The Muslim Housewife.

The other day I went to TJ Maxx to look for a purse (kinda getting tired of the diaper bag now!) and to look for some ramekins for my sister-in-law. I went through the purses pretty quickly since every one I touched seemed to be no less than $150! Then I headed over to the household items. As I was walking through the aisle I noticed that Isra had stopped and wasn’t following me. Instead her glance was stuck on a woman who was in the same aisle as us. She was eating sunflower seeds and of course Isra was drooling :). As I went to pick her up she started pointing at her signaling that she really wanted some seeds. The woman came close to us and said “Oh no, you’re going to choke on them.” The only way I could divert Isra’s attention was with some Veggie chips I had in the diaper bag!

The lady was about to leave the aisle and all of a sudden she turns and asks with a grin, “Where are you from?” And I replied “My parents are from India.” She said “Oh, ok” in a slightly unsettling manner. As she was about to leave I asked her where she was from since she seemed like she was from a different country. She told me she was from Mexico. Then the doors of conversation opened.  Subhanallah the way Allah plans things!

She told me she wanted to know where I was from because of the way I was dressed (hejab and abaya). I told her the way I am dressed is because of my religion and not where I’m from. Then I told her I was Muslim and follow the religion of Islam!

Amala, the young woman I was talking to, probably in her mid to late twenties started asking me all kinds of questions about the way Muslim women are dressed. She asked if we are forced to wear it, if we wear it because our husbands are jealous, why we have to wear it, etc. And Subhanallah, I was able to answer all of her questions in a nice manner without hesitation, Alhumdulilah it was all by the grace of Allah! She was so interested in everything I had to say and was listening intently. We must have been talking for 15-20 minutes. At the end of the conversation she said that she saw things in a different light! At that time I gave her my personal business card and told her if she had any other questions or misconceptions she wanted me to clarify I would be more than happy in doing so. I left the store smiling!

Dawah has become a particular area of interest of mine since I made dawah to my neighbor Joe (http://themuslimhousewife.com/2008/03/28/a-few-kind-words/). I make dua to Allah SWT to enable me to convey His message in a correct and eloquent manner. It is our duty as Muslims to convey the message of Islam, Allah is the one who guides!  I pray that Allah gives guidance to Amala and my neighbor Joe, and to allow them to see the truth of Islam!

Ladies, remember as Muslimahs who where hejab and/or abaya we are walking sources of dawah. Many people look at us and have a thought or wonder why we do what we do. And then those who have enough curiosity approach us and ask us. This is a great way to open the doors to converse about our religion and clear up misconceptions people may have!

Many look, some ask, few ponder!

I’ve been in South Carolina for the past two weeks.  I do have to admit on my flight to the south I was getting nervous about getting dirty looks towards my appearance as a Muslimah (hijab & abaya).  I think the last time I felt like that was when I started wearing hijab to High School where there were no Muslims.  It’s a kind of feeling where your stomach turns and you feel a butterfly sensation.

To my suprise since the day I landed here I have not received one dirty look, Alhumdulilah!  Instead I have received many smiles and nods of respect.  People here actually go out of their way to be nice, opening doors for you and  sincerely asking how you are doing.  There doesn’t seem to be many Muslims here, I bumped into one Muslimah at the mall.  She came up to me and introduced herself and told me that my face seemed new to her since she knew bascially all the Muslims in town!  There also isn’t any zabiha places to eat around here, which was a little hard to adjust to in the beginning.

Reflecting upon all of this makes me grateful for all the things I do have back home in Chicago.  The great Muslim community, the abundant Masajid and an assortment of zabiha restaurants you can choose from.  Alhumdulilah, it truly is a blessing.

