ICNA 2008: The Aftermath

SubhanAllah each year that I go to ICNA I get blown away by everything. The growing number of Muslims, the speakers and the convention itself always seems to be getting better and better. Here are some notes/an overview of the convention. (*Please note*If there are any mistakes in the notes below they are my own mistake and may Allah forgive me.)

Friday:

So after attending ICNA for all of these years my family finally got to catch jummah. We got there nice and early and were able to read Salat ul Jummah with tons of Muslim’s from all over the place. I love the feeling of being squished in salah because it makes me so happy that I am surrounded by so many Muslims. After jummah my family and I went out to go eat some lunch together. The convention theme this year was “Islam: The Key to Peace and Happiness.” YM’s theme this year was “Identity Crisis: Life as a Stranger,” I thought it was a really good topic. For years now I have been attending ICNA and all of the different parallel youth conferences with it, this year my little brother started volunteering at the YM Brothers stand. It made me think wow why didn’t I think of that?!? Next year inshaAllah I think I’ll try to volunteer and get a bit more involved. Anyway, the first session I attended was YM’s first main session- DnA (Dunya N Akhira).

Br. Nouman Ali Khan: He began by stating how this is a perfect topic, that we’re all “weird.” When others look at us we look like strangers to them. He began to talk about how we all have a special moment where we wanted to learn more about Islam, where we felt that we need to learn more, and that we should cherish that special moment that made us want to learn more and become closer to Allah. He continued talking about how we all have moments where we did something that we’re not proud of and at that time we were normal but as soon as we started changing-getting closer to Allah-thats when we start becoming ‘weird.’ When we move on, get over our mistakes and start to change and get closer to Allah we run into problems with our friends and sometimes even with our family. You begin to act differently than you used to so you become a stranger to your friends. Sometimes there is the problem where parents think that they’re child is “too muslim,” so you become a stranger to your own family. He talked about how this ‘weirdness’ is not new, its something thats been with us since the beginning. The reason being is because Islam means submission, total submission and to others this seems weird. The Messengers of Allah displayed complete and total submission to Allah, when others saw this back then and even now its thought of as a weird concept. We all have knowledge of things like haraam and halal, but why is it that so many of us are still so tempted to the haraam? We need to keep in mind that what Allah has told us is halal is halal and what Allah told us is haraam is haraam, thats it no questions asked. We need to accept that what Allah says to do is good for us and what he forbids is bad for us. When this love and faith is in your heart, every time someone calls you strange or weird you’ll get happy, be proud of your strange/weirdness. If you don’t have this love, then you’ll become depressed, saddened and it may cause you to go to a state of depression and begin to make bad changes and bad decisions. The biggest pressure of the youth today is trying to fit in-what’s in and what’s out (or what’s hot and what’s not). We are constantly pressured, and many are constantly obsessed with what to have and what not to have, what is accepted and what is not accepted. We are bombarded by all the media and we begin to become brainwashed. How can we reverse this brainwash? We need to cut out our intake of garbage- as Br. Nouman said, that doesn’t need explaining we all know what he means by that. He also advised us saying, “surround yourself with other weirdos.” Surround yourself with people who are better than you, don’t ever go the opposite way because you can’t change people that are worst than you without you getting destroyed in the process. He reminded us that our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, A man depends on the religion of his friend, and watch out who you are friends with.

Shaykh Yasir Quadhi:

Shaykh Yaser actually began his talk by saying that he doesn’t agree with YM having their own seperate conference. He said that there is no gap called young/youth, you are either a child or an adult. This gap is only a figment of the west. There is so much chaos in our age group because we are treated in a way that is not fitted to us. We need to to be treated like adults, and the only way that that can happen is if we begin acting like adults. He told us to wisen up, don’t be treated like a kid, start acting like an adult and people will start treating you like a adult. He told us that we are intelligent, smart, mature, baaligh- so we should start acting like adults. I understood what he was talking about but its not like the Youth Conference has only “young” people there, khayr allahu ‘alam.

