Integrating with a Community

My reading fell a bit behind over the Eid period as my time was consumed by consuming food and spending time with the extended family. As with any family gathering the topics discussed were varied and wide-ranging but most predictably we ended up talking politics. Local, regional and international politics were all covered and many views were shared - some amusing, others confusing and some others worrying!

When I eventually did get back to my reading of Martin Lings' biography of Muhammad (pbuh) the story was dealing with that most critical time period of the Hijrah (the Migration). This was the time in which life for the Muslims in Makkah had become very uncomfortable and had begun to emigrate from Makkah to Madinah (then known as Yathrib) where the message of Islam had found a friendly ear. The Quraysh had grown so frustrated and angry that they were prepared to break with tradition and misuse their laws and regulations and plan an assassination attempt on the Prophet's (pbuh) life! The attempt failed due to miraculous events and the Prophet (pbuh) was able to safely make his way to Madinah though the journey was not without difficulty.

The groundwork for integrating the Muslims into the Madinah community had started many months previously with a companion called Musab doing missionary work in the city and spreading the message of Islam so by the time the Prophet (pbuh) arrived he had strong support from the two main tribes of Madinah - the Aws and the Khazraj. For the longest time these two tribes had been equally powerful and co-existing but not always as friends. Bloodshed was common and despite attempts at forging long lasting peace trouble always seemed to break out - often at the instigation of third parties who profited from their disunity.

The chiefs at the time recognised this and had begun to put plans into place to set up an equivalent of a king over both tribes. One man was a shoo-in for this job - Abdullah ibn Ubayy. Wealthy, powerful and influential - he had the support of both tribes and was willing to take on the responsibility of kingship. Unfortunately for him however, his expected rise to the top of society coincided with the arrival of the Prophet (pbuh) who upon entering Madinah was immediately raised to the position of leader and the top order of society was suddenly quite different to only a short time ago.

The Prophet (pbuh) took on his new role but didn't change the existing civil structures of Madinite society. The people were accustomed to a particular order - they had their tribal chiefs and clan chiefs and were content with their society. So rather than fundamentally tinkering with society the prophet SAW added to it. He took on his role as leader by taking a new position above the tribal chiefs. Power and influence still flowed exactly as before except now there was an additional level. Tribal chiefs were still important and had great influence amongst their tribes but, in modern terms, now reported to the Prophet (pbuh) rather than being a law unto themselves. Taken as a whole this mean that for the most part people could recognise the new leader and understood his role. For the everyday Madinah man little had changed and he could continue his life as before.

That's not to say everyone was happy. Unsurprisingly, Abdullah ibn Ubayy wasn't too impressed with the new situation but he hadn't gotten to his status by being a total fool. He still had access to the wealthy and powerful and decided to play it cool with Islam and not get involved. The Prophet (pbuh) had been made aware of Abdullah ibn Ubayy's particular situation and recognised that Abdullah ibn Ubayy's influence could be greatly beneficial to Islam's cause if it were channelled in the right direction. So rather than ostracise and sideline him he made special efforts to bring him on-side. Again - using the existing power structures to help society progress rather than making aggressive changes. His efforts were not immediately successful but he persisted. As time wore on and Abdullah ibn Ubayy's influence began to diminish due to his non-Muslim status he did eventually respond to the Prophet's (pbuh) overtures and convert to Islam (by word at least if not by heart).

There's lessons to be learnt from how the Prophet (pbuh) went about integrating into his new community. He didn't come in and turn everything upside down and establish an entirely new system. By working with the existing society system and simply adding to it he was able to keep most of the populace in step with his goals. His position was recognisable and his authority undeniable because he had the approval of those that the everyday man recognised as people of authority. He'd made efforts to win the agreement of the existing chiefs - which in itself was not done overnight but with time, care and planning. All in all it was a masterstroke of political leadership and one that any student of politics can learn from.

The modern and ancient Muslim

Since the last post I've read further in the book and the subject matter has changed from the histories and ancestries of the Quraysh and its various clans to the detail of Islam's nascent period. And within it there's a number of parallels to the modern day situation of Islam.

The first section of the book was important to get an understanding of the culture and society in which Islam arrived and while it's over a thousand years away and the cultural practices are different to today the weaknesses of human nature that existed then are still here with us now.

To put things into some context for those unfamiliar with the histories - the Quraysh held the role of The Establishment in Makkah. They were the guardians of culture and held great power and influence throughout ancient Arabia as a result of their custodianship of the Kaaba. The continuation of their influence was reliant on maintaining the status quo - visitors could worship whatever they liked when in Makkah so long as they let everybody else do the same. As a result - everyone felt safe and the pilgrims and merchants that visited the city continued to visit and business was booming. And this was the accepted pattern of life for a number of years before the advent of Islam.

