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Faith

Making a Difference

A mosque located in Kansas, USA, is making a difference for Muslims living in the area.

By Rafi Khan | January 2021

Making-Difference

Imagine, somewhere, in my country. A few men and a woman are having a heated discussion: planning, plotting; how to make their next move. In walks the devil and tells them, “I can make that happen for you; get you the power and the dollars you so desperately desire; provided, you, all of you sitting here, sell me your souls” They all excitedly get up from their chairs and speak in one voice, ‘So, what’s the catch?’

Moving on…
A mosque. What is so unusual about it? We have mosques all over Pakistan, and unless one intends to visit the main or some central mosque in the city, it only takes a few minutes to walk to one and offer prayers, to add to the normalcy of hearing the Adhan five times a day. In fact, in many areas, there are more than one mosque at a time.
We just take it all for granted.

Unless, of course, there is an exceptionally big or grand mosque, with marble floors and/or deep pile carpets, beautiful arches, a big dome, and perhaps a sparkling chandelier; convenient facilities for wadu, and a sound system with reach and clarity. Why would we even talk about just another mosque?

Well, all that is still not good enough a reason or the main attraction: the purpose is the prayer; with 27 times more reward than praying at home.
Yet, do you think there are people who may not be able to walk to their nearest mosque to offer their salat; or have never heard the refreshing, heart-warming, morning call for prayers in their homes, from their mosques?

There are, even though they may be as good, or perhaps better Muslims than you, no offence intended, or me. Their reason is not that their spirit is un-willing or that their soul is weak; for them the hindrance is the distance, that comes in the way of their longing.

Let’s digress and listen to a true story from the world's best-selling book series titled "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

A friend of ours was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. He saw another man in the distance and noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water.

Our friend approached the man and said, “Good evening, friend, I was wondering what you are doing.”

“I am throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all of the starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen.”

“I understand, but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish and, as he threw it back into the sea, he said, “Made a difference to that one!”

Listening- khutbaJust about 8,000 miles from SouthAsia magazine’s head office in Karachi, Pakistan, in a town called Merriam, in Kansas, USA, a gentleman and a lady, were also working, thinking and planning to make a difference - to the lives of their fellow Muslims.

Meet the amazing Professor Syed Eqbal Hasan and his equally supportive wife Ms. Farrukh Jamal. What follows is the outcome of their hard work, their dedication, their dream and their faith.

A mosque. Again. But this is not just another mosque, this is Masjid-e-Maryam.

Located in a residential neighbourhood, with plenty of green areas, 10 parks with 10.5 km of trails, Merriam is an urban town with a population of just 11,000 people. There may be quite a few mosques with the same name in Pakistan. But for the relevance of its felicitous name, let’s listen to Dr Eqbal Hasan himself,

“After considering various names, the board of trustees decided to name it Masjid-e-Maryam for two reasons: Foremost to honour one of the most revered women in Islam, Maryam RA, mother of Prophet Isa, and secondly, because it [is] located in the city of Merriam (although spelled differently). It gave us an added advantage of identifying with the local community and the city. In fact, when our signboard got defaced in October, it was a neighbour who called the city councilman of the area about the vandalism and he contacted us.”

It is neither very big, nor is it very small. It can accommodate 300 namazees; which is currently restricted to 71, to conform to the strict COVID-19 restrictions. Its neat and clean whitewalls add brightness and openness to the ambience. Its pleasant green carpet, is a continuous, Jaa’-namaaz, or prayer matt to some. The design covers the entire praying area, inviting one to offer a sajdah. It surely has made a difference to the lives of those believers, who had to travel from 15-30 km. Now it is within their radius of just 8-12 km.

Alhamdulillah, the doors of the beautiful Masjid-e-Mariam were opened for Salat-e-Juma’h on Friday, September 18, 2020.

For the pleasure of the last word, listen to what Dr Eqbal Hasan has to say:

“In summary, SMIEC* is here to serve the needs of Muslims residing in the western Johnson County, Kansas, along with presenting the message of Islam to people around us. We believe service to the community, regardless of what faith they belong to, is the most cherished ideal of Islam and we have to live up to this tradition. America is without a spiritual compass and by presenting the message of peace, justice and equality, exemplified by our behaviour and actions, people will understand Islam in the right way and won’t be misguided by the deliberate, on-going attempts of the media to discredit the religion.”
Thank you, Dr Hasan, I am afraid you have to accept the blame of making a difference.

About Prof. Syed Eqbal Hasan:
The seed for starting an organization that blossomed into SMIEC was planted in 2007 by a group of Muslims, who had been renting a hall for Juma’h prayers at the Lenexa Community Center (Lenexa is another town in the metro area.)

Prof. Syed Eqbal Hasan, President SMIEC, has been participating in interfaith activities for the past 40 years. He serves as an adviser on Islam for the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council; has contributed a regular column on Islam for the Faith Section of the local premier daily, The Kansas City Star, for 20 years; and had established the Muslims Students’ Association (MSA) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and served as its faculty adviser for 35 years.

SMIEC has been represented in local faith communities and Prof. Hasan is serving as a member of the Shawnee City (an adjacent town) Mayor’s Faith Communities partnership program. SMIEC has recently joined hands in community civic work with another faith group called SevenDays.

*SMIEC - Shawnee Mission Islamic Education Center. This is a non-profit organization, registered in the State of Kansas. The SMIEC serves as a central resource for meeting the religious and educational needs of Muslims residing in the western Johnson County, Kansas and neighbouring communities.

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