Maryam Amir – Studying in Egypt and At Home
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AI: Transcript ©
On behalf of the organization who seems connected, I warmly welcome
you all to today's online gatherings, being that we cannot
gather in person and host our usual monthly gatherings. So just
a little background before we begin. We are a group of students
currently studying in Cairo, Egypt who began hosting transition.
So we began hosting monthly gatherings for English speaking
students because we found that there wasn't really any space or
any platform specifically for English speaking students to come
together while they were while there are student bodies for
particular nationalities or countries. There wasn't really a
space or a platform for all students to just come together and
get to know each other. So while there are many classes that take
place on a regular basis, especially around the Asmaa Street
area, they are all in Arabic. So a student who is new to Cairo
wouldn't be able to benefit from these classes immediately, and
they will definitely find that they must spiritually uplifting
gatherings, as I did when I first came to Cairo.
So you did need a good level of understanding before you'd be able
to attend these doulos and gatherings. And sometimes you just
want a spiritual boost of iman from a gathering of knowledge, of
sacred knowledge. So as I said, someone who's new to Cairo
wouldn't be able to benefit and would most likely miss spiritually
uplifting gatherings, as I did when I first came to Cairo. So the
purpose of our events is, of course, to benefit from the
scholar that we host, as well as network and make friends with
fellow students from all over the world.
We started in October last year with hosting Sheik Mohammed bin
Yahya and niwi, and since then, we hosted Habib pahir al hadda from
Yemen, munif Dr Hisham Helia, Sheik Ahmed Al azhadi Dr Waleed,
Mossad, Sheik Ahmed, zahar Ali and Habib Arli. GP
is not even yet. Okay, so we are really honored to be hosting Sheik
Hamar all the way in the USA to share her advices for students of
Dean and her personal experiences here in Cairo there after, we will
be having a question and answer session. So please put your
questions in the chat box, and we will try to get through as many
questions as we can in the time that We have together Inshallah,
as salaam alaikum to Sheik stadha. Miriam, I got to know about you
when I was memorized in the Quran, when I was doing my heap, quite a
few years ago, I came across your articles on virtualmas.com
And Alhamdulillah, grateful to you for sharing your time with us and
sharing your experiences with us. I'm really, really grateful to
you. So Shukran shazaki Lahore is melahi.
So let me handle that on Play. Even more confused while you were
to get to
when Deanna asked me about this conversation, I was like, how am I
going to speak to people who are much Allah, definitely more
knowledgeable than me on this path to knowledge, have the opportunity
to be in Cairo longer than I probably did. And it was I stood
for a second without like I have nothing to say.
Subhanallah, just hearing salva was via speak right now, I became
so emotional because you're in Cairo right now in such a blessed.
Place, and they're being able to study SubhanAllah.
But then when I was told about the whole circumstance of covid and
not being able to study and some people needing to travel back,
that was something I realized I could touch upon, because studying
when you've been in Cairo, when you plan to stay in Cairo for some
time, whether or not you're there right now, but can't continue your
studies. That's something that I definitely had to process for many
years. So Inshallah, today, I'm going to start by sharing my Cairo
story with you. A little bit of it only because I think that when I
was going through the process of studying, hearing what other
people struggled with afterwards was very helpful for me to know
the direction I needed to head in
as I as I finished. And inshallah will also talk about some ideas in
terms of like, when you're in Cairo, when you're out of it, what
are things to kind of be considering as you're on this path
to studying inshallah?
Alhamdulillah, I was so blessed to go to Egypt when I was graduating
right after college. The day after I graduated from my bachelor
degree, I moved to Cairo. My dad, he flew there with me, and he
helped me find a place and get settled in. And then he went back
a few days later, so I was supposed to be there just studying
Arabic and Quran in the beginning for about 11 months. That was the
plan. But I had intended that Inshallah, I would be able to
continue and study in alzahar at the time. And Alhamdulillah, Egypt
was the most beautiful place to me. I heard so many negative
stories about Egypt before going. And I know some of you have as
well before you went there, maybe you experienced some difficulty
right now. But when I was there, Alhamdulillah, before I went,
everyone was like, be careful. People are going to be this way to
you. Men are going to be this way to you. Watch your back every
second. Get some pepper spray. Every single positive, negative,
possible, negative thing that somebody could tell me about
Cairo, that was the feedback that I heard about Egypt. But
Subhanallah,
it was so important to me to go to Egypt and recognize that this was
such an honor to be there. And when I was back in America. My
senior year of
my undergrad, one of my friends had just moved to Egypt, so at the
time, Imam soheibweb was studying there, and he was the Imam of my
local Masjid who was going to Cairo during the year, and then
coming back to the masjid during the summers to continue to teach.
And then we had a small group of people like Sheik Mul permal and
Sheikha, Saira, lari, Sheik Ali ADA. There are so many sisters
mashaAllah who had gone there for the same time period. And one of
them, I'm there's so many names. I'm only I only mentioned like
three. But there were so many sisters mashaAllah from different
parts of the world. But I was talking to one of these sisters,
and we were on line on Gmail, chatting, and she was saying,
like, Oh, it's so hard. I'm here studying Kitab el SAS. Like, I
wish I was studying Quran, like, I'm studying about use of going to
the bank. And I just stared at her on the screen. I didn't stare at
her because I don't think video chat was like a thing at that
time. Was like Skype, but I was like, just like, text, like
messaging, like, I'm writing a paper for my undergrad. Like, how
Subhanallah what I would give to me studying about use of going to
the bank in Egypt. So remember when I went there and I couldn't
believe that Allah facilitated this route for me, Allahu Akbar,
if you are in Egypt, or if you have gone to Egypt even for a
short period of time. You have already heard this, probably by,
you know, from everyone else, that Allah facilitated a way for you to
be there. And people ask me all the time about wanting to study,
women especially, ask me all the time about wanting to study, you
know, study overseas, studying in Egypt. But they won't. They they
aren't able to because of their parents or because of our
circumstance, they just can't leave. And when you recognize how
fortunate you are to be really chosen to go and study and just be
able to do this on this path, it's so it's so easy for us to get
caught up in the middle of being in Egypt and not only studying
Quran, and not only studying, not only studying these Islamic
issues, like going through alza and why do you need to take a
geography class, like all of these random things that don't make
sense, but in the end, subhanAllah, you were chosen to be
there for a reason. And having that, that that perspective,
sometimes, when you're feeling really down, it's very easy for me
to have been an undergrad and say, like, how could you be complaining
about Egypt, but then going there and recognizing that, subhanAllah,
it's not just the process of what you're studying, it's also where
you are and how you're interacting with people and the way that
people are with you. So Subhanallah, here, I was going
into Egypt hearing so many negative things about Egypt, but
Egypt was just so incredibly.
