Gratitude and Thankfulness
By Mohammad Yacoob
Los Angeles, CA
Dr Jamal Badawi, one of the leading Muslim scholars in North America, delivered an unscheduled Friday Sermon - JumaKhutba - at the Islamic Center of Hawthorne, Southern California, a local Mosque where I go every Friday, on November 27, 2015. I was pleasantly surprised to see him and to listen to his Khutba. He spoke eloquently about the state of the world, extremism, violence, and hate mongering from a high scholarly level, but in pure and simple language, quoting verses from the Qur’an and emphasizing the responsibility of Muslims.
I met him after the Friday Prayer and thanked him for coming to our Center and asked, “Because this is a Thanksgiving weekend, you are here with us, Dr Jamal Badawi”. I also told him that my son-in-law Salim Ahmed, who is a Canadian citizen, was his student in the 1980’s. He asked me for more details which I did not have at that time. Later, Salim gave me details via email and wrote, “Salaam, we used to meet at the Dartmouth Masjid. This was around 1985 and Br Jamaal was an economics professor at St. Mary's University. I had shared apartments with Ibrahim Zanussi/Libya and also another time with IssamAbukather/Palestine. He may remember them. Brother Jamaal used to invite us students to his house for iftar in Ramadan for which I remain most grateful. I had even sent Br. Jamaal an invitation to my wedding but I am not sure if he received it. – Salim Ahmed.”
Dr Jamal Badawi and I could not continue the conversation. He was escorted to the city of Ontario, California, that is more than forty miles from Hawthorne, to attend the Annual Conference of the Muslim American Society (MAS). He was the Keynote Speaker at the Conference that was being held on the American Thanksgiving Weekend.
A few minutes later a young man, who attended the Juma Prayer and heard the conversation between Dr Jamal Badawi and me, approached me and said, “We do not celebrate Thanksgiving; it is celebrated by the Mushrakeens.” I immediately told him, “I disagree with you,” and walked away from him. Indirectly, he seemed to tell me that Thanksgiving is a Christian holiday. He made the remark by making a casual observation when he heard me use ‘Thanksgiving Weekend’ in the conversation with Dr Jamal Badawi. This young man took it upon himself to make a judgment.
I would like to give two examples of casual observation ending up in forming opinions about a situation, jumping to conclusions, and passing judgment. The first example is about two friends, Ahmed and Yousuf, who came to the United States as students decades ago from an Asian country. Ahmed went to Chicago and Yousuf enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles. They graduated from their respective universities and remained out of touch with each other for eleven years. Ahmed graduated from a university in Chicago, applied for immigrant status in the US and became an entrepreneur, a big business man. Yousuf graduated from the University of California and began working as a Director in an Engineering Company.
Ahmed came to Los Angeles and met Yousuf merely by chance. Yousuf, now a US citizen, invited Ahmed to his place, a three-bedroom apartment in an eight-unit building, for dinner where Ahmed had another surprise waiting for him. He met an old friend from his neighborhood in the old country at the dinner party. Ahmed turned to his other childhood friend, and said, “You know Yousuf is smarter than me; he always talked about starting a business after graduating from college, even before coming to the US. Look at him, still living in an apartment and working as an engineer.” Ahmed’s friend turned to him and said, “You are right; Yousuf is a smarter man. He owns this eight-unit apartment building and owns two others. Many a time he has said that he wants to live a simple life and help others.” This brings us to a point that clearly says that Ahmed made a casual remark that did not stand the test of facts.
I would like to add another casual observation account. It relates to my personal experience in Los Angeles at a Wells Fargo Bank. I had planned to go to two banks, Wells Fargo Bank and Union Bank. At the Wells Fargo Bank, I was holding an envelope from the Union Bank addressed to me wherein I had placed transaction papers of both banks. A person standing behind me saw the envelope, Union Bank envelope in Wells Fargo Bank, and with a smile and with complete seriousness said to me, “Aren’t you in the wrong bank?” He made a comment based on his casual observation.
Most often people tend to believe what they hear or see that may provide only a part of the information, then suddenly form an opinion and pass judgment. I am not going to go into the details of Thanksgiving or its historical background; however, I would say that I do celebrate thanksgiving. I started celebrating thanksgiving with a small “t” more than thirty-five years ago to express my gratitude to Almighty God. My thankfulness directed to Almighty God makes me see in it an awareness of, and appreciation for, what I have and what is around me. I am thankful to God for my family, health, friends, community and the good life I am enjoying in the United States.
The people around the world have been expressing gratitude through ages. I elevated my gratitude to a higher level of thankfulness and express it through the Islamic Prayer. I wrote to Los Angeles Times as to how I celebrate my thanksgiving.
