Top 10 reasons why being a single Muslim sucks:

10. People trying to set you up with the weirdo who doesn’t speak English or the guy with 5  1/2 kids looking for a second wife. (And then they call you picky!)

9. Can’t get the family rate at ICNA. (or ISNA or MAS or the subway)

8. You’re never invited to those married couple parties. (Did you know they have their own secret social world, single muggles not allowed.)

7. Attending those ’singles lectures on marriage’ where they talk about the same ole stuff except real ways of getting us married! (Or they lecture us on why we should just accept our parents choice.)

6. Realizing your kids by the time (if) u have any will be too young to match-make with your  friend’s kids.

5. Pervert guys who think you’re now desperate enough to consider them. (a la Mr. Collins)

4. Meeting long lost old friends who immediately ask, ‘Are you married!? How many kids do you have!?’. (No and no.)

3. Your mom reminds you that at your age she was already married with 3 kids! (Yes, I wish I was a child bride too.)

2. Muslim matrimonials. (Need we say more?)

and……………..

number….

1. Every auntie at every wedding, engagement or aqeeqah saying, ‘You’re next!!’. (Do single people look pregnant or something? )

Amazing people I really admire…

Recently I had the opportunity to sit in front of four amazing famous speakers at ISNA and it started me thinking about the people I really admire in this world, so here they are….

Admiration

Sh. Qaradawi – Dude, ppl talk about the mujaddid of this age and they bring up all these hard core hadith scholars and Iranian shah or someone. But this is the real thing right here. Sh. Qaradawi has vision, he has knowledge and above all he has wisdom. There is a reason ppl make fun of him and call his book “halal wal halal” because he’s just cool like that. They can’t stand it But seriously, all you have to do is read one of his books or hear him speak. He may make things easier for the people, but he continues to be straight with the principles of Islam and Quran. This is the best kind of scholar, which keeps everything including the personal circumstances of people in mind and modern times, and brings us back to the real Sunnah. Read any of his books like Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase and you’ll just be…illuminated! You’ll breathe a sigh of relief and say finally someone making sense about Islam with real vision! He makes Islam so cool and amazingl!!

Dr. Ingrid Mattson – Here is a scholarly woman who has broken new ground by becoming ISNA’s first woman president. And the thing is she did it by just being herself. She isn’t loud or opinionated or pushing for things or trying to be motivating through her speeches. She said once that from childhood she was always a melancholy serious person and that’s what she is. She’s quiet and serious and makes excellent scholarly speeches that have more depth to them than most others. I think she’s awesome.

Suhaib Webb – I mean how can you not? DJ from the Midwest turns Azhari scholar. It’s got tabloid all over it But really he’s someone that’s following a certain path and you can just see the bright sparks trailing behind him. I can’t think of any other Da’ee that’s trying to bring Islam to the youth using today’s technology. I’m just waiting any day now for when he gets twitter

Sh. Mokhtar – I could write a book here, but suffice it to say there is no-one like him. He’s like salafi/sufi all mixed in with a feminist side, lol. Does that explain it? There’s no other scholar I know who is more pro-women and fair to sisters. There’s no one with more spirituality and love for the prophet and the Quran and the sunnah. There is no one in the world I would rather go to with my problems or for help. ANDDDd he’s moving back to Albany YAyyyy! My life isn’t over. Thanks

Yusuf Islam – Even before I ever heard any of his music I used to listen to him on the lecture circuit when I was a kid. Back when ICNA was in those weird campuses like Delhi or NYIT he used to come and speak to us. We were always in awe that he was once ‘Cat Stevens’, but we really didn’t know what it meant. In his speeches, he’d talk about peace, love for Islam and helping others. He’s always been the same. Humble, down to earth, laid back, has a sense of humor, cares for humanity, cares for Muslims, wants people to see the real Islam, a father, husband, da’ee, artist, educator, philanthropist. I totally want to marry someone like him, or be him, one or the other

Zarqa Nawaz – Creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie! I know there are a lot of haters out there that are like the characters should be wearing burqah or should be puppets to be Islamic or whatever, but come on. Have you ever seen a non-terrorist Muslim on TV, like EVER?! That is why she’s awesome. She had a creative idea and despite any detractors, Muslim or Non-Muslim, she made it work to the benefit of everyone even if they can’t see it. The show is great and so is she. And when I’m done writing my Muslim version of Pride and Prejudice I’m totally sending it to her!!

