Hafsah Faizal | YA Author | #MyCareer

As a part of the ongoing #MyCareer quarterly we had the chance to speak to two budding authors working in the YA and poetry writing space, covering everything from faith to the growing diversity in the industry.

Given that Muslims are often misunderstood and misrepresented in the real world, these authors are pioneering the introduction of Muslim characters in mainstream teen fiction and battling stereotypes simultaneously. Sahira Javaid and Hafsah Faizal felt inspired by their own religion and culture to create characters and settings that are both fantastical and relatable to the young adult audience while non-invasively integrating Islamic values and culture.

Hafsah is an American Muslim author whose first YA novel, “We Hunt The Flame” will be released in May 2019. Faizal started writing the book as a teen and draws inspiration from her own culture. To her, it made sense to pick fantasy to tell this story because it’s the genre she consumes the most of. Also noting that a fantastical and Ancient Arabia serves as a wonderful world to dive into. If you haven’t already, make sure to make room on your bookshelves for the stellar YA books written by Muslim authors.

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What does being a Muslim YA (Young Adult) fiction author entail?

It means persevering, fighting, and holding fast, just as any author would—but tenfold. The gates of publishing are tough to penetrate, but when you’re an anomaly to the system, something outside the norm, it’s that much harder.

That said, I believe anything is possible when you stay true to your beliefs, and Alhamdulillah, I’ve been blessed to work with some of the greatest people in the industry: from my agent (and the many agents who were ready to back my work), my editor (and the many editors who fought for the book at auction), and now the team at Macmillan Books For Young Readers, who are championing me and ‘We Hunt The Flame’ in ways I could only have dreamed of.

What is your educational background?

I’m a self-taught web designer and developer who happens to have found her niche in publishing. Through my business, IceyDesigns, I create websites for authors and industry professionals, and have expanded to an online storefront dedicated to goods designed by me. I do not have any certification in writing, and I believe all you need is perseverance!

What is the process a writer needs to go through to get published?

If you’re aiming for publication at one of the big five houses, you must have a completed manuscript. Once you do, polish it to the best of your ability and query literary agents. I suggest a website such as QueryTracker.net to help research agents, their reputations, and the sort of material they’re looking for. Then, put together your query letter and send it off! You may receive requests for as little as fifty pages or the entire manuscript. If you don’t get an offer of representation, don’t fret! Publishing is a long game made of resilience and the honing of your craft. Keep trying!

How is it working with publishers? Do they have any influence in the way you write stories?

In a way, yes. But only very slightly. Once you’ve signed with an agent, their job is to sell your manuscript. When my agent shopped my manuscript around, we received offers from multiple publishers. I then chatted with each of them, discussing their editorial plans and the like. A publisher’s—or editor’s, I should say—job is not to change a story to fit their vision, but to help an author tell the story they’re trying to tell. To help them clear up the mugginess, and at times, steer the story in the direction to properly fit a niche or market. Oftentimes, the editor will identify the problem and suggest solutions, but it’s ultimately the author’s job to decide how they’ll fix the issue. So yes, they do have some influence!

What is the greatest source of inspiration for your writing?  

I draw inspiration from everywhere—my travels, my work, but I think I draw the most from other works of fiction, particularly fantasy!

Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing your book?

There’s something magical and, at the same time, poignant about the teen and early adult years. There’s a great sense of the unknown, and I’ve always been drawn to young adult fiction because of it. We Hunt The Flame is geared toward young adults—either for that reason, or maybe because I was a teen when I began writing it!

Why did you choose the genre of fiction to tell this story of “discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands” ?

You are what you read, and as someone who loves fiction, primarily fantasy, I couldn’t think of any other medium to write for. Readers are constantly searching for the next world to dive into, and there’s a bit of surreality in being able to connect with a character in a land worlds apart from your own. With ‘We Hunt The Flame’ I wanted to achieve that same feeling, but also create a place readers could connect with, drawing the world of the Middle East—which is sometimes seen as an apprehensive, ‘outside’ force—closer.

Your book has been called the next ‘Game of Thrones’. How would you feel about your book making it to the TV screen?

I would be honored! Carrying on from my previous mention of the Middle East, I think it would be enlightening to see a sweeping fantasy set in a world inspired by ancient Arabia!

https://www.hafsahfaizal.com/books/we-hunt-the-flame

What was your biggest challenge when writing this book?

I’d say the biggest challenge was finding time! This manuscript took me over four years to write, because I began it around the same time IceyDesigns took off, and it was hard to justify spending time on it when I could be growing my business!

When did you realize you could “write”, was there a person who encouraged you to do so?

It all started with a really crazy dream. I woke up the next morning with a story just waiting to be told, and my dad encouraged me to write it! That story ended up being shelved away, and five manuscripts later, ‘We Hunt The Flame’ —inspired by very different elements—was born.

Have you ever felt your personal faith has conflicted with your career? And if so, how?

Never. I put my faith first, and all else second. How can you go wrong when holding firm to the deen? There are more hurdles to get through, and more barriers to pass, but ultimately, everything works out beautifully. Alhamdulillah!

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You can stay up to date with all the news on Hafsah’s debut novel ‘We Hunt The Flame’ over on her website and social media accounts:

www.hafsahfaizal.com/books/we-hunt-the-flame

@hafsahfaizal

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This November we will be sharing the stories of Muslim professionals who work in unique industries around the world. From sporting professionals to angel investors, stay in the loop with our content by checking out the page below and following us on all our social platforms.

Azam Jaafri | The Serial Entrepreneur | #MyCareer

With the turn of the century and subsequent strides in technology the world of entrepreneurship has become more accessible than ever. Once thought to be an occupation fraught with risks and debilitating losses, it has now (for some) transformed into a glamorous occupation filled with hopes of self autonomy and financial freedom. To put it simply, entrepreneurship is the new cool.

Thanks largely in part to the development of social media and the emergence of internet personalties young people are more motivated than ever to start their own projects, and with devices in the palm of their hands there is nothing but apprehension to stop them. However, among the wholesome tales of financial success there are somber tales of the very opposite.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with somebody who has done it all, from flipping homes in the early days to a portfolio that stretches from gyms, to clothing and digital media; it’s fair to say Azam Jaafri has had dug his fingers in a fair share of pies.

In the inaugural quarterly of Bahath’s ‘My Career’ edition we sat down for a chat with Azam to learn all about the world of entrepreneurship.

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what is your job title and what does that entail?

So, I am a serial entrepreneur. I own multiple businesses, I have built multiple companies over the past 20 years, I love building brands. I love creating solutions to problems, I love serving peoples needs. Typically what entrepreneurs do.

In the early days I started off in the property business, I started buying cheap houses, renovating them and selling them for profit. I then moved into larger scale property development; so I am still involved in the property industry.

I then moved into online retail as I discovered an issue with the way that I was buying products for my building sites; I found that you couldn’t buy stuff online the way you could buy shoes online for example, so I moved into the building products market. I then developed multiple e-commerce businesses. Fast forward the last 10 years or so I then launched a couple of Halal food brands in the supermarkets and acquired an agency which now works for some of the biggest brands in the world. That agency covers everything branding, strategy, tech and digital.

Most recently I have moved into the fitness space so I launched a gym brand which we are expanding now.

What makes something a product you would invest in as opposed to starting yourself?

If I have an idea myself I will develop that idea, if there is an opportunity for me to invest it makes more sense for me to invest if all of the boxes are ticked. If the person is the right person, the team are the right team, the products is right, the infrastructure is right and my added value would boost that business. Going into multiple markets by yourself is pointless.

What has been your biggest business failure?

There have been lots and lots of failures. Part of business is failing, you just have to except that we are human beings and that we are fallible, mistakes are your teachers. So, I couldn’t pin point a specific one as the biggest, because each one until this day, you learn from.

You get up, you brush yourself up and you see what you need to do next to make things right. But, that’s kind of how it goes.

Entrepreneurship is a lot about taking risks. how did you get over the fear of failure?

My faith allows me to leave so much with Allah and to know that I am in little control of this outcome. Ultimately, we have to have faith in his plan, a failure to me is potentially a redirection of where I need to be going. All of what I would consider failures were a necessary part of getting to where I am now. I get over failures knowing it’s God’s will and realising that there is something that I need to take out of this experience. Take that lesson and do better.

How does your faith help you with your work as an entrepreneur?

In terms of faith, there are multiple aspects. Our Prophet ﷺ and his wife were successful entrepreneurs; business is something that is encouraged within our faith.

I also believe each one of us is blessed with certain skills, some of us have the ability of oration, some of us have the ability of being artists, some of us have the ability of being entrepreneurs. Not everybody is an entrepreneur and not everyone is cut out for it. But ultimately through my faith I believe I have a role in society to do more as an entrepreneur than just make money.

As an Asian Muslim business leader particularly in the industries you work in you are a rare phenomenon. How has that experience been like over the years?

Something important to understand is knowing your value. If you have value to bring everybody will appreciate that, I have never felt discrimination because I have made myself relevant. If I sit in a meeting with a t-shirt and a hoodie and everybody is wearing suits it’s probably because I am the guy who is in the position to wear whatever I want. It’s about being confident in who you are and what you represent, having this concern or “inferiority complex” opens the doors to being a victim of some of those issues sometimes. You have to be firm and confident in who you are and know the value you bring.

What my faith should do is enhance my character, make me a better person to be around and make me a more valuable asset to society. I don’t see myself as different to anybody else, I have never walked into a meeting thinking “I’m Muslim these people are going to look at me differently”. I just bring the value to the table, the deal is what people are concerned about if you bring that much value how are they going to turn you down?

What does success mean to you?

Ultimately success is pleasing Allah SWT. My hierarchy of success is pleasing God, being a good family man, making sure that my children are happy and making sure the people that are around me can trust and rely on me. Doing things that you love and adding value, that for me is success.

Money doesn’t bring success. I tell everybody the same story, when we grew up as young boys we had this image in our mind of cars and “success” and you know most of us had a poster of a Ferrari in our room.

I remember when I went to buy my first Ferrari and we went to the dealership, I bought the car and was thinking ‘something is going to happen' I drove into central London and thought to myself ‘something is going to happen’ I drove the car home, parked the car in the garage and went to bed, I couldn’t sleep I was really irritated so I came back down opened the garage door and talked to the car and said to the car:

“Do something! Because for my entire life since I was conscious of what a car is I have been programmed to believe that you are the greatest achievement and you are going to make me feel something that nobody else has ever felt, and I don’t feel anything”

I had really been sold a dream that isn’t real and I had been told things that weren’t true. Success for me is ultimately being content.

