City of Residence:
Albert Lea, MN
Occupation:
Pediatrician & Assoc Prof of Islamic Law
Excerpt:
“Well, the word ‘shariah’ itself in the language, linguistically, means a path and it more so means a path to a water body, or it means the water body itself. And the resemblance here between the path to a water body and the law in Islam which is not only limited to penalties or penances, it is basically the creed, the practice is basically a relationship with God. It’s your prayers, it’s your fasting, it is your belief, it’s your certainty in His presence, in His greatness, in His perfection. All of this is the way, the way that was prescribed for Muslims to take. And they are not taking it to a physical water body that is important for their physical sustenance, but they are taking it towards spiritual sustenance. And that’s the resemblance between the word shariah and the word, the technical use of the word shariah and the linguistic use.
Certainly there are differences between America and Egypt, and there are differences between the culture in the United States and the culture in Egypt. However, there are core values that human beings, by their general inclination, agree on, whether they are Christians or Muslims or non-Christians, non-Muslims, something else. They, by the general inclination that God inculcated in us, we agree on many core values such as kindness to the parents being a good thing, cruelty to animals being a bad thing. I think any human being, no matter what their religious or cultural background is, they would agree on those principles. So, there were principles that or there were values that you don’t find different. There were certainly perspectives and perceptions that are different. But many of the core values that human beings agree on you can find them wherever you go.
So, now this is a community that is, the identity of this community is being formed and the direction of this community is also being formed. So, it’s a good time, it’s an exciting time to participate in shaping that direction and that identity of our community here in Minnesota. Minnesota is known to be tolerant and accepting as a people. You know the common ‘Minnesota nice’ phrase. So, I think that there will be less difficulty for Muslims integrating within the Minnesota community.”
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