Shadee Elmasry – On Mosques, Companionship, & Knowledge
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The speakers discuss their experiences as Muslim, including their belief in Islam and desire to become a member of a team. They also talk about their experiences at a mosque and how it has positively impacted their understanding of their community. The importance of learning and sharing Islam for success in the field, as it is crucial for building confidence and peace in personal life. They also mention visiting a group of Muslims at a congress to discuss concerns about their religion.
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So I think the best place to actually start is I was actually
one of those people who became Muslim. Like, on my own. Literally
20 years ago, on New Year's Eve, I, after looking at Islam and
studying and reflecting actually on it for many years, at least
three years, I like finally took that leap, to, like, make the
shahada to actually say, I should do that you they had a lot of what
and then Muhammad Rasool Allah, and I did that all alone in my
room. And for at least four or five months, it really just had
that experience of being alone.
I knew why I chose to be Muslim, I actually had no doubts in actually
doing it. But there was definitely something clearly missing. And I
would actually make it analogous to
actually track. So if you ever been to attract me before you
actually look and you'll see that and attract me, there's so many
things actually going on. At any given time, there's a lot of
events going on. And actually, there'll be the idea of a team
that has one team versus another team versus another team, right.
But if you really look at it, there's a lot of individual
successes and failures is really going on there. Somebody can
actually their team might be able to win the event. But that could
be somebody who played a lot better. And one particular part of
sport, whether that be shotput, whether that be how they jumped,
whether they be how they ran. So in a way, it's like there's there
could be a lot of chaos when you actually look at the sport. And
there's a lot of like aloneness. And so that's what I was, I was
like a Muslim, almost like at a track me, I was very much alone in
my experience. And I didn't actually have this sense of
community. And the biggest piece of Axia shifts for me, where life
actually became different was when I actually finally went to the
mosque. And believe it or not, as because somebody who I was friends
with, and I didn't even know he was Muslim at the time. He said he
had gone to this particular mosque, so actually took the trek
and walk to this mosque. And after walking to his mosque, and
actually after having just so many years of wanting to become Muslim,
want to actually really know, Am I really a Muslim? Do I like really
belong? I actually had a sit down with somebody in a mosque and
actually even wasn't like an Imam, or some big figure. He was
actually just somebody who was at the mosque at the time, who was a
professional, he just sat down with me. And he answered all my
questions. I was asked him some basic questions about Eman about
belief. And in that one moment, in that 40 minutes or 20 minutes that
that man gave me, in that conversation actually just felt
like this sense of peace really come over me. And a sense of,
yeah, almost like a sense of belonging. And from then on, it's
like I got introduced to his children, and actually started
going to the mosque. And then I really started getting a sense of
actually that aspect of the piece that actually wasn't a slap.
Because without that aspect of the community, without that aspect of
actually being actually in, in that group, you never really get
to experience a real flow. And the part that was so interesting was I
spent so much time reading books about how to pray about how to
practice the five pillars of Islam. And it was like within five
or 10 minutes, being able to watch what some other people were doing,
being able to be around other people being able to have a
conversation about what other people were doing, I was able to
get a higher level and a higher sense of the deen in such a short
period of time. And that, to me, it speaks to the power of
companionship, the power of actually being able to be around
somebody else. And the impact that actually has is even a concept or
an idea, even in the social sciences, that it's not just like
one person was one person just equals two. But actually the group
actually, as you add each person, it has its own spirit. It has its
own flavor. Just if you even think about movements, when people
actually came together with I mean to like, for empowerment of
African Americans. Like when people come together, there's a
spirit that actually comes over the group, there's a spirit that
actually comes all of its own. That's not just one plus one plus
one plus one. But it's actually a group actually has a spirit of its
own. And to me, that's actually one of the key aspects of Islam a
key aspects of peace. And that's why it's so powerful and important
to actually just be in the group and be able to actually have
companionship in Islam to actually come through some levels. It's
often been said, like, you know, you'll look and you'll say, Okay,
I'm here, how is it that ISIS you can get to another place? And the
idea in Islam is very much like the idea in any other place. Like
if you want to be a successful businessman, you start hanging out
with who successful businessman, right? So it's almost like the
same idea as you want to learn and grow in your Islam. How do you do
that? You actually spend your time around and inside the community.
And I will say that that actually is a central piece to the other
part that I actually really want to talk about, which is the
importance of knowledge of Islam. Like so I feel like there's a
place where I'm a person I
He's not gonna experience the other level of Islam, which
actually has to do a piece as well, if they actually don't have
knowledge, like anybody's, if you've ever cooked something, if
you've ever like went through the procedure of something, knowing
actually how to do it yourself, gives you a sense of security
gives you a sense of confidence that nothing else like really can,
no matter how well you actually might follow something, no matter
how well did you actually might like look at somebody and go right
behind them. There's a different sense, it's dicey when you know
what's about to come next, even if you're following when you when you
actually know, okay, so this person turns this way. I know, I
know, like, because of my own GPS, for example, if I'm actually
following somebody, and I have my own GPS, I still have a security,
okay, I know, this is the route they're supposed to go. And that's
actually in a sense, the power of actually learning and studying in
a religion, the idea of you actually ever belonging, or you
actually feeling like this Dean is, is, is like this big elephant.
And like being afraid to actually, or not knowing if you actually
really belong, that experience is never really going to go away,
unless you actually really start taking some steps to really start
to know what it is that that God is actually asking in particular
of you. What it is that God is actually asking in particular of
the community, because there's different levels of things that a
person is actually asked to do. And and that will, again, come
about when you actually seek it out. And company. So actually, as
you spend time in a community, you start knowing actually, who was a
more knowledgeable person, who was the type of person that you
actually want to aspire to. And that in of itself will unfold the
type of people that you really want to be around amongst the
groups of Muslims that actually are there, that actually will help
guide you to being more secure in yourself and having a sense of
peace, about your religion. And so in that same vein, it really talks
about the importance of the conversation that's going to take
on it take place on April 17. at Rutgers University, it's an
opportunity to actually come together as Muslims, and be able
to taste from the number of Congress that are actually out
there and be able to have a conversation about some of the
concerns that exist. Some of the things that we struggle with as we
actually go through our Islam and be able to for you to find that
group, that individual, maybe even just one person made the network
network with one person that's going to have it so that your
Islam can go from where it is and be able to build and go along to a
place where you get a higher sense of peace, because that's just
really what I believe the heart of this religion is really about.
Right