Blog Archives
Speaking truth to power is not about results
By Fedwa Wazwaz, Engage Minnesota
While fighting abuse, it’s important not to embrace the spirit of that abuser.
In the Qur’an’s thirty-sixth sura, a man named Habib an-Najjar (Habib the Carpenter) appears. Habib an-Najjar was a very charitable man who was known to give half of his earnings to those in the community who needed help.
But Habib an-Najjar was not a wealthy man or one of the city’s notables. Instead, he was a very sick man who suffered from leprosy and lived at the outskirts of his city.
When we first hear about Habib an-Najjar, he arrives from the outskirts of town, running to come to the defense of the prophets. He does not arrive laureled as a hero. He’s neither powerful nor strong. And although he’s a kind man, he’s not acclaimed, talented, or famous.
Instead of being well-regarded for his charity, because of his altered appearance, people heaped mockery and ridicule on Habib an-Najjar, which was why he lived at the outskirts of town, which was where he was when two messengers arrived with word from the Divine. They were denied. A third messenger was sent to confirm that they were indeed sent to the town by God.
Share:
Why do we heal?
By Fedwa Wazwaz, Engage Minnesota
The possibility of healing creates a choice for each of us.
I’d like to encourage us not only to value healing, but to look forward to healing. And in so doing, I’ll bring together the narratives of psychological healing and faith, which dovetail in important ways. In a lesson by a spiritual teacher who talks about the prophetic mirror, it comes very close to what Randi Kreger, the author of Stop Walking on Eggshells, writes about mirroring. Both can help us clean our internal mirrors so we can better reflect the light.
When I was first trying to heal myself—from my childhood in Jerusalem and Chicago—I was directed toward a white-male privileged projection of what strength is. But going there isn’t really true healing, not even for a privileged white male. The most important part of healing is to grapple with our vulnerability.
Share:
Reflections on Healing
By Fedwa Wazwaz, Engage Minnesota
I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.
–Carl Jung.
There are health nuts and healing nuts. I guess you could say I am a healing nut as I was addicted to programs, workshops, courses, and books that have to do with healing and reconciliation.
Tuesday, May 17th, there is an event titled, Acknowledging our Brokenness – Reflections on the Impact of Trauma from the Individual to the Community.
The event will be held at the
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
451 Lexington Pkwy N,
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104
7 PM to 8:45 PM
The event is free and open to the public.
Being that this is mental health month, I would like to encourage people to attend the event. When we do an activity in a group or support it as a community, it makes it easier for people afraid to seek help to reach finally out and ask for help.
The suffering that is a result of trauma – if not addressed can spill over and affect family members as well as the community and society as a whole.
While I advocate for people to seek programs that help them deal with past trauma, I want to emphasize at times we face a major dead end in the process. I learned over the years an essential wisdom behind an Islamic phrase, which I used to recite without reflection. It is an Arabic phrase, so be forewarned, and do not fear.
Reading it from right to left, it is pronounced like this:
lā hawla wa lā quwwata illā bi Allāh.
It is often translated as there is no power or strength except through Allāh.
Share:
An Increasingly Diverse Religious Landscape
By Zafar Siddiqui, Engage Minnesota
The religious landscape in the U.S. is changing. Our country is getting more religiously diverse. This change calls for a fundamental change in the way we approach interreligious understanding and outreach. In my very first blog entry, I had outlined the tremendous efforts that are happening in Minnesota. Since then, these efforts have definitely increased by many orders of magnitude.
Read the rest of Zafar’s article here.
Share:
The “B” Word
By Hani Hamdan, Engage Minnesota
Whenever I hear a question being asked about an issue of public debate, I can’t help but notice the verb “believe.”
“Do you believe in global warming?”
“Do you believe that President Obama is a secret Muslim?”
“Do you believe that silver amalgam dental fillings will make you sick?”
“Do you believe in vaccinations?”
Is it just me, or is the word “believe” being patently misused here?
Read the rest of Hani Hamdan’s MPR piece here.
Share:
Local Human Rights Award Recognizes Interfaith Work
By Autif Sayyed, American Muslim Community Center
 |
|
Representatives from the three churches
and Saleem Adam of American Muslim Community Center, second from left. |
On May 20, the City of Eden Prairie honored American Muslim Community Center (AMCC) and three churches–Eden Prairie United Methodist Church, Pax Christi Catholic Community and Prairie Lutheran Church–with its annual Human Rights Award. The award was in recognition of our participation in planning and executing the Interfaith Worship Service Program in 2006 and 2007. These events brought together hundreds of people of different faiths to celebrate the commonalities held by all and to promote peace, tolerance, and awareness.
The AMCC strives to create an inclusive community spirit through its activities and programs. We have achieved this by embracing diversity as a strength rather than a weakness. The reasoning behind this approach is very simple. Read the rest of this entry