Double. There is so much poverty in Egypt. There's so many systems
there, the political system. There's so much infrastructural
problems that they have. But when you look at the people themselves
and what they go through, and the way that they maintain their their
connection to Allah, their connection to their service to
other people. For the creations of Allah, you will find gems of
people everywhere, and part of the process of studying is looking for
that in other people.
I remember so many times where
Subhanallah, you know what? Actually I these stories for the
end. We're going to keep we're going. I'm just going to tell you
my story quickly. Inshallah, we're going to keep going with these
stories for the for the next part. Inshallah, but when, when I was
there, I was planning to study there, and I was planning to do
the exams at that time,
that's when my Alhamdulillah, my husband now from delivery for 11
years, he proposed to my family, and I had no idea that this was
going to happen. He was somebody who I knew from a very far
distance because of our work on different parts of the of the
state through email like email list serves, I had never talked to
him on a personal level. So it was, it was a surprise, and that
he had approached my parents directly, and I was in Cairo, so I
came back so that I could get married. And my plan was that,
Inshallah, we were going to try to come back together and then
continue to study together. But at the time, we also needed to get
scholarships to be able to support us studying for a number of years
is that was something that was a little more common here at the
time And subhanAllah we we also tried to make sure that we had a
backup plan, because we didn't know if we were actually going to
get that. You know, so many years of
support through an organization, we didn't know exactly what we
were going to do. And I think that was one of the themes. And I don't
know what it's like in Cairo right now, but one of the themes for us
was that sometimes people who were with us in Cairo who wanted to go,
we weren't exactly sure what we were going to do when we came
back. And there are a lot of the manship positions available for
men, but also not so many, and there were really no positions
available for women when I went. So there was this question of,
okay, you're going to go and an organization is going to sponsor
you, but what are you going to do after that? And very few people
were coming back after that, and they were trying to figure out
what they what their accountability was going to be to
these people who supported them going. So
in the meantime of waiting to figure out what we were going to
do, I started working for that year, and I started applying to
grad school. And Alhamdulillah, at the end of that year, we heard
that we had a scholarship to go to Cairo,
and I also heard that I got into UCLA for a master's program, and
it was a master's in education. They're one of the top schools for
this program. And Alhamdulillah, I also got a scholarship to the
school. And I will tell you that I'm going to say something so
privileged right now. And I'm, I am embarrassed to say this, in a
sense, because so many people I this is like the point 1% or
point, not even 1% of people can say that they got a scholarship to
a school like this. And I just I didn't want to go. All I wanted to
do was go back to Egypt, go to Azhar. This was my dream. Coming
back after Egypt was so painful, I cried like every single day for
six months because I missed Egypt so bad. Until today, seeing the
Salah was fear brought tears to my eyes. I can't think about Egypt
without becoming so emotional. But hamdana, I'm so grateful. I came
back and Allah has the best plan for us no matter where we are. And
he he gave me so much that I can never be enough. You know,
grateful enough for and when you look in your own life, I'm
positive you would have the same to say. But when I contacted my
mentors and my teachers at the time, they were like, go do your
master's program. There is so few opportunities to get a scholarship
for something like this and take this back to Alzheimer go back to
Al zahar with critical studies, you'll be able to do better
research. You'll be able to take advantage of the knowledge there,
because you have the tools and the resources in your repertoire
because of your studies beforehand. So that was my plan. I
went to UCLA for two years having that. I studied critical race
theory. I got my master's in education and social justice
education. I learned so much about working as an educator, but also
working on identity and how to bring
the identities of people of color, of minority, students, of
minorities like us in different parts of the world, and let us
feel this type of their isa with it, of course, grounding that
understanding in what Islam already teaches us. So I was
trying to take the theory and then Islamic application and put them
together and.
And of course, having that social justice education is so
incredible. It's so important for Muslims to be a part of this, the
process of bringing Betterment to all all parts of society,
especially when you're in Cairo, you have the opportunity to do
that on a daily basis. So anyway, I the whole time I'm sitting in
UCLA, I'm also studying for my other studies, and I love teaching
in inner city schools. That was my favorite thing to do. And it
started becoming like, I really want to, you know, continue with
us. And of course, I really want to teach in inner city schools
like this is where I'm so passionate about the the grounding
of youth. And I mentioned the struggle, because so many people
come back and they find that they don't continue in an Islamic only
path. They choose to start working or they become a full time parent.
They have so many different pathways that they didn't envision
for themselves. While they were in Cairo itself, I always knew I
wanted to work in the inner city, and I always knew that I wanted to
work as an educator, but I didn't exactly know what that looked
like. And so for me, I never gave up on wanting to go back to Egypt,
but I started to think about what that might look like as well. So
I'm studying for my Azhar exams this whole time, and I'm working
with a mentor who in Cairo were Skyping, and he helps people get
into Azhar and take their exams over there. And so I graduate from
the two years, my plan is and I'm gonna go for the next round of
exams. So I have about six months to study, and that's all I'm
doing, just every single day, all day, preparing for Asha exams,
memorizing all of the books for that. Then AWEA, preparing, and
then Subhanallah, when I was
when I was in my graduate studies, the photo happened, and then the
coup happened. And the coup happened about a week before I was
supposed to go back. I had a ticket. I was supposed to go back
the The mentor is like, don't come to Egypt. It is crazy here as
closed down, they postponed exams, and I'm just staring at him, and
I'm just like, Well, I'm not staring at him, because we don't
use video, but I'm thinking, I'm staring at the screen, and I'm
thinking,
Subhan Allah, this is still so emotional for me to talk about,
because this was all my dreams to go back to Egypt, to go to Azhar,
to study there, and I can't, I can't go. And how selfish Am I to
only be thinking about myself and my studies when an entire country
is going through this fight for justice and going through so much
oppression, and all I'm thinking about is I wish also would stay
open, because I need to study. And of course, my heart was with the
people too, of course, but I want to bring up these kind of selfish
parts of studying, because, Inshallah, when we talk about the
stories, there's something to keep in mind as you're going through
the process of actually being there. So I had to cancel my
ticket two days before going because of the political
situation. I called when I tried to get a hold of Sheik Al Azhar so
that I could get
potentially, a possibility of hearing that yes, we can just keep
on exams.
