A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| ahmer |
| 03/31/02 at 19:18:48 |
| [slm] the conf was a humbling experience .. but i am sooooo tired... so many details to tell.. !! later...:) [wlm] |
| 03/31/02 at 19:19:23 |
| ahmer |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| jannah |
| 03/31/02 at 23:48:08 |
| Ok here?s what I thought: Alhamdulllah I thought the conference was one of the best I've ever attended of East Zones and I've been to tons!! Why? not sure.. I think it was the sincerity of the people involved that did it for me.. .the conference itself though was pretty chill and laid back. Here are some of my scrawls from the eval sheet expanded as I think back?. Good: - There were 450 people at this conference!! It was pretty huge.. probably due to post sept11th need for ummah, speakers, good date (during spring break) and efficient online registration and info and advanced publicity. - The place was very convenient and well laid out..Good location near Philly. - Main conference chair was charismatic and hysterically funny :).that was enjoyable in itself ! - Good flow of telling people "where to go next..." - Salatul Tahajjud- excellent and beautiful.. good decision to put everyone in the same room.. felt very deep and ummah like, probably the best part of the conference. - Liked the vendors idea.. especially the mehndi.. very cool idea. - Imam Zaid was pretty revolutionary as usual.. I think he really made a lot of ppl think. - Sisters thing was very nice ma'shallah... it was kind of different to have entertainment with women in islam power speeches.. not sure yet if I liked it or not.. but it was different for sure! - Nice idea about the t-shirt prizes.. nice shout-outs to all the organizers and all - Altaf's motivational speeches were excellent ma'shallah, they should be broadcasted day and night from the msanatl website ;) - Imam Zaid's wife's informal session with the sisters was great. I think a lot of sisters benefited. - There was very little visible security.. except when we might by random be checked by some guards. I liked that bc it made us feel like adults ? Could be improved: - There were no sisters up on stage *ever unless you count the last session where a sister went up to help her husband give out prizes.. Although many speakers were positive about women's role in Islamic work i.e. Altaf and Imam Zaid.. not having anyone there sends a louder message to some unfortunately. - Sisters prayer area was weird.. because the mic went out twice and since we were in a separate room all the sisters got all messed up. one time we heard the bro announce the prayer and then nothing for 5 minutes until we realized the bros had started! Some ppl started praying by themselves.. some sisters tried to guess where they were, some ran around like chickens.. really crazy ! And we couldn't even open the doors because the brothers had locked it from the other side and put chairs in front of the door!! (protection from us? :-)) - Registration for us was good because we were there post jumuah early comparatively.. but others might have had to stand in line longer, but overall pretty efficiently put together folders and stuff. - Most of the speakers were too hard core and NOT youth oriented.. I'm really not sure what they were talking about or why? most of it did not relate to youth islamic work. We needed to have more speakers like Muhammad AlShareef etc in the main sessions - Parallel sessions- we hate these at ISNA where we have to choose from 15 different sessions that we all want to go to!! It would be better if they are shorter and all at diff times? Or at those free times where those interested could go? - Separation is good, but too much of it makes sisters feel like they aren't a part of stuff.. i.e. we ate separately, we prayed separately, we were in separate areas of the hall, we were in a separate hotel... which is all good, but there wasn't that 'togetherness as brothers and sisters' feeling? like if they only had prayer together I think that would have helped a lot. - Qiyaam was cancelled twice.. very sad? we can see how the whole conference changed after salatul tahajjud - Didn't like how the vendors were all over the place.. some were in the brothers section even and we didn't know?? - Ice breakers were good.. but they really didn't achieve the goal of un-cliquisizing the participants.. ppl were in cliques and were in cliques the entire weekend.. I mean ppl smiled and nodded and said salam, but there was no..real bonding there.. this could have been the fault of the great numbers? - Fiqh session where the speakers don't want to answer or don't know the answers.. or are not qualified to answer questions seemed strange. - Needed more workshops oriented towards the organization of msa's i.e. how to get more involvement. How to do a halaqa.. How to write a budget, etc - Didn't get the room names..