March 1995 Good-bye Ramadan, Hello Easy Life?

by Rached Zantout

[ed. note: Sheikh Shaker, Ahmad, and Aisha are imaginary figures]

"Asalaam alaikum Sheikh Shaker, I would like to congratulate you on your Eid Khutbah. It was, as usual, very powerful. You made me feel for my Muslim brothers and sisters here and abroad. Wallahi, my heart is crying for them."

"Asalaam alaikum Ahmad, how are you doing? Jazakum Allahu Khairan but things that I said that are true are from Allah and all mistakes are because of my shortcomings."

"Alhamdulillah, Sheikh Shaker, Allah (SWT) kept us alive to observe Ramadan and pray Eid. we gained so much in this blessed month. Fasting, taraweeh, quiyam, itikaf, Reading a lot of Quran, zakat ul-fitr, zakat ul-mal, jumaa prayers. praying in congregation more often, attending fajr prayers. This month always brings the good stuff in me," said Ahmad.

"Subhanallah," replied Sheikh Shaker, "This month does that to all of us. Even the prophet (PBUH) was more generous during Ramadan, although he was still the most generous man. He would increase his worship during Ramadan and especially during the last ten days."

"Alhamdulillah," replied Ahmad. "Now I can go back to my usual schedule and relax a little bit. I feel like I have done my job for the year. I will be anxiously I waiting for the next Ramadan."
"You know, Ahmad, the Prophet I (PBUH) used to work all year. He used to fight for the cause of Allah, preach to Muslims and Non-Muslims, take care of the Muslims affairs, his family's, and his own affairs. He even had the time to fix his own shoes." said Sheikh Shaker.

What? The prophet used to do that? I always imagined he was a very powerful man, sitting on his throne with servants doing everything he wished. How did he find the time to do all of those things? Ah, he did not have to go to school and do all the homework and projects, that's how." said Ahmad.

"Tell me, Ahmad, did you slacken on your homework or Projects during Ramadan?" asked Sheikh Shaker.

"No," answered Ahmad, "before Ramadan began, I knew that I had to devote the nights after Maghrib to praying Taraweeh and Quiyam, so I made my schedule so that I woke up at Fajr and finished all my school studying. You know what? I was so fresh after Fajr, that I even had the time to read 20 minutes of Qur'an . before going to classes. "

"That is because Allah (SWT) puts barakah in your time and makes you finish things faster when you obey Him and worship Him more," answered Sheikh Shaker.

"I wish the whole year was like Ramadan so that I could do more in less time," exclaimed Ahmad. "But the problem is that after Ramadan is finished, there is no more taraweeh or quiyam. the brothers and sisters tend to go about their own business. I start missing more congregational prayers. I don't attend fajr at the masjid and become more involved in my day to day activities. I guess it is partly the fact that there is less worship to do outside Ramadan."

"You know Ahmad, the Prophet (PBUH) taught us that not only prayers, paying zakat, hajj and fasting are acts of worship. Everything you do can be a kind of worship for the sake of Allah, if you perform it with the right intention." explained Sheikh Shaker, "Your studies can be for the sake of Allah, playing sports can be for the sake of Allah, even eating and drinking can be for the sake of Allah, provided you have the right intentions that you want to benefit Muslims with the knowledge, strength or power you are acquiring. And you should also have the intention of using what you gain through those acts in something that Allah would be pleased with. You know that the prophet (PBUH) even told us that removing harmful things from the path of people, Muslims or non-Muslims alike, is an act of worship!"

"You know Sheikh Shaker, you are right, I can keep the same pace I gained in Ramadan throughout the year. But..." Ahmad asked, "I don't know what is needed to be done and whether I can do it."

"I was talking to Br. Khaled, our MSA president, a few days ago, and it seems that the masjid needs a lot of things to be done," explained Sheikh Shaker. " He told me that the MSA is overwhelmed with things to be done and urgent projects, but they are getting little assistance from the 500 or so brothers and sisters that attend Jumaa prayers, taraweeh prayers, and the MSA iftars. In fact, I know that only a handful of people are doing the activities you are seeing."

"But... we never know about it. They do not announce it. I make sure to read every bit of paper on the notice board in the masjid. I never saw that they needed any help." said Ahmad.