When Islam did arrive in the form of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his message of the Oneness of Allah the Quraysh initially looked upon the 'new' religion as an oddity that could be ignored and subsumed within the numerous other religious traditions that co-existed perfectly well in their society. And for a while there was little controversy. But eventually it became clear that Islam wasn't going to go away and in fact Islam did not allow for the idolatry that the Arabs practiced. It called for them to revert to the worship of the One God and the abandonment of their idols - a theology that they had forgotten with the passage of time despite their pride at being of the children of Ibrahim (as).

As those same pilgrims and merchants visited the city they heard the new message and the Quraysh began to worry. If the pilgrims and merchants felt their beliefs and traditions were being challenged then they'd come less often and the city's commerce would suffer. And with reduced commerce and wealth the power and influence of the Quraysh would diminish and soon some other tribe would come and depose them - much like they had deposed the Jurhum tribe many years before.
And so with their way of life under a perceived threat they nervously upped the ante and began an aggressive physical and economic campaign against the new religion. When people are fearful they become defensive and/or lash out against the threat.

A major problem they faced however was their own cultural laws and practices allowed that clan chiefs could provide inviolable protection to individuals which meant that no one was allowed to harm that individual. And Muhammad (pbuh) was under the protection of his uncle and clan chief Abu Talib. Frustratingly for them it was in the other clan chiefs' own personal interests that Abu Talib's protection was allowed since if they rejected his right to provide protection they nullified their own rights to provide protection.

However, not all the new Muslims were under protection and it was these Muslims who faced the full brunt of the Quraysh's anger and fear. The book goes into some detail about the horrible things that were done to them which I won't go into but suffice it to say they had a very rough time. It was a time without many of the legal rights, protections and impartiality we expect from our modern society and the suffering and abuses of power were very real. In short it was not a good time to be an everyday Muslim. Yet the Muslims maintained their religion and were determined to stick by it as it was a belief that had entered their hearts and no earthly power could take that away from them. They were strong enough to show the nonbelievers that theirs was a better way of life and to live by the ideals that Islam taught. And this had an effect on some of the oppressors - that they recognised by observing the Muslims in action that they weren't so bad after all and perhaps it might be a good idea to find out more about what they were up to. This is where I see the most relevant parallel to the modern context.

In general we have a much easier time of religious practice in the UK than the early Muslims did in Makkah. We have considerable freedom to live within or religion whilst complying with the local laws. We have it good. And we have the opportunity to showcase the best of Islam by our own deeds and interactions with people of other or no faith. When your neighbour or work colleague thinks of a Muslim they should think of you and not some stereotyped image of a man in a mask standing in a desert screaming at the camera. And through thinking of you they should come to the conclusion that 'Yep, these Muslims might have different beliefs to me but I know a Muslim and based on hi/her character and what I've seen of him/her I can say they're a good people.' That's the goal and it's a difficult one that requires each and every one of us to pull our weight. Are you up for the challenge?

Martin Lings' Muhammad

This post is about Martin Lings' biography of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

I've long had a bit of a will-they wont-they relationship with Martin Ling's book. The book chronicles the life and times of Muhammad (pbuh) and was written in English by a person who had an excellent command of literary English and knew how to use words. By all accounts it's right up there as one of the best English language biographies that there is and now that I've finally started reading it I have to agree.

I first came across the book when at university in 2006 where several of my fellow students in the Islamic Society talked about it with great enthusiasm and reverence and shared a copy amongst each other. From childhood to adulthood I'd read numerous Early Islamic history books covering the sahabah and their stories, the battles and wars that were fought and the life of the Prophet (pbuh) himself so felt I had a reasonable understanding of this time period. And since I was at university there was plenty that a person could get distracted by - whether with academic study or joining the college Rowing Club and learning the finer points of life on water. And distracted I was until the winter holidays of my final year when I remembered the book and having found it in my college library I borrowed it and took it home with me to read over the winter vacation.

It stayed in my luggage through the whole holiday and eventually when I returned to university in the autumn I discovered it had actually left my luggage and was in my sister's possession! Which was a real frustration as I soon received notice of an overdue book fine from the library. Luckily for me I was able to get to her house and pick up the book and still without having opened it I gave it back to the library.