-were they names of the organizers if so why?? Joke among the organizers at 3am? ;) It might have been better to have cool names? like sahaba or like islamic cities or umm stuff that would make it have a significance. - Some ppl mentioned there was no quran recitation at the beginning of the conf? - Some ppl also mentioned that a lot of people sneaked in.. i.e. didn't register not sure how that happened.. Also a lot of people who were not "supposed" to be in a room, somehow asked their friends or someone and ended up staying in a room without paying? i.e. like day registrants - Some sessions would be going on before workshops ended or overlapped other sessions that should have been over with. Altaf's great speech on sat should have been attended by everyone but ppl came late b/c they got out late.. Well I know I wrote more critical things? but I think that's human nature.. there were also many, many more good things that I've overlooked. May Allah reward the organizers for their blood, sweat and tears... it was worth it for me to go. So know that at least one person benefited inshaAllah, not to speak of all the 449 others !!! I totally agree with Ahmer that it was a humbling experience.. it really was...mashallah |
| 04/01/02 at 15:38:44 |
| jannah |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| nouha |
| 04/01/02 at 00:19:05 |
| [slm] ok i just posted my reaction at the Madina Minerat so lets see if i can cut and paste what i just wrote..... mashallah the conference was awesome! jazakulah for all the people that spent sleepless nigths (as we've heard ) setting this confernce for us, May Allah(SubHana Wa Ta`ala) reward you all it was good to see some ppl from the madina board, altaaf -- lol i thought you were mad younger haha, i had NO idea you were the MSA Nat'l president!!!!!! and MASHALLAH on the closing statement, may Allah(SubHana Wa Ta`ala) reward you -- you made me cry, soo touching..... tq -- jazakulah sis for the amazing food and awesome hospitality at your house, kiss the little ones for me and dont tell anybody about how us albanynia chicks are really like ;) ahmer -- we heard someone call your name, but we couldnt see you when u raised your hand, but jazakulah for the conference nouha :) |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| Abu_Hamza |
| 04/01/02 at 00:55:55 |
| [slm] wait ... altaf is a member on this board ??? |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| jannah |
| 04/01/02 at 01:07:15 |
| [wlm] no way man that bro doesn't have time like that!! he is crazy busy working for the ummah with endless dedication and effort.. mashallah.. may Allah bless him and his family............ |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| ahmer |
| 04/01/02 at 11:55:45 |
| [slm] alhumdolillah ... Alhumdolillah Ala kulle shayee'in ...!! i slept too much.. last night..!! unlike my normal sleep of 4/5 hours.. To review this EZ conf, i feel that there are always two faces of any conference or convention. the 'learning part of the conference' itself and the 'reaping of benefits'. Also I had some goals that i wanted to achieve for the NJ area MSAs, and Alhumdolillah Allah helped us. We came as a group from NJ, and the bus ride was 'fun' to begin with, the ride was an awesome experience with Sheikh Ramadan, Minshawi, Basit, Nasheeds and ofcourse 'MYNA Raps'...:) though it's always a lil 'corny'. and i never knew that sisters can actually be so loud..!!!! they outdid the bros..!! the learning part of the conference was great masha'Allah. but it was confusing to some people in a little way. A few divergent signals were coming out of the workshops and lectures. The scholars gave conflicting views, which is only natural but it was confusing for people who came to any conference for the first time. The moderators should have filtered out some questions, as hikmah. Specially one of the questions!! - Imam Zaid was awesome masha'Allah. Though there should have been a plan B in place for his late arrival. - the food was good but the name 'Khanistan'...:) - in my opinion the workshops could hav been better organized. they should have been more interactive with people being able to ask questions. - the segregation was appropriate alhumdolillah but at times it seemed harsh for couples!. My friend, Larry a recent convert himself brought his wife for the first time to any 'Islamic' event or a masjid and he was not allowed to even sit in the sister's dining area even though he asked the organizers. It was too strict cuz he is still learning our way of life and culture. - the registrants had diversity except the penn state itself. There were a lot more people from NJ than PA, even though PA has campuses with large Muslim presence. This was disappointing for me that the publicity in PA was not done well enough. but NJ crew was the largest.. masha'Allah..:) it was great to see 80 - 90 bros/sis from nj in the conference since it came at the right time for all of us. The NJ crew was the largest, the garden state rules..!!:) - i agree with jannah that the vendors were all over the place, but trust me you would not haev enjoyed being there. Some of the stuff they had was hostile to other groups and we did not like it at all. - i could have written more but sis jannah mentioned everything so i dont need to repeat. i agree that there should have been a woman speaker, i was working with br mateen to get him a sister, but my badd. i should have worked more on it. - i should mention