Yesterday, I joined my daughter Mona at her new place in Tribeca to host a book reading event organized by Mamak Shahbazi, an amazing Iranian American Wall Street executive, board member of the Karam Foundation, which helps young refugees https://www.karamfoundation.org/ and a big supporter of WISE; and Daisy Khan, Executive Director of WISE (www.wisemuslimwomen.org). The event was supposed to be at Mamak’s place, but she got COVID, so Mona graciously offered to host it. It was meant to be and I believe it was God’s way of blessing her new home in a very special way; and she got to practice her art of decorating as well!
We were expecting about 20 women, mostly my daughter’s age, with a few exceptions. Mamak, Daisy, Mona were the co-hosts, and I made iftari items, while Daisy and Mamak did most of the cooking involving amazing Iranian, Kashmiri, Pakistani, Arabic and Turkish dishes…. each one of them delectable. I got there early to set up, and we were waiting for the Imam, Mohamad Jebara author of the book “Muhammad, the World Changer” to show up.
A young, tall, fit man entered Mona’s house bringing in tons of energy and enthusiasm. He said I am the Iman, and my jaw dropped. He told me that he roller-bladed down from Times Square to feel the New York City energy. He sure was right about that. The weather was simply perfect, spring was in the air, and New York was its old self again, full of spirit and energy. Quite an Imam, I thought to myself. The surprises did not end there. As he signed the books, he used his beautiful calligraphic talents to sign them, and I noticed that even in the book each chapter begins with a lovely calligraphy. Then he said I would like to bless this home with a prayer. To our surprise, he sang a special Hebrew prayer to bless the home; followed by the Christian Lord’s prayer in an Aramaic that was as close to Jesus’s time as is known; followed by a Sura from the Quran in Arabic. By now, we were entranced! Who was this Imam, and how fortunate that he authored this book is all I could think!
He then got into the book and why he wrote it, which was just as special. He said he wanted to humanize the Prophet Muhammad and share the amazing and challenging life he led, which started in his childhood, the trials, and tribulations he experienced, and the people that supported him. The whole book is written from the perspective of Prophet Muhammad’s babysitter, who was an Abyssinian slave that raised him after his mother passed away when he was 6; the Prophet freed her as soon as he could. As I listened to the various stories of the Prophet’s life, and the stories of this Imam’s life, I could see how only a uniquely multi-talented man, one who was the youngest imam in Ottawa Canada, would decide to make this amazing contribution to our faith and the life of our prophet Mohammad.
I urge you to buy the book and read it and write about it on the various platforms so more of the younger generation can learn about the humanity of our Prophet from his amazing collection of stories. Of course, he has distilled it from many scholars that he studied with, but in telling it in this story form, it makes it so much more accessible and inspiring for us all, very much like the stories from our Sufi teachers that I so enjoy. As we parted late at night, we all felt so blessed to have met this modern Imam and were so appreciative of the gift he has given us all through this book.
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