28th day of Ramadan

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Draft points to write later

The Bohra Masjid in Irving.
This was quite an enriching experience...

Beautiful Mosque,
Verses from Quraan written on the crown of the walls

All men wore white kurta pajama and a gold laced cap,
I have never seen such a uniformity and admire them for doing that, reminded me of a Ramadan picture from Indonesia where thousands of women were shown wearing white hijab and white clothes and wondered if it was real.. well here it was real. The Jain community does the same, at the Parliament in Melbourne, they all had donned white clothes, same goes with the Brahmakumaris..

Imam Asghar Ali represented Muslims in the 3rd Annual Unity day
Taher Bhai and friends were kind to me in introducing and
speaking to the members of the masjid and inviting them to the unity day
I surprised myself that I gave a speech in Urdu without thinking about it..

There is a cohesivness in the community

there was a strong sense of community, the sense of belonging to each other
just about every one is a doctor, engineer, entreprenuer or an IT person.
this is something I miss acutely in the Sunni tradition... in general.

great food,
and was such a delight to see Malida - a mixture of wheat grains, brown sugar and nuts.. that my mother and grand mother used to make and I enjoyed it... I would say it was some thirty years ago I had the Malida.

It felt like home.. Taher Bhai, Mustafa and Mr. Ford walked me to the car... that was super nice of them.

Tonite is a special nite for them, it was their 30th day and they will be up all night praying.

This community is very service oriented and it was a delight to see them serve and build at the habitat for humanity, at Schools and other places.

Wearing a beard and or wearing a Hijab and serving others truly builds a postive identifiable image for Muslims.

One was talking about President Bush, recognizing him for his beard and cap and asking him how is his highness - reocognizing Syedena Burhanuddin, the spiritual leader for the Bohra community.

It was so good to hear them talking about serving others, that invariably will build a positive image for Muslims as contributing members of the society towards peace and growth of America.

Much More later..

Just about all men wore long beard and the caps, indeed the Imam asked me the three thing I noticed... and beard was one, the clothing and the cohesivness and the respect they give to their imam and the leaders

Washing the hands in a bowl, that I remember from my childhood, then sitting around a large plate and sharing the meal... something I remember when I was 6-7 years old we did in our family.. remember it vividly.