But I got to the advisor of Sheik Azhar, and he told me about the
online program, and I was devastated, because I didn't want
to do this online. I wanted to do this in Cairo for the next four or
five years, my plan had been with my husband and I that he had
started working full time. By then, he was going to May Allah,
bless him, he was going to support us, and I was going to study part
time in Egypt and spend part time here in California.
But she, a advisor, told me to start the online program, and
after so much istikhara, I finally accepted that this is what I'm
going to do, and I will tell you that that came with a lot of
tears, as you can tell from my very personal, unnecessarily
personal story. Here it came with a lot of pain, because that wasn't
what I had envisioned for my path. I had envisioned being in Egypt, I
had envisioned going to Azhar and then studying in the masjid and
then studying with all of the teachers around us. I wanted to
study so badly. I wanted a degree in Sharia. I wanted to do all the
Kira acts and all the mats and everything, just the Arab Egypt
and SubhanAllah. Now I'm staring at a computer, and it was such a
hard transition for me,
but I want to tell you that it was such an important one, I am so
grateful that Allah honored me with being able to continue
studying in a different way. There's this quote that my mother
in law, her name is noahri, she is a therapist, and she's written
this book called Positive Parenting for the Muslim home. And
I share that book title with you because even though it's about
parenting, her philosophy really helped ground me through this
whole process, as well as my parents, hum dudak, who were
really like, you know, Allah has given you this time in Egypt.
And now he's given you other opportunities and use them in the
way that Allah has facilitated for you. Just a reminder from people,
from mentors like, look, use bloom where you're planted. Use what
Allah has given you in the time he's given it to you, and use it
in the in the best way that you can. So I started studying online,
and Hamilton program online is incredible. I graduated in 2017
2017 so I don't know what it's like today, but it was. It was
such a blessing because the class sizes were small. They were very
small. We had direct access to,
for example, like the dean of the tifseor department, like they were
all heads of departments of themselves, and Alhamdulillah, all
the classes were
live, so we had a lot of, you know, ability to ask questions
directly, have conversations. And at the same time, I did two
things. One, I started working with Shiu here and in other parts
of the West, directly asking them question seeking, taking personal
classes with them while I was doing the online program, and
seeking them as mentors. Because these are people who have already
graduated from their online from their from their programs in
different parts of the world, whether it was a or Kuwait or
Medina, and they've already graduated. They've been working
here for some time, and so they can merge Islamic Studies and
classical scholarship with what the reality of the of the of the
circumstance of where you're going back to, Soham. Do they not I had
such, such a such, such an honor being able to study with them and
at the same time do my other studies. And that was so
important, because online is, of course, such a gift, especially in
times like covid. But at the same time, it's not enough. So it's so
important to have that one on one relationship with people, where
you're getting that personal mentorship. And then the second
part why this was such a big blessing for me was that I slowly
was able to start working in the community as well, so I could
continue to work
with
the community here on the issues that people were really struggling
with. And something that I recognized was that some of the
some of my wonderful friends, who I respect beyond myself and who
are know so much more than me, because they weren't here all the
time. They it took them some time to come back and adjust to some of
the issues that were happening here. Because when you're gone for
four or five or six years, things change. I mean, subhanAllah, just
in the past five years, so much has changed on like, for example,
social media and the way that people interact with another and
the way that that's impacted their community relationships, and the
way that that's impacted their Iman and their own relationship
with Allah. So like, sometimes you get a glimpse of that when you're
living far away, but sometimes you don't see it till you're immersed
in the community. So alhamdulillah, because of the
opportunity to be able to be here while I continued those types of
studies, I felt very fortunate because I was able to focus my
studies on the things that were really happening right now within
the communities that I was, you know, very humble to serve
hamdullah. So really, what I want to share with you, when you're
thinking about, like, what are you going to continue with? There's
really two points to this. Whether you're in Cairo right now, whether
you're in cholera you're planning to be there for the next 10 years,
or whether you are back home because of covid or whatever
reason, and you didn't get to finish the way you wanted to,
there's there's two things. One is, what is the what are you
personally going to use your knowledge for? And I'm sure you've
asked yourself this question so many times
I've heard feedback, feedback from people who went to Egypt before I
did, and came back before I did, and they came back, they started
working in a field unrelated to explicitly Islamic work. Of
course, everything is Islamic with the attention almost everything.
But they they're not working explicitly and not in many ways.
And they really question, what was the benefit of them going to
Cairo? So many of these people had forgotten their Arabic. They're
not Arab. Like me, you know, like most, many of you, probably we're
not Arab. We go to Egypt to learn Arabic, and in order to maintain
that, that learning, you have to come back and continue. And for
me, I was, you know, I came back and I'm doing my Masters, and I'm
teaching, and I was also memorizing the Quran, continuing
with my memorization at the same time. And so I didn't have time to
just sit and read for hours on end. And Alhamdulillah, now,
Alhamdulillah, I can, Alhamdulillah, open, you know,
classical books and read them. And yes, there will be words that I
don't understand. Still, and he's a dictionary for that, but when I
first came back, I could not do that. It took me years because of
the very small amount of time I could spend just practicing
Arabic. It wasn't until I really started focusing on preparing for
alzad. And even then, the fenawi books were still too high of a
level for me to understand completely on my own. At that
time, I still needed a mentor to help me process them, because I
had only studied Arabic for 11 months. So like, give yourself
time. People go there and they come back and they completely
forget an entire language. And it's not that they've forgotten
it's still there, but they don't, they don't invest in.
