As I was walking to my car before fajir I was thinking about inviting some brothers over today December 25th (this was written yesterday) to watch some football or something. This was on my mind as I opened the door to my car and discovered it had been broken into.
I had left some valuables in my car; but the idiot dopefiends who broke into my car did not take them (or recognize their value more than likely). Instead they just grabbed about 10 or 15 dollars in change from my cup holder. The change I keep in my car I usually keep to buy soft drinks, snacks and newspapers and I usually have some around. I’m not sure how much it was but I think it was enough to get the thief a ten-dollar stone of crack.
Business is slow on Christmas and the week before New Years Eve when it goes nuts. I had three trips this morning, all Jews and all flying out of town. I’ve always thought that if we were going to hold some kind of Muslim -Jewish dialogue event Christmas would be a great day because both of us are bored out of our minds.
In past years I have went to the movies on Christmases to see opening blockbusters. This year I will hold off as I don’t have anyone to watch my wife’s boys and there are a couple of films I would not mind seeing ( Grand Torino, Australia and that film were an old man turns into Brad Pritt…I’m not buying the Tom Cruise as a German flick) but I can hold off.
Last year, after some confusion at how I was going to get home from the MAS-ICNA convention, I ended up at my sister’s house on Christmas and I did have a good time but let it be known that I do not recognize Christmas or for that matter any other holiday aside from the two Eids.
A lot of Muslims who converted from Christian families have the dilemma of not wanting to offend their families or see this day as the only opportunity to see all of their family in one place. Everyone does what they have to do; but at the end of the day Christmas is a celebration of shirk so not attending family Christmas celebrations is not a disrespect of your family, but rather upholding the Haqq of Tauheed. Like I told my grandmother I want the best for you and having a holiday for associating a partner with the Creator is not the best.
In this manner Christmas is a good time for dawah and in that sense it is a time when two things that are not popular for current Muslims to do in post 9-11 Muslim America; uphold the Truth and remain different and give dawah to Islam. As a young Muslims I can remember going out on dawah teams and every masjid having a department dedicated to the call to Islam. Today with all the sellouts, progressives, hippies and scared Muslims dawah is far off the radar screen for most mosques and institutions. Maybe we can use Christmas as a day to bring it back.
Salaam Alaikum,
“Today with all the sellouts, progressives, hippies and scared Muslims dawah is far off the radar screen for most mosques and institutions”
Akhi, what happened to Husan Al Dhun?
No wonder we can’t reach out to others when we have such hatred amongst ourselves.
We will only achieve dawah once we give back to our communities and integrate through common causes. Otherwise we will remain segregated.