There can sometimes be a "24/7 hustle” mentality in the world of entrepreneurship, how do you avoid burnout?

It’s very important to balance your time. I am not talking about having loads and loads of time off, but as human beings we need a break. So for me personally I have a certain amount of time allocated to family, and a certain amount of time allocated to training my body, and a certain amount of time allocated to taking a break and collecting my thoughts.

Networking is a crucial part of most careers, what are your top tips for networking?

You have to be very specific. What I mean is that you have to be specific with the type of people you are networking with so you don’t just network with anyone. You first must know your goals and understand where you want to go. Then you try and find the appropriate people to network with who can bring value. From that initial group you then need to filter through those people to identify who is actually valuable from that group.

Network with people who are useful, network with people you have done your due diligence on. Be smart about the time you are allocating on networking as well, you could spend all day networking and it doesn’t add any value.

You’ve got to know what you are looking for, when you know what you are looking for it happens quickly. What are you trying to network for? What are you trying to achieve? What is your end goal? Who can help you? These are the questions you need to ask.

From our experiences there are a lot of ‘get rich quick schemes’ that are popular within the Muslim community, what is your advice for people heading down this route?

I am fully aware of some of the issues that exist within our community. There is no shortcut to success and you will either end up losing money or losing your life. Anything that seems too good to be true is often exactly that. If you want to make money it requires patience, consistency and ‘real business’. One thing that I encourage for people specifically from our community is to look at your grandparents and parents who came to this country and couldn’t speak the language; in some cases, who didn’t know the culture, and they came and worked hard and provided a platform for the next generation. Take inspiration from those people, look back at the people who are your real heroes.

There is no short term, play the long game and you’ll see long term results.

What are some of your top tips for somebody who is interested in being an entrepreneur?

First and foremost identify that this is your burning desire. My grandmother tells stories of when I used to hustle as a little kid, I used to love it! So make sure it’s something you truly want.

Be ready to make sacrifices because it’s not going come straight away.

Be realistic about whatever you want to get into. Is there a need for it? Are you just copying someone else’s idea? Make sure you find something that you feel you can add value to.

How do you set achievable goals?

Know yourself and know your capacity. I know that I can work 18 hours a day no problem and I know the speed at which I work but I also understand what I am not capable of.

What I also recommend to beginners is to first set challenging but achievable goals and then keep upping the game. The way you do things that are achievable is that you focus on you, the moment you start focusing on everybody else you’re going to fall on your face.

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Special thanks to Azam for taking the time out to contribute to our series you can stay up to date with his work over on his Instagram account: @azamjaafri

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This November we will be sharing the stories of Muslim professionals who work in unique industries around the world. From sporting professionals to angel investors stay in the loop with our content by checking out the page below and following us on all our social platforms

Islam and The Environment | What Can You Do To Be An Eco-Friendly Muslim?

Asmaa and Max are the eco-friendly Muslim couple behind the website 'Greenkum'. In this article, they shared their thoughts on Islam, the environment and animal welfare..

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During my masters’ studies, one of my Professors who was giving us a lecture on the topic of Urban Environments and Sustainability told the class that she admires the importance that Muslims put on their surrounding environments. She said, 'go to Delhi and you will be enchanted by the beautiful gardens that surround houses and palaces. The Muslims who like to surround themselves with gardens do so so that they can remind themselves of the heavens'

I am lucky that my academic interests are in an environmental setting and the more I learn about our environment the more I admire the glorious abilities of Allah Subhanah wa tala’a. However, regardless of the emphasis that Islam puts on conservation and the environment, many of us contribute to a high carbon footprint and that effects our environment in a very negative way. Why have we gone so far? Is it possible for us to enjoy our so-called modern lifestyles yet still care for our environment?

We spoke to Asmaa and Musa Max, a German blogging couple who shared with us their experience living a more environmentally conscious life...

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Tell us a bit about yourselves and how did you become more aware of environmental issues?

We are Asmaa, 27, and Max Musa, 28, a German married couple, best friends and the founders of the environmental blog Greenukum. Our blog is a showcase of our journey to become more conscious in hope to create an awareness for “green” topics like sustainability, environmentalism and animal protection, Eco-travelling, and so on.

So, how did we become aware of environmental issues?

Asmaa: As long as I can remember, I have been a huge animal and nature lover. My passion for environmental issues in addition to other things was inspired by my cats and by Hima, a Muslim organisation for environmental protection in Germany. On the other hand, I am working on my PhD in animal ethics in Islam and the more I do research in the field of nature and animals in Islam, the more I realised the importance of these issues.

Max Musa: I grew up in a vegetarian family that loves fellow creatures. Besides that, I worked for a big organic supermarket chain and had a lot of training and seminars on “green-topics”. Therefore, I tried to implement my knowledge in my daily life and realised more and more that the “modern” western lifestyle and the comfort that goes with it can have a negative impact on the environment. So I became more and more environmentally conscious.

What does Greenukum mean?

The name Greenukum is a compound word consisting of the word green and ukum. Green a colour that is most commonly associated with the environment, life, hope and spirituality and is also considered the traditional colour of Islam. Ukum is an Arabic (possessive pronoun) suffix and stands for “your/yours” (pl.): Thus, Greenukum implies that it is YOUR nature, YOUR environment, YOUR life, YOUR spirituality... You have to take care of it!  For reasons mentioned above, we created Greenukum to inspire!

What inspired you to start your blog and what has your blogging experience been like?

After our marriage, we decided to do our best to life a conscious lifestyle. We read a lot and watched several documentaries to learn more about it. So we become aware of our impact on the world and our function as Khalifa, stewards, on the earth.

To get more motivation we tried to find some personal blogs to follow and we came across many eco-bloggers. However, we were very disappointed by not finding any German Muslim blogger whom we could follow and identify with. That was the reason that motivated us to start our own blog, knowing that we are not perfect either we are 100% conscious since it was the beginning of our journey. We both had many discussions before deciding to do this step. Nevertheless, the desire to inspire and mobilise other people for such issues and to share our experiences in our very own way was great, so we did it in the end. Alhamdulillah.

What kind of responses have you had in regards to your blog from the Muslim and wider community?

Since we started our blog, the feedback we received from Muslims and people of other faiths all over the world was surprising. Our Instagram posts seem to be motivating especially to young Muslims. We assume that it is much easier to implement sustainable ideas into your own life when you find people you can identify with. It makes a difference if you are only reading something in an impersonal newsletter text or in a personal blog. Moreover, it makes a difference if you are getting the feeling that the author is real and not perfect: That is why we are trying to show our successes as well as our failures on the road.

The many messages we get from people who get inspired by our posts give us strength. It is also great to know that the great majority of Muslims also confirm that part of our Deen (Religion) is to take care of everything that lives with us or next to us. After a short introduction phase, we started receiving almost monthly invitations and many questions.

What core teachings does Islam offer us in terms of better caring for the environment?

There are so many teachings that we can find in Quran and Sunna, but let us focus on the aspect of being a Khalifa (steward). God placed human being's as a Khalifa (steward) on earth; He created us as intelligent creatures, gave us the task to take care and to act righteously in all of our affairs. Thereby we have to hold nature as a trust (Amanah):

 “Then We appointed you viceroys in the earth after them, that We might see how ye behave”
(Quran 10:14)

There are so many verses in Quran that emphasise our duty to look after the earth and not to over consume its resources. For example:

“O children of Adam! … eat and drink: but waste not by excess, for Allah loves not the wasters.”
(Quran 7:31)

So we are really wondering, how we can damage nature, knowing that these are signs of Allah, placed by him on earth to show us his beauty? Even more: The Quran tells us that everything is praising the Lord.

"There is not an animal on the earth, nor a creature flying on two wings, but they are nations like you." (Quran 6:38)

What do you think is holding back Muslims from doing more for the planet (particularly in the Muslim world)? And what can be done to tackle these constraints?

That is a very complex question and it is very difficult to answer it briefly. Nevertheless, I remember a statement of the Iranian-born intellectual Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who has written several articles about men and nature in Islam. His opinion is that it is because of two facts: Firstly, we have societies engaged with immediate problems. Remember, Colonialism and its consequences, Radical Islamists and more. On the other hand for non-western people, the environmental problem is kind of a western problem, created by western industrialisation and capitalism that they did not identify with. Additionally, many environmental discussions do not reflect on a spiritual side of this issue. We are convinced that you can better reach people when you confront them with their faith.

Asmaa: I created an experience with my family and friends: While talking to my grandmother in Morocco about these issues, I told her that it is our task as Khalifa (steward) on this earth to protect the earth and I provided her with examples from the life of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) It was possible for me to reach her much better.

This is how people work! The religious values influence the way in which billions of people think and act. Why not work with them using the potential of religion!

If you could get Muslims to do one thing for the environment, what would it be?

At least reduce your meat consumption! It is not just good for you (many health benefits) but it is also necessary to protect our planet. By cutting down your meat consumption, you can help tackle these issues to name just a few:

• Reduce greenhouse gases

• Improve animal welfare

• Save the Amazon from destruction (massive cattle is responsible for 75% of deforested areas in the Amazon)

• Reduce waste production (did you know that 2000 - 2500 gallons of water go into a SINGLE pound of beef!)

• Reduce world hunger (80% of global soy production is used as livestock feed).

In addition of all that we should also think about the way we’re treating animals before they are slaughtered and questioning ourselves if this way is really in accordance with the advice of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and if so is it really halal AND tayyib?

What would the daily life of a green Muslim be like? How would they live, socialise, travel, etc?

A green Muslim is nothing more than a Muslim who is aware of his responsibility as a Khalifah on earth. Increasing awareness about this responsibility means that you are doing the main thing for the environment. You can also reflect on your daily behaviour while travelling, socialising, working or shopping – by asking yourself, is it really necessary and good? Example: Is it necessary to buy your 12th shirt only because it cost just $5? Is it necessary to take the car for a short distance? or could I go by foot or with a bicycle? Thus, with a clear understanding of how our choices are fundamental for us and for all creations around us your awareness will change and your awareness about your responsibility as a human being will rise.

“Do not mischief on the earth, after it hath been set in order[…].”
(Quran 7:56)

And at the end: Pray. Make Du’a. Connect to God. Connect to nature. Remember: Paradise is a Garden!