It's not that they don't invest. I want to use those words because
that doesn't I don't mean to say that they don't invest. Not like
that you get busy with life. You get busy with priorities. You get
busy with the responsibilities, absolutely, but like, what's so
critical is whatever you're going through, spend some time every
single day studying right now. Hamda de la I have a two year old
and a four year old hamdu. They hit over the island. I'm so
grateful and so blessed for that. And they take up all my time, all
of my time there. It's so so incredibly busy being a mom,
especially of young children, they need you all the time. So my
studying time is, is this time. This is my studying time. And this
is only possible because I'm so hamdullah means so blessed and so
fortunately that to have such a supportive husband who's such as
who's such an involved father, but I might not have that at all if
that wasn't possible. True, because my kids woke up at 5:15am
today. It's 7:36am right now. I wouldn't have this time to speak
right now if I speak with to learn from you, if I had my kids with me
right now, so normally I have about an hour in the mornings
between the time they wake up and the time my husband starts working
during the weekdays to just study. And sometimes I don't. Sometimes I
pass out because I'm so exhausted. Sometimes I'm just so bleary, like
I can't focus. But I try my best that, you know, every single day
there's a small amount of time that I'm going to be studying, and
I'm not trying to give you an example of me saying, like I'm the
right thing to do. I'm the I'm the worst. Don't take me as an
example. I'm all of your examples are better than mine. I'm just
trying to say the struggle is very real. When you come back and
you're immersed in life, and making time to study, even if it's
as small as 30 minutes a day, is going to, Inshallah, further your
studies, and also Allah SWT puts about okay in your time from
places you don't expect, and energy in your life from places
you don't expect. So,
trusting in Him to facilitate that, and trying to continue to
just do that, and making the intention constantly renewing your
intention, I would recommend you write your personal goals. Why are
you studying? Yes, of course, we're all studying because we want
to be better Muslims. We're all studying to become closer to
Allah. But what is it specifically for you? What is the passion of
your studies? And you might not know that yet, but as you study,
what is it? What are you going to do with it in your own personal
life, of course, in your relationships, to your family, to
your loved ones, of course, but also for the community. And that's
my second point. I mentioned that there's possibilities of Imam
ships, a lot of times for men, not for women, of course, to be in the
Imam of the masjid, but a lot of times, also, being an imam doesn't
provide enough financially for a family, unfortunately, because, at
least here, because of the way that we've structured Imam ships
and the board politic all of those things. So a lot of people who've
gone to Egypt come back and either they go from Masjid to Masjid,
because, unfortunately, it's so difficult sometimes to work in the
masjid space. And that's very, very difficult, you know, for
anybody or they realize that they actually need to start working.
For example, maybe they got their Bachelor's in engineering or
computer science before they went to Egypt. They come back and they
work in that field. And then on the side, they maybe give a halapa
here and there, which is a wonderful option. But the point is
that banking on an imam position isn't even always 100% for men and
for women. When I went there,
social media, I wasn't on social media. I think Facebook had just
been created when I was in college. I had never been on it.
Instagram didn't exist. So, like, it was basically like
writing, you know, articles I was writing for suhaibweb.com, at the
time, it's virtual mosque.com now, um, so like writing articles was
basically like everything I saw a woman do. I didn't see women
giving lectures at the time. I thought it was haram Roman to give
lectures. But then after studying from delay that, you know,
evolved, but I didn't see positions for women, there was
really like nothing for women to do. And so I remember talking to
Shaykh al muslime perma about this, and she's like me said,
you'd need to hire resident female scholars. Like as we hire Imams,
we also need to hire women who are there to serve women and to answer
their questions, even to teach classes to men and women. Like
it's so critical to have positions that we create for women to go and
study and come back. Come to that in the 11 years since I've been
back, there have been some institutes that have opened and
are hiring women in these positions. But that's not
necessarily widespread. And so if you're a male or a female, you're
you know you have you, I'm sure you're thinking about what you're
going to do when you come back, but also think about like, what if
there is nothing for me to do when I come back? What is it going to
look like? Then, what is the need of the community you're coming
back to? And what are you going to create? Sheik Muslimah and Sheik
jabab, they created
the Majlis, which is like a an institute. Imam sohib Webb created
an institute.
These are people who are responding to the needs of the
community, so maybe that's something that you're going to be
doing for me. I recognize that my my role is really with working in
women's issues, as I'm very passionate about
women and the misunderstanding of so many wonderful, critical Hadith
and ayat that are so empowering, but unfortunately, caused so many
women to question their Imaan. And so for me, I've really been
working in the research aspect of that and the Quranic aspect of
women. So for you, as you're studying and figuring out what am
I doing this for, also figuring out who am I going to serve with
this, I think is really important.
And with that, that concept of serving Inshallah, I'd like to end
by talking about three parts, whether you're sitting in Egypt or
wherever you are now, to kind of consider in your journey of
serving and how that impacts your knowledge. So the first thing is
that when you study,
and you know this way more than I do, and I'm so excited about Q A
because I'm the only one who's gonna have questions for all of
you, and shell I can't wait to hear hear from all of you.
So the the first thing is, like, who you serve, how you serve,
obviously impacts your knowledge. Being in Egypt, there are so much
poverty is so painful to see, and I remember being followed so many
times as probably you have, by people who would, you know, ask
for money. They would follow me up to my apartment door. They would
grab me, and they would ask for something. And in the beginning, I
was like, Oh, my God, of course, I have to give them something, even
though I really didn't have much with me at all. But that would
cause this huge crowd of people like to, you know, oh, she gave
me, you know, one ganay, and so there's like, 10 other people who
want that ganay, and they're coming, and all of a sudden you
have, like, I don't, I don't have, I like, don't have that amount of
money. And it's just so sad. Like, I'm not laughing because I'm like,
I don't have that. I don't mean that. I mean, like, the shock,
like, there are children who are living on the street. And you
might not be able to solve all of Egypt's poverty, but what you can
do is you can give people dignity and humanity. So taking the time
to just learn about people who you see on the street, making an
effort to go up to them and just befriend their family, speak with
them, have conversations about them, ask what their children's
names are be a part of the community that you're surrounded
by.
You don't have to solve the poverty problem for all of Egypt,
but what you can do is help people feel like they mean something to
you and they matter. And that's something that, of course, is
going to impact your knowledge Inshallah, and when you're seeking
that knowledge, making the intention that your intention is
that you're doing this asking Allah SWT to humble you and to
forgive you and to help you in the studies that you seek.
