2020 Positive Resilience

“I testify that there is no deity worthy of being worshipped other than Allah and I testify that Muhammad was His last messenger and servant.”  These were the words that Efrain Allyon stated in front of his family and the community at our Convivencia potluck on January 25th of this year. What many witnessed that day and the times they see someone enter the fold of Islam is just a small part of a process that our team is involved in the moment a person contacts us to learn about Islam. We witnessed Efrain come to our Sunday class for almost 5 months learning about Islam and asking questions in a comfortable environment. In that time period he had positive interaction with community members and lead volunteers which impacted him so much so that he felt comfortable with his family coming to the Centro Islamico to see him accept Islam.  

   What people do not know is that his mother was one of the 1st guests to come that day and she sat alone for a few minutes with a concerned look on her face.  We keep an eye open to these types of situations and train our volunteers to be able to recognize new faces and make sure that we do all that we can to make our guests feel comfortable. One of our team members recognized this and made sure that Efrain’s mother was hosted and had other sisters greet her and made her feel at home.

We would have never thought that this would be our only potluck of the year as we know what took place less than 2 months later ….

When we heard the vast majority of Islamic Centers were shutting down because of the spread of the Coronavirus we did not know what to really make of this news. All we knew is that we had to tell the community that we were not holding Jumuah services and that a reminder had to be given in both Spanish and English online.  This was the 1st of many Friday bi-lingual reminders that would replace our congregational sermons for the next 6 months. We also knew that we had to adapt and push forward with other online programs that we hoped would benefit our audience.

 IslamInSpanish may be based in Houston but it has impacted the world for almost 20 years by being the leading producer of Islamic content online worldwide in Spanish and now making an impact in English. Establishing this consistency online before the pandemic only made it easier (with its challenges) for us as a team to elevate our programming and attempt to be much more creative in our approach.

One of the programs that we established early on was our weekly Q&A sessions,  1 hour in English and then 1 hour in Spanish. We were pleasantly surprised on how people of other faiths gravitated to these sessions from different nations across the globe. This was a unique opportunity to connect with people we did not know were following us and now they had the opportunity to ask us questions that were either based on the need to clarify some issues they had with Islam to how to maintain a healthy lifestyle as converts in challenging situations. We were blessed to witness online a multitude of people accepting Islam after asking their  questions and receiving  answers which made it easier for them to take this important step of accepting Islam.

Another program our team created during the pandemic was the IslamInSpanish Social Podcast. The 1st season of this podcast allowed us to introduce to the audience the origins of IslamInSpanish and how we were impacted by the tragedies of 9/11. Discussions about racism, interfaith family dynamics and maintaining a resilient spirit in these trying times opened the door for our online audience to listen to a unique perspective that only had been heard in our local community. Allah blessed us to strive for excellence which is inspired by this verse  in the Quran about the Prophets in Chapter 21 v90

(Indeed, they used to race in doing good, and call upon Us with hope and fear, totally humbling themselves before Us.)

 There were so many blessings by being able to connect to our online community  and also at the same time having the opportunity to become a more cohesive group with our wonderful V-team…..

“Just do the right thing! “ 

“Stay firm and continue to be sincere.” 

This was simple advice from our mentors who knew what to say to us as we matured as converts and then community leaders/educators.  Our team has continuously been blessed with having a diverse group of people from different walks of life who do not hold back in advising us because they know we welcome their points of view.  Our team understands the importance of also being advisors/mentors to those in our community who are not only developing within the community but in their different roles in life.  Coming into this year we were driven to assist our V-Team (our wonderful group of volunteers) to benefit from the experiences that we have had as Muslims for the past 20 years and the perspectives of those who mentored us throughout these years.

We were able to set up a program where they were able to receive some benefit but also able to give back to the community. The program focused on them being able to be given principles of leadership which was led by Br. Mujahid, called the Mastermind group. (I hope he writes a post about this group -hint hint) This mastermind group were also encouraged to be a part of a 12-part series named The Journey of the Soul. The purpose of this series was to remind ourselves of what is needed to be in the healthiest spiritual state when Allah chooses to take our soul. We then requested from them to prepare reminders for our weekly class for new Muslims and people of other faiths on Sundays.  They were encouraged to do this as a means to give back to new Muslims and those who are searching for the truth similarly to how they were not too long ago. The V-Team are a talented group of sisters and brothers whose talents and skills are almost never seen in our general Muslim community, Why?  because so many are not deemed worthy of being a building block of any community. IslamInSpanish and the Centro Islamico are blessed to have a team that are the backbone of our community no matter their background.       (we have Latinos mixed with African Americans, Whites mixed with Japanese to Arab /S.Asian mixed with Mexican who are multi lingual.As well as people who come from New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Ilinois to Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and we cant forget Texas )

These are some of the programs that we were able to accomplish during this year and Im sure Br Alex can give some insight to what he has seen from the online presence to Sr.Sakinah’s perspective on the new muslim and sisters program to Br.Mujahid overall perspective of this past year. It is a blessing to have them as team members alongside my wonderful wife and children who have been with me on this wonderful journey. May Allah accept from all of us. ameen