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My First Trip To New York – Pt. 2 of 5 – Diversion to New Jersey

Arrival, First NY Experience

After landing, I got picked up by Abdullah Ahmed, great guy who I met at ISNA, and Maulana AbdulNasir himself. Abdullah’s ride was a Toyota Prius that carried Yasir Qadhi’s Light of Guidance and empty sprinkler system boxes. Sounds exotic, but really it was pretty standard stuff.

This thing can do wheelies.

Immediately upon pickup they took me right into the heart of a New York experience. The areas surrounding the city were like a scene out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie.

Super old buildings, packed houses with lawns smaller than a lawn mower, ads painting on the sides of apartment complexes. People from all sorts of backgrounds. White people were hard to find.

And Muslims. Man. They were everywhere.

Bearded men in kurtas, cabbies (of course), aunties wearing shalwar kameez, girls in hijab. It was like Devon Street on north side of Chicago or Surrey Drive in Glen Ellyn, IL, only on a much larger scale. Because in Chicago, you stick out walking around looking Muslim in most areas. But in many areas around New York, you’re a commoner. All I could think about was how 9/11 must have been in the city with so many Muslims around.

After making us listen some peculiar Yasir Qadhi sessions he recorded on his iPhone at ISNA, Abdullah was craving Chinese so we hit up Fatima’s Halal Kitchen in Astoria, NY.

When letters in the awning and neon sign are dim, you know it’s good food.

I know what you’re thinking, Halal Chinese is usually Desi operated and doesn’t cut it. But this was owned by Chinese Muslims. So it was game over, especially with the General Tso’s chicken ordered extra sweet, extra crispy.

Diversion to New Jersey

Once lunch finished, we had to bounce to what many people claim is the worst place in the universe: New Jersey. Read more »

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 »