As Received...............
Subject: Speech in SL JK
Dear Family and Friends,
On Friday, January 16 2009, President Eboo made in a speech in Sugar Land JK.
For those of you who were not able to attend I have put together a summary so you can enjoy all the wonderful experiences he shared with the Jamat. Off course, my email below is not even close to the way he conveyed his speech but at least you can get the idea. I don't mind you forwarding the summary to your immediate family but please be mindful of your forwards and keep it to a minimum as this is just my take on his speech as I remember and not quoted directly. Thanks!
Summary and stories:
M. Eboo emphasized from time to time about the hidayat of the Imam made on Dec 13, 2008 regarding living by the ethics of faith.
He shared his experience with the Imam during the GJ darbar in the US. He said: apart from the darbar the Imam had an agenda for the cities he attended. Hazar Imam didn't just say 'just because' and attended 4 major cities. He knew exactly what he wanted by the time he left all the meetings he attended. He had an agenda. For example: G. Perry told HI that there are over XX number million Muslims in Texas but unfortunately Texans don't realize the Muslim culture. G. Perry said that Muslims have been part of Texas since the Spanish arrived around the 1500's and it is really sad that there is no awareness for Muslims in literature. HI told G. Perry that he could help him with such a task. Hence, at the end of the Austin trip an 'Understanding of Memorandum' was signed between UT and The Aga Khan University which means that in partnership with UT and AKU, there will soon be curriculum introduced in all Texas public schools regarding Muslim culture. Again M. Eboo said, Hazar Imam had an agenda. ;
M. Eboo mentioned regarding the seniors the jamat and how the Imam is concerned about their well being and happiness. He is also very concerned about the ultra poor and how it is unacceptable for our value systems to have such poverty. The Imam does not want us to adapt a Western value system where once the old reach a certain age, they are sent to a home where someone is takin g care of them and their family is not. The Imam wants us to keep them at home and make them feel like they are part of the family and not send them to a home and forget about them. Sending them away is not acceptable and not part of our value system. Therefore, the Imam is working really hard to provide programs for them so that they are not neglected.
M. Eboo also mentioned that the US was the first country to receive multi-city darbar after the Imam's injury. The Imam was still in pain when he lifted his hand for giving du'a in SA on darbar day. He was still in pain but no one knew because he did it for the love of the jamat. The Imam had his therapist with him during his visit to the US for darbar because he was still not well. And every day despite of a heavy schedule he did what he had needed to do.
M. Eboo told the jamat that Hazar Imam attended the banquet in Austin with Governor Perry and later asked the leadership to meet in his suite after the banquet at about midnight to discuss the following day's agenda. So at about midnight the leadership was at the Imam's suite and started to discuss the agenda. At about 12:45pm, the Imam asked M. Eboo if he could find him the UT Curriculum guide. In addition, Hazar Imam told M. Eb oo, the book is about 600 pages long, and if there was anyway he could find it for him. M. Eboo went looking for this handbook at about 12:45am and finally found it after hunting for it so late at night and brought it back to HI's suite.
Before the leadership left that night, HI had asked them to come by his suite at 8am to discuss and prepare for the day. So the next morning when M. Eboo reported at 8am at the suite, Hazar Imam had read the entire 600 page UT handbook and was mentioning to M. Eboo all about the classes that UT currently held such as Arabic and others.
M. Eboo said that by the time they left the night before after dropping the handbook off, it was really late and had to report back to at 8am with the Imam, but in between the time they had left and returned back in the morning, Hazar Imam had completed reading the entire 600 pages handbook. He must have slept not more than a couple of hours.
During the Imam's time in Texas, Hazar Imam asked M. Eboo about the convenient stores in Texas. The Imam mentioned that he is aware that many jamati members own convenient stores in Texas, and asked if they were doing their business ethically? How is the education of the jamat in Texas? M. Eboo mentioned that Hazar Imam knows and is aware of how businesses are being run. M. Eboo mentioned that with all the work that the Imam is=2 0doing for the benefit and safety of this jamat, just by one newspaper headline that could say "XYZ or one man, follower of the Aga Khan did this unethically" would ruin years of work that the Imam has worked so hard for us. It only takes one man to ruin it all.
