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ISNA 2009

By Arif Kabir

Alhamdulillah, ISNA went well this year. As it was located in Washington D.C., it was very close for all of us DC Metro residents, and it proved to be very beneficial for me.

It was a type of ‘Islamic Fable’ for me – ever heard of the Xbox game, ‘Fable’? In that game basically, you choose whether you want to be good or evil. No matter what people say, ISNA is a lot like that. There are those whose eyes shine while they enumerate the ‘countless blessings of ISNA’, and there are those ‘Haraam’ police that simply say, ‘Haraam’ when you try striking a conversation about ISNA. For this ISNA, I am taking a position in the middle because I noticed that, just like the game ‘Fable’, we have the choice to choose whether to do good or evil. One of the essentials of our religion is to enjoin good and to forbid the evil, and I have witnessed both at ISNA:

Enjoining Good

On Saturday Morning, ISNA hosted a Qiraat Competition in which a sizable amount of people had enrolled in. Alhamdulillah, a few friends and I were blessed with the opportunity to join and we spent from 10 am till 2 pm doing nothing but reading Qur’an.  That was approximately four hours, aka 240 minutes of Qur’an that the majority of kids/pre-teens/teens/youth in that competition would not have been reading at that time had it not been for the event taking place at ISNA

Forbidding Evil

As ISNA was held in Washington DC, I was easily able to recognize many of the local ISNA staff, especially the security of the event because they were all youth that live in the DC area. While going through the MSA hotel (Yes, this year, they had a separate hotel/venue across the street for MSA), I saw that it was packed with security in every direction, which was very impressing. The best part of it all was the work that they were doing since they were actively forbidding evil with their presence. Whenever a scuffle would try to break out or people would wanna make out, there would either be a security member at hand to break it up or their presence would ensure that such a thing just wouldn’t happen.

Below are a couple of pictures that I had taken at the event:

The sign that greeted us all. Below it, you can see a glimpse of the double doors. This was the first time that they actually had to close the main double doors to get in as there were too many people and there was just a Hajj-like stampede going on everywhere. When I was finally able to get in, the place was literally packed and there were people everywhere; some sitting on the ground, while others stood up, and some leaning against the wall. This ‘packed’ atmosphere not only happened in the main hall, but in almost every single lecture that I tried going to. I remember I was once right behind Sheikh Yasir Qadhi while he was going to his lecture. Then, when he got lost in the midst of the crowd, I had to look around for a minute to find his room, and once I got there, the place was roped off for any further visitors, which was not cool. Advice to ISNA: This didn’t happen last year. Don’t make it happen next year: Get a bigger venue.

Baba Ali

While I was at the bazaar, guess who I ran into – Baba Ali from Ummah Films, HalfourDeen.com, and the Mecca2Medina and Kalimaat board games. He had come to our Masjid, Dar-us-Salaam, for our annual fundraiser and he actually still remembered us from there. You can see in the picture that HalfourDeen.com is right behind him and he was actually selling Kalimaat, his new board game, right beside him. Alhamdulillah, he was getting a lot of visitors coming in and enjoying his game. May Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala continue on giving him success…

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi!

While I was taking multiple pictures of the bazaar to make a panorama, I saw that Shaykh Yasir Qadhi was walking in the aisle and in an OMG moment, I quickly took a picture of him as he goes through the bazaar, escorted by a Nurayn rep on the left – Adam Ahmed Al-Leebee. Alhamdulillah, even though I was barricaded from entering one of his lectures, I was fortunate enough to go to another lecture of his in which he was talking about being an American Muslim and how the numbers are exponentially going up. After the lecture, I asked him about the Hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings upon him) said that the Muslims will be large in number, but will be very weak and like the foam on the sea, and if numbers will make a difference. He then told me that in raising these quantities, we should also be trying to develop quality; the Muslim Ummah will always be going on a cycle of ups and downs, and we should try our best to do as much as we can to improve the Ummah.

Keith Ellison

While I was walking through the MSA Hotel, I chanced upon a packed room with all these posh lawyers in dark, expensive suits and I found out, to my surprise, that Keith Ellison (first Muslim congressman) was in there. I walked in with my bright yellow shirt, trying my best to look conspicuous, and after being greeted with glares across the room, I resolved that I was gonna walk out as soon as possible, but not before taking a few snaps for MYM. Of course, this caused more mayhem as the camera kept on making clicking noises, but hey, what could I do? After taking a few pictures, I walked out of the room, but then felt like I could still get a better shot. Problem was, I was now out of the room and as it was more jam packed than before, it was near impossible to get in. Fortunately, Mr. Ellison saw me at the back of the crowd (after all, who can miss a yellow shirtie in a pack of black suited men?), stopped his talk, and motioned “for the young man to come in”. I felt honored and embarrassed at the same time because even though I was happy he wanted me to listen in, I really wasn’t interested in this topic; it was the usual ‘why Muslims should vote’ and then answering questions, like why he didn’t vote against supporting Israel’s offense against Gaza, but merely ‘present’ – something like he has Jewish constituents and that politics was important to him and there were better ways of protesting…at this point, I started fazing out and walked once more out, passing through many disgruntled lawyers. Once I got out, I looked to my left, and I saw that it was actually a reception by a law firm for Keith Ellison :D

Altaf Husain, Ingrid Mattson, Omar Mahmood

One of the best lectures that I went to was about psychology and the need to address mental illnesses in the community. As I had just taken an intro psychology class at college, this proved to be very interesting as it gave several Muslim parables and gave the Islamic viewpoint on many psychological issues. This was the first time I heard Omar Mahmood, and Masha’Allah, he was amazing. There was also Altaf Hussain, who spoke with great emotion in his voice. One could feel that he really cared about the issue and wanted everyone to understand the great plight of the issue.

…And that’s a wrap! This year’s ISNA was pretty good Alhamdulillah. May Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) guide us all, keep us on the Straight Path, and help those who are working for His Cause.

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