On arrival at Abu Dhabi airport, I immediately noticed people's dress. As I waited for my luggage, all the women were dressed head to toe in black with niqab and the men in long white dress (kandora) and head covering, as well as a beard of some description. I was very pleased at this sight.
I had to spend the first few weeks in a hotel as the company that hired me had not yet arranged accommodation for me. One evening I sat in the restaurant (which was supposed to be alcohol free with a bar serving alcohol upstairs away from public view), I saw a man in his long white dress and head covering, sporting a long beard sitting alone at an adjacent table. I didn't take much notice of him and ate my meal.
A waitress came to his table to serve him none other than tequila shooters. I was flabbergasted. It was a confusing sight for me because back in the States, anyone wearing this type of clothing is an Imam or a pious person, and here is one dressed as such sitting in a hotel restaurant alone drinking tequila shooters.
The sight made me feel the same odd confused but disgusted feeling I felt when I first saw a drag queen in New York.
My wife joined me once the accommodation was settled and started working at a school with a large local student body. I asked her about the mothers, how they were in their Deen, and my wife simply replied, "sugar coated".
It is easy for muhajireen to have big aspirations and expectations of the Muslims they encounter in the new country, and it is very common for them to become disappointed and disillusioned. Just be realistic, people who immigrate for the Sake of Allah are few and far between. We are strangers in the land. That however, is not a reason to not make hijrah, it is only one of the difficulties and it isn't meant to be easy. If it was easy, the rewards of hijrah would not be so huge.
I had to spend the first few weeks in a hotel as the company that hired me had not yet arranged accommodation for me. One evening I sat in the restaurant (which was supposed to be alcohol free with a bar serving alcohol upstairs away from public view), I saw a man in his long white dress and head covering, sporting a long beard sitting alone at an adjacent table. I didn't take much notice of him and ate my meal.
A waitress came to his table to serve him none other than tequila shooters. I was flabbergasted. It was a confusing sight for me because back in the States, anyone wearing this type of clothing is an Imam or a pious person, and here is one dressed as such sitting in a hotel restaurant alone drinking tequila shooters.
The sight made me feel the same odd confused but disgusted feeling I felt when I first saw a drag queen in New York.
My wife joined me once the accommodation was settled and started working at a school with a large local student body. I asked her about the mothers, how they were in their Deen, and my wife simply replied, "sugar coated".
It is easy for muhajireen to have big aspirations and expectations of the Muslims they encounter in the new country, and it is very common for them to become disappointed and disillusioned. Just be realistic, people who immigrate for the Sake of Allah are few and far between. We are strangers in the land. That however, is not a reason to not make hijrah, it is only one of the difficulties and it isn't meant to be easy. If it was easy, the rewards of hijrah would not be so huge.