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Rushing to Manhattan\u2019s 96th Street mosque in the white gallabiya he promised Allah he would wear, toting leftover dates in tupperware, Abdu Alim did a good deed. In Spanish-inflected Arabic, \u201cSalamm\u2019alaikum<\/i>,\u201d he said, to a kid he didn\u2019t know running out of the mosque. They exchanged peace like a high five, and Alim explained that that was an act of charity. And that every move you make toward the mosque and every letter you pronounce from the Qur\u2019an is an act of worship, which is especially important during Ramadan, when every good deed yields one hundred times more blessings than usual, especially on that night, the Night of Power, in which Muslims all over the world remember when Allah first spoke to the holy Prophet Muhammad.<\/p>\n
Though Alim calls himself a Nuyorican, he told me he is more a brother to the Pakistani he \u201csalaamed<\/i>\u201d than the Hispanic teenagers who tried to distract him on the way to mosque one evening: \u201cLook at this fool,\u201d they said. \u201cHe looks like bin Laden, or Jesus Christ.\u201d Alim told me he feels more fellowship with the Egyptian imam who invites him to the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge than the Pentecostal<\/a> preacher who condemned him for bringing a Qur\u2019an to church. His Arab, African, and Asian brothers and sisters in Islam are more family to him now than his nine nominally Catholic but not religious siblings.<\/p>\n No one knows for certain which night is Laylat al-Qadr<\/i>, the Night of Power, when Muhammad received the first utterances of the Qur\u2019an, \u201cthe recitation\u201d in Arabic that began the twenty-three year miracle of revelation delivered by the angel Gabriel. According to hadith, the sayings of the Prophet, it probably falls on one of the odd nights during the last ten days of Ramadan, and \u201che who spends the night in prayer\u2026 and seeking rewards from Allah, his previous sins will be forgiven.\u201d In anticipation of Laylat al-Qadr<\/i>, Muslims are to strive especially in worship, through charity, prayer, and Qur\u2019anic recitation, during the last part of Ramadan, which is \u201crelease from hellfire.\u201d (The beginning is mercy; the middle forgiveness.) Islamic scholars determine which of the possible nights Laylat al-Qadr<\/i> will be observed at each mosque, with an all-night prayer vigil that is said to be equivalent to more than 80 years of worship: This night is better than a thousand months. Alim said a brother explained to him that the Night of Power is decided when a majority of Muslims agree, judged by a moon sighting in Saudi. On this side of the world, a clear quiet night is a sign of Laylat al Qadr<\/i>, according to Nagla Elbadawy, who teaches religion at Al Noor, \u201cThe Light,\u201d the largest Islamic school in New York.<\/p>\n On a clear quiet night near the end of his second Ramadan, Alim left early from Islam Fashion, the women\u2019s clothing shop where he was working, and broke fast at a Brooklyn water fountain on his way to the four train. (He knows it is recommended to hasten in breaking the fast when the sun has set, with anything, even water, which is precious in Islam. He consults other Muslims to make sure it\u2019s okay to break the fast, and if none are around, he consults by cell phone.) Alim made it the 96th Street mosque in time for tarawih, the congregational prayer in which the entire Qur\u2019an is recited at least once through, verse by verse, night by night.<\/p>\n While hanging up his coat and removing his shoes, Alim heard a young lady embracing Islam over the loudspeaker: laa il\u0101ha illa All\u0101h, wa Muhammad(un) ras\u016bl All\u0101h<\/i>, she repeated after the imam in two-word increments. Then, she professed Islam in English: \u201cThere is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.\u201d Alim looked up, as if he were hearing angels, which he knew would be flocking down to earth that night to encourage acts of worship and supplicate to God on behalf of those who prayed. Shahada<\/i>, the declaration of the faith in front of at least two witnesses, is a blessing, he told me. \u201cWhen a people take shahada<\/i>, all prior sins are erased, and they are considered like a child being born into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdu Alim took shahada<\/i> twice\u2014first out of curiosity, and, more than a decade later, out of conviction. He was a Christian called Edwin all his life, until he embraced Islam in September 2002. He said he was \u201cmis-raised\u201d because his family didn\u2019t bring him up religiously: Catholicism wasn\u2019t a way of life in his family. But he was known to be the religious one among his six brothers and three