Cyberspace – An internet Love Jungle Even for Muslims so Beware!

 

Innal Humdulaillah was salah wa salama lah wa rasululah… Ramadan is the best month of the year, especially for the Daiyee such as myself.  Why?  because this is our chance to reach out to those Muslims who we do not see much and try to bring them into the circle of believers.. even here on the net.  This ramadan has been very fruitful for me.  So many new Muslims joining the website eager to learn their religion.  Eager to learn the truth in accordance to the Quran and the Authentic Sunnah.  With the help of Allah; I have captured their hearts and increased their faith..but the question is… can this be maintained even after ramadan?

Subhanallah this ummah is so fragile.  Muslim women from all over the world searching for paradise, and searching for a man to lead them there.  So many young vulnerable Muslim converts, naive to the fact that cyberspace is filled with Muslim men who hide behind islam and a computer; and lay in wait to prey upon new converts!  The sad reality is that most of these vultures are of Arabic descent and use that as a means of luring the women in.

“Islam was revealed to the arab and I am arab and I speak the language of the Quran,”  they say.  “Come my sister and I will teach you islam.”

These fragile women with hearts longing for paradise, eagerly accept the invitation… and from there; paradise becomes a distant dream, as the men fill them with promises of love, romance and worldly passions.  So many of these women end up used, hurt and duped by these vultures… many to the point of apostation! I thank Allah that he has sent some of these such women to my website for me to look over and steer right… and I have a few words for the vultures of cyberspace:

“FEAR ALLAH DUDE AND WATCH YOUR BACK BECAUSE THERE IS A FEMALE DAIYEE  IN TOWN AND HER NAME IS LAILA NASHEEBA.  MESS WITH MY NEWBIE MUSLIMAH’S.. DARE TO TAKE AWAY THEIR DREAMS OF PARADISE.. AND I GIVE YOU MY WORD YOU WILL ANSWER TO ALLAH!”

Something to think about as we surf the net…

Is a Convert Less?

Subhanallah. I just arrived back from attending a conferece in Houston Texas where I spoke about Passionate Love. The community I visited is a Nigerian community – Masjidul Muslimeen. I must say they are the nicest Muslims I have met in a very long time. They were very welcoming and gracious and seemed to really enjoy my lecture. There was one thing though that amazed me….

There was one sister there at the conference whom I noticed that whenever I spoke she felt the need to take over and add to it. After I had given my lecture she went so far as to take over my Q&A session and answer the questions that were really posed to me. Mind you she did not do this to the other guest speakers – just me. I brushed it off and figured oh well, I answer questions all day long every day so I needed the break. But others did not like it at all.

As I was leaving for the night a few sisters approached me and apologized for the woman’s behavior and one of them asked me her question again – so as to hear MY answer. After I answered her she hugged me, smiled and cried. “I love you Laila Nasheeba,” she said. “You have changed my life so much in so many ways and you do not even know it.”

She went on to tell me how she listens to my lectures on the internet daily. I hugged her back and told her I loved her too and encouraged her to join our website so as she can stay in touch with me. As I then turned to leave, one of my students approached me and introduced me to one of her friends.

“Teacher, this is my friend,” she said. “She really enjoyed your lecture and was shocked that she did because she thought you were a “revert” ”

I was taken aback. “What made her think I was a “convert” ?” I asked, although even if I had been what was wrong with that?

Come to find out, just because I speak like a strong african American – this made her and others too think I am a convert – and because of that they felt I would not have much to tell them about islam. I then began to piece together – this must have been the other woman’s problem too. The reason she felt the need to answer my questions and all is because she too most likely figured me to be a “convert”.

Subhanallah. I explained to my student that some of the most great Islamic speakers today are converts – Khalid Yasin, Seraj Wahhaj, Abdul Hakim Quick – are all CONVERTS and african American. I am neither, but even if I were, what is it that makes others think that I would not have anything to share or say about islam? 

Whatever the reason, people with this ideology are just stopping themselves from acheiving knowledge that could be of so much benefit to them.  My student agreed.

I chalk this up as another reason as to why so many Muslims today are lost, and pray that Allah will open such Muslims hearts to the truth – as told by whomever regardless of race, linguistics or conversion.

Tell us about Shaykh Morsy and your relationship with him

Innal Hamduliallah… Shaykh Morsy is my Mentor and I am his protegee.  When the website was made over 10 years ago, Shaykh Morsy was the one who taught all the classes, and I was just a student. Morsy would log on everyday and spend 12 hours teaching the basics of Islam… the same classes that I teach now on Sunnahfollowers.net.  His friend Shaykh Hassan joined us and both he and Shaykh Hassan would teach around the clock.  This went on for 6 years.  After the 6th year, Morsy was no longer able to spend that type of time on the net teaching…so it was then that he told me to take over teaching the people.  I was not wanting to do this but Morsy said I was ready and that I was his best student.  So thus, that is how I began to teach. 