Abdullah Yusuf Ali – Yes, the Quran translator! Why? Because every time I read it I think his translation is amazing. His commentary is amazing. His poetry and references are amazing. There’s a reason why his translation is the gold standard no one has been able to touch. He’s a person through which millions of Muslims understand the Divine. I read a biography of his where it talked about how he died alone and penniless. InshaAllah never. He has accrued a million good deeds from all of us.

Zaid Shakir – I remember sitting around a MYNA campfire somewhere while he told his story of how he became Muslim and then when I went to Syria I’d hear all these stories about Imam Zaid riding around all over town on his bicycle attending all these Duroos and how he started the first Eid party for the foreigners. And then he would come to our small town college to help us fundraise when I was at school. Now he’s on the West coast but we still love him because I mean he’s Imam Zaid!

Altaf Hussain/Naeem Muhammad – I hope they don’t read this heh. Altaf I mean is Altaf. Everyone knows, loves and learns from him. He’s traveled up and down the coast to the Midwest, to Cali and back fundraising, speaking and motivating. He reminds me of a young Imam Siraj who I know is also one of his heroes. He is an amazing person MashaAllah. Naeem went to Islamic school his whole life, active in MYNA, now Native Deen and Islamic Relief. Boy has passion or strength or something. Everything he does he does 100%. He’s like the Muslim Hannah Montana. Relief worker by day, rock star at night! Lol Plus both these brother’s wives were once my roommates!!!

Muslim Solidarity Committee – This is a group of non-Muslim Americans in my town who banded together to help the Muslims that the gov’t targeted post 9/11. They have supported the victims for the last 5 years physically and monetarily and continue to work tirelessly for social justice for Muslims. At a time when I have to literally beg Muslims to help in any way or to try to do something about what is going on, they are the ones organizing everything, staging protests, talking to the media and politicians, making films and supporting the families.

Sisters X – These are various sisters I met while in Syria. Mostly British they come from all different backgrounds but the one thing they have in common is that they left everything to travel halfway across the world to study Islam. The strength and vulnerability and just character of these sisters is something I think of often. Sometimes I’ll think of something they did or said, or something they taught me or some trip or fun we had. I don’t know what it is but I’ve just never met any sisters like these except there.

Various Husbands – I won’t mention any names, but every time I see something they do for their wife or their kids or their parents or the community, I’m just amazed. They are soo good! Maybe I’m comparing them to all the fob husbands I know or the freak-file guys I interact with on the web, but I’m always filled with admiration for them just for being good men.

Wives of Imams and Speakers – I’ve never met one who I didn’t think was amazing. From Imam Suhaib’s to Imam Zaid’s to my own sister. They’re never in the limelight but everything their awesome husband’s do is to their credit. They take care of the homes, the family, the kids, their husbands and they sacrifice a lot in the way of Islam. I admire them much!

Gosh this list could get endless. I’d add like Jamal Badawi, more amazing anisahs of mine in Syria, a great American daee’ah there sr. Tamara, Salahuddin, Muhammad Asad, Ibn Hazm, Malcolm X, Hamza Yusuf, Imam Siraj, Br. Djafer, Rachel Corrie, Sr. Zainab, Scott Ritter, Ghazali, Rumi, tons of poets, sahabah, sahabiyat, prophets, our prophet (s). Who else??

Elizabeth Bennett once said, “The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense.” There are days that I get more and more disillusioned by humanity, with their meanness, their greed, jealousy, evils and selfishness. Sometimes I honestly ask Allah why He created us all when we’re so messed up! So that’s why today I thought I’d do the opposite and try to reaffirm that there are still some good people out there that I love and admire and make Dua for.

Jazaks for reading & coment!!! Let me know who you admire the most and why!!

Ws

I was all set to write a new blog on a certain topic, but then I received the following comment on a previous blog and thought responding to it would make an excellent blog post!!!

Here it is:

i read your blog (cant believe i did) but seriously some points are good while others are just opinions…next time try referencing from QURAN, what that says about how men and women should behave.. wow anyways your opinions are way too westernized… and it comes under the banner of “Islam of Convenience”

OK so first of all you “can’t believe you read the blog”.  I can’t believe you did either. Not sure what that means. If you didn’t want to read it, you shouldn’t have. Next time do me and yourself the favor of not reading something you obviously have issues with.

