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Akmal Pasha

@shockmal

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Across ten 14-story buildings with over 10,000 residents, In the basement of building 55 was a storage room, not any storage room but a musallah turned to masjid. This unassuming house of worship isn’t really spoken about or known but for me it’s what made me feel Ramadan. In 2009 my eldest brother (BhaiSaab) was requested to lead taraweeh every night for Ramadan 1430 in a town 20 miles away from where we lived. As a 5 year old in Islamic School, Ramadan was a glorified break where we had shorter days, the last ten days off, and a huge Eid party at the end of it all. After we’d have our iftar we’d quickly scramble as a family to pray our maghrib and prepare to leave the house as we had a 20-30 minute drive ahead of us. Making sure we were on time to the masjid every night because the imam was BhaiSaab. Taking samosas and hershey nuggets to go in the car, the repeated quranic recitation used to put me to sleep, only to wake up to my dad picking me up out of the car and placing me on to the sidewalks of Newark. It was eerie every time, questionable individuals, at times people shouting, trash on the roads, and dogs barking. Held my dad’s hand as he led me through the walkway of the apartment complex, down the elevator, and through the basement corridor. I never familiarized myself with how we got there because I was always half asleep, but seeing other young kids holding the hands of their dads who also had on kurtas and long beards made me feel safe. As we walk into the masjid we’re hit with an aroma of atar and concrete, an aroma that honestly took me back as I visited just last night. The memories of praying Taraweeh in Ivy Hill are core to my understanding of Ramadan. Internally, The sacrifice of my father, every night coming home from work to have iftar and take his kids to a masjid inconveniently far away solely for the fact that his son was upholding the quran to its highest standard. The sacrifice my brother made of his time to spend every moment he could perfecting his revision. Externally, the level of community that even a masjid in a storage room in a basement of an apartment building can have is inspiring and profoundly faith inducing. ﷺ by @shockmal
26
7 months ago
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