A Kool Khutbah

Yesterday, I reflected on my fortunate position. Every Friday, I get to catch an amazing khutbah at an Islamic center almost just down the road from the school I teach at. The public school I teach at. I work for an exemplary principal who really, truly believes in equity with a capital E; she juggled schedules so I get my religious requirement in – with a timing that’s not rush, rush but in a way which allows me to totally savor the Khutbah. The school is the only one in our whole board where the teaching staff actually comes close to reflecting the multicultural population of the school! A friend and I once counted the make-up of the teachers and figured out there was mathematical precision to the hiring. There’s almost an even number of every ethnicity, religion, economic background, gender and even political persuasion. As you can imagine, staff get-togethers are noisy and interesting.

To give you a case in point – there’s 4 Muslim teachers – 2 (a woman (me) and a man) who wear traditional Muslim clothes and 2 (a woman and a man) who don’t. So even the visual make-up of the school is accounted for! (I wonder if my Principal’s undergrad. degree was in Mathematics – with a focus on symmetry.)

Going to Jumah (Friday prayers) this year has really helped ground my week. I’m sad I didn’t take advantage of it in previous years – never requested the schedule change because I mostly thought of it as a requirement for men. It slowly dawned on me that the exception granted – of it not being mandatory for women to attend – was if women were tending to their children and such. Here I was – tending to my career during Jum’ah hour and actually believing that I was exempted? I’m so glad for that “ah ha” moment – it’s made such a difference in my life so far.

Yesterday, the Khutbah was particularly inspiring. Here’s a list of things I want to remember from it:

1. Though our purpose is akin to the angels in that we were created to worship Allah, He gave us intellect in order for us to arrive at this purpose through its (the intellect’s) use.

2. The early Muslims had such a strong belief in this purpose that that was the impetus for the courage, confidence and conviction which led to their successes in deen (religion) and dunya (the world). And what successes!

3. That only when you evaluate everything in the light of your connection to Allah do you become someone walking through this life with this purpose in mind (and the natural courage, confidence and conviction which comes with it).

4. The Khatib also reminded us of one of my favorite quotes: When one of the early Muslims (who had this conviction of purpose) Ri’bee bin Aamir was sent for to face the Persian leader Rustom and explain himself, bin Aamir answered: “God sent us to call whom He wills from worshiping the created to worshiping the Creator, from the narrowness of this world to the spaciousness of the next; from the injustice of oppressive systems to the justice of Islam.”

There was much more to the Khutbah – so much more that I wished I had a pen and the back of a large envelope to jot it all down!