The Meaning of IlmSummit

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

The Meaning of IlmSummit

Alhamdullilah wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasool’Allah

Ashadu an laa illaha illa lah wa ashadu anna Muhammadan Abdahu wa Rasool

It is time for Fajr. “Alhamdullilah Who has restored to me my health, and returned to me my soul, and allowed me to remember Him again.”“Alhamdullilah, Who has brought us to life after having caused us to die, and to Him is our return.”

You wipe the sleep from your eyes and make wudu, Bismillah, wa Ashadu an laa illaha illa lah, wahdahu laa shareeka lah, wa ashadu anna Muhammadan abdahu wa Rasool. You put on your clothes and head down for Fajr.

There you join all your brothers and sisters, some already waiting in the lines in quiet serenity.

You pray two rakahs.

The imam comes, and as he begins to recite you are mesmerized by the melodic embrace of the Qur’an as his heart and voice tremble with emotions, barely able to hold back the tears. The sniffles trickle throughout the rows of the congregants. There is peace.

The prayer ends.

After thikr and dua, some are off to read Qur’an, some are off to breakfast or to get more rest, and some head off to study.

8:45 am kicks in.

The shaykh is ready.

The students are waiting patiently.

Poised for taking notes.

Then, beautiful knowledge flows and swims from the mouth of the shaykh in various colors, forms, and shapes, as the pens scribble and the fingers hover over the keyboards.

There is no time to lose.

The shaykh ends the session and moves directly to hadith.

The sweet sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him, beautifies the gathering and brings happiness and delight to the minds and spirits of the students, and showers them with hope and tranquility.

That session ends, but the knowledge does not end there.

As you traverse throughout the day, your heart, spirit, and mind soak in the miracles of the Quran, the beauty of hadith, the precision of fiqh, the grace of tafsir, the depths of iman, the beneficence sharia, and the wonders of Islamic Spain, amongst the ocean of knowledge.

Yet your day is filled more.

You take an afternoon nap so that you can worship and study better at night. You research and revise with fellow students or alone. You eat with your brothers and sisters in faith and with the shayookh to take time to learn from their wisdom, manners, knowledge, experience, and advice. You are amazed at the level of knowledge of the students amongst you and try to benefit from them. You try to wake up for qiyyam. There is not a moment to waste because you may never get this chance again, and you may miss that one piece of information that could change your entire life.

You are not overseas at a madrassa.

And you are not overseas in a university.

You are in a hotel in Houston, TX, in the United States of America

You are at IlmSummit 2008.

The Birth of a New Reality for Islam in America | IlmSummit 2008: History in the Making

Realize though, that we do not want to be in a hotel any longer.

What is necessary in the meantime will suffice.

The time has come to change history, and to change the course and direction of Islam in America, with the help and guidance of Allah.

It does not have to be a hotel anymore because the time to think and plan bigger has come, if it is not already long overdue.

The time has come to establish a University of Islam in America with a full campus and instructors and students living there, teaching, learning, practicing, sharing, and benefiting day and night.

The time has come to raise our own standards, and to raise our own scholars and callers to Islam who do not have to go to foreign lands to understand and learn and teach Islam at a very high level, but can gain that all right there in America. The time has come to raise such people who not only understand the religion but also the society in which they live because they were born, brought up, and raised in it, so that they can impart it to others and implement it in the most suitable, wise, and beneficial fashion for the land in which they live. And that is because they are simply a part and parcel of it.

The time has come for the average non-Muslim American to be walking the streets with his companion and walk by that University amongst all the beautiful trees and greenery and see walking down its steps a bright-faced young man dressed in white and with hair on his face, and say: “I love those people, they are excellent. They bring so much benefit to the society and their religion is so simple and beautiful. I wish there were more of them, and I want to be like them.”

The time has come to turn that dream into a reality.

The time has come to raise up such an institution for the benefit and betterment of humanity, and this society in particular.

The time has come to bring the fruits of Islam to the people and to establish its peace, beauty, wisdom, and simplicity in the daily lives, transactions, living, and families of our community, and with that practice, spread those fruits as far and wide as we can to the people, with the help, mercy, and guidance of Allah.

The time is now and the time is to act. Because things will not wait for us. And because we do not have to wait any longer.

Insha’Allah, one day in this country, a parent will no longer be hoping for their child to attend Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, or Yale.

Insha’Allah, they will hope for their child to attend that University of Islam in America, because that is where the real benefactors and movers and shakers of society are shaped, educated, and inspired. Because that is where the sincere and true way of life is practiced, embodied, and shared for all who wish. And because it is at such institutions that the promise, hope, and the future of this people and land reside.

And so the dream is in the air.

Change must come and we must work for that change.

Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.

In the immediate time however, insha’Allah we will be in that hotel.

And, insha’Allah, we will be living out that dream as much as we can.

Subhana ka lahum wa behamdik, Ashadu an laa ilaaha illa lah ant, astaghfaruka wa atoobu elayk