As for the blog, this whole blog is an OPINION. I don’t know if you didn’t realize this but:

Main Entry: blog

Pronunciation: \‘blohg, \bläg\

Function: noun

Etymology: short for Weblog

Date: 1999:

a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer ; also : the contents of such a site

About referencing the Quran, you’ll notice that throughout all my posts I will mention points of Islamic reference.  These are not Islamic articles where I’m going to quote Quran and Hadith chapter and verse, although I very well could and I HAVE written many such articles. But my point with the blog is to write about everyday contemporary, maybe controversial topics that affect the average Muslim and myself from an Islamic perspective. Including things about Islam and making Islamic points without using the Khutbah style. Sometimes with all the Quran verse 3: surah 4: Hadith Bukhari #2893 the message can get lost. Do people really want to be reading Quran and Hadith every other sentence in a blog and then debate about the authenticity and tafseer and chapter and verse? I’m sure some do and that’s why we have polemic blogs and forums and websites spreading dogma and debate over issues none of those people are qualified to debate.

Not sure why I’m explaining my Dawah method to you but since you asked there it is! Interestingly, there is one blog here that talks about a scene in a movie and the entire blog is actually a condensed version of a discourse by Ibn al Qayyim given by a scholar. Now I could certainly have written Ibn al Qayyim said …kazza wa kazza and listed the Quran and Hadith but it certainly wouldn’t reach as many people as bringing out the points in a way people can understand.

[I also tried this experiment where I wrote an Islamic article that had a lot of detailed Arabic fiqhi technical terms and many references; then I rewrote it completely in English translating things like tazkiyah to purification and salah to prayer and tawbah to repentance. What a difference! I guarantee you there would be people out there who would read the second article and call it 'Bid'ah' or some such thing!!]

Anyway since you talked about opinions, it seems your opinion is that the best Dawah method is through listing verses of the Quran, but this certainly isn’t mine. Yes certain things are my opinion and are clearly stated as such. If you want to read an article about Gender Relations in the Quran you should open up the Quran. Or if you want scholarly fatwas on a particular subject you should go to your local Imam so that he can find out your exact circumstances and conditions and give a ruling.

Lastly you talked about how “westernized” my opinions were and implied that I must be practicing an “Islam of Convenience”. I can understand how people overseas think that. They’ve just never seen Islam except in the way they practice it (or are told to practice it). Anything else is wrong, even though many times they are confusing their own opinions and culture with Islam, just as they accuse us “Westernized Muslims” of doing so. As for those Muslims that live in the West and think Muslims are too “westernized”; I believe what they are really saying is, “My interpretation and way of practicing Islam is the right one and everyone else’s is wrong” (despite even scholars and fiqh that says it’s Islamically OK). This is just a poor and uneducated way of accusing someone of doing something wrong. And to that I would say why don’t you just come out and discuss the issue with a real scholar instead of going around calling people “westernized”. Why do you think your opinion is not “westernized”?

I’ll leave my defence of my “Islam of Convenience” at that. I don’t know you and you certainly don’t know me, but I will say that 99% of the time someone calls me not a good Muslim or practicing an “Islam of Convenience” (or worse names) is because they don’t like what I’ve written because they know it’s right

Take care and thanks for the material for this blog post!!

ISNA 2009: The good, the bad & the ugly…

This year’s ISNA took place in Washington DC. The last time it took place here was in 2002 directly after 9/11. Dr. Ingrid Mattson, current president of ISNA (and a sister woohoo!), talked about how much we as American Muslims as a community have gone through in these 7 years from 2002 to 2009. When she said that I definitely felt a feeling of poignancy in the air. There is no doubt we’ve been through much trauma, hardship and difficulty these last years.

So what did I love? What did I hate? What do I wish they would change? Here it is, just like years past… the good, the bad and the ugly

The Good:

-The sessions this year seemed to be designed for a variety of different crowds. There were the Al-Madina brokered Sh. Mokhtar/Sh. Ninowy type sessions on things like Quranic gems. Al-Maghrib’s Yaser Qadhi and Yaser Birjas fiqhi type sessions. The Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers had their own program of multiple talks as did Turkish Muslims (where was Arabic and Urdu?). There were many ‘Meet the Author’ sessions and you could even get your CD signed by Yusuf Islam if you got lucky! There were late night (and I mean LATE night 1am) sessions on marriage and other favorite hot topics by MSA. There were also some really interesting sessions like the one of Muslims in Hollywood with Zarqa Nawaz (creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie), ‘The Blogistan’ about Muslim bloggers and Sh. Ninowy’s beautiful Burdah session. There were new sessions on things like divorce, cancer, Islamic finance, depression, recycling, eradicating malaria and domestic abuse in the Ummah. The film festival this year showed films like PBS’s ‘New Muslim Cool’, ‘Waiting for Mercy’ and ‘Journey to America’

-The bazaar has been changing over the years from people who own stores who bring their stuff — to a more boutique type of flavor. Now there are booths with designer Islamic clothes, unique Islamic products and amazing Muslim art. For some this might be a negative but I like the trend. I found some of the offerings quite lovely, even if extremely expensive.

