Nice story

A new family in town comes to a masjid for a halaqa hoping to meet atleast one new person. They come early, pray, sit through the halaqa and then wait and then leave. They are slightly disappointed and wonder if they were white americans they would have had someone receive them with a smiling face, or if they were recent reverts then people would have been more inviting. They wonder if there was some other masjid that probably has more to offer.

One thing that I like about Toastmasters is that every officer that holds a position has one important job - Greet Guests with a smiling face and invite them to speak about their opinion on the meeting. There are many more things that we can learn positively from the toastmaster handbook. But this stands out - Greet Guests and give a voice to their face.

The above story was first evident in L.A. Basic assumption was that the community there was huge and hence no one really bothered. Dr. Hassan Hathout actually in one of his khutbahs had pointed out the growing indifference that we had created to the person beside us. We did not even shake hands with them after prayer, let alone know his name. He had enforced a strict reminder for that khutbah that we shake hands and introduce ourselves to the two people beside you. That had helped. I never thought I would need to refer to something like this again.

An american muslim identity exists mostly on paper (as yet); the above story was enacted on two different desi families who had visited ICC over the last month, but somehow the brownies dawah factor was missing.

May Allah give us the ability to be better (dawah givers -sorry dont know the correct words).