By Nadrat Siddique
Fairfax,
VA
December
25, 2015
To
attend a lecture on "The Story of Nuh" seemed to me, the ideal
"Christmas" day activity. The event was sponsored by MakeSpace--a
group of primarily youth and professionals whose aims include "helping the
community develop an American Muslim identity." It was held at the Shirley
Gate Mosque in Fairfax, VA, in one of the nation's wealthiest counties.
Despite
a downpour of rain just prior to the event, the parking lot was completely
packed when I arrived a few minutes into the lecture. The lecture hall in the
mosque basement, was similarly filled to capacity, with few empty seats, with
at least two thirds of the attendees young women in hijab. Alhamdulillah it
seemed the spirit of Islam was alive among Northern Virginia Muslims.
The
youthful lecturer, Adam Jamal, of Pakistani origin, spoke eloquently and was
very informative. Perusing Surah Nuh in its entirety, he held the audience's
attention for the duration of the 3 hour event.
To
my uninformed mind, the lecture, which afforded no Q&A period, raised more
questions than it answered. For instance, early on in the lecture, Jamal spoke
of the delineation of one's people. Very often when you say "your
people," you mean those from your country of origin, said Jamal. But in
reality, your people are the people around you, he insisted.
So,
the lecturer was asserting that if one lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, one's
people would necessarily be the Sodomites? Or if one lived in a war-mongering
society which murdered over a million Muslims without qualm, the war mongerers-
and not the Muslims being killed, would be one's people? I was not getting it.
Further
into the lecture, Jamal described the treatment meted out by a corrupt society
to a warner, messenger, or in general to one who tells the truth (and in doing
so challenges the prevailing power structure):
1)
Prevailing powers attempt to coopt the warner; if that does not work,
2)
The prevailing powers attempt to discredit the warner, make fun of him, or
designate him as crazy; if that does not work,
3)
The prevailing powers torture or even kill the warner.
Adam
Jamal did not offer any examples of who such a warner, gadfly, or maverick
might be in our times. Some possible examples which came to mind, and which he
might have drawn, were Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman (blind, diabetic hafiz-e-Qur'an
and opponent of the Egyptian dictatorship, imprisoned for life in the American
Gulag for his staunch opposition to the U.S. backed dictator in country); Osama
Bin Ladin (millionaire Saudi who left all worldly belongings to fight first the
Soviets and then the American invaders in Afghanistan); and Lal Masjid's Abdul
Rashid Ghazi (Pakistani cleric who opposed the aerial destruction of a plethora
of mosques across the Pakistani frontier, and who ultimately gave his life when
his mosque was besieged by the Pakistan army).
Despite
the very stark parallels to today's society and Nuh's (AS) time, Jamal failed
to draw a single parallel between the two, rendering the lecture entirely
theoretical. Oddly, the lecturer also did not mention Nuh's (AS) estrangement
from his son, who rejected Islam, the fact that Nuh (AS) left him behind when
the flood came, and the symbolic value of such a decision. He did however,
repeatedly emphasize the 950 year period during which Nuh (AS) struggled to
establish Allah's way, as if it were a literal 950 years (I'm not convinced it
was).
The
event was part of a series put together by the Bayyinah Institute. Bayyinah
emphasizes the importance of learning Arabic, and appears allied with Zaytuna
College, Qurtaba Institute, and other U.S. government approved Muslim entities
which seek to coopt and render politically impotent young Muslims with a
passion for Islam. And clearly, the Muslim youth who filled the room to the
brim that evening had that passion. In sequestering themselves at a Muslim
event on a rainy “Christmas” evening, they were clearly saying “La” to the
shirk, materialism, and excesses surrounding them that day. The question
remained how a paid Qur’anic Arabic lecturer such as Jamal would direct such
positive energies.
