to meet and heareach other. The story of GreaterSeattle’s Islamic activities wouldnot be complete without mention-ing Aziz Junejo, Jafar Siddidqui,Jawad Khaki, and Syed ArsalanBukhari — each of whom hassought to explain Islam to non-Muslims by the written and spo-ken word. The exemplary dy-namism and passion for changein such people is gradually im-pacting Americans’ perception ofIslam and its political scene.

Aziz JunejoJunejo, a communications majorfrom the University of Washing-ton (1989), has served more thantwenty years as a communityspokesperson via his regularcontributions to local and na-tional newspapers, radio andtelevision programs, and paneldiscussions. He arrived in thearea as a toddler when his father,an air force veteran and engineerfrom Pakistan, moved the familyhere in 1962 to work for Boeing— they were one of only threeMuslim families. Later they es-tablished a mosque in a house atSea-Tac. It still exists, and is socrowded during the Friday prayerthat people pray in the yard.In 1989, when he conceived the

cable television program “Focuson Islam” (scantv.org) to address

and equality. Born and educated in Pak-

istan, Siddiqui pursued his edu-cation in Britain and, in 1983,joined the University of Washing-ton (UW). A human rights worker,he has always championed thecause of justice. For example, heparticipated in anti-apartheidcampaigns in South Africa and tofree Nelson Mandela. In America,he joined campaigns designed toprotect the rights of workers atthe Gallo vineyards, createawareness of Chile’s Pinochetregime, and spotlight Americanactivities in El Salvador. In addition, he was involved in

programs to help people under-stand the genocides in Bosnia andthen in Kosova. His work pickedup after 9/11, when he began tospeak at community groups,churches, synagogues, schools,and colleges — even to the SeattleFBI. The content of his presenta-tions consists of faith, social andcultural facts and issues so thatthe audience can get a full pictureof Islam and Muslims. A gifted writer, Siddiqui con-

tributes articles to newspapersand magazines, gives radio com-


Muslim Seattleites reach out to share Islam withtheir neighbors. BY S. M. OWAIS JAFREY

Talking to Neighbors

JAFAR “JEFF” SIDDIQUI

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vice president of the Imam Fatwa Com-mittee. ICOE, which holds open housesand greets visitors, is pursuing plans todouble its men’s and women’s prayer ar-eas. The four-level plan includes newclassrooms, a children’s activity area, acommunity hall, and a fourth floorrooftop deck and social area.

After renting an apartment for aboutten months, the number of Muslims in

the Kent area could no longer be accom-modated, especially during the Fridayprayer. The community purchased a3,500 sq. ft. house on a half-acre lot in theheart of Kent to set up the Islamic Centerof Kent (ickent.com; ICK). A full-fledgedmosque by 2000, it now serves over 200families. According to Present SarajKhan, “1.5 acres of land was recentlypurchased and expansion of the current

lims, weekly study circles for women,tafsir classes, and the regular prayers.The mosque has a strong outreach groupthat disseminates Islamic knowledgethrough the Internet. Da‘wah groupsfrom local mosques, not to mention fromAustralia, England, and South Africa, arealways welcomed. Imam Shaykh HafizFazal Hassan, an ardent scholar fromMadrasah Ashrafia (India), also serves as

never get involved. And then wecomplain about America.” Instead of complaining, Samad

became actively engaged. In 1988he became a delegate for JesseJackson, always introducing him-self as a Muslim. In 1996, whenhis friend Gary Locke announcedhis gubernatorial run, he got in-volved in his campaign, andhelped elect the first first-genera-tion Chinese immigrant as gover-nor in America. Samad, who at-tributes his humanitarianactivism to the inspiration that hefound in his father’s example, hasbeen active in humanitarian caus-es such as Palestine and Bosnia,and helped raise more than$600,000 for the ShaukatKhanum Memorial Hospital beingbuilt in Pakistan, named for themother of the legendary cricketerImran Khan. Samad helped organize the

first united Eid Prayer in 1994 atthe Seattle Center which was at-tended by some 5,000 people.Samad, who is fully supported byhis wife Jessy, is also a foundingmember of the Muslim Familyand Children’s Services that hashelped several families.

Munir RizviAnother community dynamo isMunir Rizvi. An engineer at Boe-ing, humble and unassuming, heis always available and on thefront line volunteering for anyphilanthropic cause. Working forGreater Seattle’s Muslim com-munity for the last 20 years, hewas recognized by the PakistanAssociation for his meritoriousservices in arranging programsto create political awarenessamong Muslim Americans andhelping Muslim immigrants atthe Tacoma Detention Center.Active in the World EducationFoundation, using the networkof mosques and he is instrumen-tal in raising funds for establish-ing schools in Pakistani villagescatering to the educationalneeds of 400 kids from 1st to10th grade. As a Human Devel-opment Foundation team mem-ber, he was in Kashmir to helpbuild homes for the 2005 earth-quake victims. Hidaya Founda-tion has found in him an enthusi-astic volunteer cum truck driverwho collects clothes, medicinesand other essential items for vic-tims of the recent floods. ̂

rights for Muslims and conveythe truth about them and theirreligion. A Seattle-area residentsince 1990, he holds a B.A. inbusiness finance from SeattleUniversity (2004). By mid-2010, CAIR-WA had re-

ceived well over thirty civil rightscomplaints from Muslims in theNorthwest. CAIR-WA meets regu-larly with local Muslim and secu-lar organizations, among themthe ACLU, Puget Sound Sage,and One America. On 18 Jan.2010, CAIR-WA held what mighthave been the largest Muslimlobbying day in the nation.

Rizwan SamadRizwan Samad, president andCEO of International Trade Con-sulting, an international businessconsulting firm based in Seattle,came to this country as a youngman and has been involved in themosques and issues. He saysthat “living in America, I alwaysthought a Muslim should havepower and a voice; but the onlyway they can achieve that is bybeing united and getting involvedin local politics, with one voice.We become American; but we

mentaries, and is interviewed bylocal radio and television shows.One of his articles received sec-ond prize in “Pacific NW Excel-lence in Journalism 2003.” Hehelped rewrite “Terrorism Today”(Simonsen & Spindlove), a bookused widely as an education tool,and receives regular invitationsto numerous discussion groupsand panels. Siddiqui has been striving to

involve Muslims in local politicsby convincing them to registerand vote. His message is right tothe point: “Vote! Or nothing willchange.” He believes that thosegroups with a political profile areless likely to be targeted by politi-cians and government agencies.In the 2008 elections, he waselected to the Democratic Elec-toral College, becoming one ofthe first Muslim Electors ever.

S. Arsalan Bukhari Another highly visible Muslim isS. Arsalan Bukhari (executive di-rector, Council on American-Is-lamic Relations [CAIR-WA]). Theonly full-time staff member, heleads some fifteen active volun-teers in his effort to secure civil


AZIZ JUNEJO S. ARSALAN BUKHARI MOHAMED JAWAD KHAKI

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Masjid Al-Rahmah. Efforts are under-way to raise a further $1.3 million for theneeded renovation, and hopes are highthat the community will move into thenew facility by early 2011.

Full-time Imam Mohamed Joban, agraduate of the Islamic University ofJakarta and al-Azhar, has established anIslamic Center at Olympia for the Chamcommunity. He also serves as president ofthe state’s Imam Fatwa Committee.

The MAPS board has a cohesive teamof young people: Hyder Ali (president),Kabir Jeddy (treasurer), and Nisreen El-Saadoun (education secretary). GreaterSeattle has always witnessed the generos-ity of its Muslim community. The 17 Apr.2010 fundraising dinner for Masjid Al-Noor, the Islamic Center of Olympia(ICO; islamiccenterofolympia.org) at-tested to this generosity, raising close to$80,000. The construction is being super-vised by Syed Jamil Ahmad and ICO

president Osman Yusuf. ^ The Islamic Center of Redmond

(ICOR; redmondmosque.org) started asa musallah in 1999; by 2008, it had de-veloped into a mosque that looks forwardto providing a gym, a children’s play area,a multipurpose room, and a school aswell as holding the daily prayers and Is-lamic education classes. Imam SheikhAmeen Hussam has many ongoing Islam-ic education programs. Amal Abdelgaberteaches Qur’an to women, and Sheikh El-Ghazali conducts a Sunday seerah pro-gram after the isha’ prayer.

Seattle Muslims were proud to em-brace 500 Muslim Bosnian families whohad fled the Serbian-imposed holocaustin their homeland. The vigor and fore-sight of Imam Abdullah Polovina, agraduate of the Islamic Academy ofBosnia and a student of Islamic studiesat Cloverdale College (South Bend, IN)and comparative religion at UW, galva-nized the scattered Bosnian communityinto a dynamic force. He recalls their tri-als with great pain, along with the mas-sacres and genocide that still haunt all ofthem. Dr. Mustafa Ceric (Grand Muftiof Bosnia) and Dr. Haris Silajdic (mem-ber of the presidency) flew in to lay thefoundation of the first Bosnian Masjid innorth Seattle on 26 May 2007. EveryBosnian turned into a mason, carpenter,painter, constructor, and laborer tobuild the 2.5-level mosque to accommo-date around 800 people. Granite andspecial stone from China, as well as adome designed to allow natural light tofilter through, were further enhanced byhall glass windows. Eye-catching callig-raphy by Turkish artists Akin, Gazanfer,and Hamza, has made this mosque a

facility is underway. In addition to dailyprayers, regular halaqas teaching theQur’an and Hadith are held, community-based Islamic functions and religiousseminars are organized.” The centerserves about 1,000 families living in Kent,Renton, Federal Way, Auburn, and Tuk-wila. The original structure could onlyhold about 200 congregants, and so atwo-stage expansion plan was launchedto bring the existing prayer buildings intofull compliance with the county buildingcode and then to build a new multipur-pose mosque to serve as the centerpieceof all Islamic activities in years to come.The $250,000 remodeling increased thecurrent capacity to 500 people.