After he was done with that he told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once drew a line and said that this is the straight path, afterwards he drew more lines left and right and he (peace and blessing be upon him) said that there are many crooked paths and at the head of each crooked path their is a shaytaan for that specific thing that is leading us astray but at the head of the straight path there is the Qur’an. He told us that when we are born we are each born with a Shaytaan, that Shaytaan is assigned to us. Once the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked is he too has a Shaytaan and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said Yes, but Allah has helped me make him Muslim. He told us to keep in mind that the Shaytaan can not read our minds, only our external emotions, our actions. We all have weaknesses, and the Shaytaan that is assigned to us, that Shaytaan knows us best. Shaytaan knows our weaknesses best, Shaytaan tries to make our weaknesses hard to overcome, but we need to continuously ask for strength and help from Allah and inshaAllah we will get better. He discussed that the number one problem that we have as a youth is that we mistreat our parents. We all know how important they are, but yet we hurt them so much. He told us that the psychological aspect of begin a parent wont settle into you until you yourself become a parent. When you become a parent you begin to change your outlook on life. We all know that no body in the world loves you more than your parents- but we don’t appreciate them. Parents sacrifice their own comfort for their children. We don’t know it now, but once you leave home, you’ll miss it. Understand that no matter what happens between you and your parents you must respect them and realize that whatever they do, it is out of love. He told us that we will be stricter with our children than our parents were with us, because we know what its like and by then so many other things will come about. We need to remember that our religion is the best religion. It has a special code that can’t be changed and at times it may clash with the society but remember that Allah knows what is best. These days everyone becomes an ulema or a sheykh, stop listening to “hear say” and go to the ones who have studied properly and get your answers. We need to stay on the right path and be proud of our ‘weirdness.’

The next session that I attended I came in late because I was debating on if I should go to a session or go to the Sisters Entertainment session but I finally decided to go to the session called The Happiness Solution: Finding Joy and Purpose.

Shaykh Yasir Quadhi:

He reminded us how we are humans, and humans make mistakes. We all have many wants and desires, there is nothing wrong with being human as long as you channel all your wants and desires towards the halal. We also need to keep in mind that the only source that will give you pure happiness is from Allah. He asked us why do we commit sins? Because it gives us pleasure for a short amount of time but we need to remember that ultimate happiness comes from Allah and Allah alone and that happiness is not to the body but to the soul. He talked about how you feel truly “alive” after doing something that Allah tells us to do, like Quiyaam, or extra fastings etc… Any spiritual act makes you feel more alive than anything else. Can all of the money in the world buy you the feeling(s) you get after doing such spiritual acts? Then he told us to compare that to the feeling you get after you do something that you know is wrong. How do you feel? You feel so disgusting, dirty, like nothing can clean you, can all of the pleasures, all the money, all the rewards of the world take away that feeling? This is the reality of existence. Only with dhikr can hearts find tranquility. (May be juss me but this reminded me of Talib al-Habib’s nasheed again )

Imam Siraj Wahhaj:

He told us that we begin our lives right, but we change. He told us to look at the world that we live in, people dying of hunger and thirst. We don’t chose evil, we mistake it for happiness. We need to keep in mind that the only happiness is from Allah. How can you find happiness in this Dunya? There are so many terrible things going on in the word, how can you be happy? He told us that no soul can die except by the commission of Allah- once we truly understand that then we can accept death. He reminded us that there is no life except in the akhirah.

Saturday:

I went to the Sisters Only Session by YM sisters and ICNA sisters wing. SubahAllah it was so good! All of the sisters did such a good job. There was a beautiful Qur’an recitation opening from Surah Ahzab. They had skits to open up each topic and Sr. Iman Badwi talked and gave amazing advice. SubhanAllah she was such a moving speaker that brought me and my mom to tears.

Iman Badawi: The first topic discussed was the Rights of the Children Over Their Parents. She told us that the rights of the children need to be talked first because this must be addressed to the parents. She discussed Qur’an ayahs 66:6, 52:21 and 39:15.