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Through the course of his life, the Prophet (PBUH) who was a shepherd just like other prophets, was concerned with the environment and its protection and has left behind an 'ecological Sunnah'. The love the prophet’s (PBUH) had for all living beings and nature was clear in his verbal teachings as well as his acts concerning their protection.

One of his greatest efforts in this context was a forest in an area called “Zuraybu’t Taweel,” where he announced: “Whoever cuts a tree here should plant a new tree instead”. Together with this regulation, the area shortly turned into a forest. The Prophet also declared an area of 12-miles in distance from the centre of Medina as Haram (forbidden by religion) and also prohibited the cutting of trees and the killing of animals within its borders. 1400 years later, our planet is paying a huge toll due to the shift in lifestyles, overconsumption and unsustainable practices and we are desperately in need to implement the Prophets (PBUH) ecological Sunnah so we can protect our planet and conserve its resources for the next generation.

Special thanks to Asmaa and Musa Max for taking time, to answer our questions and provide our readers with some tips from their own experiences.

For more eco-friendly tips: www.greenukum.com

To keep up to date with their work check out their Instagram page HERE

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Author: Marwa Hamid

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Teaching Islam In The U.S. Prison System | Tayba Foundation

Sheikh Rami Nsour is a traditionally trained instructor of the Islamic sciences, who has spent many years under the tutelage of Mauritanian scholars both abroad and in his native USA. However, a chance encounter with a former prison inmate in 2002 set him on a journey that eventually led to the establishment of Tayba Foundation, a leading Islamic organisation that provides traditional Islamic education within the US prison system. Sheikh Rami is currently the founding director of the Tayba. We had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with him and had an interesting conversation covering issues such as the popularity of Islam within the prison population, the day to day operations of Tayba and also the Islamic approach in dealing with the incarcerated.

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You have been teaching in prisons for quite a while, how did you get into this?

I started in 2002, and what happened was there was a brother who came to Zaytuna institute in California and this brother was released from prison and he had been following some of the publications of Zaytuna. We met him and he had some questions from some brothers in prison and asked if we minded answering them. I said sure. I thought they were going to be very basic, but they turned out to be very specific questions. I said to myself a person with this capability should have some tutoring and so I started teaching one prisoner by phone. He would call me, I would send him the material and the books we were going to be going over and that led me to take on ten more students over the next couple of years. Eventually, in 2008 we expanded and I established a non-profit, it then became 150 [students] and now we are at 1800 registered students Alhamdulillah.

1. Founding members Shaykh Rami Nsour (left) and Nabil Afifi (right)

Why do you think Islam is so popular within the prison system?

Islam is growing in prisons on its own, so we don’t do any dawah work or proselytising per se, that’s happening on its own. People are coming to Islam, people are becoming Muslims. But what we do is when people become Muslim, that is when we are set up to provide education for them.

In the prison setting, one of the things that occur is that the Muslims have a significant presence within the prisons. There is an element of respect that the Muslims have had over the last fifty years in the US prison system. That’s from things like being on the forefront of fighting for prisoner rights and filing lawsuits. Just a while ago, one of our students won the right for halal meat for the entire state of Colorado. So the prisoners get into the law libraries and they do this work and they have gained a lot of respect within the prison population for that. Then also the discipline they have and the protection that they offer as well (the Muslims amongst themselves). So sometimes people gravitate towards the Muslims because they are looking for the father figure, they are looking for protection, that’s one element.

Then you’ve got the other people, who once they are in prison they are taken out of their societies. I mean the gangs are still there, the drugs are still there to a certain extent, there is still alcohol, there is still gambling and there still is prostitution, but it’s a lot less than what is on the streets. A lot of people now have the time to sit there and reflect, and once they start reflecting they start looking into the racism, they start looking into oppression, they start looking into intergenerational poverty, institutional racism, government policies, and also slavery. For a lot of people, especially in the African-American communities, that then leads them to West Africa. West Africa which of course is Islam, they learn about Islam, they see all the history about the impact of Islam, the story of Malcolm X for example, there are a lot of factors that would influence them on their journey. Whatever the factors may be, whether it’s the respect they have gained or the spiritual searches that people are on Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the prisons.

How many states are you currently operating in?

Right now it's 30 of the 50 states. So we have students out of at least thirty states in both state and federal prisons. We have students who have registered from 120 different facilities both state and federal.

How is such a large number of students organised, how does the setup work? 

Most of our education right now is done via distance or correspondence, so we have a syllabus with books.

We used to have a book attached with a CD which we would send to the prisoner and then they would listen to the CD, or they would watch the DVD and then they would send us in questions, answers, projects and essays etc. But now we have everything self-contained in one book, so there is an audio component which has been transcribed when they get the book they will have a syllabus and an exam.

So they will receive this book, and we ‘pack’ it because we know the students have a lot of time to read and also they often aren’t able to interact with us. They can send us a letter but we have to read the letter, process the question and then send it back so there is this lag between the time they ask the question and the time they get a response. What we try and do is that as these questions come in we keep putting them back in the curriculum so that the course becomes thicker and thicker and gives them more reading material so that we are answering the majority of questions before they even have to contact us. We give them a lot of material; we make sure it's digestible and we try to answer as many questions as we think may come up in that subject, they read through that material, they send us their essays and projects, we grade it and then they start on the next course.

So, we don’t really need to do any advertising in the prison, in 2009 we advertised our programme in the prisons and that’s where we grew our students but from that time it has spread through word of mouth.

Are there any instances where you are able to gain authorisation to teach within the prisons?

I’ve been to a few prisons and I’ve done a couple of lectures and seminars but what we decided as an organisation was that there is no doubt that having an in-person teacher is the best thing. The next best thing is to have somebody that you can actually talk to by phone, and then the next best thing is to have somebody you can correspond with via email or written correspondence and then the next best thing is to have somebody who is giving you a book, grading your essays and answering your questions. So we know it's not the optimum form of teaching but we work on a very limited budget. If we want to use that budget to support teachers and to actually go into prisons it takes a long time to get security clearance for each facility and sometimes you have to do it for each visit.

The second thing is that a lot of the prisons are located in remote areas so if I was to try and go to prisons it would be very difficult and very limited. Once I get to the prison, say you have a prison population of 100 Muslims, well there may be 100 Muslims in the prisons but maybe only 75 of them are actually coming to the Jumu'ah services or are coming to the Chaplain and from those 75 maybe its only about twenty that are actually regularly praying five times a day, and from that twenty maybe it's only about five who are serious students.

So what we decided was rather than spend our limited resources going in-person to prison and only ending up benefiting those five or so people, if we use the distant platform we can get those five students (for example's sake) out every state all over the US. So, we are connected to all those students who they themselves are the ones leading prayers, they are the ones leading halaqa's and giving advice, they are the ones essentially acting as the Imams or Chaplains in the absence of a Muslim Imam. So, for us providing those men and women with resources they can then turn around and teach the remainder of the congregation. But our vision in the future, where I would like our organisation to be in twenty years is that we would have an Imam supported by Tayba that is going into those prisons.

What has been the response of the prison staff in regards to your work and have there been comments on the effect it has had on the inmates?

Most of what we get in terms of comments is thanking us for being part of providing materials and doing something for the prison. There are some people who will thank us for the content and the transformative effect that it has but most of the thanks come from people thanking us for being a member of the society that is sending in educational resources to prisoners regardless of what it is.

In one case we did have some commissioners provide feedback. One of the things that happens for the ‘lifers’ (a person serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole) is that when they come up for ‘review’ the board of commissioner’s review the prisoner's case and decide whether they are fit to go back into society. In order for the prisoner to prove their case, they will come with a whole stack of evidence proving that they have changed. So, they may have certificates of completion from narcotics anonymous meetings, alcoholics anonymous, gang rehabilitation programmes and such things. For our students at Tayba, we will also send them a letter and we will say “this person has been involved in our programme for this many years and we feel he has changed as a person and we recommend he should be released”. So, as they are reviewing these things one of the comments we have heard is that they have noticed prisoners coming up for parole hearings who have Tayba foundation letters all have a similar quality, they have actually changed and they can actually see that the common denominator between these Muslims is that they are also Tayba foundation students. Now, we are not going to make a claim that our education changed those people, we just enhance the change that is already happening, so we have definitely helped and changed people but there was already a process of change going on with those men and women.

Some may say why take the time out to deal with prisoners? Is there an Islamic requirement to look after them?

Yes, it’s in the Quran. If we were speaking to the general public if we were going to look at it from a philosophical standpoint one of the things that Dostoyevsky says in his book Crime and Punishment is that you judge a society based on how they treat their criminals. If you think about that it’s very profound because these are the people who are the worst of your society, they have killed, maimed, raped, robbed and abused. Whatever it maybe they have done everything, as a society how do we treat that person? Dostoyevsky is only from the last hundred and fifty years or so but if we look at our tradition we find in the Quran that after the battle of Badr one of the Ayahs that was revealed was to feed the prisoners and Allah SWT says ‘And they give food in spite of love for it to the needy, the orphan, and the captive’ and he put them all in the same category so you are not going to have trouble finding funding and getting donations to feed the poor and you’re definitely not going to find any trouble feeding orphans right? But the prisoners are right there in the same category.

Welcoming Bro. Adeeb at Tayba's office. One of our longtime students, after 36 years of incarceration (YES! 36 YEARS), meeting Shaykh Rami again as a free man.

So, you can see how prisoners can easily be squeezed by the society so when the Muslim took the prisoners at the time of Badr the Prophet (ﷺ) gave them specific examples he said to treat them as your guests, you feed them your best food and you feed them before you feed yourself. These prisoners of war at that time what did they do? They had come out to kill the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and his Sahabah. So, if these people are who Allah is telling us to feed, and Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is telling them to feed them the best food, and treat them as guests and maintaining the humanity of these people. That’s what I would say, the foundation for us as Muslims and even for people in the west is we have to maintain the humanity of the prisoners it doesn’t mean we become gullible and we don’t address the crimes. As Muslims it doesn’t mean we don’t agree with the death penalty at the times that it is required, it doesn’t mean we don’t agree with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but it also doesn’t mean we have to torture these people or remove their humanity from themselves. At the base of it, whether it’s the Islamic tradition or any other tradition it is about maintaining the humanity of people.

