Ramadan is the perfect time to reflect, quit bad habits, improve your character, and help the community. All you need is sincerity, a strong conviction, supplication to Allah, and a role model to guide you in the right direction. I was honored and pleased to meet Ahmad Al-Shugairi who has had a lot of experiences and knowledge that we can all learn from. Al-Shugairi is a successful businessman and lectures the youth on Islam. He opened Al Andalusia Café in Jeddah, providing a safe haven for the youth come and reconnect with Islam and their values. Void of those TV channels that corrupt teenagers and children and with a ban on smoking in the premises, the cafe has become a kind of sanctuary-cum-library, providing excellent books for visitors to dip into. Al-Shugairi has been running the well-known TV show “Khawater” every Ramadan for about six years and is a popular icon for the city's youth, offering an attractive mix of modernity and adherence to Islamic values. Q: Where did you gain your extensive knowledge of Islam? A: Around the year 1993 while I was at university in California, I became very interested in religion. I started reading lots and lots of books. I read the old, traditional Islamic books by the scholars Ibn Taymiya and Ibn Al-Qayim. In Jeddah I started attending weekly classes with Shaykh Adnan Zahrani for a year and I watched lectures on TV; I gained a broader perspective of Islam. Q: You studied for your Bachelor's and Master's degree in the United States. What positive practices did you experience while living in the US? A: The middle way is the best way when looking at things in general. The US, like any other nation, has a lot of positives and a lot of negatives. Something positive about the US is that it implements three Islamic teachings more than most Arab countries. The first is justice. In the United States each individual has the right to go to court if he/she has been wronged. If a government official did something wrong, he will be held accountable and will be taken to court. Even the President of the United States can be taken to court. Of course, their court system is not perfect, but it is good. Justice should be a goal of any government, and that was practiced by Muslims centuries ago. When a leader or Caliph did anything wrong, he was prosecuted like any other citizen. This is important since Justice is one of the names of Allah: Al Adl. The second positive aspect of the US is another Islamic principle: reading, education, and seeking knowledge. People in the United States read, write, and publish books far more then in the Arab world. The West invents new technologies that teach and encourage people to read such as e-books and i-books. They have the best universities. Our students dream of studying in the universities of the US. However, this is an Islamic principle because the first word revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was, “Read.” The third advantage in the US is freedom. This includes freedom of religion. Muslims in the US have the freedom to practice their religion. When Muslims still ruled parts of Spain they were tolerant of other religions. Jews and Christians lived there and they had full rights and they had their places of worship. Now, in the US an initiative was approved to build a mosque and Islamic center right next to the site of the September 11th attack. In the US you also have the freedom to express your opinion. But this was also seen in the days of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Anyone could come to the Prophet and complain or speak his mind. A man even came to the Prophet and said, “Allow me to commit adultery.” The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did not shout at or curse the man, he calmly discussed the issue with him until the man was convinced. When Umar Ibn Al-Khattab was Caliph and was making a decision among his companions, he was corrected by a woman. The Caliph took her advice and admitted that he had made a mistake. So, when the Muslim rule started to spiral downwards, we lost these three elements: justice, education, and freedom. Books were burned and citizens had less and less freedom. Q: What bad American habits would you like to warn our youth against? A: There are two negative aspects in America. The first is sexual openness. They have no limits and no rules on sexual conduct. They forbid polygamy by law but allow adultery. To me, this is hypocrisy. They should either allow both or ban both. Why does Islam forbid adultery? Because it is a form of injustice. The forbiddance of adultery ensures the rights of the woman, and children, the rights of inheritance, and prevents single mom families and children out of wedlock. The second danger in America is alcohol consumption. Q: What is the mission or goal of your TV program, “Khawater”? A: The goal of Khawater is for Muslims to have a more balanced life that caters to all our human needs. Our religion is not only to feed our spirituality. Religion should feed the body physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. This Earth is a gateway to the Afterlife. We have to build this Earth, do good, and be the best. We all should aspire to win in the Afterlife, but that does not mean we should neglect worldly matters. Be a good employee, come on time, don't be late for appointments, don't litter, and don't double