^ The Ithna-asheri Muslim Associa-tion of the Northwest (iman-wa.org;IMAN) of Greater Seattle was formed inAug. 1997 to promote the teachings of theProphet and the Ahl al-Bayt (Allah bepleased with them). This association,which provides a platform for both intra-faith and interfaith dialogue, also buildshomes for low-income families in EastKing County. The Interfaith AllianceFoundation recognized IMAN presidentand founder/director Mohamed JawadKhaki’s contribution to interfaith under-standing with its Walter Cronkite Faith &Freedom Award.

^ The Muslim Association of PugetSound (mapsredmond.org; MAPS),founded in 2006, has blossomed into a dy-namic organization that features struc-tured Islamic study programs for youngpeople and a six-week summer study pro-gram. On the social front, summer pic-nics, ski outings, and Eid gatherings areorganized. It recently bought a 46,000 sq.ft. property for $3.1 million to establish


THE GROWTH OF THEPUGET SOUND REGION’SMUSLIM PRESENCE IS EVIDENT BEYONDMOSQUES — FROM A

PRESCHOOL TO THE PUBLIC-ACCESS

CABLE SHOW, A MUSLIM-OWNED

SLAUGHTERHOUSE ANDHALAL RESTAURANTS.

PHOTO

GRAPH BY SAMIA EL-MOSLIMANY (©)

At the Islamic School of Seattle, Asmaa Ahmed helps classmate Omar Dyles with his schoolwork; Sheikh Idris Mosque, Northgate; Fundraising dinner for Masjid Al-Noor, the

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Sheikh Usman is its imam. The IslamicCenter of Renton is managed by AhmedZayan; Sheikh Hasan Rabi leads theprayers. Sheikh Khalid Yasin has re-cently stepped in as the imam of themosque/da‘wah center of the Sam-mamish Muslims’ Association (sam-mamishmosque.com). Sheikh YasinOmer leads the prayers at Masjid At-Taqwa, Sheikh Raid at Masjid Al-Tawheed, Sheikh Yasin Tufa at Masjid Al-

Tawfeeq, Sheikh Idris at the EthiopianMuslim Association’s mosque (EMAS;emasseattle.com), and Sheikh NathirKalil at the Masjid Ibaddur Rahman.The Islamic school at the White Center isin its infancy. The Medina Academy ofRedmond was started as an Islamicpreschool in 2000 by Salah Dandan andhis wife, who moved to Bellevue in 1998.There is also a musallah for Muslims whowork in downtown Seattle. This is run bythe Downtown Muslim Association(dmaseattle.com), which rents spacefrom the Plymouth CongregationalChurch. These musallahs and schools aremanaged by dedicated leaders who haveoptimism, passion, and vision.

^ Samir Sarhan oversees the IslamPresentation and Invitation Center(IPIC; ipicseattle.org; est. 1996), a non-profit organization that provides free Is-lamic literature to anyone who asks for it.IPIC volunteers visit the state’s correc-tional facilities to introduce Islam and or-ganize lectures in schools and colleges. AlSadaqa, a nonprofit organization, hasmany participating mosques that providehousing, food, utilities, and transporta-tion to the needy. The Muslim HousingServices (MHS), founded in 1999, helpsfind homes for homeless families living inrent-subsidized housing and mentors theneedy to help them find better ways of liv-ing and becoming self-sufficient.

^ The Seattle Muslim community isvery proud of Faheem Siddiq, an unas-suming and experienced African-Ameri-can Islamic worker and chaplain in Wash-ington’s prisons and correction centers.Many prisoners have been guided to Is-lam through his efforts. He runs trainingcourses for volunteers to make da‘wah in

piece of architectural beauty. Thedream is to expand the current facilityinto a grand Islamic center with a largerprayer hall, classrooms, a library, a gym,and a restaurant.

^ Masjid Ibadul-Rahman (aka theGambian Mosque), established in July2008, serves over 200 Gambian families.Imam Abdlahe Bayo conducts weekly Is-lamic education sessions, which includeinterpretation of the Qur’an and theSunnah, in Soninkey. Some fifty studentsattend the school, and women-only pro-grams are held on Saturday and Sundaymornings.

^ Somali refugees began arriving inAmerica in the 1990s. About 35,000 ofthem chose to settle in Seattle. Thisgrowing community of hard workersbought a big casino for $3.2 million andconverted it into the Abubakr IslamicCenter of Seattle (AICS; abubakar-masjid.com) — the city’s largest mosque.Inaugurated in 2009, it offers many reli-gious activities and the daily and Fridaycongregational prayers. Imam SheikhAhmed Abdulkadir also holds weekendQur’anic classes, delivers evening lec-tures, and provides counseling on socialissues.

^ Many musallahs (prayer places) cur-rently housed in apartments/houses havebright prospects of flowering into fullyoperational mosques in the near future.Some already have taken the shape of atraditional mosque, like the thriving Is-lamic Center of Bothell (ICOB; bothell-mosque.org) managed by Jeremy Mseitif,which features lectures by visiting schol-ars and prayers. The Islamic Center ofEverett (ICEWA: icewa.com) is the real-ization of Aurangzeb Akbar’s dream;

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EDITOR’S NOTE:“Islamic Horizons”invited S. M. OwaisJafrey – a deeplycommitted commu-nity worker – toshare with our read-ers the founding,growth, and future ofthe Seattle Muslimcommunity.A graduate of Aligarh Muslim University (Ali-

garh, India), Jafry received two MAs from PunjabUniversity (Lahore, Pakistan) before securing anMA from the University of Washington.During his term as UW-MSA president, the

Islamic House was purchased; he was activelyinvolved in fundraising and managing of the pro-ject. He is also involved in humanitarian projectssuch as helping refugees and other affected per-sons. He is a former vice president of the AfghanRelief Committee and of the Sheikh Idris Mosque,as well as board member of Masjid Umar Al-Fa-rooq. A founding member and secretary of theUrdu Literary Society of Washington, Jafrey isthe editorial board advisor of “Al-Aqreba,” anIslamabad-based Urdu-language literary, acad-emic, and research journal, as well as of “Irte-baat,” an Urdu-literary and academic journalpublished by the University of Istanbul.

er for Masjid Al-Noor, the Islamic Center of Olympia for the Cham community

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I S L A M I N A M E R I C A

Seattle area and beyond, and looks aftertheir ongoing maintenance.

A UNIFIED VOICE. Another MuslimAmerican trend came to fruition inMarch 2003, when administrators repre-senting the Puget Sound area mosquescreated the Islamic Council of Washing-ton State (ICWS) to unite and give a com-mon platform to the area’s and the state’s

Muslims. Formalized on 18 Sept. 2003,area mosque administrative representa-tives (aka “council members”) reaf-firmed each mosque’s responsibilities.They agreed to abide by the method oflocal moon sighting in North America,start Ramadan and Shawwal on thesame day, and follow the dates of Arafatand Eid al-Adha as observed in thoseplaces in which they occur. ICWS mem-

prisons and ensures that prisoners receivehalal food, copies of the Qur’an, books onthe Prophet’s life, and prayer rugs. He in-volves the Muslim community in arrang-ing iftars during Ramadan and arrangesfor gifts and dinner on both Eids for the in-mates. Yet another unassuming brother,Pervez Romani, donates his technical ex-pertise, time, and even electrical and ACappliances to the mosques of the Greater

ing, and the Islamic Center ofSeattle (ISC) was established. Since ICS was located in the

south, far away from the Univer-sity District, MSA activities weremostly organized in the north.The Friday prayer was held at theUniversity Methodist Temple;Friday halaqas at differentvenues. As the Campus ChristianMinistry offered MSA the most, itgradually moved there. When theCCM relocated, it graciouslygave MSA the key to the buildingso that the community could useits library for the Friday halaqasand isha’ prayers. Over time, MSA activities have

expanded greatly. Eminentscholars and speakers, amongthem Dr. Hassan Hathout and Dr.Kamal Abul Majid (cultural at-taché of the Egyptian Embassyand later cabinet minister inEgypt) lectured to large campusaudiences. Every year it partici-pated in the MSA National WestCoast conference, usually heldin San Francisco or Los Angeles,and held large popular Eid cele-brations featuring dinner, cultur-al events, and entertainmentprograms for children. As membership continued to

increase, the need to have a per-manent place to pray, educate thecommunity, and hold social activi-ties became ever-more apparent.MSA started seeking donationsfrom alumni who had returned tothe oil-rich Gulf countries. The

goal was to purchase a buildingclose to the campus. Wa‘il Al-Issa,a Kuwaiti who was studying ur-ban planning at UW, presentedthis proposal to his philanthropicfather and received $55,000 asthe initial down payment. Tradi-

tionally, community members hadalways taken care of the day-to-day expenses. Now, a monthlypledge system was set up to col-lect donations and contributions.Saudi students Umar Mash’abi,Muhammad Sarhan, and othersput about $25,000 each towardthe project, while Abdul WahhabAl-Zughaibi, who had studiedstructural engineering, providedthe rest. Finally in Dec. 1979,about $220,000 was paid toclose the deal. Adnan Idris, the Saudi Airline

representative at Boeing, used tojoin the MSA Friday prayers atthe University Methodist Templebefore the Islamic House waspurchased. Realizing the needfor a mosque, he persuaded hisgenerous father-in-law to do-nate the funds to establish theSheikh Idris Masjid at Northgate,which opened in 1981.