The second thing that I would say is that as Muslims we also recognise that most prisons systems are unjust and the US is no exception to that, we house the most prisoners in comparison to any other country, 22% of the world's prisoners are in the US and the overwhelming majority are minorities. So, we have poor and minority ethnicities in the prison system so we know it's an unjust system. I know one person who at 17 years old was given three life sentences for having a quarter gramme of crack cocaine. Afterwards, he eventually got out of prison but he served 22 years out of that sentence. In comparison, the Stanford rapist gets 3 months? This isn’t even an anomaly we hear stories like that over and over again. There are people who have been in solitary confinement for 30 years, can you imagine? In a concrete box that is six feet by eight feet and you have your toilet and your sink and you are in that concrete box 23 and a half hours a day. You get half an hour to go into a bigger concrete box to walk around like a rat and that’s considered justice? So for us when we hear anti-Muslims criticise our Shariah we say, hold on one second, on what moral ground do you stand on?

As Muslims, we have our theological standpoint as to why we serve the prisoner. It also reminds us not only of humanity but also about the power of Tawbah (repentance). One of the examples I give is if you had somebody right now in this day and age who killed a number of Muslims, and then he walked into a masjid and became a Muslim how accepting of him would we be? What did Khalid Ibn Walid do? If Khalid Ibn Walid was in the US justice system, he would be in prison right now for what he did right? Umar Ibn al-Khattab what did he do? He buried his daughter, he would be in prison. So just because a person went to prison it doesn’t mean we should automatically consider them a different category. There were Sahabah who before they became Muslims, had committed crimes, they were criminals and then they became Muslims. But we don’t look at them like ‘Khalid Ibn Waleed the criminal’ or the ‘convict who got away’. But when we mention these people we say RadhiAllahu 'anhum! Because we use those stories as magnificent stories of the power of tawbah, the power of change and the forgiveness of Allah. Yet, when we shift it to the prisons all of a sudden we have a different interaction. So, we as Muslims, we have the order from Allah to feed and take care of the prisoner (even if they don’t make tawbah) and then we are reminded that they can make tawbah and then the third thing is that these are people who are going to be coming back to our society so wouldn’t you want them to be reformed?

Do you believe that prisons can sometimes be an incubator for good?

I have heard people tell me that “as bad as prison is, I got Islam through the prison and if I didn’t come to prison I would probably be one of those statistics.”  So, yes this is a sentiment that is recognised, prisoners recognise the harshness of their existence in prison but at the same time they know that this prison created a time for them to start thinking, because when they are on the streets and living that life of crime they never have that time to sit down and reflect, it’s always one thing after another and even if they do have time to think it’s not really an environment that’s conducive but when they get into prisons it is a sanctuary or as you said an incubator.

A letter from an inmate in Florida

Do you have a standout example of a student who came through the Tayba foundation?

We have a lot of standout stories, a lot of them can be found on our website. One student, as I previously mentioned, had spent 22 years in prison for a quarter-gram of crack cocaine. He got out of prison, started working for Tayba foundation, he then transitioned into a full-time position as a director of one of the largest Islamic centres in southern California. That’s a big trust that the community put on his hands, this was a person that I vouched for, I said this was a man who was very trustworthy so don’t look at his criminal background and judge him to not be worthy of taking on this position. I recommended him for the position he’s now married to a sister within that community who already had five children previously, so he now has five stepchildren and his own child and he’s taking care of a large family which is a huge commitment. He is involved in national projects in regards to the fair sentencing of youth as well as teen mentoring in mosques. He is doing a lot of work.

Because the other thing for us is that there are a lot of Muslims that we allow in the community to operate even though they have committed crimes but just haven’t been caught for it. Say for example if somebody is a liquor store owner we look at that as a crime if somebody is involved in the banking industry for us to be involved in the riba (usury) industry is a crime. It’s just that this society hasn’t deemed alcohol and interest as a crime, yet those people are allowed to work and be a part of our communities.

We also have our stories of people who come out of prison and then go back. We are learning from both sides we are learning from the successes and also from our students who get back into the drugs, alcohol, womanising and so forth.

You are raising funds for Tayba, what does the money go towards and how will this help?

The majority of the funds go towards the staff, to be able to have teachers and staff to support the students when they write questions or need their papers graded. Right now we have me and four other teachers working part-time and full-time so we have that as well as administrative staff.

Funds also go towards purchasing and creating material including printing and shipping. We spend a lot of money on postage and printing. But what we can say is that 90% of our donations go towards programming.

Financially, the biggest thing we are looking for right now is monthly contributions so five dollars a month whatever it may be. Whatever a person is able to do, it is better for us to have small sustainable donations from our supporters and we are looking to build our small donations base. The other way people can help us is by learning more about what we do and sharing it on social media amongst their friends. If people are interested they can become remote volunteers, we have volunteers from all over the world and we have a team of over 20 volunteers and there are a lot of different projects that we have going on. 

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The Tayba Foundation is a groundbreaking organisation and caters to a community often forgotten by Muslims in the free world. We urge all of our readers to check out the link below and donate what you can to their cause. We pray that Allah SWT puts barakah into their efforts so that they are able to continue this great service to our brothers and sisters behind bars. 

www.taybafoundation.org/donate

A beautifully put together documentary on the story of the Tayba foundation can be viewed below

This is a short film produced by the Tayba Foundation and directed by Mustafa Davis about our work in educating prisoners. It is part of fundraising drive to...

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Author: Muhammad Yousuf Shuwekh 

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Haircuts, Healthcare and Hope: The Homeless Fair With A Difference

Muslim Students have formed the London Community Impacts Projects Group. On the 15th of October 2016, they put together the first ever homeless fair providing haircuts, healthcare and hope for London's homeless...

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An overcast Saturday in the middle of October marked London’s first ever Autumn Fair for the homeless. A team of 15 Muslim students along with over 20 volunteers successfully provided health care, career advice, hot and cold food, clothing and hygiene services to a number of London’s most deprived citizens.

The event “Streets of London: Supporting Our People” was inspired by the group’s frustration over the marginalisation of homeless people across the capital. With rent prices rocketing and social housing almost impossible to access, the number of citizens taking to the streets is rapidly increasing. With this in mind, the group wanted “to create a humanising experience” by generating longevity in the services they provided. Whether that’s through hygiene education enabling people to keep clean on the streets or employment provided by London’s Unseen Tours Company. Helping the homeless fight their way out of the poverty cycle remained the core value driving the students to success.

The volunteers are locally known as the London Community Impacts Projects Group, a collaborative ensemble including members from each community impact project across the University of London’s several colleges. From King’s College ‘The Ark Project’, Queen Mary’s ‘Rock Projects’ and UCL’s Outreach Programme; the team also includes students from the London School of Economics, Bart’s and St George’s University Hospital. The group began preparations as early as July, after being inspired by the impressive work of local Muslim charities such as Children of Adam and the outreach initiatives by all the London University Islamic Societies.

Over 8,000 people sleep rough on the streets of London every year, with several attempts being made through the years to help those in need with clothing drives and community dinners. However, these efforts never really tackled the problem head on or tried to find ways to get these Londoner's off the streets for good. Therefore, the team began writing their event proposal, with clothing racks, lunch provisions and gift bags for all their guests; organisation certainly proved a colossal task. An Amazon Wish List alongside a Just Giving page was set up in order to raise funds for the event, in which the group took to Facebook to spread awareness and invite other students to volunteer their time and skills too.

As pioneers of such an event in London, lots of interest and support was generated for the team and the cause online. From brands such as Lush kindly donating a variety of sanitary products and professional hairdressers giving up their time to volunteer their services. Even the student’s own universities, such as King’s College, donated several boxes of unsold clothing and merchandise.

With hairdressers recruited, qualified doctors on the scene, freshly cooked food ready to serve and mountains of books and clothing unboxed; the event was guaranteed to be an outright success. However, with just 5 days to go, Camden Council who authorised the use of Lincoln Inn Field, suddenly retracted their offer due to some logistical issues. As if organising such a monumental event was not enough chaos, the plan which proceeded involved cancelling each stall which proved an even harder conundrum. Alhamdullilah a new venue at Victoria Embankment Terrace kindly provided by Westminster Council at the last minute set the scene for the successful event, which attracted in excess of 100 homeless citizens.

Ultimately, the desire to serve humanity and in turn please God through consistent acts of kindness took the central focus of the group’s intention when organising the day. The event proved an excellent showcase of what it truly means to practise Islam, by helping our neighbours, showing compassion, and giving up time and resources to benefit society as a whole. The team even created small leaflets for each guest’s gift-bag which outlined the Islamic principles behind why they organised such an event, allowing greater understanding of Islam and Muslims to spread across the community and subsequently tackle Islamophobia, one good deed at a time.

"They ask you, [O Muhammad], what they should spend. Say, "Whatever you spend of good is [to be] for parents and relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveler. And whatever you do of good - indeed, Allāh is Knowing of it." {Q. 2:215}

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The event was run by London Community Impacts Project. Check out their Facebook page to learn more about their work: facebook.com/LondonCIP

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Author: Sara Zubair

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Meet Mu Delta Alpha: The All American Muslimah Sorority

On the 5th of December 1776, somewhere in the South Atlantic state of Williamsburg, Virginia a group of men gathered together to form what would become the first fraternal organisation in the USA. Their decision was the first step in what would go on to be an established tradition in the country. In the following centuries, fraternal and sororal societies flourished, becoming an integral part of the college experience. Although these societies had recreational elements they mostly helped to promote bonds between their members and also fostered a sense of unity for members aiming to achieve shared goals. 

To be clear, when we first caught wind of the existence of a ‘Muslimah Sorority’ my initial thoughts were that of bewilderment, shortly followed by caricatured images of secret societies and debaucherous antics, far-flung from what one would typically understand of Islamic values. But with a fair-minded approach, you’ll soon come to realise ‘Mu Delta Alpha’ who are based in the southern state of Texas have set the foundations for what can be an integral part of the future Muslim American story. We sat down for a chat with the head of the organisation Samira Maddox to learn more about their story, the challenges they face and the aims and objectives of their sorority.

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For those not so familiar with American culture, what are fraternities and sororities? 

Sororities and fraternities traditionally are something that started hundreds of years ago. It is a tradition that they’ve had in universities where people who have the same interests can be within the same club. In regards, to the women’s sorority some of the history of the women sorority; they were people who felt that they didn’t have anything that catered to them in universities. You know here in the US universities are very social, so much stuff happens involving people with different interests. For hundreds of years, they have been somewhere to hang out with your friends and with those who have the same likes as you and to develop an amazing college experience. It's not what people often show (although some are), it’s not all parties and frat houses. 

How did this idea come about?