She discussed the du’a, “Oh Allah have mercy on them (both) as they reared me when I was young.” She talked about the intelligence behind the du’a. How the du’a doesn’t simply say Oh Allah give my parents jannah. They deserve mercy from Allah because they were merciful to their children. She also said, “Adults are written in pen, youth are written in pencil.” She told us a story about a women and a daughter who would sell milk-this was during the time of Hazrat Umar (RA). Hazrat Umar(RA) passed a law that cheating is unlawful, one day he was looking around in the market place juss to see how everything was being conducted. He saw the mother pouring water in the milk, she was cheating. The daughter went to her mother and said that there is a law that states that cheating is forbidden and the mother said don’t worry Umar(RA) can not see us, then the daughter said, mother Allah can see us! Hearing this Umar(RA) went to his sons and said if you want a pious women marry her. Sr. Iman told us that lots of du’as need to be made before the marriage in order to have pious parents. We even need to make du’a at the time of intimacy, when the baby is in the womb and then when the baby is born we should have an ‘Aqeeqah. When you get a blessing, you shouldn’t become greedy, rather you should give more. She reminded us that we must give our children good names; ex: Abdullah and Abdur-Rahman are the most loved names, and the most truthful names are Haarith and Hammam. The reason for giving your child a good name is that inshaAllah they can attain the character of that good name. She told us to not be too strict with children for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to (playfully) stick his tongue out for al-Hassan who would be amazed by its color and rush toward it. [narrated by Abu-Hurrairah] We should be playful so that we can develop a good bond with our children, so that way when the time comes for the parent to be serious the child will realize that it is something important and that they must obey their parents. She taught us how we need to be so patient with them, not get upset on them and to show them love and care. She told us that once the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) was giving a khutbah and he noticed Hassan and Hussain tripping over their clothing and he stopped his khutbah and left his mimbar went towards them and said, “Verily your wealth and children are fitnah,” he couldn’t help himself, he stopped talking and went to go pick them up. She gave us advice, kids from age 4-10 years old we should:

-Teach beliefs: Iman before Qur’an, get them motivated.

-Teach them practice: Khuluq and Ibaadah, ex: getting them used ot praying the 5 salaahs so that when the time comes they’ll be praying on their own.

-Teach them success.

-Provide them with an Islamic environment.

She went over the importance of education and reminded us that “Education is a means, not an end.” We need to have our kids have a clear niyyah, go after what they really want to do and whatever they want to do, it must not get in the way of worshiping Allah.

The second part of the talk was about the Rights of the Parents Over Their Children. Allah mentions parents’ rights over their children right after he commands us to worship him. (17:23) We live in a time where the way children interact their parents is not juss bad but disgusting. She asked us why do mothers want our respect? Because they love us, and they want us to go to jannah. When a mother asks her child to respect her she isn’t wanting respect for herself but because she wants to be merciful to her children. The mothers heart has more rahma for her child than the father does. She talked about how we shouldn’t juss say ‘I love you’ but we should show our parents that we love them. We should make them our top priority, always. We should always make them feel like we need them, respect their opinion. Remind your parents of what they have done for you-and continue bringing that to your mind. She asked what happens if we don’t treat our parents well? Well first and foremost Allah will be angry with us. Allah will not put barakah-blessing in your life. Your own children will not respect you. And you will go through a severe punishment. She talked about the new generation of Muslims, the “whatever” generation, there is something seriously wrong with us. She talked about our characteristics being that we are too selfish, always me me me me me! How we are so arrogant, so arrogant that sometimes a parent can’t stay in the same room with a child because of how huge the ego is. How we have a lack of taqwa and have no gratitude. The sister who was hosting the session reminded us that the day before Shaykh Yasir told us all humiliate yourself to your parents- we need to show our parents that we are their servants, kiss their hands, tend to their every need, make yourself available to them! She also told us that this me generation is becoming such a problem and is showing in the increasing number of divorce rates and as Sr. Iman said, “If their is a hault in our marriage machine, then there is a big problem with our Ummah.”

The third part of the talk was called Marriage Proposal. She asked us how does a women prepare herself for marriage and how can a mother help prepare her daughter for marriage. She reminded us that without sacrifice and compromise you can not succeed. She explained to us Qawaamah, and how it applies to all women-a man has qawaamah over all women, his mother, sister, wife, daughter, so surely it doesn’t mean that women are inferior to men. Qawmaah is giving man the responsibility to work for all of these women, to spend for all of them, take care of all of them, they have a much harder task than us. She talked about the marriage triangle: Sakan, Mawaddah and Rahmah. The first part is Sakan, meaning peace. Sakan comes from Sakeenah meaning peace and tranquility. A women was created for peace and tranquility. She reminded us that women are created from the ribs, the purpose of the ribs is to protect the heart- the women needs to be the protector of the man and a supporter for him. The women is the place of rest for the man, the place of replenishing physically, emotionally and even spiritually! The women should remind him to have iman, have faith in Allah.

