ICNA Convention Recap..
Alhumduillah I was able to attend the ICNA Convention (aka the low fitnah convention) as I do every year, I have been going since I’ve been born. Can’t break the codes. Anyhows it was real fun as it usually is, Mashallah the speeches were amazing. The bazaar was hot, I bought one book on the scientific miracles of the Quran, a Palestinian kuffiyah which says ” We will return”, and guess what they didn’t have halal marshmallows. I think next year I’ll just open a booth selling them, since no one else isn’t.Oh Yea! Guess what else I bought, a t shirt from my friends over at phatwa factory who had a booth.
I bought it for my nephew Musa, he’s 18 months, its a baby blue t shirt which say ” change me, i just broke my wudu”. haha,Cute isn’t it. Everyone like that one in particular. Phatwa factory was also selling another one for baby’s which said ” Error, not available for marriage, please try again later”. Haha, I bought the other one though because it wasn’t buy one get one free.
Umm…I was able to meet alot of people. That’s one thing about ICNA convention, its like facebook in reality. You meet so many people you haven’t seen in so long and you can catch up on life including alot of people which loved my blog that I met for the first time. That was pretty motivating. The accommodation in the hotels were nice, I was able to stay in a suite with like 15 friends. Haha, you know how we do. Brotherhood all day. It was real comfortable, I like sleeping on the floor, I get better sleep. Though I hardly get sleep at convention anyways because of random plans, a little rest is enough. I came friday morning at like 3 : 30 a.m. and left around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Man time flys at convention, I hope it gets longer in the future. Oh yea! the fireworks were pretty impressive, it was July 4th weekend, so the city of Connecticut had a little show right outside the convention center. That attracted a huge crowd. The Friday prayer was real soothing for the soul, the recitation was breathtaking, Shaykh Ramadan from MAS Youth center in Brooklyn led it. If you haven’t heard his recitation, then you have no idea what your missing. Get on it quick.
The workshops were cool, one of them which was called ” Drug culture, looking for the quick fix”. I enjoyed that, Brother Arif husain ripped it as usual, he bought out all the skeletons and hit important points to help those surrendering to their lower desires. Guidelines for potheads and basically those being driven by their animalistic desires.
Shakyh Yasir Qadhi is the man, he reminds me of desi Shaykh Hamza Yusuf ( May Allah swt preserve them all) His ability to discuss issues at a high level and keep the crowds attention is quite impressive. His Intellectual delivery goes straight to the heart. Before he started each speech, he would have the crowd get up and stretch. As you extend your hands to the right and left you massage the persons shoulder who’s next to you. That sort of got the blood flowing as he says, so that people aren’t brain dead and don’t go to sleep. He sure knows how to wake the audience up and keep them awake.