Fast forward a few years to summer 2014 and I somehow came across the book on Amazon and decided to buy it. It arrived within a couple of days and I finally had my own copy to read and no excuse to not read. Yet I still did not read it and amidst my quarter-life crisis it got buried under a whole host of other books that I bought from various charity shops and I forgot about it again. Over the next year it moved with me to my next flat and then back with me to my family home where it ended up in my brother's possession. During this time I took up reading on the train commute to work and worked my way through several books on a variety of subjects.

All until yesterday when having recently come back from YMLP with a rekindled flame in my heart for all things religious and knowledgeable I decided to finally read the book. It took me a while to track it down as it had moved around the house and at last I found it in a little used cupboard in the little used spare room.

At long last I began to read and an hour later had made it through 35 pages. And what a book it is! The book is definitely well-written and evokes more than mere fact but it's more than the words on the page. The subject matter of the book is plainly Muhammad (pbuh) but for me the book connected me to a heritage that had faded from my mind. A shared heritage that I think has faded from a lot of muslim minds. Amidst all the scandal and negative news that the world hears about muslims on a daily basis the book shows the prime example that we should be following.

The book opens with a discussion of the Prophet's (pbuh) ancestry starting with Ibrahim (AS) which on the surface is fairly academic and dry but I drank it up as it highlighted to me what I had forgotten - the history of Islam is a long, storied and glorious one and we should be proud to humbly call ourselves Muslim. Islam has been going for a very long time and while it may feel like it's under sustained attack right now - it has ever been thus and yet by the grace of Allah truth has consistently prevailed. Muslims of old lived their Islam and favourably demonstrated their value to the wider society they lived in. And that is something that we can hold on to in our modern society.

Seeking purpose or Dealing with a quarter life crisis

In the middle of 2014 I embarked upon a quarter-life crisis. My daily 3 hour round-trip commute was getting increasingly onerous and so I'd moved closer to work and found myself a one bedroom maisonette in a nice part of Welwyn Garden City. I was now only 5 minutes drive from the office which meant that even if I snoozed my alarm clock until 8.50 I could make it to work by 9am. Smashing result!

Soon though, I realised that despite regaining close to 3 hours of my day back I didn't have anything to do with it. I knew no one local and knew nothing about the town. I did have an internet connection though and made use of it watching various TV shows and streaming movies. And shortly after that I secured myself a 39in LED TV via a staff charity auction.

And so my post-work evenings turned into a consumer's dream. Sit on my wingback armchair and just stare at the TV for several hours until it was time to go to sleep. Through no effort of my own I was offered the full HD package missing only Sky Sports so I had a huge number of channels to keep me entertained.

After a couple of weeks of this though I started to feel a little empty. What was I wasting my time for? It was all very comfortable sitting in my wingback armchair but what was I gaining from watching endless repeats of Friends on Comedy Central and HIMYM on E4 and Top Gear on Dave? Was this what my life was going to be? 

I decided no. With all the gifts Allah in his infinite mercy had bestowed upon me I felt the need to be more productive and to not just consume but to create and use. I was still doing my once a week voluntary teaching at City Circle Saturday School and visiting friends and family on weekends which kept me somewhat sane but I wanted to make more productive use of my weekday evenings. I wanted to find a purpose for my life that I could aim for.

It was around this time that Ramadan came along and through it I got involved with the Welwyn Islamic Society and helped out with Tarawih arrangements (rolling up the prayer rugs). I made some friends in the community and found that there were various activities going on - for example a Sunday Islamic circle for adults and an bring-a-dish Iftar party. Made me feel like a part of the community. 

At this same time I happened to catch the Commonwealth Games and saw the Men's Gymnastics finals. I was very impressed and thought it looked doable and with a quick bit of googling found that there was an adult gymnastics class running in Welwyn Garden City itself! So I went along to that and found myself as the only guy in the gym. But there were only 3 women there anyway as it was a very low attendance class. And over the weeks I practiced on the trampoline and the uneven bars. I pranced on the balance beam and rolled around on the floor. And with time and practice the movements became more fluid and the strength increased. Another positive result. 

Shortly after Ramadan I went along to a weekend Peace Lab run by MUJU - a Muslim and Jewish interfaith theatre group. It was around the time of the regular Israeli Gaza assault and I wasn't expecting much but I had a free weekend and I figured if I didn't enjoy day 1 I'd just not go back for day 2. I wanted to give it a proper chance though so threw myself into it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Exploring questions of identity and religion, themes of war, peace and happiness with a group of people I had never met before but whose company and conversation I appreciated made for very good internal feelings. A month or so after the Peace Lab the organisers wanted to create a theatre piece from the material we'd discussed and recorded and I was more than happy to volunteer for that. It meant getting down to RichMix in Bethnal Green every Wednesday evening - which from Welwyn Garden City meant a good 2 hour round trip on the train and £20 per visit. But I went a long and considered it a worthwhile investment of my time and money. It culminated in a show in which I performed and which gave me thrills and an adrenaline rush I hadn't felt for a long time.