-Saturday night instead of the big Hamza Yusuf Saturday night type of speech they had a talk show type style of session where HY, Yusuf Islam, Zaid Shakir and Ingrid Mattson sat on couches and discussed topics in front of the audience. Some people loved this, others hated it. I’m putting it in the good column because I liked it even though it should not have been the Sat night session or been like after it or televised or something.

- I liked that MSA had all these interesting sessions like on ‘gender relations’, ‘going against the parents to get married’, ‘how to keep a marriage going’. And I loved that these sessions were late at night no doubt aimed towards the lobby crowd.

-I also noticed people lining up at a ‘health screening’ area for free checkups. I think this is an excellent use of our resources.

-The information booths were ‘informative’. They actually knew where stuff was when I asked, which was important when there were a few football fields in between my sessions, and when a room turned out to be in a whole different building! They also had a billboard up of local halal restaurants which was very helpful.

-The graphics and logos were very professional and beautiful. It really made me feel like we’ve come a long way and hopefully will get even better in the future, iA!!

The Bad:

-This convention center must be built to accommodate a million people!! It’s humongous and everything was so hugely spaced out. It took forever to walk from one place to another. My feet hurt by 12 o’ clock. I saw people just finding random corners to pray instead of finding the mile away prayer area. I also took a wrong turn once and found myself next to huge cavernous sized ballrooms that were empty. There were probably tens of huge rooms like this, all empty. I mean the convention center is beautiful but the layout was ridiculously complex and I really feel sorry for any of the elders, pregnant, kids or directionally-disabled ppl (like me!) that were there. Everyone kept saying it was ‘small and not a lot of ppl’ but there were TONS of people… 8,000 in the main session, ppl all over the bazaar and hallways. The hugeness just created the ’small’ perception. It’s just a different feeling when there are so many people in a smaller convention center, even if we are squished together it just creates a better buzz and feeling of togetherness.

-I kind of did not like that this convention was not over Labor Day Weekend. There’s just something about labor day that makes ISNA special. It’s traditionally the end of summer and the start of the new year for all students. It just feels like a time of change and it always gave us that extra motivation and high right before we all went back to school. Summer bbqs, fireworks etc just didn’t seem to fit. Perhaps over time goes on they’ll make the convention more casual and social to match the date.

-Rick Warren in the middle of the Saturday night session? Rick Warren is an evangelical Christian pastor? And they invited him to speak for an HOUR (or what felt like) at the absolute height of the convention? I mean for real why? Interfaith is all good but it just didn’t seem appropriate at all. The Saturday night session is when EVERYONE is there. This is the time we as an American Ummah are waiting for direction, for motivation, for vision, for understanding, for clarification of what this past year meant, of what’s been going on. We all look to this session as a reassurance that we’re still good and right and going in the right direction. And then they had Rick Warren speak. After that they had they brought up the awesomest speakers: Ingrid Mattson, Yusuf Islam, Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir and had them act out a talk show styled after…’the view’? And the whole thing took 5 hours. Even if it included a much deserved W.D. Muhammad tribute and award for Imam Siraj it was just way too long and useless.

-Entertainment was weak….like 3 acts: a hip hop group, native deen, and a nasheed singer from canada. 3 acts doing 3 songs each. Whatever happened to variety? And why did they put Native Deen (arguably the awesomest) second instead of the last as a showstopper. I did hear they had some kind of muslim hiphop type of concert across town that many people actually went to and paid money for?? Were they not allowed to perform at ISNA or something and if so why not? Something is wrong when artists go across town and set up their own show. Whatever happened to the ISNA that had tons of cool new acts and talents. This was the same stage that hosted Sami Yusuf and Zain Bhikha and Azher Usman as up and coming talents at one time?