“The history of the Muslim Stu-dents’ Association of the Univer-sity of Washington (UW), Seat-tle, is the chronicle of the work ofda‘wah in the Pacific Northwest”says founder and mentor IsmailAhmad. Since its inception in1965, MSA has focused on main-taining its members’ Islamicidentity by holding Fridayprayers and evening halaqas atthe Campus Christian Ministry(CCM) building. Dr. Joseph Di-Caprio (professor, UW MedicalCenter) helped MSA draft itsconstitution and get it registeredby UW’s dean of student affairsas a legal student body. Due tothe legal separation of churchand state, MSA held most of itsprayers, study groups, lecturers,and other activities in nearbychurches. As the number ofMuslim students increased, itbegan including the wider Mus-lim community in its day-to-dayactivities. In the mid-1960s, the commu-

nity consisted of only a dozen orso families living from Olympia toBellingham. To facilitate theirchildren’s education, a housewas purchased to serve as aschool in South Seattle. Dr.Muhammad Elmuslimany, a pio-neer in Seattle’s Muslim commu-nity, made a down payment on abuilding to be converted into amosque; the community was re-sponsible for paying the rest.MSA participated in the fundrais-

At this stage, MSA began topresent Islam to the wider non-Muslim community. Membersparticipated with other religiousgroups in founding the InterfaithCouncil, and ISC also became anactive and full participating

member. MSA received — andcontinues to receive — many in-vitations from churches, col-leges, high schools, and other in-terested parties to lecture aboutIslam and take part in interfaithdialogues. Many of Seattle’s MSA mem-

bers actively joined hands withthe community to establish newmosques and prayer-places inGreater Seattle. Many alum nowhold important positions in theirhome countries and, at times, getin touch with the old timers. AllMSA presidents and office bear-ers have contributed a lot to theflourishing of the student body.Among them is Shaykh HamzaMaqbul, a two-time MSA presi-dent known for his infectiouszeal and enthusiasm for da‘wah.UW’s MSA continues to thrive inthe hands of dynamic leaders,the builders of our tomorrow. ̂

Student PowerMuslim students at the University of Washington worked with philanthropicMSA alum to create permanent infrastructure. BY S. M. OWAIS JAFREY

Many of Seattle’s MSA membersactively joined hands with thecommunity to establish new mosquesand prayer-places in Greater Seattle.

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Muslim section; 1,400 lots were acquired,and roughly 400 deceased Muslims havealready been buried there.

Political leaders have recognized theMuslims’ contribution to the state. Gov.Christine O. Gregoire sent Eid greetingsto the Pakistan Association of GreaterSeattle and lauded the contributions ofthe Muslims to the greater community;Rep. Jay Inslee (D - WA) attended an Eiddinner and greeted the audience with“Eid Mubarak.” King County Council’schairman Dow Constantine observed theEid prayer at the Qwest Field arena at-tended by some 20,000 Muslims.

A CONNECTED COMMUNITYMuslim2Muslim (muslim2muslim.us),formed in Feb. 2009, is a Puget Soundmatchmaking service that seeks “to pro-vide a resource and assistance to the localmasaajid and their respective communi-ties by offering a personal and compre-hensive match making program…” In a

recent lecture, Imam Mohammad Jobanand Shaykh Hamza Maqbul discussed atlength the challenges, realities, and solu-tions of finding a spouse according to Is-lamic norms and answered questions onlove relationships, and the responsibili-ties, that marriage entails.

Events in the Puget Sound area areregularly announced at muslim-calen-dar.com (MC). Up since 2001, this one-stop website for Muslims in North Amer-ica and the United Kingdom lists theongoing programs of a given locationand helps to avoid scheduling conflicts.Over 200 administrators from variousmosques and organizations add theirevents for free. Once an event is added,MC sends weekly reminders to over50,000 subscribers. More than 10,000people per month use MC, which hopesto unite Muslims on one site; people vis-ited it over 100,000 times per month. Toadd an event, visit muslim-calendar.comand click “add an event.” ^

bers include the Idris Mosque (North-gate), Masjid Omar Al-Farooq (Mount-lake Terrace), Masjid Jamiul Muslimin(Cham Masjid), Eastside Masjid (Belle-vue), Masjid Al-Taqwa (Downtown Seat-tle), the Redmond Musalla (Redmond),Majid Al-Tawheed (West Seattle), Islam-ic Center of Kent (Kent), the DowntownMuslim Association of Seattle, and theIslamic Center of Everett.

Social institutions are sprouting innoticeable ways. In Aug. 2000, a groupof South Seattle Muslims purchased aU.S. Agriculture Department-inspectedslaughterhouse in Sumner. Several halalmeat stores and restaurants are alsoflourishing.

Seattle’s Queen Anne cemetery hadreserved a small plot for Muslims, butthey did not own it. In accordance withthe late Ihsan Samad’s wish, his son Eijazjoined with Mehboob Ahmad in the early1990s to negotiate with Woodlawn Ceme-tery, located on Seattle’s outskirts, for a

(clockwise from above) Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, and Dr. Haris Silajdic (member of the Bosnian presidency) flew in to lay the foundationof the first Bosnian Masjid in north Seattle on 26 May 2007; Imam Abdullah Polovina; Interior and exterior the 2.5-level new Bosnian mosque

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ing a “righteous Arabic holy name.” Si-multaneously some immigrant Muslims,particularly those who wanted to assimi-late, were adopting European names orAnglicizing their Arabic names. ElijahMuhammad’s success strongly supportsthe belief that God must have been withhim, not necessarily because he properlyunderstood Islam, but because of his sin-cere efforts to improve his people’s con-dition while bringing them closer to Is-lam. The fact that the vast majority of hisfollowers eventually embraced main-stream Sunni Islam strongly indicatesthat God rewarded his sincere efforts.

Elijah Muhammad, who neverclaimed to receive revelation from Godand established Mr. Fard as his teacher,often said: “Allah, in the Person of Mas-ter Fard Muhammad”; he never asserted

Facing great odds, he transformedhundreds of thousands of down-troddenAfrican Americans into respectful andproductive citizens and achieved some-thing unique in the annals of history: heproduced internationally renownedmen, namely, Malcolm X, MuhammadAli, Minister Louis Farrakhan, andImam W. Deen Mohammed. Not evenhis contemporary, Rev. Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr., or past leaders likeMarcus Garvey, Charles Daddy Grace,or Booker T. Washington — nor their or-ganizations — can claim such success. Asa result, many remember him as the“Honorable Elijah Muhammad.”

Even though his leadership was in con-stant transition, he remained faithful toMr. Fard and his charge of improving theconditions of African Americans. The re-sulting benefits also extend to the overallIslamic community in America.

Elijah Muhammad himself was recog-nized internationally. But his non-tradi-tional practice of Islam presents a chal-lenge of how to best record his life andlegacy in the Muslim American mosaic.Most Muslims in America, both indige-nous and immigrant, in many ways are

standing on the legacy of his work. Re-gardless of his unorthodoxy, ElijahMuhammad remains the one individualwho introduced more Americans to thename “Muhammad” and “al-salaam‘alaikum” than anyone else. A study ofhis unique teaching vis-à-vis unletteredAfrican Americans as well as of the es-chatology he inherited from Mr. Fardmight be overdue.

The dismal condition of African Amer-icans at the advent of Elijah Muham-mad’s mission qualified them to be primecandidates for God’s direct help. His fol-lowers proudly and boldly rejected theirlast names, assigned by their ancestors’slave masters, in hopes of one day receiv-

Elijah Muhammad isprobably one of themost misunderstoodpersons in America.Even among the two

groups who may have benefited themost from him — African Ameri-cans and the overall Muslim Ameri-can community — he has yet to re-ceive the credit he deserves.A poor southern Georgian who

had relocated to Detroit in 1929, heencountered a foreigner named FardMuhammad (aka W. D. Fard), whowas promoting an unorthodoxbrand of Islam. In 1933 Fard left hiscommunity, the Nation of Islam(NoI), in Elijah’s care after givinghim the surname “Muhammad.”Over the next forty-two years, ElijahMuhammad led the NoI.

A Legacy RevisitedDid Elijah Muhammad’s teachings provide a way to an acceptable understanding of Islam? BY MICHAEL SAAHIR


Elijah Muhammad with his son Imam W. D.Mohammed holding the Quran____________________________________________________

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Him we all depend. It is the highest of ig-norance for us to choose a God or attemptto make something as an equal to Him.”

The year 1974 saw two major develop-ments in his leadership: he told his sonWallace (Warith Deen Mohammed),who believed in traditional Sunni Islam:“Son, you can go anywhere and teachthat gospel” and, at his final Saviour’sDay address in 1974, he openly praisedthe achievements of White people, there-by exonerating them of causing theAfrican-Americans’ dismal state.

