Saturday in NY ...

So, I get this call on wednesday from Hatem. I met him in the masjid, and what a small world, he is sudanise but he did his undergrad in Jordan, in the same school my brother went to. anyways, he told me that there is a bunch of people going to NY on sat. I had plans for saturday, go to work! but forget about work it is NY. he didn't tell me about any plans in there, neither did I ask.

We were 8 in a mini-van. so you can imagine how the trip was, not the most comfy ever. By the time I was already with them, I realised that the major purpose of the trip was to go to the islamic bookstores in NY. I was like ouch, but it was too late. so I decided to just enjoy it no matter what.

the group was very interesting. one white kid, three arabs, Hatem (he says he is african) and three indians.

We got to NY about Thuhur time. We went to Masjid al taqawa, where sheikh Siraj Wahaj is the imam. we prayed thuhur and asr. aside from Hatem, we were the only non-african ppl in the masjid. it was kinna weired I've never been in a situation like tht.

we head to the bookstores street. tht street was like Arab-town. all the street is full of arabs stores, restuarants, oil fragrances and all kinna stuff ... nothing really interested me in book shop. so, I went across the street to The Vitamen Shop. I got the best protien deal I've ever had. 12 $ for 2 lbs. In Boston, I paid 25 $ for the same thing.

The restaurant we were going to was at the end of the street, lik 6 or 7 blocks away. It took us a long time to get there. cuz everytime we pass by some store, some one sneaks in to check it out. By the time we got to it I myself was STARVING. but waiting was worth it. MAN, I never knew yemenis can make such a good food. for 15 $ I had soup, salad, bread, HUGE piece of roasted meat with rice and tea. We literally finished eating and no one could move.

All that was in Brooklyn. then to pray Isha we went to Manhatten. the masjed is mashallah so nice. after isha, someone suggested to make a quran halaqa and read for 20 minutes. so we got together we started reading, and some old desi man came nd sat next to us, just lestining. we gave him a quran and asked him to join us and read. When he accepted, I expected some lousy reading, but honestly his reading was mashallah good. the security guy asked to leave because they close the masjid. So wrapped it up and stood up, then the man started talkin with the indains in urdu. I didn't understand anything, just looking. He walked outside with us, I heard something about zamzam. (one of the guys brought zamzam with him, he just came back from hajj) we gave him a cup of water. then he was talkin with guys, still in urdu, then pulled his wallet and gave us 5 $. I was like what the heck is goin! then he insisted to give it to us, and I saw his eyes were getting red and wet. we took the money, said salam then he left.

guess what was tht? after we finished reading, he asked, did you guys eat? the guys said ya, he asked to invite us to his house. then he asked to invite us anywhere, like even Mcdonalds. He was so gratefull for the few minutes of reading quran with us, like we have given him everything. then he asked if we need a ride, he is a cap driver. then at the end, he gave us the five bucks and asked us to buy something for us to eat, and hope tht in the dayafter this nite and this 5$ will give him admission in Jannah(heaven).

I honestly barely hold my tears. How he said salam to us, how he hugged each one of us. Like we didn't do anything, but for him we were another thing that might let him in Jannah. mashallah.

anyways... we actually went to some deserts place and we added some more money to his 5$ and bought something and we all ate from it.

then we were on the way home. the trip might have been not the most "fun" trip I've ever had, but diffently one of the best I've ever had.