Just Got Back From Columbus Ohio; Hadrah, Lot of Somalis, Increased my Eemaan!

Salamu ‘Alaykum Oh One Who Needs Allah ,

I just got back from my 3 day trip to Columbus Ohio. I attended a majlis for the mureeds (some non-mureeds) of Shaykh Nuh from the Midwest. There were maybe 15 brothers, a few kids, and I suppose some women - so my wife says.

The first day we met in the middle of the Columbus “hood”, Masjid Ar-Rahma. Its a Somali Qaadiri masjid. I was told the masjid is a year old (next time ill take some pics insha’Allah ). Let me tell ya, it is a beacon of light in a dark part of town. There were strip clubs, bars, and other evil institutions in the immediate surrounding blocks, yet in the middle of it all you see hundreds of Somali brethren dressed Muslimified with beards, joyous children walking to the masjid for the 5 prayers.

The kindness of the brethren was prophetic. They treated all of the “Shaadhilis” compassionately and even let one of the brothers sing a qasida. So what did we do at the masjid? We had a MAWLID! Woo hoo! They lined the masjid floors with the plastic rolls, fed us somali styled rice (delicious!), lamb, chicken, salad, water or soda.

Afterwards we sang the qasidah burdah. I sat in the back next to a bunch of little boys who liked to scream “mawlaaya salli wa sallam daa’iman abadan, alaa habibika khayrul khalqi kullihimi”. It was cute masha’Allah . Some of the little children even had the beautiful qasidah memorized (several pages worth of poetry). We made maghrib, and ‘ishaa’, listened to some lectures in Somali - but we got the gist of the lecture as he was quoting things known to us, then basically went home (though I am skipping going to the old madrasah where all of us bros met one another etc.).

The next day we had the latifiyyah at a very kind brothers house. After that, we had a Hadrah! Ya Allah ! The Hadrah was superb. I was able to relax more this time, as I have been aquainted with the drill now, and concentrate on the greatness of Allah ta’alaa. A wonderful experience indeed! One feels so connected, an extreme rush of eemaan. Its amazing. To see an example (though not exactly what occurred) watch the vid:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eCm9RQW8iow

 The munshids of the midwest did well with what little they had to work with, May Allah bless them with firdaws amin!

Then we had Syrian mansef that was off the heazaaaaa! Masha’Allah , the lamb was wonderful, may Allah bless the sister that cooked it. We sat and socialized, hearing a few stories etc. Great fun!  Definitely spiritually uplifting.

 After everyone left I hung out with a local mureed and his family (with my family of course). My wife wanted to buy some somali khimaars so we had to drive around to find them lol. THEN, amazingly my wife contacts this sister named Ruqayyah, may Allah bless her amin! She took us to a families house that we know - the husband stayed at my house for the fiqh of love class with Yaser Birjas. I was happy for the bro, may Allah bless him and his family. He just finished his P.hd. I had a nice time chatting with him, definitley beneficial! I went to the old masjid, Masjid Umar ibn Al Khattab, that my old Shaykh used to lead. Brought back alot of memories of the days with Sas and co.

The next day, I took my wife, Layth and Zakariya to African paradise for what was supposed to be lunch *11:20 a.m. Well, they were still serving breakfast, but no worries! We had some kalkala with “Japati” - chapati - with some somali styled pancakes. The food was delicious. My favorite style of tea is definitely the Somali style - No I don’t care what you people think about “chai” and blah blah blah. Somali tea is simple and sweet, literally!

Then I drove home, wishing I could stay longer. It always sucks leaving something good for something lame. The community here sucks; No dhikr, no hadra, no mureeds (save for 1 family who does the latifiyyah with us once a week), but Alhamdulillah for everything. I benefited immensley from the gathering and strengthened my himmah. Insha’Allah it will bring about change in my life and I look forward to the next gathering after the toronto suhbah.