The Neglected Imperative: Creating Geographic Proximity (By Saad Omar)
Published by Saad Omar February 12th, 2007 in IslamDr. Umar’s “The Cultural Imperative” truly changed my life and my worldview. This article entitled “The Neglected Imperative” pays tribute to Dr. Umar’s article and is also a conclusion that I came to after reading his article.
The Companions of the Prophet (S) were next door neighbors to one another. This is a secret of Medina and the Seerah of our Prophet (S) that we have been ignoring for too long.
When I think about our children’s generation, I wonder if I will have the strength and energy that my parents had in raising me. I also think about the majority of my childhood friends that seemed practicing enough most of their life and then went terribly astray as the neared their college years. I realize that conventions, camps, youth groups, and Sunday schools are just not enough; they have never been enough.
Like-minded Muslims must live together, in close communities. It is not enough to have neighborhoods with high concentration of Muslims but they have to be Muslims that share similar values and experiences as Muslims in America. I think about the friends that I have grown to love over the years, from all over the US through Islamic events and activism. If we could make a conscious decision to live in very close proximity to one another (literally as next-door neighbors), we could create an ideal community that would facilitate the retention of our children’s faith.
For those of you who know me personally, think of our friends circle. We could have the most amazing Islamic boarding school that would rival the nation’s best, an excellent Muslim clinic, tasty Muslim restaurants, a stylish Muslim clothing line distributor, performing arts center, etc. We would know longer have to wait till the next ISNA convention or Rihla/Alim program to meet up, we would literally see each other on a daily basis.
Jummah congregations and the Eid festivities would be full of joy and spiritual growth and we would know that our children will Inshallah have friends that will promote them to stay on the path as these friends would be all family friends.
This is not a utopian dream, I definitely see it as feasible. The biggest obstacle in people’s minds is finding a job. People will say, “we don’t want to make career sacrifices to live in this specific geographic location.” My answer to that is two-fold. Firstly, if the location is chosen wisely, there will be ample career opportunities for people with varying specialties and interests. Secondly, as a community, we will build a strong network that will actually enhance our career opportunities, Inshallah. Even if a small career sacrifice is necessary, the benefits will greatly out way the costs.
I am sick of attempting to retain my faith alone. Even in a midsized Muslim community I feel alone because 100-200 Muslims I really connect with are scattered all over the country. There are definitely challenges and possibly even minor cons to this idea of living together but I truly feel that the positives will greatly out way the challenges and negative side effects.
I am NOT proposing a community that is an insolate bubble from the non-Muslim community but rather a thriving and vibrant community that can act with greater confidence and poise with larger America, while maintaining their identity and most importantly, the faith of their children.
For me, this is not a theoretical idea, and I am already beginning to develop plans to design such a community. If anyone is interested in contributing ideas to me, please email me, ghazaliproject@gmail.com
Malcolm X was right when he wrote about the need to maintain one’s resources with a close-nit community and for too long have we been suffering because we have not worked to create such a network.
Last note-For me it is not enough to live in a city like Detroit or Chicago with many Muslims, once again, its not just having 250,000 Muslims out of a city of 8 million but to have like-minded Muslims with a shared vision for Islam in America, living very close to one another.
Anyways, this is my dream, and I am very serious about its implementation, Insh’Allah 
. I welcome your comments and thoughts.
-saad omar
I couldn’t agree more. Growing up in the NYC, i experienced it first hand. I grew up in a bronx neighborhood highly populated by bengali and pakistani families. MOst of my friends i’ve known since kindergarten or first grade, and some even before that as our dads used to take us to the masjid and we would befriend anyone willing to play with us.
As we grew older, most of our days were spent with each other, and becuase our parents were masjid oriented, it rubbed off on us and the masjid became more of a meeting grounds. Sometimes it was like we went to the masjid with meeting our friends higher up on our agenda than actually going for salat. But then again if i was a parent I’d rather have my kid meeting his friends at the masjid than at some other place where islam isn’t present in the least of forms.
It had such an effect on us that we used to schedule our days around salah times. One example is that everyday about 10-12 of us used to meet up for asr and play whatever sport till magrib, and on summer nights just chill outside till isha.
Alhamdulillah, i look at my friends today and still appreciate the innocence in their hearts that the cramped basement masjid had preserved. NOw i’m not trying to say that we were such goody-goodies, but growing up in the Bronx we could’ve done a lot worse things that were plenty available.
POint of the whole thing is, what you’re trying to accomplish should be relatively easy to do in a city-like environment like NYC, where people are so stacked up on each other you can’t get any closer in terms of proximity.
Now the challenge is to be able to create such an environment in suburbia. I live in houston now, and from what I’ve seen here the Muslim population is not only vast but growing. The problem is that everyone and everything is so spread out.
I believe that Houston would be a great city for you or your friends to consider for your project.I’m sure you’re familiar with subdivisions, imagine a whole subdivision being Muslim with a masjid only minutes away. An idea like that isn’t very farfetched at all- and real estate is really cheap compared to other cities.
Stole my idea for up and coming blog post the Feminine Imperative
I agree. This is an important priority. Some people may think that forming a ghetto is a negative thing since you may be more isolated, but I think people would understand us from the context of our community–like the way people understand orthodox jews. Except we would, hopefully, be very interactive and contribute a lot to people of all faiths. The more we can do that, the less fear the community would generate, and the more we can attract people to the deen.
We could find a more islamic way of life, one that is responsible and sustainable. I remember some scientist estimating that if everyone in the world lived like Americans then we would need 3 and half to 5 more “earths” to provide the resources for such a lifestyle. So obviously today’s standard isn’t ideal to say the least. If a muslim isn’t a true believer until he wants for his brother what he wants for himself..then how can we claim to follow that if it’s not even physically possible for your brother in other parts of the world to have what you have. Let keep it simple, question cultural assumptions and rediscover our islamic ideals.
I like this article and the one before by brother Saad. Keep them coming.
I agree with the idea, in theory it sounds great. I know Br. Saad that this is not intended to create a bubble for us, but that’s theory. I can’t help but to wonder that if we do set up a little town like this what would *really* happen… won’t hurt to try it out though…
salam friends
great comments so far..
just so we’re clear- I do not want to create an isolated muslim ghetto or anything like that nor am I even calling for a town wıth 100 percent muslıms… maybe even 40-50 percent… ım talkıng about a hıgh concentratıon of Muslims of a lıke mındset and visıon in the same area… and the benefits of this I have described in the article
so i really don’t think that an unhealthy isolation will result from this.
keep the discussion rolling though.. i’m enjoying this..
saad
What do you mean by “like mindset”? [This could easily be misconstrued and should probably be clarified.]
salam
since i don’t espouse a particular ideology, i don’t mean people with that ideology but in a general sense, this community or communities should be made up of people who get along well together and having similar visions of islam in america, ie. current friends or potential friends, just not a group of muslims..
thanks for the question “mujahid7ia”
-saad