park. Muslims should be the best in science, medicine, astronomy, and math. That is how we ruled the world years ago and that is how we will rule it again. Imam Al-Ghazali said, “Good in the Afterlife is related to good on this Earth.” So, you have to be the best in all fields; this is building the Earth. This concept is what we really want to establish. Religion should be a reason and the fuel for Muslims to excel in worldly matters; not the opposite. Marx said, “Religion is the opium of people.” Or in other words, religion sedates people. His statement would be correct if you changed it to: “The wrong understanding of religion is the opium of people.” If you misunderstand religion you might become lazy and not work hard enough as you leave everything to fate. Islam does not encourage you to just sit down and pray and dream of the Afterlife without trying to perfect your work and family and society. During the days of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) when Islam came out, it was a fuel. Islam created an energy that was so powerful that only the 3,000 Muslims in Madinah exploded into the world. Do you see the drive and energy that Islam created? Muslims exploded to Iran, Damascus, and Egypt. Within 30 or 40 years they reached all the way to Spain and the borders of China. Within a few years Muslims were the best in medicine, chemistry, and algebra. If you read science and medical books of the early scholars like Ibn Sina, you will see that they started their books with “In the name of Allah” and sayings of the Prophet (pbuh). This mix is what we are missing, and this mix is what the West is missing also. Again, religion should be a fuel for life. That is what we want from “Khawater”. Q: Where did you film “Khawater 6”? A: This year we chose to do Khawater in the cities that were the richest and most enlightened cities of the world in the Middle Ages: Cordoba, Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo. Those cities were the Tokyo and New York of the Middle Ages. They were the places where everyone dreamed of living: the biggest, cleanest, most advanced cities with the most universities and best education. The New York of the 10th century was Cordoba, the Muslim city in Spain. It was the city of life, and was called The Ornament of the World. These cities were built by Muslims. They had good sewage systems, good management of water and food distribution. 10th century Paris was a messed up city with people fighting over bread. London was such a disgusting city that its stench could be smelled by people before the city was seen. We compare Paris and London of the Middle Ages with Cordoba and other Muslim cities. For “Khawater 6” we also visited Malaysia and Dubai as Muslim nations that are trying to do a good job. So this year instead of comparing Japan with the Arab world, we are comparing 10th century Cordoba with the Arab world. We are comparing Muslims with Muslims. Q: What problem did you mainly focus on this year in Khawater 6 that you think we need to work on in our community? A: Again we focused on the three basics: justice, education, and freedom. We want to have a just society. We want our universities to be the best in the world. We want the Arab world to promote reading. We don't want Arab cities to drown when it rains; basic rights for all humans. Even the small things in daily life that I talked about go back to these three basics. For example, double parking is an in injustice. You are not being just to another human being who has the right to leave whenever he wants to, but cannot because you blocked his car. Q: As parents we struggle to get our children to pray their five daily prayers on time. What suggestions do you have to help parents who are facing difficulties with this? A: My advice is to start early. You can start teaching your children to pray as soon as they can stand on their own. The minute they can stand up, you can pray next to them. Next, simply ask your child to come pray beside you when you pray. Even if they do not understand what is happening, just make it a habit. When they are 4 or 5 you can tell them to join you in prayer. You do not force them. Remind them to pray and ask if they prayed when they were away from home. As they get older, explain to them intellectually why they pray. You can tell them to pray to do well in school and they can ask Allah for anything they want in their prayer. Relate prayer to their daily life. Do not wait too long to train your kids to pray. Usually the parents who complain that their kids will not pray ignored their kids regarding prayers in their early years. And when they became teenagers the parents started ordering them to pray. Ofcourse these kids will not listen because it is too late. Engrain praying in your kids as a habit from a young age and it will probably work. There is a saying: “Give me a child until he is 7 years old, and then it does not matter who takes him after that.” Q: What advice would you like to give our young readers during the month of Ramadan? A: Put clear goals for yourself. Beware of too much empty time. Beware of emptiness physically, emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. Fill your time with good things. Finally, read, read, and read. Anything you want to achieve in your life, you will find books that will help you achieve them faster and better.
