Expert: Jamshaid Zubairee - 7/17/2009

Question
Assalam wa Alaykum. I am an American and embraced Islam 5 year ago. Recently I was introduced to a Saudi woman through my colleague (his wife and her are acquaintences), we found we had common grounds and interests.  We recently attempted to become officially engaged with her family. The response was horrifying - the responsible brother (father is deceased) refused to meet me, he mocked my Muslim name and rejected Ayah from the Quran and hadeeths regarding marriage to a "non-Arab" Muslim.  Yet he is an Islamic Scholar.  

Is there any way of reasoning with such a mindset as the brother?  

Is this the Islam that is accepted in the world or a twisted and non-Islamic Islam?

Does the Saudi culture have precedence over Allah's word and our prophet's teachings??  Does one have to be Saudi in order to be a true Muslim?  Does the Quran support that??

Alaykum wa Salaam

Answer
Wa slam Brother this is ONE example of brainless attitude on behalf of our Arab brothers that they think themselves superior to other Muslims. They think that they have monopoly over Islam and NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND ISLAM BETTER THAN THESE ARABS. This problem increases many folds when the other person is a convert/ revert to Islam. So they will frequently reject every thing given by you as a proof.  In doing so they are NOT rejecting the Verses of Holy Quran or Hadith but they are rejecting your conclusions from these verses etc. Plus as for as the names are concerned, every culture has its own names and other things also so he may have seen some problem in your name according to his own culture and started mocking at you when you started reasoning with him from Quran & Hadith. If he is really a knowledgeable person then it is my request that you should NOT argue with him because there are some many things in every branch of knowledge for which you need good expertise so he may be right but can’t make you understand (a very common problem with many “Scholars”) so you should go to some other scholars and ask the same question (s) and KEEP IN MIND THAT EVERYTHING UPON WHICH OUR SALVATION IS AT STAKE IS CLEARLY MENTIONED IN QURAN AND HADITH AND THESE PROBLEMS ON WHICH SCHOLARS DIFFER ARE *NOT* SO MUCH IMPORTANT THAT WE SHOULD START FIGHTING OVER THEM.
So no need to fight with such people and go other scholars and get your problem solved. I personally don’t argue with scholars. If I don’t understand something then I ask again & again & again until I get it otherwise I go to some other scholar. This is my own way and I recommend you this. Brother I gave such a long lecture on this because I have also seen some problem regarding our convert brothers and brothers when they start fighting with us on such issues. They don’t see the cultural barriers don’t have proper knowledge of situation and start imposing their will upon us and when we resist, they get angry and bring evidence from Quran and Hadith that is totally irrelevant to the real problem. I personally came across an American brother (converted) who visited my esnips profile
http://www.esnips.com/user/jam2000
and saw videos that exposed Pakistani politicians and books on pornography in Bible etc and started criticizing me for exposing Pakistani politicians in this that was totally *un-Islamic* according to him and gave examples from Quran & Hadith but I continued rejecting him. He was speaking so zealously in favor of some Pakistani politicians (Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari of PPP and Altaf Hussain of MQM etc) all of which are Zionist puppets and work for Indian, Israeli and American Intelligence agencies. But like many western Muslims he was a poor victim of propaganda of these enemies of Islam and Pakistan. So I thought he was a PAID spokesman of PPP. So I openly called him even a “paid puppy” because of the way he was speaking in favor of these Zionist elements. He told me that I am a converted Muslim but I said that No you are a liar. But when the clouds of misunderstanding were cleared I found him a sincere Muslim and He also became a fan of mine. So I gave you this example to make you understand that sometime our converted brothers and brother are also wrong so you should go to some other scholar for those problems on which you have problem with him. You don’t need to fight with him.
If you still have problem feel free to contact me again.
Allah Bless You


This is a question below please read it and get more knowledge on this point.
Hi, I'm a new Shahada sister-rather long intro with questions!

Assalamu Alaikum!

My name is Ameera and both my husband and I are new reverts to Islam of only a
few months now..We have 4 children, Alhumdililah and live in Missouri.