Voluntary Islamic Thanksgiving Prayer, November 22, 2001
“I came to the United States in 1962. My father, an army contractor who had worked with the British army in India, told me to go to Oxford or Cambridge, but I decided to come to California. This is because of the speech made by Vice President Richard Nixon in 1957 in Bangalore in south India. During the speech he mentioned that Bangalore reminded him of California. I decided to come to California.
In the last 20 years, I have started celebrating Thanksgiving in a very unique way-- an additional way. To give thanks to God, I perform two units of voluntary Islamic prayer, either on Thanksgiving Day or on Friday, in the morning, afternoon or evening. Since this is not a compulsory or mandatory Islamic prayer, I choose the day and the timing. This year, I have decided to perform four units of Thanksgiving prayer, to thank God more for the good life my family is enjoying in the United States. I will pray to God to bless America, humanity and our spaceship, the Earth. May God give us the strength to fight terrorism, intolerance and hate crimes.
Mohammad Yacoob, Hawthorne (http://articles.latimes.com/2001/nov/22/opinion/le-sau22_2.1)
As Muslims we thank Almighty God and also engage in thanking people for their good acts, deeds or favors they have heaped on us. Our thankfulness is called ‘Tashakkur’ in Arabic and ‘Shukriya’ in Urdu. As a matter of fact, I thanked many people on the Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, 2011 in an article entitled “Thanksgiving” posted on Islamicity on November 19, 2011. I thanked the African-American community for standing up with the Muslim community. I appreciated and thanked the Japanese-American community for condemning the misguided Americans for their suggestion of placing Muslims in internment camps. The Latino community is always under the threat of being branded as illegal aliens; I thanked them for being with the Muslims when extremists and hatemongers raised slogans in favor of the deportation of Muslims; thanked Rev. J. Edwin Bacon, Rector, All Saints Church, Pasadena, California; and thanked Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, Television program hosts. I thanked our own leaders: Dr Maher Hathout, founder of Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Salaam Al-Marayati, President of MPAC; HussamAyloush, Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles; Dr Ahmed Sakr, Founder of Muslim Students Association of American and Founder of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); DrMuzammil Siddiqi, President of California Shura Council; and Congressman Keith Ellison, member of the House of Representatives
On Wednesday December 2, 2015, the white snow from the snow-capped San Bernardino mountains melted, and started flowing into the valleys and ravines, as pure, pristine, clean and colorless water and met the pool of blood that had accumulated in the city of San Bernardino as a result of the massacre by the man and wife team and turned red.
Out of more than five thousand universities in the United States, I had thanked the students and scholars of only one university, the University of California at San Bernardino. I wrote, “I would like to express my profound thanks to millions and millions of Caucasian and White Americans who are standing by the Muslims and supporting them to show to the whole world that the dark FACE (Fundamentalists, Arid Conservatives and Extremists) on the American scene does not represent the United States. In November 2011, more than 100 non-Muslims students at University of California, San Bernardino, wore the hijab, Muslim scarf, to show solidarity with Muslim students and also to experience what if feels to be in that garb. They discovered that Muslim women are stronger and more courageous than Muslim men. Thank you very much scholars and student community of America. I wish I could thank millions and millions of Americans individually on this Thanksgiving Day – November 24, 2011. At least several hundred Americans I know personally, but it is a tremendous task. Right now, I am praying to Almighty God to bless you and your families.” http://www.islamicity.com/articles/articles.asp?ref=IV1005-4164&p=2
From my vantage point, my Islamic values are not going to change, will remain the same, whether I respond to the creatures of absolute ignorant, fear mongers and hatemongers or not. As a result of the San Bernardino massacre, attacks on Muslims and Mosques have increased. Those who are attacking Muslims and displaying their vast knowledge of ignorance by listening to ignorant leaders are not afraid of terrorists; they are afraid of 99.999% Muslims who are against terrorism, extremism, racism and Islamophobia.
The American Muslim community and decent Americans must continue to work to replace fear with understanding, negativity with the positive message of Islam. I am thankful to hundreds of people who guided me, inspired me and taught me ways to serve humanity. Today, I would like to thank one person, and he is none other than Dr Aslam Abdullah, Imam of the Islamic Center of Las Vegas, Nevada, who has inspired me and raised my soul to higher levels of spirituality through his reminders about Islamic values, his writings and speeches. He inspired me by his unique, frank and honest style which he uses in his articles, about our responsibilities as Muslims and followers of Prophet Muhammad; about our strengths and weaknesses as Muslims; and about human existence on this earth, placing emphasis on good side of life. He says, “The less you respond to negative people, the more peaceful your life will become.”
(Mohammad Yacoob is a retired Industrial Engineer and Engineering Proposals Analyst who lives in Los Angeles, California. This article first appeared in print on January 29, 2016)
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