sisters. In his twenties he began to seek the spirituality he lacked growing up in Spanish Harlem. He started going to different kinds of churches\u2014mostly Baptist and Pentecostal, \u201ca little bit of everything,\u201d he said. As he went along, he encountered different schools of thought in Christianity: \u201cYou have some people that will say Jesus is divine and man and those that believe He\u2019s totally God. These different views started shaping me, my beliefs\u2026 I accepted the full conviction that Jesus is divine; He\u2019s God, but that he was also man,\u201d he said. Edwin got baptized during this time in a Church of God, but \u201cI was really confused,\u201d he said. \u201cI would literally cry at times.\u201d<\/p>\n Edwin lived in an Adventist fellowship community for a while in upstate New York. But he couldn\u2019t stand it. He had a problem with the fact that they stressed the issue of the Sabbath, and with their strict vegan diet; there were times in the middle of the night he wanted to get up and go to the store and buy himself a cheeseburger. And \u201ceven at that time, there was something about Islam, about the book, the Qur\u2019an, that really attracted me, especially when they speak of God as the most gracious, the most merciful. These words, they really took my heart.\u201d Struck by skepticism, Edwin started studying different translations of the Bible. At the 42nd Street library he found the New World Translation, used only by Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, denying what he had believed all his life: that Jesus is the son of God and also God himself. \u201cI saw it with my own eyes,\u201d he said, almost gasping. \u201cSo I learned from the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses that Jesus is not divine.\u201d Edwin said the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses believe that Jesus is an angel\u2014\u201cMichael or Miguel? I get mixed up,\u201d\u2014and just like God. The Qur\u2019an says that there is no one who resembles Allah\u2014\u201cnot the angels, no one, nothing in the whole creation,\u201d and we cannot conceive of the form of Allah. This knowledge came to Alim like meat to a baby, he told me. He had a hard time accepting it at first. But \u201cJesus said to His disciples: I have many things to tell you, but yet you cannot bear them right now,\u201d he said with the cadence of an evangelical preacher. \u201cI was getting deep into the meat of the Word, if you will.\u201d But he wasn\u2019t ready to take the powerful information he was reading.<\/p>\n In the fall of 2002, curiosity led Edwin from the Kennedy Chicken around the corner from the Jehovah\u2019s Witness church near his home in the Bronx to \u201cthe shock of [his] life.\u201d There was a Muslim named Muhammad working at the chicken joint, where Edwin would go eat and talk about religion after church. He would tell Muhammad, \u201cYour Qur\u2019an is wrong; you\u2019ve got it all wrong.\u201d Then, one day he asked, \u201cMuhammad where\u2019s your mosque?\u201d Just out of curiosity, he told me. \u201cBut Allah turned that curiosity into something big.\u201d Muhammad directed him to the African mosque in Western Treemont, and Edwin went in and started arguing with the imam about hellfire. He said the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses had brainwashed him into thinking there\u2019s no hell\u2014\u201cThey really got me with that one.\u201d He had a problem with scary Muslim descriptions of hellfire. A man at the mosque looked at him and told him he needed to become Muslim. Edwin said, \u201cNo, I can\u2019t be a Muslim,\u201d and left the mosque discouraged.<\/p>\n His next time at Kennedy Chicken he told Muhammad the story, and Muhammad said, \u201cIf you become a Muslim, I\u2019ll buy you nice clothes.\u201d Alim was laughing as he told it. Muhammad gave him a film about the life of the Prophet, (The Message, starring Anthony Quinn) and a lecture tape by Ahmad Deedat, an Indian scholar whose parents were Hindu.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I heard him, that was it,\u201d Alim said. The brother talks in detail about the Qur\u2019an and the Bible \u2013 \u201cWhich is God\u2019s word?\u201d Muhammad was written about in the Bible, Alim said in a prophetic tone, so the Qur\u2019an is the complete revelation. Two weeks later Edwin went to Muhammad and said, \u201cI\u2019ll take you up on that offer.\u201d Muhammad sent him to the store, where Edwin chose a white gallabiya<\/i>, because white symbolizes purity. He took shahada<\/i> again \u201cas a test, but with conviction\u201d and started his life over as Abdu Alim.