this, ofcourse this conference was the best as ppl said, but trust me the people i worked with were some of the greatest masha'Allah. br qays, and everyone..! - br mateen... this bro was really awesome. we only met online during the past month but the last three days.. it seemed we knew each other for a long time and were 'real bros'.... May Allah reward him and everyone for the untiring work ..ameen.. - - the exec meeting of east zone MSAs was not organized well and lasted only a few minutes. - the dawah task force workshop went very well masha'Allah with br altaf. helped in helpin others with ideas and also got some cool ideas. - dr khalid blankinship had a professorly lecture, it was a different perspective, after the lecture i asked him if the 80's afghan war was a 'war' and he said it was not a war but a guerilla war. i think that though some people may not have liked it, but his idea that 'the concept of war has finished after 40s' was really thoughtful. i liked his points. - where were the albanyian bros..:) i only met one bro from albany who is originally from north dakota actually..funny cuz i was in ND a week back. he was cool.. - personally i made some key contacts and insha'Allah they will help me with some of the ideas i have for MSA in NJ. - tahajjud was a great experience, i realized once again how humble we all should be now the 'reaping of benefits' comes... time will only tell if there are benefits from the conference, knowledge should lead MSAs to action, if there are more active MSAs , the membership base grows, more MSAs are affiliated, new MSA area councils,etc then we can say that benefits were indeed 'reaped'. the NJ area MSAs will now gear up insha'Allah for a council and extended work. May Allah help us all. more if any other thing comes up in my mind.. this is all i can rem for now.. btw..someone said that my black jalabiyyah looked cool..lol..j/k more later.. insha'Allah.. i have loads to tell.. but shura meeting next..:) salams ahmerrrrr |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| Iboo |
| 04/01/02 at 12:25:25 |
| [slm] I havent posted here in a while but I figured I should give my analysis of the conference since a few of you all went... -The hotel arrangements were good alhumdulillah, i was glad to see that a initiative was taken to separate the brothers and sisters. Prime intermingling goes on in the hotels and that was avoided pretty well. ;) -The best part of the conference was definitely the Tahajjud Salah. Alhumdulillah I was able to get in the front row of the Jammah. I felt a strong bond with the brothers after the Dua mashaALLAH because we all were shedding tears. -I met a bunch of brothers from New Jersey and Jersey City. Before Tahajjud the Jersey City brothers and I had a good discussion about the current state of the Ummah and I was very glad to see that their are other young brothers who are serious about the cause of Islam. I also met some Jersey brothers right before we left on Sunday when we went in their room with the Camcorder and my boy interviewed them all acting like a fob. -The only low point for me was when Zaid Shakir spoke about people who take a bullet for ALLAH in a negative way. I did not get the point he was trying to make. I understand that he was tryin to say that we need to strengthen ourselves before taking on a stronger entity, but for him to refer to one who takes a bullet for ALLAH as "just another dead muslim" shocked me. -And of course no conference is complete without its share of drama As I shared with you all before (Marriage proposal, fight with guy messing with my sis, etc) and this time it wasnt anything major. I was tryin to watch my Tarrapins whoop up on Kansas and the white guy at the bar wouldnt let me watch the TV in the lounge. I had been there before and there was no problem at all. There were already people sitting watchin the tube before I got there, and as soon as I got into the lounge I grabbed a bar stool and turned it around to watch. THe guy at the bar asked if I was 21, and me thinking this guy was bout to offer me a drink said no to avoid the situation. THen the guy tries to kick me out. I was like uhh, I cant sit with the other guys who were clearly under 21. He was like NO, YOU CANT BE ANY WHERE. Well to make a long story short, I gave him some choice words that I shouldnt have said and may ALLAH forgive me for saying them, but the worst part was I said them with this 1 sister standing right there. I felt like a str8 gump and I apologized to the sister for polluting her ears. That was about it and alhumdulillah the most important thing that I think I gained from the conference was that there are brothers from other schools who are also serious about this deen. May ALLAH strengthen our Imans and our Ummah. Ameen Abd ;-) |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| se7en |
| 04/01/02 at 14:23:57 |