There was a sheik who recital Quran so incredibly in Egypt, and
i i The Quran for me is just that's, you know, one of my
passions. And so I wanted to ask him, like to teach this group of
women who really wanted to ask,
how are we going to study the Quran, the way that you studied
it? Would you be able to teach us? So I went and I asked him
directly, asked the hadima of the masjid to connect me with him. It
was kind of like weird. They were like, you want to talk to the
Imam. Okay, so I went, and I'm like, stuttering in Arabic, trying
to ask him if he teaches group a woman. He's like, I don't teach
woman. And I was really devastated. And I went back up to
the masjid, and I saw this group of women had these Egyptian, you
know, wonderful, incredible women had gathered, and I don't know who
they are. They're just bringing the message. They're like, did you
talk to that shit? And I was like, Yes. And I think I don't know if
it was like, you know, at that message, they didn't talk to the
Imam, but they were like, What did you ask him? And I was like, I
wanted to ask him if he teach woman Quran. I was like, well, we
will all wear knockoff and all be behind a wall like, you don't have
to see any of us. We just want to learn from you. But he's like, I
just don't teach women at all. So anyway, the sister, one of the
sisters who was there, she was like, subhanAllah, you went to ask
him about Quran. And here I am, and I'm going to be teaching it to
see her class. And then she gave me a book.
I'm so sorry I did.
She was
She said, Allah saw that you were truthful, and so he provided a way
for you. And I'm not crying because that's true, because Allah
knows how untruthful My heart is and how much I struggle, but
because this sister's name was asmaath, and when the coup
happened, she was standing, her husband had been hurt in Rabat,
then he was in the hospital, and she was standing at a window, and
there was a.
Sniper that shot her in the back from the hospital window. And
subhanAllah, she, of course, she was murdered Rahmatullah. And
subhanAllah, I had her number, and I thought about how Asmaa sat up.
I just thought about how Subhanallah, Allah gave me this
one moment to meet her, and she's already passed away. And
subhanAllah, the impact that this one person had on my life, I can't
tell you how many times I think about her, how often she has
inspired my studies away from Egypt and sometimes for you, like
you're in a place where the doors are closing for you when you don't
expect them to close, and sometimes you're just knocking and
knocking. You've you've left everything to come to ikai Road to
study, and now there's covid, and you're stuck. And there's so so
many doors that just keep closing for you. We don't know how long we
have here. We have no idea how short our time is on this earth
serving Allah, but there are some people like Asmaa. So may Allah
raise her ranks and give her fear just on a and there are people
like that who come to you in a moment of need, and they give you
this hope, and Subhanallah, that's all that that you need in the
hereafter for someone to make, to offer you, even when you're gone.
And so sometimes, when you're trying to study and the doors
close for you, look at why they're closing. Why is, why is the store
closing? Maybe Allah, SWT has something different planned for
you, and how are you going to use that door, and how are you going
to, how are you going to serve other people in the process of
that door opening for you? Another one. Inshallah,
also, I wanted to share I know that I have a few more minutes, I
think, Inshallah, I'll end very quickly. Only have two more
stories to share. One of them is specifically about being a woman
in Egypt. Males, Patala, by the way, I just wanted, I wanted to, I
didn't want to make that an awkward transition. But may Allah
have mercy on Asmaa and all of the people who have passed away and
who've been murdered and who've been harmed and hurt of our OMA
and the vulnerable Europe. But I mean and help us Europe, we still
have time to do good in their name Europe.
When I was in Egypt, one of the things that people kept telling me
was about men specifically, and how terrible the men of Egypt are,
and how, you know, they're so lewd, and they're gonna call out
to you. They're gonna say all these awful things. I cannot count
the number of times people told me that. So what do you I mean, what
was I expecting when I go to Egypt? I'm in California, there
are lots of there are lots of men who do really, you know, messed up
things to women. But for some reason, this was the number one
piece of advice I got when I went to Egypt from other other
Egyptians and non Egyptians. So I go to Egypt, and of course, I'm
like, looking, you know, behind me for a couple of times, but then I
fell in love with Egypt. Right now, if I pass by a big pile of
garbage and I inhale, I'm like, Egypt. And I don't mean that to be
offensive. I don't mean to I don't mean for that to be offensive. An
offensive statement. There were lots of garbage piles that I
passed by there. And for me, that was obviously not a fault of the
people. That's an infrastructure problem. That's a that's a
something that the politics need to change. But at the same time,
that was a scent for me that gave me hope, like I love, I just loved
everything about Egypt and Subhanallah, the people were so
caring and loving and wonderful. But there was still this part of
me that remembers what people told me. And so one time in Ramadan, I
was walking back from taraweeh, and so it's like, I think it was
like midnight, I was going to my apartment, which was pretty close
by. There were lots of people on the street, and there were these,
this car that slowed down, and they're there. I'm hearing them
speaking in Arabic, right? And I've only been there for about
maybe two months at this time, so my Arabic wasn't very strong, but
I'm like walking slowly, and this car is going, there's these two
men in it, and I hear this word that I was told means that a man
is hitting on you. And I was like, like, Ah, it's Rama bon. I will
not get let anyone get away with this type of action. And so I
turned and the car window was open, and I screamed, I
like, screamed this into their car. Then they both looked at me,
and then they looked at each other, and they looked at me, and
they were like, what? And then I realized, like they were not
talking to me, they were having a conversation. And here I am
hearing a word that sounded similar to a word that I kept
being warned of. And I kept hearing this message of people
saying that men in Egypt are so terrible and they're constantly
going to be after you just because you're female, whether you wear
nakab or whatever you wear. I mean, like, I was into them in a
huge hijab my entire time, but my friends who were nakab told me
that they got hit on like, you just need to be a female and it's
going to happen. And so, like, I'm like, screaming into their car.
And they're just two young men who are having a conversation, and
then we're like, Sorry, what? And I was like, what, and they're
like, what. And I was like, bye. I just walked.
But Subhanallah, it's not about you, I guess is what I want to
say. Like, sometimes things happen, it's nothing to do with
you. And if anything, it's an opportunity for self reflection.
Like, sometimes people will say things to you about Egyptians or
about being in Egypt. And it's not just I guess. What I'm trying to
say is look beyond that. Look beyond our own heads, our own
heads as foreigners in Egypt, and to see the good of everyone. There
is good in everyone. I remember once in Ramadan, I was standing at
an ATM machine. I was with my roommate. It was after today, we
want to straw money, and there were two men in front of us, and I
don't know what happened. I don't know if they were like, I was
first. I was first. No, I was first. The first night of Ramadan,
they started fighting, like, yelling at each other, pushing
each other, and my roommate was like, Oh my God, what do we do?
