SaqibSaab

My First Trip To New York – Pt. 1 of 5

Premise of Trip

This past ISNA, a mentor and dear friend, AbdulNasir Jangda (pronounced ‘Abdun-Nāṣir Jang-ra), proposed a video project to me after filming a lecture of his at the convention.

Recording ANJ at ISNA 2010.

To promote the 3-day Meaningful Prayer seminar he teaches for Bayyinah Institute, he asked that I fly out to New York for the weekend.

He would be teaching 10-day Bayyinah Summer courses at a masjid there, and he had an idea of giving a bonus lecture at the masjid there that I would record and post online to promote his class.

On the one end, it was a great opportunity for Wasat Studios to get a solid project going.

On the other, it was a free trip to New York, a city I’ve never been but always wanted to go to. So I looked into the offer and tried to see if I could go.

Excitement

Besides going out and doing what I enjoy, filming Islamic media, I was very excited to hit up NYC, namely for the food. I’d heard so much about the famous 53rd and 6th Halal cart and in addition to Times Square really wanted to check it out.

On top of that, the city is full of culture all over, American, Hollywood, international, and even Islam in America. It all seemed very exciting.

Challenges Worked Themselves Out

There were a few things I couldn’t figure out going into the trip that may have hindered my going, but alhamdulillah they all fixed themselves before the trip. Read more »

Behind The Scenes – Filming The AlMaghrib Ramadan 1429 Shoutout

I work with Wasat Studios, who from time to time records Islamic lectues and other interesting little videos. At the 2008 45th Annual ISNA Convention, we filmed a tiny short Ramadan Shoutout for AlMaghrib Institute. The video was supposed to be a short reminder sent out to all the students of AlMaghrib to give them a little bit of encouragement for the month of Ramadan.

How it all happened

At ISNA this past year, three AlMaghrib instructors were there invited to speak: Yasir Qadhi, Yaser Birjas, and the latest addition to their line up, Imam Suhaib Webb. With all three of these guys there, we decided, “hey, why not get them together and film a lil’ somethin somethin. Nothing long or formal, but like an informal little fun video.”

So we asked the two Yasirs after Maghrib salah on Saturday if they’d be down to shoot something after midnight when Imam Suhaib finishses a late night MYNA session, and they said they’ll see how things go. In all honesty, I personally didn’t think it was going to happen. They looked really tired, and trying to get Imam Suhaib to do something after his own midnight session, things were looking grim.

Read more »