-Bazaar layout was kind of strange. Instead of rows there were walls here and there, making it a complete maze and you had to try to find your way out. Maybe they were simulating the crazy Aladdin like bazaars of the middle east? They forgot the guys who yell out “Welcome! Money exchange?! Dollar? Amreekan? you have ze dollar! Come viz me! I give u good deal”.

- No Obama. Despite persistent rumors (ppl from around the country kept texting us to ask if he showed up because they heard he was coming!) he didn’t come

-$15 for a plate of rice and chicken, $9 for a salad, $6 for fries, $4 for a muffin, $3 for a soda. Yeah I hope I lost some weight because who the heck can afford to eat like that?

The Ugly:

-So at the airports I got patted down in security ALL the times. I walked through fine each time but then I was always stopped and asked to spread my arms and legs so some woman can feel me up in public and under my scarf. It does get humiliating. And yes it does make me angry and upset. (And Yes I heard you can ask for a private room but do I really want to be interrogated alone with all my stuff and miss my flight?) When I was leaving the DC airport this security agent yelled out “V.I.T.!!! WE HAVE A V.I.T!!! Veeeee-Ayyyyeee-TEeeee!!!” and then a lady came out to pat me down. Apparently I must be a “very important terrorist” not sure what else it can stand for!!!

-They also went through all my stuff TO the convention AND back. They also opened my snacks (I cannot live thru ISNA without my chocolate chip granola bars!!)…(I forgot to count them maybe they ate some?) and they opened the honey I got for my Dad and then taped it up with big tape that said ‘INSPECTED DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY’. Yes I’m sure honey looks a lot like C4.

-I also wanted to take some pictures of interesting things around the airport or even of planes. I saw a lot of people doing this, but I didn’t. Why? Cuz I ain’t crazy.

-Many bazaar people did not go down on their prices. What the heck!! Prices were the same from Friday until Monday. I saw tons of booth people leaving with a lot of their stock unsold. I mean you can’t have it both ways. Either you price to sell or keep your price high and lower it by the last day. People drop major cash in the bazaar. I for one save my money to buy specific stuff there once a year. But if prices are more expensive than local Islamic stores or even their OWN stuff online (I once compared book prices at the bazaar and online for the same store) then shop keepers please listen: ppl will just stop buying! (One booth owner refused to give me a discount for buying $70 of books. He said he paid $5,000 for his booths and “hasn’t made anything”. Uh huh. And you’re charging me 70 bux for 3 books??!)

-There were two Muslim bros on my flight. I even heard one bro say salam to someone on the phone. Both ignored me Tip for guys/gals: You can say salam to someone. (They won’t think you want to marry them. For real.)

-Why did they not have any main programming after 9pm on any of the days except Friday when it went until 3am and we were all exhausted and passed out. Then they tried to fit ‘ISNA Entertainment’ into one hour at 7-8pm on Sunday and they had absolutely no program or sessions on Monday EVEN THOUGH everything says the convention is from July 3-6. Yet nothing on the 6^th??. Makes no sense and pissed off a lot of people who booked tickets to leave on Monday. (Seemed like the program was created only for DC local people, so that the timings would be convenient for their attendance instead of everyone.)

- Muslim beggars (mostly mothers holding babies) asking for money outside the convention center, inside the convention center, in the bazaar (how did they afford the conference registration?). Allahu alam if they’re rip off artists or whatever. I think it’s good to give a small amount to whoever asks of you, but I feel like ISNA should set something up to help people like this.

The Simply Amazing:

-If someone wanted, they could come to ISNA and watch a movie, buy their invitations for their wedding, go to a session about marriage, buy a book of wedding contracts, by a wedding dress and gold jewelry, get their henna done, buy an apartment in Dubai, invest their money in an Islamic mutual fund, buy Islamic mosaic furniture and cushions, stained glass windows, oil paintings and framed photos for their house, buy a baby shirt that says ‘I love Ummi’ AND eat some free popcorn, fresh dates, halal gummi bears, see real bees and eat their honey, eat free chocolate from Islamic Relief and taste various fair-trade chais!!!

-Ingrid Mattson, Yusuf Islam, Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir on ONE stage together. Talking about HAPPINESS. Just amazing subhanAllah.

-A sister converting in front of 8,000 people with Imam Siraj!

-Meeting br. Hamza Perez of PBS’s New Muslim Cool documentary in person and telling him how much I loved the last words of the film. ‘They’re not from me’, he said ‘These are the words of beloved Habib Ali.’ MashaAllah.

-Hearing Zarqa Nawaz talk about how she thought up the idea of and created the characters and plot of the much loved Little Mosque on the Prairie series.