Although he passed away over thirtyyears ago, his contributions remain ap-preciable. For some he may remain anenigma; nonetheless, notwithstandinghis racial stances, Elijah Muhammad’sachievements for African Americans andhis sincere efforts to spread Islam are un-deniable._______________________________Michael Saahir, imam of the Nur-Allah Islamic Center (Indi-anapolis, IN) and prominent student of Imam Warith DeenMohammed, is the author of a forthcoming book on ElijahMuhammad.

that Fard was Allah, the creator of heav-en and Earth. In his book “Message to theBlackman in America” (1965), he stated:“A Muslim is one who believes in OneGod. It is forbidden by Allah (God) for usto believe in or serve anyone other thanHimself as a god. He warns us not to setup an equal with Him, as He was the Onein the beginning from whom everythinghad its beginning and will be the OneGod from which everything will end. Heis independent, having no need of any-one’s help, but on the other hand, upon

Dr. Curtis acknowledges a ten-sion common with the history of reli-gion: “The tension exists betweenthe idea on one hand, that a reli-gious tradition is universally applic-able to the experience of all humanbeings and the idea, on the otherhand, that a religious tradition is ap-plicable to the experience of oneparticular group of human beings.”Dr. John Henrick Clarke writes:

“Had Elijah Muhammad tried to in-troduce an orthodox form of Arab-oriented Islam, I doubt if he wouldhave attracted 500 people. But heintroduced a form of Islam thatcould communicate with the peoplehe had to deal with. He was the kingto those who had no king; he wasthe Messiah to those some peoplethought unworthy of a Messiah”(africawithin.com/ malcolmx/make_it_plain.htm). Dr. Clarke knew,as did Edward W. Blyden, Noble DrewAli, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X,and Wallace D. Muhammad (laterImam Warith Deen Mohammed), andother prominent Black figures, thatreligion exists to address a people’s

Black America’s Path to Islam very clear on how he envisioned hislife’s work: “My people must be dealtwith on a special basis, because theirbackground and circumstances aredifferent from those prevailing else-where in the world. You cannot usethe same medicine to treat altogeth-er different diseases.”The legacy of the NoI and its fore-

runners in a real sense parallels theconditions of Black America. Whilemany of the maladies that plaguedtwentieth-century Black Americaare no longer as dangerous to thebody politic, certain challenges con-tinue to call for creative and dedi-cated people willing and able tomake a difference in Black America.Many present-day African-Americanpractitioners of traditional Sunni Is-lam are over fifty and very likely tohave been NoI members prior to Eli-jah Muhammad’s passing. In the in-terest of full disclosure, I was a“first-generation” (under the spiri-tual leadership of Elijah Muham-mad) member of the NoI. Foreign Muslims would benefit

from studying Black America’s jour-ney throughout American history,for many lessons can be learnedfrom the holocaust of enslavementand subsequent decades of de jureand de facto apartheid. Perhaps ifthat attorney had done his “home-work” he would have been moreknowledgeable of the NoI’s effec-tiveness and similarity to traditionalIslam. There is ample room at thetable for all. History reveals that ifwe are not at the table, we mightend up on the menu.To your journey!

_______________________Ahmad Daniels, M.Ed., is transformation facilitator

at creative-interchange.com.

social needs. Black America’s socialneeds could not have been ad-dressed by an Islam importedstraight from the Middle East. In referencing C. Eric Lincoln’s

classic “The Black Muslims in Ameri-ca,” 3d ed. (Eerdmans: William B.Pub. Co., 1994) Dr. Curtis writes:“Viewing the Nation of Islam from afunctionalist perspective, Lincoln ar-gued that religious elements of themovement, including its Islamic‘mystique’ were incidental to its suc-cess.” The practices and dictates ofElijah Muhammad, the NoI’s founderand once spiritual leader, did whatsocial agencies could not, such asremoving heroin needles from thearms of Black men and convincingBlack women to abandon prostitu-tion. The originator of the respectedstreet saying “You can’t lead whereyou don’t go — you can’t teach whatyou don’t know” must have had ElijahMuhammad in mind. The man’s vi-sion of an earnest and self-sufficientBlack nation, what he referred to asthe “Lost and Found Nation,” set inmotion an embryonic religious move-ment that continues to send wavesthroughout Black America — a Blackcommunity striving to achieve self-empowerment and self-respect.A major difference between tradi-

tional Islam and the NoI was the ex-clusion of Whites. If ProphetMuhammad’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wasallam) purpose was to proclaimGod’s unity to a polytheistic people,Elijah Muhammad’s reason for beingwas to help Black people reconnectwith their God-like qualities. He was

Over dinner with threeother men, one a MiddleEastern Muslim attor-ney, our conversation

somehow shifted to the Nation of Is-lam (NoI) and Elijah Muhammad’steachings. He quickly dismissed theprominent figures of African-Ameri-can Islam as heretics, cultists, andsectarians. I, on the other hand, re-sponded immediately and identifiedthe virtues of modern African-Amer-ican Islamic thought. He, like manymainstream Muslims, was unawareand quick to judge.Perhaps three books can serve as

an introduction to Black America’spath to Islam: “The Autobiographyof Malcolm X as dictated to Alex Ha-ley” (Ballantine Books: 1987); Ed-ward E. Curtis IV’s “Islam in BlackAmerica” (SUNY: 2002); and Dr.Martin L. King, Jr.’s “The Measureof a Man” (Augsburg Fortress Pub-lishers: 2001). Dr. King was one ofthe few Christians who have man-aged to articulate the plight ofAmerica’s Blacks with such clarityand urgency. The political oppres-sion, economic exploitation, and so-cial degradation, coming on theheels of centuries of enslavementinterwoven into social customs andlaw, make their plight unique. Itwould take Islam’s unifying qualitiesto bring together large numbers ofBlacks and set them on a path thatwould first address their sense ofself-rejection before setting manyon a journey that would lead to or-thodox Sunni Islam. But we are get-ting ahead of ourselves.

Despite his initialaberration, ElijahMuhammad should be recognized forleading a people tothe dignity of ortho-dox Sunni Islam.BY AHMAD DANIELS

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Albanian founder and presi-dent of the Muslim Society ofToronto. Assim, a quiet anddedicated man who used totell amazing stories of beingamong revolutionaries in Al-bania, is described by com-patriot and vice presidentBedri Bylykbashi as a “veryhonest man, [who] wasworking with the heart …only for Muslim faith.”

To transform the shop intoa mosque required basic re-pairs, such as fixing a leakingroof, and many other renova-tions. Hasan Karachi provid-

An oral historyproject undertakenby the Toronto-based TessellateInstitute uncoversan untold chapterof the history ofCanadian Muslims.

By Aziza Hirsi and Katherine Bullock

PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT DR. RAHMAN SYED, COURTESY TTI

TThe Jami Mosque was not, asmany people assume, Toron-to’s first mosque. In fact, thathonor belongs to an oldleather shop that was pur-chased by the Muslim Societyof Toronto in 1961 and trans-formed into the Dundas StreetMosque by a small hard-working team of Muslims.

This fact was discoveredthrough an oral history pro-ject undertaken by the Toron-to-based Tessellate Institute(tessellateinstitute.com) dur-ing the summer of 2009. Thestory of this mosque and thecommunity that sustained it isan untold chapter of the his-tory of Canadian Muslims —a history that itself liescloaked in obscurity. ImaanCommunications, whichfilmed and edited the project,has created an open accesswebsite (mosqueone.com)that contains video clips ofthe founders as well as photo-graphic and legal documents.Kathleen Wynne, then On-tario’s Minister of Education,speaking at the web launchlast Nov. 2009, said that theonline archive serves as an“amazing educational re-source.” The oral historyproject was funded by TheOlive Tree Foundation (olivetreefoundation.ca) andcosponsored by the Interna-tional Development & ReliefFoundation (idrf.com).

By 1968 the communityneeded more space, and sothe shop was sold and themosque moved to an oldchurch, renamed JamiMosque, from which the leg-end of it being the city’s firstmosque sprang.

The first mosque was situ-

TORONTO’S FORGOTTEN

First Mosqueated in one of Toronto’s busi-ness areas. As Talat Muinud-din (a member) noted: “Peo-ple didn’t have cars, and thelocation [of the mosque] was[ideal] … so that they couldcome by streetcar and buses.”

Toronto’s diverse culturaland religious population wasreflected in this original com-munity. Its members camefrom Albania, Bangladesh,Egypt, India, Iraq, Pakistan,Turkey, the former Yu-goslavia, and even a fewWhite converts. The drivingforce was Regip Assim, the

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ed the paint, and MustafaDjukic helped retile the roof.Together they “worked [for]almost two years without anypay,” as a form of sadaqah.Soon the place was trans-formed into a home awayfrom home for the rapidlygrowing number of Muslims,a place that helped themovercome homesickness andisolation and provided soli-darity, networking, job assis-tance, and long-lastingfriendships. The mosquefunctioned as a place ofprayer, social and education-al gatherings, Eid dinners,and a Sunday Islamic Schoolfor children.

The community’s strongbonds and tight-knit atmos-phere encouraged Dr. FuadSahin and his wife Solnaz tomake the one-hour journeyfrom Hamilton to Torontoevery Sunday just to be partof it. Solnaz remembers how

Muslims from all differentbackgrounds: “I tell you I wasso thrilled, especially for thefirst time in my life. I wasstanding in the row of salat al-dhuhr. There was a whiteperson, black person, brownperson, in my — in my life-time I had never come acrossa thing like that … I tell you,literally, I remember therewere teardrops in my eyes be-cause of this kind of situa-tion…with a white Muslimand a black Muslim standingin the same row with — withme. It was amazing, it wasamazing.”

Among the pioneers werewomen who played signifi-

cant roles in fundraising, edu-cating the children, and othermosque activities. Solnaznotes that she and others weremotivated “to do something[like] raise money” for the Is-lamic center. Concerned withpassing on their faith to theirchildren, they worked hard toestablish a Sunday school.Naturally, there were manysetbacks. “Well, one of thefirst things of course is thatthere weren’t any books. Theclasses were very small — veryhaphazard — not very orga-nized,” recalls Alia Hogben.“But we cared a lot about thechildren, so they were in-volved in a lot of things.”

