Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim
Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatuallahi wa Barakatuhu!
Insha'Allah this message finds you in the best of health ane
emaan. Ameen.
I was browsing through a group forum and found a post that read:
"Salaams reverts (or pure blooded Muslims who took a
vacation) post stories of what your first Christmas as a Muslim was like,
i.e., your families
reaction, did you get sentimental..."
I thought I would share with you my response.
~A.
[Anything below that appears in blue is linked]
~* Glossary
of Islamic Terms *~
**********************************************
Assalamu Alaikum wa
Rahmatuallahi wa Barakatuhu
December 25,
2002 (and beyond...)
You know...you spend
41-years of your life just being a regular person...and then you embrace Islam
(4/19/02).
Christmas comes around and it's a reflective time... I had,
over the years pretty much adopted the "bah-humbug" attitude...the
commercialism just really got to me after a while...but it was a little bit of
a roller-coaster ride emotionally when it came around the first time after I
became Muslim. I mean, just because it's hard not to feel the sentimental
"christmasy" spirit of the whole season...the sparkling lights,
Christmas trees, baking, snow... I used to love decorating the house, inside
and out for Christmas. It was always so much fun...and I used to sit and watch
the scene from my outdoor swing for hours...or until my toes got cold.
The little three-bedroom house the girls and me lived in
was the second one from the corner on a street near an elementary school. I
used to sit on my sofa near the living room window during my (always late)
lunch-hour and watch the children as they were passing by on their way home
from school. Some of them would come and sit in the swing next to the
Santa...it was so cute...
Anyhow, I guess you could say I don't (or didn't) miss the madness
of Christmas...but I sort of mourned the beauty of it and the joy it
brought to my heart at times...
Aside from that, my family is not a tight
bunch...splintered and fragmented all over the place...few though they be...and
on top of that I'm the only Muslim.
However, Al-hamdulillah, since I became Muslim I have been
blessed with having had the opportunity to do some incredibly fun and rewarding
things, like being in the right place at the right time (just two months after
my Shahada) when a co-worker was wondering, after acknowledging that he had
accepted the beliefs of Islam, how he was to take the next step to embracing
Islam. Al-hamdulillah, two weeks later I sat with my new brother and witnessed
his Shahada! Then, just about a year later, a very dear friend and former
co-worker, who several months prior had nearly died of spinal meningitis, made
her Shahada! Subhan'Allah! Allah Akbar!
Then there was also a lot of other neat stuff: Getting
My First Henna (2002); Hanging
Out on American Muslim Heritage Day in D.C. (2002); Meeting my now-adopted
daughter, Hanane, (2002), from Morocco during My
First Ramadan (2002); Meeting
Penny Gross (2002) (Mason District Supervisor, VA) at a Mulit-Cultural
Festival, Being Interviewed for Nile TV (2003) at the ISNA Convention;
Participating in launching the "Voting
is Power" campaign at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (2003),
Getting my first "quote" in a CBS News story (2003); Hanging out for Iftar
at the House of Representatives in D.C. (2003); Becoming an avid
activist during the campaign to Stop
French President Jaques Chirac (2004), from banning hijab in public schools and work
places in France, and guest speaking at a Rally in front of the French Embassy in D.C. (2004), (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8); Meeting Merve
Kavakci (Author and TV News Anchor Fired for Wearing Hijab!) (2004) at the rally, and
furthering the campaign during the D.C. Armory EID Celebration (2004), (1, 2, 3, 4, 5); Sitting in-between
family members of a defendant in a crowded Eastern District of Virginia
courtroom while protectively safeguarding a metal box that transmitted signals
to a tracking device attached to his ankle as he testified
for his freedom (2004), and just before departing on my journey to Saudi Arabia,
being featured in an hour-long premiere of the WETA-TV series "Senso
Reports" - Target Washington (2004). Whew! That last
one was nerve-wracking!
Considering no one else in my family is Muslim, my first
year in the religion was actually somewhat of struggle emotionally, and I came
to wonder how and why it was that the Muslim community seemed so unsupportive
of new Muslims...which launched the idea to start a group
for new Muslimah's. Then, exactly one year-to-the-date...subhan'Allah, I was
in Mecca making My First Umrah...I pondered on discovering the
"coincidence" of the date for this event...wondering if that was
Allah's (swt) way of saying, "Thanks for looking out for your sisters,
Aishah!"
Al-hamdulillah, for the past year I have been living in
Saudi Arabia where I have met some wonderful people...made some great friends,
adopted even more new family members, visited Madinah (1, 2, 3), made several Umrah's (#3)...and now, Subhan'Allah...it
looks like I'll bet to make Hajj (which, "coincidentally" happens
to land just a day or two - depending on the moon sighting - after my birthday)!!
Allah Akbar!
So, as I look back on past Christmas holiday seasons, and
on "missed" Christmas's since I became Muslim...subhan'Allah...I
have so much to be thankful for...
...thankful that I'm not
caught-up in the whole
shop-til-u-drop-yourself-smack-into-12-more-months-of-even-deeper-debt-than-what-already-exists
routine...
...thankful that someone else
has the maddening task of finding client-gifts and doing the Christmas cards
for my former boss slaving away 60+ hours a week at the big law firm in D.C...(Despite
this I remember him often with a smile, particularly, and most recently, as I
have now read almost all of David Baldacci's novels having been introduced to
the author's writings during one of those Christmas nightmares...)
...thankful that Christmas
has been replaced by EID (in fact, 2 EID's!!), and that on EID 2003 a beautiful
Grandson (making
dua for gramma!) was brought into my life...
...and thankful that Allah
(swt) guided me to the straight path. Ameen.
Al-hamdulillah...who needs Christmas?
Fi Aman'Allah,
--------------------
~Aishah
The testimony of faith is saying with
conviction,
"Ash hadu an la ilaha
illa Allah wa ash hadu anna Muhammadar Rasul Allah."
("I
declare there is no god but Allah and I declare that Muhammad is the Messenger
of Allah.")
The first
part, “There is no true god but God,” means that none has
the right to
be worshipped but God alone, and that God has neither partner nor son.
This testimony
of faith is called the Shahada, a simple formula that should be said
with
conviction in order to convert to Islam.
The testimony of
faith is the most important pillar of Islam.
If
I am right, it is from Allah; if wrong, it is from me.
I
ask Allah Almighty to protect you and me from errors
and
from all that displease Him.
"Al-Hamdu-lillahi
rabbil-alameen"
SISTER
AISHAH'S ISLAMIC JOURNEY