| as salaamu alaykum wa rahmatAllah, Man, it's so interesting to read everyone's views on the conference. It's such a different experience for each person. I thought it was awesome, mashaAllah :) the MSA NE conf in Albany next semester will be even better though, inshaAllah :P ;D (just a lil early publicity ;)) what rocked: Imam Zaid I think with recent events [the detainees, the raids, Imam Jamil, Palestine] we've all been feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, helpless.. Imam Zaid's speech was definitely solace.. made us realize that this too shall pass, and we should not give in to despair.. that we need to refocus our goals, redouble our efforts, and continue in the struggle. Hearing him speak always reminds me of Malcolm X, and why it was said of him, 'no one man should have that much power.' Imam Zaid is a revolutionary, a visionary, a man with incredible intelligence and insight. May Allah reward him, and accept his sincere efforts and make them successful. Muhammad al-Shareef's 3-part Adab al-Khilaaf workshop [The Etiquettes & Manners of Disagreement] It should be required for every member of the board ;) Much of what he said can be found in his khutba [url=http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl/YaBB.pl?board=masjid&action=display&num=2311]When Friends Hurt Each Other[/url]. Bro Altaf What can I say but mashaAllah. The closing & dua were.. man, beyond words. meeting tq & other madina peeps what a *totally* sweet sister (and wonderful cook!) mashaAllah :) and her kids are so cute :) The best part was when she said she thought we would be all intellectual and serious.. we laughed and laughed about that one :D I think she was the most intellectual among us, mashaAllah :) Jazaki Allahu khayran sis for lunch and for everything :) All the 'issues' I had with the conference have been mentioned already.. I was not down with the Q&A session, and there were some speakers that I felt were seriously helter skelter. Alhamdulillah.. it was *definitely* a humbling, awesome experience. May Allah reward and accept the efforts of all the organizers and speakers!! :) wasalaamu alaykum wa rahmatAllah :-) ps - sorry if you sent me an e-mail this weekend and it bounced.. my account was disabled because I was over my limit ::) InshaAllah it should be fine now.. |
| 04/01/02 at 17:52:39 |
| se7en |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| jannah |
| 04/01/02 at 14:39:04 |
| [quote]The only low point for me was when Zaid Shakir spoke about people who take a bullet for ALLAH in a negative way. I did not get the point he was trying to make. I understand that he was tryin to say that we need to strengthen ourselves before taking on a stronger entity, but for him to refer to one who takes a bullet for ALLAH as "just another dead muslim" shocked me.[/quote] [slm] Bro we need to keep what he said in context...lest people spread this all around that he said "don't fight for Allah etc" !!! astaghfirullah...he did not! the strengthening ourselves in order to be stronger etc was a completely different point. about taking a bullet, he was talking about that chain email that keeps going around about the masked men asking "who is willing to take a bullet for Allah" and everyone runs out of the mosque except a few and then they say "Good all the hypocrites are gone".... there is a HUGE FLAW in this email and it even angered me to get it.... What Imam Zaid is saying is right. It is INCREDIBLY STUPID for someone to sit there and say "yeah i'll take a bullet" and then get killed...???? for what?? being stupid? islam doesn't say to be stupid or waste your life for no reason. One of the reasons Islam was sent was to protect life. We shouldn't give our life in VAIN! That's why he said if the gunmen said "who is willing to give their life for the imam" or for ... whatever reason...it would be fine... I mean if you are in the desert starving and there is pork and wine there, not only is it halal for you, it is MUST on you to eat it to preserve your own life....(tho i think wine would dehydrate u more in a desert ;)) we are even allowed to clearly LIE in order to preserve our life.. the thing about islam is., it is so SMART and DYNAMIC .... it takes into account circumstance and reason... if conditions change so may the ruling like pork in the desert....so for God's sake if a gunman asks you... are you willing to take a bullet for Allah... just say NO and get the heck out of there!!!! Your life is worth more than a saying a one time statement to a man with a gun at your head... Allah already KNOWS if you would sacrafice your life for the deen.... there's no need to be stupid and waste your life for saying it to some man. THAT was the only point he was making!!! It's like if a terrorist tries to blow up a building and says "ok everyone who is a good muslim, stay here and die for your deen".... should you stay? HECK NO... it is a MUST on you to preserve your life unless there is a clear BENEFIT or REASON not to. And in this case all you would have done is become a "dead Muslim". You haven't fulfilled your deen at all by letting yourself be killed without doing anything to try to stop it. Ahhh anyway as for that whole bar issue.. it is LAW that if you are under 21 you are not allowed to be in that lounge area or on the stools. One lady had already kicked us off the stools (rather rudely too), because the bar was closed and we asked if we could stay in the lounge and she said yes as long as we were 