So, we wanted to join another existing Muslim sorority which was the first one in the nation and they rejected us as they said we did not fit the criteria for them. In Texas, there was no (Muslim) sorority, they had the traditional MSA’s but I felt like the MSA was not very inclusive, it’s so cliquish and so when I came to UTD (University of Texas Dallas) it felt like I wasn’t included. When that sorority rejected me and I felt as though I didn’t belong in the MSA I thought I’ve got to do something for us, we have got to start something different, something new. So, I thought about it and talked to a friend of mine and talked to a lot of other girls. I began to think every time people see Muslim women who are covered they think we are oppressed and have nothing to add to society but yet we go to universities, Muslim women are pre-med students, we are engineers, we are neuroscientists, we are teachers, doctors, and nurses but nobody knows about us in universities. We are the least represented professional women at universities. 

We didn’t want to start a social sorority because we have so many of them, and we thought we should have a Muslim professional sorority which will give Muslim women the opportunity to show that Muslim women can reach their potential and that they are encouraged to educate themselves through Islam. We don’t want to lose our values of Islam because we represent Islam and we are the most visible in Islam, yes they can see a brother with a beard but James Harden has a beard too! You know what I mean? As soon as they see us with a hijab they know ‘that’s a Muslim woman’. We wanted a platform that showcased Muslim woman and so that’s why we started Mu Delta Alpha.

If you go to our university UTD (University of Texas Dallas) you will see all these banners that represent for sororities and fraternities that have been there for hundreds of years but there is no representation of Muslims. I think this year there is one banner from first Muslim fraternity in the United States which is amazing!

How many chapters do you currently have?

We have four chapters including the Alpha chapter with all of them located in Texas. 

What does Mu Delta Alpha stand for?

It stands for Muslimahs for Change. The Greek lettering is an American tradition that we love.

How do members join, do you have some criteria?

Yes, we just finished our “Rush Week” that’s when we get our new members so that’s a big deal for us. It’s just like you are going to a job interview. We want to make sure that the first Muslim sorority is established. We wanted to have people who are going to care about our legacy so that they can sustain the organisation. We have a set of questions, we want to ask; why do you want to join the organisation? What are you going to give to the organisation? What does empowerment mean to you? What does professionalism mean to you? What does a non-profit organisation mean to you? 

We want people who have a drive if you are flat and you are just telling me that “I want to join because my friends are there and I don’t know I think it’s cool” those answers are just not that great. This time around 32 girls came for the interview, we only took 15.  We took a lot of amazing girls with drive, leadership skills and with different majors.

How does this differ from the traditional MSA or Islamic Society?

I don't feel I belonged in the MSA, I was in MSA for many years and I wanted something different. The MSA is different to us because we don’t do many religious programs, I totally understand the religious aspect of it but we leave it for the MSA. This is somewhere where you can gain professionalism, we have meetings, we help with resume writing and interview skills. We have partnered up with the career resources at school and they come once a month and do workshops. We are going to have networking events, we have a speakers series, for example, we have women who have different careers they come speak to the sorority, they talk about their career and how was their journey to get there. We also help with internships for all the girls once they join the group. We have made partnerships with organisations so for one whole semester some of the girls go to the organisation and gain some experience. So we are very different from the traditional MSA, our agenda and their agenda are totally different, but we still respect and work with them and support the events that they have.

What are some of the core values that you are looking to instil within your members?

Professionalism, supporting each other and sisterhood. One of the things that attracted me to sororities and one of the things that are amazing about sororities is that sisterhood. “Sister for life” but we are more than sisters because Islam has instilled that sisterhood in us. Reaching your full potential without jeopardising your Islamic values and encouraging Muslim girls to achieve that high level without doing what? Without leaving your identity of Islam and that you shouldn’t beshy of your Islamic identity that’s what we want to instil in our women.

What are some of the challenges that you face specifically as a Muslim sorority? 

Sexism. We don't get as much support as we would like too. One of the hardest things for me to do is to raise money for our organization and to ask for support. Most people have tried to be supportive but this is a demographic that needs the most resources. Most of these girls don't go to the masjid often for many reasons. So they need to be supported in the work they do and that which is getting done for them.

How has the reaction been from fellow students or other fraternities and sororities?

A lady emailed me once and said “Can a Catholic join your sorority” and I said yes, of course, you can. So she responded and said, “you know that’s really good because some of our girls are interested in this because sororities do not want you to bring your religious values with you – thank you for starting this”. Somebody also commented on our Facebook and said: “I’m so proud of you guys you have finally got something for Muslim women”. 

What are some of the events you have held?

We have had our annual banquets, our initiation dinner, conferences, young Muslimah summit and ‘The Ask A Muslim’ event. So those are some of the things we have done, we have done some awesome work for being such a young organisation and with such minimal resources. 

Looking forward what are some of the things you are hoping to achieve with the sorority?

We’re looking to expand and increase our colonies, ‘colonies’ mean that before you become a fully-fledged beta or gamma chapter you are given a one year period to try and be successful. So, we are hoping to be across the US Insha’Allah. We are going to leave our beautiful Texas and go to other universities which is something we are looking forward to.  

We are hoping to continue with our philanthropic programme in Africa. We want to open up a library/computer lab in a school in Africa Insha’Allah. We hope that our philanthropic work grows and also that our young Muslimah summit gets bigger and better. The biggest dream would be to have our own sorority house because all of these other organisations have had them for hundreds of years it's an amazing tradition. But, we want to do it with Islamic values, we don’t want to leave that value it’s a very important value. 

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Special thanks to Samira for taking the time out to speak to Bahath. If you would like to stay up to date with all the fantastic work Mu Delta Alpha is doing you can follow them on social media.

Facebook - Twitter - Instagram

You can help support the organisation financially by checking out their Go Fund Me campaign.

www.gofundme.com/ymsummit

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Author: Muhammad Shuwekh

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Behind The Brand | Faisal Choudhry | Izaha London

Our debut fashion series titled 'Behind The Brand' takes a closer look at a number of prevalent clothing companies inspired by Islamic culture. In this five part series we dissect all the components of what makes a business run, and also learn more about the budding entrepreneurs behind the vision. In this article, we speak to Faisal Choudhry founder of IZAHA London.

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Faisal Choudhry's charismatic humour and unique approach to creating Muslim friendly content have helped him gain over 12 thousand subscribers on YouTube. His video content straddles the realms of entertainment and religious adherence, in his words: 'I want to show people that you can be a practising Muslim and also a regular part of society'.

His Youtube channel 'Faisal', although established in early 2016, has been a part of a pioneering group of 'social influencers'; creating entertaining content grounded in principled Islamic values. At the age of 22 he also currently runs his own clothing brand after graduating from university with a degree in Criminology. Faisal was kind enough to sit down with us and share some of his thoughts on life, Islam, business and the struggles of entrepreneurship.  

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What spurred your decision to start YouTube?

I have always wanted to do YouTube because I have always found vlogging really interesting and I have always had fun editing them too, but I was never confident enough to put them out. I have actually got videos of me around five years ago of me making vlogs but I never put them up anywhere. So, I have always made vlogs, but the thing that inspired me to make these current vlogs specifically was that through studying criminology and through finding the Deen I realised that there are not many Muslim role models for the youth.

LINK TO MUSLIM BELAL'S ALBUM: http://www.imanclothing.com/product/the-best-of-the-muslim-poets-cd-album/ ----------------------------------------­­­­­­­­---------------------------------­-­-­-­-­- * Support My Clothing Line * * http://izaha.com * http://facebook.com/izahalondon * http://instagram.com/izahalondon ----------------------------------------­­­­­­­­---------------------------------­-­-­-­-­- * Follow me * * Snapchat: HelloFaisal * Instagram: FaisalChdry * Periscope: FaisalChoudhry * Twitter: FaisalChoudhryy ----------------------------------------­­­­­­­­---------------------------------­-­-­-­-­- * Contact * enquiries@faisalchoudhry.com ----------------------------------------­­­­­­­­---------------------------------­-­-­-­-­-

I am not trying to say I want to be a role model, and I guess that’s one of the challenges of putting yourself out there on YouTube but, the Muslim youth need to see Muslim role models. Now there is obviously Sadiq Khan and Naadiya Hussain but before that, there was only really, Amir Khan. So we need more people who are successful Muslims, so I thought maybe if I tried my best with what I can, maybe people will say ‘ah look he runs a business’. I just want to show people that you can be a practising Muslim and also a regular part of society.

When was your brand launched and what was the inspiration for starting?

We launched around September 2014, almost 2 years ago now. The inspiration behind it was that I had previously run a clothing brand. It was difficult for me to push that clothing brand forward because promoting the clothing line often involved promoting it through media outlets and it was essentially a regular urban street wear brand. So, I needed to find something that was more niche and I started Izaha because it mixes Arabic culture with UK street wear. So it was a more niche version, that was what inspired it I guess. I also wanted to spread good messages, such as peace and love.

What does the name Izaha mean and why did u choose it?

There is no meaning! There is no meaning behind it, I’ve never told anyone this before so this is a proper exclusive [laughs] We were sat in the office in 2015, it wasn’t even our office it was like underneath my dads’ shop, we made like a makeshift office. My brother and I were thinking of a name and I said I wanted something that sounded ‘arabiky’ but also something that would be available on social media because quite often everything is taken. So eventually we put these letters together and came up with Izaha, and it does sound quite middle eastern doesn’t it?

What are some of the messages you are trying to portray in your designs?

I’m definitely trying to portray messages that are positive that is why I try to put positive wording in Arabic on the clothing itself. I am trying to spread a positive message through my clothing and I also enjoy being creative so I wanted to be creative through something I can push out and market.

What genre would you consider your clothing to be?

I would definitely say UK street wear.

What are some of your favourite pieces from your line?

My favourite piece is probably this hat because I literally wear it everywhere! The salaam trucker cap is my favourite. The reason why I like the caps is because I put a lot of effort into them. I’ve seen a lot of companies with a lot of different hats and they either have a sticker instead of embroidered text or the quality is that of a pre-made hat.

I take pride in the fact that for these hats we find materials, we get the materials made, we get the hats embroidered and stitched. It’s completely from the ground up, from a really good factory, these are not pre-made garments that are then printed on. I’m really proud of the quality.

The Islamic clothing scene has quite recently become extremely saturated. How are you hoping to stand out?

Because I run something very similar to a lot of clothing brands that are out there, especially with the Arabic vibe. One thing that I can honestly say with a hand on my heart, the thing that separates us is quality. If I am going to put something out there I am going to make sure it is good quality. I have learnt from my old clothing line that when I did put out bad quality stuff that there is no point of putting something out there for the sake of it.