On another note, I have been able to do some dawah while I have been here.  Every morning there is a breakfast reception in the hotel I am staying at.  Isra and I make our way down and get some breakfast every morning.  The employee who works there, Barbara, is a very friendly African American woman.  After a few days of seeing one another we started talking.  At first it was basic conversation about our backgrounds.  Just yesterday I thought it would be a good time to bring up religion.  The topic came about so smoothly, it wasn’t wierd or akward at all.  Alhumdulilah it was a very good conversation and I hope that Allah SWT will guide her to the truth.  She listened very intently and didn’t refute at all!

As Muslims we have to remember that it is part of our duty to spread the deen of Islam.  This has been a particularly new interest of mine and I have been trying to make the best of every oppotunity I get to do dawah.  Many of us think we are not capable of spreading our deen because we are not knowledgable enough.  The truth is we all know the basic beliefs of our religion and that is essentially what you need to convey.  You don’t have to be fancy with your words, you just need to speak from the heart and tell others what the religion of Islam is truly about.  There is a great CD set out there by Sh. Muhammad Alshareef called ”Fiqh Ad-Dawah: Guiding to Allah by the Book” definitely worth checking out.  Inshallah Allah will make this duty easy upon all of us.

All in all I would have to say the south has truly lived up to its “Southern Hospitality.”  Back to Chicago on Friday inshallah!

Have you ever had the opportunity to change a person’s mood with a kind gesture? It is the greatest feeling in the world. Not only because you know you made the person happy, but you know that inshallah you will be rewarded by Allah SWT for doing an act of kindness.

Ahmed and I had a tray of baklava from Masri Sweets that was given to us from a friend. We didn’t want to keep it in the house because we knew we would demolish it in a matter of days! So I started thinking of what I could do with it. And I thought it would be a great thing to give to my neighbors and at the same time do a little dawah.

I wrote each neighbor a note that said the following…

Thanks for being a great neighbor!

Here is a small sweet treat for being a great neighbor. Our religion of Islam holds the neighbor in a special status. The following is a saying of the Prophet Muhammad regarding neighbors…

“The finest in the sight of God is the person who is best to his friends. And the finest in the sight of God is the person who is best to his neighbor.”

Enjoy the baklava!

Your neighbors,

Farah, Ahmed, & Isra

Apt #206

For more information on Islam visit http://islamtomorrow.com

I made two plates with a variety of baklava and attached the note on top. It was about midnight when I had Ahmed go put the sweets by their doors. I was so happy that we took the initiative to do something like this, but at the same time I was nervous to find out how they would react to my note.

The next morning we woke up and saw that the neighbors received their gifts and when we looked on our door we had a note from one of them. It said the following…

Farah, Ahmed, & Isra,

Thank you so much for the baklava and especially the very kind and sweet thoughts. Its been a pleasure being your neighbor and I look forward to our friendship. If I could bake, I would return the kindness!! Instead…maybe coffee/tea and good conversation.

Thank you so much!!!

Joe

That evening Joe stopped by and said when he woke up that morning he was in a really bad mood, but as he stepped outside to see a little surprise and a kind note he said it totally made his day!

A few days later we received a special little package in front of our door with a note from our other neighbor. It said the following…

Dear Farah, Ahmed, and Baby Isra,

I thank you and honor the respect you show for your neighbor through you religion, Islam. I am a better person for having shared this with you. I will be moving on Saturday and will carry forth the saying of the Prophet Muhammad and show respect to my new neighbor as well.With this mind please accept my ‘Haystacks,’ a sweet chocolate treat!

Thank you again to you and your little family!

Toni

It took a total of about 15 minutes to do this small act of dawah. When Muslims to things like this, non-Muslims will see the true nature of a Muslim, that they are not what is portrayed on T.V. It is our duty as Muslims to invite others to our deen, we will be asked on the day of judgment of whether or not we invited our neighbors and informed them about Islam. So don’t wait any longer, take the next opportunity you get and do a random act of kindness with your neighbors because,

“The finest in the sight of Allah is the person who is best to his friend, and the finest in the sight of Allah is the person who is best to his neighbor.”

May Allah give our Non-Muslim neighbors the taufiq to accept Islam. Ameen!