12.29.06

Conference Review

Posted in Personal at 7:18 pm by Abbas

I attended the MSA-PSG Conference last weekend. I enjoyed my time there. It was well-attended and had some great content. The volunteers did a good job and there were a lot of nice speakers that addressed a plethora of issues and topics. I wish they had recorded the event, allowing the event to reach millions of people world-wide, but unfortunately, it was not (I don’t know why either?). Hotel and location was great, but the set-up and organization could have been better- at times it seemed dis-organized. Nevertheless, it was a good improvement from the previous years.

Two comments really struck me though. It made me realize things I never noticed before and gave me new insight. Brother Hassanain Rajabali was speaking on the infallibility of the Prophet (saww) and he alluded to those people that say the Prophet (saww) was only infallible when it came to revelation or Islam and fallible like a normal human in other aspects of his life. He made a great parable between that concept and the concept of church and state. He informed us how irrational, deceiving, and dangerous this position is to take. Separating the Prophet’s deeds and characer into church and state entails people to take advantage and claim something to unrelated to Islam, when in fact it is.

For example, the act of the Prophet (saww) visiting his mother’s grave on a regular basis under this notion of separation can be categorize into “church” or “state,” which leads to confusion and eventually ultimate deterioration of the Prophetic traditions, because now people can just pick and choose as they wish.

Another idea that struck me at the conferece was made by Imam Abdul Alim Musa. The panel was discussing culture and its effects in this country. He mentioned how we cannot ignore the African American communities, if we want to initiate major change in the US,  because America’s youth culture revolves around standards and lifestyles pursued by the African American community. And he gave hiphop as a prime example.

Overall, the conference was a positive step. I met people that I haven’t seen in years, met people that claimed knew me (seemed like I saw everyone once before),  met people for the first time, and met totally new people from all over the country. I guess if I “hung out” more I would have met more people, but oh well. May Allah make the next conference bigger and better, inshaAllah. Ameen.

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