So, I think what makes us unique is when somebody buys our clothing they are going to see that the quality is high compared to others. We really do take pride in taking our time when it comes to producing our clothing.

Often young people have an initial idea for a company/brand but they are hesitant towards taking the plunge, what was it that made you take the plunge? and what is your advice to others who might be hesitant in doing so?

For me, it was slightly easier because my dad has been a businessman all of my life. So in regards to that, it's something that I have been around all my life, seeing someone grind and run their own business. I also had my older brother with me so when we started our first business we started it together and when you do something together it almost like ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ so it's not as daunting.

My advice to anybody would be just get started. I don’t know if it comes across as this but I am really not a business type person. When it comes to the nitty gritty parts of business I really struggle and it is still something that I really struggle with. But, you are not going to be good at everything, you can’t always avoid the nitty gritty parts of business because you only enjoy the creative parts. So, if you are not good at a part of the business or you are scared that you are not going to do well in a certain aspect I still say: just get started. Start small, I started Izaha with one hat! For months it was just one hat on the website. So, start small but don’t be scared because even I am still learning every day. I am lucky to have people around me who help me and guide me, but you’ve got to get started.

Sometimes you feel like giving up on a project or on a business but the only thing that will then keep you going at that point is passion. Because no matter what, you will hit a point in your business where you feel you haven’t got a chance. And at that point, the only thing that keeps you going is the passion. If you are not passionate about what you are doing then you will end up quitting.

What are some of the important qualities you need to run a successful business?

You don’t need all of the qualities. You need the quality of knowing that you can build qualities [laughs]. So, you need to know that you will learn as you go along.

One really important thing which I am really strong on is that you need to have this idea of not caring what other people think. That doesn’t mean you can be rude to people or you can be obnoxious or arrogant but you have to have confidence in what you are doing.

Maroon hub (love) cap is out in the morning! 6:28am (aka sunrise) so make sure ya'll are up for fajr if you want to guarantee yourself one!

See this Instagram photo by @faisalchdry * 1,200 likes

Unless it is the people who are around you, who love you or unless they are the opinions that you value. You need to put those things to the side. That comes with self-confidence, if you are confident in what you are doing or confident with yourself then you will naturally become like that. But you are going to get a lot of people telling you that you are doing something in the wrong way. And you are even going to get people close to you telling you that you are doing something wrong.

So to a certain extent, you need to have self-confidence. But, there is a very thin line, there is self-confidence and then there is arrogance. But what helps us with that is that we are lucky enough to have Islam, even if we get a bit arrogant we are putting our head on the floor five times a day and realising that we aren’t really anything major.

What are some of the challenges of starting a clothing brand?

The thing with a clothing a line, which is different to so many others is that now with the technological era you can launch a business with no money and build yourself up. For example, you can make a website where you sell logos, apart from buying software here and there you aren’t actually putting much in. With a clothing brand, you have to batch order products, so you have to spend money first and then make money later. So that is one thing that I found an issue with but it's not the end of the road. I started with one product, and from then I moved on. That’s one of the challenges of starting a clothing line.

Finding manufacturers is definitely a HUGE challenge. It took me about a year to find the factories that I have found now, which I think are my biggest asset. I was mentioning before that the one thing that I take pride in is the quality of the products and that is because I found such amazing people to work with. There are so many companies and there are so many factories, so you have to find the people you have the best relationship with and the people who can help deliver you the best product and understand your vision.

Looking forward what are some of your future aspirations?

Business wise I would just like to grow Izaha to the limits, the limits are endless I don’t have a place where I want to stop. I want to get it out there, I also want to get some physical stores (start off with a few pop-up stores). And also look into other avenues so not just unisex and menswear but potentially children’s clothing as well.

Limited edition 'ikhwa' (brothers) top out now at https://t.co/TjUVq7LBFS. Guaranteed delivery for Eid pic.twitter.com/RPPIIKMGAT

— Izaha London (@IzahaLondon) June 30, 2016

Personally, I am working on improving my personal brand so that I can try my best to inspire young Muslims and show that you can be Muslim and you can still be successful in this world, as well as in the afterlife.

While inspiring Muslims I would also like to show non-Muslims who watch my videos that ‘hey look at me I’m a young Muslim guy with a beard who prays five times a day’ but I’m also not what the media portrays me to be. I wouldn’t consider myself an outcast of society. I have my morals that I wouldn’t negotiate on but that doesn’t stop me from living my life as a young British Muslim. 

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The 'Behind The Brand' series celebrates clothing brands and their stories, and what better way to celebrate than to give away some clothing to our readers. For a chance to win some exclusive Izaha items click the image below and follow the instructions. Best of luck!

*GIVEAWAY CLOSED*

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Many thanks to Faisal and the guys at Izaha who took the time out to organise an interview, May Allah SWT reward you.

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Author:  Muhammad Yousuf Shuwekh

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The Man Who Did The Adhan In Every Single U.S. State

A few years ago Jameel Syed might just have been your typical Muslim American, born in the US to migrant South Asian parents, he graduated from University and then went on to start a family.

But the events surrounding his 40th birthday sent him on a voyage of self-discovery and reflection. A Muaddhin by training, for years he had given the call to prayer throughout his community, but the passing of his father in the month of Ramadan granted him deep moments of reflection. Soon thereafter he decided on the idea to make a historic journey by calling the Adhan and reciting the last sermon of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in every single US state. 

Jameel's journey lasted 35 days and spanned the whole of the USA, giving him a unique insight into North American and Muslim American Culture. His experience is one that is extremely rare, so we were grateful to have had the chance to chat to 'The Muaddhin'. He told us about his adventurous travels which included an airport shahada and finding Mosques in the deep south...

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50 states in 35 days how did the vocals do was it strenuous on your voice?

The funny thing was, knowing what I know because I am a Qari and Muaddhin and I have performed quite a bit on the Naat and Munshid circuit, I was 100 percent sure I would lose my voice, and somehow that didn’t happen.

If you are talking about sleep deprivation or use of vocals, moving through time zones time changes and all that SubhnaAllah it did not happen in 35 days. However, the funny thing was when I came back, I then had an opportunity to rest and relax you know that’s when I hit a wall – the exhaustion kicked in and I lost my voice! Within the next two days. 

Did you find it easy to find locations to do the adhan and was each Muslim community welcoming?

It was not easy to get all the locations if this trip was done conventionally and traditionally it would have taken at least six months to prep properly. So you had the navigation part of it, and you have to activate masaajid and a lot of people don’t know it wasn’t a simple matter of going and making the adhan. There were other milestones that needed to be achieved in every location so the adhan was one of them, the khutba tul widaa (The last sermon of the Prophet Muhammad SAW) had to be read in the form of a short speech after the obligatory prayer, we had to have a historical document signed and an interview with one of the mosque leaders in the masjid.

There were several instances where we landed in the state or were driving through cross country lines where we didn’t have a masjid. But, as you can imagine if you are on the board of a masjid and you get some random person who wants to come into your masjid and do these three or four things and get this...not ask for any funds in return? It’s a very strange thing!

The majority of all masaajid were very welcoming the people understood and they were like ‘enter and be blessed’ they showed the proper hospitality and generosity that our community is known for, and the ones who had apprehension they flat out rejected us.

So it was eye-opening and it was a blessing for those opportunity’s we were able to go in and engage, but at the same time, it was obviously an obstacle and a challenge when we weren’t able to get into some masaajid. To explain how dire the situation was, we had states like New York, Michigan and Texas where there is an abundance of masaajid throughout the state, then we have Vermont, Montana, South Dakota where there are one two or three masaajid or maybe not any at all and that was a threat to compromising the mission.

During your journey when hitting states that had almost no Muslim population what did you do then? 

This is one of the things that we wanted to face. You need to face your prejudices and you need to face your bias when you think of places like Idaho, Wyoming and Montana these places are considered to be not Muslim friendly or just generally not diverse at all. I think it's very important for you to go out there and experience and see for yourself what that place is like, what those people are like and you will find that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation about their community and about their locality and it may give you an opportunity to engage accordingly.

We definitely proceeded with caution [laughs] I won't lie! When we walked into these states we walked in with a bias and understood that the local climate is not favourable to Muslims and people are spewing hate rhetoric and in some cases, people are losing their lives.

You see at the end of the day that it is a lot about how you present yourself, if you present yourself in a certain way it is not to say it will diminish racism or prejudice, but I will say that you have a much better chance of connecting with that person so that they are seeing one thing on the television but their interaction with you proves otherwise. Now they are perplexed, there is a paradox and so it is our job to create that chaos in the mindset of such racist people by going out and engaging. I also learnt a lot about myself too, and I was able to challenge those biases that I had about those types of people.

You have previously talked about Muslims creating their own narrative. But with the media creating a narrative for us. How do we overcome this challenge and express our individuality?

I am really glad that you asked me that question… I take a lot of pride in telling people that when I decided to take on this journey I didn’t ask anybody’s permission nor did I ask for anybody’s support. So when I undertook this journey it was something that we individually initiated from ourselves and as a result, Allah (SWT) reciprocated and was able to provide resources, the intentions were pure from the beginning, we didn’t do this for business, we didn’t do this for fame or any of these types of things for me it was a very spiritual journey, but it turned into what I like to call a ‘case study’.

"It’s the responsibility of every individual to understand that they are their own institution that it's up to them to engage"

Most of the time Muslims or generally people like to jump on the pulpit and want to call out theological things, things we should be doing and then they hope that people will go ahead from that speech and move into a space where they are actually creating experiences [for example] here and now me and you are talking, but in retrospect it was based upon an experience that was created, so my message to people is this: in today's day and age it’s the responsibility of every individual to understand that they are their own institution that its up to them to engage, get out of there homes and make a truly organic experience with someone from the other faith.

Individuals carry a tremendous amount of power. Realise that. We have to take responsibility and the best way to do that is to get out there and create your own experiences.

Was there a specifically poignant moment in your travels, something you maybe found interesting or surprising throughout your journey?

Yes, there was, there is a very prominent figure within the Muslim community and the Muslim world a mentor of mine and his name is Imam Siraj Wahaj who is located in Brooklyn New York. He and his team of people had put together an opportunity for me to meet some very, very important people from the media and academia. But the key was, I really needed to get off the aeroplane immediately grab my bag and jump into a car because people were going to meet with me after an event was concluding [at NYU]. So there really was no time, everything needed to happen like clockwork.