I joined two other groups for hispanic muslims but didn't notice there wasn't
any activity since 2008 so I'm looking for a more livelier group to interact
with as I have questions.

First of all, my decision to become Muslim was not taken lightly and its the
best thing I could have done for myself and my family so I do not regret any of
it. This is the path of Truth and this is where I want to be, so please don't
mistake my questions as questions of faith because that is not the case.  I'm
eternally grateful for whatever it was that placed these seeds of truth in my
heart and moved me to share with my husband what I've learned and that my
husband was so willing and moved to embrace Islam as well. Alhumdililah!

1.  We took shahada once we read on how to become muslims.  No one was there.
Is this okay or should we go to the local mosque and take shahada?

2.  Although I don't regret embracing Islam, both my husband and I feel
alienated and lonely.  The majority of brothers and sisters at the mosque are of
middle eastern descent and we don't speak Arabic. They don't appear very
friendly but I believe it has to be due to the culture and language barrier.
See, I come from a christian background where once you've joined a church, the
people are genuinely happy to see you and you get to join their study groups and
mingle and chat...Islam is not like that, at least for us it hasn't been.
So I now have the reversion blues and I'd like to shake them off because its
dragging me down..Any reverts in here have ever had that feeling?? Its funny
because its not that you regret having embraced Islam, that's not the case at
all...its just the feeling of not connecting that sort of weirds you out..hope I
haven't offended anyone..

3.  Now prayer.  Prayer is so hard.  I get the two rakat prayer because most
websites show it being done..but when it comes to 3 and 4 rakats...I am
completely lost!  We don't know what we're doing.  Any advice??  Is there such a
thing as "Salat for dummies" because we sure need something like that...we're
just not getting it and its depressing to try so hard but know in the end that
you're not doing it right or not getting it...

Please help us become better Muslims as we are trying soooo hard and want Allah
to be proud of us as we are of being Muslims. I'm awfully shy in person which I
know can hinder going out and meeting other sisters but I'd be willing to
exchange numbers with sisters in the hopes of joining any halaqas with them...or
just being taught what they already know...and if they live in Missouri I'd be
willing to travel the distance to meet where they meet for any Islamic group
study...

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing back from you guys!

I changed my name from Barbara to Ameera because I thought that is what I was
supposed to do...can you tell me if my name is offensive...Barbara means
"Stranger"  Shukran!

Your sister in Islam,
Ameera

Asslamu Alaikum
MashaAllah that is wonderful that you and your husband have both converted to Islam.
Whenever some one converts to Islam they are tested in many ways to see how sincere they are to Allah. WIll they remain patient in the face of trials or will the turn back to kuffar.
The more that Allah loves a Muslim. The more He tests them so that their sins be washed away as trials and pain washes away a persons sins. Also so that their rank in heaven can be raised.

Lonliness is a problem and we know when the Muslims migrated to Madina from makkah on Allah's orders and thus fleeing persecution. The Makkan Immigrant  were sort of coupled in a bond of brotherhood with the local Muslims of Madina who were called the Ansar (helpers)

However those Muslims were all of an amazing quality. Todays Muslims are struggling with unIslamic wordly tempations. The Masjids are no longer full for every prayer. Even the jummah is missing more than fifty precent of the congragation. Although things now are better in some ways than 30 years ago. They are far from ideal..

From the prophet peace be upon hims Hadiths we learn that  even 2 muslims should not exclude a third Muslims from a conversation.

Certain races may have certain bad habbits that are more peculaliar to then than others. And they may have certain merits that can be found more inside their communities than others. All the good things that are found in any given country are also found in Islam and all the bad thinsg that are found in any given communitie or communities we are warned about.

We in this case we are warned about excluding some one form our conversations as will obvioulsy be bad for the person who is left out.