But I stepped up, and I was like, hey, hey. Like, it's rambled on.
It's rumbled on, and they kind of looked at me like, why are you
talking to us? But that calmed them down, and they kind of, like
calmed down, and they started moving away from each other. And
the only reason I wanted to mention that story is because
sometimes we might feel like we're not Egyptian, like we can't speak
to these circumstances. Like, obviously we can't speak to the
circumstances that Egyptians are going through, obviously, but at
the same time like these are people who, when you remind them
of Allah so often, they just take a step back and they realize,
like, we were caught up, right? Like SubhanAllah. That's all of
us, of course. But there is just so much goodness in people. And
when you see something that you don't think is like, solid like
that doesn't look, you know, like that doesn't look like a heart
that that I want in my in my own, in I don't want that heart well,
like, recognize that that's our heart, right? Like we are all one
ummah. And so when we see things that frustrate us and confuse us,
it's not a moment to be like, Oh, that's what I was expecting from
an Egyptian which I heard so often, like so often when I was
with sisters, they would make those comments. And I don't know
what the culture is like there for foreigners right now, so forgive
me, because I don't mean to impose. You know what we
experienced to you? I don't know. Maybe you're completely different.
How many this doesn't exist, but for us, like hearing those
comments so often, even when for people sitting in Egypt, like,
take the second to look, to look at. Like, we are brothers. We are
mirrors of one another, brothers and sisters. So take that time and
like, if I see a reflection that I don't like, like, what can I do to
gently help create a different reflection? Because that's my
reflection, too. And so how can I help? How can I help this
circumstance, even if it's just making to offer this situation.
And the final thing I wanted to share is that I was really big on
book studying. Oh, it's kind of I remember one of my friends came
from each group for the first time. It was, like, the first week
of her in Cairo, and she was like, so I want to see everything like,
you know, take me sightseeing. And I was like, Okay, let's go. So we
were gonna go out to dinner. So we're gonna go to city stores to
have a meal. And we're like, okay, we you know, she had already done
all these other like Islamic sightseeing throughout the week
with other people, and we were gonna go out to eat. And my
roommate brought kita wala SESI, and I brought my Mustaf, and we
sit down, and I share with my friend who had just come from
Egypt, and, like, we just sit down, and we're like, not even
looking at the menu yet. And I was like, Hey, can you? Can you? Can
you help me review for the surah? Can you help correct me? She's
staring at me, and she's like, I thought we went out to dinner. And
I was like, Yeah, but like, every second we can study. And I I
really chalk that up to like, I hope Inshallah, like youth,
zealous youth ism but also like, I don't think that was appropriate.
There is a time and a place for study, and there's a time and a
place for social interaction, and it's so important to take the time
to study. We used to have halakhas hamdullah every Thursday, we used
to gather my apartment. Hamdullah had started before I came. Imam
Suhaib used to give us halakhas. Different sisters gave us Hala
Paz, and it was wonderful, such a special gathering. Like, like, it
sounds like you have, but if it wasn't a halapa, I wasn't going,
like, if it was just a bunch of people socializing, I rarely went,
and I regret that. And it wasn't because just of the bonds that you
build, like, that's so important and long lasting, but also
because, like, you get to study when you're with people, they you
practice your Arabic with people who understand, like, you take the
time to just, like, live and learn with other people. So I just want
to say that, like, I was there and I was like, we should study every
single second, but like, I wish that I had included in my
understanding of studying being with people. I interacted a lot
with Egyptians. I made the end. Everywhere I went, I tried to
speak Arabic, as broken as it was at the time. I tried my best, and
I thought that was a part of my studies, because it was helping me
learn the language and learn the culture and be with the people.
But I was like, Oh, we're all gonna be speaking in English. I'm,
you know, we're just gonna go out to ice cream, but I wish I had
just encouraging, like.
Systems are so important. Yes, Sheik Ahmed, that is so important.
But also, just like
learning from people, learning from their perspectives, and when
you come back, you need that the bond that I have with the sisters
from Egypt is so different from the bond that I have with anyone
else. And subhanAllah, we still feel so connected to one another
and cry with one another over the time that we miss, of the Hijjah,
especially, of Ramadan, especially. And then the last
thing I wanted to share is when it's safe Inshallah, if you're
able to travel. I didn't travel when I was in Egypt because I
thought it was haram at the time to travel without a maharam. I've
changed that opinion since then. My dad flew me to Cairo. I lived
in Cairo. He flew me back with my mom, so I didn't do any traveling,
but afterwards, when my husband and I got married, we went back to
Egypt, and we spent the summer there studying together before we
started,
we before we started school and work, and Alhamdulillah, we had
the immense honor of going to meshah from Egypt at the time. And
I am so grateful to Allah for facilitating that and honoring
that with for me, especially because when I was in Egypt
myself, so many sisters would go to meshful Aksa, like they would
just go over the weekend, and I was like, I can't. I don't have a
mushroom. How do I do it? They didn't have Muhammad either. They
took the other opinion Bahamut
that, you know, they had the opportunity, and I'm so grateful I
did, too. But my point is that if you don't take that opinion, and
and you're like, Oh, I can't leave Cairo because I just need to
study. Like travel. Traveling is going to increase your knowledge.
It's going to increase your understanding. Of course, you
already know that the Quran tells us to see the world and to take
the science from that, but go to mashal Aqsa. Take advantage of the
privilege that you have, if you have the privilege to go, go and
and make it a point to be, to show that Palestine matters, to show
that you care about the masjid and that people care, and that we
haven't forgotten about it, and take the time to visit other parts
of Egypt that have so much history. Just going my brother
hamilah visited when I was in Cairo, so I got to go see where
Musa alaihi salam was like taking advantage of those places that
inshallah will help you become stronger in your understanding of
what the Quran and what the Ahadith talk about when it talks
about these incredible places inshallah. Finally, the very last
sentence that I want to leave you with is, oh, I got to make this a
sentence. Now, don't focus only on the next 237, years you're
Inshallah, in Egypt for or wherever you are now. Focus on the
long term. In 20 years, where do you want to be, and how can you
make all of your actions work towards that direction? And don't
just focus on 20 years. Focus on the Hereafter. And I know we all
say we walk through del Salado, of course, Ya Allah, we beg of you
for that. But what are the actions that are going to get you there?