What happened was when I got off the aeroplane my bags had not arrived. I had to take that information to the airline counter and explain to them what had happened. They notified me that my bag would be coming on the next aeroplane, which would be about 15 minutes (which translates to about 45 minutes) so I had to realise I am going to miss this appointment. I was really sad about it you know dejected if you want to call it that.

So in any case, I go and stand in front of the carousel where the bags usually come and there’s this other man there. Tall, African American and we’re sitting there so we decided to strike up a conversation. So, I ask him where he was from he said he was from the area but was of Nigerian descent, one side of his family is Muslim the other side is Christian and that he was a musician and he just had a performance and was coming back home.

So, I pulled out my phone and pulled up the NBC article and told him that I was on this historic journey, so we had a good exchange. My bag came so I decided to exit the airport looking for my driver. And then at one step there was an epiphany that took place, something inside of me said maybe this was happening for a particular reason so I stepped back into the airport and by that time the gentleman had already grabbed his bag, and so I said to him, “listen before you take off, before I leave I don’t want you to think I’m weird or anything but I just wanted to.. I wanted to say something to you” and he was like “what is it?” so I said “Aslam Taslem” he said what does that mean?” I said “it means to enter and be blessed, so I’m giving you an invitation, to bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (SAW) is his last and final messenger” and so the man his face looked a little perturbed and he put his bag down and he began to cry! And he said...

“When we were having this conversation I was hoping that the conversation would never end, and when you started to leave I felt this sorrow in my heart, and when you came back and asked me this question I knew that we were supposed to have met, I knew that these bags were meant to be delayed” and then he said.. ashadu-an-la-illaha-illaAllah - Muhammad-du-rasoolululah. “I know the words and I think I’ve always believed in them so I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (SAW) is his last and final messenger.

Looking back on this trip, maybe this entire trip was an excuse for this person coming to Islam. To me this was the high point of this trip. 

You probably have a very unique insight into Islam in America not a lot of people have done what you have. Would you encourage Muslims to do the same?

I encourage entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship doesn’t mean going and starting your own business. But it does mean that you need to leave your imprint on this world and you can do that in many different ways. I do encourage people to go out there and that’s kind of my slogan or tagline..

‘Don’t be good, don’t even be great you need to be exceptional’

People often times dismiss the degree and clarity of what that word means, exceptional means that there is nobody else like you, you are your own category, you are your own institution.

So yes I definitely encourage Muslims and non-Muslims to be exceptional. To go out there and have an adventure, to go out there and test yourself against your own biases and your own prejudices. You need to go out there and discover yourself and learn about other people. You need to show what your values are, you need to grow that’s what travelling allows you to do. 

When travelling the voices, sounds, cultures and values change. But when you are travelling to different Muslim communities, it would be interesting to know how these differing values effect each Muslim community. Are the Texan Muslims a lot different than the New Yorkers? 

Yes, there are stark values and you don’t even have to move from state to state even within the same city you will find that there are stark values, to highlight just a few for example there are those masaajid that are operating via a module that is the antithesis of the general model that you would find, in other words they have invested in their youth.

So you have those types of cultures and then you have another type of culture where the people in the masjid are not only serving people in the Muslim community they make it a point within the fabric of their institution to make sure they are engaging non-Muslims and that they are apart of bettering society. Whether it’s opening a soup kitchen to feed the homeless, whether it’s offering tutoring classes for those who don’t have a proper education or whether its making sure people have proper shelter whatever it may be.

You can really see there is a stark cultural difference in the landscape of America just as there is in the landscape of the world.

"If we are not involved in improving society, if we see ourselves as the ‘other’ then others will also see us as the other"

I think its important to identify those differences between people so that maybe if somebody is doing something better than us we can adopt this, but equally important is to understand the common denominators that bind us together.

There is a common denominator and that common denominator needs to be centred around enjoining good and speaking out against all that is not good and embracing the fact that we are Muslims living in America and that we have an inherent responsibility to improve society. If we are not involved in improving society if we see ourselves as the ‘other’ then others will also see us as the other. 

Did you feel as though the Muslim community was disconnected from the wider American public?

They are connected as much as they want to be and they are also connected conditionally, for instance, this is what we find in most groups religious or secular: when your back is against the wall it throws you into a position of necessity or survival. I think that for the Muslim community right now with all misinformation that’s floating around you are finding a tremendous growth in negative sentiments against Muslims in America.

'Adhan with Mickey'

This puts Muslims in a position where they have to align. They have to speak out against any of the oppressors or any of the wrong doing, they have to speak up for themselves and they have to showcase all the good that they are doing.

Looking beyond the Muaddhin project what things are you hoping to accomplish in the future?

I made this journey for a very specific reason. My father (Rahimahullah) passed away, he was a professor at the University of Michigan. He passed away in Ramadan in the Masjid in Sujood. That is not a coincidence, that is not something you take lightly, that is something somebody reflects upon for the rest of their life.

For me this was a Sadaqah Jaariyah, this was a way for me to still be in the assistance of my father, it was also for me (I had turned 40 when I did this trip) to erase all of those sins which I had accumulated throughout my lifetime and lastly it was to be able to do something for my son and my son's children. I don’t want him to look up to me as an athlete or a CEO of a marketing firm. It would be a tragedy for me to know that this is what he thinks the word ‘success’ means.

This project was done for a particular purpose, but there have been so many things that have come from this. For example, MUHSEN (Special Needs Charity) reached out to me to be an ambassador, I have never written as much as I am writing right now, even organisations have asked me to be their ‘Umrah Guy’. There are a bunch of side projects that are popping up left and right and they are all happening from the mother project, which was calling the Adhan and giving the last sermon of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ . 

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Jameel will be going on tour throughout the US with the '50 Mosque Man Tour' hitting locations up and down the country. He will be sharing his unique insight into Muslim American culture and InshaAllah bridging gaps within the Muslim community and non Muslims communities as well. 

You can find out more information on his website HERE. Don't forget to follow Jameel on his social media below..

Facebook     Twitter     Instagram

And be sure to use the hashtags #TheMuaddhin #50MosqueMan

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Author: Muhammad Yousuf Shuwekh

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MUHSEN: Muslims Understanding Special Needs

"When I was 19 years old my brother was diagnosed with a mental illness, an invisible disability, at the time there was no community support or outlet that we could turn to for help so instead of being supported, we felt alienated and ashamed"

Islam in its perfection outlines the ways in which our lives should be lead. However, its pure message is often corrupted by our own ideals driven by culture, tradition or mere desire. The people of Jannah as someone beautifully put, have somehow been forgotten. The hardships that special needs individuals go through is also felt by the family members who take care of them.

MUHSEN (Muslims Understanding and Helping Special Education Needs) which also translates in the Arabic language to ‘One who shows excellence and compassion’ is an amazing charity that hopes to make the places of Islam that more accessible for special needs individuals. MUHSEN hopes to lead by example by working within Muslim communities to spread a better understanding of special needs and the difficulties their families may face.

The Idea was originally conceived by Sh Omar Suleiman, he explains...

“My mother, due to cancer and multiple strokes, for most of my life suffered from severe hearing loss and had a difficult time speaking amongst other medical issues. This caused me to be particularly sensitive to other kids in the Masjid who had disabilities. What I noticed though and still notice today is that Masjids do not accommodate properly for people with special needs. Many times I go to a city and parents with children in wheelchairs say their kids badly wanted to come but couldn’t get into the masjid. Even worse, parents with children who have autism email me saying that they wish they could attend but have to stay home with their child. Even I, when I served as Imam of Masjid Abu Bakr in New Orleans, mistakenly sent a child with autism home from Quran class not knowing his condition. So all of us need a change of attitude and need to do a better job remosque-ing this part of our Ummah. The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) deeply cared about including them in every activity possible”

Sheikh Omar decided to set down a few ideas on a word document and came up with the concept of MUHSEN. However, a period of time later Sheikh Omar travels on a Hajj trip with a couple who have a child with Autism. It is from this that the idea really starts to take shape. The mother of the child had previously worked in raising awareness for special needs and so their interests aligned. Joohi Tahir is now the Executive Director of MUHSEN, Joohi and many other dedicated volunteers work in creating events that educate as well as encourage our Masaajid and more importantly community’s to be more conscious of those who need it most.

But wait, aren’t our community’s welcoming to all? This talk at MAS ICNA explains it very well. 

Muhsen provides programs, support groups and training all in the aim of improving accessibility and tolerance. They want to introduce ideas that we as Muslims can take on board, such as forming respite groups for carers, facilitating family counselling or creating a quiet room within your mosque - these are seemingly easy points but they go a long way. 

The organization has also previously held events including talks and charity walks, most recently they held their annual fundraising dinner and this speech by an amazing young Muslimah, touched my heart.

It's time that we as a community start rethinking our approach to those who have a disability. The problem may not necessarily be our awareness around this subject, but the way in which we respond. They are just as powerful as us if we can see the power that they hold.

"It takes unimaginable strength to continually endure, persist & overcome. People with disabilities aren't weak. They're the strongest human beings you'll ever meet"

The importance of this organisation can not be understated and its success is dependent on the people who support it.

We encourage all our readers to please check out 'muhsen.org/donations' and contribute what you can to their cause.

We hope that similar organisations can operate throughout our global community and help to make a positive change. You can learn more about MUHSEN, their events and various disability’s on their website www.muhsen.org

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Author: Muhammad Yousuf Shuwekh

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Muslim Girls and Mountain Bikes

The bicycle. Arguably for some it is held as the best invention since sliced bread. A wonderful contraption that contributed to fond memories of playing and racing around after school on mild summer evenings. 

We are all familiar with road racing, the Tour De France, BMX stunts and mountain biking, but for the adrenaline junkies seeking more thrill and adventure Downhill Mountain Biking is a perfect combination of speed, jumps and stunts, and is actually classed as an extreme sport!

It involves the participants racing down a hill on a purpose built track while riding a specially developed bike to deal with all the roots, rocks and bumps the rider will encounter. The skills that rider has will help tackle these obstacles. Protective gear is essential, including body armour, knee pads, elbow pads, helmets, goggles and sometimes a neck brace as an extra precaution. 

It is a relatively new and popularised sport, so the ladies categories are easier to work up the rankings in comparison to the mens.

Meet Sumayyah Green, 16 years old, originally from London and a Muslim hijabi girl who loves her bike and competes in races across the country in this crazy sport . She has been riding for two years and gave a glimpse into her experience riding and competing, the fears she faces and the mental strength it takes to finish the race.