Ramadan was a special timethat brought the communitytogether — despite the lack ofa kitchen. She and otherswould prepare food at home.“We cooked here [at home]and take it there [to the Islam-ic Centre],” she reminisces.“We ate together. It was nice.”

While the need to self-iden-tify as Muslim was not so im-portant in their native lands,the community’s small sizeand its members’ minoritystatus made it more importanthere. Amjad Syed noted thatin Canada his faith and skincolor set him apart from oth-ers. Yet he remembers vividlythe first time he prayed with

(top) Regip Assim, Founder of The Muslim Society of Toronto, in Sept. 1965 (left) Malik Shabazz (Malcom X) visits the Dundas St. Mosque

PHOTO

GRAPH COPYRIGHT MARY KARIM, COURTESY TTI

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Dr. Sahin agrees, notingthat he “was concernedabout the future of youngMuslims born and raised [inCanada]. But all my worries— like the worries of most ofmy friends there — were fu-tile because we discoveredthat all of these childrenwhose parents were involvedin the Islamic movementgrew up to be wonderfulMuslims, wonderful citizensof Canada and well educatedand respected.”

The Islamic Centre, theheart of the Muslim commu-nity, was the scene of manynoteworthy historical events,such as the visit by MalcolmX. Murray Hogben, who hadarranged the speech, invitedMalcolm to dinner at hishome first. “We talked […]and had a nice time. We ateand […], put [Malcolm] inthe car and took him to theCentre,” he said. “He spoke[and then] we were pho-tographed with him. I hadframed [a] paper, [… with]Arabic inscription [in] one ofthese gold frames, whichwere available then and thatwas our little gift to him.”Sadly, soon after that Mal-colm X was assassinated; thebrief encounter so manyyears ago still brings tears tothe eyes of those who remem-

ber his visit to Dundas Street. Other historical nuggets

have been discovered, such asthe fact that Dr. HussainIbrahim Saleh al-Shahristani,Iraq’s current oil minister,was the center’s Sundayschool teacher while earninghis Ph.D. at the University ofToronto. The Muslim StudentAssociation of Toronto wasfounded by people who werealso active at the center.

As the need for more spacebecame urgent, the communi-ty sold the Dundas StreetMosque and purchased a for-mer church (now the Jami

mosque). “[It] cost us$150,000.00, and that was a lotof money then,” Mrs. Hogbensays. “But we were so excitedyou know, and so this was go-ing to be the new place.”

But there were also divi-sions and disagreements with-in the rapidly expanding com-munity. Before long, thesedifferences of opinion createdsplits within the community.“[A]nd then the communitydecided to split off … insteadof staying together,” shelaments, “… so now the Alba-nians have their own mosque,the Bosnians have their

mosque, and so on and soforth. … For me, it has beenone of the tragedies.”

In the end, less than tenyears after its establishmentthe center closed its doors andits members went their sepa-rate ways. Yet each group has,in its own way, carried thespirit of Islam through its owncommunity, carving a nicheand making a rich contribu-tion to Canada’s diverse reli-gious and cultural landscape._______________________Aziza Hirsi is a senior at the University ofToronto. Katherine Bullock, Ph.D., is thepresident of Tessellate Institute.

Toronto’s firstmosque was in fact aconverted leathershop that was trans-formed into the Dundas StreetMosque by a smallhard-working team of Muslims.

Dr. Rahman Syed and Dr. AfzalunnisaSyeda visit the Dundas St. Mosquewith their family; (below, from left)Amjad Syed, standing, Regip Assim,Imam Khattab, Murray Hogben,during a fundraising dinner hostedby The Muslim Society of Toronto, at Hart House, University of Toronto,April 29 1966, and attended byseveral local politicians

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF WWW.MOSQUEONE.COM

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have, the greater their mobility withinits social structure. Since 60% of themare actively involved in the wider com-munity’s social affairs, it seems thatthey are taking the initiative when itcomes to opening doors and wideningthe Muslims’ social presence. There iscause to worry, however, that 40% ofthem are not socially involved in thewider society, for this lack of engage-ment harms the imam, his family, andthe community. In fact, socially en-gaged wives cause their husbands to bebetter known and make the communitymore visible.

Some 55% of them are employed out-side the home, which translates into in-creased family income, more personalmobility, and rearranging traditionalfamily life to accommodate their workschedules. Half of them work in bank-ing, finance, and accounting; the otherhalf are in health-related professions.

Outside employment is made some-what easier because the children ofthose 70% who have children are, onaverage, thirteen years old and 60% areboys. Older children can help out bytaking care of the children and makingappropriate decisions while theirmothers are working.

Like most immigrants, Muslims de-sire to maintain contact with theirhomeland. Seventy percent of theimams’ wives have gone back to visittheir parents within the last threeyears. This speaks well for maintainingclose family ties and reflects their tradi-tional culture. Clearly a major expense,such trips represent a major family de-cision not to purchase other items.

Of the 40% of wives who hold univer-sity degrees, 85% of them earned theirdegree(s) before they immigrated. Ofthese, 30% are in various medical fieldsand 70% are in some branch of bankingand finance. They earn roughly $25,000per year. While 55% of them work outsidethe home, only 40% say they wear west-ern-style clothing while 85% wear hijab.This shows a degree of resistance to“westernizing” their personal appear-ance, despite their adoption of westernmanners and lifestyles in other areas. _______________________________Editor’s Note: Author’s summary of part 2, chapter 4, of “Mus-lim Clergy in America: Ministry as Profession in the IslamicCommunity,” 2d ed. (South Bend, IN: The Victoria Press, 2010).Dr. John H. Morgan, a visiting scholar at the New York Univer-sity’s Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Karl Mannheimprofessor of the history and philosophy of the social sciencesat the Graduate Theological Foundation, is a summer tutor inthe international programs division of Oxford University.

expectations that their Christian andJewish neighbors place upon their ownclergy. And these, in turn, will be placedupon imams and their families. TheMuslim Education Council on Clergyin America project, a national data-based study of immigrant Americanimams, sought to learn about the typi-cal immigrant imam’s wife and chil-dren, home life, general demographics,and social environment.

Only 75% of the wives claim Englishas a viable second language. Ten per-cent also claim Arabic; however, thisgenerally means that they can teachchildren how to recite their prayers.On average, wives are thirty-six yearsold (two years younger than their hus-bands); 45% of them are American citi-zens; and they have been married forsixteen years and have two children.These numbers are in keeping with thestatistical norm for professional Amer-icans generally. Three-fourths of themcan drive, which gives them substantialmobility as both mothers and membersof a social network of activities and re-sponsibilities. Those who cannot aresubstantially cut off from much of thatwhich clergymen’s wives are supposedto know, do, and be. This implied isola-tion could cause loneliness, isolation,and a sense of inferiority with otherMuslims and people in general.

The fact that all of them have a highschool diploma speaks well of their ed-ucational background; 40% hold a uni-versity degree (60% of the imams do).Education opens American society,and the more education these women

The Immigrant ImamandHis Family

BY JOHN H. MORGAN ≠ Being an imam is about religious performance and thedomestic context within which it occurs. Americans are fully cognizant of theprofound pressures and expectations that characterize the professional ministry. Infact, medical and psychological studies consider it to be the country’s most stress-driven career, for the expectations that come with this profession are profound.Muslims inevitably and understandably will adopt the attitudes, feelings, and


Will Muslims adopt the attitudes,

feelings, andexpectations thattheir Christian andJewish neighbors

place upon their own clergy?

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Dartmouth University School of Medicine(neurology); and obtained fellowships at theUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medi-cine (cerebrovascular disease and criticalcare), the University of Medicine and Den-tistry of New Jersey (endovascular neurolo-gy), and the University of Minnesota (en-dovascular surgical neuroradiology).

What motivated him throughout theyears of his studies? What made him so de-termined to chase his dream? Shah creditshis faith, inner strength, and support fromhis friends and family with helping himlearn how to deal with challenges thatwould overwhelm many others. At seven,he already knew that he wanted to be aphysician; he never had second thoughtsabout it. His childhood role model was hisuncle, a general practitioner: “I was in-spired by my uncle and wanted to be likehim. I thought this profession was an inno-vative profession, [one] which could treateverything that no one else could do.”

During his medical school years in Pak-istan, Shah and his two close friends stud-ied together and motivated each other. Al-

One night, a loud thump shook the house at 3:30 a.m.Oddly it was neither of Dr. Qaisar Shah’s childrenfalling off the bed; rather, it was Shah himself. One ofthe challenges of being on call 24/7 is that you do notknow when you will receive a call. In his rush to reach

the phone, he fell out of bed. The specialist answered the hospital’scall, not even sparing a moment to shake off his pain.

Neurointerventional neurologists are a rarity; Shah is one of thenation’s approximately twenty practicing specialists in this area.His unyielding persistence, hard work, and dedication certainlyhave brought him success, as “Philadelphia” magazine (2009) indi-cated by ranking him as one of the “Best Physicians Age 40 andUnder.” During his career, this now sought-after expert has alsoearned medical licenses and certification from Pakistan, Pennsyl-vania, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Virginia; secured residencies atFlushing Hospital and Medical Center (internal medicine) and

ExpertHealer

Neurointerventional neurologists are a rarity; Dr. QaisarShah is one of the nation’s approximately twentypracticing specialists in this area. BY NABEELAH NAEEM

PROFILE

PHOTO

GRAPH BY DANISH SHAH

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malformations, as well as unclogging arter-ies and removing blood clots in the brainwithout even opening the brain, fascinatedhim. Radiology and innovative technologyenable neurointerventionalists to see in-side blood vessels and treat the blood ves-sels supplying one’s brain. Inserting a thin,flexible tube known as a catheter through asmall incision in the groin area andthrough an external control, the neuroint-erventionalist carefully guides the catheterthrough the blood vessel to the problemat-ic area in the brain. Depending upon theproblem, different techniques are used toenable the blood to flow to the brain. If ananeurysm exists, coils are placed in it viathe catheter. Great care has to be taken notto rupture the aneurysm, as this could leadto sudden death.