-Meeting a random older auntie at the airport from Portland, Oregon and talking for an hour about life in America and urdu poetry.

-Seeing Imam Siraj healthy and strong and as amazing as he ever was.

-Having a police escort bring us to the white house, wish us well, AND see the white house in the moonlight. (lol long story how this happened and it helped not getting arrested)

-Hearing Altaf Hussain and another brother at a realllly late night session making jokes about Muslim pick-up lines and discussing the all time philosophical question ‘what is love’.

-Seeing Muslim bloggers in person that you always read and finding they’re as funny in real life as they are in their blogs

-Hearing sh Faraz Rabbani speak about how he met his wife and hearing a hundred girls sigh in the audience.

-Running into extremelyy old friends and hearing them say ‘I saw you on the jumbotron last night and I screamed to all the people sitting around me ‘I KNOW THAT GIRL I WENT TO SchOOl WITH HER!!’

-Learning the sign for water and love and Allah from the sign-language translator womens on stage.

-Speakers at an MSA marriage session telling brothers to stop being so superficial when looking for a spouse. YESSSssssssssssss!!!! They must read my blog

Suggestions:

-I know Chicago/Columbus/wherever gets crowded because they’re smaller convention centers. And horror of horror sessions get closed out because there is no room! (The usual culprit: putting Hamza Yusuf in a room for 200 people. For real why do they do this every year?) But you FEEL like it’s a convention, with a lot of Muslims and a lot of stuff going on and you can actually get from place to place without having to add in a 15 minute transpo buffer.

-Entertainment sessions should be organized by the entertainers themselves. They should have a section in front just for younger kids. They desperately really need this stuff. It’s OK to have bad new acts. It’s a platform, let everyone do one song or something.

-Whoever came up with the film festival idea is awesome! But ISNA really needs to advertise this more and make this an integrated part of the program. There was no mention of what was playing and when. You just had to try to figure it out and somehow find the room on your own too. A non-Muslim documentary filmmaker from my local area traveled all the way there to show her film about injustices against Muslims, ‘Waiting for Mercy’, but only a handful of people showed up to see her film How about this:  Show the movies across all three nights!! Like in the 10pm-midnight slots! Have popcorn there. Play them in the big hall. It would definitely draw in a lot of people and give the kids something to do at night when there’s nothing else going on except the lobby scene

-They need to go back to Labor Day. Who cares if it’s Ramadan. Imagine this… everyone at ISNA eating suhoor together, praying Fajr. Going to a few sessions in the afternoon. Breaking their iftar together. PRAYING taraweeh together! It would be so amazing. Seriously, there’s no shaytan so no lobby scene, young people would want to attend sessions. So think about it.

-Let’s get interactive. Why not have a huge screen for twitter messages? Or live video webcasts. I know it’s expensive, but how about delayed videos to youtube or something? There’s tons of people who can’t make it to ISNA because of cost or other reasons, why not let them get a taste and some benefit as well.

-How about a free registration if 10 people register from your community for a convert. They are never able to come to ISNAs because the costs are so prohibitive.

-The people renting bazaar booths do shell out a lot of money. How about making a nice booklet that contains a map labeled with each company and maybe some short info about them, their business cards, what they’re selling and their website. Good publicity for them and easier for us to find things or order things later on.

-I heard the matrimonial dinner is a speed dinner type of thing. Where there are 10 guys and 10 girls at a table and the guys keep rotating every 5 minutes. I think this isn’t the best method for matrimonials. I wish ISNA would improve this aspect in the future with different types of events and ways of hooking people up in a halal manner that is conducive for everyone iA.

~~~

Allah sent me to this year’s ISNA First, just a month ago I ended up receiving a voucher for a free ticket, so I used it for the ridiculously expensive ticket into DC National airport. Then, space at a hotel opened up through some friends. Somehow I logged on an hour before early registration ended and managed to register. And then when I flew there my flight was delayed for a few hours but then they moved me to a direct flight and I was there in an hour flat! Just seemed destined maybe:)

Alhamdulillah I saw a lot of beautiful things, met many old friends and listened to much wisdom.

Peace out….

and maybe iA…just maybe… I’ll see you next year in Chicago

P.S.

Check out the pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192065&id=16113735&l=8bf319da82 All 118 of them!!!

See some of the sessions including Saturday night’s on ISNA’s youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/isnavideos

P.S.S- ISNA Review for 2007.