<\/p>\n He likened his time with the Baptists, the Pentecostals, the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses to surfing the Internet; he was never satisfied with the answers he got to the questions he posed. \u201cNow I got most of the answers,\u201d he said. \u201cI got the main ingredients to this religion; my mind is so clear like a blue sky with no clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n Alim is an example of a demographic trend among new Muslims. The American Muslim Council estimates that there are up to 60,000 Hispanic-American Muslims, up from 40,000 in 1997. Ali has noticed more and more Latinos flocking to the Al Faruq mosque in Brooklyn, and he thinks it\u2019s a miracle from God. But he\u2019s less concerned with the demographics than the fact that so many people have embraced Islam since September 11, 2001. He believes that God is maneuvering to turn things around: \u201cThose who are embracing Islam are replacing Muslims who are not practicing properly. They will be great models for humanity. The Muslim is the model for the whole human race: We\u2019re like a light.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the 99 candles, for the 99 names of Allah, Alim did a few rakas on his own while most of the congregation were sitting on their knees listening to the recitation. He learned the motions by imitating other Muslims: hands to the knees at the first Allahu Akbar; then upright; down to the knees; \u201cGod is great\u201d again; forehead and nose to the floor; then back up to the knees; \u201csalaam allekum\u201d side to side. Alim knows that prostration is a form of humbleness to Allah, and he knows it\u2019s good for him: \u201cAll my life up and down, up and down, five times a day, physically and mentally it has a psychological effect.\u201d He was depressed earlier in the week about his wife, who is suffering from meningitis. But children at the mosque raised his spirits by showing him how to pray and teaching him a few verses from the Qur\u2019an. He has memorized most of the first chapter, which Muslims recite before every prayer, in Arabic. He is careful to say only what he knows, which he learned mostly by ear, so as not contaminate the book by adding or leaving out any word.<\/p>\n At the pizza place around the corner, on a break from praying, Alim found the hadith on charity to which he had referred on his way to the mosque: \u201cA good word is charity; every step you take to the mosque is charity; removing harmful things from the way is also charity,\u201d he read with a magnifying glass, over a regular slice and a coffee, light and sweet. \u201cNow watch what it says\u201d on the husband\u2019s right with regard to his wife: The righteous woman is obedient to Allah and her husband; neglecting the husband is a sin; having relations is a blessing. \u201cThis amazing, this little book,\u201d he said. \u201cI was reading it on the train yesterday, and I couldn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Back at the mosque, close to midnight, Sheikh Bayran Mulich lectured the congregation: \u201cIf we can be good Muslims, if we can be the Qur\u2019an that walks, the world can change\u2026Right now the Qur\u2019an can change the whole human history\u2026Islam is coming\u2026It\u2019s tough. It\u2019s painful. But it\u2019s coming\u2026Allah creates hardship to test you\u2026This is the night of repentance. We have to put the finger to ourselves, to our hearts. This is Adam\u2019s way\u2026This is the Night of Power because this is the night Allah has spoken. Read in the name of thy Lord. Read! Educate\u2026Study. When you study Allah gives you wings.\u201d<\/p>\n Alim strives to be the Qur\u2019an that walks. He wears his faith on his make-shift satchel bag, in white block letters on a green background: \u201cNo man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself,\u201d his favorite quote from the Qur\u2019an. He tailored the black briefcase he found with the stickers from Islam Fashion and a purple nylon strap, left over from the years he spent taking care of canines in veterinary clinics all over Manhattan, to suit his new purpose in life: to practice and teach Islam wherever he goes. Inside he carries a roll-up mini prayer carpet. When he has to pray on the go, he finds a place without too much traffic, removes his shoes, and does his duty to Allah. He also totes a chart that tells him the windows of time in which he should pray, a paperback of abridged hadith, and The Interpretation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur\u2018an, a pocket sized English-Arabic translation zipped in a gold-colored cover. Alim is well aware of his duties to his creator and his society: \u201cNo one is a Muslim unless he teaches what God has given to him\u2014every piece of that knowledge, every piece of my humanity, every piece of me, I have to give to somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdu Alim found his own way in Islam, and he believes it was for his own good. The difficulty of learning Islam \u201cbecomes a part of you,\u201d he said. \u201cIt begins like a burden, but in reality it\u2019s not a burden.