Neither disheartened by the persever-ance and persistence that would be re-quired, nor his subsequent discovery thatthis was not considered a neurology spe-cialty, Shah researched and found that Dr.Adnan I. Qureshi (director, Cerebrovascu-lar Program and professor, Department ofNeurology and Neurosciences, New JerseyMedical School; chair-elect, the Interven-tional Neurology Section, American Acad-emy of Neurology) had become the firstneurologist interventionalist. Realizingthat his goal was possible, during his resi-dency training he spent two weeks with Dr.Qureshi getting to know him, learning howthings work, and determining whether hereally wanted to pursue this specialization.Proving his qualifications, he applied forand successfully completed the two-yearneurointerventionalist program.

Dr. Qureshi, his mentor and source ofinspiration who has published more than300 articles, stresses that writing in one’sfield is very educative: “When you writeyou read, and when you read you explore,in order to be the most authentic and reli-able doctor you can possibly be. Thus,when you read you improve your clinicalskills, stay up-to-date with the technologyand literature, and increase your knowl-edge.” So far Shah has published twenty-five articles in national, international, andpeer-reviewed journals.

Upon entering the room where Shahdoes his procedures, I seemed to havestepped into the future of science. It was farmore fascinating than any scene from

“ER” or “House, M.D.” I tried to imaginethe screens displaying Shah maneuveringthe catheter cautiously through the maze ofblood vessels — standing alert and warilyfor hours, feeling neither sleep nor hunger,with only one goal: to heal the patient. WithGod’s help, not to mention his knowledgeand mastery of innovative technology, hehas performed over 500 successful proce-dures. Every patient brings a different chal-lenge. The day I visited him, he had been onhis feet for six hours — and it showed.

When he finally goes home, he usuallyhas dinner with his family and plays withhis two children, aged three years and fivemonths, respectively. Upon being asked, hesaid that his busiest day was the fourth dayafter his daughter’s birth, a day on which hedid six procedures — three of which wereemergency cases and all of which were suc-

cessful. Starting that particular day at 7a.m., he finally called it quits at 3 a.m. thenext day.

The hospital’s only neurointervention-alist and neurointensivist, Shah rarely takesany time off. He is on call 24/7. He stronglybelieves the “most important thing in pa-tient care is to actually spend time with thepatient and family. Eye contact, humility,and compassion are the traits that willmake you a successful physician. If you goaround you will find hundreds and hun-dreds of physicians who will be better tech-nically and education-wise, but they willnot necessarily be the best doctor if theylack compassion and humility. Those arequalities you need to be the best doctor.”

Shah advises other students facing ob-stacles in their career path to be persistent:“If you believe you can do something youmust pursue the task, continue the strug-gle, and trust in God and yourself. Thenone day you will achieve it.”_______________________________Nabeelah Naeem is a freelance writer.

though students usually take the UnitedStates Medical Licensing Examination af-ter graduation, the three friends took it —and passed — two years early. The first intheir class to do so, they were accepted in-to different American medical programs.

Citing his most valued possessions ashis medical school degree and unboundeddetermination, Shah dedicated himselfcompletely to his work. Some months wentby until he discovered his “destined” spe-cialization during his neurology rotation:neurology. Drawn by the neurological cas-es in New York’s Flushing Hospital, he re-alized that “the brain was an exciting fieldin itself surrounded with a lot of mystery.”That choice behind him, he now had topick a specialization. While wrestling withthe available options, he attended a talkgiven by neurologist Dr. Anthony Furlan(chairman, Department of Neurology,Case Western Reserve University) on in-terventional neurology. Captivated by thiscutting-edge and unique field, Shah set outto become a neurointerventionalist.

Repairing aneurysms and blood vessel

Shah credits his faith, inner strength, and support fromhis friends and family with helping him learn how to dealwith challenges that would overwhelm many others

If you believeyou can do

something you mustpursue the task,continue the struggle, and trust in God andyourself. Then one dayyou will achieve it.”

‘‘

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P E R S P E C T I V E

Press: 1984]), Oleg Grabar, FrançoisDéroche (“The Abbasid Tradition:Qur’ans of the 8th to the 10th Centuries,A.D.” [Nour Foundation in associationwith Azimuth Editions and Oxford Uni-versity Press: 1992]), D. S. Rice (“Com-mentary on the Complete FacsimileEdition of The Unique Ibn al-Bawwab

Manuscript” [from the Chester BeattyLibrary, Dublin, Manuscript K.16.Akademische Druck - u. Verlagsanstalt,1983]), Martin Lings (“The Quranic Art ofCalligraphy and Illumination” [Art of Is-lam Festival Trust: 1976]), Sheila Blair, andYasser Tabbaa (“The Transformations ofIslamic Art During the Sunni Revival”

Accordingly, textual and archaeologicalevidence of early Qur’an copying revealsirregular scripts squeezed onto even un-likely writing surfaces, such as bone. Dueto weather, heavy use, and a host of otherconsiderations, however, early Qur’an fo-lios are limited in comparison to latersamples. As a result, scholars do notagree on when, and under what circum-stances, the Qur’an first took codex form.

The study of extant Qur’ans in re-search universities is one area of special-ty within the vibrant field of Islamic arthistory. Qur’anic research specialists notonly study isolated folios and manu-scripts to identify historical data (e.g., thecalligraphers, illuminators, patrons,dates and locations of production), but al-so use extant samples of the Qur’an tohighlight the wider artistic, cultural, in-tellectual, and even political contexts.The study of Qur’an copying within non-Muslim research universities goes backat least as far as the eighteenth century,when George Christian Adler of the Roy-al Library in Copenhagen coined the nowpopular term “Kufic” (after Kufah, a me-dieval city in present day southern Iraq)to connote the dominant script style usedduring the height of the Abbasid dynasty,circa eighth and ninth centuries ce.

Most recently, such scholars as NabiaAbott (“The Rise of the North ArabicScript and its Kur’anic Development, witha Full Description of the Kur’an Manu-scripts in the Oriental Institute” [The Uni-versity of Chicago Press: 1939]), Ann-marie Schimmel (“Calligraphy andIslamic Culture” [New York University

BY CELENE AYAT LIZZIO

Calligraphy has long been esteemed within Islamic cultures, and thus ornately pennedcopies of the Qur’an represent its apogee. Despite the dearth of extant samples of theQur’an from Islam’s earliest years, prized Qur’an folios and entire codices can be found inmuseums, libraries, and archives all over the world. Mushaf, (pl. masahif), the term for acodex of the Qur’an, is derived from the word suhuf (Qur’an 80:13-16), a term thatsuggests loose pages, leaflets, or small pamphlets.

The Early History of the Mushaf

PHOTOGRAPH BY A. GUDE, CC-BY-SA-2.0

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roots, yet it drew closer to the mundanecursive scripts used for bureaucratic pur-poses throughout the Baghdad-based Ab-basid Empire. The gradual change to pa-per as a medium for writing during thisperiod also facilitated the use of thinner,curved characters. Previously, parchmentand papyri had proved more suited forwider, thicker pen strokes.

Over the course of the early tenth cen-tury, Ibn al-Muqla received the majority ofcredit for developing the cursive “propor-tioned script” (khat al-mansub) used ingovernmental affairs. Unfortunately, noconfirmed samples of his writing are cur-rently known, and only textual descrip-tions remain. In any event, scholars sus-pect that the circular letters developed byhim were not used within any publishedextant Qur’ans during his lifetime due tothe possible use of two script styles duringthis period: bureaucratic “cursive” and“monumental,” the latter being used oncoin and building inscriptions and withinQur’ans. Each style had its own exactingstandards of perfection.

By the turn of the first Christian mil-lennium, the two distinct styles began tomerge, and codices had assumed an orna-mentation and script far removed fromthe earlier angular styles. The commonorientation of the page in the tenth centu-ry shifted from a horizontal to a verticalformat, likely mimicking the formatcopyists would be accustomed to usingfor secular bureaucratic matters. Codicesdeveloped a highly ornate script, numer-ous ornamental additions, and a markedincrease in extraneous material preced-ing and following the text (e.g.,colophons, verse counts, letter counts,and decorative frontispieces). Voicingand diacritical marks became presentwith more regularity. The late tenth cen-tury also saw the near complete shift inmaterials; high quality codices are almostexclusively copied on paper, rather thanparchment or papyri.

The emergence of new script and illu-mination styles for codices may be attrib-uted, at least in part, to a wider culturalrenaissance during the Buyid regionalsupremacy. This period, often consumedby the greater grouping of “latter Abbasidcaliphates,” deserves special attention forthe proliferation of novel artistic designswithin regional courts. As the provincial

courts of local rulers and viziers inHamadhan, Isfahan, Rayy, Shiraz, andother western cities became increasinglywealthy and prominent, they undertookan unprecedented level of sponsorship ofthe arts in an atmosphere that was ripefor innovation and development. Thesewider phenomena are echoed in the newdecorative forms of the mushaf.

