I recently attended the MMYC 2008 Spring Conference in Michigan this past weekend. The conference is a annual retreat for high schoolers, and I served as a counselor for a group of young brothers attending. The conference is a success every year, and this year it sold out around 300 seats to high schoolers spending a weekend away from school and life to come closer to Allah.

It was my wife who convinced me to apply to be a counselor, and alhumdulillah I am so happy that I got accepted and went, as the event changed my life. I learned a number of lessons from counseling at the conference, and feel they apply just as much to anyone else involved in Da’wah.

[#5 - Be Flexible and Accommodating in Da’wah]

Ibn al-Qayyim gave some really slick life advice. “Take from every garden the best flower.”

There were obviously some aspects of the conference I and other counselors definitely weren’t down with. But for every small nitpicky issue I found in the conference, there were dozens more that were full of blessings, w’alhumdulillah. So when it came to some issues of question, I found it very beneficial to keep calm about them and focus on what was good.

I spoke to Br. Sa’ad Quadri about how the set up of the conference is really different from what we’re used to in Chicago. There were definitely small tidbits about it which were questionable for our usual comfort. Regardless of disagreeing with those things, he still comes out every single year, pushing from his end what he feels is good and let’s issues of question slide by in the interest of benefiting a different style and audience, and in the end is the favorite and most popular speaker for MMYC year after year, mashaAllah.

No organization or event is going to go 100% the way you want it. While events and organizations you encounter and work with aren’t what you feel to be perfect, ignore the bad and run with the good. It can go a long way.

[#4 - Hijab is the flag of the Muslimah in the West]

Two events hit this home for me.

After one night of the conference, a brave young girl got up on the mic to share a few words the next morning. Coming all the way from Kentucky, the sister was a bit shy but still managed to say what she wanted to say through all the giggles of her spotlight moment.

She told everyone how much she loved the conference, how she didn’t want to come and felt she wouldn’t enjoy it or fit in. But standing tall and brave up on the mic, holding back tears, she announced to the entire room that from that day forward she was going to begin wearing Hijab, just because of the conference.

Audio clip from trailer:

The room erupted with clapping, cheering, and takbeerat from 300+ kids and counselors. Instantly, the brave young now-Muhajibah became the star of the conference.

I approached one of my old friends from Michigan who helped organized the conference to pat him on the back on a job well done in organizing the event, and asked Allah to reward and accept it from them, only to find him holding back tears from the powerful Eman launching scene that just took place. I honestly cannot recall a moment like that in 22 years of being a Muslim youth in the West.

After that moment, every speaker mentioned her accomplishment in their speeches, and every sister in the audience struggling with Hijab now had a shining role model to look up to and think, “I can do it, too.”

Later that weekend, in a workshop Q&A session, another young girl asked a question about an older friend of hers who has been having trouble getting pregnant with her husband for 6 years, and how that relates back to Du’as being accepted or not.

In the question, the young sister mentioned, “and she’s a good person, too; she’s Muhajibah.”

Both of these events really touched me and opened my eyes about Hjiab. These girls truly knew the importance of Hijab, way better than I could ever imagine (especially since I’m a male growing up in a house with no sisters).

I really sympathize with all Muslim sisters struggling with wearing Hjiab. I used to think it was so easy, that you just slap on a headscarf and walk away. It’s not. The whole world around us is saying Hijab is ugly, whether it’s non-Muslim friends or Desi culture. It’s not as easy as I had imagined it to be, and for the first time I can say that I finally understand, if even just a little bit.

I ask Allah (SWT) to make it easy for all Muslim sisters struggling to start wearing Hijab, and to continue with Hijab for the rest of their lives.

To be continued…