And we don't get there because of our action. We get there because
of Allah SWT, of Allah SWT mercy. But how can I facilitate, like the
companion who facilitated by making lots of sujood? How can you
work towards that in a very specific way that's not only for
yourself, but also for your community?
I'm done talking. I'm sorry that was probably not very helpful.
There was a lot of emotional stuff. Not that that's not
helpful. Emotions are very helpful. We should all have
emotions. But I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't know if
any of, any of this is helpful. I am looking very forward to
inshallah reading your questions, or if you're going to speak them,
that'd be even better. I would love to hear your experiences
inshallah chronicle behind the conditional on that you let into
this. Going to wait that was really, really inspiring,
inspiring and uplifting and just encouraging, especially for me,
Judy has given me that renewed sense of humor to study harder and
to really, really just make the most of my time here. Can
definitely relate to a lot of what you're saying, and especially also
about just coming here and being positive and having positive
attitude. I also, Alhamdulillah, have not have any negative
experiences or bad experiences, or I can't complain about anything at
all like Alhamdulillah mean, and that's really just by, you know,
consciously seeing the good in every situation and overlooking
the negatives that are present. So once again, there is a question,
Assalamualaikum. Shehar, I want to study a through distance learning
from the USA before applying for the bachelor's program online.
What level of Arabic Should I have from? Where can I get the
certificate in Arabic for the admission Thursdays. So to be
honest, I applied in 2012 so I don't know what it's like right
now. I have absolutely no clue at the time. What I submitted was my
due answer. I studied Arabic and UN so I submitted that sort of
that certificate.
So I don't know where you'd get the certificate in Arabic for
admission. If you haven't done that, to be honest, I think you
should directly contact them and ask them, what level of Arabic
should you have to start? You need to be able to read, write and
speak in Arabic and plus, task specifically,
does it have to be like at the level where you're able to open a
classical text and understand everything? No, you'll be able to.
You know, the more that you study Inshallah, the more that you're
going to your Arabic level will increase as you're going through
the process. So Inshallah, your Arabic will increase as you're
going through the process. Um, but definitely, you need at least a,
not just a basic level is not enough, like you'd need to be able
to read at least some, some, you know, books in Arabic, even if
it's not like classical level status. I'll give you an example.
I studied tafsir sabuni When I was doing
my Arabic studies. That's a very basic tafsir book. Read a sabuni.
See if you can understand it in Arabic. It's like modern it's
modern words. It's a lot easier than some of the other classical
tafesir, some of the classical tafesir. See how your level of
Arabic is with that, how much you need help understanding and then
kind of make, kind of kind of base it kind of
on something like that. Inshallah, for answering that question, I
would recommend is that the person who asked made contact with it as
if they do have a website and there are contact details that
they can get hold of, or if they know anybody here they can
Okay.
Muted your names if you'd like to ask the question you
message in the chat box.
Okay, quick question for Okay, maybe not so much of a question.
Okay, I
don't think there are any more questions. So she closed so much
for your time. I know later, time is really precious, especially as
a mom of two little ones. I'm sure if anybody else has any questions,
they can DM you on Instagram and you can reply in your own time. So
if anyone isn't on one point, if anyone isn't following sheikho
Miro, sheikho, Maria mamil, please follow her at the mauriyam amid on
Instagram. So again, once again, on behalf of Muslims connected we
thank you. I see there is a question coming through Salam. She
What are your thoughts on institutes for study in Western
countries such as zaytuna or Kalam or Ibrahim in UK,
SubhanAllah? I really don't know the curriculum of any institute
here, but I will say the fact that there are institutes that that
that our options now is so incredible. I have met some of the
graduates of zaytuna and of column, again, I can't speak to
their curriculum, but some of the teachers are incredible.
Mashallah, I know, I don't know much of the work of zaytuna, to be
honest, at all, but I do know a lot of the work of Kalam and
mashallah chef Abdul Nasri Genta is an incredible resource. So
there are so many, I think, opportunities that we have now
that didn't exist when we could, when we when we came back, I would
take advantage of anything you can do. You know, maybe it's, maybe
it's studying here at an institute, and that's amazing. Do
that. If that's, if that's the option that you have, yes, I would
agree that, you know, students can study in their home countries
first before coming to Egypt. It definitely would save a lot of
time and effort you know, spent here in Egypt, if you have your
basics of your Arabic and your foundational subject covered. So
the question that analyst had was,
just give me a moment
so she for Mariam, could you elaborate on how you reached out
to mentors and to work in your country? This is this an issue for
a number of women students here?
Yeah, subhanAllah, I was very, you know, fortunate. I was working at
the time on the website suhaiweb.com
which is now virtual mosque.com There were a number of Shu working
on that site. They had graduated from everywhere. Had been working
for years. So Han tale that I have the extreme privilege of already
having access to all of these scholars who were I was working
with, and who I could approach privately and ask for mentorship.
That is not the circumstance for most women. Most women ask me this
question, and honestly it's very hard. It really depends on where
you live, what I what I before I went to Egypt, excuse me. And
before I had those opportunities to study with those people,
scholars, excuse me.
I
I would just find any ma'am who who I felt like I could study
from, or a sister, even, who wasn't necessarily a she, but who
was learned, and I would just ask to study with her. Um.
And also there's a lot of online options right now where there are
people who are, for example, I'll give you the example of robota
robleta Is Dr Nancy Tamara gray. She's a Sheikha. She has her, you
know, she's a she's a scholar. She's also has her PhD. She
founded an institute just for a woman. And it's not just online
classes, but there's also mentorship programs embedded in
that. Jenna Institute is another one. Dr Haifa Eunice has started
it. Gems of light. Dr shewaish, Aisha was less started it. So we
have, like these scholars who have, who are women, who started
foundations, or, excuse me, institutes for women. So what I
would recommend is reaching out to one of those institutes, becoming
a student, even if it's an online process, it's wonderful. It's a
great option, because it's not just the online general class that
you're taking, but it's also privately, being able to ask
questions from women who are scholars or women who are in the
process of studying. So there's Jenna Institute, there is gems of
light, and there's Rubble talk that I that I know of the founders
in Mashallah. They're, they're mashallah, such incredibly
knowledgeable scholars. Another question, Assalamu alaikum, is
pursuing a master's degree in Islamic Studies essential before
serving our community?