Conquering Baghdad in 954, the non-Arab Buyids were Shia Muslims from theregion of Daylam, approximately 500miles northeast of Baghdad on the south-ern shore of the Caspian Sea. Theirstronghold on Baghdad exasperated thealready growing inability of the Islamiccaliphate to control the provinces. In thispolitical environment, the new Buyidelite and their extensive courtly en-tourages turned political hubs into cen-ters for the collection of erudite and artis-tic personalities.

Arguably due to this political distanc-ing from Arab origins, certain culturalforms, among them the more plainlymonumental style of Qur’anic script, losttheir import. Reminiscent of Arabianrock inscriptions and leadership, thatparticular script was replaced by a calli-graphic hand closer in form to the familiarscript of the growing class of chancellerysecretaries in court entourages. In fact,several highly skilled copyists were alsoexcellent diplomats, epitomized by thefamed Ibn al-Bawwab, who produced thefirst fully preserved Qur’an in the cursivescript to reach the modern era. His manu-script, now housed at the Dublin (Ire-land)’s Chester Beatty Library, is evidenceof a flourishing new style of copying andillumination. If it were an anomaly in itstime, historians would expect to find evi-dence of monumental or angular styleswell into the second Christian millenni-um. But given the absence of any suchphysical evidence of monumental or an-gular scripts from this period, it is likelythat this manuscript signals a watershedperiod in Qur’an copying. While many de-velopments in Qur’an script and illumina-tion have taken place since then, the pre-sent day common mass-printed Qur’anshave many stylistic features that echothose of the Ibn al-Bawwab manuscript. _______________________________Celene Ayat Lizzio, a Master of Divinity candidate at theHarvard Divinity School, is an ISNA fellow.

[University of Washington Press: 2001]),have contributed greatly toward mappingdevelopments within the industry ofhigh-end Qur’an production. In additionto providing rich comparisons betweenQur’anic specimens and other calligraph-ic forms, these academics are developingdiverse and intricate strategies for ap-proximating dates and places of origin.

While their exacting ability is impres-sive, across published collections certainevolutions of script and ornamentationcatch the attention of even a non-special-ist. For instance, the earliest extantQur’an folios from the late seventh to ear-ly eighth centuries show great variation inscript styles and feature decorative ele-ments that were removed from standard-ized copies in the mid-eighth to ninth cen-turies. One published early Qur’an folioeven contains an impressionistic illumi-nation of paradise, a scandalous illumina-tion by later standards. While the script ofthe mid-eighth to late-ninth centuries ex-hibits some regional variation, it is on thewhole surprisingly uniform — large, an-gular script that is quite distinct fromwhat the modern reader of the mushafen-counters today. Mid-eighth- throughninth-century folios do not usually con-tain colophons (pages stating the patron,copyist, place and/or date of production).If colophons are present, however, theyoften state dates that are far earlier thanwould otherwise be plausible, judgingfrom scholarly analysis of the style ofscript and illumination. Clearly, the oldereditions carried special value.

Toward the end of the ninth century,Qur’an copying began to see new develop-ments. Script transformations introduceddiagonal characteristics and thinner, elon-gated decorative heads on certain letters toadapt the previous thick, angular, andrigid scripts. The developing script, re-ferred to by scholars as “bent Kufic,”“East-Persian Kufic,” or simply “the newstyle,” provided a softer, more yielding ap-pearance and allowed for more words on agiven page. The concessions made towardthe new style may have appealed to pa-trons seeking a more modern, more ele-gant presentation of the Qur’an comparedto the wide angular script that is reminis-cent of Arabia’s rock inscriptions. Bymaintaining some angular forms, the newstyle was still linked to Islam’s Arabian

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Cut down by congestive heartfailure on 11 Sept. 2010, Dr.Fathi Osman left behind anintellectual legacy that fewcontemporary Muslims canmatch. One of the main fo-cuses of his adult life was try-ing to explain to non-MuslimWesterners that Muslimswere not a monolithic anti-Western bloc driven by “fun-damentalist” or “radical” Is-lam, and to Muslims thatIslam’s long and rich globaland intellectual heritage isnaturally flexible enough toretain its relevancy in thecontemporary world.

During his long career hepublished some forty books tomake his case. Among themare such classics as an author-itative guide to the Qur’an fornon-Arabic readers, the al-

most 1,000-page subject-list-ed “Concepts of the Quran: ATopical Reading” (English;1997), “The Individual inMuslim Society: MutualRights and Obligations” (Ara-bic; 1963), and “HumanRights in Western Thoughtand Islamic Law” (Arabic;1981). Among his other Eng-lish-language publicationsare “Muslim Women in theFamily and the Society”(1990), “Islamic Law in Con-temporary Society: Shari’aDynamics of Change” (1995),and “Children of Adam: AnIslamic Perspective on Plural-ism” (1995).

In 1981, Dr. Osman be-came editor of the newlylaunched London-based“Arabia, the Islamic WorldReview”, a monthly English

language magazine dedicatedto Islamic issues. He reachedout to young journalists aswell as to experienced acade-mics and leaders. He believedthe more the name of the or-ganization disappears fromits magazine, the morechance the magazine has forsuccess. “Arabia”, oftenbanned by Muslim countriesfor its outspokenness, finallyceased publication in 1987.

Osman also traveled farand wide to speak on therights of women, democraticpluralism, the Shari‘ah andcivil law, and why Muslims inthe West should internalizeWestern civic values. In oneof his articles on Islam andhuman rights he went so faras to say: “We have to realizethat God’s law is not an alter-native to the human mind,nor is it supposed to put it outof action. Openness is life,while being closed off and iso-lated is suicidal.”

A firm believer in Islam’seternal relevance, he did notshy away from trying to deter-mine which elements of tradi-tional Muslim practice werepermanent and which wereonly temporary. It is a loss forthe entire ummah that he wasunable to fulfill this vital taskbefore he died. He also spenthis time explaining more“practical” matters: humandignity, peace, pluralism,democracy, freedom of ex-pression, gender equality, in-terfaith cooperation, socialchange, advocating for a ju-risprudential school ofthought designed specificallyfor Muslim minorities, and us-ing the methodologies foundin the contemporary social sci-ence disciplines. All such un-dertakings were, of course,based upon the Qur’anic textand the Prophet’s Sunnah.

Born in Egypt, Osmanearned a degree in history(Cairo University, 1948), a lawdegree (Alexandria University,1960), and a master’s degreein Islamic-Byzantine relations(Cairo University, 1962).

In the 1940s he joined theMuslim Brotherhood, an anti-colonialist and Islamist group,and helped edit its weeklynewspaper. Although a friendand colleague of Sayyid Qutb,the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, he broke away in the1950s. His “Islamic Thoughtand Change” (Arabic; 1960)presented a more moderateversion of Islam. Other Ara-bic-language books on Islamicthought as it pertains to hu-man rights and legal systemsfollowed. During that samedecade he also held severalposts at al-Azhar and workedon reforming the Islamic cur-riculum at Egyptian universi-ties. After teaching at variousAlgerian and Saudi Arabianuniversities, he enrolled inPrinceton and earned a doc-torate in Near Eastern studies(1976). His topic was Islamicland ownership and taxation.He then joined the history de-partment at Ibn Saud Univer-sity in Riyadh.

In 1987 he became a schol-ar-in-residence at Los Ange-les’ Islamic Center of South-ern California. Over theyears, he founded the Insti-tute for the Study of Islam inthe Contemporary World,part of the Omar Ibn AlKhattab Foundation, andserved as a senior scholar atthe University of SouthernCalifornia’s Center for Mus-lim-Jewish Engagement.

In addition to his daugh-ter Ghada, he is survived byhis wife Aida Abdel-RahmanOsman. ^

FATHI OSMAN (1928-2010)

A firm believer inIslam’s eternalrelevance, he didnot shy away fromtrying to determinewhich elements oftraditional Muslimpractice werepermanent andwhich were onlytemporary.

T R I B U T E

Another LightFades Out

PHO

TOG

RAP

H C

OU

RTE

SY O

F G

ADA

FATH

I OSM

AN


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To support ISNA please visit: www.isna.net or contact us at [email protected]

ONE OF THE ACTIONS MOST LOVED BYALLAH (SWT) IS THE GOOD DEED DONE

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What’s your stress level? If it’s like manyMuslim Americans’, it’s quite high. Daily weread news stories of humanitarian crises,hate crimes, environmental destruction,and home foreclosures. In our own lives wemay face financial hardships, family ten-sions, and fears about the security of theMuslim community. The effect can be over-whelming. How do we respond? And wherecan we turn for comfort?

The first and most important step is, as al-ways, to turn to the example of the blessedProphet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam),where we find an example of one who wasnever fazed, despite tribulations far worsethan we can imagine. The Prophet’s fatherdied before his birth; his mother died sixyears later. He endured extreme hunger, andat times he and his wife Khadija subsisted onnothing but dates. At least once he had to tiea stone to his stomach to ease the pangs ofhunger. His own people mocked and assault-ed him, imposed sanctions and eventuallydeclared war against him. From the desper-ateness of their situation, many of his Com-panions sought refuge in other cities. Hewould see all but one of his own children die.Yet despite all of this, Ali (radiya Allahu ‘an-hu) described him as one who smiled con-stantly (“Shama’il al-Tirmidhi,” no. 352).

How can we achieve a measure of hishappiness and calm?

