MVP - Transcript Muh. Abraham Interview 2/17/2012

HBB:  Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.  Can you tell me how you happened to meet Bawa? (ra)*

MA:  Okay. Back in the early to mid-seventies, a lot of us here in Philadelphia used to listen to radio station WDAS-FM, sort of a progressive station. And on the radio station, Mitch Gilbert - who passed away but was one of Bawa's* students - used to give radio commentaries on that station, and talk about a lot of things, about politics, about schools, and then he started talking about truth and God. And we all liked to listen to what Mitch had to say and he invited everyone, through the radio station commentaries, to come out to the various fellowships - one in Germantown and Philadelphia Fellowship here - to hear him speak and to hear his teacher speak.  So I came initially to hear Mitch speak and then started listening to Bawa's* teachings, to Bawa's* discourses and never left.

HBB:  So now you're really involved here. What kind of things do you do here at the Fellowship and at the mosque?

MA: Okay.  In the Fellowship, I do a lot of cooking, mostly my cooking is for holidays and special events. I do a lot of cooking, organizing of cooks for our big events. I also do some security and work in other departments in the Fellowship. And I work with the young people with various projects - cooking projects also.

HBB:  So what are some of those big events that you mentioned that you cook for?

MA:  The Eids, when we have anywhere from 500 to a thousand people coming here for the Eids. We have to purchase all the products for the Eids, tables, chairs, all the food products, prep the food a day or two in advance. And start cooking very early about four o'clock in the morning to have the food ready for an early lunch which is 11 o'clock. We also have the Anniversary weekend, maulids, Unity days, weddings, funerals. So whenever there's a big event, that's usually when I get involved in pulling things together, sort of hosting and organizing so that we can properly feed the public.

HBB: Can you tell me a little bit about the maulids, what goes on there, what's happening?

MA:  The Maulid itself or the cooking part?

HBB:  The Maulid itself.

MA:  Okay. (smiling) I'm usually so busy in the kitchen at that time that I'm not actually involved in the actual Maulid itself.  I'm involved in the food preparation for the Maulid. So I wouldn't be able to answer that.

HBB: Oh! Okay, alright...it's just called the Maulid...alright...

MA:  (Interrupts)...Well, I know...yeah, I'm sorry...It's, y'know, we have one Maulid which is the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu wa aleihi wa salaam. It goes for eleven days instead of being one day, as his birthday we celebrate all eleven days. And during those eleven days, we recite some verses from the Qur'an, some poems and some songs in praise of Allah, in praise of having our holy Prophet. Men and women gather right here in this classroom and read from those prayers and those poems. And we do it again for the Qutb, or for the Abdul Qadir Gilani and Bawa Muhaiyaddeen's* birthday also and it's exactly the same thing - poems and verses from the Qur'an. People gather here for those events, I think, for 28 years people have been coming here to do those, to gather for those events. And people look forward to it, and they come, pretty decent sized crowds to enjoy it.

HBB: Okay, thank you. So can you tell me a little bit about your involvement in the mosque? What do you do here?

MA:  In the mosque, I'm a part-time muezzin or the person who gives the call to prayer. Part-time meaning I'm a back-up person, when people are not able to make it - they're sick or have another appointment or have something going on - I'm here to take their place. I also vacuum the mosque, do some security.  At times, I help out with visitors, if they need some instruction or some just overall tour of the place, I do that. That's the extent of my involvement.

HBB:  Can you tell me anything about Bawa's* teachings and how they drew you in. You said originally you came for Mitch Gilbert but can you tell me anything about what Bawa* said that made you stay here?

MA:  I guess I would say that ever since I was a child, I was somewhat different from my family and my peers and my community.  I was always looking for God and truth and when I heard Bawa* - first Mitch and then Bawa,* Mitch obviously learned it from Bawa - when I heard Bawa speaking about God and truth, it made a lot of sense to me and it was something that I wanted to be involved in and be around all the time.  So I started coming to hear what he [sic: Bawa*] had to say and also to be in his presence, because he wasn't just a person speaking about God, he was a person that was showing how God is through his actions, or just through his being itself, just being around him you could feel God. So I liked to be around that, so I just - again stayed, never left.

HBB:  Now when you first came, there wasn't a mosque. Do you remember anything about Bawa's* teachings that sort of drew you into the mosque?

MA:  Sure (nodding yes).  I remember, I believe, maybe around 1981 or so, we used to have a group visiting here from New Jersey - the Turkish group, I forget their name - (Do you remember their name? Lou prompts Jerrahi group) - yeah, a visiting  Jerrahi sufi group that were Turkish used to come and visit Bawa* in large groups, usually 40 or 50 people would come to listen to Bawa* speak. And when they came, Bawa* always talked about the Prophet (saws.) 

And one evening, I was sort of new here, I came in the evening and Bawa* was talking to them about the Prophet (saws.) And it seemed like he was talking for hours, it seemed like he was going on for three or four hours, but maybe it was only an hour and a half or so but it seemed like a very long talk about the Prophet.* And when he finished, he said that he was just beginning.  And I said 'wow that was a very long talk for something that was just beginning.'

But also in that talk, he talked about the qualities of the Prophet Muhammad* - how generous, how kind, how compassionate, how honest, how sincere the Prophet, salallahu wa aleihi wa salaam was and also many many qualities that it would take me too long to talk about them. But when I heard Bawa* talking about the Prophet* - and he also sang a song about the Prophet* and the Prophet's* compassion. When I heard that, I just wanted, again the same way I wanted to be with Bawa* and absorb what he had, I wanted to be with the Prophet* and absorb and be like him. So that's what sort of  - I don't know how to explain it - that's what sort of opened me up to Islam, through hearing Bawa* talking about the Prophet.  [10:06]

HBB:  So what do you think is kind of unique about this mosque and this place? You decided to stay here, there's lots of other....

