Waiting For A Sign

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ

Has not the time come for the hearts of those who believe to be affected by Allah’s Reminder?

[al-Hadeed : 16]

Shaykh Waleed Basyouni was in town these last two weekends teaching AlMaghrib Institute’s Rays of Faith seminar. I do not know of any other Islamic learning experience as innovative or engaging and jam packed with beneficial knowledge and access to students of knowledge than the double weekend seminar system pioneered by Muhammad Alshareef through AlMaghrib Institute.

Shaykh Waleed Basyouni shared with us many memorable anecdotes including the following one paraphrased below:

He once asked a Muslim woman why she didn’t observe hijab and she replied that Allah had not yet guided her to wear it and when Allah guided her that she would wear it. The shaykh then recited the ayat of hijab from the Quran to her and said this is the guidance of Allah about the issue. The woman than said that’s all well and good but I still don’t have a hijab on my head so Allah has not yet guided me.

So the shaykh offered to walk with her to buy a hijab and she refused saying that she had not yet been guided. Shaykh Waleed then said, if we step outside the masjid and you get struck by lightning or hit by a car before we reach the hijab store then I will know that Allah did not want or give you the hidayah al-tawfeeq (guidance to implement or ability) to wear hijab. But right now the only thing holding you back is yourself so don’t say that Allah hasn’t guided you just admit that you have heard the guidance and you have refused out of your own free will.

Kamal al-Mekki mentioned that in dawah (calling people to Islam) some people hesitate to accept Islam because they are waiting for a sign. Signs and seemingly miraculous happenings play an important part in some Christian theology.

Brother Kamal was once at Muslim conference and there he saw a non-Muslim woman so he gave her dawah and she seemed interested but he could feel her hesitating so he asked her what was holding her back from accepting Islam. This woman, like many others, and even I before I accepted Islam was waiting for a sign.

He asked her if the signs from the Creator would be obvious like a neon sign with her name written in bright lights or a voice from nowhere telling her to become Muslim or something more subtle like a short annoying man with glasses standing in front of her telling her that it was time for her to accept Islam.

Add to that the uniqueness of her situation. That out of the millions of non-Muslims outside that convention hall she a non-Muslim was attending the conference with thousands of other Muslims. She did not need any other signs after that and she accepted Islam.