Ah, no. I mean, I think that. I think there's a there's a level of
serving, and it looks like, what? What are you? What is serving to
you? Like serving could be teaching an Islamic Studies course
for seventh graders. You don't need a master's in Islamic studies
to teach that. I often give that example as a frustrating one,
because women, sometimes they come back and they are graduates from
Alzheimer and Mashallah. They, you know, they can answer so many
questions Sharia, and the only place that they can get a job is
at an Islamic school teaching elementary students, which is
wonderful, amazing and incredible option, but that's not what they
want. They've studied Sharia so that they can teach women Sharia,
but then there's no opportunity to teach women Sharia. So, I mean, it
really depends on what you want to do. What if you are, you know,
having a specialty in a certain field, yeah, like, don't give
lectures on something very specific until you have the
knowledge to do it. But a Masters means you've done a bachelor's,
probably in Islamic city, so you have some form of knowledge. So
just stick to that lane and only teach in that lane while you
continue to further your studies, Inshallah, I will tell you until
today, I don't, I'm not Sheikha. I don't understand why people call
me Sheikha. I keep corrupting people when they come she I'm not
Sheikha, but I will say that I'm often asked to address questions,
and I'm like, I don't, I just don't have the knowledge for that.
There are so many things that I feel like I'm not qualified to
speak on, and that's a lifelong process. And so just sticking to
what you have studied, and when you don't know, you just say, I
don't know. And then Shali, you'll be able to connect them to other
people who do
know, who can help you. Giuse, we have a question from Sheik Ahmed
from California, thoughts on continuing higher education or
academia. Post al as her undergrad studies in western institutes,
institutions or universities. What are your thoughts? I think it
depends on what you're studying. Like, are you talking about
studying Islamic sciences, for example, are you talking about
like, you finish al Assad and then you want to go, do you know your
Bachelor's in, like, social science? Like, it really depends.
So it just depends on what you're what you're planning to do long
term.
So there's another question so long any recommendations for those
who are trying to memorize any place in Cairo or elsewhere, or
even online, you would recommend
in
Cairo? I studied my kids seeing me now in Cairo. I studied
Alhamdulillah with a direct with a she who was in Cairo, who now has
moved so she's not there anymore. So I don't know that. I know there
were institutes at the time that sisters were studying in, but I'm
not the right person to ask. Maybe she was spear. Can give you that
that information? Inshallah online. Unfortunately, I also used
to recommend an organization, but someone here knows why. I don't
recommend them anymore, so I can't recommend them elsewhere. I would
say that there are
definitely options. Robota again, does women's Quran classes. I
can't think of anywhere else that I could recommend off the top of
my head, I will say, will say if you're willing to move to LA. LA
is where my Quran teacher lives. He is the best Quran teacher,
tabaticala in the entire world. He has the Quran so incredibly, like
down. It's not just like he never looked at the most half, because
he knows the Quran so well in all the tira ads. Is so incredible.
Every time I even like think of his name, I feel like my Iman
increases because of his relationship to the Quran is Sheik
Mohib, fool come and study with him. The most amazing Quran
teacher. Move to LA he will, Inshallah, absolutely be an
amazing, amazing, amazing chef for you. Shalom. Khadija.
To go online instead of, I wish, but he's like Egyptian chef who's
a grandfather, he's not.
Another question, do you have cases or people you would
recommend studying within Cairo or Egypt for females?
I All of my studies in Cairo for Arabic was at d1 and another
institute, which has since, I don't think it's still open, it's
closed down, and then it was private studies. So I studied
privately with people. So I don't, I don't, I can't give you
recommendations now, because especially now, the places that my
friends all had studied have all changed. It's been a long like
they're the way that they teach have changed. I would recommend
asking that to someone who's there, like she for example.
Okay, so back to just Sheik Ahmed's question. He says, in
Islamic studies. So your thoughts on continuing higher education,
academia, postal as it undergrad studies in Western institutions or
universities. So I can't, so I would say that I can't say that
this is a broad answer. It really depends on, like, any single
person, and their background, their grounding, the mentors that
they have, like, what they're going to do with it long term.
Definitely, there's a huge, you know, I haven't done this in a
Western Institute, so I can't speak for every curriculum, but my
what I've consistently heard is that there is a push to kind of
focus on secularizing Islam, or making it like an orient
Orientalism study, which has problems in and of its own. So
really, if someone were to undertake it, you need to be like,
DR Yes, or Gaudi, who has the background, who's able to go and
refute the issues that might come up. I remember just as an
undergrad student, before I went to Egypt, I was like, I'm going to
take this class on Islam and women so that I can refute everything
that they say. And say how amazing Islam is. And they brought up a
hadith I had never heard of before opinions from scholars I was I had
no clue how to respond to my Iman was so tested, so hamdullah, I'm
so grateful that now I have the knowledge to respond to those
issues. But had I continued to take classes like that without the
knowledge to respond to it, I'm not really sure how a person would
process all of that. So I would recommend that if you are planning
to do something like that, make sure you look at their curriculum
and the people who are teaching their curriculum, sometimes their
instructors are actually actual who are doctors, who have their
doctor and are actually professors teaching. So that's amazing. I
think Dr Jonathan brown maybe teaches, I can't be too sure, but
I'm pretty sure he teaches at a university and he teaches Islamic
sciences. So there are scholars who do teach in universities that
you can use as like Dr Sherman Jackson, for example, he teaches
at a private university here in California. So like being if
you're able to, like align yourself with someone who can
mentor you through the process, maybe that could be an option in
shell as well.
Hero once again, I know your kids are waiting for you, so we really
thank you, and we thank your husband for his support and your
kids as well. My old bless you and increase you and just grant you
the very best of this junior and the ahira and raise your ranks in
the year of tangierly. Just protect you and grant you to
continue to be a means of inspiration and guidance to women
and the Ummah in general. We really make the best of ours for
you, and we hope that you will join us again in the future for
all of you and all of your loved ones that have been all of us. Any
honor to be here about a colophy home. Thank you. And if you have
any other questions, you can message me. I'll put my Instagram
on here, so that if you have questions that we didn't get to
here, it's just Miriam, what am I?
Just message me and Shaw, I'll definitely get back to you. Sure.
Okay. And on behalf of our student organization here in Cairo, Egypt,
Muslims connected, we say a huge thank you.