I'm the third
person here, so bear with me.
A few weeks ago (end of
May 2000) I get an ICQ message from a dear american sister I had met on
line. She's living in Pakistan with her Palestinian husband and children.
She writes that there is a new sister that she had met on line from Iceland
that will be coming into my town for a week on a work related convention.
Would I see to it to take care of her. I meet the sister on line
(ICQ) and we make arrangements for her to call me once she reaches
town.
I get the call from her
(Amina) on Sunday (May 28, 2000). I am so busy during the week, with
kids and studies, and she with her workshops, that we finally agree to
block off Friday for Juma' prayer and just to 'hang out' for the rest of
the day. It was all last minute for me in arrangement for a intimate
dinner at my house. I had invited just a few American sisters over
to relax and have dinner. One sister in particular, having car problems,
is not certain as to whether she can make it, had made it.
While preparing the dinner
we all sat around discussing various topics and swapping our reversion
stories. Amina fit right in, it was if we had known her for a long
time. Masha' Allah tabarek Allah.
During dinner we press
Amina to tell us her story of reversion. She kept claiming it wasn't
nearly as exciting as ours, or exciting at all. [Little did we know
it would be the most exciting story any of us there had ever
heard!]
Amina had come down to
Georgia to study for a year. While there she had met an Egyptian
Muslim man. They started seeing each other socially and Amina then
became introduced to Islam. She began looking on line for Islamic
Information sights. One such site: BeConvinced.com
Through ICQ a group
was holding a da'wa chat where Amina found a group of eager Muslims to
answer some of her questions. She began to become 'convinced' and
then would falter. One particular night she met a sister that really
convinced her to take her shahadah and they did so on line. Now,
bear in mind Amina is telling us this story and sitting next to her is
sister Latifah who is looking puzzled all this time.
She interrupts
Amina and asks: "Are you skuld?"
Amina is shocked!
"Yes, she says, that's me!"
Latifah then screams
and says, "I'm the one that gave you your shahadah!!!! I have been looking
for you to make sure that you had professed your shahdah with your tongue
and not just your typing fingers."
Amina assured her
that she had when she went to Egypt, there in Al-Azhar
University.
We all just about
fell over with excitement. (Retelling this story still gives me goose
bumps). They embrace with force and are in shock! And
Latifah starts to cry. Latifah says she had been concerned as to
what had happened with her as she didn't get her email and then changed
her screen name. They soon lost touch with each other.
They sat together
the rest of the night, holding hands. As Latifah led the prayer she
became choked up and I too began to cry.
Afterwards, I
said: "I think I will have to remake this entire prayer because I
wasn't concentrating." But then I thought I was in such a state of
Awe and Glorification of Allah, that perhaps it was a very valid
prayer.
To wrap this up
summarily:
A new sister (Amina)
meets a sister (Um Nuha) in Pakistan, who then introduces her (Amina) to
me (Um Noah) who then introduces her to her sister (Latifah) that gave
her her shahadah 6 months prior.
A sister (Amina)
travels all the way from Iceland to a small town in the United States not
for the convention (as she had planned) but to meet the sister that gave
her her shahadah (as Allah had planned!)
I'm struck with
an overwhelming realization of Allah's most infinite Plan and
Destiny.
Sahih Muslim: book
33, #6392
Hudhaifa b.
Usaid reported directly from Allah's
Messenger (may
peace be upon him) that lie said:
When the drop
of (semen) remains in the womb
for forty or
fifty (days) or forty nights, the angel
comes and says:
My Lord, will he be good or evil?
And both these
things would be written. Then the
angel says:
My Lord, would he be male or female?
And both these
things are written. And his deeds
and actions,
his death, his livelihood; these are also
recorded. Then
his document of destiny is rolled
and there is
no, addition to and subtraction from it.
Written and told by Um Noah