M. Eboo also spoke to the young ones and mentioned that they should not underestimat e the capabilities of the Imam and think that Hazar Imam is not tech savvy. M. Eboo asked the kids to think about what they put on face book. He said that face book is used for various reasons and the young should be mindful of what they put on it as it can be used negatively towards the jamat in a way. M. Eboo told the young ones that Hazar Imam is quite text savvy.
He would text M. Eboo a lot while his time spent in Texas about various things. While his time in Texas, Hazar Imam would text P. Zahra and ask she was ready for the banquet, etc. M. Eboo mentioned that the Imam was texting even faster than him.
M. Eboo was so surprised that our Imam at the age of 72 used both his thumbs to text. He asked the young ones "you don't think he can get on face book and see what is going on in the lives his jamati kids?"
He mentioned to the students to be mindful and avoid the vulgar languages that could be put on face book and instead use it for good reasons.
M. Eboo mentioned that the Imam does not like the jamat waiting for darbar. On the way to darbar, Hazar Imam asked M. Eboo what time it was and how late are we running for darbar. M. Eboo replied that they were about 7 minutes behind schedule. The Imam replied to him "I don't like to keep my jamat waiting. I would like to get there on time." M. Eboo was nervously sweating and passed the message to the security via phone that they need to speed it up as the Imam does not want to be late.
When they were close to the darbar hall, the Imam asked M. Eboo again 'how late are we running now?". M. Eboo replied and said we are about 3 mins behind schedule. The Imam told him again, " I don't like to keep my jamat waiting" Finally, they approached the darbar hall and by the time M. Eboo got out of the car and started to walk, Hazar Imam had a lready started to walk way ahead of him and approached his lounge and M. Eboo was running to catch up.
He said that when the Imam came out of his lounge and salwat started, it felt as if time just stopped. The Imam spent as much time as he wanted with the jamat and after darbar was over, the Imam told M. Eboo that I know we are running late to meet the G. Perry but "I am happy and I opened my heart and spent time with my jamat." The Governor can wait but I don't like my jamat waiting (my note: this brought goose bumps to many people as M. Eboo said it with soo much passion).
M. Eboo also told the jamat that since golden jubilee is over, the leadership along with the jamat is working three times as hard. It's not that golden jubilee is over and it time to party now and relax. Don't think that HI is relaxing; he is working three times as hard and keeping the leadership in check as well. He is working so hard because he wants to get the ball rolling on what was mentioned on Dec. 13, 200 8.
When LIF approached Aiglemont on Dec. 13, 2008, they did not expect a 43 mins farman from the Imam. M. Eboo said that the LIF was surprised that the Imam was going to give a talikah farman.
M. Eboo mentioned that talika is a special occasion but having the Imam's farman on Dec. 13 as talika farman – that is special and honor in itself. He said Hazar Imam did not want to do a conclusion since when he does an Irshad, he writes notes and reads from a paper.
The Imam wanted to give the jamat a talika farman where he would speak from his heart about whatever he wanted to and not simply from a piece of paper. M. Eboo mentioned that Hazar Imam put his hand out to all the LIF leadership and gave the dua that we heard on Dec. 13. M. Eboo also mentioned that every word on that farman is exactly what the leadership heard and nothing was edited out and this is a precious thing about the talika farman.
The Imam wanted his jamat to hear everything exactly as it was conveyed to the leadership and nothing less. M. Eboo said that Hazar Imam is working really hard towards that the goals and will tell us exactly what to do with it. Every word mentioned on that farman, he will be providing guidance on what he wants us to do with it. M. Eboo said that he requests the jamat not to speculate about what it might mean to recite the namaz or nikkah as it was mentioned in the farman. The Imam will provide direction on how we should approach it. Just give it time.
M. Eboo ended his speech by saying that during the US darbar banquet, not everything was shown on the video of the banquet. But he said that if one has not realized that the Imam is working so hard and only for us then this might help. M. Eboo read a phrase from the banquet dinner that the Imam had said and that phrase was (my note: something along these lines as I dont remember the exact quote) "There is nothing significant in my life than working hard for20my jamat". And M. Eboo ended his speech
End of summary.