21. It's too bad you had the fight with the guy :( those are the rules there.. he should have thrown all of you guys out ;) aiiite then... I think the really interesting discussion should be about the point Imam Zaid made about strengthening ourselves in order to help the Muslims in the rest of the world, for us right now not to get overly involved to the point of neglecting our own growth and work here. This is definitely a controversial point but one really worth discussing... Anyone want to go first? btw I did try to record a few of the sessions with the minidisc, (yeah that was me running around!) but I think they did a better job with the video equipment stuff.. altaf said they would try to put it up on their website so inshaAllah .. but if they don't i'll try to convert a few and put them up here... |
| 04/01/02 at 15:58:56 |
| jannah |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| Abd_al-Rashid |
| 04/01/02 at 17:35:28 |
| [slm] alhamdulilah, this was my first conference of any kind and it was a very rewarding experience! I really felt the bond of brotherhood and I gained a lot of knowledge. Before going I had heard the ISNA horror stories so I made dua that this conf. will be beneficial and not a waste of time. My dua was answered and as an added benefit I felt my imaan go way up as I heard the speakers such as br. Altaf (excellent!) and Muhammad al-Shareef (I was stunned....the brother is amazing!). Coming from a place with a lot of fitnah (Miami), as soon as I got off the plane I felt at ease and we found the brothers from Temple right away. These brothers worked very hard and made us feel welcome. We arrived just in time for jumuah and then started meeting brothers from all over the east coast. It was beautiful to see so many brothers with thobe, kufi, beards, etc...everyone had a smile on their face and instant friendships were made. This was one of the highlights of the conf. for me. I attended the Foreign Policy workshop and learned a lot about the US government bias towards the Zionist entity and the reasons for it. I was pleased to see a lot of brothers and sisters were politically aware and knew what was up in the world. A brother invited us to his room for more discussion and we came up with an action plan and network for the MSA's to work towards bringing students back to the deen and implementing Islam and shariah on campus. So much work and benefit was gained in only one day masha'allah. Just like everyone else I was puzzled because all the workshops were on excellent topics and we had to pick one. I tried to get maximum benefit out of them because in my opinion the speakers were good, but in the workshops we got to interact and ask questions. I think this is a better learning method than just sitting and taking notes. The other highlight for me was the brothers session with Muhammad al-Shareef...I can't even explain, the brother is incredible. What made it so awesome is the fact that he grew up here and understands exactly what we go through and his teaching style is with humor. So you feel at ease and relaxed and brothers open up and express themselves. He even shares his personal stories with you and you think "wow, I'm not the only one." May Allah give us more scholars like Muhammad al-Shareef. Regarding Imam Zaid Shakir and the "bullet for Allah," I feel that story has wisdom behind it. For me that story represents the excessive love of dunyah and how we fear death. It reminds me of a song "Everyone wants heaven but no one wants to die" I disagree with his interpretation of it. The book vendors were on the salafi tip, but they had some good titles like Kitab al-Imaan by Ibn Taymiyyah, Fatwa regarding Muslim Minorities, Kitab al-Tawheed by Abdul-Wahhab, and timely pamphlets like "Regarding Terrorism, Hijacking, and Suicide bombings" by Shaykh Bin Baz. I came back loaded and alhamdulilah they didnt open the bags when I got searched at the airport on the way back. (I can see it now "what is this hijacking manual?") Tahajjud was a humbling experience. Everytime I went to my room it was the carnage in Palestine on TV and I was getting emotional and upset. Imam Shakir made a good point that we should not act on our emotions and we have to step back and think. So in tahajjud the hearts were softened and the tears flowed as the imam made dua for the mercy of Allah to descend upon the ummah. Overall it was a very nice experience and may Allah accept the sacrifice of the Temple MSA and Altaf, Osman, Qaiser, Fatima, and all the new friends I made and the brothers and sisters who came out. Oh yeah, I met some of the enforcers of the cowtown mafia...this one is for you: [] [wlm] |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| ahmer |
| 04/01/02 at 17:39:55 |