\u201d It is part of fitna<\/i>: \u201cthe struggle, the trial to find your own way\u2026tests your patience, perseverance, tolerance.\u201d Ali explained that this is especially true during Ramadan. At times he is tempted to break his fast. Then he reflects on the suffering of those in the world who are deprived of food, and he sympathizes in his own body.<\/p>\n This Ramadan, Abdu Alim would begin fasting when he went to sleep. He didn\u2019t have a predawn meal like many of his brothers and sisters in Islam: He can\u2019t tell \u201cwhen the white thread becomes distinct\u2026 from the black thread of dawn.\u201d And it\u2019s too early for him, anyway. Usually, he would have a piece of carrot cake with milk before bed, making sure to brush his teeth at night so as not to break his fast with toothpaste in the daylight.<\/p>\n Often he would wake up around two or three in the morning and pour his heart out to God. He would beg Allah for forgiveness, to save us from the hellfire, and pray for the innocent in the midst of injustice: God have mercy and help your people; help me to be a good Muslim, a good human being. Making your petitions known to God, Alim said, \u201cyou could be crying, or just say it in your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n His second holy month was 100 percent better than the first, when he had to miss 13 days of fasting because he got bronchitis. You are not to fast when it becomes a burden, he explained, \u201cbecause God is not trying to do that to you.\u201d (The traveler, the ill, the elderly, the insane, the pregnant, and breast-feeding women are permitted not to fast.) During his second Ramadan, Alim missed only the first day of fasting, because he hadn\u2019t heard that the crescent moon had been sighted. But he knows Allah will forgive him, because he had the good intention to fast. The entire honor, blessings, and peace of the Night of Power continue in every second of the night until Fajr<\/i> [prayers at dawn]. But Abdu Ali didn\u2019t make it until dawn. He needed to go home and attend to his wife, to make sure she had her medicine and take her to the clinic early in the morning. \u201cYou have to be practical in Islam,\u201d he said, \u201cto take it at your own pace.\u201d One woman told him taking Islam is like a baby taking milk. Abdu Alim says he feels like a child learning to walk.<\/p>\n Ashley Makar is a writer who wanders genres while deep in Yale Divinity School, where she studies religion, literature and whatever metaphorical theology she can get her hands on. She has taught Middle Eastern literature and religion at Hofstra University and published essays in The Birmingham News, American Book Review, and Search. Ashley edits the website, Killing the Buddha<\/a>, where an extended version of this article was previously published<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Abu Alim’s journey to Islam took many paths through many religions – Baptists, Pentecostals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. But the conversion of this Nuyorican was strengthened by the Muslims he met, his own conscience, by Ramadan, and Laylat al-Qadr<\/i>, the Night of Power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nIt was in upstate New York where Edwin took shahada for the first time, with no intention of becoming a Muslim: \u201cI had a bad motive because I was just curious about what they had to say about Christianity, Jesus Christ, this and that\u2026I was being like a spy, if you will.\u201d But when Muslims were telling him that Jesus is not God, he started debating it more seriously. \u201cI was curious. I was searching. I wanted to understand,\u201d Alim said, and he got a lot of backlash for it: \u201cI had Christians that would pray for me \u2018cause they thought I had demons inside of me\u2026They thought I was crazy. I thought I was too,\u201d he told me in a low tone, as if let down after confessing his excited curiosity, a timbre of pathos that seemed to trail off alone.<\/p>\n
\nAbdu Alim said he\u2019s not very knowledgeable about the Islamic calendar, and that the average Muslim shouldn\u2019t concern himself too much with this. In Islam, he explained, \u201ceverything is by intention;\u201d prayer begins with purification, \u201cwhich takes place with the intentions of your heart\u2026 And every time you do purification, sins fall from your body like leaves from a tree.\u201d And from the moment you intend to pray, \u201cevery step you take to the mosque, God is wiping out your sin.\u201d<\/p>\n