I also joined the local badminton club which gave me a regular activity on Sunday evenings and made friends with some of the other club members and introduced an element of competition to my life which had been missing for some time. And when I was eventually selected to play in one of the team competitions I found myself enjoying the experience even more!

In my time in Welwyn Garden City I undertook a few more activities which I may discuss in a future article. None of them seemed to be linked to each other and people would often question why I was doing so many different things. And it took me a while to come up with an honest answer. I'd usually say because I was bored but I think more than that the reason was I wanted to find a purpose and by trying new things I was hoping to find it. 

In some ways I am still searching but for now my purpose is to keep developing as a human being and as a person. Keep on adding skills and abilities and pray that some of them come together in future to help me find my purpose. It may or may not come but at the very least I have some interesting stories to tell. 

Shakespeare wrote it well in Hamlet “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will,” (Hamlet to Horatio in Act 5, Scene 2). I first came across this in another fiction book as a child but never really understood it's meaning. I think I have a better understanding of it now - don't worry about the larger plan as it's in control of a better planner than you can possibly imagine. Instead just trust in Allah, enjoy the ride and make the most of it.

Coming down after YMLP

For those that don't know what YMLP is please visit www.oxcis.ac.uk/ymlp

So I just finished with the Young Muslim Leadership Programme where for two weeks we had been kept non-stop busy with inspirational lectures, discussions and activities covering a whole range of topics and themes from campaign management to political theory. Morning to evening there were planned events usually finishing with dinner with a speaker where we'd dress up in formal attire. But the day didn't end there. Most nights we'd be up into the small hours chatting, joking and enjoying each other's company before turning in for a short night's sleep to do it all over again.

In a very short time however this became the norm and body clocks adjusted, mental capacities adapted and lots of caffeine was ingested. Being productive and absorbtive is what we did all day everyday. For me it was a pleasant break from my day job and in some ways reminiscent of my time at Cambridge where every day was a stretching day - usually as I frantically tried to make sense of my mathematics lecture notes. And during this time where you're spending 24 hours a day in the company of the same 24 people you end up getting to know everyone really well and build bonds that will last the test of time. The intensity of the programme requires you to rely on others to make it through and share the responsibility of appearing to be awake when the lecturer just isn't talking about a topic that interests you. Questions need to come from somewhere and everyone contributes at some point.

So when it all finally came to an end on the evening of Friday 11th Sept I found myself at a bit of a loose end. We spent Friday night cracking jokes and writing notes to each other to take away with us along with our memories but eventually Saturday morning arrived and we all went our separate ways.

The first thing I did upon reaching my car (parked nearby) was have a two hour nap. After that I drove off home and upon arrival 2 hours later fell asleep some more. In fact I spent of Saturday catching up on my sleep as during the course I'd been getting by on 5-6 hours a night.
Sunday morning came and I half expected to be late for a talk when I woke up but I was back in my own bed and had no plans. It was a quite a come down after the two weeks to lie there thinking "hmm. What should I do?"
I got out of bed, read a few of my usual morning websites but was filled with a certain listlessness as to what purpose I had woken up for and I wasn't pleased about it.

But Allah gave us brains for a reason and I had some ideas about what I could do. I took my motorbike which I hadn't ridden for two weeks and had been fixing up just before I left and decided to test out my handiwork with a short ride around the block. Brakes, clutch and chain all worked fine so I lengthened my ride and lengthened it again till I ended up in Potters Bar 25 miles away from home. I rode back along a different route and took my first adventure on the North Circular and eventually ended up riding for 3 hours. Amazing experience but when I got home again I was again filled with a longing to do something.

Enter the YMLP 2015 WhatsApp group. An amazing little group where we can share ideas and thoughts without fear of mockery (well without fear of ill-intentioned mockery at least!) and often find a supportive ear. Already there's been discussion of video series, fashion outlets and learning languages. And in the absence of a structured programme you have to make do with what you can and with this active and involved group there's a huge amount that can be done and we can carry on the spirit of the programme and take the Amanah that we were trusted with and make good use out of it to somehow make the world a better place. And to do so we need only make the effort and support each others' endeavours.

