Islam 101 has another success

At yesterday's Islam 101 class we had three students, all of whom became Muslim within the last year. One of them has worked really hard to memorize the components of formal prayer as well as some surahs. The other two, a brother and a sister, didn't know the fatiha. One knew Bismillah ir-rahman ir-raheem but nothing more.

Yesterday they memorized the fatiha and its English meaning. Alhamdulillah!

These are the people we risk failing. I don't disregard the Muslims who are working hard to educate, and may they be rewarded, but it's simply not easy to find a place to learn these fundamentals. I'm not blowing my own horn - Light of Islam is responding to a great need in this city. These Islam 101 students have gone for months after their reversion without learning how to pray, even though prayer is the foundation of Islamic practice. I want to open this bookstore because Houston needs a place that's visible, well-known, well-publicized, easy to find on the net and accessible. I finished an info sheet for LOI this morning. The copy is:


Although there are learning opportunities at mosques around the city, they aren’t consistently publicized or made accessible to a range of people. If you’re not Muslim or just became Muslim, you may not know about them or feel comfortable going to a mosque.

The small number of Islamic bookstores in Houston are primarily targeted to Muslims and focus mostly on religious issues.

You can go online to buy books and CDs about Islam, but a web site doesn’t offer the opportunity to browse, ask questions of a staff person, or attend classes.

And that is exactly what it's about. I'm so proud of these students. May Allah guide them to learn more all their lives and never stop learning.