Sumayyah and her bike.

How did you get into downhill mountain biking?

As a young child I would often go riding with my dad, older brother and two sisters at Surrey Hills. I loved it- well the downhill bit! We moved house and after a while I stopped riding at the age of 8. My brother on the other hand didn't, he still went on rides with my dad. Six years later we moved house again this time to the countryside. This is when my brother started to get into downhill, he started to race and I would watch.

One day my dad and brother suggested that I should start riding again and try out racing, I was stubborn toward the idea considering I have not ridden a bike for seven and a half years. After an immense amount of persuading I reconsidered. We drove down to our local trails at Aston Hill. I was nervous but I started with the easiest part of the track with my brother's help. I had forgotten how exhilarating riding was. I got more confident remembering the fond memories of my childhood rides. By the end of the day I had made my decision to start riding again. My dad brought me my first downhill bike and entered me into races.

The race track specially marked out.

What scares you most about riding?

Facing the fact of how badly I could get injured. Getting injured can affect my riding and my body physically as well as mentally, downhill takes a lot of mental strength and without mental strength no one gets far in this sport. It takes one simple crash or a silly mistake and I could break a bone or have a bruised leg for a week. Yes I do wear body amour but the amount of speed that can be gained and the amount of trees and rocks in the way make it just as easy to get injured.

Downhill takes a lot of mental strength and without mental strength no one gets far in this sport

How do you conquer those fears?

I try not to think about too much and throw the thoughts to the back of my mind. Again it’s all about mental strength. I think about all the positive things that can come out of what I do and stay in that positive mind set.

A rocky drop that would intimidate most mountain bikers. Sumayyah rides down these while trying to get the fastest time possible, the faster you get to the bottom the more likely you are to win.

How do you deal with wearing hijab especially in hot weather?

At first I found it very hard as I was not used to doing a sport like this in my hijab. After a while I got used to it, the clothes I wear are especially designed for downhill biking. They are light-weight so you do not over heat and the clothes are also baggy and modest. Sometimes in hot weather it is hard to wear my hijab but then again I just get used to it and have a cold drink to cool me down.

Berms are built into the track to provide variety and test the riders skills.

How does it make you feel?

The sport makes me feel alive. For me racing makes the sport all the more exciting, its the feeling I get when I'm at the start line ready for my race run. On a race weekend it's great to be in such an amazing atmosphere talking to my friends and making new ones. The fact that there is something to constantly challenge myself with motivates me to carry on. Feeling the adrenaline and satisfaction of winning really makes me want to get out there and ride.

How many races have you won?

I have won thirteen or so races out of twenty-seven, I have come top five in most of the other races apart from a few.

What obstacles do you face personally, mentally or physically?

Mental strength is very important so is physical strength. I have to train in the gym, lifting weights and doing other exercises to get fit so when I race or ride I don’t get tired. When riding it is very physical and takes time to get up to prime fitness. It is the same concept with mental strength as well you have to train your mind set, be positive and stay focused.

3rd place is a great achievement for Sumayyah, especially for her first year racing in The British Downhill Series (BDS).

Do you take Downhill Mountain Biking seriously?

Yes, I want to race downhill as my future career. I would like to get sponsored by a World Cup race team, race World Cups full time and get the opportunity to Win World Cups and be the overall winner. Along with being the Downhill World Champion. More than that, to be the first Muslim woman to race World Cups and be at the top of the sport. At the same time inspiring young women around the world.

How can people get involved?

It’s quite simple. You need a bike for starters then find a place to ride. Not too much of a technical track. If you start off with something you cannot do then it won’t be any fun. You can then build up your skills from there and maybe enter some races. To enter race go to British cycling, enter a race and have fun!

Some riders have more style and incorporate more jumps into their race run.

What advice would you give to young Muslim women?

If you want to do something you enjoy, do it! Don’t hold back, it doesn't mean you wear hijab that you can’t do what you want to- do what you want. There are so many women out there doing amazing things.

Visit the website where Sumayyah writes about her biking experiences HERE.

Photo Credit: Yasmeen Green. Visit her page for her photography HERE.

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Author: Aaliyah Green

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Variant Space: Art & The Muslim Woman

Art and Islam are two synonymous words. A perfectly curated collection of mathematics, aesthetics and geometry. The art of the Islamic world has inspired the arabesque, the Gothic arch and the elaborate tiles that decorate European architecture. 

However, Islam, once the beacon of the artistic and literary world has been overshadowed by events that have shaken the modern world. What can Muslims do to throw the stereotypes forced on them by the media? Muslim women are especially in focus, generally viewed as oppressed, non-individual and dominated by their male counterparts. Variant Space is challenging this perspective.

'In essence, our sole objective is to display variations in talent within the Muslim female community and conquer the stereotypes.'

This one of a kind concept is a platform for all Muslim female artists, with a range of skills from traditional crafts to installation and digital photography there is no shortage of culture or inspiration.

The website was founded by Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail and Nasreen Raja in April 2014, they discovered each other through Instagram and decided to launch their website after talking through Skype.

'We just decided to go for it and within a week, our website was launched' explained Nasreen (Shaikh Jamal Al Lail), Nasreen has experience in graphic design and was able to turn their words into reality. 

Credit: Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail on 2011-05-20.

Nasreen expanded on why Variant Space was such a unique venture.

'Variant Space is an open space where we want to support each other as artists. It is not about who’s more successful, who’s made this much and who’s made that much - it’s about a creative state in which we can enhance each other’s value and help each other create something beautiful. It's also about support, sisterhood, it's about self-acceptance. This all has to do with ethics of Islam and being women of faith, to have this sense of sisterhood. People always have so many negative images of what we are as Muslims and especially for women.

It is important to make sure that we have communities of learning, passing skills, and helping each other. We want to anchor Variant Space into something like that.

Nasreen also pointed out that one of their specialties is the multicultural artists they represent 'We all come from diverse cultural backgrounds and from all around the world like Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even those who are that UK based have Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds. I’m Saudi, some are mixed and some are reverts, and some are also from families that are half Muslim.

'When we first launched Variant Space the first event that we actually participated in was Living Islam...that was our first time getting feedback about what Muslims thought about Variant Space which was really important because we never really knew what the community thought, the feedback that we got was very, very positive.

Do you think Muslim women should implement art more into their lives?

This is important, this is all archival, architectural, essential history we are missing. I’ll give you an example, as Muslim women we need to understand the image we put out, we’re on social media and Instagram, everybody posts a selfie, everybody posts a picture of themselves, everybody is a make-up artist, everybody is a fashionista, everybody is putting their hijab in a new style or a new colour. 

Nobody really focuses on something that is actually important which is history, or you know, something academically based. Nobody focuses on the religion that you’re representing in the first place, you’re not representing fashion, you at the end- the core of that, is your face.

And the point that is completely missed is how women have conducted themselves on social media, there is a lack of understanding of the image they are portraying. We don’t create something that is different, this is another stereotype.

We (Variant Space) open up more of a dialogue, it throws off the idea of you being famous or just being the face of a person, it’s more for people to think about, it's more culturally enriching. I think people really need to understand what they want to portray especially as artists.

Shamsia Hassani

Do you think if Muslim women had more involvements in the arts it would have a positive impact on the stereotypes we have to deal with already?

In our youth we look at images. Women a lot of the time consume images of other women who look completely different to how we look like. So obviously, that translates into our subconscious and all these insecurities flood out. It’s nothing to do with religion or how you look like wearing the headscarf, because you’ve been projected women who don’t look like you, who don’t have the same moral standards as you. We project all this negativity on ourselves.

When we do not understand the images that have been portrayed to us, now, when we see a Muslim woman we think she’s only interested in fashion, there’s nothing else- that’s just her. I’m frustrated with the concept ‘If you’re Muslim you’re trendy and you have to be fashionable, you have to be like this you have to be like that, but nothing else.’ That point is completely made. 

Variant Space is not about us at the end of the day, the main point is about how the artwork speaks itself, it is about the message we try to put across. It’s about changing those ideas, making the things that people think are not acceptable, acceptable. Such as women who are Muslim and decide to be veiled, completely covered up, or not. So for that to be understood we have to support each other as a community, and for Westerners to understand these things exist, and so that people accept them and their standards don’t fall into our standards at all.

Nouf Alhimiary: Dictionary of an Eye

What advice do you give to an aspiring male or female Muslim artists, Who may be in a situation where being an artist is not an acceptable career?

It’s not about it being acceptable. A lot of people say 'I want to do art but I can’t because I’m studying something else at the moment'. Okay, you can study something else, don’t go against your family. If you have a hobby of doing art, you can still do it as a hobby. In your own time you can learn about it, read about it and do something that is more useful and practical. I support people who do two things at once, most of our artists, their main job is not art. Instead, their job is something more practical in which they can fund what they are doing in terms of their artwork.

So you have to think about being practical at the same time. I think the biggest advantage you have to think about is, if you’ve got a talent for art, you have to think about what type of art you produce, why you’re producing it and think originally and think creatively about it.

Don’t regurgitate something that somebody’s already made and don’t look down upon cultural or Islamic art at all. Be inspired by that, it should be your main point of inspiration because that is very beautiful. For me I’ve always been inspired by that because this is the essence of who you are, don’t get lost in the mainstream, and what is produced. Focus on something original, make something that will be impactful and useful rather than just making it for the sake of making it.' 

Can anyone feature their work or portfolio on Variant Space?

Everybody is welcome to send in their portfolios to us, we will give you any type of feedback. At the moment we have to limit how many people we will be taking just because we’re fairly new and obviously we’re self-funded. InshaAllah in the future when we have bigger shows you will be kept in mind. And if you want feedback on your work or anything we will always be there to give that. We will support you in any way that is possible in the best way we can.

Photo Credit: Yekinni, an award winning illustrator featured on Variant Space.

How do you want to see Variant Space evolve?

We want to make more art, create more exhibitions and more workshops. I think we love doing workshops quite a bit because it’s interacting with younger people and influencing them in the right way.

If somebody wanted to get involved or help out how do they do that?

Email us. Don’t be shy, feel free to email us we will always answer you and advise you the best way possible.

A special thank you to Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail for taking the time to answer these questions.

Photo Credit: Variant Space, Nasreen Raja, Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail, Shamsia Hassani, Yekenni, Nadine Ijewere, Taman Sheikh and Afhsan & Noshi Ejaz.

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 Author: Aaliyah Green

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