Thought of The Day YMLP 2015

Assalamualaikum all

This is the tenth day of the programme and the first day of our self-run thoughts of the day.

I spent some time last night thinking about what would make an interesting topic for this and after writing and deleting a number of attempts decided to talk about human nature and to keep it fresh by exploring what happened just yesterday while its fresh in our minds.

I’m going to focus on our guided tour of the Islamic Gallery at the british museum with the curator. In case you’ve forgotten we’d had a pretty early start and by the time of the tour we’d already visited the Houses of Parliament. 

So, the first thing to strike me was the approach that the curator took. No phones, no food, no fun. Listen to me and do nothing else. At the time I remember thinking (to quote Ali) “WTF? This is a bit stifling.” And from the quiet chats I had with a number of you I know I was not alone in thinking this. Been a long day and the last thing we wanted was to be treated like little children. At this stage I also knew nothing about her beyond she was a curator. So to my eyes we had this random middle aged lady aggressively talking at us about objects of limited personal interest – to me at least – and my mind was totally switched off and in fact I was discreetly on my phone hiding behind Afnan. You might remember Raiyan tried similar but didn’t have my experience in hiding phone usage and got caught. And on top of that to be honest I don’t even remember what the first items were that we saw. All I remember thinking is This is ridiculous - I am super bored and how can I disrupt this class?

Now that was my perspective. I want to take a moment to empathise and look at it through her eyes. And obviously this is all conjecture but I think its reasonable conjecture.

We have a busy woman taking time out of her more enjoyable tasks to do one of the more usually thankless duties of her job. She knows the objects on display very well and has taken that tour countless times before and could do it with her eyes closed. Most likely with bored school kids and other captive audiences like us who pay her zero attention while she imparts what she considers to be wisdom and knowledge. And its quite likely that for her to not feel like she’s wasting her valuable time and effort she wants to have the appearance that her audience is actually listening – which leads to her insistence on no phones and food and allows her to say her spiel without interruption.

So what do we do? The audience is bored and the speaker is bored. There’s no connection between the two and no one is enjoying the situation.

It was at this point she opened up to questions and if you remember I asked her about her background as I wanted to hear about something else that the artefacts and personal histories fascinate me and it seemed a good way to be subtly disruptive. The question turned out to surprise her and throw her completely off the track she was on – really not something I was expecting at the time if im honest. But she answered at length and after the other questions that Ali and Dr Mustafa asked we now had a better understanding of who she was and the hard work she was doing to preserve muslim heritage and history – which is actually our heritage and history and something we should be grateful to her and her kind of people for.

And all that made me much more appreciative and attentive. I finally recognised that we had an expert in our midst who was doing work which was benefit to all of us. To my mind the mood in the gallery visibly changed and the curator herself relaxed by several levels which made her much more pleasant to listen to.

And from that point I remember a lot more of what we saw. Around the lamps if you remember she was asking questions of us – one particular was “Where did the memluke kings reign?”. I just threw out Syria as a random guess and followed it with Iran. While I’d heard of the Memluke kings I didn’t have the foggiest idea where they were from. But she heard Syria and that random chance led her to think that we were a knowledgeable audience and not a bunch of numpties and again she relaxed and felt more comfortable. By the end of the tour she had no issue with phones and people wandering to look at other displays and likely didn’t even notice as she was so engaged with explaining the artefacts to the core group who stayed around and demonstrated interest.

So that’s the story – what are the lessons? Quite possible that you may draw different lessons but to me the first is that if you are going to lead a group the most effective way is to recognise who they are and make sure they know who you are. You can’t lead without credibility and credibility has to be earned. To begin with the curator did not do this and we were all completely switched off and looking for ways to escape! Build a connection and make it personal. Put yourself in their position and recognise their issues so you can get to know who you’re collaborating with and once you do you can simply just watch how the world changes around you!

Second lesson is that people in general are quite simple no matter how senior or important they might be. They love to talk about themselves and be asked for their ‘expert’ opinion. Show an interest in issues that they are interested in and they will come to you a metaphorically long way. For example at dinner I’ve sat next to the Director twice now and for the first dinner we mostly made small talk about the weather and how ‘nice’ the food was. But the second time I and the people around me managed to discover his secret interest – Recent and contemporary Indian history. Actually not so secret as he is a historian and it should’ve been fairly obvious. And once we got onto the topic of madrasas in india we saw a whole other side to him and one that I really enjoyed seeing and talking to. And with that thought I’m going to close.