Morsy has always been the one behind our website.  He is the one who approves the books I use.  He also checks behind me to make sure everything I teach is in accordance to the Quran and the Authentic Sunnah.  If I make a mistake, he will correct me and have me send out emails to the people with the correction.  

Morsy is a man devoted to the Sunnah.  Even the name of our website was chosen by him.  Where there are so many scholars out their who follow the extreme view on things, Morsy takes the middle course,  just as our prophet(sa) would do.  He is kind, gentle and understanding..but he can turn into a ferocious lion when he feels the limits of Allah or his Prophet (sa) have been transgressed.

That is Shaykh Morsy in a nutshell.

He is the best teacher I have ever had…but even still I do not follow him blindly.  To do so would mean that I have learned nothing from him.

I pray Allah preserves him for us and that he bestows upon him paradise…ameen! 

What’s new for Sunnahfollowers.net?

Well right now we are working to establish our new name.  We want the people to think of Sunnahfollowers.net  now intead of what they were programmed to think before.  We are in the process of re-designing the entry page to give it a new look to match our new name.

If you have suggestions, feel free to comment here to us!

I see Dr Ibrahim Dremali has joined your team

Alhumduliallah yes this is true.  MashaAllah he is such a gracious humble man and the people love him.  His teachings are so beneficial. Inshallah he will take our wesite into a new direction.

Of course Shaykh Morsy is still with us and I believe the three of us will be able to move the website on to a higher better level.

So Who all exactly are the persons behind Sunnahfollowers.net?

MashaAllah..the person’s behind sunnahfollowers.net  are;  Shaykh Mustapha Morsy,  Shaykh Ibrahim Dremali and Myself.  So when you hear the name “Sunnahfollowers.net”  Think of us three please.

Tell us a little about yourself – How did you come upon islam?

Innal Hamduliallah…Unlike many may think, I am not a convert to islam. I have been Muslim all my life. My mother is a very strong Muslim woman of creole ethnicity so that means she has the strength of many in her blood;  Mostly of Celtic Origins (French Viking and Scottish) and African (Southern Bantu and Camaroon) are known to be people of strength, and she has all of those bloods within her. So thus embracing Islam was a natural for her – and she raised all of her children to know that they were created for paradise and there is nothing that they can not do or be in this world.

My father died when I was a young child so I did not get to know much about him. He was Arabic – Egyptian… but the credit of being Muslim and raised as such belongs to my mother.

I also had a great step-father who contributed in instilling my islamic morales. My Allah bless both he and my mother with paradise…ameen

What and when did you develop an interest in the dawah?

Subhanallah.  When I was six years old I knew how to read and my mother immediately made me attend classes held at the masjid to learn what being a Muslim was all about.  My first teacher was Imam Mutawwaf Abdus Shaheed and he focussed on teaching the sunnah via Hadith to us.  So thus I began to memorize the hadiths of Bukhari and Muslim beginning at age six along with their meanings. 

By the time I was twelve I was giving presentations on the Rulings of Marriage, Menses and the likes at mini conferences held at our masjid…remember too this was back in the late 70’s when Islam was not a well known thing here in America.  I continued to study Islam with concentration upon Hadith all my life (now included) and when I met up with my present teacher, Shaykh Mustapha Morsy – I then was given permission by him to teach to others.  And I have been on the internet teaching for the past 5 years.

I have sacrificed a lot for this dawah but alhumduliallah it will be worth it.

Where did the Video Lecture idea come from?

MashaAllah.   Wallah the idea came from Allah.  It was totally inspired by him.  When the fitnah emerged, I pondered how to address it and then the idea came to me, to not address it at all…at least not in the traditional way.  Instead the idea was that my work speaks for itself, so just put my work out there for the world to hear and thus I would be addressing and diffusing the allegations made against me.  I followed that idea and so thus…Here we are!

So what was that fitnah all about?

Well in a nutshell…I myself was not even aware of that fitnah.  I was never approached by the person.  To be honest, I had not spoken to that person since arlington texas…Wallah it had been 4 months since I had spoken on the phone with that person, so I was as shocked as you all were.  To this day the person never confronted me. I learned about it from you.  Were the allegations true…My Video Lectures reveal the answer to that…

Many of you have asked what would cause a man to issue charges that if true could actually result in the death of a woman whom he is ordered by Allah to protect and care for…The answer is simple… jealousy, envy and hasad.  These are evil characteristics that shaytaan spurs into the hearts of man…particularly a husband and wife because he loves to destroy marriages more than anything.  And if that husband and wife are both people of righteousness then he will work even harder with the help of his army of devils from mankind and Jinn.

This was the case here. 

So how are things now??

Mashallah everything is fine.  I got thru it and so did the website.  Alhumduliallah the website has grown even more and Allah has sent us better!  So thru every hardship comes relief and elevation!