MV: Aselam aliakum, For those of you who have noticed, I have not posted in a while, but InshAllah this will be my return to the site.

InshAllah I am coming back by starting an ICNA series. In this series I will write a few posts about my trip to ICNA-MAS convention: what programs I went to, what scholars I listened to, and most importantly what did they say? The Goal of this series is to give you the  lessons  and the knowledge the scholars taught all of the attendee’s present.

Unfortunately this year, The MV(Saad) did not attend the convention this year, so instead I with my family(going for the first time) represented the Muslim Voice.  Keep in mind i alone can only attend a handful of lectures so unfortunately I cannot give a synopsis of each program but in future posts InshAllah I will give it for the programs I attended.  

Consider this post as my introduction to the ICNA Series

To give a short summary of my trip, I arrived on Saturday in time for Dhur Salah, sadly I missed the opening program, but I made it before any of the sessions started. The two sessions I went to on Saturday were both part of the YM(Young Muslim Conference) and I went to them in particular because of the speakers they had

What’s Holding Me Back?

Getting passed the excuses that hold us back from achieving success

• “I Don’t have time”                                            Dr. Abu Zayd
• “I Don’t feel like it”                                            Sh. Yasir Qadhi
• “I could never be like them anyway”        Imam Omar Suleiman
• “I tried it and it didn’t work”                        Imam Suhaib Webb

The key to returning back to Allah Is the heart, “ [and] the heart is like a bird:love as its head and its two wings are hope and fear” – Ibn al Qayyim

• Hope                                                                     Imam Abdul Nasir Jangda
• Love                                                                      Dr. Altaf Hussain
• Fear                                                                       Nouman Ali Khan

On Sunday I went to two other sessions, one in the YM conference and the other was just an ICNA-MAS session.

I would have liked to go to a role model series because it featured a story of Khalid Ibn Waleed aka “Sayf Allah” the sword of Allah (for those of you who don’t know him read up!), but since I arrived late on Sunday I had to eat breakfast, since I missed his story I went to another YM conference instead.

The Rights Upon You

Who do we have rights upon? who has rights upon us?

• “They did raise me when I was young” – I am not sure who the speaker was – it was supposed to be Zishan Malik but he was absent so I believe the speaker was Qasim Mazhar
• “Allah is always first                                        Imam Siraj Wahaj
• “I’m here or you bro”                                     Nouman Ali Khan

Although I wanted to go to the revert session (featuring Ryan Harris and others as they tell their stories, sadly the room got filled up too quickly)

The last session I went to was part of ICNA-MAS role model series

Our Role Model series

• Imam Malik                                                        Imam Daud Haqq
• Rabia  Al-Adaawyyahi                                     Sh Djafer Sebkhoui
• Qadhi Shuraih ibn Al-Harith                         Dr. Altaf Hussain

After this I attended the main session which was truly inspirational

Keynote session – Defending religious freedom

It began with ICNA’s 2012 Shariah Campaign and Shariah In America where Dr. Zain Bukhari (The President of ICNA) and two other key speakers spoke.

Then Imam Siraj Wahaj spoke about the U.S Constitution and our right to freedom of religion and related it back to the ICNA’s shariah campaign. He followed this with some fundraising for ICNA. After that, my personal favorite speaker, Yasir Qadhi gave a speech where I almost cried. He spoke about giving Dawah not only by talking but by action and went on to tell the story of an inspirational women named Dr. Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe (more on that later).  Nouman Ali Khan ended the session talking about community. I’ll talk more about this session especially about Yasir Qadhi’s speech in the post that concludes this ICNA series.

After the prayers of Maghrib and Isha, I stayed for a little bit more than half of the entertainment session of ICNA. Omar Regen’s Comedic stand up and MCing was hilarious. Followed by talented Singers Asim Khan, Khalil Ismail, and the amazing  Zain Bhikha made it great. Sadly I left that night, so I did not attend Monday or the basketball tournament.

As a review of the convention I will say

Sessions and speakers: inspiring, Mashallah, I actually heard that the smaller sessions which tend to be more specific were very interesting.

Bazaar: Great collection of books and clothing

Food: The Halal Fried Chicken was pretty good and the Café and Curries were delicious. Alhamdulillah

Prayers: Amazing Qirat MashAllah

Shout outs: Kids attractions (from bouncy houses to rock climbing and from Qirat competitions to scavenger hunts great place for kids)

Any tips:

Give Nouman Ail Khan more time, he was always the concluding speaker and his speeches were always cut short for salah.

For you: Go to the convention next year, InshAllah. It is a great event and it is crucial to implement what you learn into your lives

In short the convention was Amazing

Halal-o-meter: Although some say that there’s a lot of mixing at the ICNA Conventions. I did not see this this year. There was a little mixing during the entertainment session but it was meant for families. Other then that they were pretty strict on separations between the genders and saw nothing fishy. It was organized in a well mannered Islamic environment.

Overall Ratting: 10/10- I really mean it! There was nothing I saw wrong in the convention, I think it was a great experience alhumdollilah! Others, including the speakers themselves, have said that this was one of the best conventions, not just ICNA, that they have ever been too!

I will give specific information in regards to each session in future posts , that will InshAllah make up the ICNA series.

MashAllah