The last part of the talk was called The In-Laws. She told how there is really no justice in this dunya. We need to make niyyah to treat our in-laws like our own parents-it all goes back to Tarbiyah. Sons should make the parents understand that no matter what his parents will always be his top priority so that the parents wont feel threatened or as if they have to compete with their daughter in-law. Parents of the wife also deserve the same respect. She told us that wives need help their husbands get to jannah- so tie up any loose ends and don’t let little things get blown out of proportion.

The next session I attended was another YM main session called The Crisis.

Br. Khalid Latif: He told us how we need to learn how to speak in a way that will hep us be heard and understood by others. We need people to speak on our behalf that will be listened to, ex: we need to have speakers that understand the language, the culture etc… During the Prophet’s (please and blessing be upon him) time, people who were pushed away because they were different, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon) would take these people in and empower them, ex: Hazrat Bilal (RA). He reminded us that an effect of assimilation is that with time we will forget our language and maybe even our culture. Our leaders are not thinking about future, rather they are thinking juss about now, the present and thats it. Looking at our masjids they are separated by race: Afghan masjid, Turkish masjid, Bangali masjid, Pakistani masjid etc…we need to make masjids a place where everyone-Muslim and even Non-Muslim- can go to and feel accepted, a place where they can go to and get answers. This gets to the point why we are all so confused. We need to be able to go to a place where we won’t get shunned. Islam is a message that can be taught to anyone, and with the right speaker we can get the right message across. We have to begin to demonstrate what we believe in. We’ve forgotten how to go out and serve the people. Muslims have to be the ones to serve the people, and we need to remember to do everything for the sake of Allah. The sad truth is that we will hurt one another-we’re human. Insaan is derived from an Arabic word meaning forgetful so mistakes can happen every now and then, we juss need to be forgiving. We have a problem, we don’t talk to each other! Why is our Ummah so divided? We shouldn’t forget that all of us have the power to make a difference. He told us a beautiful story that I love so much. There was an author who was at the beach and he looked ahead and saw a figure. He went closer and realized that it was a boy picking up star fishes and throwing them back into the ocean. The man asked the boy what are you doing and the boy said I need to get all of these back into the water or they’ll die. The man looked at the huge amount of star fish behind the boy and said why are you doing this, it’s impossible, useless it wont make a difference. The boy looked at the man, then looked down, picked up a starfish and threw it in the water and said it made a difference to that one. We should never doubt the impact that one person can have.

Shaykh Yasir Quadhi: He asked a series of questions such as Why is it that these conventions are never enough? Why is that there are never enough parking spots in masjids?… ultimately asking us why is there a revival of Muslims? We live in a time period where there are so many pressures that go along with being Muslim but yet there are so many people coming to Islam, so many people coming back to Islam, why? If someone asks you why are you Muslim what will you say? Pretty much what most likely happened is that it was sheer luck that you were born Muslim-for those who have Muslim parents, others who converted actually have a story of how they were drawn to Islam. He told us about Fitrah. A child is born submitting to Allah, that is the Fitrah. It is also why the average Jew, Christian or anyone of some other faith or belief system doesn’t believe like the average Muslim believes. It is also why we get more fired up when we are ridiculed, they understand the concept of Imaan. Would Christians sacrifice for their religion like we would? Muslims who are raised are in tranquility, their Fitrah tells them that what they are doing is right-even if they are a sinner they still have a small amount of imaan within them that helps their Fitrah feel a little at ease. People of other faith aren’t in tranquility and as a result they begin to not care, they begin to lose morality. Could anyone 20/30 years ago predict that there will be a revival of Islam? We are witnessing history in the making! The west is leading the revival of Islam! He asked us, “What is your vision…what do you want to contribute to the Ummah of North America?” This is a question that I myself have not really ever thought of, yes I have thought about how I would like to change myself make myself a better person but I haven’t really ever thought of what I want to do to help out the Ummah. He made the point that if we don’t have a goal, then how will we know where we are going or if we have accomplished anything. He asked us what we will do help out our children, our grand children…? He told us that every hundred years there is a reviver that comes. When we hear that we shouldn’t be thinking, I wonder who that is, we should be thinking Ya Allah make ME the reviver! Don’t sit there and pass the responsibility to the next person, get up and do something. He told us how a couple of weeks ago he was giving a lecture to kids who were about 13/14 years of age and one of the boys said, “I’m tired of hearing you’re the future of the Ummah and they don’t tell us what to do!” Adults aren’t even sure what we’re supposed to do but we have to figure something out and inshaAllah we will be able to make an impact that will help out our future Ummah. He ended by telling us that our secret weapon is our Fitrah-our Fitrah explains everything.

