Of Civilizations, al-Rahmān, and A Phone Number: The MAS/ICNA Convention 2005

So I attended the Muslim American Society/Islamic Circle of North America National Convention 2005. On the whole, quite good alhamdulillah, but for me there were three highlights; well two highlights and a third... something that happened.

Anyway, first was an insightful lecture by Dr. Tariq al-Suwaidan on the dynamics of civilizations; a condensed version of his research and consequently a book on the same topic. It was one of the lectures that make you regret not being a notebook person -- if indeed you are not one. His findings made me quite happy as they were very much inline with my ideas on the culture of Islam, or rather my ideas were inline with his.

He started his speech by laying out the many laws that govern the rise and fall of civilization in light of his research. Laws that have been witnessed throughout the course of human history to hold true, laws that have been spelled out in the Glorious Qur'ān, and yet some others that he himself deduced from his study.

His main point was this: civilizations are not based on their apparent development and projects, but rather on their underlying principles and intellectual systems. The better the intellectual system, the more chances that civilization has of progressing. Moreover, a civilization is like an organism that can catch diseases and has an immune system to defend against them. The strength of a civilization's immune system is directly linked to the strength of its intellectual system and the civilization's connection with this intellectual system.

This might just pass as fairly obvious, but when one thinks about it, problems that arise from the oversight of this understanding can be seen all around us (as Dr. Tariq rightly pointed out). The Muslim civilization was not based on the Masjid al-Harām, or the Masjid al-Nabawī; it was not attached to the magnificence of Damascus and Baghdad, the minarets of Istanbul, or the beautiful architecture of Tāj Mahal and the Lāl Qil'ah; it was indeed built on the Qur'ān, the Sunnah, and the rightly guided understanding of both. When this connection was broken, the immune system was destroyed; the buildings stood and the cities remained, but the civilization vanished into encyclopedias. Now all we have is a diseased civilization with an amazing intellectual system, but no connection to it.

He also had a lot to say about modern western civilization is following a similar path, but let's not get into that.

My second highlight came in the middle of the entertainment session. Organizers usually try to garnish these sessions with some spiritual talks, which more than often are not really all that entertaining. Not only did they have a really good spiritual talk in the middle of this session, it actually made the whole thing worthwhile. Better still; the very gentle person who delivered this talk connected the whole entertainment business to Jannah and the joy that awaits the righteous therein. But it was a wonderful Hadīth he mentioned that blew me away. I had no idea about this.

The Hadīth goes as such (heavily paraphrased):

After everything and everyone has settled into the wonderful life of Jannah, enjoying it to the fullest, Allāh (SWT) will ask the people of Jannah if they are enjoying themselves. They will reply and say that it is unlike anything they've ever imagined and it is the best that they could have ever wished for.

Allāh will say, "I have something better," and He will order Sayyadnā Dāwūd (AS) to recite from earlier Scriptures, which he will and the people of Jannah will be spellbound. Then Allāh will ask them if they enjoyed it, and they will give a similar response saying that it is the best thing they have ever experienced.

Then Allāh (SWT) will say, "I have something even better," and He will order our Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to recite Sūrat Yāsīn, which he will and the people of Jannah will be yet more affected by it. Allāh will ask them again if they enjoyed it, and they will give a similar response saying that it is better than anything they could have ever imagined or wished for.

Then Allāh (SWT) will say, "I have something much better," and then He will recite Sūrat al-Rahmān HIMSELF and the people of Jannah will just listen to it, mesmerized and captivated and it will be better than anything they could have ever imagined or wished for. Aw kamā qāl.

I don't know about anyone else, but I was completely blown away by this revelation. Seriously, I might want to go to Jannah just because of this (and of course, also because I don't want to go to Jahannam). Before this, my motivation was beholding the Face of Allāh (SWT), but now, it is watching Him recite from the Bride of His Last Revelation. Subhānallāh. In many ways will Allāh bless His righteous servants and bestow them with His Bounties and Mercy.

My third... well, a memorable event of the convention involved a sister that I was recently introduced to (let's call her sister a); another sister (sister x) whose identity was concealed from me by sister a; a brother attending the convention from Chicago (brother y); an attempted hookup between x and y by asking y for his parents' contact information; the person who retrieved this contact information, namely Mus'ab; a lot of embarrassment and awkwardness; and the brother whose information was actually retrieved, namely y-prime (sitting next to y). I don't wish to explain any of this.