ELOHIM ETANO ** ALLAH MA'ANA الله معان

Assalamu alaikoum wa rahmatAllah wa barakatoh
I had a very pivital moment in my walk with God yesterday. I seem to have these type of experiences every day as I learn more and more and come closer and closer towards attaining Taqwa, my life ambition. I was reflecting while listening to the athan yesterday before Isha salat, of the images of brotherhood and love and compassion and consideration and a fear of God and of observance of God that I have observed since arriving in the Arab world. Many people had warned me not to be shocked by many secular muslims here. But from the moment I arrived in an Arabic place, I saw so much love and so much good Islam and I felt the presence of God everywhere I went until now. AlhamdulEllah.
The people I have met, have treated me so kindly and so welcoming. I pray with my friends in their homes, side by side, or with their little children. We say a blessing before we eat or make petitions to God and thank him as we break out fasts. Every other word out of peoples' mouths is Allah, and you can hear praises to Him and read ayas from the Quran everywhere from inside taxis to the loudspeakers from the mosques. In the states we have a starbucks on every corner, but here you can find a mosque instead. The people here tell me I am an inspiration to them as a person from a more secular upbringing and environment to actively choose to submit to Islam whereas they are born muslim and see it everyday and take it for granted, yet to me THEY are MY inspiration because of their big hearts, as the most important thing for all believers to do is to love God and others and I see this in the way they are with each other and with me. They also possess so much knowledge, they know God's word by heart, they pray and commune with God throughout the day. They put him first in all of their activities. You can go a long time without hearing God's name mentioned or see someone saying a blessing or the like in the states where I live, but here you cannot escape it. It is in everything. I am not saying it is the ideal here, but I am definitely impacted by this exposure I have had to Islam in the middle east. It is exciting for Arabs to see that Islam is growing throughout the world, and that you can find even better and more observant Muslims in countries that are not even Arab. Just because the Quran was revealed amongst an Arab community, does not mean that the Arabs are the best Muslims. You see, it is not about ethnicity or race or creed or culture. It is about our submission to God's will, and anyone of any background can do this.
But nonetheless, I still feel that there is a lot here to be appreciated as it pertains to God. I went to futoor yesterday to my friend Alia's house, she is a relative of my Kuwaiti friend May from my university. I met her when I had futoor at May's grandmother's house (Allah yarhamuha). It is my step grandparents' birthday. One was born on the 23rd and the other ont he 24th of the same month! Nice! Anyway, after futoor my friend Salma picked me up with her friend Sarah. We went for Taraweeh prayer at the Rashad mosque in Adailyia. It is the most beautiful mosque I have been to yet here in Kuwait. I really liked it. Especially the imam's voice for reciting the quran and leading the salat. Masha Allah. After we prayed and made du3a (petitions to God), we sat together and chatted.
When I told them my story, I began to cry out of joy and my spirit wept with me because I felt so overwhelmed by the power of God in my life. He is so awesome. He has showed so many wondrous things just in the first couple of weeks I have been here that have touched me so deeply. Whenever I think of these things I just want to throw myself to the ground in worship of Him.
This experience has affected my entire life for the better. I feel like I have been traveling already for a lifetime and it has only been less than a month because of all that I have learned and seen and felt. I was telling them about my experience and I couldn't help but get choked up and had to push the tears back out of the happiness and awe of Allah. Allah really is most gracious, because I am unworthy really of all that he has blessed me with and the many special people he has put on my path in life and the many things I have been privileged to experience. Really his grace is so abounding. It is through his grace and his mercy that I have had these many blessings in my life. It is not through me but from him, and I never get tired of saying Alhamdulellaheerabbil Alameen, arrahmaneer raheem. He really is that. We say that many times everyday and I could say it all day and all night and still not tire of it because it is sooooo trueee and may he be praised for ever and ever.
After talking with my friends, we went back to Alia's house and they went home. I was watching TV while Alia was putting her 3 beautiful children to sleep and I found a channel that was showing the salat at the Mosque Al-Haram in Meccah during hajj. I had seen video of it before but i had never heard the salat being said before. It was absolutely amazing. I had never seen or heard anything so beautiful. There were actually two reciters who would echo each other and each had a distinctly beautiful voice. The experience was amazing to see everyone prostrating before God together and hearing the quran recited amongst all of the masses of people all in white. The reciter was reciting Surat Yusuf, the chapter about the prophet Joseph (pbuh) well known and loved by all 3 monthotheistic religions. His story was one of the biggest influences in my life. It taught about how to handle change and how to be a leader and how to hold my tongue and how to have integrity and much more. What's more, when he was reciting it, they were showing the translation in English in subtitles, so I could understand the whole story from the Quran!! The Quran version of the story is absolutely beautiful masha Allah. I again began to feel my tears coming into my eyes. SubhanAllah.

After that, Alia took me home and gave me a banana and water (mouz and mai in Arabic). Then I did some homework and slept until suhoor time and fajr salat. Then I went to school later in the morning. After class one of the members of student government who is a practicing and good muslim asked me to meet with him and a director of the student affairs at the school. We talked about Islam for a while and then he told me about the event happening tomorrow at my university. Two men whom I have seen on TV who teach about principles and guidance about Islam are coming to do a lecture at the school. I am very excited because they are both very good teachers of Islam and good leaders. Nizar surprised me because he told me that he talked to one of them, Sheikh Mohammad Al3uthey and he wants to meet me. Not only this, but he also wants me to speak at the event to the students about how I came to Islam. I feel so shy to do it but I accept without hesitating because anything that is good is from Allah and it is good to talk with others about the truth. Insha Allah it will inspire someone to come closer to Allah. May the glory be to Allah. I may also be interviewed on TV by him as well. At any rate I am very excited for the lecture. I am sure I will learn a lot insha Allah. I have been looking forward to it since I heard they were coming.
I will let you know how it goes insha Allah. Tonight I had futoor again with Alia, she is sooo sweet. We had a nice time and then I went to pray Taraweeh at the mosque just across the street from her. She is also a block away from the Aware center so that is good news. AlhamdulEllah. The Aware center is a place to go to learn about Islam. That is where I hope to do my studies insha Allah. Then I went with my friend Deena to a lecture at the Regency Hotel about how we can make a change for the better and how God can turn our life around if we just make the choice to change our way, and how it is never too late to change. Also, he explained how change is just one step, but we also learn to be strong by handling the consequences well of the changes we make. For example, when we decide we will fast during Ramadan, we stop eating in the day and that is good, but then we feel the consequences of that choice, we feel hungry, or maybe weak or thirsty or tempted, but we must be strong to face those consequences and handle them right. Then when we do that, we are refining ourselves from the inside out and truly changing our ways. It was a very nice lecture and what was funny is that the speaker happened to be my History professor!!!! It was his first public lecture. I feel honored that I had the chance to be there to see it. AlhamdulEllah.
After that, I went with Deena and my other friend Heba and my roommate Kara to the coffee shop and talked for a little while.
Ramadan is like Christmas or Thanksgiving times 10000!! In the states, we make a big deal about having a special dinner once or twice and get with our family once a year. But for Ramadan, every single day for the entire month and beyond, we are sharing and spending time with our community, sharing our food, our love our charity, our homes. We pray together, at the mosque and at home. We have an abundance of blessings and treats and events. It really is an amazing time. Imagine having Christmas night every night. That is how it is here every day. And the best thing is, there is no commercializing, it is just about glorifying God and putting him first and growing and loving. So muched to be learned from this.
Now I have to get back to my homework. Until next time! Allah Ma3kum.

God is with us, always, forever. He is here now and he will always be there.