| [quote] aiiite then... I think the really interesting discussion should be about the point Imam Zaid made about strengthening ourselves in order to help the Muslims in the rest of the world, for us right now not to get overly involved to the point of neglecting our own growth and work here. This is definitely a controversial point but one really worth discussing... Anyone want to go first? [/quote] yea i will.. :) .. i think that it is a valid point, and as he mentioned 'not to get overly involved' and keyword is 'overly'. Going to school in a predominantly african american area, that has got a lot of Muslims, it is sad to see their plight of affairs. There are very few or no concerted program to help these communities, despite the fact as Imam Zaid mentioned that we have money. My brother told me a very smart thing that now after the freezing of charities, Muslims should flood the money here on dawah and building African American Muslim communities. This does not mean that we neglect them. It's just that there should be a balance, but if you come to think of it, we ain't doing much.. i am confused about how to draw a line about 'overly' interested..!! A convert told me that the best way to influence the American foreign policy is when an American accepts islam. Wallahu Alam. [quote] -I met a bunch of brothers from New Jersey and Jersey City. Before Tahajjud the Jersey City brothers and I had a good discussion about the current state of the Ummah and I was very glad to see that their are other young brothers who are serious about the cause of Islam. [/quote] yo...are you talking about that awesome talk we had in our hotel lobby..!! wow.. you from Maryland. that was awesome indeed masha'Allah.. Highly intellectual conversation before the tahajjud..!! wow.. i think it's the same..!!! funny..rem?? i was the one quoting Ayahs from Quran..:) i was gonna mention it and you already did... (make sure cuz it's us..there were a lot of bros from nj) alright.. a funny incident that i have to tell but class coming up..and oh yes.. our MSA shura meeting spent like half an hour discussing the ez conf.. and some more comments later.. [wlm] ahmer |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| Iboo |
| 04/01/02 at 18:10:05 |
| Jannah- I understand what his point was, but the brother constantly said that he would run and made gestures as if he was running and it bothered me for some reason. Even though I agreed with his point and understood what he meant (Ahmer can tell you from our discussion in the Lobby) I still felt that he didnt clarify himself enough because someone could easily misinterpret his words to meaning that non-violence is the only solution. ALLAH hu Aalim As for the lobby, the dude was mad rude about it. It was like he was mad that he wasnt sellin any alcohol. But I do regret what I said, it definitely wasnt necessary. But you know how some people just give you that look like their intent was only to belittle you? That is a big weakness in my character. May ALLAH give me more patience. El Muselman- Aq im guessin that your the brother from Miami who was Venezuelen. It was nice to meet a brother of the south American persuasion. Ahmer- YOu was the brother with the Kuffi on sittin on my right correct? Alhumdulillah we had a real good convo. My boys and I dont really get deep and whenever I get started they dip, just like they did when we started getting into it. May ALLAH grant us Jannah and may our trip be fruitfull and beneficial to our Iman. Ameen Abd |
| 04/02/02 at 12:14:51 |
| Iboo |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| ahmer |
| 04/02/02 at 09:24:49 |
| [quote] I thought it was awesome, mashaAllah the MSA NE conf in Albany next semester will be even better though, inshaAllah (just a lil early publicity ) [/quote] when is the NE conf? are the dates confirmed? i gladly volunteer for the publicity:) [wlm] ahmer |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| sofia |
| 04/02/02 at 09:30:03 |
| As-salaamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullah Masha'Allah, the conference was pretty well done (and summed up)! Glad I got the chance to meet some more of the "actual" Albany mafia sisters. :) One thing that wasn't mentioned that sticks out in my mind was a point Umm Hassan (Imam Zaid Shakir's wife) made a few times during the sisters' Q/A session. It seemed that there was somewhat of a trend amongst some of the sisters who had just started to or were thinking of wearing hijaab. Some sisters asked how to help make their families understand and accept them with hijaab, while others asked how to overcome the initial fear of rejection from their family/community once they started. After explaining that the intention to wear hijaab comes from within and that we should educate ourselves and others about the significance of hijaab, Umm Hassan pointed something out that ultimately makes more sense that I had thought. She tried to explain to the sisters that if their parents grew up in a Muslim country, they have most likely first-hand felt the effects of colonialism. That, for many parents, means initially fearing any negative repercussions of living or “wearing” Islam. For many of us born in the West, this is not necessarily a shared experience (yet?). Ironically, for some it’s harder to be accepted as a practicing Muslim (at least initially) by their own parents/community than to be accepted by non-Muslims in the U.S. Having seen this "fear factor" amongst parents in the Muslim community many times (and duh, usually from the immigrant population), it makes a bit more sense now. Don’t know if I conveyed her thoughts clearly, but as she said, the effects of colonialism run “deep.” |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| ahmer |