"You are right," agreed Sheikh Shaker, "but that is not an excuse for us. Even if they are not doing their job properly, we should go and ask them to assign duties to us. After all, it is our masjid and they are only our elected representatives to organize the work and activities around the masjid. I heard Br. Abdullah, when I visited him last week, saying that they had many projects to be done," added Sheikh Shaker. They are trying to:

• Build a mailing list so that they can reach more Muslims in central Ohio.
• Organized the cataloging of all books in the library and build a computer database so that brothers and sisters can find books more easily.
• Run a weekend school. They need help from parents to obey the rules, like dropping their kids off on time and in the masjid's parking lot, not on the street. They also need volunteers to help the school staff, and to clean up at the end of school.
• Organize a boys group for older boys. A small group of boys are trying to organize all by themselves but they need guidance and help from older brothers with some free time, to help them conduct a study group and some regular game time for sports.
• Organize a summer program for Muslim Youth in Columbus. They need volunteers to escort children on field trips, prepare food or watch over children during indoor activities.
• Maintain the weekly halaqahs on Saturdays and Fridays. They need brothers and sisters to attend those halaqahs and participate in giving lectures.
• Organize dawah tables at the unions in central Ohio colleges and universities. They need volunteers to sit there and answer questions, help prepare pamphlets and follow up with interested non-Muslims.
• Maintain the masjid. Part of the roof is leaking and they need donations, ideas, expertise, and manpower to fix it. The parking lot needs to be cleaned regularly, the holes need to be filled, the top resurfaced and the lawns mowed. The gutters need some work to be cleaned and repaired. Helping even with small things like buying supplies for the masjid, cleaning the bathrooms or carpet need volunteers. The children's playground needs to be repaired. Many children play in it during spring and summer. Even the inside of the mosque needs some work. The MSA has been talking for a long time about changing the carpet where we pray. They need also to clean and paint the shoe racks after the dirt built up from the shoes made them look ugly. they need volunteers who will improve the look of the mosque by doing some landscaping and some reorganizing of the inside of the mosque.
• Maintain a Xerox machine, a computer and a fax machine for the use of the Muslim brothers and sisters in the mosque.
• Organize the Eid prayers. This activity alone needs more than 20 brothers and sisters to go smoothly. Jazakum Allahu Khairan, they have been doing with far less brothers and sisters. They need more volunteers to make it better.
• Maintain a positive image of Muslims in central Ohio, nationwide, and worldwide. They have established a media committee for that purpose. However, they still need volunteers to locate articles about Muslims, write press releases to the media, and formulate a good strategy for dealing with the media."

"Ma shaa' Allah", Ahmad exclaimed, "All of that and we didn't know about it? Inshallah, I will contact the MSA and see what I can do."

"Asalaam alaikum Sheikh Shaker, Asalaam alaikum Ahmad. Ahmad! Daddy says that we need to go soon so you'd better come."

"Asalaam alaikum. Aren't you Aish, Ahmad's sister?" said Sheikh Shaker.

"Yes Sheikh Shaker," said Aisha.

"Sis, we were talking about the community needs and Sheikh Shaker explained to me how the masjid and the community in general are in need of every minute we have," said Ahmad.

"Wallahi, I was thinking about that same issue as I was hearing your khuttbah, Sheikh Shaker," said Aisha. "You know the women's section also needs much work and we need a lot of help in our activities. I heard a sister the other day talking about the activities in the women's section. It seems that we need a lot of sisters to be able to even maintain the current activities. The sisters need help in:
• Organizing the Eid party they do every year after Eids.
• Attending and giving lectures in our halaqahs on Saturdays and Sundays.
• Babysitting the children during the halaqahs and picnics.
• Cataloging, expanding, and organizing the children's library we started not so long ago. It even includes video and audio tapes.
• Cataloging, expanding and reorganizing the sister's library including the audio and video sections.
• Organizing the fundraising activities that we do every year, like selling food after jumaa prayers for the benefit of the masjid. The yearly bazaar at the beginning of Fall. Did you know that we ask all sisters who are going abroad to bring us Islamic items from overseas and we sell them for the benefit of our mosque?
• We need help in maintaining and fixing things in the sister's section of the mosque too, or at least volunteers to report defected things to the MSA so the brothers can fix them.

"Ahmad, Aisha, Come on. We have to go visit our brothers and sisters and congratulate them for Eid," shouted their father from their car. "Asalaam alaikum Sheikh Shaker. Sorry for interrupting but we have appointments."

"Jazakum Allahu Khairan Abu Ahmad. A true Muslim always keeps his appointments, and especially when one of them is to visit me at my house after Asr Prayers."

They all laughed and Ahmad and Aisha hurried back to their father's car after they said salaam the Sheikh Shaker. They had learned a lot form their small talk after the Eid prayer. They had made a promise between themselves and Allah that they would devote more time to benefiting the mosque and the Muslim community in general. They even started at that moment by smiling at every Muslim or Muslimah they encountered as the Prophet told them that smiling when you meet a Muslim brother or sister is a donation (sadaqah).