First and foremost, the Prophet chosethe path of optimism. As his CompanionAbu Hurayra reported: “The Prophet, (sal-la Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), loved opti-mism and hated pessimism” (“Musnad Ah-mad,” no. 8194). Despite all of the troublesthat he faced, every night the Prophetwould spend hours in prayer, standing un-til his feet would swell. When Aisha onceasked him why he did so, he replied:“Should I not be a grateful servant?”(“Sahih al-Bukhari,” no. 1130).

Let’s not lose sight of the good aroundus. As God states in the Qur’an: “If you

would count the favors of God, neverwould you be able to number them”(16:18). The news reported by the mediaoutlets is not an accurate representation ofthe world; rather, it is the result of prefer-ring the sensational. A man driving safelyto work, after all, is not news, but his dyingin a lurid car crash certainly is. Yes, thereare many divorces every year, but there aremany more couples getting married. Yes,there are botched surgeries, but there are

Food for the Spirit

Worried about the World

In the Prophet’sexample, Muslims have way to achieve a measure of hishappiness and calm.______________________________________________________

Imam Mohammed ibn Hagmagid, vicepresident of ISNA, was educated by his father, anal-Azhar graduate and a leading scholar in Sudan,and other notable scholars, and earned the ijazah(permission to teach) in several disciplines.Samuel Ross is a student of the Arabic language.

BY IMAM MOHAMMED IBN HAGMAGID ^ WITH SAMUEL ROSS

many more successful ones. Yes, some peo-ple oppose building mosques in their com-munities, but many more welcome them.

Second, let’s not forget that God hasmade oppression unsustainable in the longrun: “Falsehood is ever bound to perish”(13:17). Where is apartheid South Africa?Where is the segregationist South? Whereis Nazi Germany? God removed theseblights from the surface of the Earth and,one day, will remove all of those now be-leaguering humanity. Of course this is notto say that all oppression will one day dis-appear, for as long as we have free willsome of us will pursue evil. But Allah willnot permit them to do so forever.

Third, when thinking about the pain ofour brothers and sisters, remember thatGod says: “Verily My mercy surpasses Mywrath” (“Sahih al-Bukhari,” no. 7404).This neither denies their very real suffer-ing nor our obligation to help them, buttells us that our finite suffering here isnothing compared to the eternal joy thatGod offers from His infinite mercy.

So overwhelming will this joy be thatonce experienced, nothing here will seemto be of any consequence. After tasting Par-adise we will be asked: “O human being,have you ever seen any bad at all; have you

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changes can we make to our lifestyles?Rather than being merely saddened byepidemics, let’s help the sick. As many dis-eases are completely preventable with in-expensive vaccines, let’s donate money fortheir distribution. Rather than being mere-ly worried by negative views of Islam, let’sshare with our neighbors the mercy thatdefined the Prophet and seek to educate ex-tremists within our own communities.

Sometimes people ask: “What can wedo? The situation is intractable; nothingwill make a difference.” But this misses thepoint. We are not, as individuals, responsi-

ble for effects — for personally eradicatinghunger or saving the environment. We areonly responsible for our own choices.Moreover, our scholars teach that if we donot help those in need, then Allah will testus as they have been tested. By giving to thepoor we protect our own wealth. Indeedwe increase it, for as the Prophet taught,wealth is not decreased by charity.

But in our efforts, we must be wary ofactivism without spirit, for the Qur’anstates that God is only “with” the mu’min-un (the believers), the muttaqin (the God-conscious), the sabirin (the patient), andthe muhsinin (those who, in the words ofGabriel, worship God as if they see Him,and if they do not see Him, as if He seesthem). God does not say He is with thosewho merely secure positions of power orout-shout their opponents.

May God give us the wisdom to see theworld for what it really is — an abode of tests— the patience to endure, the strength toact, and the comfort of nearness to Him.

Please send your feedback and questions to:[email protected]. Visit us at our web-site, where you can download this and previouscolumns at: www.isna.net/foodforthespirit.

ever experienced a single misery?,” towhich they will reply: “No, by God, myLord, I have never seen any bad or suffereda single misery” (“Sahih Muslim,” no.2807). Commentators explain that thisdoes not mean that those in Paradise willlie, but rather than no trials in this worldcan compare to the joy in of the next.Moreover, in Paradise the duration of ourearthly trials will seem insignificant. As themathematicians say, any number dividedby infinity still approaches zero.

All of this, however, does not mean thatthe Prophet was carefree or did not worryabout his fellow human beings. In fact, heworried about them tremendously. Butthis never led him to despair; rather, it ledhim to action backed by his firm trust inGod’s ability to bring success.

Given this reality, what are some of thesteps we can take amidst our own tribula-tions?

One is to act. The Qur’an states: “Wereit not for God repelling some people bymeans of others, Earth would have beencorrupted” (2:251). Rather than merelylamenting environmental degradation,for example, let’s advocate for its protec-tion, even if only in our own homes. What

WHAT SPIRITUALTOPICS MATTER MOST TO YOU? Please help “Food for theSpirit” better meet yourneeds by completing a two-minute survey at: www.isna.net/foodforthespiritsurvey

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Short TakesBarefoot inBaghdad: An Aid Worker’sJourneythrough Chaoswith theWomen of IraqManal M. Omar

2010. pp. 272. PB. $14.99Sourcebooks, Naperville, ILA Palestinian who grew up

in America, the author livedin Iraq from 2003-05 to helpas many women as she couldto rebuild their lives. Armedwith her American passport,she was allowed access to therepresentatives of the Ameri-can-led coalition in theGreen Zone. Her adherenceto Muslim dress and fluentArabic also allowed her theunique opportunity to live inan Iraqi neighborhood withno armed security, where shewitnessed an Iraq that wasaccessible to few others.

Edward Said:The Charismaof Criticism H. Aram Veesser2010. pp. 272.HB. $39.95Routledge, New York, NY

This candid tale of Said’srise from elite academicprecincts to the world stagetransforms not only our ownunderstanding of Said — theman and the myth — but alsoour perception of how intel-lectuals can make their wayin the world.

Studies in Islamic Civilization: The MuslimContributionto the Renaissance Ahmed Essawith Othman Ali

2010. pp. 312. PB. $18.95The International Institute of Islam-ic Thought, Herndon, VAFor almost a thousand

years Islam was one of theworld’s leading civilizationsand Arabic was the interna-tional language of science.

Without either of them, therewould have been no Renais-sance in Europe. And yet thislegacy remains largely ig-nored and unknown. Thisbook seeks to correct thisglaring oversight by westernhistorians and other scholars.

Islamic Natural LawTheories Anver M. Emon2010. pp. 200.HB. $80.00Oxford Universi-ty Press, NewYork, NY

By recasting the Islamic le-gal tradition in terms of legalphilosophy, the author shedssubstantial light on an un-charted tradition of naturallaw theory and offers criticalinsights into contemporaryglobal debates about Islamiclaw and reform.

A History ofIslam in Amer-icaKambiz GhaneaBassiri 2010. pp. 456.PB. $27.99Cambridge Uni-versity Press,

New York, NYThe author tells the often

deeply moving stories of indi-vidual Muslims and theirlives as immigrants and citi-zens within the broad con-text of the American reli-gious experience, showinghow that experience hasbeen integral to the evolutionof Muslim American institu-tions and practices.

Iqbal’s Concept of GodSalman Raschid2010. pp. 150. HB.$20.00Oxford UniversityPress, New York,NY

Raschid examines Iqbal’sthoughts about God by dis-cussing the following issues:Iqbal and the Western Tradi-tion, Iqbal and the MuslimTradition, and Beyond Iqbal:The Nature of the Problem ofGod.

REVIEWS

The result of the authorand his team of youngresearchers’ year-long

odyssey through more thanseventy-five cities all overAmerica tells us a great dealof who we, as Americans, re-ally are. During their visits tohomes, schools, and over onehundred mosques, theysought to discover what Mus-lims are thinking and howthey are living every day inAmerica. Themes addressed include

defining and searching forAmerican identity; African-American Muslims, immi-grant Muslims, and converts in America; and howMuslims are adjusting and adapting to their lives herein terms of their relationships with Jews andMormons, as well as with post-9/11 mainstreamAmerica and its ongoing Islamophobia. Journey into America explores and documents how

Muslims are fitting into American society, placingtheir experience within the larger context ofAmerican identity. This eye-opening book also offersa fresh and insightful perspective on American historyand society. The most comprehensive study to date ofAmerica’s Muslim community.

This book is far more thanthe usual lip-service andclichés so often applied to

young Muslims’ aspirations andissues. The contributors analyzethe politics of young people’s dis-sent, their livelihoods andlifestyles, strivings for citizen-ship, navigation of identities, andmusical politics. Often in conflictwith long-standing cultural andreligious traditions, not to men-tion oppressively conservativepolitical regimes that allow themfew outlets in which to expressthemselves, youth dissatisfactionwith the status quo is on the riseall over the Muslim world.

What does this mean for the future, for they are the oneswho will be the rulers, scholars, teachers, and majority pop-ulation — if they are not already — in the not so distant fu-ture. It is time that we try to understand them as they “mi-grate, forge networks, innovate in the arts, master the toolsof new media, and assert themselves in the public sphere.”The valuable contributions in this book can help us do justthat. A thoroughly engaging read.

Muslims in America

Young Muslims Speak Up

Journey into America: TheChallenge of IslamAkbar Ahmed 2010. pp. 528. HB. $29.95Brookings Institution Press,Washington, DC

Being Young and Muslim: New CulturalPolitics in the Global South and NorthLinda Herrera and Asef Bayat, eds. 2010. pp. 428. PB. $29.95Oxford University Press, New York, NY

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