| 04/02/02 at 09:56:17 |
| [slm] here is an awesome email recieved yesterday about the 'effects' of the EZ conf.. exactly the same point br altaf was talking about!! Allahu Akbar!!:) Salam alaikum, I just wanted to take a minute and thank you all for the hard work, out of my 3 years going to EZ, this was the most organized one, and Alhamdullilah you can see the blessing of the work all of you had put in it. A lot of people were touched, and I know 3 sisters who are starting to wear hijab, ALhamdullilah they wanted to before, but to be surrounded with all the muslims there and attending the lectures, really helped them take that extra step. Jazakum Allah khair, it was a pleasure working with some of you, and may ALlah give you the best in this world and the best in the akhira and help you continue working and effecting the muslims in a way that will benefit the Ummah. AMEEEEEEn |
| Re: MSA Natl EZ Conf: Let the review begin |
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| nouha |
| 04/02/02 at 17:18:21 |
| [slm] ooops i thought altaaf was on this board, never mind..... ahmer -- i think an albaynina should do the albanys publicity, AHEM*nouha*AHEM....so uhm yea whats up....;) wasalam, nouha:) |
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| ahmer |
| 04/02/02 at 17:55:53 |
i can never dare intruding into albanyian territory!!.. :o :o i was just asking for the rights to the publicity beyond albany just like we did it for the east zone conference, and we can get you some troops from everywhere insha'Allah..:) |
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| jannah |
| 04/02/02 at 23:03:06 |
| [slm] whoaaaaaaaaa watcha talkin bout willis.... the more publicity the better!! we've never had just one person doing publicity for northeast conferences... there may be one person co-ordinating, but we usually have like 6 or 7 people doing it.. ie one vermont person, one boston, one buffalo, one binghamton, one long island, one nyc, one nj etc... thats the only way you can get 200 ppl to come to lil ole albany!!!! ;) jazakallah khair for offering ahmer... btw i want to advertise the retreat to the msa crowd... where the heck are they??? no msa-net? how did you advertize EZ ?? |
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| se7en |
| 04/03/02 at 00:21:33 |
| as salaamu alaykum wa rahmatAllah, Yeah, we'd definitely appreciate your help bro ahmer! There's no date set for the conference yet.. but it'll most likely be in September, inshaAllah. I'll keep ya updated :-) As for where the Albany brothers were during the conference.. *noooo comment*.. ::) |
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| ahmer |
| 04/03/02 at 01:12:26 |
| the msa-net will be up insha'Allah asap.. for the ez conf.. the publicity was really done madddd.. since there was no msa-net.. i turned to your mamalist and went to every east zone MSA"s website and copied/pasted email addresses (it was really cumbersome to do it like that) of all exec members, former members.. etc.. I got like 100+ email add, the publicity plan was put into place, flyers, masajids and everything was covered masha'Allah in an amazing way. Can you imagine we covered every masjid in nj after friday prayers!!! i called up every single Muslim organization on the east coast:) alhumdolillah. a lot more,, but anyway i will give you that email list i prepared and you can send them the retreat info. I will insha'Allah also publicize it here in NJ in every possible way. i would have to print flyers right? do send the retreat info to ININ mailing list, YM discussion board, etc always helps. u are right.. one person for each area is how it goes. ma'salam ahmer |
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| Abu_Hamza |
| 04/03/02 at 02:48:24 |
| wow, ahmer, that's a *lot* of work! may Allah (swt) reward you for your efforts. when is the msa-net going to be back up? any ideas? |
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| ahmer |
| 04/03/02 at 09:13:55 |
[slm] bro really.. i didnt do all that work myself. Alhumdolillah the bros/sis here in nj are one of the best Allah can give to the garden state. 'jannah state'..:) I mean all the names on that publicity comm. are really amazing people. They work in multiple Muslim organizations, and really are stretched to their limit, yet are most humble masha'Allah. The whole YM regional shura was at the ez conf, and my friend, also on the publ comm right after each day's programs had his YM regional meetings which went late into the night. I am always amazed at the dedication and knowledge of these people. Alhumdolillah the MSAs in Newark are working great and they always never rest. one of the sister a freshman, is on the YM national shura, NJIT MSA shura and host of other activities. Subhan'Allah. These people give me strength and without them i can do nothing. Everyone did his work for the EZ and May Allah reward them. All praise is to Allah and May Allah keep us strong ...ameen [wlm] ahmer |
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