I don’t attend ‘Islamic’ conferences. But I was once at a conference in Chicago helping a brother sell Islamic books at the bazar. It was bizarre alright! Dancing Sufis, rap music, women without hijab freely mingling with men without shame. And it was all in an Islamic conference!
There was a group of brothers and sisters making noise close to the section where the loud Sufi disco was located. One of them looked, to me, like a new convert to Islam, and he was. When I came near the noise, I found that it was some kind of music and a singer was reciting the words. Muslim men and women were dancing, lightly. This brother, who was big, was also dancing. He was wearing a thaub. I took him to the side and asked him gently what he was doing. He said it was Islamic-rap and he was dancing to the tunes. I asked him, “You know that with each of us, there are two angels, one recording the good deeds and the other recording the evil deed.” He agreed. I asked him, “Can you honestly tell me which one of the two angels you think is recording this deed for you?” He said, “I never thought about it actually.” I said, “Maybe you should.” I then said to him to decide afterwards if this question would seem proper to him or not, “Let’s dance in the sake of Allah!” I hugged the brother, said salam, and left the bazar, better known as, bizarre.
Jalal Abualrub (www.IslamLife.com)
July 7, 2019