Imam Siraj Wahhaj: SubhanAllah Imam Siraj is so inspirational, before he started talking Shaykh Yasir said that he inspires him. I remember the first time that I heard Imam Siraj speak at the first convention that I went to. All of his speeches/lectures are all always so motivational! Khayr back to what he was saying… He told us how there are Muslims who say yeah I’m Muslim but not practicing, or yeah I’m a part time Muslim. What is a part time Muslim?!? May Allah make us all full time Muslims! There is a wide world Youth Movement. He told us that we need to learn how to get along with each other-you know like “There is no ‘I’ in team,” that sort of thing. He told us that the best teams are the ones that keep Allah in mind. He talked about relays, how it doesn’t matter if there is one really fast person on the team rather they need to learn how to get all of them to work together. His comparison was that our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was the anchor, but the message is carried on today! But why do we do what we do today? We are part of the Youth Movement, and we need to keep the Ummah continuously moving! Be a full time Muslim-not only will you benefit but so will others.

The next session I went to was another YM main session called Tactics of Shaytaan.

Br. Nouman Ali Khan: He talked about how there are certain attitudes today that are glorified, most don’t even make sense but yet they are still glorified, thought to be ‘cool.’ There is always a new type of clothing, or walk, or music genre, or language etc… that is glorified. We are being desensitized. There is such a change between now and then. He talked about how back then, the Sahaba would ask about how they can increase ibaadha, increase the things that will make Allah happy with them, and today we ask oh is this haraam? is this halaal? should I do this? or this?-look out how we have changed. And one of the things that our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) didn’t like was too many questions. Our Ummah was given such an amazing gift, the gift of the final book of Allah, and the way we treat this book is scary. We treat the book that way the nations before treated their books! He told us to be careful and as our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Don’t be lazy with the Qur’an!”

Dr. Altaf Hussain: He told us to stop caring about money and pleasures of this Dunya. We need to start getting involved with Islamic organizations-anything that will help get us closer to Allah! He talked about Munafiqs-people who are two faced. How our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) warned us that the worst type of people that we will meet will be the two faced people. He told us to not doubt ourselves because the more you doubt yourself eventually you may become someone else. He told us that Allah said, “…there are others that acknowledge their wrong doings…” we want to be among these people so that way we can ask for forgiveness and inshaAllah be forgiven.

Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui: SubhanAllah Shaykh Mokhtar is one of the most calmest speakers you will ever hear. He is so calm and and always smiling, subhanAllah he has mad charity for his face always has a smile. He told us about Gateway sins:

-Speaking too much.

-Lying-which is the worst of sins to both Allah and our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)

-”To use our eyes freely.”

-”To use our ears freely.”

He talked about how the images we see will always come to haunt us so we must be careful and lower our gaze. He told us to be very careful with what we hear, to what we allow into our hearts for it will have a consequence. He reminded us that every sin has a consequence-not only in the next Dunya but in this Dunya as well! We should be careful with what we speak, see or hear because these can change our heart! He told us to be careful with who we intermingle with, the very intermingling with those who aren’t necessarily “god” people can have a negative effect on us. He told us that Gateway Virtues are truthfulness and hayyah. He told us over and over again to never lie, never lie even if it may be against you juss don’t ever lie. We need to be very careful because we live in a time where everyone is addicted to lying but we must keep in mind to never lie. And he told us that if there is no hayyah, then there is no life.

After this was the entertainment session, hamdulillah I really liked this years entertainment session. Br. Ammar with the poems, Travellers nasheed group and Baba Ali! I actually have a video of pretty much the whole thing but my laptop and internet are a bit dysfunctional so as soon as I upload the videos I will provide a link so that you may watch them.

Unfortunately I had to leave right after the entertainment session so I missed the Sunday sessions and obviously have no notes to post but khayr I hope the notes above help you or benefit you in some way.

Hamdulillah another beneficial convention has passed.

May Allah make us peaceful, happy and carry the banner of this Deen high. May Allah help us overcome any problems that we may have. May Allah help give us as much knowledge as we can and retain it. And may Allah help us all stay on the right path and guide those who have gone astray.

Take care inshaAllah.

-radf

Allahumma sali ala sayyidina muhammadin an-Nabbiyil ummiyi Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salim.