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3-7-2012  1:19 pm  (to be continued - a WIP)

MA:  Sure.  I have visited and prayed and been involved in other mosques in different countries, different parts of the city and different states. I didn't necessarily have any negative experiences, some people have, but I've never had any negative experiences. But here (pauses) - I wanna pass on that question, I'm sorry.

HBB: Okay.

MA: Cause I'm not getting the right answer.

HBB:  No, whatever you have is right. That's fine. So if you were to tell anybody about this mosque and want to tell them anything about this mosque for the future, like if we're not here (MA: nods: Sure) Is there anything you would say?

MA:  I would say that compared to most places,

           1) this mosque is open all the time, the doors are always open for all the prayers, they're never locked, they're never late for prayers.

          Secondly, when you come to this mosque, no one's going to preach to you or reprimand you if you make a mistake or try to insist that you do things a certain way. So you can just come here, pray, get the benefit of your prayers, get the benefit of the peaceful environment and not be hassled by people's agendas i should say.

HBB:  Okay. A certain amount of freedom that you feel (MA nods in agreement) that there is here. Okay. So that would be what you feel is a really important thing you would want to tell people.  Anything else - that you would want to tell them that you've experienced here? Or that you think they might experience here, coming in the future?

MA:  I would say there's a lot of peace and a lot of light. It's hard to explain exactly what that means, have to experience it for yourself, but that's been my experience -  a lot of peace and a lot of light.

HBB:  Alhamdulillah.  If you think that there's anything else you would want to say that maybe I forgot to ask you, that you would want to say about Bawa's teachings or the mosque, feel free to tell us now.

MA:  At present, I don't.  [12:59]  April 5, 2012  9:33 pm

HBB:  No. Oh Okay.  Well, oh one thing...

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Lou Wilson:  Inaudible - referring to MA's work with children.

MA:  Yeah. Okay. Sure. Let me think about it for a second. First of all, I like children, I like young people. For some reason I feel more comfortable with little kids and younger people than I do with people my age and people older than me. Also experience a lot of peace when I'm with children.  But also young people and the children are not as involved in the Fellowship, in the mosque as they used to be, say fifteen, twenty years ago.  So I try to do projects, maybe a garden project, maybe a cooking project, car wash project, different projects in which young people - at various ages, could be 30, could be 6 - that can actually have hands on, actually be directly involved in doing projects here. And also it gives them a chance to really understand exactly what we're doing. They might not know that, in order to have a meal for 150 people, what it actually takes to make that happen. Or to have funds. They may not know what it takes to have funds for a certain department. So by them getting involved they are seeing what it takes to make it happen, but they're also getting a chance to experience what we experienced when we were young here. Bawa (ra) had us all the time doing projects. So that's important to me.

HBB:  So when Bawa(ra) was here physically, there was a lot of duty, we always had a lot of work. And now he's not physically here. Other than that, do you notice any difference, is there any difference for you between when Bawa was physically here and now?

MA:  I guess we're missing - as a community, we're missing the - how shall I say it - the person who would reprimand us and the person who would give the final answer. So people have questions - it could be about something very basic or something very serious. And I'm,  from my own experience, there's no one that I can get that answer from. Or there's a problem, let's say there's a problem in the community, we try to sort it out, but when Bawa (ra) was here, he would just give the answer. It would be taken care of. So that's my experience.

HBB:  That's something that you feel is different.  Okay.  What about in your own life experience, in the way that you relate to Bawa (ra)? Is there any difference?

MA:  No I don't feel any different.

HBB:  Okay. Alright, thank you.  Any other questions?  Alright. Thank you very much.

MA:  Your welcome.

HBB:  Alhamdulillah! Salaamu Aleikum.[15:39]

MA:   Wa aleikum Salaam.  [15:39]

Some off interview comments here...until [16:41]

Post interview story:

MA:  Yes well I told some of that story a few days ago. I can say it again:

I was about 7 or 8 years old and I had a fever. I was sick so I stayed home from school that day. And I kept falling asleep, waking up, falling asleep, waking up, which is typical when you're a child  having a fever. And at one point, about 8 o'clock in the morning, I remember falling asleep and had a very quick dream - it seemed like a quick dream - and in the dream, a voice said to me, "One day, you're going to wake up and the family that you thought was your family is not going to be your family, you're going to be with your real family." So I woke up and first of all, it was strange - where is this voice coming from? I had no idea where the voice was coming from. But secondly, it was frightening.  Like why am I not going to be with my family? So I was a bit frightened by those words and  also [it] gave me questions because I was different from my brothers and sisters; they would always say "you're an adopted child." So I started wondering, maybe they're right. But it wasn't true because we all look alike in so many ways.

But I was 7 -8 years old at that time. Exactly 10 years later I was actually sleeping on the stage one night and I woke up in the morning and I said, "O my gosh, the dream that I had when I was 7 years old actually came true" because I had been around here for about a year or two and I had basically lost and forgotten my connection to my blood family. And I felt, already, after a year or less that this was my family. And I started treating people the same way I would treat my blood family. And that was 30 years ago, so it's grown since then.

HBB:  Yeah, yeah. Alhamdulillah.  (sighs) That's good. That always makes me feel that I have to make sure I really understand that same place.  Alhamdulillah. Alrighty.  [18:38]

LW:  Thank you. Thank you for showing up on time.

MA:  That's a priority to me.

LW:  Yeah well not too many people have that priority.

MA:  I try to treat the Fellowship duty just like I'm going to work.  [18:55]  

END of INTERVIEW