What I love about Islam is that any practice that it teaches has hikma (wisdom) and such a clear purpose behind it and so many benefits. Today I was waiting outside a supermarket In Brooklyn, and this black kid walked pass me about 15 years old. He saw me dressed in Islamic clothing kind of like a tobe and he said.

“Yo it’s your holiday right?”.

I replied “na not yet but we are fasting for 30 days”.

then he said “werd, that means ya can’t eat right”.

I said “Yup from sunrise to sunset”. Then he said "yo how you be doing that?".

I told him "people die all the time around the world because they don’t have food, and plus it makes us stronger”.

Then he said “Yo i feel you man”, “Waalaikumusalam”. I was happy to hear him say that in his Brooklyn accent, which i also possess as you can see.

But anyhow what I wanted to say was that anytime a person questions what we are doing because we are Muslim, so many thoughts automatically come into our head, that can make them think why Islam is so official. Especially when they question our prayers.

My first answer is that you can compare praying to taking a bath except it cleans our hearts and brings us back to our purpose in life, but on top of that, what other religion prays to God 5 times a day, this is why Islam is the truth, and when we are praying and we go into sajdah, we are bowing down and that is the highest level of Submission to Allah.

Another thing which I love about Islam is the brotherhood. The other day i was speaking to a non Muslim about Islam, an African American. I first told him that Islam was the first Religion to Eliminate Racism (Mashallah the same day he took shahadah, Inshallah Allah guide him), and in a beautiful Hadith our Prophet Muhammad said:

Especially in Brooklyn, if you enter a mosque, at least around my way, you see all types of brothers, Black, White, Arab, Desi, Spanish, and Islam came with this gift, and there is no person in history that came before Our Prophet with this teaching of equality.

So what im saying is be yourself, be Muslim, today i saw so many Jews wearing yamachas whatever that’s called, and it made me think I should wear a kufi, its my religious symbol, and if we do follow our Beloved Prophet Muhammad more and more we will see the significant change in our life’s. Just by doing little things, Non Muslims will question our practices as the kid did today, and Alhumduillah as a result I was able to open his mind up.

So Inshallah let’s Keep it Real and Remember that first and foremost we our Muslims, We all Submit To the Will of Allah. We can make such a big difference by reviving the sunnah in any way we can and this is another reason why i love Islam, anyone hating on Muslims, Stop watching the News, Go pick up some real books and read, read and learn why this Religion is so beautiful.

Inshallah Allah helps us all in this life, Ameen!