She is the Wedding Speaker.\u00a0 Perhaps that sounds unamazing or clich\u00e9 to you, but to me and those who know her, it\u2019s an amazing feat.<\/p>\n
I was speaking to a friend on the phone a few days before her wedding, and she asked me to give a small talk on her special day.\u00a0 \u2018Uhhhh, what about Um A?\u2019 I asked.\u00a0 She\u2019s a happy speaker masha\u2019Allah, and she always manages to make people smile.\u00a0 And come to think of it, she\u2019s the one who has been speaking at our community weddings for the past few years.\u00a0 When I mentioned Um A to the bride\u2019s sister-in-law, she also replied, \u201cDuh\u2026 I love Um A, how could she have slipped my mind?\u201d<\/p>\n
To me, Um A embodies the hadith of the Prophet (pbuh), \u201cHow amazing is the affair of the believer.\u00a0 Everything is good for him- and that is for no one but the believer. If good times come his way, he is thankful and that is good for him, and if hardship comes his way, he is patient and that is good for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
This woman has gone through hardships in the past few years that would fell a much stronger tree.\u00a0 She came to this country many decades ago, learned the language, studied the culture and raised her children proud of their Islam and contributing to their greater American community.\u00a0 And then she faced the test of her life: a test so much harder because it involved her beloved, her eldest son, the center of her heart.<\/p>\n
Um A lived to see her innocent son wrongfully imprisoned, tortured and forced to confess a crime which he did not commit, and then she watched him receive a sentence of 30 years in a court of law for an intangible crime.\u00a0 When the Bush years are mentioned to me, A jumps to my mind as the epitomy of wrong that Muslims faced in America in the post 9-11 era.<\/p>\n
And yet, this woman continues to persevere.\u00a0 She is at every happy function in our community, smiling, encouraging, speaking, joining in.\u00a0 She comes out every night of Ramadan to the taraweeh prayers in the masjid, and if you are lucky enough to pray next to her, you will be moved by her silent tears, especially when the Imam reads the story of Prophet Yusuf (alayhil salaam).\u00a0 She smiles when she sees you and gives you one of her special, tight hugs.\u00a0 She talks to you like she\u2019s truly interested in you and understands every young person\u2019s troubles.<\/p>\n
The pain doesn\u2019t end for her.\u00a0 She goes to sleep every night knowing that her son will live another day without his freedom, and her other children will live another day fighting all the physical, political and psychological effects that their brothers\u2019 wrongful imprisonment surrounds them with.<\/p>\n
And yet, all that faces Um A is good, for as the Prophet saaws said, \u201c\u201dHow amazing is the affair of the believer.\u00a0 Everything is good for him \u2013 and that is for no one but the believer:\u00a0 If good times come is way he is thankful and that is good for him, and if hardship comes his way he is patient and that is good for him.\u201d (narrated by Muslim)<\/p>\n
Fatima Abdallah<\/em><\/p>\n Fatima Abdallah is a dedicated mother, sister, daughter, and MAS youth worker. After spending several years in Cairo and post-Saddam Baghdad, she now lives in Virginia with her two daughters, ages 2 and 3.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She is the Wedding Speaker.\u00a0 Perhaps that sounds unamazing or clich\u00e9 to you, but to me and those who know her, it\u2019s an amazing feat. I was speaking to a friend on the phone a few days before her wedding, and she asked me to give a small talk on her special day.\u00a0 \u2018Uhhhh, what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[371,415,502,529,573,828,936,1321,1395,1417],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motherhood","tag-eldest-son","tag-fatima-abdallah","tag-hadith","tag-hardships","tag-how-amazing-is-the-affair-of-the-believer","tag-muslim-mom","tag-perseverance","tag-tortured","tag-wedding-speaker","tag-wrongfully-imprisoned"],"yoast_head":"\n