Celebrating Our Prophet

This week, we had the honor of hosting a beautiful event – a celebration of our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Celebrate Mercy is an organization that teaches about the life and character of the Prophet, and organizes campaigns and projects that put his attributes of compassion, kindness and mercy into practical action. I learned about the organization’s founder Tarek el-Messidi at a talk at Georgetown University last year; since then I’ve been following Celebrating Mercy’s inspiring work. When Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in an attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya, Tarek galvanized thousands of Muslims around the world to write condolence letters to his family; when three young Muslim students were killed in North Carolina, he organized canned food drives around the country as a “Feed their Legacy” campaign; when the San Bernardino attack happened, Celebrate Mercy raised over $200,000 for families of the victims. This is truly the example of our Prophet Muhammad – to counteract evil with kindness, hate with mercy. What an honor to host Tarek and to support the work of Celebrate Mercy.It was a double pleasure because we had the privilege of also hosting one of my personal heroes – Dalia Mogahed. Many of you have seen her on news programs or heard her speak at events and conferences. I am drawn to every event where Dalia is speaking. She moves me – with her intelligence, her eloquence, her poise, her perspective. She gives voice to our story, and sets the record straight, with facts, grace and humor. And on Wednesday evening, her voice hoarse from having spoken at a conference in London all weekend, she moved us all by sharing a personal story of the impact of the seerah (biography of the Prophet) on her life: the day after 9/11, Dalia had moved to a new city, leaving behind all that was familiar. She was angry and depressed by that was happening - the terrorist attacks, the hatred against Muslims, the war on Afghanistan - and felt herself retreating and her heart hardening. Listening to seerahs on tape, a gift from her halaqa group, saved her mind and soul from the assault on her faith and identity, she said. Hearing stories of how Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) dealt with rejection and humiliation by exhibiting dignity and patience “renewed her protective armor on her heart.”In last year’s blog, we shared 30 inspiring stories of Muslims. We certainly need to add Tarek and Dalia to that list – along with so many others who blessed our home on Wednesday evening. And there’s one more hero of the evening. It turned out that the night before the event, the number of people coming increased manifold. I was nervous about whether we would have enough food, and frantically called the person who was catering. She went out at the last minute and bought more supplies, stayed up all night cooking, missed her job the next day to finish, and prepared a beautiful Moroccan feast that everyone enjoyed. Her name – Khadijah. Alhumdulillah.