Shadee Elmasry – On Mosques, Companionship, & Knowledge

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.

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