Arabs brothers of today do have a serious problems of doing this kind of haram. I too ahve experianced this many times. I will give you an example. I have attended dinners  at the houses of Arab brothers. What happened was when everyone had arrived the Arab brothesr started talking in Arabic even though they know others dont speak arabic so the two of us who couldnt speak arabic were excluded. This i found very strange especially when you realise some for the brothers have English wives who do not speak Arabic. In some cases the brothers who invite you or who are present at the dinner are very nice brothers. Just they have this extremely bad habbit.

This makes it worse if like me the person excluded is a Pakistani because this is such a great insult. It makes the person feel angry and stupid for being there.

To justify this behaviour shaytan (satan) whispers to them excuses such as well he should learn arabic or it will encourage him to learn arabic or we cannot express ourselves so well in english.

All these are satanic excuses which make them commit this haram. By whispering these excuses satan and the human devils cause the hearts of the brothers to go furthur apart,

As I said some of these brothers are nice brothers and sisters but they even nice poeple commit haram. It furthur shows how as human beings we need divine guidance and divine laws to teach us how to live. We have to be constantly willing to change ourselves to conform to those Divine laws.

Just like the Arab brothers have some bad paricular habbits. We too will have some particular bad habbits which we need to get rid of. Soemtiems we can only accept these as being bad habbits when they are pointed out to us that the quran and teh Sunnah regards them as bad habbits. Otherwise we may have many arguments that satan or devish people or even our own faulty logic has formulated which make that bad habbit to look as something normal and even something good.

Look at the case of homosecuality or young  boys wearing dresses and young girls wearing boys cloths . Some Human beings have started to make these haram (forbiden) thing as being acceptable because they formulate ideas which make it appear as if it is an acceptable thing to do from their own faulty logic or from the wisperings of satan.

Alhamdulillah we have devine laws sent down to us that tell us thse things are not acceptable and we should not do such things. Othewise Muslims would think those things are acceptable and thus we would be as lost as the rest of humanity is.

Alhamdulillah when a Muslims looses his way there are others who are able to point to them that this is not the correct thing to do as it goes against what Allah and His Messenger peace be upon him has told us..

Lastly it is the job of the Imam to recognise the problems in his congrgation and community and speak about them in the hope that the listeners will listen.

Islam has the cure for every problem. Problem today is that there is not many who are giving this cure to the mass's.

You and your husband should pester the Imam and tell him about the problem and explain to him that Makkah will ask him about this. Why did he not tell the congregation to take that pill to cure them of that disease time after time until it was cured.

As for your name. You did not need to change it. Stranger in the Arabic is ghuraba/ I dont know anyone who has named himseld or herself Ghuraba but I have seen many who have nicked named themslves Ghuraba because of the famous hadith.

The Prophet peace be upon him  said "Islam began as something strange, and it will return as something strange the way it began. So Tooba for the Strangers"

Today Muslims are strangers. We are mocked and called names such as fundamentalist, extremist, even by poeple who say they themslves are Muslims. If you say lets return to the Islam of teh Prophet peace be upon him were we have 57 states once again being one giant Islamic state and we have one ruler and Islamic law (shariah law) were we dont have intesrest based banking and we dont have haram stuff aired on our Televion and Radio, Were the Muslism can be safe and not oppressed. Were the armed foirces wont watch whilst Muslims in the world are being slaughred as they were in Gaza and other places. Were the police and army doesnt torture prisoners or spy on Muslims or rape prisoners.

So as we can see the Muslims who want and call for the Prophets Islam and not the Islam coined out by corrupt rulers,  the CIA and  scholanrs who have sold out  to the corrupt ruler or the CIA are being looked upon as being strange and weird poeple. InshaAllah may Allah gives us Tooba . Ameen.

A beautiful poem about the strangers was writen and recited beautfully by sheik Sheikh Sa'ad al-Ghamidi You can read it on following link

http://muslimconverts.com/poetry/ghurabaa.htm

As far as learning the prayers is concerned. Yes most websites and books only show how to do the fajr prayer, However on teh following link of my website you will find out how to do all 5 of teh daily prayers www.muslimconverts.com/prayer/index.htm


walaikum sallam
AbuUbaida
group owner